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