Archive for the ‘ Dispatches ’ Category
New Orleans Dispatch: Flood Proof?
Once you see the actual height of some of the natural and man-made levees protecting the Lower Ninth Ward from the canal, it’s easy to see how this neighborhood remained 20 feet underwater for almost two months.
The storm that New Orleans natives always feared is still a vivid memory here. The network TV news currently focus a third of their broadcast to weather and elaborate storm tracking, while small-talk generally veers towards the discussion of floods. On this five-year anniversary, two new documentaries are revisiting the aftermath of the storm: Spike Lee’s “If God Is Willing and Da Creek Don’t Rise” and Luisa Dantas’ “Land of Opportunity”.
Haiti Dispatches: Life Goes On
We were walking through the maze of tents and clotheslines that is the Champs de Mars refugee camp in Port-au-Prince, when we saw the name “Blaki Blaka” tagged on a wood plank serving as someone’s door.
People write all sorts of things on their makeshift homes: friends’ cell phone numbers, or the names of their favorite pop stars (the Jamaican dancehall artist Sean Paul is a popular choice, as is Bob Marley, even after so many years).
But unbeknown to us, Blaki Blaka was not a hip hop star, but the name of a popular amateur soccer team in Port-au-Prince. And now two of their players lived inside this tent, next door to where our friend Adolphe was staying. He told us they had a large local following, and that he and his friends would often go out on the weekends to see them play around town.
Haiti Dispatches: In the Countryside, Young & Politicized
Most Haitians are big on titles and bureaucratic labels, and Mocelyn Saintilmon is no exception. When we first met the 27 year-old, he introduced himself as the Secretary General of Jen Travaye Peyizan (JTP), the Young Peasant National Workers Union, a post he has held for about a year, after having served as the Assistant Secretary General, Regional “Animateur”, or grassroots leader, and before that, just a plain Animateur in his local village of Papaye.
All that is to say that Mocelyn is a rising star in the peasant movement in Haiti, and if things go his way, his views and actions will soon influence the political thought of the rest of Haiti’s primarily young population.
Haiti Dispatches: Questioning Documentary Work
“We’ve been seeing a lot of journalists around here, especially last week,” said Cassandra, a 19 year-old girl we met through a common friend, who’s living in the Champ-de-Mars camp with her mom and grandmother.
Last week marked the earthquake’s six-month anniversary here, and many other journalists like us had been touring the city, equally drawn to the stories of hundreds of thousands of homeless Haitians who are living in one of the 1,300 camps around the city — or who have pitched tents or built makeshift shelters wherever they have found the space. It’s not easy to move around the maze-like camps and even more difficult to document life there — with little space for walking and much less for living in. And yet all the cooking, washing, playing, and lounging is happening in between these makeshift dwellings, under the hot sun and the heavy afternoon rains.
Haiti Dispatches: Young People in the Camps
The temperature has cooled a bit in Port-au-Prince; there is a rare breeze in the air. But yesterday’s big downpour also brought mudslides and flooding, and further spread the piles of debris into the streets.
Our friend Adolphe Miradieux went back to his tent in the Champ de Mars camp as soon as it started to rain; that’s where he’s been living for the past six months. The camp is in the very middle of the city, across from the collapsed presidential palace. “I won’t leave Port-au-Prince, even if it rains or if I’m not able to get a roof over my head,” he said, while we chatted in his next door neighbor’s tent. “Going to the countryside is not an option for me, because I know that sooner or later I’ll be able to come up with the money to pay for school and to get my life back in order.”
Haiti Dispatches: Haitian Solutions?
Almost two years since our first time in Haiti, in August of 2008, we are returning to the country to try to pick up where our story left off.
Much has happened in those two years, most notably, the earthquake of January 2010 and the slow recovery that has followed it.
Back in 2008, we were interested in taking a critical look at the effect of UN troops and foreign aid on human rights. Now, we’re interested in looking at Haitian society — and the types of solutions that people of all ages and backgrounds are championing.
We’ll be spending time in tent camps and city neighborhoods, with youth leaders and second-generation Haitian-Americans who are eager to help. Over the next two weeks, we’ll also be taking a look at the country’s oldest and largest peasant movement, the Mouvman Peyizan Papay, and their model of sovereign food production.
Bolivia Dispatch: The Road Less Blockaded
Just two weeks ago, a cab driver in La Paz told me that street blockades and protests were a thing of the past, now that Evo Morales was firmly in power.
Well, it turns out he wasn’t completely right. And this reminded of my friend Dan’s wise saying: “Never trust the first cabbie you talk to.” Dan is also a journalist fond of debriefing taxi drivers in new places.
I was riding in a different car this time, headed to the little town of Sorata, 3 hours away from La Paz, when the traffic came to a complete halt somewhere around El Alto. Our bus driver seemed to know which way to go, down a dusty dirt road with no signage, which added a whole other hour to our trip.
But after more than 45 minutes of bumpy driving, we were forced to detour once again. In front of our bumper, seemingly out of nowhere, was a woman in her 30s and her little girl of about 12 swinging slingshots and aiming for our bus’ front window. I couldn’t believe my eyes — had I been fast enough, I should have taken this picture. An 18-wheeler truck that came after us, also stopped upon seeing the kid and immediately proceeded to turn back around. Where else could I have seen this, but in Bolivia?
Bolivia Dispatch: The Gladys Apaza Case
Since we lived in Bolivia in 2007, I’ve wanted to look into the issue of violence against women and how it’s handled by the Bolivian authorities.
On any single week, the national and local press feature gory images and headlines of crimes against women — rapes, kidnappings, beatings, and even murder. But that’s where the coverage (and where the law) end: Not only is there little analysis of this growing trend; most of these cases end up unsolved.
A government official told me yesterday that only 0.04% of cases of violence against women have ever faced justice in Bolivia.
As I started to investigate the issue earlier this week, I heard about the case of Gladys Apaza, a 21 year-old nursing student from the working-class neighborhood of Villa Victoria, in La Paz. Three weeks ago, Gladys was murdered by her boyfriend Gary as she tried to break free from him in the doorway of her house. Her mother Viviana Apaza, featured above, said she knew of a history of violence between the two over their three-year relationship, but she didn’t think it was appropriate to intervene.
Bolivia Dispatch: On Indigenous & Gay Rights
“To be indigenous is as beautiful as being a lesbian or being gay,” read the colorful wiphala flag and banner hanging from the entrance to the Virgen de los Deseos (The Virgin of Desires), an old red building which serves as a feminist cultural center in La Paz.
The message was meant to push the envelope and be controversial; to be openly gay in Bolivia these days is almost tantamount to having proudly accepted one’s own indigenous roots before the time of President Evo Morales. As I stood in front of the building reading the various messages, I overheard passersby voicing their disgust, and I was reminded of the fact that Bolivia still has a ways to go when it comes to gender and gay rights.
Bolivia Dispatch: The Planet or Death?
This blog originally appeared in the “Untold Stories” news website of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting:
Capitalism. This was the most widely used word at the conference, mentioned over two dozen times by President Evo Morales in his many speeches and repeated by the public and government delegates alike. Then came the phrase climate change, of course; the environment, and mother earth – or Pachamama, as it’s known throughout the Andes.
Among the Quechua and Aymara peoples, the Pachamama is a concept much richer than our Western definition of nature. She’s a deity that cares for the soil and everything that grows on it or lives in it. She’s also the symbol of fertility and reciprocity: Those who care for her get to harvest her fruits; those who don’t, face disease and natural disasters.
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