Source: Real News Network

January 25, 2010

Mainstream news attributes Haitian poverty to the supernatural, avoiding history of foreign intervention

Danny Glover, Peter Hallward, and Anthony Fenton contribute to breaking down the media avoidance of Haiti’s history of foreign intervention. According to Hallward, Haiti’s poverty can be explained as a series of foreign responses to the independence and strength of the Haitian people, but since the media doesn’t acknowledge this, they are forced to propose weakness and bad luck as the sources of Haiti’s poverty. Glover adds that without the history, we are prone to misunderstanding and the blaming of the victim, which in some cases serves to absolve us of our own responsibility for the situation. Fenton reminds that it’s not only the U.S. that has taken part in undermining democracy in Haiti, in recent years Canada has played a very significant role, among others.

Produced by Jesse Freeston.