My friend Regine, who works with me on our non-profit to give voice to voiceless Haitian people, is about to head off to Batey 8, which is in Barahona, Dominican Republic. I will ask her a few questions before she heads off.
Richard: Hi Regine. Have you been to the DR cane fields before and tell me a bit about what you do?
Regine. Yes I've been 4 times to Batey 8 and I do community work.
Richard. How would you describe the conditions for the Haitian cane workers?
Regine. Haitian immigrants that come there (Batey 8) live in barracks and they call them (the workers) "Kongo." These Haitians live separate from the rest of the community. They usually do the hard work in terms of sugar cane cutting which is the weed work, the off season work... Yup, cutting weeds... The pay there is by how much sugar cane you bring in so you can imagine they don't bring in much money. It's the grunt work.
Richard. Let me get a better understanding... Cutters get paid for how much cane they bring in but the Haitians are asked to do the weed work? That almost seems like slavery.
Regine. Yup... And they don't like it there. Its kind of sad.
Richard. Why don't they leave?
Regine. Because of false hopes and not having enough money or papers to go home.
Richard. Is there racism over at the Bateys?
Regine. Dominicans live in one area.
Dominicans of Haitian descent live in another area and, the Haitians live in the Baracks. An example: Last summer a rock was thrown in the window of one of the houses there, and my friend Peter walked out and the person who threw the rock said "Oh sorry, I thought it was a Haitian."
Richard. Thanks Regine, I know you're off on your trip to the Batey so good luck to you and the Haitians needing JUSTICE over there.
As an added note, Regine tells me that anyone who wants more insight to Haitians working in the DR cane fields can go to YOUTUBE and look up
Richard Morse
Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Follow Richard Morse on Twitter: www.twitter.com/RAMhaiti
The border is essentially open to any Haitian with a passport and $100... Industrious Haitians are already up in the Samana peninsula with products that they bring from the border,
Why revive an old animosity between these two nations in the time of your country's greatest need after the Dominican Republic was so exceedingly open and generous in its assistance to Haiti?
Haiti has many friends here in the DR. Do not make it harder for us.
kembe la
Elizabeth
What a joke. Give me two brakes.
The truth my friend, whether you want to recognize it or not is simple. They have no home to go back to. It has been destroyed. Not physically. Not by an earthquake, no. By pure and raw hatred and racism. Hatred to the brave who stood out against the chains, hatred to the first black independent nation in a world of racists who could not stand the thought of black freed men and sentenced a righteous nation into isolation, poverty, and injustice. And your beautiful white USA has had since its beginning a key role in shaping this hate and injustice into form. And not just for things done 50 years ago, things done 30, 20 10 years ago. Today?
But lets just forget about that.
Its the dammed rich and white and racist Dominicans who have always exploited them and deceive them to go into DR. If Dominicans didn't deceive Haitians they would not cross the border...
Now regardless of what you might think, I sincerely hope your life have some sense, that you could truly make a change for those you say you speak for.