Abstract:
This paper is about the phenomenon of the Restavek children in Haiti and how these have become an accepted form of the country’s culture. The film which discusses the plight of these children was taken from a CNN documentary in 2010 where the director examines the way of life of these child slaves in great depth. Thus the topic of child slavery is an essential part of the film and demonstrates how this is still an essential part of Haitian society. The second part of the paper deals with Marjane Satrap’s film Persepolis and its impact on Iranian cinema
Introduction:
The Restaveks are what can be termed as child slaves in Haiti where child abuse is rampant and terrible. According to the latest United Nations estimates there are over 300,000 child slaves in Haiti who toil about in horrific conditions without any sort of hope for their future. These child slaves are part and parcel of Haitian culture and they are accepted in the whole scheme of things.
The recent earthquake also created a situation where the poor turned desperately poor and child slavery has increased substantially in a situation such as this. Impoverished families really have no choice but to send their children out to work as they cannot support their whole family.
Haitian families who are quite well off then tend to exploit the children sent to their care and work them like slaves accordingly. That is where the term Restavek comes from.
The film:
Restavek is a very strong film which shows the predicament in which the children find themselves when coerced into child slavery. They have no manner of saving themselves from the terrible situation in which they find themselves in. A recent interview on Reuters.com focused on the predicament which a woman found herself in when her daughter had to be turned over to a Hiatian family whom she said abused her constantly and worked her like a slave.
The word Restavek is taken from the French which basically means rester avec or ‘to stay with’. These children are supposedly taken in as servants, forced to work without any sort of remuneration and not even sent to a school.
There are also some sort of foundations founded by former Restaveks to assist those who find themselves in this predicament. The film interviews one of the heads of these foundations which has worked extremely hard to assist former Restaveks in re-integrating into society.
The earthquake has created a situation where several thousands of vulnerable children are now prey for those who want to exploit them and turn them into the slavery industry. Such a situation is not only terrible but it is also very much part and parcel of the life in Haiti.
"A restavek is a child placed in domestic slavery," said Jean-Robert Cadet, a former restavek who now runs a foundation to improve the lives of restavek children (www.restavekfreedom.org, Web 2011).
A 2002 study for UNICEF and other organizations by Norway's Fafo Institute for Applied Social Science said there were 173,000 restavek children, more than 8 percent of the population between 5 and 17. Cadet believes there are more than 300,000 (Cadet, p 100).
In his interview, Cadet explained how the wealthy family which practically owned him treated him extremely badly by beating him and abusing him with language
The restavek tradition continues to live on in Haiti as it is partially accepted in Haitian culture. One has to say that there are exceptions to the rule where families feed and clothe their restavek children and even send them to school. Other supporters of the system say that the children would die of poverty and hunger anyway if left to their own devices so the restavek system saves them in a way.
Market values tend to fluctuate across the region as a result of geographic, environmental, and infrastructure development in the areas under scrutiny. Agricultural crops obtain competitive prices if they are sold in the intense humid wooded areas, higher prices are achieved in the savannah grasslands, while the premium prices are given in the parched areas; this is to a certain extent facilitated by supply as well as demand factors.
The differences in farm product values across the entire South Sudan enables us to check the impact of climate on agricultural proceeds based on the premise that climate can affect the outcome of market prices. Relying on the task detailed in Equation three (3), climate factors including hydrological as well as agronomic aspects can determine agricultural values accordingly.
Still, there are other factors which affect production output and agricultural yield: including the age and capabilities of the farmers and growers, their education and skills, access to grants and government services, and the willingness and ability to adapt to climate change. South Sudan’s agriculturalists adjust their farming systems and practices by embracing novel technologies in addition to changing crop combinations which they plant on the cultivated land.
The economic importance of this kind of adaptation is revealed by the econometric studies that highlight the roles played by the kind of crops and soil management preferences. The study of crops would have to take into account the effectiveness of practices like mono-cropping, pruning, plant spacing, staking, compound cropping for each year, growing exclusively persistent crops, and possibly zero cultivation.
One should also note how farmers address their crops’ needs for water, as only a small number can meet the expenses incurred by investing in modern irrigation methods. Instead, farmers employ innovative if inexpensive strategies like rainwater harvesting tactics to mitigate the negative effects of short rainy periods and extensive dry seasons in some zones.
Given that Haiti, like most developing and Third World nations, depends deeply on agriculture, the impact of global warming including climate change on the agricultural segment requires that attention be given to these areas, especially to preserve the well-being of the farming populace in the region and the immediate markets that they affect. It is also imperative that an agricultural plan must be carried out which will significantly help the sector and it’s players adapt effectively to climate change
The analysis of the literature discloses significant possibilities for climate change to impact related supplies, crops, livestock productivity, hydrologic balances, and other elements of the farming system. Climate change in itself remains a variable as it can produce a range of severe events such as famines, floods, and blizzards.
Compounding all this, South Sudan is faced with a complex socio-economic situation, and inadequate facilities and economic structures. Lack of training, research, and funding also limit the farmers’ resourcefulness and their ability to adjust to climate change. The usual, beneficial, and effective responses such as altering crops rotations, launching irrigation systems, or transforming farm management systems are too expensive for many growers to employ. These methods require hefty investment, and the initial reduced yield of crops as the land is undergoing transition does not immediately compensate for the significant costs.
Desertification is also linked to food scarcity and instability, and combating it must become part of public policy. Otherwise, in a land that is already threatened by famine, the limited supply of food will be significantly imperiled.
Anticipated changes in precipitation, both in yearly estimates as well as in the forecasted amount of general circulation, may create bigger threats. Added to this are climate change and its various manifestations which cannot be predicted in such a way that will help prepare the people to respond to any of the threats it represents. Inaction, delays in projects, and lack of political will while there is still time to produce the necessary structures that can provide the desired responses may prove fatal later on. The time to act is now.
Lack of risk management guidelines are a result of insufficient means to forecast climate conditions that gives people the appropriate lead time to prepare. A cyclical forecast of precipitation has not been appropriately developed in South Sudan. Given the remarkable history of famine in the region and the elevated levels of fluctuation of precipitation in the southern zones, South Sudan could gain immensely from cyclic forecasting. Establishing the necessary institutions and procedures would be a significant stride forward in realizing current development objectives and preparing and planning for impending climate change.
Studies on how to disseminate data to the people and make them aware of how these can be applied to their farming methods would be a fundamental first step. One must bear in mind the studies on climate as well as those on production. Hopefully, all this information will help them anticipate weather changes, prepare for it, adopt their systems, and come up with a process on a significant scale that will encourage sustainable living. The information must be disseminated from a national to a parochial level; policies must be able to affect the entire agricultural sector on a massive level, while the practical guidelines are cascaded to the farmers in the towns.
The necessary information that can help the farmers must include the beginning and the final dates of the dry and wet seasons. Tise knowledge can help spur the farmer into planning how to respond to these stages, thereby boosting agricultural productivity and ensuring food security and stability. Presently, there are those in the region who are asking government to integrate projections of climate change into agricultural development policies. In this regard, any guidelines made in respond to these requests must include the following aspects:
- Reducing vulnerability of the related sectors to climate change;
- Developing screening capabilities that will evaluate the land and the farming systems; and
- Encouraging awareness and continuing education of the players of the agricultural sector as far as climate change is concerned.
Even though this paper does not examine the effects of technological development on agricultural development and does not reflect changes in commercial policies including taxes, it does highlight some important conclusions. Essentially, agriculture in South Sudan is a business under siege, by forces that can weaken it, such as under-capitalization, insufficient infrastructure, farming revenues that barely surpass costs, and a changing climate that is hard to predict. The decreasing loss in agricultural production, loss of territories to the desert or aridity, and the decrease or absence of resources warns of a future that can be rather grim. It is imperative that agricultural policy makers must understand the situation and make the necessary responses if the sector is to survive.
Marjane Satrapi: Persepolis
In the first part of the comic strip, Satrapi focuses on what is happening in the Arab Spring and how this is changing the concept of governance in Arab countries although the main subject is the author’s childhood in Iran in the context of the Iran-Iraq war. The comic strip delves into various characteristics accordingly and does provide us with a snapshot on what life must have been like in those terrible years for a young Iranian woman.
Argument:
One can sympathise with Satrapi especially in the situation which she continually finds herself in, especially the part where her family seems to want to influence all that she does. The allusions to several material things such as water and bicycles are complex with Satrapi attempting to convey a sense of forward momentum for everything and to push the revolution forward in this sense.
The comic strip format is quite powerful in portraying the images Satrapi wants to convey and its effect cannot be denied although one has to keep in mind that certain themes do have double meanings.
In the second part of the DVD, Satrapi returns home after long years of absence. Obviously she has to come to terms with the things that changed and which are continually changing. In fact the theme of change is a constant recurrence which also demonstrates the subtle and intrinsic effects of Satrapi’s story.
Personally I prefer the comic strip as a medium when compared to the DVD as the mind seems to wander with a film. The whole experience was very interesting and revealing and one learnt a lot about the effects of Iran and its story during those years.
Works Cited:
"Painful plight of Haiti's 'restavec' children - CNN.com". CNN. January 21, 2010. Retrieved May 22, 2010.
Janak, Timothy C., (1998) Haiti's "Restavec" slave children:Difficult choices, difficult lives, yetLespwa fe Viv University of Texas Press
http://www.dol.gov/ILAB/media/reports/iclp/Advancing1/html/haiti.htm
Cadet, Jean-Robert, (1998) Restavec:From Haitian Slave Child to Middle-Class American University of Texas Press
Kolbe, A. & Hutson, R. (2006). Human rights abuse and other criminal violations in Port-au-Prince, Haiti: a random survey of households. The Lancet, 368(9538), pp 864-873
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