Stories by Grant Fuller
Now Reporting: Mexico's Quiet Revolution The Zapatistas in 2010
The unique nature of the 1994 Zapatista uprising captured international attention for a number of years. Then, as guns were traded for diplomacy, the movement slowly faded from the media. Yet many of the initial causes of the revolt remain just as important today.
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Categories: CLP Updates
Creative Toys in Haiti
Children in developing countries don't often get to enjoy the privilege of playing with store-bought toys. But for most of them, it doesn't matter. They'll just put together their own makeshift toys to keep themselves occupied. From Port-au-Prince, Grant Fuller brings us a portrait of Haitian kids in an earthquake displacement camp, making do with what they've got.
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Categories: Haiti, Listen, Poverty and Development
Radios In Action Photo Slideshow from WSJ.com
From Tuning In, the Donate column of WSJ magazine's May issue, sights and sounds recorded on the streets of post-earthquake Port-au-Prince by CLP contributor Grant Fuller.
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Categories: Haiti, Watch, Listen, Poverty and Development
Shaved Ice in Port-au-Prince
What would it take to make the Haitian people laugh in the midst of the disaster? Grant Fuller brings us a story from Port-au-Prince about a street vendor who brings joy to people, one cup of shaved ice at a time.
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Categories: Haiti, Watch, Listen, Poverty and Development
Cell Phones in Haiti
In Haiti, it's common to see vendors walking down the street with phones in their hands. That's how they advertise what they're selling: not the phones themselves, but phone calls. Since the January earthquake, though, business hasn't been easy. Reporter Grant Fuller visited a displacement camp in Port-au-Prince, and met one of these phone-call sellers.
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Categories: Haiti, Listen, Poverty and Development
Ciné Institute
Haiti's only film school, the Ciné Institute, is based in Jacmel, a city hit hard by the earthquake. In the past two months, the young students at the Ciné Institute have given up making fiction and began making documentaries covering the earthquake's aftermath. They've even received international recognition for their work. Grant Fuller visited the school and brings us this story.
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Categories: Haiti, Listen, Poverty and Development
Rubble in Haiti
The government of Haiti has begun a massive cleanup effort, removing the thousands of piles of rubble left by from the January earthquake. A large dump site has been set up on the outskirts of town, and trucks full of debris arrive throughout the day. Reporter Grant Fuller tells the story of a man in Haiti who salvages metal from this rubble.
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Categories: Haiti, Listen, Poverty and Development
Day Twenty: The Body
It was a sight I expected to see. Bodies, corpses, cadavers, whatever you wanna call them. From the horrific shots of dump trucks carting them off to the gruesome stories told by friends who came before me, I knew I’d see something unpleasant. But it took me almost three weeks in Haiti, until my next-to-last day here, to see one single dead person.
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Categories: Haiti, Blogs, Poverty and Development
Day Nineteen: A Shadow of Its Former Self
I’m living in a dining room. Hotel Karibe was one of the finest hotels in Port-au-Prince. Now, its cracked-up main building is clearly unsafe for guests. But the rest of the hotel facilities (dining hall, conference center, restaurant) are in good shape. And so, for lack of a better option, they’ve emptied out the dining tables and set up 18 double beds around the perimeter of this spacious room. Welcome to the new Hotel Karibe, where privacy suddenly takes a backseat to safety.
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Categories: Haiti, Blogs, Poverty and Development
Days Sixteen to Eighteen: Runnin' on Empty
This 3-for-1 combo blog post is a good indication of how busy I’ve become. I only have two full days left in Haiti, so I’ve been trying to make the most of my time. At the risk of sounding like a whiny privileged foreigner, I’ll say that I’m tired. All the driving around, all the collapsed buildings, all the sad stories, all the nonstop work has started to take its toll. But then again, I obviously have nothing to complain about. So I’ll just shut up now, you’re welcome.
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Categories: Haiti, Watch, Poverty and Development
Day Fifteen: The Forever Drive
Hurry up and wait. That’s been the theme of my time in Haiti. Today was full of frustration as my best efforts were thwarted at nearly every turn. Even if you start at the crack-a-dawn, you can easily spend an entire day and get very little done.
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Categories: Haiti, Blogs, Poverty and Development
Day Fourteen: A Peek Outside the City
After two weeks in Port-au-Prince, I finally got a chance to see more of Haiti. I’d heard stories about places like Leogane and Jacmel. That they were completely flattened and had received an incredibly slow trickle of aid since the earthquake. I braced for the worst.
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Categories: Haiti, Blogs, Poverty and Development
Day Thirteen: Kids and Camps
You’ll have to excuse the excessive use of kid photos. Ever since the first couple days when I wrote that there were no children around, I’ve been surrounded by them.
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Categories: Haiti, Blogs, Poverty and Development
Day Twelve: The Delicate Balance
Before I came to Haiti, I had no idea what to expect. The image you get from the outside is of a completely destroyed wasteland where the most basic needs are nowhere to be found. No food and water, no electricity, no medical supplies, no nothing. Then, of course, you get here and realize the image in your head was a bit exaggerated. Yes, it’s a disaster zone and yes, people are struggling. But that suitcase full of bottled water, beans, and camping gear that I (perhaps naively) lugged over here hasn’t been the necessity I thought it might be.
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Categories: Haiti, Blogs, Poverty and Development
Day Eleven: Feeling Bad Feeling Good
I hesitate to even mention this because it’s a story we’ve all heard a thousand times in the past month: the tragic tale of another disaster victim. And yet that doesn’t make their stories any less heartbreaking, any less powerful. So here goes.
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Categories: Haiti, Watch, Blogs, Poverty and Development
Day Ten: Moving On
The period of mourning is over. And in my opinion, the country is better off than it was last week. I told a Haitian friend I thought it was the happiest three days of mourning I’d ever seen. She informed me that the word “mourning” wasn’t exactly the best translation. It was more like a time to hope, a time to remember.
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Categories: Haiti, Blogs, Poverty and Development
Day Nine: The Silent City
My first radio dispatch from Haiti hit the airwaves today on World Vision Report. Senegal offers to resettle Haitians in the land of their African ancestors. An intriguing thought, but many in Port-au-Prince aren’t ready to abandon ship just yet. Listen above. There’s also a slideshow, and an audio postcard of a church forced into the street.
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Categories: Haiti, Listen, Blogs, Labor and Immigration, Poverty and Development
Day Eight: A Time to Mourn
Today began three days of mourning in Haiti. Exactly one month ago, just before 5 p.m., “the event” struck this land. Finally, Haitians are taking time to honor their dead and reflect on their new reality.
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Categories: Haiti, Watch, Blogs, Poverty and Development
Day Seven: In Pictures
Traffic was a nightmare. Since most of my day was spent in the car, I'll give you a taste of what I saw.
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Categories: Haiti, Watch, Poverty and Development
Day Six: Time for a Change
This was a day for decisions. After spending all day on the UN base because of a story deadline, I decided I’m ready to get out. It’s been nearly a week, and I’m sick of this lifestyle. I go from the tent to the cafeteria to the Internet spot to the bathroom to the bank, and back again. Everything is so sterile, white-washed, without character. Sure, there are plenty of perks: free wireless, free lodging, plenty of food and water.
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Categories: Haiti, Watch, Poverty and Development
Day Five: Takin' Care of Business
It was a pretty uneventful day. It started off in the bank line on base. Since I’m trying to keep a low profile around here, I had no idea there was a bank.
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Categories: Haiti, Blogs, Poverty and Development
Day Four: An Ugly Tour
Surprise, surprise. I saw more destruction today. A woman I interviewed gave me a driving tour of her neighborhood. The school she grew up in, gone. The church her mother forced her to attend, gone. Her friend’s home, gone.
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Categories: Haiti, Blogs, Poverty and Development
Day Three: Life in the Camps
I called my interpreter this morning, wondering why she was running late. "I’m just waiting for the driver," she said. "I should still make it on time." That’s when I realized I’d been operating an hour ahead of Haiti for the past two days. Sigh. Definition of a boneheaded mistake. But seriously, who’d have thunk that two countries sharing the same island would be in different time zones?
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Categories: Haiti, Blogs, Poverty and Development
Day Two: A Dose of Downtown Reality
I take back what I said yesterday about the destruction not being so bad. Or rather, I’ll take this opportunity to revise it. Downtown Port-au-Prince is a disaster, no ifs, ands or buts about it.
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Categories: Haiti, Blogs, Poverty and Development
Day One: Santo Domingo to Port-au-Prince
I got a late start this morning, thanks to a slight wardrobe malfunction (forgot to bring underwear).
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Categories: Haiti, Blogs, Poverty and Development
Grant Fuller Reports from Haiti New CLP Collaboration
When Haiti was devastated by an earthquake Jan. 12, a flood of international media showed up to cover the shock and sadness of a terrible human disaster. But eventually, Haiti will no doubt fade from the headlines and the media will trickle out as the Haitian people continue rebuilding their lives. In the weeks and months ahead, it will be vital to keep up coverage of the massive, long-term recovery effort. Freelance reporter Grant Fuller will help fill the journalism void as he travels to Haiti and produces radio features, audio slideshows and print articles that tell the stories of the Haitian people trying to move forward.
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Categories: Haiti, CLP Updates, Poverty and Development
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