So it's late, late on Halloween, all your charming neighborhood goblins have retreated to their lairs to count their treasures, you've put aside the balaclava you donned in honor of Pussy Riot and you're ready to get back to the 'real' world of serious human rights activism. May I suggest transitioning back with Amy Wilentz' great NYT op-ed "A Zombie is a Slave Forever," in which she explains how the zombie legend sprang from the institution of slavery and goes on to riff,
The zombie is devoid of consciousness and therefore unable to critique the system that has entrapped him. He’s labor without grievance. He works free and never goes on strike. You don’t have to feed him much. He’s a Foxconn worker in China; a maquiladora seamstress in Guatemala; a citizen of North Korea...
This zombie-slavery connection just has Doo-Dah parade entry written all over it. Zombie Rights Movement anyone?
We enjoyed Wilentz' novel Martyrs' Crossing and if this opinion piece is any indication, we could be very interested in her forthcoming book, Farewell, Fred Voodoo:
It was no surprise to Amy Wilentz when Haiti emerged from the dust of the 2010 earthquake like a powerful spirit. Her book is about magical transformations. It is filled with raucous characters: human-rights reporters gone awry, movie stars turned into aid workers, musicians running for president, doctors turned into diplomats, a former U.S. president working as a house builder, street boys morphing into rock stars, and voodoo priests running elections.
Wilentz looks back and forward at the country: at its slave plantations, its unthinkable revolutionary history, its kick-up-the-dirt guerrilla movements, its troubled relationship to the U.S., the totalitarian dynasty that ruled for decades, as well as its creative culture, its ancient African traditions and attitudes, and its uncanny resilience.
I know it's hard to take time away from what's happening in the Middle East, but if you can, spare a little time to come and take a look at what's happening in Haiti. Maybe there's something to be learned there about not letting ex-dictators retire with impunity, no? Just before protests started to unfold in Tunisia and Egypt, Baby Doc Duvalier had returned to Haiti. Amnesty International released this video as a reminder of the legacy of human rights violations from the Duvalier era and has called for investigations into those abuses:
Lost in the uproar over the return of Jean-Claude Duvalier to Haiti and his to-ing and fro-ing from hotel to courthouse to hotel to mountain home, is the much more important political crisis. On election day in November, only 22.3 percent of Haiti’s eligible voters cast their ballots in what turned out to be an election plagued with fraud. The reason for the low turnout was apathy, coupled with the catastrophic loss of identity papers in the earthquake of January 2010. Given the miserable conditions of so many Haitians since the earthquake, the anemic turnout provided resounding evidence that Haitians don’t believe their vote matters.
Edwidge Danticat, as always, has been putting out more books and commentary about Haiti. See the story collection she has edited, Haiti Noir and her book of essays, Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist at Work, which you can also listen to as part of Princeton's Toni Morrison Lecture Series. And if that's not enough there is a childrens book about the earthquake: Eight Days (more on that from NPR). In the New Yorker, she reflects on the anniversary of the quake, see also the Miami Herald (recovery is a Sisyphean task). And for more of her insights on how art and literature contribute to the healing of a nation see this wide-ranging interview at Guernica,
Guernica: I remember being fascinated as a young girl in Port-au-Prince by what people in the streets would turn into art pieces—using a small stone, a chacha branch, whatever was available to them as canvas. Haitians truly have art in their soul.
Edwidge Danticat: Yes, it shows you that art will not be denied. Think of the daily functions of art in Haiti. The lottery stands. The tap tap camions. It’s all covered with beautiful art. My friend, the painter Ronald Mevs, used to say that Haitians are born surrealists. We are doing collage all the time, in daily life as well as in our art. So old oil drums become metal sculpture and old carnation milk cans become lamps, called tèt gripads, like bald-headed girls. Art is our communal dream.
Guernica: How has Haitian art changed peoples’ perception of Haiti?
Edwidge Danticat: People sometimes think they know Haiti through what they have seen in the news. When they see a piece of art that we’ve produced, listen to a song, or read a piece of literature that we’ve written, we become closer to them. We are now part of them when the art stays with them. They then come closer to meeting us, and closer to the different layers of who and what we are.
And finally see this LAT interview with Paul Farmer, who we read about in Tracy Kidder's Mountains beyond Mountains for more on the health of Haiti,
Q: Was all the money donated after the earthquake put to good use?
Farmer: The $2 billion that came in after the earthquake, almost none of it went to the public sector. That was earthquake relief, not reconstruction. The relief monies were used in a pretty good manner. I don’t think people need to feel bad about the relief -- a lot of medical care, a lot of people who lost homes. It’s the reconstruction that’s the problem. It’s rebuilding. That money, a lot of it is tied up, it’s quite literally tied to aid or tied to some conditionality and hasn’t arrived yet. Schools, roads, water, hospital systems. We regard the Mirebalais hospital as reconstruction, not relief.
Dahl: That’s where more of the focus has to go. But I do think people get stuck, almost creating a rut in the ground saying the money hasn’t been well spent so we shouldn’t release any more money. We don’t think the Haitian people deserve this at all. It takes a while to rebuild. If you want to, there are all sorts of ways to do things like monitor how money’s being spent.
Q: Will the return of Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier have any impact on the work you do and the reconstruction?
Farmer: I have no idea. It just seems to add more turmoil. I can’t see anything good that would come out of it unless there’s accounting for crimes.
Now that our Haitian expert authors have had some time to breathe, they're collecting their thoughts and sharing:
Edwidge Danticat lost her cousin Maxo, son of her uncle Joseph, in the earthquake. Joseph was the central character in her memoir, Brother, I'm Dying, and Maxo accompanied his father on that fateful trip to the US. Danticat shares her memories of Maxo in the New Yorker.
Paul Farmer and colleagues have penned an op-ed for the Miami Herald and Farmer is interviewed on WNYC,
There are so many dead — and yet, so many living. And the living, too afraid — rightly — to go back inside, are all staying out on the street. As a friend of mine wrote recently on Twitter, "The street has become the living room of the people." But I'm not just talking about the new tent cities, interior refugee camps that have sprung up in so many of the capital's available empty lots and public spaces. I'm also talking about plain old life on the streets. The cards players, the clothes washers, the charcoal sellers, the water men, and the thousands of quotidian passersby. With so many dead, Port-au-Prince seems, if anything, more crowded than ever.
As is often the case, Rights Readers authors have special insights into events that concern us most and the Haitian earthquake is no exception. (Amnesty International's concerns for Haiti going forward are outlined here.)
Tracy Kidder comes forward in the New York Times (Country Without a Net) with an analysis of Haiti's development problems and a plug for the subject of his book Mountains Beyond Mountains,
But there are effective aid organizations working in Haiti. At least one has not been crippled by the earthquake. Partners in Health, or in Haitian Creole Zanmi Lasante, has been the largest health care provider in rural Haiti. (I serve on this organization’s development committee.) It operates, in partnership with the Haitian Ministry of Health, some 10 hospitals and clinics, all far from the capital and all still intact. As a result of this calamity, Partners in Health probably just became the largest health care provider still standing in all Haiti.
Certainly, Partners in Health would be a very worthy place for your charity dollar.
Amy Wilentz (The Rainy Season: Haiti Since Duvalier) is a local favorite with appearances on an informative KCRW program, and in op-eds for HuffPo, and the LATimes, where she tries to stay optimistic about Haitian resilience,
The tragedy is tremendous and the threats to life ongoing in a situation in which the ground is still trembling and disease likely. But the capacity of this people for survival and, indeed, for greatness in the worst of conditions has been demonstrated for more than two centuries. These are the descendants of people who overthrew an indecent, inhuman, overpowering slave system. Many of those still alive grew up under a vicious dynasty and rose up to oust it.
And finally, of course, Edwidge Danticat (Brother, I'm Dying) has been sharing her concerns for family and the country of her birth at Democracy Now,NPR, CNN and no doubt other outlets. More moving though, may be this video recitation (starting at about the 11 minute mark), made after a different disaster, of the high points of the intertwined history of Haiti and the United States. May we draw on and strengthen those bonds now.
Jan. 31 (Wed), 8 pm—Combatants for Peace Elik Elhanan and Sulaiman Al Hamri with Amy Wilentz
Combatants For Peace is a group of Israelis and Palestinians (currently numbering 150) who previously were engaged in the cycle of violence between the two peoples. The Israelis are comprised exclusively of combat soldiers—including pilots, tank commanders, and members of elite commando units. The Palestinians have each participated in violent activities against Israeli targets, and have nearly all served time in Israeli prisons. After brandishing weapons for many years, these former combatants have realized the futility of the violence they have perpetrated on each other. In a unified voice, they have renounced violence and are calling for a peaceful resolution to the seemingly intractable conflict between their peoples. They hope to serve as an inspiration and example to those who continue to engage in violence, and they ultimately intend to influence their political leaders to meaningfully pursue peace.
Amy Wilentz, the former New Yorker correspondent in Jerusalem and author of the acclaimed novel Martyr's Crossing, will moderate a Q & A following a short film screening and presentation by Elhanan and Al Hamri.
A concert follows with Israeli composer and musician Yuval Ron, musical director of the Yuval Ron Ensemble, and Palestinian artist Saleem, a playwright and actor.
Magnin Auditorium at Skirball Cultural Center, 2701 North Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles, 90049. This event is open to the public – free of charge. Space limited, RSVPs are required: 310.621.6654 or email your first/last name and phone number to register.
This weekend some of our loyal Readers may be attending the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. Here's a little guide to Rights Readers authors past and future (?) you may want to check out:
On Saturday Adam Hochschild (King Leopold's Ghost, Bury the Chains) appears in the "Writing Epic History" panel at 10:30 AM. The "First Fiction" panel at 11:30 has two potential Rights Readers authors in Olga Grushin (Dream Life of Sukhanov) and Uzodinma Iweala (Beasts of No Nation). At 12:30 Lost Boys Alephonsion and Benson Deng share their experience of Sudan, another possible future read. And at 4:00 PM the "Fiction: Unknown Territory" panel includes Lisa See (who I'm sure we will get around to one of these days), author of Dragon Bones and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, and Amy Wilentz (Martyr's Crossing). The 4:00 PM panel "Under Siege: Life in a Culture of Conflict" includes Loung Ung, a Cambodian genocide survivor, whose previous appearance was praised by one of our Esteemed Readers, and I have to admit one of her books is sitting in my "to read" pile. Wow! Looks like this is a Rights Readers day!
On Sunday Amy Wilentz is back moderating a fiction panel featuring Chris Abani (Graceland) at 10:30 AM and he appears again at 3:00 PM.
Reports on these authors or others I may be neglection are appreciated!
So it's late, late on Halloween, all your charming neighborhood goblins have retreated to their lairs to count their treasures, you've put aside the balaclava you donned in honor of Pussy Riot and you're ready to get back to the 'real' world of serious human rights activism. May I suggest transitioning back with Amy Wilentz' great NYT op-ed "A Zombie is a Slave Forever," in which she explains how the zombie legend sprang from the institution of slavery and goes on to riff,
earthquake of January 2010. Given the miserable conditions of so many Haitians since the earthquake, the anemic turnout provided resounding evidence that Haitians don’t believe their vote matters.
Edwidge Danticat, as always, has been putting out more books and commentary about Haiti. See the story collection she has edited, 
(more on that from 
for more on the health of Haiti, 
