Introduction

Map of Haiti

Introduction In December 1995, I spent two and a half weeks in Haiti observing and writing about the presidential elections and the issues surrounding them. Most of this time I worked in and around Port-au-Prince, the capital, but for the period around election day, December 17, I travelled to Ti Rivyè in the Artibonite Valley. These pieces unearth a few shards of experience from when people's lives collided with politics and economics. Those people are still living out the consequences of the collisions. Yet five months later, Haiti has dropped off the U.S. media's radar and into a black newshole. Benign neglect might not be so bad for the Haitians, but meanwhile Jesse Helms and Bob Dole are choking off promised aid to twist the arm of the Haitian government, and poisoning U.S. policy toward Haiti. For up-to-date news and analysis on Haiti, see: Haiti Online http://www.haitionline.com/index.htm Centre Haïtien de Recherches et de Documentation (en français) http://w3.iprolink.ch/chrd/INDEX.html Haiti en Marche (hebdomadaire en français) http://home.earthlink.net/~hem/ Le Nouvelliste (quotidien en français) http://www.haitionline.com/nvelist.htm For part of this trip, I accompanied a delegation from Witness for Peace, a faith-based non-governmental organization based in Washington, DC. I owe many debts of gratitude to the delegates, leaders, staff and hosts for their support and encouragement. These articles, however, reflect my own opinions alone. I hope they also accurately represent the insights of the many Haitians who generously shared their hopes and fears with me and taught me about their country. Versions of some of the pieces on this Web site have been published by Inter Press Service (an Amsterdam-based news wire), the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (a daily), The Stranger (a Seattle weekly), and Real Change (a Seattle monthly). I thank the editors and designers of all these publications for their collaboration. Other articles appear here for the first time. The photographs (except as noted), graphic design and sound design are my own. I've pronounced the words in the sound files in French, which many Haitians speak. In Creole, which is almost universally spoken, pronunciations may differ slightly. Creole is a language which blends French, West African, Spanish, and indigenous vocabulary with primarily West African grammar. I'd like to hear your reactions to these pieces. Please send comments to Peter_Costantini@msn.com. Map of Haiti   Click this map to see a larger, more detailed map of Haiti. This is a large .GIF file (160 KB), so it may take a little time to load. To return to this page from the detailed map, click your browser's back arrow. For a Web site of maps of Haiti, see: Haiti: Detailed Maps The Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection The University of Texas at Austin. http://www.lib.utexas.edu/Libs/PCL/Map_collection/haiti.html Peter Costantini is Seattle correspondent for Inter Press Service, a news wire based in Amsterdam. He has previously covered elections in Mexico and Nicaragua. Haiti, December 1995 (contents) Heavy drums, many hands