While Haiti’s problems are far from gone, and while lives of people are still far from what it used to be, life still moves forward. One of the best things is despite all the hardships certain staples of Haitian culture won’t die - namely art and music. I threw up a report a from the NY Times a few weeks ago about the hardships of Haitian artists. This NY Times video shows how artist are still pushing on, making music, painting and surviving.
Here is a crazy story I heard about. A Haitian family that survived the quake in Haiti, was relocated to Chile through one of their sons who lives in Chile. The son who is part of a Haitian reggaeton band, Reggaeton Boys, had connections with the Chilean Embassy in Haiti. They arrived in Chile on the 23 of January to only be in the middle of another quake on February 28th. While the family survived again this was another shock to them.
And if you were thinking what I was you must be wondering about a the Haitian Reggaeton group, I added a video on them to confirm things a bit.
With 2010 World Cup just 99 days away, ESPN has reopened an old topic about Joe Gaetjens the hero during the US victory over England in the 1950 World Cup. The article tries into kill all the misconceptions that were portrayed about Joe Gaetjens and show him as he truly was. In the movie “Game of Their Lives”, he was portrayed as a voodoo fanatic when he was actually Catholic. There are mangled facts about Gaetjens family origins and the English media trying to call his goal a fluke as well as his mysterious demise.
Joe Gaetjens was not Belgian. And his father wasn’t, either.His name sounded Flemish. The Flemings are the Dutch-speaking half of Belgium. Considering the tidal wave of Flemish immigrants that washed over North America in the 19th century, the assumption that Gaetjens was of Belgian descent held credence. But Gaetjens, in spite of the ‘-jens’ suffix, is not a common name in Flanders.
Genealogic research shows that Joe’s great-grandfather, Thomas, migrated to Haiti from Bremen, in northern Germany, where the Gaetjens name is rather common. (A close variation on Gaetjens — Gätjens — is also oft-heard just north of there, over the Danish border.) Thomas arrived in Haiti shortly after 1825 (when France officially recognized Haiti’s independence) and married Leonie Dejoie, whose father was a general and had played a part in Haiti’s self-determination. That connection opened a path to prosperity for the Gaetjens family…
Joe Gaetjens did not practice voodoo.
“Absolutely not!” shouts his indignant younger sister, Mireille, reached in Puerto Rico.
“The Game of Their Lives,” the 2005 movie about the historic upset, had been ludicrously inaccurate. The film made light-skinned Gaetjens, played by dark-skinned Jimmy Jean-Louis, out to be some sort of voodoo nut.
The Gaetjens family was appalled. In real life, Gaetjens was Catholic, like most Haitians, and went to church every Sunday…
After the U.S.-England game, a barrage of excuses was blasted from the England camp. It had been too hot. Travel had been strenuous. But this one would stick: Gaetjens’ goal had been a lucky one.
All Americans and most English present on the scene dispute that.
Read the full article here
Here is some vintage footage from the England USA match.
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One of the toughest things about running a blog is finding new content to post. Every now and then things just fall into my lap. Through a friend I just got wind of the “I am Caribbean 2010″ campaign.
CaribbeanFever.Com and FeverEyes.Com are proud US Census 2010 partners. We strongly encourage Caribbean persons across the USA to complete the Census 2010 form in March this year and answer question 9 with their ancestry and/or country of origin. Spread the word by telling your Caribbean friends and/or family about completing the US census given it’s importance. In addition it is only ten questions long.
The idea is to get ancestral recognition, checking Black, African American or Negro (I hate that they added that in), on the census form does not indicate if you are directly from Africa or your heritage is from the Caribbean or America. And not to be short sighted about this, the same goes for Indians, Asians etc, who have migrated to the US via the Caribbean. During the last census 1.8 million people wrote West Indian as their ancestry, so the numbers are there and obviously smaller than the actual numbers, if there was a place to check it off. Compare those numbers to Pacific Islanders who only made up roughly 874,000 people surveyed about 0.3 percent of the US population and they were able to have their own category.
Accurate counts in the once-a-decade survey ensure recognition from the federal government and the fair allocation of resources to state and local governments, advocates say.
While most Caribbeans are expected to at least check the box for “black,” lumping them together with all African-Americans means corporations and politicians won’t see the political, economic and social issues specific to their immigrant communities, Persaud said. They also won’t see the size of those communities or get a sense of the diversity of experiences among Afro-Caribbean groups.
- LA Times
I don’t know who denied us the last time we tried to do this - and decided to lobby for “Negro” but now is our chance to make a bigger impression. We got to get rid of Negro as well
Carnival is jumping off around the Caribbean and South America but unfortunately not this year in Haiti. Due to the earthquake it has been canceled sadly enough and that also brings more hardship for artists and mask makers that prepare pieces for Carnival. The NY Times has a story about the plight of one artist in Jacmel.
Click here to view the article: At Carnival Time, a Joyless Haiti.
The NY Times had a travel article about Guyana, explaining how it has risen as a tourist attraction in recent years for naturalists and eco-tourists. It talks about the rich wild life and stunning landscape as well as how to plan your own trip there.
… Guyana is truly off the tourist path — a place, as Evelyn Waugh wrote in “92 Days,” his 1932 travel memoir of what was then British Guiana, “of conflicting cultures and states of development where ideas, uprooted from their traditions, become oddly changed in transplantation.”
Nestled between Venezuela, Brazil and Suriname, Guyana — South America’s only English-speaking country — is a place that rarely registers as a vacation spot. In recent years, however, the country has started pushing to capitalize on its often stunning scenery, abundant wildlife and rich Amerindian heritage, repackaging itself as a haven for adventurers, naturalists and eco-tourists.
… Once in the interior, you can forget any ideas of rambling off on your own, thanks to a lack of roads and often limited accommodations and food supplies in the rural villages. (And don’t even think about visiting the rain forests without a local guide, unless you are fully prepped in the niceties of dealing with caiman, black widow spiders and armadillo wasps.)
This isolation, though, has resulted in the emergence of eco-lodges across the country, built with the help of both foreign aid and Amerindian knowledge — meaning that visitors get in-depth, personal, insider perspectives. In Surama, where we stayed, a tiny Macushi village of about 300 inhabitants set in a five-square-mile patch of open savannah in the northern Rupununi, two four-bed eco-lodges have drawn a steady stream of visitors. (Built in 2004 as part of a sustainable tourism initiative between Guyana and the United States, the lodges are now managed and operated by the local Macushi tribe.)
Follow the rest of the article here.
Rex Nettleford performing in 1965; photo by Maria LaYacona
I made the mistake of not getting this out last week, when The Hon. Rex Nettleford, OM, FIJ, OCC passed. For that, I apologize. For those unfamiliar with Rex Nettleford, and the legacy he leaves behind, see the passage below…
Jamaica lost one of its most revered cultural figures last night when Professor Rex Nettleford, vice-chancellor emeritus of the University of the West Indies (UWI) and founder of the National Dance Theatre Company (NDTC), died, just hours before he would have celebrated his 77th birthday……”Jamaica and the entire world have lost an intellectual and creative genius, a man whose contribution to shaping and projecting the cultural landscape of the entire Caribbean region is unquestionable,” (Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce )Golding said….
In the time since his death, numerous pieces have come up all over the net, a few of which I’ve compiled below…
For more on the life of Mr. Nettleford, see the video below, courtesy of The Jamaica Gleaner…
This aired last night. I haven’t gotten the chance to watch it in it’s entirety as yet, but check the video below….
As Haiti continues to struggle through the disastrous earthquake, Byron Pitts reports on the efforts of the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division to help rescue, feed and protect citizens.
…via Ian.
DONATE: Text ‘Yele’ to 501501, ‘Haiti’ to 90999 or directly through yele.org and redcross.org.
We all know that Haiti needs help to get back on its feet after this week’s massive earthquake. But are outside forces taking things too far? Al Jazeera examines the current state of relief efforts in Haiti. Check the video below…
It is five days since a devastating earthquake struck Haiti spreading fear and misery across an already fragile nation.After a relatively slow start, US forces appear to be taking the lead in organising international aid efforts on the ground.
But there is a long way to go. Residents outside of the capital complain they have been forgotten.
In rural towns and villages survivors have largely been left to fend for themselves.
Al Jazeera’s Sebastian Walker reports from Port Au Prince, the capital.
As an aside, those looking to get in touch with friends and family can take solace in knowing that T-Mobile has waived costs on all costs to and from Haiti.
DONATE: Text ‘Yele’ to 501501, ‘Haiti’ to 90999 or directly through yele.org and redcross.org.
Interesting article from the BBC on the recent G20 Conference in Copenhagen and how the decisions made there affect Caribbean nations. Check out an excerpt below…
The message from small island states in the Caribbean was so simple, it could be reduced to song lyric form.“1.5 to stay alive” was the song written and performed by Barbadian performance poet Adisa “AJA” Andwele.
AJA is also the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Spokesperson for Peace and Poverty Eradication for Barbados and the Organisation of Eeastern Caribbean States (OECS).
The theme of the song refers to the centigrade degree limit to which global surface temperatures can rise before Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are severely compromised in their ability to adapt to the impacts of climate change.
But, with world leaders failing to provide a binding solution to climate change at their just-concluded summit in Copenhagen, small states such as those in the Caribbean are left to assess where this leaves them….
Check out the full article here: “1.5 To Stay Alive”: The Caribbean and Copenhagen.
….also, for those who didn’t catch it see Guyana’s deal with Norway to protect their rainforests.
