Explores the way writers address the formation and fate of the contemporary American working class in an age of neoliberal globalization. Specifically, the essay examines Russell Banks's 1985 novel Continental Drift, which interweaves the stories of two characters who pull up stakes and head to Florida in search of a better life: an oil furnace repair man from New Hampshire and a young, single mother from Haiti.
Examines changing relations of accumulation taking shape in the garment export industry in the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Draws upon a framework called "the coloniality of power" to consider the reworking of the social and spatial boundaries between hyper-exploited wage work and the people and places cast out from its relations.
World Institute for Development Economics Research, United Nations University
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
48 p., After receiving at least US$20 billion in aid for reconstruction and development over the past 60 years, Haiti has been and remains a fragile state, one of the worse globally. The reasons for aid failure are legion but mostly relate to highly dysfunctional Haitian regimes, sometimes destructive US foreign policy and aid policy, and ongoing issues about how to deliver aid, all in the context of devastating natural disasters. The over-riding cause of aid failure has been the social, cultural and historical context which has led to domination by economic and political elites who have little interest in advancing Haiti, and who are totally self-interested-Haiti's fatal flaw.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
7 p., A US nongovernmental organization has filed a lawsuit against the United Nations (UN), seeking compensation on behalf of victims of a cholera outbreak in Haiti, as well as funding to support programs to eradicate the disease and improve sanitation. Haitians deserve great sympathy for their plight, but a successful lawsuit could invite similar lawsuits, regardless of merit, thereby making the US and other UN member states vulnerable to significant financial costs, while leaving those actually responsible largely or entirely unpunished.
At [Henry Christophe]'s death, Haiti was taken over by General Boyer and civil war ceased. It was Boyer who obtained Haiti's official independence from France for 150 million francs. Unfortunately, Haiti's employment is less than 30 percent and its illiteracy rate is above 50 percent. Though its official language is French, Haiti's most widely spoken language is kreyol. Ninety percent of Haitians are Catholic although 99 percent worship their native religion of voodoo. Despite its tropical resort geography, living conditions in Haiti are comparative to those of many Third World nations. The Haitian economy is almost entirely dependent upon U.S. companies who horde the country's resources and only pay slave wages.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
22 p., Discusses how a year and a half after a deadly earthquake devastated its capital, 650,000 victims still wait for permanent housing in more than 1,000 unstable emergency camps across Haiti as a new hurricane season arrives. If reconstruction is to right the many imbalances that have made Haiti poor and prone to disasters, violence and conflict, it is paramount that the Martelly government set out a resettlement policy rapidly that engages the victims and is less about closing the camps, more about building stable, less violent communities and not only in the capital. The pilot plan for closing six camps and resettling their residents his administration has put forward is an important first step that deserves support, but the most vulnerable camps should be added to it quickly.
The Haiti earthquake prompted offers to send aid and assistance in various forms from governments, nongovernmental organizations, and private foundations. The need for manpower on the ground to orchestrate the relief effort brought together military forces from the world over, to include the United States, which stood up Joint Task Force-Haiti (JTF-H). The combined effort of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti and JTF-H in providing humanitarian assistance to the people of Haiti following the earthquake demonstrates the importance of developing strong relationships, both institutional and personal, with partner nation armies.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
52 p., Policy makers, practitioners, and experts alike have increasingly identified the protection of civilians as a priority for United Nations peacekeeping operations and as key to mission success. This report explores the analysis, decisions, and actions of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) to protect civilians during 2006-2007. It examines why MINUSTAH was relatively successful in protecting civilians; describes its shortcomings; and draws lessons for other contexts.
To many in the West, the League of Nations was to establish political peace between nations. To the Cuban sugar-producing elite of the 1920s and 1930s, however, the League was an important socioeconomic institution used to augment many of Cuba's first modern state institutions. This article explores how and why Cuban delegates were the principals behind the 1937 International Sugar Agreement.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
212 p., Analysis of Canadian and US democracy promotion in the Americas, with a focus on Haiti, Peru, and Bolivia in particular. The main argument is that democracy promotion is typically formulated to advance commercial, geopolitical and security objectives that conflict with a genuine commitment to democratic development. Includes chapter "Polyarchy at any cost in Haiti."
