proposal template

Professor,

when we met each other 2 weeks ago, you said you wold send me the template to help me write my proposal. I would like to know if I will receive that template soon in order to have a jump start with the proposal.

Let me know :o)
Thank you!

Videos on Haiti part II

The 3 other videos focused on Haiti's economic situation.
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Arcelin, J.Haiti, reason to flee. Haiti Films, 1984, c1983. 1 videocassette (30 min.)

This video explains the crisis in Haiti's economic. Back on the 950s, the economy was regulated and controled by the US; the Americans rewrote the Haitian constitution of 1918 to get rid of the article preventing foreigns owning land. That is how foreign investors were able to build their factories and export crops.

The US backed up several dictatorships in Haiti (mainly Lecot, Estimé, Magloire and Duvalier). The American administration thought that Duvalier would protect their interests like the others and he did to a certain extend by preventing communism on the island.

On the other hand, Duvalier was also the representative of the big land owner in Haiti and this class opposes US investments where it threatens replacing semi-feudalism with agrobusiness plantations and factories. In the early 60s when the Canadian government tried to sponsor increased US investment in Haiti, Duvalier (dad) and the big land owners class were uncooperative. As a result, the US cut their aid and launched a campaign to overthrow Duvalier which included CIA sponsored invasion and plots from within the Haitian army. As a response, Duvalier expelled the US advisors, dismantled la guarde d'Haiti and strenghen the power of the Tontons Macoutes (his personal milice).

Hence, this is a good example of how the Canadian govt was interested more about helping the interests of the americans than the actual democratization and amelioration of Haiti. The repression that followed on the working class caused a big percentage of them to flee out of the country via different means including boat people.
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Peck, R. Profit and nothing but: or, impolite thoughts on the class struggle. First Run/Icarus [distributor], 2001. 1 videocassette (52 min.)

This video was very poetic and artistic; it was not a typical documentary.

According to one of the person interviewed in the video, we areliving in the myth of the American dream, the euphoria of living in a western world where everything will be fixed and okay in time. In the Northern countries, the system works really well at stopping -to a certain extend- the opposition and limiting dysfunctionment since there is a sense of security, eg: welfare, health care etc...The only thing is that comfort level in the industrialized countries is paid by the sacrifice of the rest of the planet including Haiti. What we call the 3rd world is in fact 3/4 of the world. It is a triumphant capitalism at the expenses of the others.
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Haiti Films. Bitter cane. Haiti Films, 1983. 1 cassette (75 min.)

This documentary was filmed clandestinely in Haiti. Most of its reasearch is also done about the US.

This movie depicted a good picture of the misery of the population in Haiti.
The infrastructures are build to give advantage to the foreign investment (thus including Canada as well).
I will need to find if Canada invests anything in Haiti. I do recall from my Project Management class, if I am not mistaken, that Canada promised to give Haiti some help and money only at the condition that Haiti would buy their products for reconstruction from Canadian cies only.

There are several incentives for foreign investments:
tax holidays + duty free (for 9 years, after what the cies have to pay is derisive + no restrictions on capital (money can leave the country without any problem) + factories are owned by foreigners instead of local people. In addition, the wages are extremely low which is comparable to any less developed country.

More than 6 million $ in the US military aid and training has gone to Jean-Claude Duvalier's regime (the son of Francois Duvalier) since 1971. This military aid goes to defend that fragile status quo that only benefits only the haitian ruling classes and foreign investors. In these days, the foreign investors would say how Haiti possess political stability; in fact, it was a repression that advantage these investors to make profits in the land without owing to anyone.
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These were the videos I watched for my project. I also found several contact information of people to interview and thus help me get this project ready for April. Here are the names:

Dr. Elizabeth Abbott
Dean of women studies at trinity and author of Haiti: the Duvaliers and their legacy
abbott@trinity.utoronto.ca

Antoine Dérose
President of the Haitian Cultural Network of Toronto and
Founding President of the Haitian Association of Toronto
tricia.antoine@sympatico.ca

Dr. Mélanie Newton
Assistant Professor of Caribbean History, University of Toronto
melanie.newton@utoronto.ca
416-978-4054

Frantz Voltaire
Centre international de documentation et d'information
haitienne, caribéenne et afro-canadienne, Montréal
Editor and Filmmaker
Téléphone : (514) 845-0880
edition@cidihca.com

Videos on Haiti

Yesterday and today I watched a couple of videos about the situation and reality of Haiti. Here is a little overview of what I watched in the past 2 days.

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Leland, A.E.-Voodoo and the church in Haiti. University of California, Extension Media
Center, 1988. 1 videocassette (43 min.)

This video was explaining how different cultures collide in Haiti (eg: less developed country mentality versus the 1st world countries mentality). It emphasizes on the European values amongst the elite of Haiti and the African values amongst the mass. The video also explains how the dictatorial regimes ensure the increase of the gap between rich and poor. The population is frustrated with the bureaucracy because the mass is living without employment, education, adequate water supplies and proper balance diet. As a consequence of economic dispair, the vast majority of the haitian peasant find refuge in religion, mainly voodoo. Hence, the Duvalier dictatorship used this trend to bring spitituality close to secular in order to maintain his regime.
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Kovacs, L. ' Segment 3. Haiti revolt : Canada sends soldiers (18:47 min.)'. News in review :
April 2004. CBC, Non-Broadcast Sales, c2004. 1 videocassette (58 min.)

This video was great because it was recent and had a Canadian perspective. The video explains how Haiti is a failed state because of the pervasive corruption, the political instability, the violence and the environmental degradation. Haiti has had 32 military coups in its 200 years of independance. This translates to an average of about 1 coup every 6 1/2 years.

The departure of Jean Bertrand Aristide, ex-president of the island, is the main topic of the video. This departure was backed by the US and France since they say that they would not have sent peace troops if Aristide did not step down. I was in aw to learn that the rebels that were bringning chaos to the country were secretely assisted by american services experts.

There is a professor from UofT that I might try to reach to have more information: her name is Elizabeth Abbott. She is apparently an historian and she lived and wrote numerous articles about Haiti and its current situation.

In 2004, the help from Canada came promptly for Haiti. Paul Martin, ex-prime minister, sent 500 troops to keep peace as part of a multinational peace keeping force (March 1st, 2004). Hence, on March 5 2004, Canadian troops left for Haiti. According to some experts of defense management, Ottawa was pushing too hard on too many missions.

I personally wonder if Paul Martin did not send the troops in order to ensure that the haitian diaspora living in Canada would remember his good act and then vote for him again so he would not be stuck in the minority government he was at that time governing.

The video also talks about the haitian diaspora living in Montreal. It is the 3rd largest Haitian community in North America after Miami and New York. There is a division within the diaspora on the solutions to take in order to rectify the situation in the country.
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I will finish my overview of the documentaries later.

Trip to Robarts

In order to fill up my mind with thoughts of Haiti, I went to the Media Commons and grabbed a couple of videos (documentaries) about the situation of the country and its history. I cannot wait to actually watch them. One of them 'Haiti, reason to flee' should be particularly interesting.

This time should work!

I was having some technical difficulties with my first blog. This one should be fine and ready to roll.