Human Rights Organizations: Widespread Abuse and Police Brutality in Haiti’s Ile a Vache
The struggle between Haiti’s peasants in Ile a Vache and the country’s executive branch is not a simple misunderstanding. The peasants have cared for and forested the offshore island to the extent that it has caught the world’s attention as being the most pristine island in the Caribbean. By contrast, Haiti’s governments have made no […]
The Fight for Haiti’s Ile a Vache: An Exclusive Interview With Abaka Bay’s Robert Dietrich
Mr. Robert Dietrich, a founding owner of Abaka Bay Resort, on the 20-square-mile Haitian offshore island of Ile a Vache, is at the center of a fight for the island between its residents and Haiti’s government. This traditionally bucolic island with 20,000 people has been besieged by over 115 militarized police since several peaceful protestors […]
Land Grab at Ile a Vache: Haiti’s Peasants Fight Back
Before Haiti’s Prime Minister declared all of Haiti’s offshore islands to be Zones of Tourism Development and Public Utility, he did not consult with the residents of the islands whose lands would be appropriated. Instead Mr. Laurent Lamothe went to a favorite online magazine in December 2012, to promote his plans. “[W]e have decided to […]
On Haiti’s Earthquake Anniversary: Still Waiting for Godot
“Nothing happens. Nobody comes, nobody goes. It’s awful!” – Samuel Beckett, in Waiting for Godot Months after Haiti’s January 12, 2010 earthquake, people were questioning the failure to deliver promised aid funds. Today they research the disappearance of these funds. The result is the same. No help will come. No help has come. Elements to […]
Haiti’s Creole: Language of Revolution
Theories vary about the genesis of Kreyòl, or Haitian Creole, the most plausible one being that Taino Indians and West Africans, who had evaded slavery together on Haiti’s mountains, probably intermarried and developed a new language. The country’s name itself, Ayiti, is an Arawak word that means mountainous land. The word Vodou, which is essentially […]
