Haiti: Land of Tragedy, Land of Hope

 Haiti: Land of Tragedy, Land of Hope

   The documentary follows Haiti in 2004 in a time of poverty and civil unrest in Haiti that was present long before the media brought attention to poverty in Haiti following the 2010 earthquake. Haiti has never been known for being a "great" or rich nation but I formerly believed many of Haiti's issues stemmed from the 2010 earthquake in terms of economic consequences and widespread poverty. It turns out poverty and tension were commonplace in Haiti for the better part of it's tenure as a nation. Corruption is subjective but corruption is publically deeply ingrained in Haiti's history. It seems like regardless of leadership political assassinations are commonplace and still occurred under the rule of Astride. Duvalier was long held as a corrupt and ruthless leader and granted he was, but the same things that elevated him to that status were done by Astride. Astride was more discrete in his political dealings resulting in him having a divided public view. It's interesting to get Astride's perspective in that he feels that he has restored peace and unity in his land to an extent but to what end? Maybe things were improving in Haiti but how far do the means justify the ends? Is a new regime really a better regime if the same political murders are still occurring? These are the questions the citizens of Haiti are left with. It's difficult because there is improvement in Haiti but not so much so that the consequences of Astride's leadership can be overlooked. Even if Haiti were to take a 180 its debatable whether or not Astride's unethical practices could be justified. The rhetoric of the documentary leads me to ask if the direction leadership took in Haiti is next for the US. We find worsening polarization in the US with each election and I'm poised to wonder when the US government will result to ends like murder in a similar way to the Haitian government. 

Comments

  1. shawnOctober 3, 2020 at 6:30 PM

    I found the political corruption of Haiti to be a cultural problem facing this country. People keep coming to power in all aspects of the society and not enforcing the laws fairly. Those that are elected to fix the issue seem to get lost in the power. The police are not equally enforcing the laws and are not upholding the rights of the citizens. This coped with the natural disasters Haiti faces makes the future success of this country uncertain and doubtful.

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  2. Lena CorradoOctober 4, 2020 at 7:50 AM

    Your mentioning of if the means justify the ends is an extremely poignant concept Haiti must reevaluate. Like you said, the corruption is so deeply rooted, and Haiti's issues have begun wayyy before the 2010 earthquake. This is their justification for the current leadership, reasoning that the regime is necessary for pulling Haiti out from below. However, this overlooks the greater population as a whole in which you touched upon as well. How you related this dynamic back to present day United States turmoil is also quite harrowing. As the United States plummets itself deeper into polarization and non collaboration, a similar future may ensue. We have a resurrection of fascist ideology and rigid political practices, not to mention environmental policy concerns and many many other issues to be addressed. We are still far away from the extreme end of inefficiency that has resulted in the Haitian Government, however, we are in no means to make any criticism on any other nation's governance if ours is as messed up as it currently is.

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  3. Kayley NegastOctober 5, 2020 at 9:29 AM

    I agree with Shawn that a big thing for me in this documentary was the focus on political corruption and how the poverty did not seem to be this biggest concern. How you relate back Haiti back to the US is a big eye opener in that the situations might not be of the same scale it is still a prominent issue people are not aware of.

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  4. Grant RaddingOctober 5, 2020 at 6:32 PM

    I think it is very crucial that you mentioned the aspect that the documentary follows Haiti in 2004 in a time of poverty and civil unrest in Haiti that was present long before the media brought attention to poverty in Haiti. This stems from the claim you made that corruption is subjective but corruption is publicly deeply ingrained in Haiti's history. I agree that this is true, due to the amount of assassinations that occur despite their being acts of leadership in the country.

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