History

A bit late in posting this, but in response to the recent New York Times series, a major French bank is hiring researchers to look into the history of its involvement in Haiti.  It is not straight-forward given mergers and the loss of almost all relevant documentation over the years, hence the need for outside expertise.  Haiti's history is one of exploitation by individual, institutions, and countries.  As the article by Matt Apuzzo points out, foreign banks have played a significant role in maintaining an ecosystem of exploitation.  This investigation is welcome and would not be happening without the NYT journalists and their reporting. 

According to Jacqueline Charles of the Miami Herald, a historical landmark church inside Haiti’s UNESCO World Heritage site, was gutted by an early morning fire on April 13th which destroyed its wooden dome and much of the interior.  Haiti has few fire-fighters and it took the poorly equipped team in Cap Haitien over an hour to arrive, after which it was too late.  Preservationists and business leaders had previously called upon the government to protect historical sites, emphasizing that "only these monuments remain testimonies of our history of struggles, suffering and hope.”  It may be too late for Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception Church but it is not too late to better protect Haiti's many historical sites throughout the country.  The full article follows. 

Haiti and the Dominican Republic have always had a complicated relationship.  Much of this is due to different interpetrations of, and not coming to terms with, historical events.  One such event was the "Parsley Massacre" of 1937 during which the Dominican military executed both Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian descent.  It is unclear how many were killed during the massacre.  An article by NPR contributors Marlon Bishop and Tatiana Fernandez on the impact of the massace for families on both sides of the border dollows.