Haiti Project

*Figaro and my lecturer, Sam :)*

I’ve always heard Sam mentioning about the Haiti Project that he and a bunch of his other friends are working on, but I have never actually get the real details of it.

It surely touched my heart that such inspired and committed people of Haiti are trying to bring Haiti back to it’s own two feet through their business they are working on; creating more job opportunities for the people of Haiti, as well as goods to consume or use. Even though they know they have such limited resources to begin with, such challenges did not let the people of Haiti to give up. Sam and the others who are involved in this project to aid these entrepreneurs are definitely people with warm hearts.

I really see that these small businesses could truly help a damaged country like Haiti recover from her wounds. Even though some might not think that such small businesses are able to help such a LARGE country with poor resources to recover, what more advance into a more modern and developed country. These people should know that small things do matter and they do make a difference. It is only a matter of time that these businesses will become big, creating more job opportunities for the people of Haiti and providing food, clothes, decorations and many more to the people of Haiti without relying on imported goods which might be more expensive. In the long run, everything will be worth it.

*Figaro and her business :)*

Regarding the rice issue that Sam had discussed in class, where the US government subsidizes the local farmers to sell their ‘unwanted’ rice to the Haitians at a lower price, it surely had more negative effects on Haitians that its positives. Even though the people of Haiti do get to buy the cheaper rice from the US than purchasing the local rice, this results in a lower demand in local rice, hence affecting the agriculture industry as a whole! Jobs are lost as local farmers could not produce rice as much as they did before due to the cheaper imported rice from US. This has not only caused the people of Haiti to lose their agriculture and job opportunities in the field, but this has also caused the MONEY of the people of Haiti to go straight to the US, and not to the people of Haiti. The money flowing out of Haiti is damaging Haiti herself, rather than helping the country or the people.

In the end, only the US benefits from this ‘relationship’.

I am very sure that most of my American classmates hearing this issue are either in disbelieve or even disgusted with what have been going on with Haiti, and even with Africa in that matter. The 3 billion dollars that was supposed to be used to aid the people of Africa, 2.5 billion of it ‘returned’ back to the US itself. Who knows, maybe even the 5 billlion left did not even reach the people of Africa.

Hence, I know that not all Americans are responsible for this. But we should not just stand back and say “Even though I did not do it, I apologize for behalf of America.” But rather say “I’m sorry they did that, it is absolutely not right. I WILL FIX THIS.”

This corruption does not only apply to America alone, but other places around the world as well, especially if there are people of power with lots of money who misuse them for their own selfish reasons.

So here we go, youth of the world. Let’s make this Haiti Project a stepping stone for us to change the world. :)

*Figaro and her home*

Link to the main page on Haiti Project : http://www.worldinconversation.org/our-projects/haiti-entrepreneur-initiative/

Obama: Christian or Muslim?

I am sure that almost everyone who had one glance at Obama would immediately classify him as Black, even though he is actually multiracial. Even so, his race did not change my opinion of him negatively, but rather positively I must say before and after I learned from class that he is multiracial.

Everyone was indeed talking about how he is the very first Black president of the USA (even though he is not black 100%). Despite not being an American citizen, I could understand how the locals feel proud of their country as they finally took a step further to go against racism, to finally get past that ugly history of slavery. In addition to that, I managed to get a chance to hear one of Obama's speech on television before the election. Honestly speaking, I find Obama to be a very intelligent man, with so many words of wisdom that he had spoken during that speech of his. His skin color did not leave a negative impression in me, but after listening to his speech, I had double the respect for him for being so courageous to walk into the path that I'm sure he knows will not be an easy one.

There was once where Sam (my SOC119 lecturer) asked us vote on what we think Obama's religion is, and Sam got really upset when some of us said he was Muslim, and not Christian. Just because Obama was black, the whole nation questioned his religion even though Obama said that he was Christian. Racism, in America, still strongly exist, even towards the president of America! Sam said that if Obama was white, such a question will never be raised against the president of America.

I must admit that I was one of the person who voted and thought that Obama was a Muslim. I did it not because I questioned Obama's religion of him not being a Christian just because Obama was black, but I did it because I did hear rumors that he was a Muslim, and I was actually very happy about this. This is because if Obama was indeed Muslim, he would be the man who will be able to fight Islamophobia, the stereotypes of Muslims being terrorists and Islam being a violent religion after the horrible incident of 9/11. I believed that he was an intelligent and respectable man that could deny all the false news on a religion of peace. It wasn't, as Sam indicated in class, because I saw Obama as a person of color.

So after learning that Obama is indeed a Christian from class, my opinions of him did not change much (other than letting go of the hope for him to stand up for Islam). But truth be told, the people of knowledge can tell what is right and what is wrong, and take the right path with courage. ;)