First thing: Watch The Act of Killing, if you are interested in war criminals not be serving civil justice and their integration into the community they harmed. It is about Indonesia, and it is takes more of an artistic, intimate psychological exploration into the war criminals than most traditional documentaries. The less known about the documentary going in, the more impactful the reaction. It is difficult to describe the feelings you feel when you watch- it is an experience.

Anyways, Danticat’s story takes an unexpected turn during the end of her book, which is extremely strange because you know the outcome and the big secret at the first story’s reveal. The reader realizes that Ka’s father is a dew breaker and his wife is fully aware of it since the beginning of the book. The dynamics of Ka’s parent’s relationship is strange but it seems to hold up at the beginning of the book. The dew breaker has become a caring father and husband who may not be perfect, like throwing out his daughter’s statue or his unreeling obsession with Egyptians, but he is still compassion and loving to his family and peaceful to others overall. However, the last chapter goes over to his less lovable past and what events led to the present situations mentioned earlier. This way the dynamics between the dew breaker and Anne become less comprehensible and the stories throughout the book that revolve around their relationship more contrived. Her husband’s former job was not some distant concept- she literally ran into him right after he shot her brother, and she chooses to ignore the obvious and move on with her life with him. To bridge this gap of reasoning or vengeance, Danticat uses metaphysical forces as a reinforcer to forgiveness. The dew breaker is punished by “hiding away” for his life in fear, while he is also saved by unseen forces. Dany never kills him and the death of his aunt cuts off motivation to do so, while Claude shows that to some degree people move on from killing each other, and although he was officially punished, his people still welcome him. Other suspected dew breaker, like the Emmanuel or the seamstress’s suspected follow are accepted like benevolent shadows. Women are often the doers that burden much of the weight between war and trans- immigration problems. Danticat tries to construct a frame in which Haiti can console its past and move on, as well as create this newer version of folklore for the various types of Haitians, connecting home bound and foreign bound/ born.

Lundy’s article examines the transnational actions of Haitian peoples after the earthquake in 2010. He has one especially charged sentence that he cannot just move on afterwards. The sentence in which he says in 2004 American/ Canadian supported thugs overtook President Jean- Bertrand Aristride because he posed real change for the poor. That is a hefty statement that needs a lot of proof and poses many implications.  Lundy goes on to detail all the support Haitians abroad gave to Haiti after the disaster, in the form of remittances, volunteer/ medical efforts, and hypothetical adoptions. He uses these examples to present the strength of the Haitian transnational community and its possible influence on Haiti in general. I have no doubt that Haitians across the globe did help and feel strongly motivated to help their family or brethren in the home country, but Haiti became a major global relief effort. I remember that numerous global organizations that participated in rebuilding Haiti that were not primarily under of concept of “Haitians helping Haitians.” Did global non-Haitian orientated organizations have more of an impact helping Haiti than purely the global Haitian community helping Haiti? What percentage of first/second/etc. generation of Haitian immigrants around the world contributed? He is also extremely optimistic about the level of loyalty and participation of second generation Haitians. Most admit to never having been to Haiti- identifying as an Haitian and actively participating in Haiti is entirely different. Their opinions about the situations in Haiti are handed down from their parents, I doubt if many could discuss or stay involved in Haitian affairs after their parents deaths. Also, going directly to Haitian clubs in colleges do not speak about the second generation as a whole. He is literally directing himself to people who he knows fits his theory. What about participation the other children mentioned who do not identify as Haitian and what percentage do they represent? How prevalent are these Haitian clubs in relation to the Haitian community or the school in general? They are probably tiny. I am not saying that Lundy is wrong in his optimism in the role of the Haitian transnational community, but I believe that his viewpoint is too focused for the more macro- image that he wants to create. But Wyclef Jean running for Haitian president and one of the biggest concerns is that he cannot speak Creole? I feel like there are some other glaring points there.