Government Issues
Farmer believes that it is important to talk about the systematic and structural issues related to conditions that cause suffering because many third world countries such as Haiti are living in poverty due to the lack of the government addressing critical issues that are deep inside the population. This issue could be tied into our own U.S government on how they treat different races. In Haiti, during the readings, Farmer talks about how only the soldiers are getting paid over the citizens who are struggling to even get food on their table. Farmer talks about how since the soldiers are the only ones getting a flow of income, they are able highly regarded especially from the females to be able to get into a relationship with them. This raises the issues of systematic and structural issues in that, many of the Haitian family would have their daughter to try and court a soldier so that they are able to receive income benefits from the soldier. This act is very outdated, stemming from the old times where people would marry for money. This structure of having the Haitian population not receiving any source of income and the government not trying to fix things at all proves that there is a whole structure imbalance in the country. As Farmer talks about how these “water refugees” became exceedingly poor (32), they struggled with having food on their table and the government not being there to give aid to the citizens of the people living by the river. This impacts the textual worksheet that I researched about in that, many of the people living on Canal Street do not receive any aid or benefits from our government because they are shunned from our society. They are looked down upon as a negative growth, from what I read about in one of our reading. With this in mind, our government quickly shuts down whatever whenever concerns of undocumented immigrants are brought up.
In Acephies story, she had to try and catch a soldiers attention to try and get income from him, because as mentioned before, soldiers are the only one to receive a flow of income from the gov. This strategy of having parents get their kids to marry a soldier is unfair treatment and very sexist towards them. They are potentially using their bodies to grab attention from the soldiers to get income benefits. What struck her the most was that she contracted AIDS mysteriously and with her living in poverty, she did not receive the help she needed. In ChouChous however, he experienced military brutality through martial law that was implemented after a long harsh dictatorship was ended. Through this, the U.S government decided that this is the best bet for Haiti to become a democratic state. ChouChou was then blacklisted by the military because we was telling the truth about the conditions in the area. Soon after he was taken to a military checkpoint and beaten mercilessly for simply trying to speak out what is right. This is a whole issue systematically because they are living in fear and forced to conform to these issues that are harsh towards the citizens. In the end ChouChou was tortured to death because they framed him for stealing bananas and he was beaten and degraded by the soldiers. When his body returned, he had so many torture marks that it was disturbing to see. This is degrading in that, living under martial law, the citizens basically have no rights at all and are forced to comply under the authority of the military, and if they don’t, they are beaten. This is relatable to our community because they basically do not have any rights at all according to the gov. They are getting paid less than minimum wage like Acephie who only received $30 a month and do not have the right to speak up to authority because they could either get deported to back to where they came from or even jailed.
The concept of accompaniment helps with my role and relationships in my community partnership because we are able to help guide these kids step by step into a future that is much brighter than what their parents have to deal with. In my community, since it is middle schoolers, they do not think much about the future because they are still kids, but as they get older they start to realize what in life is important for them and what they need to do to succeed. When they learn to realize this, they start to take more things into consideration such as seeing their parents work hard or seeing the injustices that go on in their community. All these things will come to them as they get older and start to value what is important. Being there to guide them and help them brings a sense of friendship and belonging because their partners take time out of their day to be able to help these kids struggling with finding a role model.
