As always, answer 2 of the following questions for next week's class!
Q1: Why is it significant that no one outside of the island knows the name of this island, and why doesn't anyone recognize Haiti as having the world's most densely populated island? (as he explains, Haiti doesn't even feature on Wikipedia's list of most crowded islands). What make this place such a well-kept secret?
Q2: Both of the essays we've read so far in this unit are about the legacy of the past...how we continue to pay (or suffer) for the mistakes and decisions of our forefathers. How does the legacy of Haiti's slave past continue to haunt it into the future? Why isn't it so easy for Haiti to simply be a modern nation among other first-world powers?
Q3: MacGregor quotes a local saying on page 164: "A rich man travels, a poor man leaves." What is the significance of this quote, and how might it relate to his argument about the importance of "free movement"?
Q4: At the end of this essay, the author seems to echo our last essay ("Paper Tigers") when he writes, "Not only is our planet poorly understood, but we're also less adept than we might guess at gathering these threads of local knowledge and experience...into our collective understanding of the human experience" (166). What prevents us from doing this? Why can't we learn from the stories of other people in other countries to get a more diverse understanding of the world?
Q2: Haiti has been in debt to France and the United States since the founding of the country. On top of being in debt to other countries, Haiti has also struggled with natural disasters and disease. In the essay it talks about how Haiti was doomed from the beginning because France made sure to doom it due to it being a state that became independent from a slave rebellion. Haiti has started in a difficult situation and is still in a difficult position. This can be connected to descendants of slaves in America as well because they have had to come out of a terrible situation and even today they are still being oppressed and face many obstacles due to their past and their descendants.
ReplyDeleteQ3: The importance of this quote is that it was made by people who can’t even leave their own country. Many people who are poor in other countries are able to move or try to but in Haiti many people are stuck. Rich people have the money to be able to move anywhere they want whether that be actually moving or traveling at their leisure but poor people are not able to do this. People traveling to Haiti after reading this essay seems terrible because people in Haiti want to move or want to be in a better position.
Could you bring your question to class or e-mail them to me? I would prefer you not post your questions here, since I can't return them to you this way, and someone might be tempted to lift your answers instead of reading. Thanks!
DeleteQ1: The place is such a well kept secret because there is no internet, no electricity, no real means of transportation for mail outside of boat and as it states most people see no difference in quality of life on the island or on the mainland. There really isn't much of a reason for the island's people to travel far or shout wide.
ReplyDeleteQ3: I think the difference between leaving and travelling is that travelling is something you do out of want and luxury, while leaving is often something you're forced to do or have no say in. The people who leave this island because they cannot provide for themselves within it's boarders are completely different than the tourists travelling to Haiti to on a mission to fulfill their self-righteous opinion of themselves. That is not to say that everyone who goes on mission to third world countries have false motives, it is simply a hyperbolic statement meant to highlight the differences between someone who leaves and someone who travels. This also relates to free movement. I find it sad that those with the legal ability and financial compensation to travel are almost never the ones who need other land under their feet to survive.