https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuRb1vimyqY
During this week’s lecture, we have been focused on Fault Lines—a book revealed the dark side of Haiti after earthquake. Among all the issues we have been discussed, female’s problem was the most concerned issue to me. After reading the book, and watching above videos, it is obvious that the situation of women in Haiti after earthquake is marginalized by its vulnerability and invisibility.
The most serious trouble regarding Haitian females is the increased rate of rape. After earthquake, Haitians are placed mainly in transit camps consist of flimsy tents, which provides a living condition with no secure and protection towards females. Most females are struggling with sufficiency of food and clothing. Since they are not able to gain any finance after earthquake: no job, no salary, no money. More seriously, their possessions are most likely to be stolen by others with the lack of security in their residential area. They cannot stay at home all day just to watch over their properties, but if they left, they might face the great loss of their remains. Hence, the situation just gets worse and worse, until it reaches an impasse.
Food and clothing are not the primary concerns of Haitian females. The security of their own body was the most important and urgent issue right now. Some Haitian women mentioned that rape is one of the most common crime in their camps, too often so people would not take it seriously. They even indicated that some rape victims might still live in the same camp as the rapists, because they got nowhere else to go to. Most rape victims are young girls, who most likely lost their families during the earthquake. So they have no one to talk to, or there is no one to help them. They even mentioned some young girl cried for help after the disaster, but no one reaches out, so they turned to sell their own body, in exchange for money or food, to survive. Furthermore, the lack of medical treatment was one of the biggest crisis in the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti. Some females would be forced to sleep with people, who are in charge of medicines. Because they have families who urgently need it to survive.
Life is crucial, but human beings are cruel. All those Haitian females are survivors of the earthquake, but a twist of fate made them victims of daily life. I almost lost hope on life after watching these documentaries, but still, man’s nature at birth is good. Solidarity with those communities of Haitian camps lead people to organize a security group under self-government to provide protection over females and families. Some outstanding females even started women’s group for females to gain a sense of personal power. I found a global website focuses on defending human rights and defeats poverty for everyone, especially small countries like Haiti. It is called “Action Aid”, if you have time and energy or even a little sympathy, please go check on the website and offer a little help to change someone’s life! The following is the link of this website.
http://www.actionaidusa.org/
In her book "Fault Lines," Beverly Bell depicts the profit-oriented nature of corporations and their duplicitous motives in areas affected by natural disasters; she refers to these exploitative practices as 'business catastrophe' (5). In a similar manner, the bodies of Haitian women are exploited for a profit of a different kind.
ReplyDeleteMany of the men perpetrating these crimes have been lied to. Some say rhetoric is not important. Some believe that the permeable barrier between words and actions is, in fact, an impenetrable wall of steel. However, the reinforcement of gender discrepancy by the larger population as a whole works to violently ensure the survival of such inequality in times of need--when a scapegoat is in high demand.
Haitian men who have been deprived of their ability to provide, of the means with which to ascribe to the popular narrative, may begin to doubt the potency of their masculinity. And so they cling harder to the safety of stereotypes. Masculinity is the antithesis of femininity. Thus, the women must be dominated by the men. If only to assure themselves that they are still valuable in their virility.
To understand a violence that seems inexplicable, one must only turn to popular discourse. The narrative must be rewritten.
Thank you Kexin for your insightful response and the acknowledgement that security of these women's bodies is the most important thing right now. I am taking a HD 101 class, and recently we went over the Maslow's hierarchy of needs. One can not truly ascend to the next level without fully tending those below it. Organizations often address the physiological level and then try to move ontp the self-esteem and self-actualization level without stopping to reassess the safety level.
ReplyDeleteHow can Haiti women truly gain confidence, achieve goals, and gain intimacy if there is always the threat of loss? There is always the threat of loss of autonomy, bodily and financial security, or health because of the constant exploitation of Haiti's resources. It might be a reach, but I believe those women are seen as expendable resources, and they are only meant to forcibly exploited through secual violence and slave labor.
We need to address each level of the hierarchy of needs by listening to these women and by addressing each level, can we give these women autonomy and power and ending exploitation.
Violence and mistreatment of women in Haiti and all over the world is a serious issue that is often overlooked. After reading your post, two quotes from our recent readings came to mind.
ReplyDeleteIn American Privilege, Michael Schwalbe writes, “...men can walk the streets without being sexually harassed; men can make mistakes without those mistakes being attributed to their gender; men can count on their gender to enhance their credibility; men can expect to find powerful sponsors with whom they can bond as men; and, even in female-dominated occupations, men benefit from being seen as better suited to higher-paying, administrative jobs”.
In Structural Violence, Paul Farmer states, “The women I interviewed were straightforward about the non-voluntary aspect of their sexual activity: in their opinions, poverty had forced them to into unfavorable unions. Under such conditions, one wonders what to make of the notion of “consensual sex””
These authors both speak to address the issue that is gender violence. Men in Haiti have lost a lot, but it seems that women are the ones who continue to struggle with loss far beyond the effects cause by a natural disaster. Women continue to live in fear and this raises the question of; where can these women find a sense of agency or a place they can truly build a life for themselves without having to worry about what is going to happen next?