POSTPONED: Reactive Talk: Haiti past, present and future

This discussion will now take place as part of the First Wednesday event on February 3.

 

 

In the days since the earthquake struck reports from Haiti have focused on the country’s status as the poorest in the Western hemisphere. 
But how did Haiti come to be so poverty-stricken and its state so weak that it apparently collapsed along with the parliament and presidential palace?
This special event will examine the roots of Haiti’s troubles before the quake and hear from journalists who have reported from Haiti over the years and returned to cover this recent natural disaster.
To what extent did Haiti’s history effectively set it up for political and social collapse in the wake of the earthquake?
As the UN and NGOs struggle to get aid to the Haitians we will examine what it will take to secure the future of Haiti.

With: Astrid Zweynert, deputy editor of AlertNet; Andrew Taylor, Haiti Support Group

Moderator: Humphrey Hawksley, BBC foreign correspondent and author of Democracy Kills: What’s so good about the vote?

 

Astrid Zweynert, deputy editor of AlertNet, who has been coordinating Thomson Reuters’ first Emergency Information Service operation in Haiti from London;

Andrew Taylor is a long-standing member of the Haiti Support Group who has lived and worked in Haiti and is in close contact with a number of people in the country

Photo credit: United Nations Development Programme (Creative Commons Licence)