lilbear’s Neighborhood

Today is my last day in Haiti. I hope to return. 3 weeks have gone by so quickly, as is so often the case. Mostly, we've been working 12 hour days, 6-7 days a week, which makes time fly too, I guess. I have come to love this country and its people and wish nothing but success for this project that we've come here to work on; despite hundreds of years of very difficult history.

Time only permits that I share some of my favorite memories/odd moments from 3 weeks here. So, in no particular order:

• Dinner or lunch at La Coquille, La Plantacion, La Souvenance, La Reserve, Jet Set and Muncheez. Oh, and Domino's delivery to Patty's hotel room one night where we all hung out together and laughed. The delivery guys dress the same!
• The Hotel Olaffson; the large gingerbread house structure full of Voodoo symbols and the pulsing music of the world famous band, RAM, directed by the owner of the hotel, Richard, an eccentric American/Haitian. 
• Salsa night every Friday night at the Hotel Montana (our hotel). Spectacular dancers, great music, including sala in Creole! Yes, I danced, of course! It seems this is where the latin dance scene comes on Friday nights.
• The Hotel Montana--a sprawling hotel that makes no sense spatially, but is full of charm and character and forces you to take.your.time. Because you're not going anywhere quickly.
• I went from apartment hunting in San Francisco to office hunting in Haiti. We saw about 10-15 places; mostly large homes being rented for offices. One place in particular was enormous and creepy. We were convinced someone died there. It was full of antiques, including Medieval torture devices and pictures of white children everywhere. It looked like someone took off in the middle of the night and never returned... Salsa music was blasting from a radio from the 1940s while we looked around.
• Getting to see the US Embassy was very cool. The building is brand new and you feel like you're in the U.S. far from Haiti. It is freezing cold and germ free, to the best of their ability, we hear.
• Learning about USAID rules and regulations from the project standpoint, along with the price of generators (a  must have here) and inverters and cell phone services and what you need to run an office here and have a life here.
• You can pay mostly anywhere in US Dollars, Haitian Gourdes (40 Gourdes to $1) or Haitian Dollars, which are 5 Gourdes. Confusing? Yes.
• Dinner on the rooftop of the hotel eating pizza and drinking wine and sharing stories, overlooking the entire city.
• Meeting in person consultants I've been emailing or Skyping with for ages.
• Conducting interviews for our local staff in French, English, and Spanish. Actually, having all conversations with a mix of all  3 languages. Actually 4--smatterings of Creole.
• Random moment--Ms. Bolivia wandering around my gate in Miami looking for her flight, in full get-up including a sash and carrying a huge bouquet. Huh.
• Pulling up to a potential office space, which is a huge house, right next door the President Preval's private home, and the guy showing us the place rolls down the window and asks the armed guard, "Hey! Where's Preval?!" And so on... Just chatty as can be and you know what? Had Preval actually been there, we all got the feeling he would have let us right on in to have a chat with him. 
• Learning some Creole.
• Never feeling worried or unsafe, despite the fact that Haiti is one of the most dangerous countries.
• Finding out that everything negative I've heard about Haiti has been wrong. 

Happy 4th of July from Haiti! I spent the 4th working for part of the day, having multiple interviews and meetings in order to hire our local staff, then driving around visiting office space--abandoned homes that are offered up as offices. It's incredible the homes that we've seen, from the elite wealthy of Haiti. We've seen some enormous homes, still decorated with their furniture and paintings and family photos. It makes me sad; these ghosts of homes where there was so much life before. It appears that people escaped in the middle of the night. Who knows what they were runnning from. We also stopped along the side of the road to buy some local art. Good thing Johnny was there to barter! We got great deals and enjoyed ourselves. One older gentleman who was showing us his art and being a pro salesman took down a drawer filled with odds and ends and showed us his passport from the 1960s, along with his visa to live in the U.S. He also showed us worn and damaged pictures of himself as a young man. He lived in NYC for some time. Now, he stores his long-expired passports in a drawer loaded with papers on top of a fridge in a make-shift art studio along the side of the road. I believe that he and his family lived behind it, in a shack. What a life he has lived.

I've been here in Haiti for 13 days. I wanted to write a travel blog from the moment I arrived, but we've been so busy working at starting up our USAID justice project here that it hasn't been possible.

I'll never forget this country, this experience, this strange and beautiful and poverty-stricken and polluted and kind country. I was trying to prepare myself for the worst--danger around every corner, malaria, violence, the unknown. I have found, though, that here, as anywhere, given the right tools, you can be happy and make a good life for yourself. I have been truly touched by some of the people I've met, especially our Haitian assistant and IT guru, Johnny, who as become a friend.

There is so much of this country that Johnny hasn't seen before. It's been so fun to explore Haiti with him and watch him see parts of his own country for the first time. Last weekend, we had some time to explore, so left for the mountains with our driver Cameleau behind the wheel. It was a phenomenally bumpy ride to Kenscoff--the worst roads I've ever seen have been in Port-au-Prince. Aside from the conditions of the roads, there are people walking everywhere and cars driving right at you with no road signs, traffic lights or rules of the road. Surprisingly, surrounding areas have better roads, some freshly paved. To get to the mountains, we drove for over an hour, winding up, up, up as the temperature dropped and the greenery increased and the earth turned a deep orange/red. There were cows and goats tied to ropes grazing along the side of the road and people strolling along balancing impossibly large items on their heads, going about their lives. The balance of items on the head is an incredible talent taught young and seen all over Haiti.

We arrived at The Lodge, an inn run by an eccentric Canadian alcoholic man named Stanley. As we got out of the truck to take a look around, he came out and said, "Do I know you?" He gave us a tour of the place, including a stop at a huge moose head where he told us the words for "moose" in Montreal versus Haiti versus English. He then told us he had to go find his drink and we could take a look around. We spotted Stanley a few minutes later giving a tour to other people, carrying his drink in one hand, and a bottle of booze in the other. The Lodge is a lovely lodge (aptly named) set in the middle of the mountains. It's like a slice of Canada. In Haiti. Huh. The random moments of Haiti have not ceased to amaze me. 

The next day we went another direction, to Club Indigo, a beach club about 2 hours from Port-au-Prince. We piled in the truck again and made our way. We drove through downtown and stopped to take a picture of the court house for one of our reports and we continued on through the poorest area of Port-au-Price, called Cite de Soleil. It was hard to see, to say the least. Bullet holes in walls, shanties, piles of garbage, people selling anything they could get their hands on, burning trash... Along the drive we saw rivers filled with bottles and trash and hills where trash is dumped. Clearly, recycling isn't a top priority, but quality of life and life expectancy would increase if there wasn't so much trash everywhere. I'm bringing my plastic bottles home. I can't contribute to this.  

Club Indigo was yet another grand test of patience as we sorted through how much the entrance fee was, how many orange tickets came with our entrance that bought us food and drinks, etc. I suggested to the woman at the counter that she may want to make a sign that explains that various prices and food options, which would make her life easier. Her eyes lit up and she said, "That's a great idea!" It seems she hadn't thought of this before. I know for sure no sign will be posted! We had a lovely day lounging on the beach and dipping into the way-too-hot pool. The palm trees, the sand, the blue sea... It was lovely. I had the pleasure of giving Johnny swimming lessons! We started in the sea and then I recommended that we move to the pool. He did great and is a pro at under water swimming! It's so fun to watch someone learn something new.

Things that I've noticed about Haiti:

·         Every one carries 2 cells phones, at all times, in case one provider goes out, you've got your back-up.

·         Petion-Ville, where our hotel is located, along with all over this area, buildings are very colorful and people are always walking around, moving things, busy, busy.

·         UN trucks rule the road here. They are all over.

·         It is illegal to carry guns in your car, but you definitely see plenty of guns outside of cars; armed guards and small children wielding machetes.

·         The fresh fruit is delicious and served often.

·         Haiti is way more veggie-friendly than I imagined. I've eaten very well here! Including a spicy pickled cabbage with red hot peppers that goes on everything and I can't get enough of. It's hot as hell, but I love it.

·         The elite prefer to speak only in French, not in Creole.

·         Creole is spoken way more then French, though most people are bi-lingual

·         "Mesi anpil" means "thank you very much" in Creole. "Na pale demen" means "We'll talk tomorrow".

·         People are so friendly and they greet you with "bonjour" or "bonsoir" all the time. 2 kisses are given and/or hand shaking for everyone in the room.

·         The grocery stores are filled with U.S. products. You can pretty much get anything here that you'd get in the U.S. In my case, that included Heinz pickles and Silk soy milk. Of course, I also stocked up on delicious local products like coffee and peanut butter and Barbancourt rum.

·         Most people know about Unicef, MINUSTAH, UNDP, USAID, etc. Development programs are the norm here.

·         The bus system are called Tap Taps and they are pick-up trucks with benches and roof and about a million people crammed in. They even have Tap Tap stops, but that could really be anywhere along the road, not necessarily at the stop. They are often decorated with bright colors and beautiful designs. In general, packing people into buses, including loading people, or even caskets onto the roof for transport is common. Yes, I said caskets, because we saw this on our way to the beach. It was just tied to the roof. I thought it was a fridge at first...

·         The sunsets and the thunderstorms can take your breath away.

·         Salsa music in Creole is pretty cool and you hear it a lot. The local music is called Kompa, which has some similarities to merengue.

•    Electricity only lasts about 8 hours a day and then the generators kick in. If you have one. People lose electricity and go about their business and that's just the way it is. We were grocery shopping one day when it happened and we just kept on shopping. It's really a pain when your laptop battery is dead and so when it goes out, you lose those emails you were working on...
• We take so much for granted. Clean water, flowing at all times, waste management, recylcing programs, electricty all the time, well-paved roads... 

 

More to come.

 

Good night from Haiti.

 

 

dear vox friends, I feel so horrible and guilty for saying this  - but I must leave vox. I am still a Movable Type User - and I know that because you made MT you udoubtably have the capacity to make vox  just as excellent. Until you do, I'm going to wait out at www.triciawang.tumblr.com.

My hopes are that you invest the same kind of energy in vox as in your other amazing tools - such as typepad and movable type. I hope that your vox support start answering user's messages - I've emailed soooo many messages to the support team but I have never heard back from anyone :( I hope that you will give users the option to export their posts (not just import), fix the buggy servers, fix blog entry section - it's impossible to highlight a few words,editing, give more options to users to customize the side bar and redesign the way advertising is placed. 

I love that I can make posts private, or just for friends or just for neighbors. I love that. I love that this has been my personal blog for the last 3 years. Tumblr will be my  personal blog and Movable Type will continue to remain my professional blog at www.youmeiti.com.  I love MT 4.25 - it's beautiful - can vox be just as well-thought out!!

Bye Vox - and vox friends i will still pull your feeds into my google RSS reader, so I will still comment and read your private posts.

Oh and since you are going to check out my new blog, check out two more blogs that I just launched!:
Cultural Bytes  - where I write about my research on new technology users

::Dichos y Vida - where I write about all my favorite quotes!

::Tricia is Reading This - all the things I find interesting from my RSS reader

And i'm going to start blogging again on my movable type blog:YouMeiTI , where I write about Chinese Youth, Media and Information Technology.

To pull ONE RSS FEED of all my blogs, please cick on this soup.io link,
To pull on RSS feed of all my media - from flickr to youtube to vimeo - please use this soup.io link.

Annie posted a comment made by lofty editors at Draft Mag (reposted by Jeff Hammett ) about the Festival of Beers,

"Occasionally, we consider moving to San Diego. It’s warm. All the time. It’s beautiful. All the time. The people are attractive. All the time. Honestly, what’s not to like? Then you visit, however, and realize it’s essentially a city devoid of culture, unless you consider being a stop on the way to Tijuana an important cultural experience. We don’t."

annie  then insightfully points out,

"We just have to look harder… I know there are some pockets of culture here and there (music! delicious food! lotsa museums!), but definitely not in La Jolla."

I am really glad that Annie posted her response. When I read Jeff's comments I became very upset but I couldn't articulate it at first. Because one, I am not a fan of San Diego and often find myself talking about why I am uncomfortable when I am in SD, and two I agreed with parts of what Jeff wrote - that sure it is warm and sure most people consider a visit to Tijuana a "cultural experience."

After a few minutes of Tricia the Wolf personality where I wanted to bite off Jeff's head and the heads of every tourist who make comments about "culture" and san diego I decided that a more constructive approach was better than nurturing cannibalistic thoughts.

What is culture? I define it as beliefs, practices and values.

Many of time tourists want to have a "cultural experience" when they visit a town - but this usually means they want to eat food that interesting enough but not so authentic that their taste buds would have to be challenged into liking it and go to museums that are artsy enough so that they feel good about learning about "others." 

The problem is that most tourists come to SD and they visit just a few miles - between 30 to 40 miles I would conjecture - they will go south on the 5 to Coronado but no farther, and then up north on the 5 to La Jolla. The brave ones will say I want to go to Mexico so they will bypass everything between downtown SD and Tijuana. Tourists then say they either LOVE SD or they HATE it. LOve it because great weather and people. HAte it because no culture. So Jeff here sits on the latter. Actually this dichotomy is one that is most often reified by those who live within the 30 mile swatch.

so what's my beef with the lofty editors at DRaft Mag?  From here on, I will refer to the Editors of Draft Mag as "Crocodile Face."

• culture is more than a beer festival and a 30 mile swath of predesignated tourist stops. So if you don't leave the 30 mile swatch that I have circled in orange, then you will feel that there is "no culture" in San Diego

• Actually that feeling that  Crocodile Face has of "no culture" points to the the dominance of white, elite, culture. So what's is beef with white culture?  I don't like it when people claim that white people don't have culture - especially it sounds most lame when white people go to places where the white population forms the majority in demographics and they walk away screaming, "there was no culture!" 

• if one defines culture as the experience of lots of public events with people of color all around you smiling and talking, then Crocodile Face is right - there is a lack of public cultural events in SD that brings together a diversity of people.  So yes the beer festival that Crocodile Face attended probably didn't have all the blacks and latinos out of ther neighborhoods. Oh and probably not a lot of asians either huh? That's cuz we like to have private tea festvals with dragons (just kiiidddding)

• so you don't want to live in SD cuz there's no culture here huh? Let me explain to you the position that you are in to EVEN make that statement in the first place.  The author, Crocodile Face,  is in a position of luxury to even say that he could pick up and leave his  city and move to another just because it might be more cool than where he is living now -  - now I am in his position also - I am the person who is in position of priviledge to say that I can pick up and move.  I picked up and left california to move to NYC solely based on the reason because I wanted to - I didn't know anyone - I had never been there - but it sure looked great from the movies and NYC has this feeling of cultural greatness that I wanted to understand.  But I knew that for me to experience culture in NYC, it had to be beyond just eating authentic food and going to museums - I knew that I wanted the experience of being adopted into a community, to work with a community, to share common values and goals and to work towards similar missions.  But tight communities have tight ties.  Neighborhoods that are seem to have a strong sense culture tend to have strong social ties and networks - that means people know each other, they hang out together, and they watch out for each other. But it's hard to get into these networks   So I knew that I had to work extra hard to become involved and to gain the trust of the community that I wanted to work in. I also knew that I wouldn't be able to join the communities that I wanted to work in (mainly lower-income, black and latino) by living in Manhattan. So  I made the choice to live in areas where I wanted to invest my time to getting to know my neighbors. So if the author, Jeff, makes the decision to not move based on his perception of lack of cultures other than dominant, white, middle-upper class san diego culture ---perhaps that decision can be re-evaluated once he stops through Chula Vista and see those cultures.

• Now if an outsider (this includes me), goes to Chula Vista or National City or parts of Escondido - it may still feel that the most culturally diverse place is Walmart! So where are all the people of color on the streets in these areas south and north of the 30 mile SD dominant culture swatch? One of the issues with SD that Crocodile Face picked up on is the lack of visible diversity - and Annie says that we must look harder- Annie is right. We do have to look harder. But i think SD is particularly hard city to "Look in" if one doesn't understand the culture of migration and fear in San Diego  and as  two cultures that are inextricably linked.  Even though SD has one of the highest populations of Latinos - why is it so hard to see see Latinos? Why isn't it like other cities where you can step out in certain neighborhoods and feel culture dripping from the clouds? It's because SD, with help from the federal government's ICT unit and leftover autocratic, facist Bush administration policies, has done a wonderful job at creating one of the most hostile city environments for Latinos in the USA. SD sits at one of busiest border border crossings in the world and the busiest in the USA - it is also the site where undocumented Mexican migrants come to support our economies.  What's been happening lately is that the immigration officials have been rounding up anyone who has dark skin, detaining them, and questioning them.  What they are doing is illegal and the ACLU San Diego Chapter is doing a lot to fight this. With all the immigrant raids on Mexican families  - many who are citizens and unevenly documented Mexican families (e.g. in some families the parents will have citizenship but one of their kids may be undocumented), the ICE officals along with the silent compliance of local and county police officials, have created a widespead fear among neighborhoods with high numbers of Mexicans.  The levels of fear are so high that families are scared to leave their houses. Undocumented people are scared to walk around on the streets. Even those with documentation are getting harrassed. All of this has created a culture of fear among the Latino community in SD - So tourists of SAn Diego -  if you wonder why you don't see more Latinos on the street - it's because they are not comfortable walking around like you or I - like someone who is a citizen.

• In the context of the culture of fear and an understanding of the culture of migration, SD doesn't lack "culture," it just has a lot of "hidden culture." A lot of cultural practices, celebrations and etc are taking place indoors. The kind of public celebrations that could possibly bring lots of different cultures together aren't as frequent - with the exception of JOB's annual fiesta - which is an organization that is doing some of the most exciting coalition building and community organizing work in SD.  It's hard to get people out of their houses when they are afraid to come out! JOB, lead by Norma Chávez- Peterson,  is organized by people of color who work within and with Mexican and black communities - so there is a higher level of trust to attend their annual Fiesta - which you should be attending in August if you want to find evidence of vibrant culture in SD. Last year my girl norma rodriguez organized the festival.
  

So my beef with SD is that there is one dominant, white, middle-upper class culture. I have no beef with the dominant culture in SD as it is one that I share many common values with (and I live within that 30 mile radius so to say that I am not a part of dominant culture is a farce), but my problem with it is that it is the dominant one! And so much of local San Diegan culture is hidden because of the fear among immigrants. The treatment of migrants is just horrific in San Diego - they are terrorized and treated like animals at times. Not all white people in SD feel this way in SD, but a large enough population of Caucasians in SD who hate Mexican immigrants have created a level of fear so high that they have been successful in scaring away the Mexican community back into their own homes, neighborhoods and centers. So if you are walking around downtown or in Pacific Beach thinking where are the people of color, take a look around you and look harder, They are there. they are working. they are just trying to blend in and go home at the end of the day.

** for an example of the unbalanced representation of Latinos in SD, read my post on what happened in the 2008 San Diego Wildfires, San Diego Fires - How Race and Class are Covered by the Media - We have no "refugees" here, and how I and others created a roundtable to discuss these issues

this is a must read post on Racialicious by Tami on what the media is doing when it comes to mediating the life of Michelle Obama.

Between “Mammy” and “Miss Ann”: The “problem” with Michelle

"Privilege hates to lose it’s place. Privilege believes that it deserves to be exulted above others. Indeed, it resents when the “other” is elevated to equal status, particularly when the “other” refuses to conform to the rules that privilege has put in place. So, the criticism of Michelle Obama’s physicality and sartorial choices comes as no surprise.

Most mainstream media are on board the FLOTUS love train. They call the First Lady beautiful. They love her unique style. They cherish those awesome, toned arms. They love her modern marriage. They celebrate her role as a mother. All of this talk about appearance and being a wife and mother–stereotypical feminine ideals–is driving some white feminists to distraction. They think this focus diminishes Michelle Obama’s considerable intellect and professional achievements. Most black women I know see things differently. The so-called feminine ideal is a tyranny to all women, but it is white women who stand as its embodiment. In the public consciousness, black women are almost never the most beautiful ones or the good wives or mothers. White women see Michelle Obama getting pushed into a feminized role and lament that this always happens to women. Many black woman recognize that it rarely happens to us and we are happy that people are finally recognizing our femininity.

The criticism that Michelle Obama has received, among the accolades, is instructive about the way black women are often viewed by the American public. Yesterday’s New York Times “Opinionator” column rounds up Web analysis of reactions to Michelle Obama’s style and appearance, particularly on the first couple’s recent European trip.

Reading about Juan Williams’ “Stokely Carmichael in a dress” comment, hearing the constant pondering of the first lady’s large buttocks and strong arms, and witnessing ongoing attempts to portray her as domineering, a narrative emerges that is not unfamiliar: Black woman are big, aggressive–not feminine, but masculine. Perhaps the only stereotype missing is the hypersexual tag that we often get saddled with–hypersexuality that is the opposite of the virginal feminine ideal.

Some folks clearly resent the presence of a black woman in an iconic position of American womanhood–one that is not meant for us.

Take the nitpicking about the First Lady’s clothing. Fashion press, as well as designers Donna Karan and Oscar de la Renta have sniffed at Obama’s choices of niche designers and off-the-rack clothes. Karan reckons Obama is going through a phase: “I hope and believe this is just a moment.” While de la Renta questioned the wisdom of wearing a sweater to Buckingham Palace. And, of course, there is the constant sniping about the First Lady’s shockingly uncovered biceps. "

update - I found two really smart posts about this media debate over Michelle's femininity - one post here and another here - both are by Cocoa Fly. Here are some pieces of writing I liked from Cocoa Fly's Back Up Off the First Lady:

"And finally, Michelle Obama is NOT Jackie O. I'm tired of folks saying, "Jackie Kennedy wouldn't do this. Jackie Kennedy wouldn't wear that," when Mrs. Obama does something people don't like. Michelle Obama is making her own legacy and Jackie Kennedy is not the current First Lady. Last time I checked my calendar it read 2009, not 1962."

"People have talked about Lady O's looks, called her "angry," "militant" and "unpatriotic." She was even called "trash" and "bitch" by pundits. I was so frustrated when I heard the "trash" and "bitch" reference. It makes me angry because there are racist undertones to some of these comments. Would they call her these things if she weren't black? I've never seen a First Lady so criticized, attacked and disrespected. I didn't agree with the way Pres. G.W. Bush ran the country but I never thought to call Laura Bush vulgar names or Hillary Clinton, Barbara Bush, Nancy Regan, etc. SOME people can't handle seeing an intelligent black woman who is poised and living a luxurious lifestyle."

kenyatta came up with the idea of Know Your Meme last year. When he told me about it, I didn't realize the importance of having a show like Know Your Meme - a show that just reports on Memes with a "scientific" approach .

So with ellie, jamie and a great researcher chris J menning - oh and great editors - this show is one of the best video blogs out there!

What I think makes Know Your Meme stand out is the insightful writing and damn good research.
I love that kenyatta writes the scripts in a way that do not give simple answers for why something becomes a meme. Chris conducts AMAZINGly thorough research - they don't these kind of research skills in school. Then kenyatta frame it in the larger context of internet culture. The the kenyatta magic is the best at the end of the meme video - where he gives  the macro perspective of the sociologically meaning of the meme.

After a few months past their start up period - I feel that Know Your Meme has finally found its rhythm and knows to work with their resources. 
 
And of course the writing wouldn't matter if there wasn't such a great crew, a great researcher like chris, great editors and a great company to build off of - rocketboom! 

Here are some of my favorites since they started last year. Check it out and add this to your RSS feed!

 
"why is the naked white baby oppressing the naked black baby?"

this is what would say if I was constantly suspicious of the everyday ways racism is reenacted in mundane practices of child play. But I am not that kind of person, so I wouldn't these kind of thoughts.

(I saw these dolls in a preschool in new jersey.)

I witnessed a really ignorant tourist interaction with a local when I took the Air Train from JFK.

In this picture below - I am sitting across from this tourist who is sitting in the most unsightly manner. The black kid sitting next to me saw this guy's wallet fall out of his pocket. His two friends didn't tell him. It was pretty obvious all 3 of them were drunk.
So the kid said,"Sir, your wallet  - it's out."
The guy's friend says, "you mind your own business - there's no money in it and who's gonna rob us - you?" Then the guy across me picks up his wallet and says,"who is going to mess with us?"

I was so disgusted at how they reacted. The kid was a being a good new york citizen by warning them that they should be careful with their items - and they blow him off and assume that the kid had motivations to rob them.

I looked over at the kid and said, "those guys might actually get jumped just because they are assholes"

I've never seen the unemployment line this far at the Brooklyn downtown office on Fulton. The line starts from inside and snaked down the block.