HAITI VIDEO – Part 2: “We Will Bend But We Will Not Break” Documentary by Kevin Pina

On August 21, I posted Part 1 of an educational documentary by Kevin Pina regarding Haiti. Pina has just released Part 2 of his film — the link is further below. Part 2 features a literacy campaign initiated by President Aristide and a special look into the heart and soul of the Lavalas party.

As the events in Honduras have unfolded, I have observed profound similarities with what has happened and is still happening in Haiti.  I encourage you to share Parts 1 and 2 of this documentary with others who are working on Honduras solidarity issues.

A scene from part 2 of Kevin Pina’s documentary Haiti: We will bend but we will not break
showing the universal literacy campaign funded by the Aristide government.

HIP- Filmmaker and journalist Kevin Pina released the second part of his educational documentary titled Haiti: We will bend but we will not break. This second installment focuses on the literacy campaign that president Jean-Bertrand Aristide funded for the majority of the poor in Haiti. Pina stated, “What we see is for the first time anywhere, the literacy campaign at the grassroots level that Aristide funded in conjunction with the Cuban government. It was modeled after the successful literacy campaign the Cubans brought to Nicaragua that dropped their illiteracy rate by more than 50%.” Pina continued, “When Aristide was first elected in 1991 illiteracy was at 90%. After he was ousted in 2004 that figure had been reduced to roughly to 45%. Largely due to his efforts and the solidarity efforts of the Cuban government we see in this video.”

You also see in this video a foreshadowing of the current move to bring Haiti back into the camp of neoliberal economic development. A woman at Aristide’s former parish of St. Jean Bosco says on camera, “We are independent even though they only see us as cheap labor.”  Pina commented, “Although they liked to portray the Lavalas movement as gangsters and thugs, this woman represents the true spirit of the movement. There exists a group of elderly women in the community who continue to this day to maintain the heart and soul of Lavalas. This runs in direct contradiction to the image of the mainstream press and the US that Lavalas is a group of  young male gangsters and violent political criminals. They have always been there.”

The Haiti Information Project (HIP) is a non-profit alternative news service providing coverage and analysis of breaking developments in Haiti.

Winner of the CENSORED 2008 REAL NEWS AWARD for Outstanding Investigative Journalism

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