Beverly Bell first went to Haiti as a teenager. Since then she has dedicated most of her life to working for democracy, women’s rights, and economic justice in that country. She founded or co-founded six organizations and networks dedicated exclusively to supporting the Haitian people, including the Lambi Fund of Haiti. She worked for both presidents Jean-Bertrand Aristide and Rene Preval and wrote Walking on Fire: Haitian Women’s Stories of Survival and Resistance (Cornell University Press, 2001). Today she is associate fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies and runs the economic justice group Other Worlds.
Alexis Erkert and Deepa Panchang are co-coordinators of Other Worlds' Another Haiti is Possible program. You can access all of Other Worlds’ past articles regarding post-earthquake Haiti here.
"Best practices" and "exemplar communities": Ivory tower housing solutions for Haiti
In a 2011 Forum on the Crisis of Housing in Haiti, a group of camp residents and advocates asked “grassroots organizations and all other movements to mobilize with us on the housing issue so that we can achieve this dream of justice and liberty.” Today, with more than 500,000 people ...
Two Years after the Earthquake in Haiti: "Housing is Our Battle"
By Alexis Erkert January 19, 2012 Remember, you are marching today for those who couldn’t be here, To say to them, “We haven’t forgotten. We’ll never forget.” And to say to those that are still here, We will take a stand for the rebuilding of Haiti. - Right to Housing ...
Home: From Displacement Camps to Community in Haiti
Written by Alexis Erkert and Beverly Bell As 2012 begins, a growing movement of displaced people and their allies in Haiti is actively claiming the right to housing, which is recognized by both the Haitian constitution and international treaties to which Haiti is signatory. Haitians displaced by the earthquake two ...
"Haitian Peasant Women as Poto Mitan, Central Pillar": An interview with Iderle Brénus Gerbier
Interview by Alexis Erkert, Other WorldsDecember 20, 2011Iderle Brénus Gerbier has worked with many peasant organizations in support of women's rights and food sovereignty. She is a member of the Haitian National Network for Food Security and Sovereignty (RENHASSA), campaign coordinator for Food Sovereignty in Haiti, advisor of the National ...
“MINUSTAH: Keeping the peace, or conspiring against it?”
By Deepa Panchang, Another Haiti Is Possible Co-Coordinator, Other Worlds Nou dwe sèl mèt bout tè sa a: We should be the only owners of this land. This was Haitian protesters’ message at a demonstration last month against the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti, known by its French acronym, MINUSTAH. ...
"We are Tired of Living under Tents"
By Alexis Erkert, Another Haiti is Possible Co-Coordinator, Other Worlds On Monday morning, October 3, ten women stood across the street from the Ministry of Social Affairs, waving their arms, wailing and chanting. They were calling on Osany, of the pantheon of vodou lwa, or spirits, for assistance. The lyrics ...
Take Action to Support Haitians Facing Forced Evictions from Tent Camps
For a year and a half, Haitians, under the scarce protection of makeshift plastic shelter, have battled storms and sun, physical assault and food insecurity. Moreover, they’ve had to fight for their shelter itself – for the right to remain in the camps they’ve been obliged to call home. People ...
"Until the Day I Die": Gerta Louisama on Haitian Women Winning Their Rights
Gerta Louisama is a member of the Executive Committee and the National Women’s Committee of Tèt Kole Ti Peyizan Ayisyen, Heads Together Small Producers of Haiti, Haiti’s largest and oldest peasant group. She is also head of the local Tèt Kole Women’s Committee in her village of Savanette. Here she ...
By Beverly Bell, based on reporting from Haiti-based Haiti Grassroots Watch and AlterPresse HINCHE, Haiti, June 27 – Last week, thousands of farmers and supporters of Haitian peasant agriculture marched for hours under the hot Caribbean sun to call for more government support for locally grown seeds and agriculture. The ...
“Internationalism between Peoples”: Learning and Constructing with Haitians
Jose Luis Patrola is a history professor, farmer, and member of the Brazilian land reform group, the Rural Landless Workers’ Movement, or MST. He has lived in Haiti for three years. There, he coordinates the MST’s program, an exchange of agricultural and technical cooperation between Haitians and Brazilians. In a ...
In Haiti, "Homes and Land are the Source of Life": International Forum on the Crisis of Housing
May 31, 2011 Below are excerpts from the International Forum on the Crisis of Housing, held in Port-au-Prince May 19-21, 2011. During the forum, hundreds of Haitians, plus allies from around the Americas, developed strategies to force a solution to Haiti’s greatest crisis: homelessness. Almost 17 months after the earthquake, ...
Haitian Mayor's Office Vows to Destroy All Refugee Camps, Launches Violent Campaign
On May 23 and 25, police in the Delmas district of Port-au-Prince destroyed camps which sheltered people who were otherwise homeless since the earthquake. Police and other municipal workers beat and arrested residents, and physically threatened the lives of a human rights lawyer and an advocate who had come to ...
Haiti: Just When You Think It Can't Get Worse
We may soon look back on this period in Haiti with greater appreciation. Amidst the world-historic levels of death and suffering from last January’s earthquake, citizens have at least been spared the scale of government violence that has marked much of their nation’s past (notwithstanding attacks against internally displaced persons ...
March 17, 2011 We put this question to numerous Haitians. Below are some responses. Konpè Filo has been one of Haiti’s most popular journalists since 1974. Arrested, tortured, and exiled by Duvalier in 1980, Konpè lived in numerous countries until he could return home when the dictatorship fell in 1986. ...
In Haiti, Land Reform as a Pillar of Reconstruction
Ronel Thelusmond is the director of the technical division of the National Institute for the Application of Agrarian Reform (INARA), which is part of the Haitian Ministry of Agriculture. Extreme concentration of land, giving little to no access to the 60-80% of the population who are farmers, is one of ...
In Haiti, "We Will Never Fall Asleep Forgetting"
At the Toussaint Louverture Airport in Port-au-Prince, I spot Ronal’s taptap, pick-up-turned-public-bus, painted to resemble an Argentine flag - a salute to his favored team in last year’s World Cup soccer match. Ronal’s first report is about his glee over last month’s return of Jean-Claude Duvalier. Duvalier’s ouster in 1986 ...
Haitian Renaissance: Youth Paint a New Country
“Everyone expects there to be a new problem daily in Haiti. I can’t concentrate on problems each day,” said Roseanne Auguste, coordinator of a youth art program in the sprawling, under-resourced Port-au-Prince section of Carrefour-Feuilles. The program is run through the community clinic Association for the Promotion of Family Integrated ...
The Right to Housing for Internally Displaced Haitians
While the eyes of the world are on Haiti’s illegitimate elections and the return of the deposed dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier, about 1.5 million displaced earthquake survivors continue to live in sub-human conditions. In the absence of large-scale or systemic responses by the government, international community, or aid organizations, progressive civil ...
Dennis Brutus: A Small Tribute to a Giant Man
This week we depart from Haiti to visit the native son of another country with a deep history of oppression and resistance: South Africa. The luminary Dennis Brutus - freedom fighter, economic and environmental justice activist, professor, and poet - died last year on December 26. We republish this eulogy ...
"Miami Rice": The Business of Disaster in Haiti
As we file this article, Port-au-Prince is thick with the smoke of burning tires and with gunfire. Towns throughout the country, along with the national airport, are shut down due to demonstrations. Many are angry over the government’s announcement on Tuesday night of which two presidential candidates made the run-offs: ...
The Poor Always Pay: The Electoral Crisis in Haiti
The start of Haiti’s most recent crisis came with ample warning. Most Port-au-Prince residents scurried to their homes mid-afternoon last Tuesday, certain of the violence and chaos which would ensue once the electoral council announced which two presidential candidates would make it to the run-offs. The trouble-makers didn’t wait until ...
"The People Must Be Agents of Change:" The Lambi Fund of Haiti
Josette Pérard is director of Fon Lanbi Haiti, the Haitian counterpart of the Lambi Fund. Fon Lanbi trains, builds capacity of, and gets grants to women’s and small farmer organizations in rural areas. Josette’s perspectives on community development follow.The idea of development is to provide everyone with the means to ...
Amid Haitian Crisis, Opportunity
When people ask me, as they do all the time, “Is there any cause for hope in Haiti?” I answer yes.It’s more tempting to think that the situation is so hopeless that it can’t any worse, especially right now. Last week, Hurricane Tomas brought three days of heavy storms, causing ...
Haitian Women and Elections: Presidents, Politics, and Power
Reconstructing Haiti is not about buildings, projects, or money. It’s about power, about who gets to control what the future Haiti looks like. Redistributing power, and creating a new society based on different theories and practices of it, are perhaps more important in the aftermath of the January 11 earthquake ...
Haiti is a reminder of a lesson we in New Orleans got after Hurricane Katrina and the broken levees: the capacity of humanity to survive, sustain culture, and create joy – no matter the external circumstances - is without limit. That capacity is unsinkable, like trying to keep a cork ...
Click here to suggest an article
February 2nd, 2012
"Best practices" and "exemplar communities": Ivory tower housing solutions for Haiti
In a 2011 Forum on the Crisis of Housing in Haiti, a group of camp residents and advocates asked “grassroots organizations and all other movements ...
January 19th, 2012
Two Years after the Earthquake in Haiti: "Housing is Our Battle"
By Alexis Erkert January 19, 2012 Remember, you are marching today for those who couldn’t be here, To say to them, “We haven’t forgotten. We’ll ...
January 4th, 2012
Home: From Displacement Camps to Community in Haiti
Written by Alexis Erkert and Beverly Bell As 2012 begins, a growing movement of displaced people and their allies in Haiti is actively claiming the ...
December 20th, 2011
"Haitian Peasant Women as Poto Mitan, Central Pillar": An interview with Iderle Brénus Gerbier
Interview by Alexis Erkert, Other WorldsDecember 20, 2011Iderle Brénus Gerbier has worked with many peasant organizations in support of women's rights and food sovereignty. She ...
October 12th, 2011
“MINUSTAH: Keeping the peace, or conspiring against it?”
By Deepa Panchang, Another Haiti Is Possible Co-Coordinator, Other Worlds Nou dwe sèl mèt bout tè sa a: We should be the only owners of ...
October 6th, 2011
"We are Tired of Living under Tents"
By Alexis Erkert, Another Haiti is Possible Co-Coordinator, Other Worlds On Monday morning, October 3, ten women stood across the street from the Ministry of ...
September 26th, 2011
Take Action to Support Haitians Facing Forced Evictions from Tent Camps
For a year and a half, Haitians, under the scarce protection of makeshift plastic shelter, have battled storms and sun, physical assault and food insecurity. ...
June 28th, 2011
By Beverly Bell, based on reporting from Haiti-based Haiti Grassroots Watch and AlterPresse HINCHE, Haiti, June 27 – Last week, thousands of farmers and supporters ...
May 5th, 2011
Haiti: Just When You Think It Can't Get Worse
We may soon look back on this period in Haiti with greater appreciation. Amidst the world-historic levels of death and suffering from last January’s earthquake, ...
September 16th, 2010
"Help Us Produce, Don't Give Us Food": Food Sovereignty in Haiti (Part IV)
Jonas Deronzil is a farmer from the village of Mogé in Haiti’s fertile Artibonite Valley, and one of about 2,000 members of a production and ...
October 21st, 2010
Haiti is a reminder of a lesson we in New Orleans got after Hurricane Katrina and the broken levees: the capacity of humanity to survive, ...
May 27th, 2011
Haitian Mayor's Office Vows to Destroy All Refugee Camps, Launches Violent Campaign
On May 23 and 25, police in the Delmas district of Port-au-Prince destroyed camps which sheltered people who were otherwise homeless since the earthquake. Police ...
October 7th, 2010
Haitian Farmers: Growing Strength to Grow Food
Rony Charles, a rice grower and member of the Agricultural Producer Cooperative of Verrettes, said, “Instead of foreigners sending us food, they should give us ...
May 31st, 2011
In Haiti, "Homes and Land are the Source of Life": International Forum on the Crisis of Housing
May 31, 2011 Below are excerpts from the International Forum on the Crisis of Housing, held in Port-au-Prince May 19-21, 2011. During the forum, hundreds ...
Home Front: Portraits from Sheikh Jarrah
Mike, was the triple overtime Outback Bowl come-from-behind win the greatest Spartans game ever?
Yes -- or at least it will be until their appearance in next year's Rose Bowl, a game which... Continue Reading
Michael Moore on Conan, 12/7/11
Michael Moore on The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, 11/21/11
Michael Moore on Countdown with Keith Olbermann, 11/15/11
Michael Moore on The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, 11/9/11
