See video here

Video description from Al Jazerra:  In 2008, in the midst of the global food crisis, we travelled to Haiti to look at the politics of rice - how such a fertile country became dependent on food aid.

In the wake of this current disaster, that dependence is - initially - going to deepen.

But as relief efforts slowly turn to plans for reconstruction, it is important to look back at the policies that brought Haiti to the brink in the first place, and the people who had their own vision of self-sufficiency all along.

Avi Lewis talks about the US role in the development of Haiti with PJ Crowley, the spokesman at the US state department, and Emira Woods, the co-director of Foreign Policy In Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies, and an expert on US foreign policy.

After every screening of the film, microfinance gets debated in one fashion or another. Here is a take on it from several experts:

"Microcredit is undoubtedly the most visible innovation in anti-poverty policy in the last half century. In the three decades since Mohammed Yunus gave his first loan to a group of Bangladeshi women, the number of microcredit borrowers has crossed 150 millions. The majority had no access to credit from banks before microcredit came to them. When they needed to borrow, and most people do at some point or the other–to pay for an illness or a wedding, to grow a business or to fix their roof—they would go to money lenders and pay rates that have, justly or otherwise, accounted for the universal unpopularity of moneylenders (they can be over 20% per month). Now they borrow from MFIs at significantly lower (though often high by US standards) rates. At the same time MFIs have managed to find ways to be financially sustainable and to keep growing fast."

Read the whole article.

Great video,albeit it a little old about integrating technology, like this blog into the development world.

To Help Haiti, End Foreign Aid

For Haitians, just about every conceivable aid scheme beyond immediate
humanitarian relief will lead to more poverty, more corruption and less
institutional capacity. Read the whole article.


Source: Mark Berg

On Monday, January 18th there will be two screenings in Montreal, Canada and on the 19th and 20th there will be screenings and discussions at Middlebury and in Montpelier, Vermont.  For more information, click on the links below.  Tim will be at all the screenings to introduce the film and to take part in a post film panel discussion.

• Montreal, Canada - January 18th, 3:00 at McGill Institute for the Study of International Development - Leacock Building, Room 232, 855 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal Canada
• Montreal, Canada - January 18th, 6:30 at Concordia University at 7141 Sherbrooke St. West., AD Building, Room AD-307
• Middlebury, VT - Jan. 19 - 5:30pm - Middlebury College, Robert Jones House
• Montpelier, VT - Jan 20 - 6:00pm - Capitol Theater and 7:30 Reception with filmmakers at Capitol Plaza Hotel (Ethan Allen Room)

Screening today!  January 7th at 7pm at the Bell Museum of Natural History in Minneapolis.  Check out the exhibit "HUNGRY PLANET: WHAT THE WORLD EATS" at the Bell before the show.

Talk-back after the film with filmmakers Nic, Daniel and Tim Klein.

More information here

One of the filmmakers, Tim Klein on WCCO radio - talking about "What are we doing here?" and the upcoming screening at the Bell Museum of Natural History in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  Listen here today after 1:15 CST

For more information on the screening at the Bell click here

Thursday, January 7, 2010, 7 p.m.

Free with museum admission. 

Join two of the documentary filmmakers after the screening for a brief discussion and take a tour of the museum's Hungry Planet exhibit.  More info on the Hungry Planet: What the World Eats exhibit is here.

There are thousands of orphanages in Africa - many of which are supported financially by the West.  Could that financial support be more effective if it went to surviving family members of orphans to help Aunts, Uncles and grandparents take care of their family members?  In a new article by CELIA W. DUGGER and slide show by Moises Saman of the NY Times suggest just that. 

Check out the article here. 

Slide show here.