No, women like you don't write. They carve onion sculptures and potato statues. They sit in dark corners and braid their hair in new shapes and twists in order to control the stiffness, the unruliness, the rebelliousness.

~ Edwidge Danticat

Edwidge Danticat Dominican Republic Haiti Quisqueya Women Writing

The two main criminals are France and the United States. They owe Haiti enormous reparations because of actions going back hundreds of years. If we could ever get to the stage where somebody could say, 'We're sorry we did it,' that would be nice. But if that just assuages guilt, it's just another crime. To become minimally civilized, we would have to say, 'We carried out and benefited from vicious crimes. A large part of the wealth of France comes from the crimes we committed against Haiti, and the United States gained as well. Therefore we are going to pay reparations to the Haitian people.' Then you will see the beginnings of civilization.

~ Noam Chomsky

Noam Chomsky American Imperialism Apologies Civilisation Crime France French Imperialism Guilt Haiti History Imperialism Reparations United States Wealth

Bearing witness from the sides of the room, ten or more lepers shouted at the bizarre scene, “Diable! Diable!” And then chants of some sort, or prayers, followed by more shouts of “Diable!” They were hurling these words at Moreau like stones.

~ Cole Alpaugh

Cole Alpaugh Fiction Haiti Leper Literary Novel Spy

Shit, man, if you see a dog scratching at the dirt trying to dig something up, walk away real fast,” he said, then pulled a little square of paper from his pocket and swallowed whatever was folded inside.

~ Cole Alpaugh

Cole Alpaugh Haiti Literary Novel Spy

The author also participated in Operation Uphold Democracy (in Haiti, a year after the catastrophic denouement of Operation Restore Hope in Somalia). ... Hope was not restored in Somalia. Democracy was not upheld in Haiti.

~ Stan Goff

Stan Goff Democracy Haiti Humanitarian Intervention Military Occupation Orwellianism Somalia

By creating a society in which all people, of all colors, were granted freedom and citizenship, the Haitian Revolution forever transformed the world. It was a central part of the destruction of slavery in the Americas, and therefore a crucial moment in the history of democracy, one that laid the foundation for the continuing struggles for human rights everywhere. In this sense we are all descendents of the Haitain Revolution, and responsible to these ancestors.

~ Laurent Dubois

Laurent Dubois Democracy Haiti Haitian Revolution Human Rights Revolution

It never ceases to amaze me that in times of amazing human suffering somebody says something that can be so utterly stupid.

~ Robert Gibbs

Robert Gibbs Earthquake Haiti Pat_Robertson Stupidity

Anytime one tries to take fragments of one's personal mythology and make them understandable to the whole world, one reaches back to the past. It must be dreamed again.

~ Assotto Saint

Assotto Saint Haiti Haitian Dyaspora Mythology

Accident - A statistical inevitability. Some nuclear power plants are built on fault lines, but ever mine, dam, oil rig, and waste dump is founded upon a tacit acceptance of the worst-case scenario. One a long enough timeline, everything that can go wrong will, however small the likelihood is from one day to the next. The responsible parties may wring their hands about the Fukushima meltdown - and the Gult of Mexico oil spill, and the Exxon Valdez, and Hurricane Katrina, and Chernobyl, and Haiti - but accident is no accident.

~ Crimethinc.

Crimethinc. Accident Anarchism Anarchy Chernobyl Crimethinc Exxon Valdez Fukushima Haiti Hurricane Katrina