La Via Campesina asserts that sustainable, small-scale farming is more efficient at conserving and increasing biodiversity and forests than industrial agriculture.
Policies imposed on Haiti by international financial institutions (i.e., the World Bank and International Monetary Fund) since the 1980s, such as currency devaluation and trade liberalization, negated Haitian agricultural performance and the capacity of the Haitian state to manage the economy, thus exacerbating the current food crisis.
For the last three weeks, the readers of this column have been able to follow Dr. [Anthony P. Maingot]'s speech about Haiti's history of war of liberation and internicine struggles which have been such a burden for the First Black Republic. He began with "the issue of the moment," namely the reparation from France for 200 years of slavery. Haiti's political culture, its "developed legacy of behavior, " is not conducive to development. The second issue studied by Dr. Maingot is the U.S. occupation of Haiti, which "rested on the idea of the White Man's burden" - its Manifest Destiny. But, on balance, the occupation was not entirely negative. The very racism of the White invaders was a reality check for Haitian society. Yes, by treating all Haitians (whether dark skinned or light skinned Mulattoes) as "Niggers," no more no less, the foreign invaders reconciled the subjective ideas of superiority and/or inferiority of the Haitians with their own, i.e., their more objective, non involved, opinions as powerful occupying forces. Thirdly, Dr. Maingot analysed a cultural element that had, and continues to have, a great impact on Haitian society. That major cultural factor, of course, is the syncretic religion called vodoo.
A trade accord spearheaded by the NAACP worth $1.5 billion between the Cuban government and black farmers was heralded on Nov 17, 2002 by the Rev Al Sampson, who called the accord an "international window of opportunity" for African Americans. Sampson, who works with African American farmers, said this agreement gives black farmers an "international window" through Cuba into the Caribbean.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
342 p, First published in 1764, The Sugar Cane is a major work in the history of Anglophone Caribbean literature. It is the only poem written in the Caribbean before the twentieth century to achieve a place in the Western 'canon'. Grainger wrote a "West India Georgic", challenging assumptions about poetic diction and the proper subject matter of poetry, and boldly asserting the importance of the Caribbean to the eighteenth-century British empire. This is the first reliable text and critical study of the poem, setting it within the context of Grainger's life and work; Grainger interprets his own experience of the Caribbean through his wide reading of literature. This is a critical study of his poem "The Sugar-Cane." (Amazon)
