Many Bahamians agree that Bahamian-born to non-Bahamian citizen should not be granted citizenship. Others argued that the Bahamas is too small to accommodate foreigners. Yes the Bahamas is small, but those people need to realize that these children were born here, and they are part of the Bahamas. According to Richard Fawkes article in the Freeport News, Christian Council, Reverend Carlton Dorsette affirms that “Children don't determine who their parents will be. Children don't determine where they would be born. Therefore, I believe it is wrong to discriminate against children because of who their parents are…”. Why is the Bahamas too small to lodge for children born to foreigners? What other homes do those know? When Bahamians born their children in the United States, does Uncle Sam denied their children birthrights? Bahamians need to realize that children born to Haitians, Jamaicans and others are not going anywhere. Children were not ask to be born.
Many children born to foreign parents made great contributions to the Bahamas. For example, great contributions in the government agencies such as in government house, hospitals, and many more. According Donald McCartney, Stephen Dillet a Haitian national who was the first coloured person in history to won an election as representative of Nassau. Is this not a great contribution made by a foreign national for the Bahamas? Furthermore Mr. Dillet was a spokesman for the rights of free blacks in the Bahamas (p 26). Commonly held opinions are foreigners such as Haitian and Jamaican have done nothing for the Bahamas. Moreover, they are taking over. Is it right to stereotype these two nationals because of their poor country. Additionally, the former Prime Minister Lynden ...
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addition, after WWI, there were many waves of Jamaican peoples that would come to America.
The citizens are labeled as lazy and superstitious, stereotyped in that neat little box with no room for movement. Douglass agrees that they can be a bit lazy and ignorant, but they are not simply idle at all times. By this time, Haiti prospers in a coffee economy and continues to import and export goods from within her borders. Its important to recognize that this nation and its citizens were the first to fight and win their emancipation. The slave revolution in the former French colony of Saint-Domingue was a historic event that brought about universal liberties as other nations followed suit.
The Dominican Republic is a country appealing to the Haitians, because that is the nearest to them and can have better quality of life. But, in recent years we have seen a massive immigration from Haiti to Dominican Republic. These leads us to ask, what are the reasons which the people of Haiti are fleeing their country. These factors are: to escape of the poverty, deficiency of basic services and lack of jobs. Due to the scarcity of resources, lack of access to basic services and lack of job opportunities, many haitian families have been used as a defense mechanism traditional your transfer to the Dominican Republic to have access to health care services, public schools or work in the agricultural
Within Aline Helg’s book titled, Our Rightful Share: The Afro-Cuban Struggle for Equality, 1886-1912, she includes many historical events that serve as a foundation for her arguments in order to emphasize the "black struggle for equality" starting in the late 19th century and according to her, still transpiring today. These events are, the formation of the first black independent political party called the, Partido Independiente de Color (146), the United States’ role during intervention and the black struggle to overcome the system of racial hierarchies that had developed in Cuba. Blacks had to fight for equality while simultaneously being, "…accused of racism and antinationalism". (145) According to Helg, this placed an undue burden on the black groups that were organizing to demand their "rightful share" because it made divided the goals of their plight into many different facets, thus yielding a lack of unity necessary for their success. During the United States’ intervention, Cuban nationalism as a whole was threatened which also served to downplay the importance of demands being made by the Partido’s leader, Estenoz. The United States displayed a greater concern on the affirmation of its power as an international police, rather than allying its resources to help the indignant and discriminated Afro-Cubans. All of these circumstances illustrate the extremities of the political and social institutions that the Afro-Cubans attempted to defeat but could not. They also exemplify the perpetuation of the black struggle, and how it affected and continues to affect the lives of Afro-Cubans in present-day Cuba.
societies to reexamine their view of the Caribbean. In this paper the following topics in The
The Afro-Cuban struggle for equality essentially began after the emancipation of the slaves in 1886. This struggle would continue until 1912, when a brutal government massacre ended their hopes of real equality. The Afro-Cuban struggle for equality was a key issue in Cuba’s fight for independence, as well as, Cuba’s fight to find its identity and character.
French occupation of Haiti began in the mid seventeenth century. For the next century and a half, the people of Haiti were forced to abandon their livelihoods and instead take up residence on namely sugar, indigo or cacao plantations in order to generate exports for the French market. Conditions on these plantations were often so cruel and oppressive that the common cause of death was exhaustion. No longer able to yield to the terms of their exploitation, Haitians participated in a string of slave revolts, the most prominent of which was led by Toussaint Louverture from 1791, which paved the road for Haitian emancipation. This essay will advance the idea that colonialism has impeded the political stability of Haiti during the nineteenth century, particularly from when Haiti formally declared independence in 1804. It will cover how issues such as; despotism, conflicting economic institutions, the militarization of the political system and racial supremacy, have negatively affected nineteenth century Haitian politics. Moreover, it will also elaborate on how these issues are, in effect, actually insidious derivatives of French rule during pre-independent Haiti.
In the past, rafts teeming with Cuban refugees have routinely floated to American shores in order to escape the brutal and oppressive Castro regime. Haitians arriving in the same manner were turned away because their plight did not involve politics but poverty. Semantics aside, it is hard not to wonder if skin color played a role in their expulsion. Furthermore, though Haiti’s government is not classified as communist, the policies and actions of of its officials can arguably be considered equally as
Haiti was once an economic power when France held claim to the Eastern Part of Hispaniola, then named St. Domingue. It was a French colony flourishing with coffee and sugar. Eventually the ideals of the French Revolution - Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity - made its way to the colonies resulting in a revolution. Haiti was the first slave-led revolution and declared its independence as a republic on January 1, 1804. After their declaration of independence, things started to make a turn for the worst. In 1934 the U.S. forces occupied Haiti to establish stability. The U.S. appointed heads of state but the real power was present in the U.S. occupiers, whereas the heads of state are just figureheads. Haiti’s economy dwindled further down when France demanded reparations of 150 million francs, which wasn’t paid off until 1947. In 65 years, Haiti had 22 heads of state.” In 1957 Francois Duvalier is elected president. He later “creates a totalitarian dictatorship and in 1964 declares himself president-for-life.” This is where Haiti’s political instability really begins.
According to E.B. Skinner, author of A WORLD Enslaved, 2008, “There are now more slaves on the planet than at any time in human history. True abolition will elude us until we admit the massive scope of the problem, attack it in all its forms, and empower slaves to help free themselves,” (Pg. 62). Approximately 250,000 restavecs work in Haiti today; most were born into extreme poverty. A restavec is a young, child slave. Poverty in Haiti provides few options for young people and results in greater vulnerability of children. The lack of health care, increase in unemployment, and the continuous cultural stereotypes of Haiti all contribute to the consistency of child slavery in Haiti.
The Caribbean is comprised of a group of island. Jamaica is one of the greatest Antilles. It has a tropical climate. Each country has its own culture, Jamaicans is not an exemption, and they have an assorted and distinctive one. “Their culture is a complex mixture of African, Arabic, European, East Indian, and Chinese roots combining together to create a rich, dynamic heritage” (Gall, 2009).
In the 1800s, there were many American territories that were apart of the colonies of European powers that were trying to become independent from Europe. Both Haiti in the year 1804, and South America in the year 1815, wrote letters about their independence. The Haitian Declaration of Independence and the Jamaican Letter have similarities in why they are writing the letters, and differences like who they are writing too. While both are similar, lets start by looking at The Haitian Declaration of Independence.
As a Haitian immigrant, my parents and I would spend our family vacations in our hometown of Port-au- Prince, Haiti. I would enjoy participating in family activities such as card games, cooking, and just the quality time that we spent together. We could play these games and laugh amongst each other for hours, without a care in the world merely telling jokes and listening to the elder parables. Amongst my family I felt untouchable. Like a tree in the wind, my only cares were that of the breeze and the beauty of my foundation. In the sway of the wind I was overcome with a sense of peace.
Haiti is the unequivocally the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, indeed, the country is so poor that its citizen cannot even afford eating foods and Haitian children need to eat dirts to stay alive. [1] Nevertheless, Haiti is the home to the only successful slave rebellion; Toussaint Louverture, last governor of French Saint-Domingue, was born a slave.
On January 7, 1964 the Bahamas attained internal self-government through a new constitution. The rise of the Progressive Liberal party created a dual party system along with the long dominant United Bahamian Party. The first leader of the Progressive Liberal Party and the first Negro premiere was Lynden O. Pindling. On July 10, 1973 under Pindling, the Bahamas was granted complete independence from Great Britain. His policies brought prosperity and stability to the Bahamas and the education system dramatically improved under his rule. He has faced controversy over his deliberate ignorance or possible role in the drug crime wave of the 1970’s and 80’s. (Craton & Saunders, Vol. II, pg. 378) He was outvoted in 1992 and replaced by the current Prime Minister, Hubert Ingraham, a member of the Free National Movement party. Under Ingraham, the country has expanded its economy and foreign industry creating a stronger sense of national identity and preserving peace and prosperity throughout the islands.