This essay is about paying respect. In 2018, after my first summer of preliminary fieldwork in the Artibonite region of Haiti, I returned disappointed and disillusioned. With the intention of studying local health related issues in the port city of Saint-Marc, the projects that were seemingly possible for me were ones I wanted to avoid. As a typical graduate student, …
Tag Archives: Haiti
Book Review: Erica James’ Democratic Insecurities: Violence, Trauma, and Intervention in Haiti
Erica James. Democratic Insecurities: Violence, Trauma, and Intervention in Haiti.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010. 384 pages; $24.95
Review by Hanna Kienzler (McGill University)
“Supported by a rich cultural heritage, the Haitian people retain a capacity for hope, faith, and resilience that remains a tremendous resource for any efforts to rehabilitate the nation and its people” …
The Coordination and Un-coordination of International Medical Aid in Haiti
Contributed by Pierre Minn (McGill University)
Two months after the catastrophic earthquake that devastated Port-au-Prince and its surrounding areas, hundreds of thousands of Haitians continue to lack basic resources such as shelter, food, water, and sanitation. Public health experts warn of outbreaks of cholera, typhus and other infectious diseases, while the “ordinary” pathologies that Haitians have confronted for years: malnutrition, …
Culture and mental health in Haiti
The World Health Organization has recently made available a literature review on “Culture and mental health in Haiti” on the Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Network. The review was commissioned by the WHO to provide some background information for non-Haitians “working on mental health and psychosocial support after the earthquake,” and was written by a team assembled …
Web gleanings
Some new gleanings and some older ones which we’ve just discovered:
Biology and its publics
Chris Kelty. “meanings of participation: Outlaw Biology?”
“Outlaws fall outside the system—they are glad to be like Robin Hood, unaccountable but connected, poaching resources and distributing them to people who could never imagine having them. Outlaw biologists love de-mystifying science: ‘did you know you …
Helping Haiti’s poorest victims through Partners in Health
This post was contributed by Barbara Rylko-Bauer.
I would like to add some additional information about why donating to the Haiti earthquake relief effort via Partners in Health (the NGO started by Paul Farmer, Ophelia Dahl, and Jim Yong Kim) makes sense for this particular crisis.
…* PIH has had an ever-expanding presence in Haiti since 1985 and is currently