Having been born in Haiti, I have experienced a great deal of events ranging from hurricanes, earthquakes, and tsunamis. However the part that sticks with me the most, even after 10 years, is the never-ending famine running rampant within the countries borders . As a child I was preoccupied within my own thoughts and hardly paid any attention to the scarcity of food. Eating more than a meal a day is a luxury that many Haitians will never have the chance to experience. According to the latest findings of the World Food Programme (WFP), approximately 2.5 million Haitians are currently experiencing chronic food insecurity. The food insecurity is due, in large measure, to chronic poverty faced by most of the population. Haiti has been unable to …show more content…
The new movement, known as food sovereignty, stresses local agriculture. Much like food security, the definition of food sovereignty has been somewhat apt to change. In 1996, La Via Campesina (an agricultural peasant movement, literally “the Peasant’s Way,” defined food sovereignty as “ the right of each nation to maintain and develop its own capacity to produce its basic foods respecting cultural and productive diversity.” Written six years later, the definition of food sovereignty by the Peoples Food Sovereignty Network states, “Food sovereignty is the right of peoples to define their own food and agriculture; to protect and regulate domestic agricultural production and trade in order to achieve sustainable development objectives; to determine the extent to which they want to be self reliant; to restrict the dumping of products in their markets; and to provide local fisheries-based communities the priority in managing the use of and the rights to aquatic resources.” Because food sovereignty is such a broad topic, the authors of this definition took that into consideration when redefining the term. The diversity of opinions, positions, issues, and politics is clearly present in the text; from the need for sustainable development objectives to the needs of fishing villages to manage aquatic resources. Patel states that food sovereignty is a “big tent” capable of encompassing many smaller
In David Brooks’ op-ed “The Undying Tragedy,” he discusses four main hypotheses regarding poverty and aid in Haiti. His ideas about poverty, as viewed through the modernization, dependency/world-systems, and post-structural theoretical perspectives lead to three different conclusions. Specifically, as viewed though a modernizations lens, the “truths” Brooks puts forth seem fairly in accordance with the perspective, with some minor addendums needed. The dependency and world systems theories again agree with some of Brook’s hypotheses, but would disagree with some of the assumptions he makes in regards to culture and paternalism. Finally, the post-structural theory would find the most problems with Brooks’ claims, likely disagreeing with his assumptions about the effects of culture on poverty and his view of the development process.
I am writing this letter to ask that please do help Haiti overcome severe food insecurity which is killing Haitians people day by day. Haiti is the poorest country in America and has been annually suffered from the serious affection of harsh weather condition and severe food insecurity for over 50 years . Unfortunately, this country affected by a Hurricance Matthew which leads this country to be driven deeper into imporverish in 2016. The devastating hurricance made Haiti’s old problems worse and left hundred of Haitians acute malnutrion.
The Republic of Haiti is in the western part of the island of Hispaniola in the West Indies. It is densely populated and has the lowest per capita income in the western hemisphere (Kemp, 2001). The population of more than seven million is made up of mostly descendents of African slaves brought to the West Indies by French colonists. The horrible conditions in Haiti, such as crushing poverty, unemployment and illiteracy, and high rates of acute and chronic illnesses and child and infant mortality, result in the illegal immigration of many Haitians to the United States, France, and other countries in Western Europe. Most immigrants are adults and teens who leave Haiti in tiny boats, despite the risk of drowning and other hazards. According to Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) 2001 statistics, the number of refugees has declined to several thousand per year since the early 1990’s.
The media in the United Sates is accustomed to portraying Haiti as a failed state without referring to the external influences of other countries on Haiti’s problems including the 1915 to 1934 occupation of Haiti by the United States. Haiti has suffered at the hands of numerous dictators who have robbed the country of its resources, but little is said of the U.S support of some of the dictatorial regimes that have ruled over Haiti and plundered its resources (Maus, 2015). The natural disasters that have wrought havoc in Haiti in the form of hurricanes and floods are solely blamed on Haitians who have decided to destroy their land using destructive agricultural methods. Little is said of the destruction of Haiti’s natural landscape
British Columbia (BC) is a wealthy province that provides a variety of publicly funded services to its residents, however, from 2011 to 2012 almost 1.1 million British Columbians and 4.9 percent of Canadian children were affected by food insecurity (Rideout & Kotasky, 2014, Statistics Canada, 2015). Food insecurity goes beyond not having enough to eat but also has an impact on health equity and social justice. “Children experiencing food insecurity have poorer school performance, and having not learned healthy eating habits in childhood; they face additional challenges of healthy living as adults” (Rideout & Kotasky, 2014).
Several of the problems that Haiti faces today have their genesis in the country’s colonial history. The country was like a toy being fought over by spoiled children. The first of these children arrived in the early sixteenth century in the form of Spanish settlers in search of gold. They enslaved the native Taino population and, poisoned by avarice, nearly eradicated the indigenous work force. Thousands of African slaves were brought in to take their place. Eventually, the Spanish left the island to grab their share of newly discovered treasure in other lands. Tiring of their toy, the Spanish
The economics of Haiti has deceased in the last 4 years after the devastating earthquake that struck it 4 years ago. The Haiti economy has become very poor and one of the poorest country in the south, Central America and Caribbean region making it ranked 24 out of 29 countries in this area and its overall score is below average. Haiti’s economic freedom is 48.1 making it economy the 151st freest country while in the last several years Declines in the management of government spending, freedom from corruption, and labor freedom make its overall score 2.6 points lower than last year. Recovering from the disastrous earthquake in 2010 with the support of the U.S. recovering efforts “Haiti’s post-earthquake reconstruction efforts continue, assisted by substantial aid from the international community. Governing institutions remain weak and inefficient, and overall progress has not been substantial. The parliament has not renewed the mandate of the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission, which had been tasked with overseeing reconstruction efforts but was unpopular.”( .heritage.org). The open market of Haiti trade weighted to be 2.1 this is because the lack of tariffs hamper the trade freedom of Haiti. Foreign investors are given national treatment but the investment is small and the financial sector is remained underdeveloped and does not provide any adequate support.
In the year 2015, around 40 million U.S. citizens were food insecure (Randall para. 3). Food insecurity can be defined in paragraph 3 by “[having] difficulty at some time during the year providing enough food for all their members due to a lack of resources. This 12.7% of American citizens also contains another group - children. Aged 10-17, 6.8 million adolescents struggle with a food insecurity. There have been several years of cuts to the social programs designed to help these people, along with the Great Recession continuing to leave an impact on the U.S. economy (para. 6). Under the Obama administration, $8.6 billion was cut from the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as Food Stamps. From 1993-2001 under the Clinton administration, former President Bill Clinton’s administration “gutted the welfare system” (para. 15). Because of these budget cuts, the families who rely on food assistance from the government have been allotted less throughout the years. From a sociological perspective, the concepts of sociological imagination, class stratification, and social location are in effect when it comes to child hunger in the United States. Being hungry is an issue larger than any one individual can control.
Haiti is drenched in poverty, corruption, and lack of education. Due to these aspects Haiti is “the least developed country in the western hemisphere”. With only one-third of suitable land...
The United States Department of Agriculture defines food unsecurity as the availability of nutritionally adequate and safe food, or the ability to acquire such food, is limited or uncertain for a household. Food insecurity also does not always mean that the household has nothing to eat. More simply stated it is the struggle to provide nutritional food for ones family and/or self. The people that suffer from food insecurity are not all living below the poverty line. In 2012 49.0 million people were considered food insecure in the United States of those 46.5 million were in poverty (Hunger & Poverty Statistics, 2012). For some individual’s food insecurity is only a temporary situation for others it maybe for extended period. Food insecurity due temporary situation such as unemployment, divorce, major medical or illness can be become more long term. The vast majority of these are families with children.
Haitian culture is a mixed native Indians, African slaves, and French and Spaniard settlers. After Haiti gained its independence there was much political and economical turmoil. When Haitian immigrated to the United States, many became doctors, teachers, social workers, and professionals. Although there was Haitian success stories there are more stories of failure and hopelessness because of the worry of being deported and the racism that they encounter. Through the field of social work would like to help these people get established in this country and as a Christian I would love to give them hope.
Although the Haitian community has gone through a lot of distress and tribulations, they exert agency and have initiated change locally and globally. Despite the hardships that Haitians have dealt with, as a result of their socio-historical contexts, and contemporary hardships, they have shown immense adaptation in order to cope with the traumatic events that have befallen their community. The strength and persistence of Haitians is what makes the Haitian community so dynamic. The Haitian community is truly like no other community, and it has diversity all throughout the community itself.
International Federation of Red Cross Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). (2010, February). Haiti: from tragedy to opportunity (Rep.). Retrieved February 23, 2010, from International Federation of Red Cross Red Crescent Societies website: http://www.ifrc.org/Docs/reports/192600-Haiti-report-EN.pdf
Haiti is home to about 9.8 million people. Two million people live in Port-au-Prince, which is not only the most populated city, it is also the capital. The city was established in 1749 and did not grow very rapidly because of earthquakes. Half of the nation’s capital lives in poverty. They have no or rarely any access to safe drinking water or electricity and there is hardly any sanitation. Out of all the Americas, the two largest slums are right in this city. The other half of the city lives in an urban area. It has attractions for tourists and has many hotels. Port-au-Prince also has many industries. A few of these include textile, clothing, footwear, food, and consumer goods. Port-au-Prince, being the most populated city in Haiti, also holds a lo...
Food production has many challenges to address: CO2 emissions, which are projected to increase by two-thirds in the next 20 years, as the global food production increases so does the number of people going hungry, with the number of urban hungry soaring. The environmental issues are not the only ones to face; politics and economic globalization take also the big part in the food world. These days agriculture and food politics has been going through many changes but mostly under the influence of its consumers; back in the days people wanted as little as safety, variety and low costs of food. Now consumers demanding way more – greater freshness, nutritional value, less synthetic chemicals, smaller carbon footprint and less harm to animals. And that’s the time when urban agriculture emerged quite rapidly delivering locally grown and healthy food. Within the political arena, there are a few still in charge of defending the conventional food industries and commercial farms to retain the upper level. Against the hopes of nutrition activists, farm animal welfare defenders, and organic food promoters, the food and agriculture sector is moving towards greater consolidation and better sustainability. Although in social and local terms, food-growing activists know their role is under attack. Caught two words in the middle, is it possible to satisfy both?