The Finger of Blame for Haiti’s Environmental Degradation

By Meghan Pierce, Undergraduate Research Assistant I visited the Library of Congress last Tuesday to listen to a lecture by Dr. Jean-Francois Mouhot, a post-doctoral research fellow based at Georgetown, who is currently conducting a three-year research project on the Environmental History of Saint-Domingue / Haiti (1492-today). Dr. Mouhot began his talk by displaying a picture of…

The Invisible Walls of Aid

By Scott Freeman, Visiting Scholar In order to prepare students for the aid industry, graduate and undergraduate institutions have designed degrees and concentrations in international development. Focusing on thinking critically about policy and procedure, students are ostensibly prepared so that previous errors will not be repeated again. But once one is ‘in’ the industry, is…

Haiti Moves a Step Closer toward Eradicating Elephantiasis

Reposted from NPR Global Health By Jason Beaubien Haiti has finally carried out a nationwide campaign to get rid of the parasitic worms that cause elephantiasis. Haiti has waged other campaigns against the condition, characterized by severe disfiguration of the legs and arms. But until now, it has never managed to adequately reach residents of…

Dr. Paul Farmer: Communities Should Lead Problem-Solving in Haiti

Democracy NOW! recently hosted Dr. Paul Farmer to discuss his work in Rwanda, Haiti and his latest book, To Repair the World: Paul Farmer Speaks to the Next Generation. Farmer decided to compile a collection of commencement addresses he has delivered to graduating college students over the past decade, through which he encourages them to…

The Present State of Haitian Fertility and the International Response

By Meghan Pierce, Undergraduate Research Assistant The right of the individual to decide how many children to have and when to have them has consistently been the guiding principle in international reproductive health standards, according to the World Health Organization.  Since 2010, Haiti’s rising annual birth rate has been increasingly referred to as a “fertility…

Images and “Saving”

By Scott Freeman, Visiting Scholar As an anthropologist, and one that focuses on Haiti, it is imperative to think and reflect on representation: how we represent those we work with, and to what end. These representations are not some sort of post-modern exercise in self absorption (though in academia, anything can become an exercise of self…

UNDP’s Questionable Claims of Progress

By Scott Freeman, Visiting Scholar Heraldo Muñoz, the Chilean Assistant Secretary-General and Assistant Administrator Director of the Regional Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean, UNDP, recently published an article in Foreign Policy regarding the ‘real’ recovery of Haiti. It was seemingly a response to recent books on the topic of reconstruction and development (for example, here) and New…

Dr. Bob Maguire on NPR

Dr. Bob Maguire on NPR Bob Maguire, professor of the practice of international affairs and director of the Latin American and Hemispheric Studies Program at the Elliott School of International Affairs, discussed Haiti on WBEZ 91.5 Chicago’s Worldview. Maguire is also a faculty affiliate in the Elliott School’s Institute of Global and International Studies and its newly forming Western Hemisphere Research and…

The Role of the ICRC in Haiti

By Meghan Pierce, Undergraduate Research Assistant On Thursday, January 31, the congressional office of Representative Sam Farr (Dem-CA), hosted a briefing featuring Patricia Danzi, head of Operation for the Americas at the International Committee of the Red Cross in Latin America. The purpose of the session was to delineate the state of armed conflict and violence…