Journalism in Haiti - Thoughts and Sources

Journalistic coverage of Haiti has always been a quagmire of mixed perceptions. In some ways, this seems to go back to racially charged stigma that has been attached to Haiti since it's independence in 1804. There are also plenty of clichés that for anyone who follows Haiti in the international press, are the definition of banality (see here for a brilliant satire of this phenomenon http://tinyurl.com/2aseyah).

While I have always found a gap between the reality on the ground and journalistic coverage, there are a few very accurate journalists and sources for news on Haiti.

Ansel Herz is a freelance journalist living and working in Port-au-Prince. You can read his updates at www.mediahacker.org

I'm also a fan of this blog: http://goldyard.tumblr.com/

In terms of more general news, Al-Jazeera (http://english.aljazeera.net) is pretty accurate, especially in their post-quake coverage, which was recently summarized in a documentary "After the Quake" and can be found here... http://tinyurl.com/5u4kglr

And I would kick myself if I did not include Mark Weisbrot, who is the Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research and is frequently featured in the Guardian.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/markweisbrot

For a good summary of general Caribbean News:

http://www.caribjournal.com/

I’ll certainly add sources as I come across them...

This article from Mark Weisbrot sums up the litany of issues surrounding the presence of the UN occupation force in Haiti, particularly what a profound insult it is to a country that has from its historic origins so deeply cherished its sovereignty.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/sep/03/minustah-un-haiti-abuse

SOIL in the Los Angeles times: Cholera is still a threat

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-haiti-cholera-20110724,0,4930249.story

This article from the LA Times discusses Haiti's ongoing struggle with Cholera. SOIL's Executive Director Dr. Sasha Kramer (my boss!), discusses the issue of toilets that have been abandoned or neglected by the international organizations that constructed them. It is an unfortunately common site in many camps to see to

ilets that have clearly been long neglected or altogether abandoned. Many are simply large open bins of human waste that sit below a plywood frame. Doors and toilet seats are often missing and in some cases there is no stall and residents have no choice but to do their business entirely exposed. Though as the article says the neglect and abandonment of these toilets increases the risk for the spread of cholera, it is on a more simple level, an abomination of the simplest ideas of human dignity.

Below is a photo of one of the abandoned toilets discussed above. This particular toilet had no doors, a missing wall, no seat and the catchment area below was simply an open basin full nearly to the brim with human waste. As we pulled away, we passed three young girls holding toilet paper mounting the stairs. They deserve better.

Week 1 in Haiti - Update from Port-au-Prince

It’s been a long time since I’ve updated but as some of you already know, I’m writing you now from Haiti, having started working with the organization Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods (SOIL) in Port-au-Prince.

Now that I think about it, I should probably take a step back and explain the past few months. Last time I posted would have been early November and much has happened since then!

What I suppose is technically most important is that I graduated, completing my Masters of Arts in Latin American and Caribbean Studies with a concentration in Environmental Studies (shout out to the Latin American and Caribbean Center at FIU). Academically, the largest part of this graduating semester was of course my thesis, for which I completed field research last summer in northern Haiti. This past semester was spent writing, editing, writing and finally getting the document to an academically acceptable place for my committee. The final product, entitled Community Environmental Preservation Initiatives in Borgne, Haiti can be found here http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/403/. Since I highly doubt that you’ll read the whole thing, I have pasted the abstract at the end of this post. Though many other non-professional/academic things have happened (mainly my robust interest in Cuban flowers), I will move on to my current position with SOIL.

Though I’ve written about SOIL previously, I will recap their work briefly but I of course encourage you to check out their website at www.oursoil.org. A new website is on its way soon but for now, there is much valuable information to be found there.

My own summary of SOIL and their work goes something like this…

Often times in developing countries, the basic necessities that we take for granted in the United States are lacking or altogether absent. This is the very unfortunate case in Haiti, where a large percentage of the population lacks access to public sanitation (i.e. toilets). Though this is especially true in the countryside, it is also true in some of Haiti’s poorest communities, where even before the earthquake there was no proper way to treat human waste. Since the earthquake, with such a large number of people displaced from their homes and living in tent communities, the public sanitation situation grew even more serious. While pit latrines or other types of toilets exist, there is no way for waste to be treated properly and so it is collected in large tanker trucks, hauled out to an area near the city dump and emptied into what are essentially ponds full of human waste. (Because of the graphic nature I won’t post images but this youtube video sums up the situation pretty well: http://bit.ly/nahpbT ).

--> ENTER S.O.I.L.

In ameliorating this problem, SOIL employs a unique type of toilet that takes human waste and turns it into nutrient rich fertilizer. By separating the urine (which is sterile and can safely be diverted into an underground gravel pit ground with no health hazard) and the feces, which is mixed with bagesse (a type of mulch that is a byproduct of the sugar cane that is used to make rum, in this case its from the makers of Barbancourt rum), the waste becomes an easily compostable damp mulch (that was a very long sentence but roll with it please…). The mulch is then taken to a separate compost site where it is concentrated in large bins for a few months. Concentrating a large amount of compost allows for enough heat generation kills too the harmful pathogens present within human waste (including Cholera). Though compost piles generally generate a great deal of heat, it’s typically even easier to generate heat in Haiti’s sub-tropical environment (I can personally attest to that as the sweat drips down my forehead while I write this). This New York Times video is a bit old but sums things up well…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xb9AiHkhg5o

Finally, here is an article about our Executive Director Dr. Sasha Kramer, who was named one of National Geographic’s emerging explorers.

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/field/explorers/sasha-kramer/

I encourage you to check out their very important work and consider supporting SOIL in any way you are able. I certainly could not be more proud to work for such a fantastic organization. As a sort of cliff hanger I’ll leave a few of SOIL’s other amazing qualities for future posts. Let’s just say for now though that Kreyòl is the name of the game…

So, on a slightly more personal note, I can imagine that some of the family and friends network are probably wondering: “What are Craig’s living conditions in Port-au-Prince?” Well, if inquiring minds want to know, I’ll tell you…

SOIL has a very lovely two-story house that they rent in the Delmas neighborhood of Port-au-Prince. The upstairs serves as living quarters for some of the staff and the downstairs is a kitchen and the principal office area. Of course just about every nook and cranny is covered with potted plants of some kind (were a green organization!). The house has plumbing (water is pumped up to a tank on the roof from a well) and a few flush toilets but most of us prefer to use the household dry-compost toilet which is a much smaller version of the toilets described above.

With this model, a 5 gallon bucket handles the solid waste/bagesse mixture with the urine separated into a smaller container that is meant to be emptied daily. The house itself has very nice tile floors , many large windows and a huge wooden stairwell that curves up through the center of the house.

I will have more updates soon but it’s already been a long week and quite frankly the heat is killing me…

Please find the abstract of my thesis below.

All the best from Port-au-Prince,

Craig

___________________________________

In examining the opportunities that lie within the larger context of Haitian development efforts, mending the strained environment upon which Haiti’s fragile rural agricultural sector depends must be a priority. Though related to other pieces of the Haitian reconstruction puzzle, the question of mending the Haitian environment comes down largely to the best way trees can be incorporated into Haiti’s existing agricultural systems. With this in mind, the purpose of this thesis was to complete an analysis of the work and practices of the community organizations of Borgne, Haiti. The organizations of Borgne have mobilized toward environmental development and the preservation of remaining natural resources through a community-wide tree-planting initiative that provides thousands of trees per year to local residents. Beyond an ethnographic assessment, this thesis explores greater implications of the project as a grassroots development model that may potentially be replicated by other communities and organizations throughout Haiti. Field research was completed on site in Borgne in the summer months of 2010. The primary methods employed in data collection were Participatory Action Research and semi-structured interviewing.

Abstract: Haitian Studies Association Conference at Brown University - Nov. 11-13

Environmental Initiatives on the Community Level: The Case of Borgne, Haiti

In examining the opportunities that lie within the larger context of Haitian reconstruction efforts, mending the strained environment upon which Haiti’s fragile rural agricultural sector depends must be a priority. Though related to other pieces of the Haitian reconstruction puzzle, the question of mending the Haitian environment comes down largely to the best way trees can be incorporated into Haiti’s existing agricultural systems. It can safely be assumed that just as thousands of trees have been planted in Haiti in the past, thousands more will be planted in the future by NGOs, International Organizations and perhaps even Haitian government agencies.

While the decades long absence of any kind of positive and stable government presence has created a “republic of foreign NGOs” that provide the bulk of Haiti’s essential services, it has also had lasting and potentially positive impact on rural civil society. Though born out of a need to overcome challenges in the absence of government help, the presence of dynamic community level organizations in Haiti presents the opportunity for both governmental and nongovernmental organizations to engage and reflect a more appropriate approach to reconstruction and development initiatives in Haiti. Though “grassroots” in itself has become a controversial buzzword on the development scene, it is evident that rural Haitians are both willing and capable of mobilizing themselves toward a cause (Smith 2001). It is of little surprise then that some of these organizations have moved beyond the often cited “konbit” (a Kreyòl word describing collective farm work) to larger endeavors—such as tree planting, environmental education and erosion control.

The importance of the post-earthquake opportunity for a paradigm shift cannot be overstated as engaging rural community organizations in reconstruction efforts would represent bypassing the rigid stratum that have long plagued Haitian society and historically hindered development. The purpose of this paper then is to examine and assess the unique environmental initiatives undertaken by the community organizations of Borgne: the Movement for the Integral Development of Borgne and the Gwoupman Peasant Organization of Kot de Fer. These organizations have mobilized toward environmental development through the construction of nurseries that provide trees to community plot holders, the systematic monitoring of those trees provided by the organizations and educational sessions for community members on how to prevent further damage to their land.

Beyond an ethnographic assessment, the primary question to be answered in this paper is whether the model incorporated by the organizations of Borgne may be successfully scaled up to other communities throughout rural Haiti. Further, how can this important work in environmental reconstruction and development be supported by other development entities both governmental and nongovernmental?

Field research will be completed in June and July 2010 and will use multiple research methodologies. The primary methods to be employed in data collection will be Participatory Action Research, semi-structured interviewing and limited surveying.

This presentation will be an interactive lecture that will invite some audience participation and will use a Powerpoint presentation as a visual aid to present photos, diagrams and statistics.

References:

Smith, Jennie M. When the Hands are Many. Ithaca, New York. Cornell University Press, 2001.

Abstract: Given the desperate need to mend Haiti’s environment, which has been struggling for decades under the pressures of a burgeoning population, this presentation will examine the environmental initiatives of the community organizations of Borgne, Haiti, and their potential as a model for future environmental reconstruction and development initiatives.

Avoid Grocery Stores.

So here I am. Finally bringing myself to write about my most recent time in Haiti. I could kid myself, lie to you, and say that I was busy (which I guess I was) but a lesson I’m learning is that busyness is often an illusion. We can always make time. The truth is that I’ve been avoiding pounding these keys for quite some time. In the weeks since I’ve been back, I’ve been searching for a way to communicate my thoughts on the adjustment period. By “adjustment period” I mean the whirling dervish of emotions that a Westerner typically feels after staying in a rural area in a “developing” country. Though I despise the use of this term because of the distance it creates and dismissal it permits, there is a reason someone came up with this whole “third world-first world” analogy. It’s only an hour and a half flight but the distance that is described in the term I Just mentioned is not to be taken lightly. I would love to pretend I’m strong and experienced and I’ve perfected moving between those “worlds” with ease. But if I were peachy-keen and if “Haiti was great” it would mean that I’d lost the reason I were travelling there in the first place.

And while this transition is decidedly difficult, there is an intangible beauty in this process that must be respected. A few months after returning from Haiti the first time in 2007, I remember scribbling “and again I am an enlightened soul” next to a quote at the start of one of the chapters of Dr. Paul Farmer’s “The Uses of Haiti.” It seemed the childish note of a first time traveler but I realize now I was paying tribute to Farmer’s ability to describe this phenomenon. Upon return there is a feeling of negative enlightenment, like you know something everyone else around you does not. Though you might try hard to fall back into routine, you have to be prepared that at any moment the reality of the other side of the water can gut you raw. This reality is heavy and strong and rude, but walks quietly on soft feet, saving its sick sense of humor for the most inopportune moments. It might jump out of your cup of coffee or hit you as you overhear conversations while walking to work. You’ll never outsmart it or pull it out of hiding, all you can do is appreciate it—and one more thing, avoid grocery stores.

More to come.

Practicum: Baby Grapefruit Trees

These are the photos of the mostly grapefruit trees (I threw a juice orange seed in one container--I guess I was feeling reckless one night) that were previously discussed in this entry: http://treesforhaiti.blogspot.com/2010/04/grapefruit-development-complex.html

I've since moved them from their cozy spot in my windowsill to my friends balcony. As you can see they need to be replanted into larger, individual containers that have some kind of drainage (nothing fancy, just a little American ingenuity--and by that I likely mean holes punched with a knife)....

In the container above there are actually two plants growing together as I put two seeds in thinking one had gone dormant...they've been growing together so we'll see what happens!

In the tin can there are actually three plants growing, two in the center and one on the side (which is the tallest one)...they're looking good with the rain still on their leaves from the night before!

Been busy, more soon....