Travesty In Haiti

Second edition of a work that reveals realities behind the foreign aid industry. Schwartz, an anthropologist who has worked with foreign aid agencies in Haiti for extended periods, exposes the fraud, greed, corruption, apathy and political agendas that permeate the industry.

Book Summary Thirsting for sensational stories about hunger, suffering, and violence, the world's most prestigious news agencies-the Associated Press (AP), Agence France-Presse (AFP), Reuters, CNN, CBS, The Guardian-have for decades uncritically repeated anything NGOs, UN agencies, or pseudo-researchers claim about Haiti. No vetting of data. No critical review. In the wake of January 2010 Haiti earthquake these exaggerations and lies erupted on a scale greater than ever before: apocalyptic disaster, machete wielding gangs with faces hidden behind bandannas battling in the streets for loot, dust covered earthquake survivors resurrected from concrete tombs, two million orphans and lost children, sexual predators and slave traders prowling the rubble-strewn slums of Port-au-Prince hunting the children down, marauding bands of armed men beating and raping women and children at will, and sprawling refugee camps infested with every kind of human affliction. The avalanche of exaggerations and outright lies precipitated a tsunami of sympathy and donations, the latter of which mostly disappeared into the coffers of aid agencies, pockets of consultants, flimflam experts, and the Haitian elite. The Great Haiti Humanitarian Aid Swindle is the inside story of how some of the world's most respected humanitarian aid agencies have deceived and manipulated the overseas public regarding what is really happening in Haiti. Sometimes they've done it knowingly, sometimes through self-delusion, but always with the goal of collecting money from sympathetic donors and always by ignoring or burying data that would contradict their fantastic claims. Their greatest ally has been the mainstream press.

Zombie Files is the true story about the Zombie Hunters Union, a group of Security Specialists who worked together in a hostile environment against criminal gangs in Haiti. They operated in the shadows since an evil cabal rules the country with the power of violent gangs and the black magic of Voodoo. They came together in their fight against the violent street gangs in the worst slums of the northern hemisphere and soon became the biggest threat to the evil forces in power. They were more effective and successful in combating organized kidnapping gangs than thousands of blue helmet soldiers deployed with the United Nations Mission MINUSTAH. The international peacekeeping forces had to follow the directives of the Haitian government, which was controlled by the cabal. The Zombie Hunters Union didn't have directives, officially they never existed. Max Kail was a United Nations Security Officer who wanted to make a difference in his last mission and joined the Zombie Hunters with some of his colleagues. This is his confession.

Written by a journalist and family insider, “the most intimate and revealing examination to date” of the Duvaliers and their Haitian legacy. (Publishers Weekly) Recounts the depredations and corruption of the Duvalier regime in Haiti, from the election of Papa Duvalier in 1957 to the exile of his son, Jean Claude. Written by the senior editor of the Haiti Times and the sister-in-law of Baby Doc’s successor, this account details the excesses of the dictatorship and the grim state in which the Duvaliers left the country when the regime was finally overthrown. “History with a human face, effective, moving, written with surprising and admirable restraint.” —Kirkus Reviews

This inspiring memoir recounts a man’s harrowing journey from unpaid child labor in Haiti to a successful life in the United States. African slaves in Haiti emancipated themselves from French rule in 1804 and created the first independent black republic in the Western Hemisphere. But they reinstituted slavery for the most vulnerable members of Haitian society—the children of the poor—by using them as unpaid servants to the wealthy. These children were—and still are—restavecs, a French term whose literal meaning of "staying with" disguises the unremitting labor, abuse, and denial of education that characterizes the children's lives. In this memoir, Jean-Robert Cadet recounts the harrowing story of his youth as a restavec, as well as his inspiring climb to middle-class American life. He vividly describes what it was like to be an unwanted illegitimate child "staying with" a well-to-do family whose physical and emotional abuse was sanctioned by Haitian society. He also details his subsequent life in the United States, where, despite American racism, he put himself through college and found success in the Army, in business, and finally in teaching.

Based on original ethnographic research conducted in rural Haiti, Timothy T. Schwartz offers an explanation for a demographic paradox that some of the most prominent sociologists and demographers of the twentieth century noted but were never able to explain: among impoverished...

Recipient of the 2021 Honorary Mention for the Haiti Book Prize from the Haitian Studies Association In Slave Revolt on Screen: The Haitian Revolution in Film and Video Games author Alyssa Goldstein Sepinwall analyzes how films and video games from around the world have depicted slave revolt, focusing on the Haitian Revolution (1791–1804). This event, the first successful revolution by enslaved people in modern history, sent shock waves throughout the Atlantic World. Regardless of its historical significance however, this revolution has become less well-known—and appears less often on screen—than most other revolutions; its story, involving enslaved Africans liberating themselves through violence, does not match the suffering-slaves-waiting-for-a-white-hero genre that pervades Hollywood treatments of Black history. Despite Hollywood’s near-silence on this event, some films on the Revolution do exist—from directors in Haiti, the US, France, and elsewhere. Slave Revolt on Screen offers the first-ever comprehensive analysis of Haitian Revolution cinema, including completed films and planned projects that were never made. In addition to studying cinema, this book also breaks ground in examining video games, a pop-culture form long neglected by historians. Sepinwall scrutinizes video game depictions of Haitian slave revolt that appear in games like the Assassin’s Creed series that have reached millions more players than comparable films. In analyzing films and games on the revolution, Slave Revolt on Screen calls attention to the ways that economic legacies of slavery and colonialism warp pop-culture portrayals of the past and leave audiences with distorted understandings.

The only dedicated guidebook to Haiti, covering everything from culture and history to living and working in Haiti.