Filed under: human rights haiti, humanitarian aid, poverty in haiti, steph forster, steph leigh limage, voices of haiti | Tags: modern day slaves, sugar cane truth haiti
check out this film for more insight :http://www.nfb.ca/film/black_sugar/embed/player
Edwidge Danticat’s The Farming of Bones - a novel which received excellent reviews after its 1998 publication – puts in human terms the horror endured by thousands of Haitians who, while working in the Dominican Republic, were killed in 1937 under the orders of the Dominican dictator, General Rafael Trujillo. In reading about the brutalities endured by these Haitian sugar workers, it is hard to picture a reader of Danticat’s book not being emotionally touched. In fact, the 1937 slaughter is often cited as a clear example of the deeply rooted prejudice held by Dominicans towards Haitians. However, if one were to look at recent Dominican tourist advertisements one might optimistically conclude that sixty years had brought significant progress. Would one not expect that the barbarism portrayed by Danticat is buried in history by now?
Think again.
Even today, Haitian workers in the Dominican Republic are inhumanely treated. As brutal dictators, corrupt governments and horrific social conditions have rocked their home nation, thousands of Haitians have sought alternatives to living in Haiti. Often, they have ended up in the Dominican Republic, with which Haiti shares the island Hispaniola, and where Haitian migrants form the backbone of the workforce that cuts the sugar cane during the zafra - the annual harvest. However, the dreams of a better life that lured these Haitians to the Dominican Republic rarely became reality, as instead they found that empty promises have led them to a nightmare – some of the poorest working and living conditions imaginable. In this situation they are accorded few human rights, and forced to live in a situation that has been concluded by many observers to be essentially a form of slavery.
A recurring theme in the history of Haitians working in the Dominican Republic is that antihaitianismo - a racist ideology held by many Dominicans that they are ‘better’ than Haitians – has been used as a tool to justify exploitation of Haitians. Antihaitianismo is vital to the sugar industry as a means of ensuring that profits are maximized regardless of the human costs. By looking at: first, the history of the sugar industry from the late nineteenth-century through to the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo and the conditions that developed during this time for its workers; second, the changes to the industry after the death of Trujillo and how they have affected the modern working and living conditions for the workers; and, finally, the ways in which modern Dominican governments and the sugar industry have continued to repress Haitians, one may see that the Dominican sugar industry has been characterized by its valuing of the economic ‘bottom line’ over its human consequences.
The History of the Dominican Sugar Industry
To begin, a discussion of the history of the industry is vital to understanding the issue that is discussed above. Prior to 1870, the Dominican Republic did not base its economy on sugar but rather on subsistence agriculture. Around 1870, though, when a series of wars affected world sugar production and when Dominican land and capital was available, the Dominican Republic suddenly entered the world sugar trade.
In the 1880′s, when sugar prices began to fall, the soon-vital role played by the United States began to manifest itself. A deal was signed between the Dominican Republic and the U.S. that resulted in, as Cassa explains, ” . . . eventual displacement of European economic, and later political, influence in the Dominican Republic, almost complete U.S. hegemony, a death blow to many nascent Dominican industries, and the emergence of the United States as the principal importer of Dominican sugar” (Cassa, quoted in Murphy, 15). Soon, American capitalists became the major actors in the Dominican sugar industry, and soon decisions made in Washington and on Wall Street began to dictate the quality of life and the very survival of the Dominican people.
At first, the labour force on the plantations was predominantly Dominican peasants who, because of the availability of alternatives, could expect fair wages. However, an 1884 slump in sugar prices resulted in a wage-freeze, and the resultant exit of workers from the industry left it with a critical labour shortage. Consequently, two trends emerged that have characterized the sugar industry since: first, immigrants replaced Dominican workers; second, the economic exploitation of the migrant labour force was essential for the success of the industry. The first immigrants were mainly Cocolos, (citizens of West Indies British colonies), preferred because they demanded less in working, housing and sanitary conditions than Dominicans. That the Cocolos were economically subservient to the industry was the key reason that the plantation owners wanted their labour, but other factors, such as the ability of the labourers to speak English and thus communicate with North American plantation mangers, and the fact that the labourers came from countries whose economies were based on plantation systems, made them an attractive labour option as well.
The destruction of the European beet-sugar industry by the First World War doubled world sugar prices, and because of its stake in the industry, the United States used military force to force the expansion of the Dominican sugar industry. The U.S. occupied the Dominican Republic from 1916-1924 under the pretext of securing the repayment of the Dominican debt to the United States. Writing in 1928, Melvin Knight was very critical of the American attitude. He wrote, “. . . the six-million dollar American cruiser Memphis was piled up on the reef at Santo Domingo City [the capital of the Dominican Republic] in a hurricane, with the loss of thirty lives and the ship. Her cost alone was more than the full amount at which the Dominican floating debt was finally bonded” (Knight, 78). The debt was not really an issue; the Americans had different reasons to invade the country than they gave.
Roger Plant explains:
The U.S. government was determined to consolidate its control over what had now become its mare nostrum [- its very important asset]. U.S. sugar companies evidently took full advantage in the next few years . . . [Elias Gambioso] described the strategy of the Barahona Sugar Company [in a pamphlet]: two U.S. citizens had been granted usafruct over a limited amount of land, but proceeded to fence off most of the Barahona province. The peasantry was enticed to the Barahona market to sell their produce, and arrived back home to find the same U.S. citizens denying them access to their own lands. Authorities were bribed and there was no lack of violence. The account may be exaggerated but probably is not. How else did the Barahona Sugar Company manage to accumulate over [4.7 million hectares] in a few brief years (Plant, 16)?
In the beginning of the twentieth-century, the deterioration of Haitian agricultural land and the availability of Dominican land had lured Haitians across the border. The Americans, who also occupied Haiti at the time, saw that Haitians would be a better labour source than Cocolos in Dominican sugar plantations, as at the time, “The use of Haitian laborers was not only easier – they were close at hand and already under United States control – but also gave the Americans a way to diffuse some of the tensions in the Haitian countryside which fed the campesino guerrilla efforts against the North American occupation” (NCHR, “Beyond the Bateyes”). With the rebirth of the plantation system in Haiti, (which had not existed since Haiti won its independence from France in the Haitian Revolution,) many Haitian peasants were forced to the Dominican sugar plantations for employment.
Workers in the plantations of the 1920′s did not face an easy life. They found themselves living in cheap company houses that lacked electricity, running water, or plumbing. Conditions were unsanitary, and medical services were generally lacking. The workers suffered from serious health problems, and basic necessities, such as food and clothing, were extremely expensive. According to Bruce Calder, “A 1926 report by a U.S. consul in Santo Domingo provides rare documentation concerning the sugar workers. Their living conditions, the consul wrote, “were primitive in the extreme,” (Calder, 95).
The American occupation of the Dominican Republic ended in 1924, largely under demands dictated by the U.S. State Department. The influence of the Americans resulted in major changes, such as a huge growth in the size and importance of the Dominican sugar industry and a return to plantation agriculture in Haiti – changes that continue to affect these nations today.
Rafael Trujillo, who came forcibly to power in 1930 by taking advantage of political divisions among the elite of the nation, also caused permanent changes to the Dominican Republic. He was a very different kind of leader in that although he reduced foreign influence in the Dominican Republic, he was not a nationalist. His concerns were for himself, and as leader of the nation he took whatever measures he deemed necessary to address his own interests.
As Trujillo came to power, the world was experiencing the Great Depression. The consequent depression in sugar prices led plantation owners to seek cheaper labour, and thus more and more Haitians were brought in to work on the plantations. The pinnacle in the size of the migrant force was reached in 1935, according to the NCHR, when the number of migrants was census-reported, (and probably under-estimated,) as 50,000 Haitians. The influx of Haitians during this period resulted in Haitians replacing Cocolos as the primary labour source on the plantations.
The biggest obstacle to the import of Haitian labourers was Trujillo, whose racist ideology of “whitening” the Dominican Republic, and concerns about the “Haitian invasion” led to conflict with the sugar growers. Murphy reports that, “Precisely at the moment [of falling sugar prices] when the sugar producers saw the need to maintain low labour costs, Trujillo was insisting on the reintegration of native labour – a labour force that the growers viewed as less reliable and more costly” (Murphy, 46). The Americans, who until 1934 occupied Haiti, subdued Trujillo at first. However, Trujillo’s concerns about the number of Haitians working on the plantations and about the number of Haitians farming on the Dominican side of the border frontier continued to remain as an issue between himself and the Haitian government. In October 1937, Trujillo finally ordered a brutal rampage in which every Haitian found outside the sugar plantations was killed – the rampage described by novelist Edwidge Danticat. Estimates of the number of victims have ranged from 5,000 to 25,000 – the exact figure is unknown. However, that this brutal event was significant in the story of the Dominican sugar industry is undeniable.
Trujillo’s attitude to the Haitians over the next few years was hardly cordial. The NCHR explains, “Angered by the Haitian denunciations of the killings and the unfavourable international publicity, he launched a vicious racist propaganda campaign against both Haitian political leaders and the Haitian people in order to justify his actions to the Dominican public” (NCHR, “Beyond the Bateyes”). By the 1950′s, though, as he took a personal interest in the sugar industry, Trujillo’s attitude changed. Using his political clout, Trujillo had chased foreigners away and proceeded to take over the plantations. Eventually, by 1956, Trujillo would own 12 of the 16 sugar ingenios and while taking control of these plantations he discovered for himself why Haitians were so valuable. Relations with Port-au-Prince improved, and in 1952 Trujillo signed the first bilateral contract with Haiti, which saw the import of 16,500 labourers.
Despite the 1937 slaughter of Haitian’s, the Americans encouraged the persistence of Trujillo’s dictatorship because despite his shortcomings, Trujillo was not viewed by the Americans as a communist. However, in the late 1950′s the Dominican Republic was ousted from the Organization of American States (OAS), after the Venezuelan president, following an assassination-attempt that had been sponsored by Trujillo, raised concerns about the poor human rights situation in the Dominican Republic. OAS expulsion prevented the Dominican Republic from benefiting from the change in American sugar quotas caused by its new economic embargo on Cuba, and the Americans began to wonder if a change in leadership would better benefit the Dominican people. Sponsored by the American Central Intelligence Agency, Trujillo was assassinated in May 1961, ushering in a new period of chaos and change in the Dominican Republic.
Conditions for Modern Canecutters in the Dominican Sugar Industry
To continue, then, the last forty years have been tumultuous in the Dominican Republic, and a time of great change in the sugar industry. Trujillo’s death was seen by many as a cause for celebration. His tyranny had led to serious breaches of the civil rights not only of Haitian sugarcane workers but also of many Dominicans, and with his ousting the hopes brought by free elections made the future look bright for Dominicans. Since then, despite some trials, the situation for Dominicans has been better than it was in the Trujillo era. On the plantations, though, the plight of Haitian workers has not improved. As the industry has continued to value the importance of maximising profits, economic exploitation of Haitians has persisted.
With Trujillo gone, a problem that had to be resolved was what to do about his plantations. In the 1960′s, the CEA (State Sugar Council) was formed by the Dominican government, charged with administering these plantations. The sugar industry became a predominantly public enterprise, which is ironic considering that foreigners had primarily controlled the industry in the past. In general, the C.E.A. has been quite inefficient over the years; Uwe Bott explains that, “Some of this inefficiency is caused by conflicting mandates. On the one hand, the C.E.A. is profit oriented; on the other, it is expected to keep prices low for domestic consumers” (Bott, “Dominican Sugar: How Sweet is it?”). Keeping the industry working cheaply is an important priority of the Dominican government.
Joaquin Balaguer has had a great influence over these past decades in Dominican politics, serving as president from 1961-1962, 1966-1978 and 1986-1996 – a significant number of years. His tenure had never been a cause for celebration by the Haitian workforce – he has published writings that showed what he thinks of Haitians. Balaguer considers the population growth of Haitians a cause for alarm, and attributes it to the “primitive nature of Negroes”. He blames Haitians for being a pollutant of Dominican racial purity. He views Haitian voodoo as a threat to Christianity, and he views the Haitian as a threat to Dominican morality. He considers Negroes, and hence Haitians, as “undeniably lazy”. Alarmingly, “Balaguer has stoked anti-Haitian sentiment for electoral purposes in Dominican presidential elections, particularly to discredit Jose Francisco Pena Gomez, a Dominican of Haitian descent who has been leader of the opposition to Balaguer since the early 1980s” (“Beyond the Bateyes”), NCHR explains. Cle arly, Balaguer’s views, although, ” . . . so ludicrous that one’s first reaction is to ignore them as those of a crackpot” (Murphy, 135), must not be ignored because of the role that he has played in Dominican politics.
After being elected president in 1966, one of Balaguer’s first actions was to renew the bilateral contracts with Haiti for the formal importation of sugar workers. These contracts, started in 1952 by Trujillo, had been cancelled by Juan Bosch in 1963, leading to major problems for the sugar industry as it ran out of workers. After a military coup, a civil war, and an American invasion, new elections brought a change in government and a change in policy. The contracts were renewed until 1986, (with the exception of the 1977-78 harvest,) when Jean-Claude Duvalier was chased out of Haiti, ending the 29-year Duvalier-family dictatorial regime. At the time, Haitians were quite opposed to signing any new contracts, angry about how the Duvalier’s had personally benefited from them.
By 1991, things had apparently changed. Amy Wilentz wrote that, “When Ertha Pascal-Trouillot, the new Haitian President, announced that one of her first priorities would be to enter into a new braceros [cane worker] contract with the Dominican Republic, her words were greeted with a long and relieved round of applause. Haitian lawyers and human rights advocates believe that this will be a first small step toward ending the brutal situation on the bateyes [the cane worker communities]” (Wilentz, “A Bitter Harvest for Haitians”).
In truth, it has not mattered whether there has been a contract or no contract – the situation has still been just as bad for the Haitians. Without contracts, a shortage of labour means that the industry must gets its workers by clandestine means. How the labour is secured is absolutely horrifying:
Fifteen to twenty dollars a head is the maximum price the C.E.A. now pays its recruiters for each Haitian worker brought into the country for the zafra. Often recruiters sell Haitians for $7 to $10. Recruiters – known as buscones, or searchers – many of them of Haitian extraction, go into Haiti in the months before the harvest begins and round up as many Haitians as they can, sometimes by force, sometimes under false pretences and sometimes just by telling them there is work in the Dominican Republic (there is none in Haiti). The buscones bring the Haitians across the border, where they are held for transport to the plantations. At the border . . . either a Dominican army officer or a C.E.A. official pays the recruiter for his braceros, or cane cutters. The recruiter then returns to Haiti to find more. In the trade, Haitians are called the cargo, the delivery, the material. This is a traffic in human beings (Wilentz, “A Bitter Harvest for Haitians”).
Importation of Haitians under bilateral contracts offers the hope that enforceable agreements may be prepared that require the sugar industry to uphold the rights of the Haitian workers. In the past, although such agreements have been written, the contents of these agreements have been kept secret, meaning that the workers had no way of knowing what their rights actually were. Thus, in practice the agreements were meaningless, and the workers were treated very poorly. As an illustration, Martin Murphy, who observed the repatriation process during the early 1980′s, writes:
The only way to describe the repatriation process at the end of the harvest . . . is chaotic and violent. In one case I observed as many as three thousand braceros gathered outside Batey Las Pajas, Ingenio Consuelo, awaiting transportation to the border. Hundreds of workers spent more than one week waiting for their exit documents and the buses, with no shelter or latrines and no water source within two kilometers . . . When a worker received his documents and boarded the bus – often after paying a bribe (usually US$10) to one of the officials – he faced a ride of as long as eleven hours to the border. He was loaded into a bus, which legally can carry only forty-eight passengers, with his personal belongings and eighty-nine other workers and their effects. No provisions were made for water, food, or restroom stops during the ride to the border (Murphy, 85).
When arriving on the plantations, Haitian workers find conditions in the bateyes – the cane communities – that are so deplorable they are almost unbelievable. A basic summary of some batey conditions, made by the National Coalition for Haitian Rights, is as follows:
Latrines are usually not available. Potable water is rare. Electricity, a luxury. Dirt roads become muddy lakes when it rains and entire bateyes are often cut off from the outside world – and food and water – for days at a time. Where sanitary services are available, they generally have been built by non-governmental organizations, not the government . . . Inside the bateyes, health care is almost non-existent. In some bateyes non-governmental organizations have set up rustic medical clinics, but a physician is usually available only one day per week . . . Access to education is also hard. Where state primary schools exist, Dominican-Haitian children with proper documentation attend. Children of Haitian parents who have not been registered as Dominican citizens are denied access . . . (National Coalition for Haitian Rights, “Beyond the Bateyes”).
These conditions are horrible, but their horror is multiplied by looking at the history behind them. Such conditions are, in fact, quite similar to those previously reported by Bruce Calder as the conditions in 1926. In fact, the plantation conditions have hardly changed at all during the past decades.
The same can be said about the job that the workers have. Cutting sugar cane is hard work: the workers are forced to stretch and bend for about twelve hours per day in the tropical sun, cutting the cane into small pieces with a machete. Cutting sugar cane is very dangerous work too, as many workers have the misfortune of accidentally slashing their bodies with the machetes. The workers are not given protective clothing, and the consequences are significant. During 1963-77, Uwe Bott shows that 80 percent of Dominican labour accidents happened in the sugar sector, and 70 percent of these on the sugar fields.
Pay for workers is atrocious. Officially, according to the C.E.A., the current wages of a sugar cane worker are about RD$3000 per month, which is about CAN$10 per day. This figure is probably a very optimistic estimate. According to the NCHR, “A veteran cutter can cut a maximum of 1.5 tons per day, working 12 hours to earn 45 pesos [CAN$4.50]. Working a six-day week, the veteran can earn 1,080 pesos [CAN$108] per month” (NCHR, “Beyond the Bateyes”). However, this is not the workers take-home pay, for the worker must pay to have the cane picked up by a truck driver, and to have it weighed at the weighing station. The worker loses control over the timing of these events, and as the cane sits around it dries out and loses weight. In addition, the workers are often cheated at the weighing station. The NCHR discovered, “In the end, then, even a skilled cutter earns significantly less than 1,000 pesos per month. This amount is less than the minimum wage of 1,200 pesos, which each cutter is guaranteed . . . under Dominican labour law. It is also far less than the estimated 7,500 pesos needed to provide adequate food for a family of four for one month in the Dominican Republic” (NCHR, “Beyond the Bateyes”). Disease and malnutrition are consequently serious problems: “A report submitted to the United Nations in the 1970s stated that a large proportion of the then 250,000 Haitian immigrant workers in the Dominican Republic died from malnutrition and disease” (Bott, “Sugar in the Dominican Republic: How Sweet is It?”).
The Repression of Haitian Sugar Workers
Finally, in order to maximise profits, it has always been very important to the sugar industry that the rights of workers are repressed. One such way is by instilling a threat of deportation into the Haitian worker population. In February 1997, the Dominican Republic carried out the “repatriations” of 20,000 Haitians, under the pretext of breaking down a network of Haitian beggars that had developed in the country. These actions were condemned by the Haitian government, “who claimed that the deportees had been treated like ‘animals’”(Lewis, ed., 41490). Dominican President Leonel Fernandez counters in an interview that, “Every country resists the idea that its own people are being returned to it, and because of that, there was a reaction on the part of the Haitian parliament against it. But nobody can deny the Dominican government’s right to return undocumented workers to their country” (Wucker , “An Exclusive Interview with Dominican Republic President Leonel Fernandez”). What Fernandez says is t rue, and this is why deportation has become a useful tool for the sugar industry. Murphy explains:
Haitian undocumented workers, even Dominicans of Haitian ancestry, are safe in Dominican territory as long as they “stay where they belong and when they ‘should’ be there” – on the sugar cane, coffee, and rice plantations. On their way to the plantations, when they represent temporary or seasonal excess labour in one particular sector, when they go to nearby population centres to make purchases or contract services, or if they attempt upward mobility by leaving the plantations and looking for employment in non-agricultural sectors, they are liable to be . . . shipped to other plantations or deported (Murphy, 91).
Deportations – such as the one in February 1997 – show that deportation is not a benign threat to Haitians. In fact, as Murphy shows, deportation is used as a tool to maintain control. The Dominican sugar industry needs the Haitians, for although the Dominican Republic suffers from high unemployment, Dominicans will not cut sugar cane, as “to take such a job is tantamount to admitting one is a Haitian, which for any Dominican however poor is an unacceptable social slur . . . [and because] canecutting is arduous, seasonal labour for low wages” (Bell 128).
One of the key advantages of Haitian workers is their inability to organize. In an anthropological study, Roger Plant found that the contract labourers tend to be a constantly changing migrant population, and as they are only in the Dominican Republic for a few months, only return for an average of three harvests, and are not tied economically or socially to a particular batey or plantation, they hardly have a chance to organise. Anba fil, (the undocumented workers,) show different characteristics than the contract labourers, in that they live permanently in the Dominican Republic, tend to work an average of fourteen harvests, and tend to stay in one place. However, the threat of deportation is even more important to these workers, and keeps these workers from organising.
Inevitably, some workers do organize, but their concerns are rarely met. This is a country, it might be added, where “Unions have always been weak . . . and have never represented more than 10 to 15% of the labour force” (Safa, “Where the Big Fish Eat the Little Fish”). For Haitians, who are subjected to antihaitianismo, the situation is even direr. In 1998, when visiting bateyes near Ingenio Consuelo, he was told the story of the experiences of some workers and their attempts to fight back. They had a water tank, and wanted potable water, rather than the rainfall that served as the only source of filling the tank. The C.E.A. was more than happy to bring water for the sugar cane, but was hardly willing to give it to the workers. The workers went on strike, but the CEA’s response was simple: take away the tank. This ended the strike very quickly.
The inability to organize, and the ease with which Haitians can be exploited allows conditions that are subhuman for the Haitian workers. Murphy explains, “Total labour cost [of Haitians] to the sugar growers may be even lower than those of African and Creole slaves in the Caribbean of centuries past. The slave owner had a substantial investment in labour, so he had to ensure that his workers were adequately cared for in terms of basic necessities: food, clothing, housing, and medical services. Today’s Dominican sugar producers are free of these concerns” (Murphy, 96). These conditions are integral to keeping the costs of production down, but without a source of cheap labour, the sugar industry would be immediately doomed to failure. That is why Haitians are so important for the Dominican sugar industry.
Conclusion
Martin Murphy explains that when discussing the role of Haitian’s in Dominican society, “[This] group is socially and politically marginalized from the larger society; at the same time, the larger society is at least partly organized around the surplus value extracted from the exploitation of this group. A Dominican society cannot survive under its present organization without the exploitation of this marginal, but then again integrated group” (Murphy, 141). Dominican society is indeed dependent upon exploitation of Haitian’s, for it is dependent upon the sugar industry, which Murphy notes directly reflects in the economic health of the country. This industry is the Dominican Republic’s largest industry, its largest employer, and its largest generator of foreign capital. Since the inception of the industry around 1870, dramatic shifts in the price of sugar on world markets have forced the industry to take every step necessary to maximize profits, and, consequently, the industry has taken every step necessary to ensure that the costs of production are minimized.
The Dominican Republic and Haiti are two dramatically different nations, each with its own unique culture, sharing one island. Sadly, a very deeply-rooted prejudice towards Haitians has developed in Dominican society, and this prejudice has been used by many Dominicans to justify the exploitation of Haitians on sugar cane plantations. Murphy concludes that, “. . . the Dominican national identity has partially been defined, both traditionally and today, on the basis of anti-Haitian sentiment” (Murphy, 143). He notes that this antihaitianismo is neither a product of the sugar industry nor necessary for the exploitation of Haitian workers. However, that this antihaitianismo exists has certainly been of significant advantage to the sugar industry.
The human rights abuses endured by Haitian workers are not unexplainable, but are simply methods utilised to keep Haitian society marginalized. The debt crisis faced by the Dominican Republic has led to an ever-increasing dependence on the sugar industry – an industry that has remained troubled, and that has faced a shrinking market. in January 1999, it was announced that the mismanagement of the C.E.A. (state-owned plantations) has led consequently to the Dominican Republic foreseeing the import of huge amounts of sugar as a consequence of the corporation not being able to produce enough sugar in 1999 .
The Dominican Republic is a case that clearly shows a lot of what is wrong in today’s world. It is an example that shows why monocrop economies, which are encouraged by the International Monetary Fund, are not reasonable options, and it shows the huge problems caused by capitalist policy in the past and in the present. In recent years, as in years to come, technological improvements have reduced the costs of sugar on world markets. As the International Labour Organization (I.L.O.) foresaw in 1983, “The future prosperity of the Dominican sugar industry, and the pace at which the conditions of the workers employed in that industry can be improved, will to a large extent be determined by its ability to sell its product at adequate prices on world markets” (I.L.O., quoted on Plant, 139). As these conditions are not met, the reality that there is no pot of gold awaiting the Dominican Republic becomes increasingly apparent.
Works Cited
Bell, Ian. The Dominican Republic. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1987.
Bott, Uwe. “Sugar in the Dominican Republic: How Sweet is it?”. The Politics of the Caribbean Basin Sugar Trade.
Eds. Scott B. MacDonald and Georges A. Fauriol. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1991.
Calder, Bruce. The Impact of Intervention. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press, 1984.
Knight, Melvin M. The Americans in Santo Domingo (reprint of 1928 edition). New York: Arno Press and The New York Times, 1970.
Lewis, D. S, ed. “Mass Deportations from Dominican Republic”. Keesing’s Record of World Events. Vol 43, No 2. (February 1997). Pg. 41490.
Murphy, Martin F. Dominican Sugar Plantations. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1991.
National Coalition for Haitian Rights. Beyond the Bateyes.. (3 March 1999).
Plant, Roger. Sugar and Modern Slavery. London: Zed Books, 1987.
Safa, Helen I. “Where the Big Fish Eat the Little Fish”. NACLA Report on the Americas.Vol. 30, No. 5 (March/April 1997). Pg. 31-36.
Wilentz, Amy. “Dominican Sugarcane: A Bitter Harvest for Haitians”. The Nation. Vol. 250 (May 14, 1990). Pgs 650, 668-671.
Wucker, Michelle. “An Exclusive Interview with Dominican Republic President Leonel Fernandez”. Haiti Insight. Vol. 7, No. 3. (February/March 1997).
Filed under: From Haiti, Haitian Artists, human rights haiti, humanitarian aid, International Arts Collaborations, nehemiah records, nehemiah vancity, News, orphanages haiti, poverty in haiti, steph forster, steph leigh limage
“if you dont live with the poor how can you tell their story “….thats what my husband said to me after a big pep talk he gave me an hour ago. i havent really had the words to describe what i have been going through here..for a few reasons..one being i find it hard to try to explain things that people cant simply google search to find the evidence for and develop an opinion of and also because i didnt want to scare people away from coming here to visit or to help the people here by writing about all scary stuff that happens to me..but since this is my blog i decided i can say what i feel so i can get it out of my head..
not sure where to start but i will just start typing and see what happens and you are happy to read along…
a few weeks ago i was had a gun held to my head for the first time in my life..a 38mm … it was a haitian cop that held the gun to my head and cursed me while by standers cheered him on…. i was driving in the countryside on a really sketchy road with my husband , we were heading back from a meeting to see a development project that i was photographing . on the road there was a terrible accident and the UN had the road all barricaded and local police were trying to deal with the traffic jam…i was driving about 2km per hour..just coasting and accidentally clipped the cops arm with my mirror….he was standing in the middle of the traffic …i kept saying i was sorry in Creole but he got fanatical and pulled his gun on me…he was screaming at me and cursing me and took my licence away and told me to pull over at gun point..my husband then took over and calmed him down and went to fight for my licence back..which he got thankfully but we drove away pretty traumatized from the whole thing.. i come from a country that is pretty organized and peaceful and when a cop pulls his gun its for a good reason ..it took me 2 days to get over having a loaded weapon held to my head..i laid low and watched cartoons. i had written about it on my status on facebook and then after a few comments and inbox messages from concerned friends pleading with me to come back to canada and leave this place i decided to delete the status because poeple simply don’t understand why i stay here and deal with this stuff and also they don’t know enough about the racial tension.. and i don’t mean that from the white people i mean haitians… this is the hardest thing to write for me but i need to share it.. i have been dealing with severe racism since i moved here…if this surprises you then i suggest doing some research on all the horrific things white people have done here to Haitians including loading them in ships as slaves a few hundred years back..the whole reason they are here in the first place…
Today i was sitting alone in my truck waiting for my husband to get off school and drive home together and i was literally surrounded by a group of people hanging on my truck staring at me and making racial comments… so what are you to do when this happens? i am here to love these people and bring them food each week but the same mouths i work so hard to feed curse me each day. i thought i had a tough enough skin to tolerate the racial comments but today i had a total melt down..
after the mob around my truck was done, my husband came out and then we headed back towards our house and ended up in the middle of a shooting..so i had to hide in our truck till the bullets hit the human they were after and wait to drive away up the other side of the road to get to our house…at this point i was rattled but it was the second time i was in the line of fire here..i had nearly been shot the night before Christmas eve when i was walking to the motorcycle after buying some icecream with my husband..that time i saw the police murder a boy..so i was happy that today i didnt see the murder nor was i outside the truck so it offered me some protection..the other pro is my husband has been in school for the past 4 months learning how to protect people and use weapons etc for National Security..so i feel safe when i am out with him but the idea of going to the store for milk alone scares me incase some thing goes down in the street…
after the shooting we decided to stop to get some mangos on the way home.. i was heading over a bridge that has these guys guarding it and use a Megaphone to direct the bridge traffic because its one of those one way bridges with 2 way traffic so you need to wait your turn.. as i drove over simply following the other cars the men decided to yell racial comments at me with the megaphone..that was my breaking point.. i had heard enough for one week.. i went home and cried for 2 hours and pleaded with god . i feel simply beaten raw inside with racial comments… they stick to your bones.. when i was just visiting here short term i didn’t notice it and if i did i brushed it off because i had my fancy bed and home to go to and i could forget about it in a few weeks but i live here now and its become part of my daily routine..being harassed and bullied..not being offered the same prices for produce because of the colour of my skin ..the list goes on..
i also noticed that the racial comments are particularly intense the day after i feed the poor or go out of my way to help people here…so the dark powers of haiti use their own people to turn on me with their mouthes and curse me…but i have to make the decision to stay here and keep trying and keep going but its hard today i feel so beaten up.
tomorrow we were supposed to go to outreach in a really poor area of Port-Au-Prince which is also notorious for its gangs ..which is a whole other story…anyways we had to cancel the outreach/food drop because our friend that lives inside that specific community said some things are going down right now on the streets. the gangs have the roads barricaded and already shot one cop today, so he advised us to come next weekend..but the thing is the people need food and no one goes to these places..
i get so confused because i see all these fancy NGO SUV’s driving around everyday but i can never figure out where they are going and who they are helping.. i know from first hand experience that the warehouses here are simply full of aid,food and medical supplies that have not been distributed .
the other day i was going to the warehouse to pick up a food shipment and on my way there i saw a man walking with his hands up a mountain..and i mean a real mountain..he was walking with his hands because his legs did not work… he needed crutches… so i looked over to my husband and said ” i wish i had a bunch of crutches so when ever i see some one like that i could just stop the truck real quick and give them some crutches and drive away”..so an hour later i was inside the warehouse loading the shipment and guess what i found?
a big pile of brand new crutches.. yep shiny new with fancy plastic wrap..just sitting there with piles and piles and piles of other Aid… so the thought crossed my mind to highjack the ware house goods and hand it all out like robin hood…but that would be stealing so i clearly didn’t do that.. or i would be in jail right now… but my point is there is millions of dollars worth of stuff just sitting here and i personally know at least 10 worthy ministries that could really use that stuff.. but it doesn’t work like that.. so my challenge to you is when you donate to a big NGO with the fancy website and all the fancy marketing where do you think that money goes? how much do you think pays for the fancy marketing and how much really impacts lives..or how much pays for housing for the NGO peeps, SUV’s and fat salaries ..check out the UN Job bank and look at the average salary..its retarded high..i got offered an NGO job as a Project Manager but it doesn’t have a fancy salary and also connects me to those who have a massive amount of resources in terms of humanitarian aid so i figured if i could steer the shipments to the right places then i would be contributing some thing good …so i also need to not make blanketed statements about ALL NGOS and dubbing them as evil because that would be wrong and ignorant.. but i do my due diligence and review budgets and overhead before getting involved with NGO’s and i check references .. but over the past 2 years i have seen some really crappy things that NGOs have done so its a daily task to forgive when you are surrounded by so much poverty and suffering.
so in the middle of all this anger i feel towards those hoarding resources i also understand the spirit of poverty on the land here and that they have fallen under it too.. and you know what the spirit of poverty does? it causes you to be greedy and hoard things… which is why we have a giving principle in our ministry and believe even the poorest people we know have some thing to give..whats that you say? they can give their time to serve food with us to others, they can pray for sick people in their community, they can take in orphans or visit with those who are severely neglected… each person has some thing they can offer and contribute then its not a hand out its a hand up and it breaks that spirit!
anyways i feel like if i keep writing i will have more explaining to do than i can handle right now but i would appreaciate your prayers..that is if you pray.. if not send me good vibes.. my special request is that some one out there sends my husband and i some money JUST FOR US not the kids we help or the community BUT US because we need a weekend away …a break..a refresh and a time to reflect and re-group so we can keep going here. it is really hard and thats my prayer, thats what i asked god for today was that break, that weekend away…
thanks for reading this far..
check ya later i am going to listen to the rain
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Filed under: poverty in haiti, steph forster, steph leigh limage | Tags: rants from haiti, venting from the mission field
to blog or not to blog that is the question… some times I am afraid to write things i am dealing with or sorting out…those things are usually wrapped up with my own personal demons and views on or of other humans..so if it were written it would be in christian terms ” judgment” ..which is clearly some thing to be avoided..or so i have been told… but i also am human and need to vent…i have considered making an alias blog but what would be the point… half the things i want to write i am afraid i would be burned at the stake for or hunted down like a witch if they ever got out… i have just spent the last few minutes googling ” fake christians” to see what would come up on my search results…and i found a link to a few interesting articles and this link here which seems to be pretty on the ball http://www.openbible.info/topics/fake_christians
i honestly don’t know much at this point except that i have a responsibility to care for the poor,orphaned and share my stuff with others ( stuff as in material goods..food etc).. but i am trying to work out my hard feelings towards western society that is all about ME ME MEMEEEEEEE.. so a narcissistic society that is driven by materialism etc..
frankly i rather feel like leaving planet earth in a probe for a while or living in a small hut some where in the jungle with only my camera and some solar power. maybe its time i write a book and sort out my inner demons.. who knows but all i know is i am not the same as i was 3 months ago or even 3 minutes ago..i am evolving and it feels uncomfortable… does that make me more human ? i have decided that i cant follow the rhythm of society..its always been a problem for me but i really don’t understand nor comprehend it..it makes me depressed because i will never fit into it unless i buy into it and act like everyone else…i grew up with people always saying to me ” u are so weird” or ” why are you so weird” so at the age of 14 i was at a shrink and she told me the definition of weird was uncanny and mysterious ..which didn’t make me feel any better but it helped me make sense of things.
some times i want to just unplug and go completely off the grid but then my husband tells me i am a shiny light and i need to be seen… i love my husband david.. you know he is not perfect but he is wise and such a good friend..its nice to have some one to witness your life even if your greatest accomplishment of the day was washing the laundry. i guess shaking off the expectations that you think others have of you is one map to personal freedom and liberty but its hard to not hear the haters some times or compete with fancy marketing so you can feed some homeless kids… i personally don’t feel comfortable spamming my personal networks or social networks with requests for them to donate..if they want to help kids get off the street then wouldn’t they just have that desire… i have been told that its a balance between both..spamming and not spamming but just asking God..i really like the just asking God and not humans part or else it feels like i am a humanitarian broker..
honestly you cant make people care about other humans unless they feel led to do so… so to hec with the catalogues of kids to sponsor.. use the money to feed the kids instead of on fancy mail marketing campaigns..so lame to me… its lame to me because its not reality… you cant sugar coat poverty there is nothing happy about starvation and disease or not being able to feed your family… life sucks for so many humans and if god only decides to throw me a few bones here and there to feed people thats totally fine with me because at least i am on good terms with him and doing what i feel is the right thing but don’t expect some fancy marketing campaign from me or photos of starving kids to make you feel bad so you give me money…
i actually would rather you just save 1000 bucks and camp on my living room floor on an air mattress so I could connect you to people who are different than you and then you can grow and they can grow and we can learn from each other and live in community and share our things… but i guess i could camp on your floor and have the same experience …oh the paradox…see this is why the jungle is so appealing to me right now..so many questions and so many thoughts to sort out..maybe one of the days when we are doing outreach ministry with the kids i will just suddenly have a spiritual experience where i suddenly have inner peace …i have looked for it in china and its definitely not there..its not in some weird art scene and its not in a church… so i realized i need to just accept my fate and make the most of it but its hard to live among the poor when i am still connected to the rich ..it messes with my head..maybe you don’t think you are rich but you are…but the balance of living in both worlds is the most difficult thing i have encountered to date..
we need to keep functioning so we need to be connected to society and order but the people we are working with are not connected to society and order but we are living a life among them so its too hard to adapt when i am still connected… i wish it was like the old days when people still used mail instead of email and i could mail a letter to you..but here i am on a blog… maybe i can use carrier pidgins ..anyways i was just sick of posting things that are awesome that happened to us because as you know life isn’t always awesome and it can really suck some days but i am happy to be alive..
Filed under: Haitian Rap, human rights haiti, humanitarian aid, nehemiah records, nehemiah vancity, News, orphanages haiti, poverty in haiti, steph forster, steph leigh limage, sustainable community haiti, voices of haiti
“But first be concerned about God’s kingdom and his righteousness, and all of these things will be provided for you as well.” Matthew 6:33
that much i have discovered is true, i am going to try to find the words to express what it is god has been doing in my life. i have been coming to haiti as a visitor for 2 years & just over two months ago i moved here permanently & became a haitian citizen my self. the adjustment to the culture is one thing to experience but i want to share with you what has been happening in my heart. often people come into a culture to help or provide a solution to remedy poverty & suffering but they stay in nice hotels and don’t really get into the culture or deep into the lives of those they are trying to help. what i have learned is before you can be of any help or service you must jump in with your whole heart & relinquish the “big vision” or master plan to bring change and simply hand it back to god and focus on seeking him first. the biggest mistake i have made is not putting god first and trying with my own strength to accomplish the vision he gave my husband and i here in haiti.a few weeks ago i was crying in my bathroom while hand washing all of our laundry in a big bucket. while i was crying i was asking god to send me christian friends here in haiti that would love me…and he did……….my husband was producing some music & engineering a track for a local christian group and at first we didn’t think much about the connection but it has proven to be the answer to my prayer for friends here. perry & landon are two haitian rappers that have adopted my husband and i along with their families…. we have joined their family and church. i am learning so much from them, they are very very poor but very very happy.
perry his wife,2 children & mother live in a make shift house made of pieces of tin,plastic tarps and old bricks in the biggest ghetto here in Port-Au-Prince. the other day they came over to our place to take us to a marriage club they are a part of through the church and invited us to stay with them a few nights. i was not sure what to expect but i happily accepted. when we arrived at their home they gave up their bedroom for us and slept in the kitchen.i didn’t have a mosquito net nor any comforts but i was completely humbled by their love and generosity. perry’s wife gave me a bunch of clothes she bought for me and insisted on giving me some of her only jewellery.. i tried not to accept it telling her i didn’t need it but it was her way of showing me she loved me … so i accepted it. she then told me she wanted to treat me to a pedicure, well i wasn’t expecting a foot spa to be in a back alley where there is open sewage. when we arrived for the pedicure i had to pee so she took me around a corner and gave me a little bowl to pee in then threw my pee in a open sewer and began to put water in the bowl i peed in. after she filled the bowl i peed in with water she wanted me to put my feet in it, i nearly threw up …but was trying to hide how disgusted i was because i knew for her it was normal. the ladies in the alley performing the pedicures were shocked to see a white person there receiving services in the ghetto, it just doesn’t happen. i knew even though i was really grossed out about the tools they were using & the condition of the environment i found my self in i knew it was really important to join the ladies that were also getting pedicures in the alley.
i found my self nearly crying while my feet were soaking in that bowl ..but i hid that too…god was working on my heart.back at the house the room they gave to us to sleep in had cockroaches and a very thin tin wall that separated the bed from the very busy road outside. the fist night i didn’t sleep, i was eaten alive by mosquitos and when i finally did fall asleep i was woken up at 4:30 am by a fanatical pastor preaching in the streets with a megaphone…i guess he had allot to say because it is beyond me who would be receptive to the gospel at that hour.an hour later we had to wake up to go to church which starts at 6am and went all the way till 11:30 am..it was intense..
so where am i going with this? i don’t really know i guess i wanted to let you know how god is using the poor to change who i am inside and make me more like him so the rest can be added to me…by that i mean if i am here for the long haul then i need to understand what life is like in the slum and what it feels like to live in a place like that but still have joy and be so generous.i prefer my friends that are are very poor to my rich friends because the poor friends are so real and grateful, the friends i have that have money tend to be the ones who can be quite selfish and hold onto material possessions as if it were their identity.
speaking of material possessions i realized why god let my iphone get robbed..u know the one i made that police chase video about that was taken from me in january..well while i had my feet soaking in that pee bowl i had a revelation…the iphone was an idol..it came first and even though i had my bible app i never really used it and was more focused on stupid pointless crap or text messages..so god had me loose it so i would be available…so now that i get this whole seeking him first thing i feel less tormented and rather relieved because i didn’t really understand what was happening to my heart & character these past few months…my husband said most people would have bailed by now and wouldn’t sit in the slum to get a pee bowl pedicure,he said they would have puked and freaked out.. he said thats why i can reach people because i am among them and thats why i will be successful here and reach many people …i believe him….because there is more to life than iphones…i found where god lives in haiti and its with the poor :)
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Filed under: Call for Artists, From Haiti, Haitian Artists, Haitian Rap, human rights haiti, humanitarian aid, International Arts Collaborations, nehemiah records, nehemiah vancity, News, orphanages haiti, steph forster, steph leigh limage, sustainable community haiti
Hello Ladies & Gentlemen !
We are currently producing a collaborative Album with 100% of the proceeds funding our charity project here in Haiti
( LINKAGE- http://www.loveglobal.com/project/project.aspx?asset=696 ). We are looking for international artists from a variety of genres to collaborate with our Haitian Artists to create positive, encouraging,multilingual tracks that will bring life & awareness to the issue of child trafficking/exploitation here in Haiti.
What do I do if I want to be involved in this project?
-Submit a music sample & a brief write up telling us why you want to be involved to steph@nehemiahrecords.com by MARCH 15th 2012 & use the sign up form below to register & receive additional information.
After March 15th the artists who have registered & sent their submissions will be contacted for a telephone interview & those artists selected will go on to work on collaborative tracks with our Haitian Artists.
Nehemiah Records will then release the Album to raise the necessary funds to support our building project here in Haiti for Children at Risk.
NOTE: Artists wanting to register in the Vancouver BC Canada area will have the option to meet with us directly as we will be there from Feb 15th 2012 – March 15th 2012.
What Can you Expect?
- You can expect to connect with talented Haitian Artists who believe in the cause
- -You can expect to receive credit for your work ( media releases,press interviews,print publications & social media)
- -You can expect to add your tracks to your portfolio
- -You can expect to be invited to perform here in Haiti
- -You can expect to change lives
- You can expect to be taken to a point of full studio production with your music
We look forward to hearing from you!
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Bonjour Mesdames et Messieurs!
Nous sommes actuellement en produisant un album en collaboration avec 100% du produit de financement de notre projet caritatif ici en Haïti
(LIEN-http://www.loveglobal.com/project/project.aspx?asset=696). Nous recherchons des artistes internationaux de divers genres de collaborer avec nos artistes haïtiens de créer positifs, encourageants, pistes multilingues qui apportera la vie et de sensibilisation à la question de la traite des enfants / exploitation ici en Haïti.
Que dois-je faire si je veux être impliqués dans ce projet?
-Soumettre un échantillon de musique et une brève rédiger nous dire pourquoi vous voulez participer à la steph@nehemiahrecords.com le 15 mars 2012 et utiliser le formulaire d’inscription ci-dessous pour vous inscrire et recevoir des informations supplémentaires.
Après le 15 Mars les artistes qui ont enregistré et envoyé leurs soumissions seront contactés pour une entrevue téléphonique et les artistes sélectionnés iront à travailler sur les pistes de collaboration avec nos artistes haïtiens.
Néhémie dossiers seront ensuite sortie de l’album de lever les fonds nécessaires pour soutenir notre projet de construction ici en Haïti pour les enfants à risque.
REMARQUE: Les artistes désireux de s’inscrire dans le Canada, Vancouver, C.-B. aura la possibilité de rencontrer directement avec nous car nous serons là dès février 2012 15 – Mars 15th 2012.
Que pouvez-vous attendre?
-Vous pouvez vous attendre à être prises à un point de la production studio complet avec votre musique
-Vous pouvez vous attendre de se connecter avec talent des artistes haïtiens qui croient en la cause
-Vous pouvez vous attendre à recevoir un crédit pour vos travaux (communiqués de presse, interviews à la presse, les publications imprimées et médias sociaux)
-Vous pouvez vous attendre à ajouter vos pistes à votre portefeuille
-Vous pouvez vous attendre à être invité à se produire ici en Haïti
-Vous pouvez vous attendre à changer des vies
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Filed under: films haiti, From Haiti, human rights haiti, humanitarian aid, micro finance haiti, nehemiah records, nehemiah vancity, News, orphanages haiti, steph forster, steph leigh limage, sustainable community haiti, voices of haiti | Tags: earthquake haiti, hope for haiti, remembering 2010 earthquake haiti
316,000 thousand haitian’s died 2 years ago today when the 7.0 earthquake struck, shaking the lives of millions. two years have past since the earthquake and millions of people are still displaced and living in makeshift housing.many of the occupants of the tent cities that once were situated in the capital Port-Au-Prince have now been relocated to the outskirts of the city. it may seem to those who visit Haiti on and off that the situation has improved because rubble has been removed and they don’t see the tent cities in the city where they once did but the reality is millions are scattered in other locations not as visable. for example the other day i was driving in my neighbourhood here in Petionville and noticed that the tent city in the park was removed along with its occupants who had just been there the day before. does that mean that suddenly these people have proper homes? no i am afraid not..if you take a drive and head down a few backroads just outside the city you will find thousands of people living in these new “camps” who have been asked or paid to leave the capital. the other day i was in one of the new camps for the relocated haitians and saw that the conditions were similar to those they had lived in prior to relocation.the sad part is that these new camps are very far from basic necessities that are essential for survival.many of these new camps are in arid,dry and treeless places leaving the occupants ( including many small children) vulnerable and exposed to the elements such as extreme temperatures, high winds and hurricanes. many haitians make a daily living by selling, fruit, cookies, gum and cigarettes out of makeshift shops outside their homes or tents. for those who are now relocated to the remote outskirts and ghettos of the capital have no way to access basic necessities or survive long term in such places. it costs money to take a tap tap ( local bus ) or motorcycle taxi , so many of these people are just barley staying alive in their new homes, unable to make there little stores to help get enough money to survive everyday and feed their children.
Haiti still needs help, missions teams coming in to bring aid & relief to the pain and suffering. most of the countries and NGO’s that pledged AID and support have since pulled out and have not honoured their long term commitments so it leaves an overbearing workload for the haitian government and remaining NGO’s. this is why i keep fighting everyday here to try to create , implement and execute long term projects that will help the generations to come. when a disaster first strikes many people rise up to bring support & AID but its the long term restoration that is not so sexy or appealing to those who first responded.
i know how hard it is here just to do a simple task, like writing this blog post for example, if there is no power i cant work online nor charge our electronics and have to find creative ways around these barriers. if we have no running water we have to look to locals for innovative ways of sustaining , its challenging but its worth it. to give up the basic essentials and just adapt to the situation it’s critical if you want to work here long term & live . if you focus on all of the problems and barriers it leaves you feeling cheated and depressed, especially if you are used to going to Starbucks everyday and the only thing you have to complain about is the guy who took your parking spot . people in developed countries have little to no comprehension of what it means to truly suffer. if vancouver was hit with a massive earthquake none of your plastic ATM cards would help you survive and the ones who i truly believe would be the most help during such a catastrophe would be the homeless because they really know how to survive in the elements and be innovative.
every country has its challenges and issues and it just so happens that Haiti has more of these challenges compared to most places but that doesn’t mean we give up and treat it like an injured dog, we come along side it and nurture its wounds, we accept it as it is and try to love it….love can cover a multitude of sin and suffering. there are so many great people here loaded with gifts and talent but most of all a drive to stay alive, overcome and survive.
haiti doesn’t need hand outs ,it needs friends and long term support so it can heal. the earthquake brought all of the poor that were already here exposed and into the open so the world couldn’t ignore them anymore, the earthquake removed the blanket that was hiding the poor of haiti and stuck them right in your face. ghettos are complicated places full of their own politics and typically crowded and difficult to navigate through unless you live there, its hard to estimate how many people are living in a ghetto because its so easy to hide. when the earthquake destroyed all the ghettos here it brought the poor out into the open, its hard to ignore some thing that is staring you in the face, at least for me it is.
i really am crazy enough to believe i can make a difference here on a large scale by working with local people and understanding the culture. some days i have felt like leaving and giving up but then some thing happens…a tiny blessing or even a smile from one of the street kids and i am reminded of why i am here and it stops me from heading back to the selfish trappings of my once comfortable north american life of ease.
Six months after the quake as much as 98% of the rubble remained uncleared. An estimated 26 million cubic yards (20 million cubic meters) remained, making most of the capital impassable,and thousands of bodies remained in the rubble. The number of people in relief camps of tents and tarps since the quake was 1.6 million, and almost no transitional housing had been built. Most of the camps had no electricity, running water, or sewage disposal, and the tents were beginning to fall apart. Crime in the camps was widespread, especially against women and girls. Between 23 major charities, $1.1 billion had been collected for Haiti for relief efforts, but only two percent of the money had been released.According to a CBS report, $3.1 billion had been pledged for humanitarian aid and was used to pay for field hospitals, plastic tarps, bandages, and food, plus salaries, transportation and upkeep of relief workers. By May 2010, enough aid had been raised internationally to give each displaced family a cheque for $37,000.
In July 2010, CNN returned to Port-au-Prince and reported, “It looks like the quake just happened yesterday”, and Imogen Wall, spokeswoman for the United Nations office of humanitarian affairs in Haiti, said that six months from that time it may still look the same. The Haitian government said it was unable to tackle debris clean-up or the resettlement of the homeless because they needed to prepare for the hurricane season. Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive stated, “The real priority of the government is to protect the population from the next hurricane season, and most of our effort right now is going right now in that direction.”
Speaking of the difficulties of living in one of the many camps, one refugee told a reporter, “They told us when we were coming here, that we would live well. But what we saw when we got here and the way we lived here, it’s the contrary. The place where we are here when it’s hot, the sun makes the tents hot, very hot. And also the wind comes and blows the tents and wrecks them”. When asked what needs to happen now, he replied, “…In the situation we’re living here in the tents, we can’t continue like that anymore. We would ask them as soon as possible to give us the real houses that they said they were going to give us so that our situation could improve. Because the tents are torn, when it rains, rain comes in.”.
Land ownership is a particular problem for rebuilding because so many pre-quake homes were not officially registered. “Even before the national registry fell under the rubble, land tenure was always a complex and contentious issue in Haiti. Many areas of Port-au-Prince were settled either by tonton makout – Duvalier’s death squads – given land for their service or by squatters. In many cases land ownership was never officially registered. Even if this logistical logjam were to be cleared, the vast majority of Port-au-Prince residents, up to 85%, did not own their homes before the earthquake.”
In September 2010 there were over one million refugees still living in tents, and the humanitarian situation was characterized as still being in the emergency phase, according to theApostolic Nuncio to Haiti, Archbishop Bernard Auza. He went on to say that the number was rising instead of diminishing, and reported that the state had decided to first rebuild downtown Port-au-Prince and a new government center, but reconstruction had not yet begun.
In October 2010, Refugees International characterized the aid agencies as dysfunctional and inexperienced saying,”The people of Haiti are still living in a state of emergency, with a humanitarian response that appears paralyzed”. It was reported that gang leaders and land owners were intimidating the displaced and that sexual, domestic, and gang violence in and around the camps was rising.They claimed that rape of Haitian women and girls who had been living in camps since the January earthquake was increasing, in part, because theUnited Nations wasn’t doing enough to protect them.
In October, a cholera epidemic broke out, probably introduced by foreign aid workers. Cholera most often affects poor countries with limited access to clean water and proper sanitation. By the end of 2010, more than 3,333 had died at a rate of about 50 deaths a day.
In January 2011, one year after the quake, Oxfam published a report on the status of the recovery. According to the report, relief and recovery a were at a standstill due to government inaction and indecision on the part of the donor countries. The report stated, “One year on, only five percent of the rubble has been cleared and only 15 percent of the required basic and temporary houses have been built. House building on a large scale cannot be started before the enormous amount of rubble is cleared. The government and donors must prioritize this most basic step toward helping people return home”.Robert Fox, executive director of Oxfam Canada, said “The dysfunction has been aided unabated by the way the international community has organized itself, where pledges have been made and they haven’t followed through [and] where they come to the table with their own agendas and own priorities. Most donors provided funds for transitional housing but very little money for clearing rubble or repairing houses”. Fox said that in many instances rubble removal “means it was [moved] off someone’s property onto the road in front of the property”. According to a UNICEF report, “Still today more than one million people remain displaced, living in crowded camps where livelihoods, shelter and services are still hardly sufficient for children to stay healthy”. Amnesty International reported that armed men were preying with impunity on girls and women in displacement camps, worsening the trauma of having lost homes, livelihoods and loved ones.
On the first anniversary of the earthquake, Haitian-born Michaëlle Jean, who served as the Governor General of Canada at the time of the disaster and who became United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Special Envoy for Haiti on 8 November 2010, voiced her anger at the slow rate of aid delivery, placing much of the blame on the international community for abandoning its commitments. In a public letter co-authored with UNESCO head Irina Bokova, Jean said, “As time passes, what began as a natural disaster is becoming a disgraceful reflection on the international community.”The Interim Haiti Recovery Commission, led by former US President Bill Clinton and Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive, had been set up to facilitate the flow of funds toward reconstruction projects in April 2010, but as of January 2011, no major reconstruction had started.
with all this said, my prayer for today is that you would stop and take a moment to pray for all of the families here who lost some one during the earthquake, just as america honours those who died in 911 we need to show the same respect for those who remain nameless, unaccounted for who are laying in piles in the mass graves here in haiti with out any fancy monument stating their existence and record of life here on planet earth.
Filed under: films haiti, From Haiti, Haitian Rap, human rights haiti, humanitarian aid, nehemiah records, nehemiah vancity, News, orphanages haiti, steph forster, steph leigh limage, sustainable community haiti, voices of haiti | Tags: dreadlocks
“but i have dreadlocks and wear earrings i cant be a christian till i get rid of them , the pastor told me i wasn’t really a christian if i don’t change my appearance and when i told him i accepted jesus he said it wasn’t true because of my hair and i explained to him that god cares about the inside, about my heart, just like you taught me steph, i told the pastor you had piercings and he said you were not a christian either, i told him he was wrong ” said our new friend Rickardo AKA TwoZero the street boy we led to jesus last month.
on new years eve i was at a haitian wedding and all of the women were dressed as brides, it was hard to figure out who was getting married. all of the dresses were strait out of the 80′s, puffy shoulders and all. i turned to my husband and asked him ” whats going on here? why are all the women dressed as brides?”. he explained it was a cultural thing..whats the point of this story? well it is a totally different mentality here & the cultural roots are mixed in with american, haitian and of course the french slave masters that oppressed the people here just a few hundred years ago. Christianity here is influenced by what i can only describe as a highly judgmental southern baptist 1945 extremely religious mindset. if you don’t have a nice outfit..dress shoes, pants, tie etc.. you can not go to church here..its not possible..
so riddle me this batman… if you are poor as poor can be and live on the street but really want to attend church you cant… and do i need to tell you how i feel about this? i don’t think i do, i clearly think its rubbish but need to respect it..HOWEVER there is a solution.. turning our house into a church once a week where people can come as they are like our friend Rickardo who is a 20 year old illiterate,orphaned street kid .
for the time being he comes over and we pray together, read the bible and talk about god and his kingdom.I asked him today what he thought about me turning the house into a church once a week and he thinks its a great idea. he has never had anyone care for him so its really special to have the honour to be trusted with his soul and his divine destiny. he came by today for some food and a visit , he had been away visiting a family member that was very very sick and close to death from lack of food. we gave him some cash to go see his family and prayed with him before he left. today we found out he nearly died on a motorbike and remarkably walked away from the accident with only a few scratches on his face but the driver was not so lucky,we told him it was god protecting him.he also told his his family member that was close to death made a rapid recovery which i also attribute to our prayer sessions.
Rickardo told me today that he really feels different now that he has god in his heart and knows he can talk to god and started praying on his own. today i told him about the power of the name of jesus:)
i want to get him strong in his faith and then start taking him to do outreach with the other street kids downtown and have him pour out what has been poured into his soul and just keep repeating the process over and over and make thousands of disciples out of the orphans on the street & have them lead a love revolution of course..then rebuild the deserted ruins of their city :)
so what do you think, shall i start a house church for the hip hop artists and street kids in our home? i don’t really see any other solution, some thing has to be done and i am free to do it :) some one needs to get all the dreadlocks to heaven :)
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Filed under: films haiti, From Haiti, Haitian Rap, human rights haiti, humanitarian aid, nehemiah records, nehemiah vancity, News, orphanages haiti, steph forster, steph leigh limage, sustainable community haiti, voices of haiti | Tags: gun fights haiti, police brutality haiti, violence in haiti
it seems any type of excitement here gets people worked up, special occasions, elections or concerts people just don’t know how to deal with any type of celebration over-here with out some one being killed. last night we went out to get some ice-cream & ended up in the middle of a shoot out in the street hiding from bullets behind a car while people were being murdered 10 feet from us. a boy who looked about 14 or 15 was shot in the head right before my eyes. i have never seen anyone shot in real life so when his body flew back and hit the wall i didn’t realize he was hit.my first reaction was to run over to him to help him but my husband told me to stay behind the car because the guns were still shooting bullets all over the street. while the bullets were still flying the boys friends grabbed his dead body, one grabbed a leg the other his arms and ran through the streets with his limp dead body while being shot at .
if i would have stepped out on to the street only one minute before i would have been hit with a bullet my self… but some thing in my tummy told me to stay where i was and sure enough the gun fire started right after and we had time to hide behind a car so we wouldn’t get hit.the police were the ones shooting up the streets and also the ones who killed the young boy. when i asked how is it possible that they can just shoot up the street like that and not even check for injured civilians my husband replied ” thats just the way it is here”. none of it made sense, i found out that the police had a road block
( a common thing here everyday) and the boys ran through it with out stopping and then the police killed them…just for running through the road block..who knows maybe the kids had some drugs or weapons and didn’t want to be caught or maybe they were just being silly teenage boys who try to rebel when some one tells them what to do like most teenagers do…but back home when that happens teenage boys don’t get killed for it and with no warning do police shoot up an entire city block nearly killing innocent civilians such as my self. i cant get the image of the boy being murdered right in front of me out of my mind, it keeps replaying like a bad movie.
the other night i wanted to go for a walk and i only made it half a block from my house before my husband panicked and ran after me begging me to get back to the house, i thought he was crazy and couldn’t figure out why he was freaking out about me just wanting to have a little walk under the stars and then …..gunfire…about 20 feet from where i was standing. my husbands friends even came out to find us because they were worried about us being on the street and it was then i realized no matter how ” safe” they say our neighbourhood is… its not. i can only imagine how it is in the bad areas here if this area we are in is how it is and also where all the diplomats and the president live…now i know why when the president comes home from work everyday he has a massive security entourage …he is our neighbour…
my days of solo walks are over now that i am here, i have traded security and safety for walls lined with barbed wire and millions of starving and uneducated haitians who are all just trying to survive in this strange place.
it was different when i was coming here just for a month or a few weeks at a time to work and then go home but now i see that i am learning so much everyday i am here and wouldn’t trade it for the safety of my country because the thing is some thing needs to change here and i really believe i can bring change and win the hearts of gangsters through music and the love of God that resides inside of me.
i remember hearing about some people from my old church in canada coming to haiti for a missions trip a few years ago and thinking they were crazy to come here and try to do anything because of all the stories i have heard and now i am living in the middle of it all.
last night i sat on my patio overlooking the city and God told me he had me in handcuffs for a while because he was teaching me things and that i needed to be patient and just learn right now, which is hard for me because i am so used to doing things that make a big difference and gathering hundreds of people to pull off the visions i have to bring change and utilize creativity to bring healing. i know God wants that here as well i see it , i hear him speaking to me about it and helping me to adjust to this. the violence yesterday was just a reminder of the reality i am living in and to be very diligent and discerning even if it seems “safe”..its not. the thing is that i woke up yesterday with a “bad feeling” and now realize its just God giving me the heads up so i am trying to pay more attention to my instincts and stay in rhythm with God because here you never know when all hell is going to break loose.
i could write for hours but i don’t want to keep you much longer..after all it is christmas eve. i hope you have a good christmas and want to thank you for praying for me and also taking interest in my life here, its people like you who keep me sane when i feel like giving up. i started a school in my house every monday for the illiterate street kids we reach out to , i have some education materials arriving here on the 26th of Dec that were donated so i can take the kids from grade one reading & writing level to grade 3 and then have them reproduce this education in the other street kids, its a start until we get a building but we haven’t had many if any resources donated to us so i made this fancy budget explaining our ministry and broke down each dollar amount and explained what it was for in hopes that the needs would be met if i just keep casting my net. for now i share all i have with everyone around me and know God will replace it and we wont go hungry, its just a test before great increase comes. God just wants to see how i react when i am stripped from all i know and all financial security and fully rely on him to provide so that we can move forward with all the visions and get the housing built on our land and start relocating some of the kids.i have been reading about the effects of malnutrition and mental health and the two are directly linked so i am feeding the kids before classes in my home so they can focus and not feel so nutty from lack of proper nutrients.
heading to the beach now for christmas, talk to you in the new year, eat some turkey for me would ya..
Filed under: films haiti, From Haiti, Haitian Rap, humanitarian aid, nehemiah records, nehemiah vancity, News, orphanages haiti, steph forster, steph leigh limage, sustainable community haiti | Tags: many things, plastic cards, security blanket, starbucks
starbucks,text messages and meetings , for the past 5 years it seems to be my life, trying to accomplish things so quickly as if my life were ending and for the first time i am slowing down and being forced to discover who god really is to me and if i really trust him. i have done many things in faith but always wanting a security blanket. i have always wanted to find the fastest way to do some thing and do it well to try to prove my self to god as if i needed to earn his love and acceptance and now god is showing me through the love of my husband how much he loves me and how calm he is. god is calm, god is peace and god is never shaken up, god is emotional like me, gets angry like me but he doesn’t ever change.
god today i am writing to you and asking you what you want from me here in haiti. where do you want me to step, where do you want me to go next and how do you want me to do it, i want what you want and have been stripped raw and bare like a naked baby. i am learning that you love me and even when i am sick and smell bad, i know this because of how you use my husband to care for me.having no water was scary at first but now i am getting used to waiting for it and appreciating it.not having electricity when i want it and appreciating it. not having my plastic cards that gave me power to get what i want when i want in my old life and now just having a few dollars and prayer to know when we can have enough to buy food again but being grateful for the food we do have.
today i was supposed to go to the bank and open a new account so my mother could wire money from our canadian account into our new haitian account but last night i got sick again. i was up all night in and out of the bathroom and for most of the day today. david got some leaves from a tree that you make tea out of to calm my tummy and it means more to me knowing it came from a tree here rather than the store, seems more holistic or some thing . i have spent the past week feeling rather lost and like a bit of a looser and i realized it was only because i cant have what i normally have when i want it,like access to money we know is there in our account but cant get yet..at least not with out much effort and brain storming.
i have dirty feet now most of the time and don’t go out with my nice purses and high heels but it doesn’t matter. my husband works hard to get us what we need to make sure we are okay, that we have water each day ..you know at least back home if you have no money you can buy a box of cereal to eat but here cereal is a fancy food for people who have extra cash, even going to the super market is a place for the higher class..when i go there i feel like a douche bag who thinks she is better than the people on the street selling food.
when you are in the super market here and see other white people they don’t speak to you especially when i am holding hands with my black husband. everywhere i go people seem to stare and i am trying to forget about it and not notice. even the locals laugh at me when i take public transportation with my husband, yesterday they laughed for half of the trip and even took a photo of me in the bus but my husband said to ignore it because they are not educated and don’t understand. in canada if i were in an interracial relationship no one would turn their heads at us but here its different.
my husbands friends are kind people who have done their best to make me feel comfortable , like us they know and see god in a way that dosnt fit inside religion which give some hope when we work together because they are not trapped in a box of religion like lots of people i have met over the years that i seem to annoy. his friends are all artists and famous people here who are generous and care about us helping the kids and are coming along side our work and vision.
i want to share god with the artists we know in a new way not like the christians that live here and are very traditional, that doesn’t fit for gangsters and rappers from the streets who have done jail time and make a living shooting music videos or making music. at least my rough edges are accepted by these people and i am not judged but instead i am supported and welcomed. some of them speak a bit of english but it still feels lonely when i cant have a conversation with anyone other than my husband but i know in time i will be speaking the language.
on monday we are making a short documentary about our street outreach here with the kids and the vision we have to help people understand the need, i am putting it online for free download and will have it done in 2 weeks if not sooner , unlike the long long documentary i have been filming here for 2 years i need some thing now that i can show you so you understand.
i am hoping tomorrow i recover from this virus i have been fighting so we can get to the bank and try to get some of our money so we can buy food and get back to work. its hard to think i am here to help people when i feel like i need help my self right now but my husband says its all a test from god and i am starting to believe him.
it must be a test because how would god use me and show me his real heart and vision for haiti if i was still behaving like a snob who cries when she doesn’t have running water or electricity, how would i possibly understand what the people here need or are going through unless i had to suffer my self to build my character and shed my old skin . i have been coming here for 2 years of my life and have had to deal with some issues regarding conditions and camping in tents,washing in rivers and having no power but it was different because i always knew i had a big fancy bed to go home to , but now i am here and i know i belong here but i have been fighting my self and some of the things i see inside of me are ugly and selfish.
the other night i was at a big birthday party for a famous DJ here, it was like being in a rap video. anyways i was going pee and here the toilets in public places don’t have seats because if they did more disease and infection would spread around..anyways i was squatting over the open toilet and there was piss and dirt all over the tiled floor and this beautiful young girl walked in and started trying to fix her make up with out a mirror, she looked up and saw me half naked squatting over the toilet and the shock of finding my white ass in front of her made her drop her makeup on the piss covered floor.
the makeup was broken and stuck in the piss so i reached in my bag and started to fix her make up for her and her bra that had underwires sticking out all over, you could tell she was trying really hard to look and feel beautiful at the party but didn’t have much and when i wasn’t looking ( or so she thought) she started picking up the pieces of broken make up off of the ground and putting them back in the powder case to use again. it was then i realized how stupid i was for fussing over the things i didn’t have when i could go home to our place and find 5 tubes of lipstick and 3 cases of powder if i needed them.
i wanted to give her some money to buy a new powder case but she left before i could find my husband to ask him to give her some money. when i got home i laid on the couch and cried thinking about her, i thought about how she could be a nurse or a teacher but instead she lived in the hood and was picking up make up from the piss covered floor while i came home to my nice home with my beautiful husband and our big bed. so i told my husband about how it was bothering me and we prayed for her .
i seem to cry allot here, everything is making me cry, at first i thought it was because i was getting my period but then i got my period and i was still crying so then i realized it was god working in my heart changing me and making me a better person so i could really help people here. the god i know and love doesn’t yell at me, he doesn’t judge me he just loves me and has me suffer so i can be who he wants me to be and i know what he wants me to do here in haiti is really big but it also scares me , i cant hide from him. all i want to do is make art right now, make paintings ,music and express my self so i can find my self again here.
i don’t have to prove anything to anyone especially not god, i did what he said and i moved here to the poorest country in the southern hemisphere and he knew i wouldn’t have done it if my husband wasn’t here or haitian. i need to take this step by step and just let god change me because right now i am letting go and i am glad i ate that weird cheeseburger yesterday and got sick or else i wouldn’t have had this revelation while i was forced to stay still today and would still be where i was in my head and heart.
the way people advertise and go about humanitarian work doesn’t sit well with me thats why i moved here because i have a hard time respecting people who just come and go because there is no way you can really understand what is happening in a place unless you live in it. i don’t know how to tell people about our work here and am not the type of person who would write some thing about how many people we led to jesus that day so we get more donations, i don’t even know how to get donations and at this point just don’t care because i know god is helping us and we will have what we need when we need it and it will come from unexpected sources because we are walking with him and doing what he says.
my husband gets work just when we need it and the same goes for me, it is what it is and i know if i pass this test all the things we need to get going on a large scale will happen but first my character needs to be tweaked so i am not such a prissy tripped out white chick looking for starbucks in haiti.i am going to go now i feel really crappy from this virus that sucked my energy and every last bit of water out of my body…and am in the middle of reading a book a pastor friend gave me so i can learn more about how to care for orphans because i don’t know how its just some thing i have to figure out, but my husband is an orphan so he is teaching me things but the main thing is that my heart is for the orphans of this country,the forgotten ones that no one sees and just like in vancouver i am going to use art and music to bridge the gap and meet a need. i have this feeling that god is doing some thing for my husband and i today and that me being sick at home was so he could do some work for us and we could rest in his love together while he is busy working on some plans for us …divine appointments are about to take place and a shift is going to come because my heart is finally in alignment with Gods.
just breathe
Filed under: From Haiti, nehemiah records, nehemiah vancity, News, steph forster, steph leigh limage, voices of haiti
3am ….” what is that noise? is there a creature in our house?”,”no baby thats just a reptile..they talk at night”…
new noises to get used to and well…new everything… we haven’t had running water for 5 days now so we are hauling in buckets of water in to have bucket showers & wash the dishes. They said it will be fixed soon but my expectations are low…i am kinda getting used to the buckets…however i wouldn’t recommend drinking that water…that is unless you want the runs. I also don’t recommend the pizza from dominos here in haiti ( trust me i was just as surprised as you are now knowing there is a dominos here..or at least some place pretending to be)… anyways i will remember to never eat that again…unless i want to be up all night with my husband holding a bucket under my head…perhaps my tummy will just get used to the food.
i come from a world where everything is so sterile and clean…including the food..i am sure i will adapt. everyday the power goes out..you never know when the power will go or come…its just the way it is here.there is so many changes to get used to… today i went to the bank to try to set up a business account only to find out that my fancy awesome line of credit means crap all here in haiti…no special line to wait in because i own a business and have a fancy bank report…no sir…today i realized all i worked for in canada means NOTHING here..i have to start fresh..which is cool in its own way because i have to learn new things which will help me grow in character.
its been a rough week, i had a few melt downs..crying for my mom like a big baby..missing my friends and starbucks…my husband is a patient man..he has really supported my transition and even hired a young guy to come in a few times a week and clean the house for me…it takes the edge off since i have to hand wash everything now and haul water…i don’t really want to spend all my time like cinderella. the husband and i have been mapping out a plan for the next few weeks of how were are going to move forward with our ministry & businesses. i hate jumping into things with out a solid plan and some thing on paper..its just how i am ….you need to plan and budget everything so you can measure results and have accountability.
i have been spending lots of time praying and waiting on god to tell me when to move,when to sit, when to rest and when to worship him…i don’t want to get ahead of god i want to walk with him and in unity with my husband. david and i need to be in unity so god can use us as a team, which means we need to really press into his word ( thats the bible FYI). to be honest everyone talks about the first part of marriage being so intense but not for us..we have lots happening for sure but between us its chill and calm, we just have peace in our home and have no issues working things out and going to god with things…its really nice because the rest of life seems pretty challenging right now. davids sister was murdered the other day, we are getting through it together..i am not really sure why i am writing this post its not particularly interesting but i needed to write…i guess i will talk to you later i need to go find a dish rack :)
