A Country of Overcoming, Haiti and Sisal
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/09/04
I am a writer and executive administrator for Trusted Clothes, which is an ethical and sustainable fashion organization. The following is a series devoted in honor of the work done in collaboration with the Schroeckers and the Trusted Clothes team. Part 1 of the article here.
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It does have a difficult time in growing in very moist or saline, salty, soil. It does show that it is resilient to disease, and it is typically harvested after about 2 years from its original planting and its productive cycle or life cycle can be up to 12 years, in which it can produce up to a total of 180 to 240 leaves for its growth depending on the level of rainfall, the altitude, and the location.
So, this can be of great use to areas such as Haiti in terms of its productive capacity and its capability provide for its own needs with such things as natural fibres. Or by making animal feed. It is interesting to note that the leaves themselves are about 90% moisture and yet still have a rigidity. It seems counterintuitive to me. In terms of its average yield, the dry fibres come to about one ton per hectare. Although, it is reported that East African crop for this fibre can grow up to four tonnes per hectare. That is an astonishing four-fold increase in the amount of fibre that is growing per hectare. What else is Haiti?
It’s a religious nation among many other things with about ¾ as Roman Catholic and 3/20ths Protestant with a sprinkling of Pentecostal, Advent, and the universalist religion of “other.” So, by any reasonable definition, a Christian influenced nation. They have another proverb: “Bondye bon.” Or God is good, sounds familiar? For whatever reason, I don’t know why, but this is bringing to mind Bach’s Cantata 54, BWV 54, for me, which went as follows:
Widerstehe doch der Sünde,
Sonst ergreifet dich ihr Gift.
Laß dich nicht den Satan blenden;
Denn die Gottes Ehre schänden,
Trifft ein Fluch, der tödlich ist.
In Standard English as a translation of the old German, this says:
Stand firm against sin,
otherwise its poison seizes hold of you.
Do not let Satan blind you
for to desecrate the honour of God
meets with a curse, which leads to death.
So, what, Scott? God is good, but Satan is tempting and sin is bad. Well, if it’s this kind of a religious nation, and we have good reason to expect this form of religiosity provide the numbers of the religious or Christian population in its citizenry, then the metanarrative for Roman Catholic and Protestant Christianity incorporate these narratives. Besides, those are damn good proverbs by my reading, and fabulous music by Bach too. It’s like double-bubble.
Sisal is also a major part of agriculture in the north coast region of Haiti. And it is used for rope, wallpaper, rugs, and other daily items of use to citizens of Haiti in various combinations and to different communities. Near the conclusion of sisal’s lifespan, it can grow to upwards of 15 feet in height and can have numerous plants and baby plants linked with it.
In other words, it is an abundant source of fibre for the Haitian people. The waste that is not used for ropes, rugs, and so on, is actually used to make, by a particular process, fertilizer or food for animals.
The process mentioned before is called decortication. Decortication is the crushing and beating of leaves by a rotation wheel with blunt knives. Once only the fibre remains, then the fibre is dried to get a high quality fibre by the removal of the moisture in the fibre prior to that the moisturizing process.
After that point, the fibre product is brushed and after that point it is then ready to be used for a variety of products including rope, rugs, wallpaper, and many other things of daily use in homes and various communities in Haiti.
In terms of sustainability and the ethical use of this particular fibre, it is one of the best around, especially for areas of the world where it is poor. It is one of the grand ironies, and not an original point to me or any one individual, that with climate change and global warming. That is, the advanced industrial nations are the major participants in the industries that pollute the environment, and the undeveloped nations or the poor of the world are not and are actually working to improve it. In addition, the indigenous communities of the world are the ones that are partaking in, not the industry, but the social and environmental activism to help with these global problems relevant to their local level.
There were consequences of the Industrial Revolution. We see them today. We see reactions to their consequences, of dead generations’ sins, today. On that same line of reasoning, that ‘grand irony’ of the modern era relates to one of the poorer areas of the world that are even under tremendous political turmoil and at the verge of a possible civil war, and are able to keep an industry that is both ethical and sustainable within the world.
Back to Haiti, and its fibre, sisal produces less carbon dioxide than it takes in and, therefore, it is a net negative carbon producer. It produces mainly organic wastes. To get to the close of this particular article, it is cultivated in many other areas of the world including Angola, Brazil, China, Cuba, Indonesia, Kenya, Mosinee, South Africa, and so on. And the estimated value of the 300,000 tonnes of output is upwards of 75 million dollars. I do not know the currency. It could be Canadian or American et cetera.
And following that earthquake and its own internal problems, which are, quite granted, numerous, there’s always some good, if you look close enough.
And by the light of Bach, and via the hope of Haiti: Degaje pa peche. To get by is not a sin.
And as with everything written, I could be wrong, incredibly wrong – think for yourself and come to your own conclusions. I’m human. I’m a writer. I have biases, fallibilities, and quirks – even some funny ones. My words aren’t gold, nor are they a calf. (And no bull!) Although, I will milk it.
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