Portside

Today, things are as tense on the island as they have been in years. Within days, the Dominican government is expected to round up Haitians — or, really, anyone black enough to be Haitian — and ship them to the border, where they will likely be expelled. The government has described it, in terms chillingly reminiscent of the Holocaust, as a "cleansing" of the country's immigration rolls.

Five years after the earthquake that killed an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 people and rendered 1.9 million more homeless, the fraudulently elected administration of Michel Martelly has abandoned any pretense of democracy. In the first of a two-part series, veteran journalist Beverly Bell interviews Jackson Doliscar, organizer with the Haitian Force for Reflection and Action on Housing on the state of human rights in Haiti today.

An interview: In his new book, Haiti: Dilemas e Fracassos Internacionais (“International Crossroads and Failures in Haiti,” ), Seitenfus takes a long view of the electoral crisis that he witnessed in 2010. In his account, Haiti’s tragedy began over two centuries ago in 1804, when the country committed what Seitenfus terms its “original sin,” an unpardonable act of lèse-majesté: it became the first (and only) independent nation to emerge from a slave rebellion.

The series of agreements between Haiti and Vietnam, are proof that the South-South cooperation can lead to the fruitful exchange of resources, technology and knowledge. This cooperation provides the framework for a new form of long-term cooperation, which will enable Haiti to address food security, one of its main challenges. The government of Haiti hopes that these agreements will enable Haiti to leapfrog development stages and create a resilient agricultural system.