ABSTRACT

In 1981 I was asked by some DePauw University students to serve as faculty adviser for a group planning to work in rural Haiti during the nearly month-long interim term. I accepted the offer for several reasons. I had enjoyed being the faculty adviser for two previous work projects in Guatemala and Jamaica. I had found the experience was educationally valuable for undergraduates, and I could use it to enhance classroom learning during the semester. In addition, the experience of living and working in a radically different environment was intellectually stimulating for me as a social scientist interested in welfare economics. Finally, because such volunteer projects were rare in the early 1980s, I realized the opportunity should not be passed up. It was a chance to see a part of the world I had heard of but knew little or nothing about except from accounts found in newspaper and magazine articles.

chapter 1|5 pages

Introduction

chapter 2|12 pages

Duvalierism and Haiti's Vast Majority

The Rural Poor and Pig Repopulation in the 1980s

chapter 3|15 pages

Deforestation and Haitian Poverty

chapter 4|15 pages

Misguided Reforestation

Focusing on Poor Haitians

chapter 5|14 pages

Haitian Refugees

chapter 6|12 pages

The International Embargo of the 1990s

chapter 7|12 pages

Making Haiti Livable for Its People

chapter 8|27 pages

Haitian Americans

chapter 9|8 pages

Transnational Linkages

Haitian Americans and Haitians

chapter |3 pages

Epilogue

The Future