Academic literature on the topic 'Port-au-Prince (Haiti) – Social conditions – Fiction'

What some people believe about Haiti and the devastating effects of the 2010 earthquake revolves around the coverage in the media. While the media hinted at what was going on after the January 12th earthquake, it was not a completely accurate portrayal of the complex issues that existed in the various tent cities of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Almost two years later in 2011, almost 500,000 people were still living in unacceptable conditions in scattered parts of the capital. The things that I witnessed firsthand in Port-au-Prince over the summer of 2011 as an undergraduate student conducting ethnographic research speak to the impact that the earthquake has had beyond the physical damage, particularly in terms of social conditions. What I came away with from my research was that making change is not a question of economics but of humanity.

Cet article examine les conditions historiques, sociales et matérielles des pratiques du vodou à Paris et en Ile-de-France. Les enjeux de ces pratiques soulignent une dynamique de visibilité et d’invisibilité, d’inclusion et de fermeture qui détermine autant les relations humaines à l’intérieur du culte que les rapports avec une société française réfractaire au vodou. Sa présence à Paris remonte aux années 1960, avec les mises en scène inspirées du culte, et elle s’inscrit dans une histoire qui débute par les tournées des troupes folkloriques, formées à Port-au-Prince dans les années 1940. Les pratiques contemporaines du vodou en Ile-de-France nécessitent des adaptations matérielles et rituelles. Elles relèvent autant d’une logique de protection que de relations de pouvoir fondées sur l’autorité religieuse et sur l’origine ethnique des pratiquants. Le vodou se révèle être un espace de compétition où les procédés de légitimation, véhiculés par des rumeurs, s’appuient sur des traditions et des territoires, sur la dimension économique et sur le respect des prescriptions rituelles. La circulation de ces rumeurs, de Paris à Brooklyn, suggère l’existence d’un espace transnational de moralité fondé sur des normes sociales et religieuses qui trouvent leur origine en Haïti. This article examines the historical, social and material conditions of the practice of Vodou in Paris and in the Ile-de-France region. This practice can be understood in terms of a dynamic of visibility and invisibility, of inclusion and exclusion which influences the human relationships within Vodou, as well as the resistance it has met in French society. Its presence in Paris goes back to the sixties, with theatre inspired by Vodou, and a history which begins with the tours of folk companies, trained in Port-au-Prince in the forties. The contemporary practice of Vodou in the Ile-de-France has involved material and ritual adaptations. It is founded as much upon a logic of protections as upon power relationships between religious authorities and the ethnic origins of Vodou practitioners. Vodou is revealed to be a competitive space where the process of legitimization, aided by rumours, is based on traditions and territories, on the economic dimension and on respect for ritual instruction. The circulation of these rumours, from Paris to Brooklyn, suggests the existence of a transnational space of morality based on social and religious norms which have their origin in Haiti.

Cultivating cooperation with local populations is necessary for peacekeeping operations to effectively prevent and reduce violence. To accomplish their missions in complex foreign theaters of operation, peacekeepers must solicit information about local political actors, social networks, and violence. Under what conditions do local populations cooperate with United Nations peacekeepers? How does exposure to peacekeeping security activities, relief activities, or abuse – three of the primary ways that local communities experience peacekeepers – affect the likelihood that individuals cooperate with peacekeepers by providing information to them? Using an original survey of a random sample of residents of metropolitan Port-au-Prince, Haiti, we show that people who are exposed to security and relief activities by the United Nations peacekeeping operation, MINUSTAH, have more positive opinions of how effective they are, and are more willing to cooperate with peacekeepers by providing them with information. On the other hand, exposure to abuse dramatically undermines civilian opinions of how effective, benevolent, and abusive peacekeepers are but has a smaller effect on cooperation. These findings present an opportunity and challenge for peacekeepers: if public opinion and cooperation are responsive to peacekeeper policy, then peacekeepers must deliver services and prevent abuse in order to solicit the cooperation that is necessary for mission success.

David Brion Davis, Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World (Trevor Burnard)Louis Sala-Molins, Dark Side of the Light: Slavery and the French Enlightenment (R. Darrell Meadows)Stephanie E. Smallwood, Saltwater Slavery: A Middle Passage from Africa to American Diaspora (Stephen D. Behrendt)Ruben Gowricharn, Caribbean Transnationalism: Migration, Pluralization, and Social Cohesion (D. Aliss a Trotz)Vilna Francine Bashi, Survival of the Knitted: Immigrant Social Networks in a Stratified World (Riva Berleant)Dwaine E. Plaza & Frances Henry (eds.), Returning to the Source: The Final Stage of the Caribbean Migration Circuit (Karen Fog Olwig)Howard J. Wiarda, The Dutch Diaspora: The Netherlands and Its Settlements in Africa, Asia, and the Americas (Han Jordaan) J. Christopher Kovats-Bernat, Sleeping Rough in Port-au-Prince: An Ethnography of Street Children &Violence in Haiti (Catherine Benoît)Ginetta E.B. Candelario, Black Behind the Ears: Dominican Racial Identity from Museums to Beauty Shops (María Isabel Quiñones)Paul Christopher Johnson, Diaspora Conversions: Black Carib Religion and the Recovery of Africa (Sarah England)Jessica Adams, Michael P. Bibler & Cécile Accilien (eds.), Just Below South: Intercultural Performance in the Caribbean and the U.S. South (Jean Muteba Rahier)Tina K. Ramnarine, Beautiful Cosmos: Performance and Belonging in the Caribbean Diaspora (Frank J. Korom)Patricia Joan Saunders, Alien-Nation and Repatriation: Translating Identity in Anglophone Caribbean Literature (Sue N. Greene)Mildred Mortimer, Writings from the Hearth: Public, Domestic, and Imaginative Space in Francophone Women’s Fiction of Africa and the Caribbean (Jacqueline Couti)Colin Woodard, The Republic of Pirates: Being the True and Surprising Story of the Caribbean Pirates and the Man Who Brought Them Down (Sabrina Guerra Moscoso)Peter L. Drewett & Mary Hill Harris, Above Sweet Waters: Cultural and Natural Change at Port St. Charles, Barbados, c. 1750 BC – AD 1850 (Frederick H. Smith)Reinaldo Funes Monzote, From Rainforest to Cane Field in Cuba: An Environmental History since 1492 (Bonham C. Richardson)Jean Besson & Janet Momsen (eds.), Caribbean Land and Development Revisited (Michaeline A. Crichlow)César J. Ayala & Rafael Bernabe, Puerto Rico in the American Century: A History since 1898 (Juan José Baldrich)Mindie Lazarus-Black, Everyday Harm: Domestic Violence, Court Rites, and Cultures of Reconciliation (Brackette F. Williams)Learie B. Luke, Identity and Secession in the Caribbean: Tobago versus Trinidad, 1889-1980 (Rita Pemberton)Michael E. Veal, Dub: Soundscapes and Shattered Songs in Jamaican Reggae (Shannon Dudley)Garth L. Green & Philip W. Scher (eds.), Trinidad Carnival: The Cultural Politics of a Transnational Festival (Kim Johnson)Jocelyne Guilbault, Governing Sound: The Cultural Politics of Trinidad’s Carnival Musics (Donald R. Hill)Shannon Dudley, Music from Behind the Bridge: Steelband Spirit and Politics in Trinidad and Tobago (Stephen Stuempfle)Kevin K. Birth, Bacchanalian Sentiments: Musical Experiences and Political Counterpoints in Trinidad (Philip W. Scher)

AbstractAs a disaster unfolds, survivors’ experiences, actions and motives often become overshadowed by the humanitarian response. This is especially the case in contexts where the national state and international organizations are seen to perpetuate (colonial) power structures. This article is based on 4 months of fieldwork in Haiti, where the authors conducted interviews and focus group discussions with people affected by Hurricane Matthew and with a variety of state officials and humanitarian response actors in Port-au-Prince, Jérémie, Les Cayes and Dame Marie. This study aimed to understand the role and power of societal actors in a context where there is a strong disarticulation between the state and society. The findings show that state–society tensions have been intensified in the response, leading to the politicization of aid and limiting the inclusion of affected communities in disaster governance. In this context, society-based actors negotiate the conditions of aid through resistance and solidarity, with strategies ranging from public protests to everyday resistance and from social networks to alternative aid structures. The article argues that disarticulation between society and the state needs to be addressed to make a more locally led response possible.