A review by stevienlcf
Farewell, Fred Voodoo: A Letter from Haiti by Amy Wilentz

4.0

Amy Wilentz has been reporting on Haiti since 1986, immediately before Jean-Claude Duvailier “Baby Doc” fled the country. She knew Aristide when he was just a shantytown priest. Wilentz reluctantly returned to Haiti shortly after the devastating 2010 earthquake, and this work of literary journalism exposes the ugly underbelly of the international aid machinery (most of the $1.6 billion pledged by the United States in relief was given back to U.S. entities, such as Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, etc.), her impatience with the “disaster newbies” with their “salvation fantasies,” the humanitarian workers who enjoy big cars and nice apartments as part of the job, and the celebrities (Oprah, Anderson Cooper and Donna Karan) who adhere to the maxim coined by one Haitian urban planner that “a disaster is a terrible thing to waste.” Wilentz herself does not go unscathed in this admittedly jaundiced report. She acknowledges that she has profited from the continuing human tragedy since a large portion of her income has been derived from reporting on Haiti in the aftermath of the earthquake. Wilentz reserves her praise for the doctors and health care workers who offer an immediate, life-saving and life-changing effect, especially the dedicated doctor Megan Coffee who has been treating tuberculous patients for over two years. Interspersed with vignettes of contemporary life in Haiti, Wilentz offers a lucid summary of Haiti’s past (it staged the only successful slave revolt, it was the first black republic), the long history of meddling outsiders, and the corruption and the lack of a serious government that continues to plague the country today. Wilentz brings all of her formidable gifts as a reporter to this acerbic and probing report on a country for which she clearly has much affection.