Full Description
Beverly Bell, an activist and award-winning writer, has dedicated her life to working for democracy, women's rights, and economic justice in Haiti and elsewhere. Since the 7.0 magnitude earthquake of January 12, 2010, that struck the island nation, killing more than a quarter-million people and leaving another two million Haitians homeless, Bell has spent much of her time in Haiti. Her new book, Fault Lines, is a searing account of the first year after the earthquake. Bell explores how strong communities and an age-old gift culture have helped Haitians survive in the wake of an unimaginable disaster, one that only compounded the preexisting social and economic distress of their society. The book examines the history that caused such astronomical destruction. It also draws in theories of resistance and social movements to scrutinize grassroots organizing for a more just and equitable country.
Fault Lines offers rich perspectives rarely seen outside Haiti. Readers accompany the author through displaced persons camps, shantytowns, and rural villages, where they get a view that defies the stereotype of Haiti as a lost nation of victims. Street journals impart the author's intimate knowledge of the country, which spans thirty-five years. Fault Lines also combines excerpts of more than one hundred interviews with Haitians, historical and political analysis, and investigative journalism. Fault Lines includes twelve photos from the year following the 2010 earthquake.
Bell also investigates and critiques U.S. foreign policy, emergency aid, standard development approaches, the role of nongovernmental organizations, and disaster capitalism. Woven through the text are comparisons to the crisis and cultural resistance in Bell's home city of New Orleans, when the levees broke in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Ultimately a tale of hope, Fault Lines will give readers a new understanding of daily life, structural challenges, and collective dreams in one of the world's most complex countries.
Contents
Foreword by Edwidge Danticat
Acknowledgments
Introduction: 35 Seconds
1. We Don't Have Enough Water to Make Tears (Surviving the Earthquake, or Not)
(January, 2010)
2. What We Have, We Share: Solidarity Undergirds Rescue and Relief
(January, 2010)
3. The Pearl of the Antilles: The Political Economy of Peril
(February, 2010)
4. Maroon Man: Social Movements Throughout History
(February, 2010)
5. We Will Carry You On: The Women's Movement
(March, 2010)
6. You Can't Eat Okra with One Finger: Community-Run Humanitarian Aid
(March, 2010)
7. Fragile as a Crystal (Tales from Three Months Out)
(April, 2010)
8. Children of the Land: Small Farmers and Agriculture
(April, 2010)
9. Grains and Guns: Foreign Aid and Reconstruction
(May, 2010)
10. The Ones Who Must Decide: Social Movements in the Reconstruction
(May, 2010)
11. Our Bodies Are Shaking Now: Violence against Girls and Women
(June, 2010)
12. The Creole Connection: People-to-People Aid and Solidarity across Borders
(June, 2010)
13. We've Lost the Battle, But We Haven't Lost the War (Tales from Six Months Out)
(July, 2010)
14. Social Fault Lines: Class and Catastrophe
(July, 2010)
15. Monsanto Seeds, Miami Rice: The Politics of Food Aid and Trade
(August, 2010)
16. Home: From Tent Camp to Community
(August, 2010)
17. For Want of Twenty Cents: Children's Rights and Security
(September, 2010)
18. The Super Bowl of Disasters: Profiting from Crisis
(September, 2010)
19. The Commonplace amidst the Catastrophic (Tales from Nine Months Out)
(October, 2010)
20. Beyond Medical Care: The Health of the Nation
(October, 2010)
21. Hold Strong: The Pros and Pitfalls of Resilience
(November, 2010)
22. Mrs. Clinton Will Never See Me Working There: The Offshore Assembly Industry
(November, 2010)
23. The Central Pillar: Peasant Women
(December, 2010)
24. Elections (in the Time of Cholera)
(December, 2010)
25. We Will Never Fall Asleep Forgetting (Tales from Twelve Months Out)
(January, 2011)
Epilogue: Bringing it Back Home
Notes
Index
