Landscapes | Haiti
Due to the civil unrest in response to recent [inapprehensible] political events, I had to leave Haiti early to ensure safe traveling within and out of the country. With that being said , I did want to say that the continuation of protests/riots/fires etc. do not speak to the kindness and immeasurable amounts of hospitality I received while there. The people of Haiti are hungry and tired of political corruption. Hopefully, a more promising turn of events is in the near future.
Through my travels, I was able to gain a personal perspective that is not often shared in the media. It is clear that the state of environmental degradation stems from political corruption and resource exploitation. As you can see in the photos above, Haiti has trees, Haiti has very lush landscapes and therefore, indicates that the environmental "catastrophe" in the area is not solely at fault of inadequate ecological condition. The "vast barren void" that the media heavily projects is a false generalization of the country as a whole. Seeing this first hand, the new questions I ask myself as I move forward in my research are - how do we design for bi-national communities dependent on these political powers and how can native/endemic plants provide a sustainable solution for communities to operate on a localized level?
