World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 - (Page 38)

Mixed Media Food for Thought Review the Price of sugar: how Much is too Much? A film by Bill Haney Narrated by Paul Newman Uncommon Productions, 2006 90 minutes www.thepriceofsugar.com Jaman Matthews, World Ark Associate Editor L 38 for another movie. The Price of Sugar is indictment enough without holding the evidence in your hand. this documentary, which has swept through film festivals from seattle to austin, picking up awards along the way, forces us to consider where our cheap sugar comes from and its true cost—to communities, families and human rights where sugarcane is grown. the dominican republic and haiti share a Caribbean island. the dominican republic is promoted as a tropical eave the Milk duds and r aisinets j a n uar y / feb ruar y 2 0 0 9 | world ark paradise for vacationers; haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere. the dominican republic is also the largest supplier of sugar to the united states. the country’s 250,000 acres of sugarcane plantations rely on the cheap and expendable labor of desperate haitians. the massive plantations, owned by super-rich families, bring undocumented haitians across the border, as many as 30,000 a season. haitians are attracted by promises of work and decent pay, only to find themselves trapped on the plantation being paid next to nothing for years of cutting cane. the workers are housed in crude, cramped barracks topped with barbed wire and armed guards outside to prevent escape. it is all overlooked because of the economic importance of the sugar plantations and the influence of the sugar families. one Catholic priest, the rev. Christopher hartley, was brave enough to venture into the bateyes, the tiny villages that are part of his parish, which he has called “the threshold of hell.” these bateyes populate the plantations of the vicini family, one of the largest sugar families in the dominican republic and had always been off-limits to outsiders, even to priests. but hartley went anyway and began to document the abuses: child labor, gun-toting guards, malnutrition, and clandestine cemeteries for uninvestigated deaths. he also brought in american doctors. he built feeding centers so the children of the bateyes could have at least one meal a day. for his efforts, he faced protests and death threats from the vicini faithful. The Price of Sugar is more than merely a profile of father hartley. it is a tool to raise awareness, especially among those who, in essence, subsidize this travesty: sugar consumers. hartley, visiting a young girl in a batey, says with his www.h ei f er .o r g http://www.thepriceofsugar.com http://www.heifer.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009

World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 Contents Letters For the Record The Good Life Asked and Answered Microfinance: A Lot for a Little Business is Buzzing in Honduras The World Grows Smaller Mixed Media Heifer Spirit Heifer Bulletin Calendar First Person

World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009

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