Caribbean with Simon Reeve Documentary Part 1

     In this part of the documentary, Simon Reeve travels around the Caribbean discovering how some historic events and a drug war has turned Caribbean lands like the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Puerto Rico have become what they are today. In each of these places, certain issues are keeping the people and society from reaching their full potential. It started in the Dominican Republic when the documentary saw just how real the drug presence in the country was. An interesting point was made in the documentary that called the Dominican Republic "victims" for "being in the middle of the supply of South America and the demand of the United States and Britain." They cannot help where the islands are located and with as big of a business as the drug industry is, it almost seems inevitable. This would make the situation just another unfortunate, hard to prevent scenario that these islands have to deal with.

    Other unpreventable scenarios are natural disasters like the earthquake that devastated Haiti. As the documentary said, the earthquake that hit Port-au-Prince left 1.5 million people homeless. In a place where there is already not great economic stability, it seems almost impossible to recover from something like this. These catastrophes also lead to preventable issues that could be fixed and are preventable. Issues like that of child slavery in Haiti, where parents send their children to work as servants because they do not have the funds or resources to support them. Still, with all these problems, the people are still hopeful and resilient and try to raise awareness with events like the Restive Freedom Concert seen in the documentary, where one girl says, "Once you start to sing, the word starts to spread." A simple, yet meaningful message. While the Caribbeans are tucked away and only looked at on a small scale for the resorts, not for their entireties, it makes me wonder if the message is being sung loud enough for the rest of the world. Specifically here in the States, are we doing enough or anything at all to help these places?

 -cs

Comments

  1. Sara PelletierOctober 4, 2020 at 1:38 PM

    The element that truly stuck out to me in this section of the documentary series was the treatment of Haiti by the colonizing powers/former colonizing powers. The country was used as a French colony for many years, selling sugar/coffee/cocoa/tobacco/and cotton for the French in the 1700s. They were the only country formed of a slave rebellion against the colonizer, and a major world power. This was not something that I was aware of, but it made me connect the country to our own founding. The United States fought against our own colonizer, fighting to be free and rule our own nation. Then, Simon detailed how the French blockaded the island until Haiti agreed to send "almost 80% of their annual revenue back to France for reparations". A major political world power forced a small country to pay "reparations" for the "lost labor" they would have gotten from slaves. This was shocking to me- why would the major power of France require "reparations" from a small and budding island nation? I think it relates back to power structures that we've discussed in class. It comes as a result of feeling superior because of their position in the world, similar to the role of the priest versus Rosena in "Rosena on the Mountain". It is difficult to fight these built-in power structures, but possible to defeat them- as Rosena does in the end of her own story. I hope that Haiti continues to grow and can eventually take back its own country.

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  2. Trevor TyrrellOctober 4, 2020 at 6:37 PM

    The part of this documentary that surprised me the most was as you stated "Still, with all these problems, the people are still hopeful and resilient and try to raise awareness with events like the Restive Freedom Concert seen in the documentary, where one girl says, 'Once you start to sing, the word starts to spread.' A simple, yet meaningful message." The people that reside here have been dealt one of the worst cards in the history of man. Having to send your kids to be servants because you can't afford to support them is heartbreaking. Yet with the amount of adversity these people face they still keep pushing and believe better days are near.

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