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A Few Words on Haiti
While procrastinating this afternoon I watched this 5 minute video produced by Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times showing the work of SOIL, an organization that creates fertilizer from composting toilets in Haiti. This topic is near to my heart, as I once traveled to Haiti - it was my friend Kate's idea - and happened to arrive for the 2000 elections (a little traumatic but ultimately led to an amazing night at the Hotel Olaffson, listening to the war stories of journalists from the BBC and Miami Herald, and meeting early micro-financers). Travelling through the country, on a bus from Port-au-Prince to Jacmel, we saw the deforested country and it was easy to see that the agricultural problem in Haiti was as seemingly hopeless as its bloody politics. Jonathan Demme's documentary The Agronomist followed the life and career of Jean Dominique, a Haitian that first thought he could contibute to the rescue of his country thrugh agronomy, but realized he needed to first address the political injustices there. He became the voice of Haitian free radio and was ultimately assasinated. It's great to see that agriculture is being addressed by the industrious Sasha Kramer and Sarah Brownell (of SOIL). I can't think of another place where politics is so tied to agriculture. Attached photo shows the border of the Dominican Republic, green on right, and Haiti, deforested on left.