PetroAnalysis
January 13, 2020January 12, 2020, marked ten years since Haiti’s deadly earthquake. Usually, Haiti appears in international news when there’s a scandal, a disaster, violence. There was a flurry of coverage in October when daily protests, begun with a nine-week general strike – in Haitian Creole, peyi lòk – met with government repression, including the death of three journalists. The mobilization has been ongoing since July 2018, leading to a partial report naming high-ranking government officials of mismanagement of PetroCaribe funds published at the end of May 2019.
Suddenly, after a few individual stories, Haiti disappeared again from the international press. It’s almost as if Haiti is no longer here. But the ghost of “violence” still haunts people who saw or heard the news.
But Haiti is here. And it will be here. And Haitian people are still pushing back against the State that serves the interests of dominant classes and imperialist countries, the “Core Group.”
People are not only marching in the streets, they are also thinking, analyzing, denouncing, posing solutions, dreaming of another Haiti, another relationship with the world system. We write this series of articles to amplify the voices of people who are analyzing the current situation and are trying to find the path to another Haiti. In this series of articles, we try to diversify people’s voices, analyses, realities, and demands.
OUR ARTICLES
Note: most links are to articles written in Haiti, which can be accessed via Google Translate, etc.
January 12, 2020 – Mark Schuller, Where is the Reporting on PetroCaribe?
February 27, 2020 – Mamyrah Dougé-Prosper, Haiti and the Geopolitics of PetroCaribe
November 29, 2020 – Konbit Òganizasyon Sendikal Politik ak Popilè, Call for international solidarity against the massive and systematic violations of human rights in Haiti
February 5, 2021 – Fowòm Politik Sosyopwofesyonèl Pwogresis Ayisyen (FPSPA), The UN Supports Dictatorship that Plans Massacres and Mass Crimes in Haiti
February 22, 2021 – Solidarite Fanm Ayisyèn, SOFA protest note against the free trade zone project in Savane Diane
February 24, 2021 – Fowòm Politik Sosyopwofesyonèl Pwogresis Ayisyen (FPSPA), Second Alert to International Public Opinion
OUR TEAM:
Judite Blanc is an international behavioral scientist trained in the United States, France, and Haiti. She is a fellow at the New York University Grossman School of Medicine’s Center for Healthful Behavior Change. Dr. Blanc’s research uses mixed methods to explore the role of sociohistorical contexts (such as stress exposures) and psychological resilience factors on population health outcomes.
Nixon Boumba is a founding member of Mouvement Démocratique Populaire (Democratic Popular Movement, MODEP) and a principal organizer of Political Forum of Progressive Socioprofessional Haitians. He works as a capacity-builder for the anti-mining and land rights, as well as LGBTI movements.
A multidisciplinary researcher and political activist, James Darbouze is affiliated with the Center for Research and Support for Urban Policy (CRAPU – UniQ-UQAM). He runs the Epochê blog. A member of the transdisciplinary network Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies (Human DHS), he is also a member of the Rule of Law Studied by Philosophy network of the University of Paris VIII as well as of the steering committee of the Selide Cultural Center. He is responsible for the “Land use planning, urban planning and sustainable development” section in the Haiti-Monde Journal. He is one of the main organizers of the Political Forum of Progressive Socioprofessional Haitians. He also works as a researcher at the EQUI Center.
Activist anthropologist, Mamyrah Dougé-Prosper is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Africana Studies at Davidson College. She is currently working on her monograph Development Contested in Occupied Haiti: Social Movements, NGOs, and the Evangelical State and has published in academic and political journals like Women’s Studies Quarterly and Commune Magazine. Dougé-Prosper is also the International Coordinator of Community Movement Builders.
Doctor of Sociology, Sabine Lamour teaches Sociology at l’Université d’État d’Haïti since 2012. Since 2005, she has been working in women’s organizations as a feminist activist and independent consultant in both urban and rural areas. Since 2017, Lamour is the national coordinator of Solidarite Fanm Ayisyèn (Haitian Women in Solidarity). Her research focuses on Caribbean family relationships, gender, piracy, slavery, colorism, and the organization of the political in Haiti. Lamour co-published Déjouer le Silence: Contre-discours sur les Femmes Haïtiennes (2018) with Editions Ménage.
Georges Eddy Lucien is a historian and a professor of history at l’École Normale Supérieure, l’Université d’Etat d’Haïti. He is author of six books, including Une modernisation manquée: Port-au-Prince (1915-1934), published in 2013 and recipient of the Haitian Studies Association’s Book Prize.
Activist anthropologist Mark Schuller wrote or co-edited eight books, including Humanitarian Aftershocks in Haiti and Tectonic Shifts: Haiti Since the Earthquake, and co-directed documentary Poto Mitan: Haitian Women, Pillars of the Global Economy. Schuller also has over forty scholarly articles or chapters on NGOs, globalization, disasters, and gender in Haiti. Recipient of the Margaret Mead Award, Schuller is active in social justice and solidarity efforts.