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.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
____________________________________________________________________
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.
____________________________________________________________________
I will finish my overview of the documentaries later.