Sports

In Haiti, machetes are ubiquitous and versatile.  As Arielle Castro notes below, they are also the "Excalibur of the Caribbean".  In the case of Haiti, machetes were common weapons in the struggle for independence.  The short film, "Papa Machete", revolves around a Haitian machete-fighting instructor who lives and practices outside of Jacmel. The film producers have also launched a Kickstarter campaign to construct a new training facility.  More information on the history of Haitian machete fighting is available here.

Haitians may yet have a stadium to match their passion for soccer. Below is a New York Times blog about a stadium scheduled for construction in Cite Soleil.  The majority of the $5 million dollar project will be financed by Delos LLC as part of the Clinton Global Initiative.  The stadium will seat 12,000 but could be expanded to 20,000 over time.  Best of all, it will be built with local materials and by local workers, maximizing the economic impact. 

There was an interesting post on Corbett's List today which described how Jimmy Jean-Louis, who plays "The Haitian" on NBC's Heroes, is kicking off a campaign to fight human trafficking in Haiti.  The campaign intends to raise awareness concerning the 200,000 children in Haiti  who are the victims of modern-day slavery, trafficking and exploitation.  You can visit the website here.