Word: haitianize
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...mountains of very great size and beauty, vast plains, groves and very fruitful fields" that enchanted Columbus in 1492, when he landed on the island he called Espanola. In Haiti's unpolluted air, sunsets are breathtaking, night skies are spectacular, and colors so vivid that they have inspired Haitians to become a nation of artists. There are more mundane attractions. Five days in a comfortable Port-au-Prince hotel can cost as little as $125, including breakfasts and dinners-far less than in the more familiar Caribbean isles. Another lure is the quick divorce; Haitian courts issue divorce decrees...
...Haitian way of life has persisted almost unchanged since the slaves revolted, expelled the French and founded the New World's first black independent nation in 1804. Few countries in the colonial era were willing to deal with a country established on the dead bodies of former slave masters; in recent years the unsavory nature of the Haitian government has tended to keep that isolation intact. As a result, Haiti is a country that has turned in on itself and had little commerce with other nations, one reason for its dismal economic status (annual per capita income...
...occupy tourists for the good part of a week. In the well-to-do Lyles district, there are the remarkable Victorian gingerbread houses, with intricately carved balustrades and spires, that are now commanding Stateside real estate prices. At the Iron Market, beneath a twin-spired iron roof, hundreds of Haitian entrepreneurs haggle with tourists over the price of wood carvings, sisal mats, dolls and hundreds of other products displayed in crowded stalls. There is the formal city hall, outlined at night with strings of glowing light bulbs, and the National Palace, which is guarded during holidays by light antiaircraft guns...
...slums are swelling as peasants flock to the cities in search of the $1-a-day wage required by Haitian law. Many of the jobs they find are in small assembly plants, which contract with foreign firms for the cheap labor of Haitian workers. In one plant, 3.7 million Rawlings baseballs are stitched together every year for export to the U.S. Explains Owner Jules Tomar: "Baseball sewing is a nonexistent art in the U.S." But even these jobs are few and far between; at least one-third of the Haitian population is unemployed...
...little of that slack is being taken up by the popularity of Haitian art. One form is uniquely Haitian. Unlike other islanders in the Caribbean, Haitians do not use oil drums as instruments for steel bands. Instead they flatten the drums and cut them into graceful, imaginative steel sculpture. Pieces by Murat Brierre usually sell for about $300. But it is the primitive Haitian painting (much of it now mass produced and second rate) that has largely captured the imagination-and the dollars-of tourists. The bold, brilliant-hued Haitian art is displayed and sold everywhere: in a proliferating number...