As a cane cutter, he said, he was lucky to earn $35 a week.

How is it that mortally tired cane cutters come to define themselves as 'weak' rather than overworked and exploited?

At one point she worked as a cane cutter on a plantation that her son would, as president, appropriate from its Asian owners.

Her parents and neighbors all work as cane cutters and lead a simple, impoverished existence that seems light years removed from the 21st century.

"They haven't the wits of our cane cutters," Ned agreed.

The exploitation of cane cutters in Haiti is notorious.

Wanting to hang the two cane cutters, but could find nothing for them to stand on.

"In the old days of slavery, they ruled us with a whip," said Warren Francis, a cane cutter back for his second harvest.

The stands at amateur games are filled with cane cutters and factory workers looking to enjoy life after a hard day's work in the fields.

"Time is on our side," Castro tells a group of cane cutters in a national telecast just before the start of this winter's harvest.