Life and Death in Haiti
Photographs by Jock FistickThe reason for going to Haiti was to report on how the embargo was affecting the Haitian population. The word from the White House was that the embargo was not aimed at hurting the Haitian people, but at toppling the military dictatorship that had ousted elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. At the time, most of the wire service reports were coming out of Port-au-Prince, and there had not been much extensive reporting on areas outside of the capital, or on what everyday life was like in Haiti. We felt that by concentrating our efforts somewhere other than Port-au-Prince, we could give our readers a different perspective, and hopefully a more accurate representation of how the embargo was affecting life in Haiti. We decided to focus on Cap Haitien, a northern coastal town with a population of about 250,000 people who had been living without electricity for two years. They had also been cut off from many of life's necessities, such as food and medical supplies, all due to the embargo. The following images were made during a one-week visit to Cap Haitien.
Before the embargo, Jean Noel Jackson ran his own business in Cap Haitien and was able to support his mother, wife and four children. As he watches his 7-year-old daughter Michelle play outside their home, he wonders where their next meal will come from.
A young boy walks along what used to be a scenic coastline in Cap Haitien. After two years without garbage service the area now called "The Ghetto" has become the city's trash dump.
A man exercises on the roof of one of the many one-room shanties
dotting Cap Haitien's landscape.
Students study under a streetlight outside one of the few homes that can afford to operate a gasoline-powered electric generator.
A coal merchant prepares an order for waiting customers. With gasoline and kerosene scarce and extremely expensive, coal is used as an alternative for cooking.
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All photographs