June 9th, 2010 12-2PM
Busboys and Poets Langston Room, 14th & V St NW , Washington DC
Salon Event: Making Its Mark - South Africa and the 2010 FIFA World Cup
In June, the first coin of the 2010 FIFA World Cup will be tossed in host country, South Africa . Amidst the entire African continents' excitemement over its hosting debut, South Africa will once again make its mark as the midfielder of the seamless intersection of soccer fever and government and corporate accountability. Join labor, gender, peace and justice activists and true fans of the sport to make South Africa 's mark count. Midfielders, strikers, forwards and defenders...let the games begin!
Dave Zirin (Edge of Sports Radio), Emira Woods and Tope Folarin (IPS) will start the discussion at this salon series event.
Please RSVP to sena@ips-dc.org or call 202-787-5277.
Speakers:
* Dave Zirin is a national sportwriter and the host of Edge of Sports on XM Radio "where sports and politics collide".
* Emira Woods is the Co-Director of the Foreign Policy In Focus project at the Institute for Policy Studies where she sheds light on issues ranging from debt relief, gender equality, trade and development to US military policy.
* Tope Folarin is a Newman Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies. He focuses on African politics, the racial-wealth divide in the United States and any intersections therein.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
UN Clash with Frustrated Students Spills Into Camps
UN Clash with Frustrated Students Spills Into Camp
Inter Press News
By Ansel Herz
PORT-AU-PRINCE, May 25, 2010 (IPS) - United Nations peacekeeping troops responded to a rock-throwing demonstration by university students Monday evening with a barrage of tear gas and rubber bullets in the area around Haiti's National Palace, sending masses of displaced Haitians running out of tent camps into the streets, according to witnesses.
"That child was gravely injured in the face! It was miserable, they were throwing gas everywhere," said Junior Joel, a young man hanging with friends at night outside the palace - still partially collapsed from the January earthquake.
Three volunteer doctors from the NGO Partners in Health who were working in the emergency room of the General Hospital said they treated at least six individuals with wounds from rubber bullets.
"They were bleeding," Sarah McMillan, a doctor from New Hampshire, told IPS. "There was a little girl with a big laceration on her face. It needed about 10 stitches. She'll probably have a scar."
The girl was discharged from the hospital and could not be found in the tent camp as of publication time.
Thousands of families are crowded into the public squares in the Champs du Mars zone around the palace, after the earthquake killed at least 200,000 people and drove nearly two million from destroyed neighbourhoods.
A coalition of political organisations called Tet Kole, Haitian Creole for "Heads Together", has staged protests in the area for the past month, demanding the resignation of President René Préval over his handling of the post-earthquake crisis.
The walls of the Faculty of Ethnology school are dotted with graffiti denouncing Préval and the United Nations. Students said they gave Brazilian peacekeeping troops stationed in jeeps outside the campus the middle finger sign late Monday afternoon.
When the troops tried to enter the campus, angrily calling students thieves and vagabonds, the students showered them with rocks. As the soldiers fled, they fired three bullet rounds in the air and one of them struck the front-facing wall of the school, students said.
When the troops returned in bigger vehicles, Frantz Mathieu Junior said he ran to hide in a bathroom, but the soldiers kicked the thin wooden door open. Junior said he was forced to the ground and kicked repeatedly, then taken away. He says he was force-fed while in detention.
The students showed IPS on Tuesday the cracks in the wooden door and the bullet hole next to a second-storey window. After Junior was taken on Monday, they took to the streets in an angry protest, throwing more rocks.
Edmond Mulet, the head of the peacekeeping mission - known by the acronym MINUSTAH - issued a statement blaming an unnamed student for "the provocation" of throwing stones at a patrol, but apologising for the troops' intrusion on university grounds to seize him.
U.N. troops never fired any bullets or tear gas on Monday, said MINUSTAH spokesperson David Wimhurst. He said only pepper spray and rubber bullets were used to quell an out-of-control protest.
CNN crews heard gunshots, smelled tear gas and saw gas canisters littering the area surrounding the palace. According to witnesses from the surrounding tent camps, U.N. troops blanketed the area with tear gas and fired rubber bullets at 6 p.m. on Monday.
"Everyone ran because nobody wants to be around when there's so much gas," Joseph Marie-ange, a 24-year-old mother of four, told IPS. "They're abusive. They shot the gas in here and the children and elders were falling, everyone was feeling the effects."
Hours after the protests and swirling gas dissipated, Levita Mondesir trudged with her three-month-old baby towards the General Hospital's exit.
"We live in Place Petion, across from the Ethnology school," she told IPS. "The students came, then MINUSTAH released the gas. When I got back to the camp, everyone was running, so I ran too."
"I tried to cover my child and told the other children to lay down under the bed," she continued. "There was smoke and the kids and people were falling. My baby wasn't responding, I was worried he died. I was crying and others helped me take him to the hospital."
She caught a motorcycle taxi to the hospital and received a reserve ticket for her baby to be x-rayed the next day. Tines Clerge, her husband, said he can't continue living there now. "I can't stay at Chanmas anymore," he told IPS.
The opposition protests continued Tuesday afternoon in Chanmas. Scores of U.N. troops and Haitian police ringed the national palace with barricades. The demonstrators accuse President Préval of seeking to grab power by extending his mandate past the original end date. Parliament approved the extension.
Some are also upset with the Haiti Interim Recovery Commission, which directs the spending of nearly 10 billion dollars in aid money. A majority of the commission members are foreigners, though Préval has a final veto on all decisions.
"If they want to suppress the protest, why didn't they shoot the gas at the school where the students are?" asked Malia Villa, an organiser with the Haitian women's group KOFAVIV, who fled the Chanmas area Monday night. "How can they shoot it in the middle of the camp, where we have children and families? They say they're here for security in the country, but how can the government work with them now when they do this?"
"We can't continue to tolerate this anymore. It's revolting to us," she told IPS, throwing up her hands.
U.N. troops have been dogged by persistent accusations of abuse since their mission was established in 2004 after the ouster of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
Incidents occurred in 2008 and 2009 in which Haitian witnesses said troops recklessly fired their weapons, killing or injuring civilians, while MINUSTAH internal investigations cleared their troops of wrongdoing.
Further political demonstrations are scheduled for Thursday, according to opposition groups.
*Ansel Herz blogs at http://www.mediahacker.org.
Inter Press News
By Ansel Herz
PORT-AU-PRINCE, May 25, 2010 (IPS) - United Nations peacekeeping troops responded to a rock-throwing demonstration by university students Monday evening with a barrage of tear gas and rubber bullets in the area around Haiti's National Palace, sending masses of displaced Haitians running out of tent camps into the streets, according to witnesses.
"That child was gravely injured in the face! It was miserable, they were throwing gas everywhere," said Junior Joel, a young man hanging with friends at night outside the palace - still partially collapsed from the January earthquake.
Three volunteer doctors from the NGO Partners in Health who were working in the emergency room of the General Hospital said they treated at least six individuals with wounds from rubber bullets.
"They were bleeding," Sarah McMillan, a doctor from New Hampshire, told IPS. "There was a little girl with a big laceration on her face. It needed about 10 stitches. She'll probably have a scar."
The girl was discharged from the hospital and could not be found in the tent camp as of publication time.
Thousands of families are crowded into the public squares in the Champs du Mars zone around the palace, after the earthquake killed at least 200,000 people and drove nearly two million from destroyed neighbourhoods.
A coalition of political organisations called Tet Kole, Haitian Creole for "Heads Together", has staged protests in the area for the past month, demanding the resignation of President René Préval over his handling of the post-earthquake crisis.
The walls of the Faculty of Ethnology school are dotted with graffiti denouncing Préval and the United Nations. Students said they gave Brazilian peacekeeping troops stationed in jeeps outside the campus the middle finger sign late Monday afternoon.
When the troops tried to enter the campus, angrily calling students thieves and vagabonds, the students showered them with rocks. As the soldiers fled, they fired three bullet rounds in the air and one of them struck the front-facing wall of the school, students said.
When the troops returned in bigger vehicles, Frantz Mathieu Junior said he ran to hide in a bathroom, but the soldiers kicked the thin wooden door open. Junior said he was forced to the ground and kicked repeatedly, then taken away. He says he was force-fed while in detention.
The students showed IPS on Tuesday the cracks in the wooden door and the bullet hole next to a second-storey window. After Junior was taken on Monday, they took to the streets in an angry protest, throwing more rocks.
Edmond Mulet, the head of the peacekeeping mission - known by the acronym MINUSTAH - issued a statement blaming an unnamed student for "the provocation" of throwing stones at a patrol, but apologising for the troops' intrusion on university grounds to seize him.
U.N. troops never fired any bullets or tear gas on Monday, said MINUSTAH spokesperson David Wimhurst. He said only pepper spray and rubber bullets were used to quell an out-of-control protest.
CNN crews heard gunshots, smelled tear gas and saw gas canisters littering the area surrounding the palace. According to witnesses from the surrounding tent camps, U.N. troops blanketed the area with tear gas and fired rubber bullets at 6 p.m. on Monday.
"Everyone ran because nobody wants to be around when there's so much gas," Joseph Marie-ange, a 24-year-old mother of four, told IPS. "They're abusive. They shot the gas in here and the children and elders were falling, everyone was feeling the effects."
Hours after the protests and swirling gas dissipated, Levita Mondesir trudged with her three-month-old baby towards the General Hospital's exit.
"We live in Place Petion, across from the Ethnology school," she told IPS. "The students came, then MINUSTAH released the gas. When I got back to the camp, everyone was running, so I ran too."
"I tried to cover my child and told the other children to lay down under the bed," she continued. "There was smoke and the kids and people were falling. My baby wasn't responding, I was worried he died. I was crying and others helped me take him to the hospital."
She caught a motorcycle taxi to the hospital and received a reserve ticket for her baby to be x-rayed the next day. Tines Clerge, her husband, said he can't continue living there now. "I can't stay at Chanmas anymore," he told IPS.
The opposition protests continued Tuesday afternoon in Chanmas. Scores of U.N. troops and Haitian police ringed the national palace with barricades. The demonstrators accuse President Préval of seeking to grab power by extending his mandate past the original end date. Parliament approved the extension.
Some are also upset with the Haiti Interim Recovery Commission, which directs the spending of nearly 10 billion dollars in aid money. A majority of the commission members are foreigners, though Préval has a final veto on all decisions.
"If they want to suppress the protest, why didn't they shoot the gas at the school where the students are?" asked Malia Villa, an organiser with the Haitian women's group KOFAVIV, who fled the Chanmas area Monday night. "How can they shoot it in the middle of the camp, where we have children and families? They say they're here for security in the country, but how can the government work with them now when they do this?"
"We can't continue to tolerate this anymore. It's revolting to us," she told IPS, throwing up her hands.
U.N. troops have been dogged by persistent accusations of abuse since their mission was established in 2004 after the ouster of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
Incidents occurred in 2008 and 2009 in which Haitian witnesses said troops recklessly fired their weapons, killing or injuring civilians, while MINUSTAH internal investigations cleared their troops of wrongdoing.
Further political demonstrations are scheduled for Thursday, according to opposition groups.
*Ansel Herz blogs at http://www.mediahacker.org.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Island Time
"Island Time," This American Life, National Public Radio (NPR), May 21, 2010 Four months after the earthquake in Haiti, Ira Glass talks to Haitian reporter Joseph-Romuald Felix while Romuald tours a tent camp in the Petionville suburb of Port au Prince. Romuald talks to four children -- two of them have eaten this day, two have not. Nan Buzard, who heads the American Red Cross effort in Haiti, tells Ira that relief agencies have to walk a thin line between helping too little and helping too much. More...
Friday, May 21, 2010
Al Jazeera English - Focus - Cuba's aid ignored by the media?
Cuba's aid ignored by the media?
By Tom Fawthrop in Havana
After the quake struck, Haiti's first medical aid came from Cuba [GALLO/GETTY]
Among the many donor nations helping Haiti, Cuba and its medical teams have played a major role in treating earthquake victims.
Public health experts say the Cubans were the first to set up medical facilities among the debris and to revamp hospitals immediately after the earthquake struck.
However, their pivotal work in the health sector has received scant media coverage.
SPECIAL REPORT
"It is striking that there has been virtually no mention in the media of the fact that Cuba had several hundred health personnel on the ground before any other country," said David Sanders, a professor of public health from Western Cape University in South Africa.
The Cuban team coordinator in Haiti, Dr Carlos Alberto Garcia, says the Cuban doctors, nurses and other health personnel have been working non-stop, day and night, with operating rooms open 18 hours a day.
During a visit to La Paz hospital in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince, Dr Mirta Roses, the director of the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) which is in charge of medical coordination between the Cuban doctors, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and a host of health sector NGOs, described the aid provided by Cuban doctors as "excellent and marvellous".
La Paz is one of five hospitals in Haiti that is largely staffed by health professionals from Havana.
History of cooperation
A Cuban doctor working in a Cuban field hospital in Haiti [Prensa Latina Cuba] Haiti and Cuba signed a medical cooperation agreement in 1998.
Before the earthquake struck, 344 Cuban health professionals were already present in Haiti, providing primary care and obstetrical services as well as operating to restore the sight of Haitians blinded by eye diseases.
More doctors were flown in shortly after the earthquake, as part of the rapid response Henry Reeve Medical Brigade of disaster specialists. The brigade has extensive experience in dealing with the aftermath of earthquakes, having responded to such disasters in China, Indonesia and Pakistan.
"In the case of Cuban doctors, they are rapid responders to disasters, because disaster management is an integral part of their training," explains Maria a Hamlin Zúniga, a public health specialist from Nicaragua.
"They are fully aware of the need to reduce risks by having people prepared to act in any disaster situation."
Cuban doctors have been organising medical facilities in three revamped and five field hospitals, five diagnostic centres, with a total of 22 different care posts aided by financial support from Venezuela. They are also operating nine rehabilitation centres staffed by nearly 70 Cuban physical therapists and rehab specialists, in addition to the Haitian medical personnel.
The Cuban team has been assisted by 100 specialists from Venezuela, Chile, Spain, Mexico, Colombia and Canada and 17 nuns.
Havana has also sent 400,000 tetanus vaccines for the wounded.
Eduardo Nuñez Valdes, a Cuban epidemiologist who is currently in Port-au-Prince, has stressed that the current unsanitary conditions could lead to an epidemic of parasitic and infectious diseases if not acted upon quickly.
Media silence
However, in reporting on the international aid effort, Western media have generally not ranked Cuba high on the list of donor nations.
One major international news agency's list of donor nations credited Cuba with sending over 30 doctors to Haiti, whereas the real figure stands at more than 350, including 280 young Haitian doctors who graduated from Cuba. The final figure accounts for a combined total of 930 health professionals in all Cuban medical teams making it the largest medical contingent on the ground.
Another batch if 200 Cuban-trained doctors from 24 countries in Africa and Latin American, and a dozen American doctors who graduated from Havana are currently en route to Haiti and will provide reinforcement to existing Cuban medical teams.
By comparison the internationally-renowned Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF or Doctors without Borders) has approximately 269 health professionals working in Haiti. MSF is much better funded and has far more extensive medical supplies than the Cuban team.
Left out
But while representatives from MSF and the ICRC are frequently in front of television cameras discussing health priorities and medical needs, the Cuban medical teams are missing in the media coverage.
Richard Gott, the Guardian newspaper's former foreign editor and a Latin America specialist, explains: "Western media are programmed to be indifferent to aid that comes from unexpected places. In the Haitian case, the media have ignored not just the Cuban contribution, but also the efforts made by other Latin American countries."
Brazil is providing $70mn in funding for 10 urgent care units, 50 mobile units for emergency care, a laboratory and a hospital, among other health services.
Venezuela has cancelled all Haiti debt and has promised to supply oil free of charge until the country has recovered from the disaster.
Western NGOs employ media officers to ensure that the world knows what they are doing.
According to Gott, the Western media has grown accustomed to dealing with such NGOs, enabling a relationship of mutual assistance to develop.
Cuban medical teams, however, are outside this predominantly Western humanitarian-media loop and are therefore only likely to receive attention from Latin American media and Spanish language broadcasters and print media.
There have, however, been notable exceptions to this reporting syndrome. On January 19, a CNN reporter broke the silence on the Cuban role in Haiti with a report on Cuban doctors at La Paz hospital.
Cuba/US cooperation
Cuban doctors received global praise for their humanitarian aid in Indonesia [Tom Fawthrop] When the US requested that their military planes be allowed to fly through Cuban airspace for the purpose of evacuating Haitians to hospitals in Florida, Cuba immediately agreed despite almost 50 years of animosity between the two countries.
Josefina Vidal, the director of the Cuban foreign ministry's North America department, issued a statement declaring that: "Cuba is ready to cooperate with all the nations on the ground, including the US, to help the Haitian people and save more lives."
This deal cut the flight time of medical evacuation flights from the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay on Cuba's southern tip to Miami by 90 minutes.
According to Darby Holladay, the US state department's spokesperson, the US has also communicated its readiness to make medical relief supplies available to Cuban doctors in Haiti.
"Potential US-Cuban cooperation could go a long way toward meeting Haiti's needs," says Dr Julie Feinsilver, the author of Healing the Masses - a book about Cuban health diplomacy, who argues that maximum cooperation is urgently needed.
Rich in human resources
Although Cuba is a poor developing country, their wealth of human resources - doctors, engineers and disaster management experts - has enabled this small Caribbean nation to play a global role in health care and humanitarian aid alongside the far richer nations of the west.
Cuban medical teams played a key role in the wake of the Indian Ocean Tsunami and provided the largest contingent of doctors after the 2005 Pakistan earthquake. They also stayed the longest among international medical teams treating the victims of the 2006 Indonesian earthquake.
In the Pakistan relief operation the US and Europe dispatched medical teams. Each had a base camp with most doctors deployed for a month. The Cubans, however, deployed seven major base camps, operated 32 field hospitals and stayed for six months.
Bruno Rodriguez, who is now Cuba's foreign minister, headed the mission - living in the mountains of Pakistan for more than six months.
Just after the Indonesian earthquake a year later, I met with Indonesia's then regional health co-coordinator, Dr Ronny Rockito.
Cuba had sent 135 health workers and two field hospitals. Rockito said that while the medical teams from other countries departed after just one month, he asked the Cuban medical team to extend their stay.
"I appreciate the Cuban medical team. Their style is very friendly. Their medical standard is very high," he told me.
"The Cuban [field] hospitals are fully complete and it's free, with no financial support from our government."
Rockito says he never expected to see Cuban doctors coming to his country's rescue.
"We felt very surprised about doctors coming from a poor country, a country so far away that we know little about.
"We can learn from the Cuban health system. They are very fast to handle injuries and fractures. They x-ray, then they operate straight away."
A 'new dawn'?
The Montreal summit, the first gathering of 20 donor nations, agreed to hold a major conference on Haiti's future at the United Nations in March.
Some analysts see Haiti's rehabilitation as a potential opportunity for the US and Cuba to bypass their ideological differences and combine their resources - the US has the logistics while Cuba has the human resources - to help Haiti.
Feinsilver is convinced that "Cuba should be given a seat at the table with all other nations and multilateral organisations and agencies in any and all meetings to discuss, plan and coordinate aid efforts for Haiti's reconstruction".
"This would be in recognition of Cuba's long-standing policy and practise of medical diplomacy, as well as its general development aid to Haiti," she says.
But, will Haiti offer the US administration, which has Cuba on its list of nations that allegedly "support terrorism", a "new dawn" in its relations with Cuba?
In late January, Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, thanked Cuba for its efforts in Haiti and welcomed further assistance and co-operation.
In Haiti's grand reconstruction plan, Feinsilver argues, "there can be no imposition of systems from any country, agency or institution. The Haitian people themselves, through what remains of their government and NGOs, must provide the policy direction, and Cuba has been and should continue to be a key player in the health sector in Haiti".
Heavy rains pound tent city in Haitian capital
Rains pound Haiti's quake-ravaged capital of Port-au-Prince where earthquake victims struggle with living conditions Watch this short video to see how people living in the 'tent cities' are surviving.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Sudan army battles Darfur rebels
NEWS AFRICA
Sudan army battles Darfur rebels
Jem took up arms against the Sudanese government in 2003 accusing it of marginalising Darfur [File: AFP]
Sudanese forces say they have seized control of a key rebel held area in the western Darfur region after killing more than 150 members of the Justice and Equality Movement (Jem).
"We have liberated Jebel Moon from the Justice and Equality Movement," Al-Sawarmi Khaled, an army spokesman, said on Saturday.
"We have detained 61 rebels and confiscated 16 cars and three large trucks."
The army gave no details of army casualties in the clashes.
The Sudanese government signed a framework peace pact with Jem in February, which was hailed by the international community as a major step towards bringing peace to Darfur after seven years of war.
But talks soon reached a stalemate and a deadline set for completing the peace deal passed on March 15 without agreement.
Police convoy 'attacked'
The latest fighting came after police said 27 police officers and 30 rebels had been killed on Thursday when Jem attacked a convoy in South Darfur.
IN DEPTH
Who are Sudan's Jem rebels?
Inside Story: Peace for Darfur?
Talk to Jazeera: Chad's president on Darfur peace
Videos:
Exclusive: Sudan's Jem rebels
Chad tribe holds cross-border sway
Parties sign Darfur truce deal
US envoy praises Darfur peace talks
According to police, Jem fighters "attacked a convoy carrying food destined for the citizens of Darfur but the attack was thwarted by central police forces who were protecting the convoy".
But Jem said it was acting in self-defence during Thursday's fighting.
"It is completely false. Our forces were defending themselves from attack by the army which has intensified its operations since the end of elections" in Sudan on April 15, Ahmed Hussein Adam, a Jem spokesman, told the AFP news agency.
The latest violence seems to have dealt a further blow to the already shaky peace talks between Jem and the government in Khartoum.
On Friday, Jem denied a UN mediator's claim that the group would resume the Qatari-brokered peace talks.
Adam said the group was actually leaning towards quitting the negotiations altogether.
"We are still suspending our participation in the negotiations, and we are closer to withdrawing from the negotiations in Qatar," he told the AFP news agency.
"We are in a true state of war after the government reneged on the ceasefire agreement."
'Ceasefire violated'
Jem has accused Sudan's military of attacking its positions last month, saying Khartoum was trying to impose a "military solution" to the conflict, which the United Nations estimates has killed 300,000 people.
Khartoum, which says 10,000 people have died since the rebels took up arms in 2003, denied that the offensive took place.
"If Jem wants to go back to war, the Sudanese army and police are all prepared and on alert to stop any offensive."
Ismail al-Haj Musa, NCP official
Ismail al-Haj Musa, a leading member of the Sudan's ruling National Congress Party, told Al Jazeera that claims that the government violated the ceasefire agreement were "absolutely untrue".
"We always hear such false allegations from Jem to justify its return to square one of war once again," he said.
"One can ask the UN and African Union observers on the ground to make sure who has first violated ceasefire. They will say that Jem has.
"If Jem wants to go back to war, the Sudanese army and police are all prepared and on alert to stop any offensive."
In another sign that peace efforts were deteriorating, Khartoum last week sought Interpol's helpin arresting Khalil Ibrahim, the Jem leader, over a 2008 attack near Khartoum that killed 220 people.
Army build-up
Unamid, a joint peacekeeping mission by the UN and the African Union, has said it has reports that Sudanese army and Jem fighters have been massing in North Darfur state's Shangil Tobay area.
Hundreds of refugees have fled a camp near El Fasher, a government stronghold and hub for aid workers and peacekeepers, as the rival forces gathered.
About 2.7 people have fled the fighting
in the Darfur s region since 2003
Approximately 70 per cent of the 2,000 people living in the New Shangil Tobay Camp had left fearing clashes, Unamid said in a statement on Wednesday.
Two international sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters there were signs Jem was moving south east through Darfur towards the neighbouring region of South Kordofan, where it has attacked oilfields in the past.
Al-Tahir al-Feki, a Jem official, confirmed the group had troops around Shangil Tobay and South Kordofan but said they were on "administrative" missions, holding talks with local leaders.
Sudan's army earlier this month accused Jem of attacking villages in West and North Darfur states to expand its territory.
Jem was one of two rebel forces that launched a revolt against Sudan's government in 2003, accusing it of starving Darfur of funding and marginalising its population.
The desert region, which is the size of France, has been gripped by a civil war since then and about 2.7 million have been displaced, according to the UN.
Africa Has Less Say After Changes in World Bank Voting
Africa Has Less Say After Changes in World Bank Voting
Monday 17 May 2010
by: Hilaire Avril | Inter Press Service
Paris - The World Bank has described its recent increase of 3.13 percent in the voting power of emerging economies as a reform "to enhance voice and participation of developing and transition countries". But the shift has actually decreased a third of African countries’ share of votes.
Eighteen sub-Saharan countries have thus lost a measure of their already modest influence in the institution’s decision-making process. Nigeria and South Africa are hardest hit, their voting powers having been decreased by about 10 percent.
Only oil-rich Sudan - whose president has been indicted by the International Criminal Court on suspicion of war crimes - has seen its share of votes increase.
The World Bank, internationally mandated with financing development projects, has long been criticised by civil society and recipient countries as unrepresentative of those it claims to be helping. Sub-Saharan Africa, the target of many of its "poverty reduction" programmes, retains a total of less than six percent of the institution’s voting rights.
Finally responding to critics, the Bank has in recent years indicated some intention towards reforming its governance and making it more inclusive of its purported beneficiaries. Its Istanbul Declaration of October 2009 committed to "protect the voting power of the smallest poor countries".
But on Apr 25, it shuffled voting rights to increase the share of China (by 1.64 percent), South Korea (0.58 percent), Turkey (0.55 percent), Mexico (0.5 percent), and Singapore (0.24 percent). According to the Bank’s own economic definitions, South Korea and Singapore are high-income countries, whereas Mexico and Turkey are upper middle-income countries.
Criticising the adjustments, head of research for anti-poverty campaigner Oxfam, Duncan Green, noted in a blog entry titled "The World Bank breaks its promises on Africa’s voting power" that "the reform reflects the shift in global GDP (gross domestic product), and so benefits the big emerging economies, not the slower growing economies in Africa".
Adds Sebastien Fourmy, who follows global financial institutions at Oxfam’s French chapter: "This reform is an attempt at making nice with the main emerging world players, such as China and Brazil, in the hope that they will contribute a larger share of the Bank’s funding.
"This comes at a point where Europe has growing difficulties in meeting its financial commitments to development," he explains. "European countries have therefore agreed to a minor reduction in their voting powers but most are still clinging to their chairs."
"And, of course, the United States remains the only member with the power to veto the Bank’s decisions," Fourmy confirms. This is because the Bank’s voting system weighs votes according to countries’ shares of the world’s GDP.
South Africa’s finance minister, Pravin Gordhan, reportedly said his country was disappointed with the reforms as sub-Saharan countries’ say was diminished despite ongoing pressure that the Bank should boost the voices of developing countries in decision-making at the Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
World Bank president Robert Zoellick admitted that, "the change in voting-power helps us better reflect the realities of a new multi-polar global economy where developing countries are now key global players". Yet, endorsement of the shift in voting power was "crucial for the Bank’s legitimacy", according to Zoellick.
The British watchdog initiative called the Bretton Woods Project, which monitors the World Bank and the IMF, said in a recent report that: "a closer look shows that the World Bank will continue to be overwhelmingly dominated by rich countries.
"Developing countries represent over 80 percent of the world's population and the Bank's membership. They are where almost all of the Bank's activities take place" -- and yet, "its governance remains illegitimate and outdated," the report argued.
Fourmy agrees: "In the end, the fundamentals of decision-making at the Bank have been carefully preserved."
Moreover, "even if votes were effectively reformed in favour of its poorest members, decisions will still be taken by consensus rather than votes. Out of the 24 administrator countries that usually craft consensus decisions at the Bank, only two are from sub-Saharan Africa," explains Fourmy. "There was talk of including a third one but that idea has not been mentioned in a while," he adds.
"We hope that emerging economies whose voting rights were increased are going to bear increasing responsibility in the funding of development but that remains to be seen," says Fourmy. "So far, none of them have expressed clear commitment or a detailed vision of their approach to development assistance."
Visit IPS news for fresh perspectives on development and globalization.
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Monday 17 May 2010
by: Hilaire Avril | Inter Press Service
Paris - The World Bank has described its recent increase of 3.13 percent in the voting power of emerging economies as a reform "to enhance voice and participation of developing and transition countries". But the shift has actually decreased a third of African countries’ share of votes.
Eighteen sub-Saharan countries have thus lost a measure of their already modest influence in the institution’s decision-making process. Nigeria and South Africa are hardest hit, their voting powers having been decreased by about 10 percent.
Only oil-rich Sudan - whose president has been indicted by the International Criminal Court on suspicion of war crimes - has seen its share of votes increase.
The World Bank, internationally mandated with financing development projects, has long been criticised by civil society and recipient countries as unrepresentative of those it claims to be helping. Sub-Saharan Africa, the target of many of its "poverty reduction" programmes, retains a total of less than six percent of the institution’s voting rights.
Finally responding to critics, the Bank has in recent years indicated some intention towards reforming its governance and making it more inclusive of its purported beneficiaries. Its Istanbul Declaration of October 2009 committed to "protect the voting power of the smallest poor countries".
But on Apr 25, it shuffled voting rights to increase the share of China (by 1.64 percent), South Korea (0.58 percent), Turkey (0.55 percent), Mexico (0.5 percent), and Singapore (0.24 percent). According to the Bank’s own economic definitions, South Korea and Singapore are high-income countries, whereas Mexico and Turkey are upper middle-income countries.
Criticising the adjustments, head of research for anti-poverty campaigner Oxfam, Duncan Green, noted in a blog entry titled "The World Bank breaks its promises on Africa’s voting power" that "the reform reflects the shift in global GDP (gross domestic product), and so benefits the big emerging economies, not the slower growing economies in Africa".
Adds Sebastien Fourmy, who follows global financial institutions at Oxfam’s French chapter: "This reform is an attempt at making nice with the main emerging world players, such as China and Brazil, in the hope that they will contribute a larger share of the Bank’s funding.
"This comes at a point where Europe has growing difficulties in meeting its financial commitments to development," he explains. "European countries have therefore agreed to a minor reduction in their voting powers but most are still clinging to their chairs."
"And, of course, the United States remains the only member with the power to veto the Bank’s decisions," Fourmy confirms. This is because the Bank’s voting system weighs votes according to countries’ shares of the world’s GDP.
South Africa’s finance minister, Pravin Gordhan, reportedly said his country was disappointed with the reforms as sub-Saharan countries’ say was diminished despite ongoing pressure that the Bank should boost the voices of developing countries in decision-making at the Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
World Bank president Robert Zoellick admitted that, "the change in voting-power helps us better reflect the realities of a new multi-polar global economy where developing countries are now key global players". Yet, endorsement of the shift in voting power was "crucial for the Bank’s legitimacy", according to Zoellick.
The British watchdog initiative called the Bretton Woods Project, which monitors the World Bank and the IMF, said in a recent report that: "a closer look shows that the World Bank will continue to be overwhelmingly dominated by rich countries.
"Developing countries represent over 80 percent of the world's population and the Bank's membership. They are where almost all of the Bank's activities take place" -- and yet, "its governance remains illegitimate and outdated," the report argued.
Fourmy agrees: "In the end, the fundamentals of decision-making at the Bank have been carefully preserved."
Moreover, "even if votes were effectively reformed in favour of its poorest members, decisions will still be taken by consensus rather than votes. Out of the 24 administrator countries that usually craft consensus decisions at the Bank, only two are from sub-Saharan Africa," explains Fourmy. "There was talk of including a third one but that idea has not been mentioned in a while," he adds.
"We hope that emerging economies whose voting rights were increased are going to bear increasing responsibility in the funding of development but that remains to be seen," says Fourmy. "So far, none of them have expressed clear commitment or a detailed vision of their approach to development assistance."
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Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Haitian Farmers Commit to Burning Monsanto Hybrid Seeds
Haitian Farmers Commit to Burning Monsanto Hybrid Seeds, by Beverly Bell, The Huffington Post, May 17, 2010 "A new earthquake" is what peasant farmer leader Chavannes Jean-Baptiste of the Peasant Movement of Papay (MPP) called the news that Monsanto will be donating 60,000 seed sacks (475 tons) of hybrid corn seeds and vegetable seeds, some of them treated with highly toxic pesticides. The MPP has committed to burning Monsanto's seeds, and has called for a march to protest the corporation's presence in Haiti on June 4, for World Environment Day. In an open letter sent of May 14, Chavannes Jean-Baptiste, the Executive Director of MPP and the spokesperson for the National Peasant Movement of the Congress of Papay (MPNKP), called the entry of Monsanto seeds into Haiti "a very strong attack on small agriculture, on farmers, on biodiversity, on Creole seeds..., and on what is left our environment in Haiti." More...
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Haiti Asks Expat Professionals to Return and Help
Haiti Asks Expat Professionals to Return and Help, by A. D. McKenzie, Inter Press Service News Agency, May 13, 2010 Members of the Haitian diaspora responded with "massive and spontaneous" aid immediately after the Jan. 12 earthquake, with thousands of professionals leaving jobs abroad to go and assist their compatriots, according to a government minister. Now the Haitian authorities are hoping that even more expatriates will return to settle in the Caribbean country as it undertakes its immense reconstruction programme. More...
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Field Notes from MEDICC: Interview with Dr. Patrick Dely: Part II
Interview with Dr. Patrick Dely: Part II, by Conner Gorry in Port-au-Prince, Field Notes from MEDICC--Official Blog of Medical Education Cooperation with Cuba, April 20, 2010 Dr. Patrick Dely: “My future is to see my country transformed, a different country, where Haitians feel happy and proud to be in their country. Where they don’t need to emigrate, where Haitian children have access to education… I see myself working to make this Haiti a reality. My future is to work towards change.”
Dr Patrick Dely spent his early childhood in St Michel L´Attalaye, a town in the central department of Artibonite where the environment was nearly exhausted and educational opportunities limited (to say the least). He attended Haitian public schools – where up to 150 students crowd into a classroom, oftentimes without a teacher – and always dreamed of becoming a doctor. But until a friend alerted him to the possibility of a scholarship to study medicine in Cuba, his future practicing medicine remained just that: a dream. Over ten years later, Dr Dely is a family doctor who was a few weeks short of obtaining his second specialty in epidemiology in Cuba when his country was devastated by the January earthquake. In Part II of this interview, Dr Dely talks with me in Port-au-Prince about difficulties facing the Haitian public health system, what challenges that system presents to Haitian doctors trained in Cuba, and his future plans for his hometown and beyond. To learn more about this remarkable young man, see Part I of this interview. More...
Field Notes from MEDICC: Interview with Dr Patrick Dely: Part I
Interview with Dr Patrick Dely: Part I, by Conner Gorry in Haiti, Field Notes from MEDICC--Official Blog of Medical Education Cooperation with Cuba, April 5, 2010 Patrick Dely Haitian Graduate of the Latin American Medical School: “I want to see a Haiti where the kids go to school, where the adults have a job and when they leave their house they know they´ll come back and there will be food…People talk about the reconstruction of Haiti. But for me Haiti was never constructed. We have to talk about construction.”
Dr Patrick Dely spent his early childhood in St Michel L´Attalaye, a town in the central province of Artibonite where the environment was nearly exhausted and educational opportunities limited (to say the least). He spent his childhood in Haitian public schools – where up to 150 students share a classroom, oftentimes without a teacher – and always dreamed of becoming a doctor. But until a friend alerted him to the possibility of a scholarship to study medicine in Cuba, his future practicing medicine remained just that: a dream. Over ten years later, Dr Dely is a family doctor who was a few weeks short of obtaining his second specialty in epidemiology in Cuba when his country was devastated by the earthquake. I sat down with Dr Dely in the Cuban camp in central Port-au-Prince to hear more about this remarkable young man. More...
Field Notes from MEDICC: Making the Rounds: Hôpital Universitaire de la Paix
Making the Rounds: Hôpital Universitaire de la Paix, by Conner Gorry, Field Notes from MEDICC, May 7, 2010 Official Blog of Medical Education Cooperation with Cuba in Haiti It’s not even 7:30 and already it’s hot and close as we board the bus for the circuitous, rubble-pocked ride to Hôpital Universitaire de la Paix. As the crow flies, it’s probably less than a mile from our tent camp to Port-au-Prince’s university teaching hospital, but weaving between vendors and tents pitched in the street, and then caught behind a tractor or backhoe, means it takes almost an hour to get to the front gate. More...
Thursday, May 6, 2010
U.S. House Clears Haiti Trade Bill
U.S. House Clears Haiti Trade Bill, by Jim Lobe, Inter Press Service News Agency, May 5, 2010 The U.S. House of Representatives Wednesday approved a major trade bill designed to boost U.S. and other investment in Haiti's textile and apparel industry following January's devastating earthquake in which at least 200,000 people are believed to have been killed. More...
Thursday, April 29, 2010
WHO-- Haitians delivering healthcare to Haitians
Haitians Delivering Healthcare to Haitians, WHO, April 2010 A critical component of the response to the earthquake in Haiti, including its health consequences, has been the Haitian people themselves. The following story describes different types of services that have been set up by and for the Haitian people. Mobile clinics and temporary clinics have been opened. Despite a lack of resources and medical supplies these clinics are handling a wide range of health conditions, from tending to physical wounds and providing rehabilitation to treating chronic, pre-existing conditions. More...
TransAfrica Forum--Dorothy Height: An Enduring Spirit for Justice
Dorothy Height: An Enduring Spirit for Justice Washington, DC April 20, 2010--TransAfrica Forum would like to extend its sincere condolences to the family and friends of Dr. Dorothy Irene Height, who passed away today at the age of 98. Often referred to as the Mother of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, Dr. Height’s work for equality for all races and genders went beyond the shores of this country. More...
Africans Extend Solidarity to Haiti
Africans Extend Solidarity to Haiti: Money, Food and Medicines from “Mother Africa” to Her Diaspora, by Ernest Harsch, Africa Renewal (UN Publication), April 2010, pg. 22 In the broad international mobilization to help the stricken people of Haiti, Africa is not lagging behind. Government officials, religious leaders, students, artists and many other Africans responded to the news of the devastating earthquake of 12 January with an immediate outpouring of support and solidarity. By end-March, some 24 countries in Africa had either donated or pledged more than $51 mn for Haitian relief efforts, according to available reports. That was just a tiny fraction of the total of $3.5 bn given or promised worldwide, but notable nonetheless for the continent with the world’s highest poverty rates. More...
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Children Reach Out Through the Screen to Peers in Post-Quake Haiti
Children Reach Out Through the Screen to Peers in Post-Quake Haiti, by Dalia Acosta, Inter Press Service News Agency, April 26, 2010 Five girls and five boys are taking time to remember the hurricane that devastated their home town of Gibara in eastern Cuba two years ago, mingling their memories with their dreams, and filming images to make a video message for children in Haiti. "What I like best is learning through playing," said one of the primary school children selected to take part in an audiovisual production workshop in Gibara. More...
Rebuilding Haiti - Mission impossible?
Rebuilding Haiti - Mission impossible?, BBC News "World Have Your Say", April 27, 2010 Mark has just sent this post to me: There's nothing like a 2 hour delay on a runway during a storm for you to bond with your fellow passengers. We were on our way to Haiti from Miami but - not for the first time - mother nature was having a say. As the thunder and lightning raged around us, I got chatting to the women either side of me. Both Haiti "veterans" and both on their way there to try to help out. More...
Friday, April 23, 2010
US military operation in Haiti draws to close
US military operation in Haiti draws to close, by Anne Flaherty, The Washington Post, April 19, 2010
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. military mobilization in support of Haitian earthquake relief and recovery efforts is winding down and will be concluded for the most part by June 1.
U.S. Southern Command chief Lt. Gen. Ken Keen says there are about 2,200 American troops still there, compared to 22,000 at the peak of the U.S. effort. And he says that by June, only about 500 National Guard and Reserve personnel will be stationed in Haiti to help aid workers. More...
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. military mobilization in support of Haitian earthquake relief and recovery efforts is winding down and will be concluded for the most part by June 1.
U.S. Southern Command chief Lt. Gen. Ken Keen says there are about 2,200 American troops still there, compared to 22,000 at the peak of the U.S. effort. And he says that by June, only about 500 National Guard and Reserve personnel will be stationed in Haiti to help aid workers. More...
Gang violence increases as angry Haitians see quake aid benefiting the wealthy elite
Gang violence increases as angry Haitians see quake aid benefiting the wealthy elite, by Peter Beaumont, The Guardian, April 18, 2010
Groups who once supported the president of Haiti, René Préval, are arming themselves against the government, putting the earthquake-ravaged country in danger of renewed instability and political violence. Threats from individuals closely linked to a number of leading gangs who once enjoyed the patronage of former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide come amid growing private concern among diplomats and aid workers over Haiti's increasingly dangerous trajectory. More...
Groups who once supported the president of Haiti, René Préval, are arming themselves against the government, putting the earthquake-ravaged country in danger of renewed instability and political violence. Threats from individuals closely linked to a number of leading gangs who once enjoyed the patronage of former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide come amid growing private concern among diplomats and aid workers over Haiti's increasingly dangerous trajectory. More...
UN launches website tracking aid use in Haiti
UN launches website tracking aid use in Haiti, Telegraph.co.uk, April 22, 2010
The United Nations has launched a new website to track the estimated $9.9 billion in aid pledged to Haiti by the international community in the wake of a devastating January 12 earthquake.The site, a joint project between the UN Development Programme and the Haitian government, will promote efficient spending while "ensuring transparency and accountability of the use of their funds," a UN statement said. More...
The United Nations has launched a new website to track the estimated $9.9 billion in aid pledged to Haiti by the international community in the wake of a devastating January 12 earthquake.The site, a joint project between the UN Development Programme and the Haitian government, will promote efficient spending while "ensuring transparency and accountability of the use of their funds," a UN statement said. More...
Haiti's earthquake death toll revised to at least 250,000
Haiti's earthquake death toll revised to at least 250,000, Telegraph.co.uk, April 22, 2010
Haiti's devastating January earthquake killed between 250,000 and 300,000 people, the head of the United Nations mission in the country has said, at least 30,000 more than previously thought. More...
Haiti's devastating January earthquake killed between 250,000 and 300,000 people, the head of the United Nations mission in the country has said, at least 30,000 more than previously thought. More...
Haitian-Dominican Relations Warming After Quake
Haitian-Dominican Relations Warming After Quake, by Garry Pierre-Pierre, Inter Press Service News Agency, April 20, 2010 Angela Solis de Pena remembered the story that her parents told her of a Haitian man who tried to rape a Dominican woman; after the woman escaped the man chased her and hacked her to death."I was petrified of Haitians," Solis de Pena said. "It made me think of them differently for a long time." Now a 34-year-old administrator of a preschool here in Santiago, Solis de Pena said she doesn't know whether the story was true or not. What she does know is that it made her fear and loathe Haitians, and it was not until she went to college and began reading the Bible and interacting with Haitian students that she realised that perhaps that tale was stretched a bit. More...
Field Notes from MEDICC
Field Notes from MEDICC, Interview with Dr. Patrick Dely: Part II, by Conner Gorry, April 20, 2010 “My future is to see my country transformed, a different country, where Haitians feel happy and proud to be in their country. Where they don’t need to emigrate, where Haitian children have access to education… I see myself working to make this Haiti a reality. My future is to work towards change.”
Dr Patrick Dely spent his early childhood in St Michel L´Attalaye, a town in the central department of Artibonite where the environment was nearly exhausted and educational opportunities limited (to say the least). He attended Haitian public schools – where up to 150 students crowd into a classroom, oftentimes without a teacher – and always dreamed of becoming a doctor. But until a friend alerted him to the possibility of a scholarship to study medicine in Cuba, his future practicing medicine remained just that: a dream. Over ten years later, Dr Dely is a family doctor who was a few weeks short of obtaining his second specialty in epidemiology in Cuba when his country was devastated by the January earthquake. In Part II of this interview, Dr Dely talks with me in Port-au-Prince about difficulties facing the Haitian public health system, what challenges that system presents to Haitian doctors trained in Cuba, and his future plans for his hometown and beyond. To learn more about this remarkable young man, see Part I of this interview. More...
Dr Patrick Dely spent his early childhood in St Michel L´Attalaye, a town in the central department of Artibonite where the environment was nearly exhausted and educational opportunities limited (to say the least). He attended Haitian public schools – where up to 150 students crowd into a classroom, oftentimes without a teacher – and always dreamed of becoming a doctor. But until a friend alerted him to the possibility of a scholarship to study medicine in Cuba, his future practicing medicine remained just that: a dream. Over ten years later, Dr Dely is a family doctor who was a few weeks short of obtaining his second specialty in epidemiology in Cuba when his country was devastated by the January earthquake. In Part II of this interview, Dr Dely talks with me in Port-au-Prince about difficulties facing the Haitian public health system, what challenges that system presents to Haitian doctors trained in Cuba, and his future plans for his hometown and beyond. To learn more about this remarkable young man, see Part I of this interview. More...
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Forced IDP Relocations
Forced IDP Relocations, April 12, 2010: TransAfrica Forum works closely with the Haiti Response Coalition, a network of Haitian rural and urban civil society organizations. Prior to the January 12, 2010 earthquake many coalition members were engaged in a variety of community-based development activities throughout the country. Since the earthquake, groups have used their previously established relationships with community and neighborhood groups to assist with camp construction for internally displaced people (IDPs), relief distribution, and needs assessment production. More...
Disorganised Diaspora on Fringe of Post-Quake Decisions
Disorganised Diaspora on Fringe of Post-Quake Decisions, by Carla Murphy, Inter Press Service News Agency, April 12, 2010 For years, Haitians living overseas have been the lifeline of the troubled country, sending billions of dollars to relatives back home. But now, as the international community debates and pledges aid in the aftermath of the earthquake, many Haitians in the United States are feeling left out of the decision-making process. Nowhere was this more evident than last week as delegates from more than 140 countries convened at the United Nations for a conference to raise money for the reconstruction of Haiti. At the end of the day, roughly 9.9 billion dollars had been pledged over 10 years. Of that amount 5.26, billion is for the first 18 months, according to U.N. officials. More...
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Thomas Mapfumo @ the Zimbabwe Solidarity Concert!
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About Thomas Mapfumo
Thomas Mapfumo is a legendary Zimbabwean musician. He is revered as the "Lion of Zimbabwe", and tours around the world. Mapfumo is responsible for blending traditional Shona mbira music with modern instruments, contemporary politics and traditional proverbs to create the Chimurenga ( people's struggle) music style.
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NYT:Leg Lost, Dancer Is Caught Between Caregivers
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Fabienne Jean, a professional dancer who lost her right leg in the earthquake, hopped on her slim left leg through the dusty General Hospital compound on her way to a very important X-ray. More..
Monday, April 12, 2010
Haiti Criticized Over Forced Stadium Eviction
Haiti Criticized Over Forced Stadium Eviction
AFP News April 12, 2010
PORT-AU-PRINCE - The aid group Action Against Hunger on Sunday slammed Haiti's forced evictions of hundreds of homeless quake victims from the pitch of the country's national stadium.
"We are shocked at the way it has happened. There is no planning. There is no solution offered to the people who lived in the stadium," unlike people evacuated from other camps, said Lucille Grosjean, spokeswoman for the
France-based organization.
Beginning late Friday, contingents of the Haitian National Police began breaking down tents and other shelters in the Sylvio Cator stadium, almost three months after the January 12 quake killed more than 220,000 people and
left 1.3 million homeless.
Evacuations of tent cities across Port-au-Prince were meanwhile being ramped up ahead of the rainy season, including the first few hundred from the overcrowded camp at the Petionville golf club, which is prone to mudslides and flooding, to a new location 20 kilometers (12 miles) away.
About 7,335 people, including some 1,300 families, had sought shelter on national stadium's artificial turf since it was opened up to victims after the disaster, but unlike other camps were not being moved by authorities to other
locales.
AFP News April 12, 2010
PORT-AU-PRINCE - The aid group Action Against Hunger on Sunday slammed Haiti's forced evictions of hundreds of homeless quake victims from the pitch of the country's national stadium.
"We are shocked at the way it has happened. There is no planning. There is no solution offered to the people who lived in the stadium," unlike people evacuated from other camps, said Lucille Grosjean, spokeswoman for the
France-based organization.
Beginning late Friday, contingents of the Haitian National Police began breaking down tents and other shelters in the Sylvio Cator stadium, almost three months after the January 12 quake killed more than 220,000 people and
left 1.3 million homeless.
Evacuations of tent cities across Port-au-Prince were meanwhile being ramped up ahead of the rainy season, including the first few hundred from the overcrowded camp at the Petionville golf club, which is prone to mudslides and flooding, to a new location 20 kilometers (12 miles) away.
About 7,335 people, including some 1,300 families, had sought shelter on national stadium's artificial turf since it was opened up to victims after the disaster, but unlike other camps were not being moved by authorities to other
locales.
"Displaced Fear Expulsion from Makeshift Camps"
"Displaced Fear Expulsion from Makeshift Camps"
By Ansel Herz
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Apr 8, 2010 (IPS) - For decades, the Saint Louis de Gonzague school has groomed some of Haiti's most elite political players. Francois Duvalier, the iron-fisted dictator who ruled Haiti for 14 years, sent his son to the school. About 1,500 children of Haiti's wealthiest class attend each year.
Within days of the January earthquake, the sparse concrete grounds of the Gonazague secondary school became home to nearly 11,000 Haitian families, driven out of destroyed neighbourhoods in central Port-Au-Prince.
Now the school's director wants to reopen the school. The government encouraged schools to resume classes on Monday, calling it another small step towards normalcy...
By Ansel Herz
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Apr 8, 2010 (IPS) - For decades, the Saint Louis de Gonzague school has groomed some of Haiti's most elite political players. Francois Duvalier, the iron-fisted dictator who ruled Haiti for 14 years, sent his son to the school. About 1,500 children of Haiti's wealthiest class attend each year.
Within days of the January earthquake, the sparse concrete grounds of the Gonazague secondary school became home to nearly 11,000 Haitian families, driven out of destroyed neighbourhoods in central Port-Au-Prince.
Now the school's director wants to reopen the school. The government encouraged schools to resume classes on Monday, calling it another small step towards normalcy...
Friday, April 9, 2010
HAITI: Rebuilding Waits on Promised Aid
HAITI: Rebuilding Waits on Promised Aid, by Armin Rosen, Inter Press Service News Agency, April 7, 2010 A week ago, 59 U.N. member states, international institutions and NGO coalitions pledged nearly 10 billion dollars towards rebuilding Haiti over the next decade. But the self-congratulation ended with the conference's upbeat closing press conference, as NGOs and activists are now questioning both the reconstruction plan and the likelihood that nations will follow through on their financial commitments. More...
Haiti's rainy reason could mean suffering is in the forecast
Haiti's rainy reason could mean suffering is in the forecast, by Manuel Roig-Franzia, The Washington Post, April 4, 2010
PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI -- Mud invades every inch of the saggy handmade tent Mimose Pierre-Louis now calls home. It spatters the pink bedsheet that serves as her wall, crawls up the acacia branch that plays the role of wobbly tent pole and forms the floor she lies on. More...
PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI -- Mud invades every inch of the saggy handmade tent Mimose Pierre-Louis now calls home. It spatters the pink bedsheet that serves as her wall, crawls up the acacia branch that plays the role of wobbly tent pole and forms the floor she lies on. More...
Haiti struggles to reopen its schools after quake
Haiti struggles to reopen its schools after quake, By Claudia Gaillard, The Washington Post, April 5, 2010
PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Some schools reopened in the wrecked Haitian capital on Monday nearly three months after the January 12 earthquake, but others could not because of lack of repairs or equipment, staff said. The education ministry, backed by the United Nations children's agency UNICEF, had called for classes to resume 12 weeks after the quake which reduced many parts of the city to rubble and destroyed or damaged more than 4,000 schools. The education ministry itself was also destroyed. More...
PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Some schools reopened in the wrecked Haitian capital on Monday nearly three months after the January 12 earthquake, but others could not because of lack of repairs or equipment, staff said. The education ministry, backed by the United Nations children's agency UNICEF, had called for classes to resume 12 weeks after the quake which reduced many parts of the city to rubble and destroyed or damaged more than 4,000 schools. The education ministry itself was also destroyed. More...
Small-business owners feel left out of Haiti’s rebuilding plan
Small-business owners feel left out of Haiti’s rebuilding plan, by Jessica Leeder, The Globe and Mail, April 08, 2010
The narrow consumer market here for dried flower arrangements, greeting cards, wrapping paper and electrified fish bowls that double as children’s bedside lamps disappeared on the afternoon of January 12. That wasn’t an initial concern, however, for Molver Desire, the owner of Nini’s Fleurs and Baby Gifts, a quaint, one-storey shop on the outer fringe of Jacmel’s heritage district. After the 7.3-magnitude earthquake, the shop with its half-caved roof and grit-coated inventory was in no shape for receiving customers. More..
The narrow consumer market here for dried flower arrangements, greeting cards, wrapping paper and electrified fish bowls that double as children’s bedside lamps disappeared on the afternoon of January 12. That wasn’t an initial concern, however, for Molver Desire, the owner of Nini’s Fleurs and Baby Gifts, a quaint, one-storey shop on the outer fringe of Jacmel’s heritage district. After the 7.3-magnitude earthquake, the shop with its half-caved roof and grit-coated inventory was in no shape for receiving customers. More..
Many of Haiti's most-wanted on the loose after earthquake
Many of Haiti's most-wanted on the loose after earthquake, by Manuel Roig-Franzia, The Washington Post, April 09, 2010
...On that afternoon, while tens of thousands of Haitians were being crushed to death, Wilson and more than 4,500 other inmates slipped out of a wing of the National Penitentiary, known as the "Titanic." Since then, Haitian and international police say, the most notorious of the escapees have terrorized neighborhoods, stolen aid supplies and fought ever more pitched battles among themselves that threaten the stability of a fragile society still far from recovering from one of the country's worst disasters in recent memory. More...
...On that afternoon, while tens of thousands of Haitians were being crushed to death, Wilson and more than 4,500 other inmates slipped out of a wing of the National Penitentiary, known as the "Titanic." Since then, Haitian and international police say, the most notorious of the escapees have terrorized neighborhoods, stolen aid supplies and fought ever more pitched battles among themselves that threaten the stability of a fragile society still far from recovering from one of the country's worst disasters in recent memory. More...
The Camp That Vanished and the Priest Who Forced Them Out
The Camp That Vanished and the Priest Who Forced Them Out, Interpress Service (posted on Mediahacker.org), March 09, 2010
Perched near the top of a steep hill, the fractured pink walls of Villa Manrese overlook the rest of the capital city. Both ends of the three-story compound have collapsed, spilling into mounds of rubble. The first floor was pulverised into a layer of dust. There are still bodies inside. But in the adjacent garden behind the Catholic retreat, also known as Centre Saint-Viateur, life sprang anew after the Jan. 12 earthquake struck Haiti. More...
Perched near the top of a steep hill, the fractured pink walls of Villa Manrese overlook the rest of the capital city. Both ends of the three-story compound have collapsed, spilling into mounds of rubble. The first floor was pulverised into a layer of dust. There are still bodies inside. But in the adjacent garden behind the Catholic retreat, also known as Centre Saint-Viateur, life sprang anew after the Jan. 12 earthquake struck Haiti. More...
Displaced Fear Expulsion from Makeshift Camps
Displaced Fear Expulsion from Makeshift Camps, by Ansel Herz, Inter Press Service, April 8, 2010
Within days of the January earthquake, the sparse concrete grounds of the Gonazague secondary school became home to nearly 11,000 Haitian families, driven out of destroyed neighbourhoods in central Port-Au-Prince. Now the school's director wants to reopen the school. The government encouraged schools to resume classes on Monday, calling it another small step towards normalcy. The potential reopening of the school has inspired anything but calm among internally displaced people at Saint Louis de Gonzague. They have been threatened with expulsion by force. "Everyone is nervous right now. If they force us to leave it will be second catastrophe," said Elivre Constant, smoking a cigarette in the middle of the crowded camp. "A lot of people here don't have anywhere to go. They have kids. They won't be safe." More...
Within days of the January earthquake, the sparse concrete grounds of the Gonazague secondary school became home to nearly 11,000 Haitian families, driven out of destroyed neighbourhoods in central Port-Au-Prince. Now the school's director wants to reopen the school. The government encouraged schools to resume classes on Monday, calling it another small step towards normalcy. The potential reopening of the school has inspired anything but calm among internally displaced people at Saint Louis de Gonzague. They have been threatened with expulsion by force. "Everyone is nervous right now. If they force us to leave it will be second catastrophe," said Elivre Constant, smoking a cigarette in the middle of the crowded camp. "A lot of people here don't have anywhere to go. They have kids. They won't be safe." More...
Our bodies are shaking now
Our bodies are shaking now, by Beverly Bell, Pambazuka News, April 1, 2010.
Haiti’s earthquake has left women and children in the country highly vulnerable to rape and violence.‘The way you saw the earth shake, that’s how our bodies are shaking now,’ said a member of the grassroots anti-violence group, Commission of Women Victim-to-Victim (KOFAVIV by its Creole acronym). She was speaking at a meeting about violence against women and children since the earthquake on 12 January. The venue of the meeting was KOFAVIV’s new headquarters: A tarp in a displaced persons camp in Port-au-Prince. All the women of KOFAVIV lost their homes in the disaster, while more than 300 lost their lives. More...
Haiti’s earthquake has left women and children in the country highly vulnerable to rape and violence.‘The way you saw the earth shake, that’s how our bodies are shaking now,’ said a member of the grassroots anti-violence group, Commission of Women Victim-to-Victim (KOFAVIV by its Creole acronym). She was speaking at a meeting about violence against women and children since the earthquake on 12 January. The venue of the meeting was KOFAVIV’s new headquarters: A tarp in a displaced persons camp in Port-au-Prince. All the women of KOFAVIV lost their homes in the disaster, while more than 300 lost their lives. More...
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Cuban Medical Aid to Haiti
Cuban Medical Aid to Haiti, Emily J. Kirk and John M. Kirk, Counterpunch, 1 April 2010 Media coverage of Cuban medical cooperation following the disastrous recent earthquake in Haiti was sparse indeed. International news reports usually described the Dominican Republic as being the first to provide assistance, while Fox News sang the praises of U.S. relief efforts in a report entitled "U.S. Spearheads Global Response to Haiti Earthquake"-a common theme of its extensive coverage. CNN also broadcast hundreds of reports, and in fact one focused on a Cuban doctor wearing a T-shirt with a large image of Che Guevara--and yet described him as a "Spanish doctor". More...
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Haiti’s Declaration of Independence Found
Haiti’s Declaration of Independence Found, PRI's The World, April 1, 2010 Anchor Marco Werman speaks with Julia Gaffield, a Duke graduate student who found a rare original copy of Haiti’s declaration of independence in Britain’s National Archive. More...
"Recovery from Natural Catastrophes, Wars and the Financial Crisis"
15th Annual Women Ambassadors Conference. Topic: "Recovery from Natural Catastrophes, Wars and the Financial Crisis"
Date: Thursday April 8, 2010
Time: 10:00am-12:00pm,
Place: Howard University School of Business Auditorium
Time: 2:30pm-6:00pm,
Place: US Congress - Rayburn Building Room 2325
2:30 - 3:30 pm Recovery from the Financial Crisis
3:30 - 4:30 pm Recovery from Wars, the case of Congo (DRC)
4:30 - 5:30 pm Haiti: Recovery from Natural Catastrophes
5:30 - 6:00 pm Recommendations on Haiti ’s Recovery
For further information call organizers, Dr. Marilyn Sephocle at (202) 247 7404 or at (202) 806 6758;
or Ms. Trisha Raines, Office of Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson at (202) 225-8885.
Date: Thursday April 8, 2010
Time: 10:00am-12:00pm,
Place: Howard University School of Business Auditorium
Time: 2:30pm-6:00pm,
Place: US Congress - Rayburn Building Room 2325
2:30 - 3:30 pm Recovery from the Financial Crisis
3:30 - 4:30 pm Recovery from Wars, the case of Congo (DRC)
4:30 - 5:30 pm Haiti: Recovery from Natural Catastrophes
5:30 - 6:00 pm Recommendations on Haiti ’s Recovery
For further information call organizers, Dr. Marilyn Sephocle at (202) 247 7404 or at (202) 806 6758;
or Ms. Trisha Raines, Office of Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson at (202) 225-8885.
Haiti's Resurrection: Promoting Human Rights by Mark Schuller
Haiti's Resurrection: Promoting Human Rights by Mark Schuller
Mark Schuller reports from Port-au-Prince about the current state of housing and shelter, food, water and healthcare distribution. With coming rains, and consitently ignored Haitian leadership, Schuller makes recommendations on how to move forward.
Mark Schuller reports from Port-au-Prince about the current state of housing and shelter, food, water and healthcare distribution. With coming rains, and consitently ignored Haitian leadership, Schuller makes recommendations on how to move forward.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Matthew 25 House and Sister Mary Finnick on The Today Show
Matthew 25 House and Sister Mary Finnick on The Today Show
Matthew 25 Guesthouse in Port-au-Prince's Delmas 33 neighborhood has become the home to hundreds of families since the Earthquake on January 12th. The Today Show met with community members as well as Sister Mary Finnick to follow-up on the still urgent needs.
Matthew 25 Guesthouse in Port-au-Prince's Delmas 33 neighborhood has become the home to hundreds of families since the Earthquake on January 12th. The Today Show met with community members as well as Sister Mary Finnick to follow-up on the still urgent needs.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
HAITI: Women Demand Role in Reconstruction
HAITI: Women Demand Role in Reconstruction, IRIN, April 1, 2010 Women's civil society groups were noticeable by their absence from the landmark Haiti donor conference on 31 March, which secured pledges of US$5.3 billion over the next two years to support the country’s post-quake recovery. Their lack of a presence at the meeting was indicative of a broader missing voice in Haiti’s long-term reconstruction prospects, gender activists argued. “Why are we not there right now, where are the women at this conference?” questioned Marie St. Cyr, a Haitian human rights advocate. “We still don’t have full participation and we certainly don’t have full inclusion. Haitian women are still being raped…they are supporting more than half of the households, and yet they are not being heard.” More....
The Upcoming Donors' Conference for Haiti
The Upcoming Donors' Conference for Haiti, Tectonic Shifts? by Mark Schuller, Counterpunch, March 26-28, 2010 This week former Presidents Clinton and Bush are in Haiti, trying to drum up support for Haiti’s reconstruction and setting the stage for the upcoming donor conference at the U.N. on March 31. There is no shortage of needs, and even plans to address them. Yet the process has as yet to be transparent. More...
Trauma and Solidarity in the New Haiti
Trauma and Solidarity in the New Haiti, by Mark Schuller, NACLA Report on the Americas, March/April 2010 I arrived in Christ-Roi, a mixed-income neighborhood in Port-au-Prince, on January 20 as part of a 13-person medical team organized by and for a local clinic, Hospice St. Joseph. Eight days had passed since the devastating earthquake. We arrived on one of the first civilian aid flights that the U.S. military, having seized the airport three days after the quake, allowed into the country.
The military’s emphasis on using the airport to deploy troops to organize logistics—at the expense of delivering humanitarian aid, at least in the early days of the crisis—caused serious delays in providing desperately needed help. But the airport was not the only source of delays. The land route for delivering aid was closed off when the occupying United Nations forces closed the border with the Dominican Republic to prevent a flood of refugees. The only other viable option was by sea, but the earthquake destroyed the capital’s port, where most of the country’s goods arrive. Making matters worse, the quake damaged already bad roads connecting functioning ports in Saint-Marc and Cap-Haïtien. More...
The military’s emphasis on using the airport to deploy troops to organize logistics—at the expense of delivering humanitarian aid, at least in the early days of the crisis—caused serious delays in providing desperately needed help. But the airport was not the only source of delays. The land route for delivering aid was closed off when the occupying United Nations forces closed the border with the Dominican Republic to prevent a flood of refugees. The only other viable option was by sea, but the earthquake destroyed the capital’s port, where most of the country’s goods arrive. Making matters worse, the quake damaged already bad roads connecting functioning ports in Saint-Marc and Cap-Haïtien. More...
Friday, April 2, 2010
/CORRECTION*/HAITI: Donors Pledge 10 Billion Dollars in Aid
/CORRECTION*/HAITI: Donors Pledge 10 Billion Dollars in Aid, by Armin Rosen Eleven weeks after an earthquake killed over two percent of its population and flattened its capital city, Haiti is looking towards a long and complex rebuilding process.
On Wednesday, 59 U.N. member states, international institutions and NGO coalitions pledged over five billion dollars towards the nation's near-term reconstruction, with almost 10 billion dollars towards reconstruction costs over the next decade. Donors shattered the pre-conference goal of 3.9 billion dollars for the next 18 months.
"By their actions this day, the friends of Haiti have acted far beyond expectations," said U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. "We can report very good news."
The funds will establish an interim redevelopment commission that will help the country transition from its current humanitarian emergency to a long-term rebuilding process. More...
On Wednesday, 59 U.N. member states, international institutions and NGO coalitions pledged over five billion dollars towards the nation's near-term reconstruction, with almost 10 billion dollars towards reconstruction costs over the next decade. Donors shattered the pre-conference goal of 3.9 billion dollars for the next 18 months.
"By their actions this day, the friends of Haiti have acted far beyond expectations," said U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. "We can report very good news."
The funds will establish an interim redevelopment commission that will help the country transition from its current humanitarian emergency to a long-term rebuilding process. More...
HAITI: Looking More and More Like a War Zone
HAITI: Looking More and More Like a War Zone, by Ansel Herz, Inter Press Service News Service, March 30, 2010 On an empty road in Cite Militaire, an industrial zone across from the slums of Cite Soleil, a group of women are gathered around a single white sack of U.S. rice. The rice was handed out Monday morning at a food distribution by the Christian relief group World Vision.
According to witnesses, during the distribution U.N. peacekeeping troops sprayed tear gas on the crowd.
"Haitians know that's the way they act with us. They treat us like animals," said Lourette Elris, as she divided the rice amongst the women. "They gave us the food, we were on our way home, then the troops threw tear gas at us. We finished receiving the food, we weren't disorderly. " More...
According to witnesses, during the distribution U.N. peacekeeping troops sprayed tear gas on the crowd.
"Haitians know that's the way they act with us. They treat us like animals," said Lourette Elris, as she divided the rice amongst the women. "They gave us the food, we were on our way home, then the troops threw tear gas at us. We finished receiving the food, we weren't disorderly. " More...
Haiti Prompts Meeting of top Cuban
Haiti Prompts Meeting of Top Cuban, U.S. Officials, by Paul Haven, The Miami Herald, April 1, 2010 Cuba's foreign minister met with a top U.S. State Department official to coordinate medical help for quake-ravaged Haiti, one of the highest level encounters in years between the Cold War enemies, officials said Thursday. More...
Rushed From Haiti, Then Jailed for Lacking Visas
Rushed From Haiti, Then Jailed for Lacking Visas, by Nina Bernstein, The New York Times, March 31, 2010 More than two months after the earthquake that devastated Haiti, at least 30 survivors who were waved onto planes by Marines in the chaotic aftermath are prisoners of the United States immigration system, locked up since their arrival in detention centers in Florida. In Haiti, some were pulled from the rubble, their legal advocates say. Some lost parents, siblings or children. Many were seeking food, safety or medical care at the Port-au-Prince airport when terrifying aftershocks prompted hasty evacuations by military transports, with no time for immigration processing. None have criminal histories. More...
Skepticism on Pledges for Haiti
Skepticism on Pledges for Haiti, The New York Times, by Neil MacFarquhar, April 1, 2010
UNITED NATIONS — An international effort to finance the reconstruction of Haiti attracted billions of dollars in pledges at a conference here on Wednesday, but the very size of the outpouring raised questions about whether the commitments would be met and how fast the financial support could help salve the needs of the Haitian people. More...
UNITED NATIONS — An international effort to finance the reconstruction of Haiti attracted billions of dollars in pledges at a conference here on Wednesday, but the very size of the outpouring raised questions about whether the commitments would be met and how fast the financial support could help salve the needs of the Haitian people. More...
Thursday, April 1, 2010
We Can Do Better for Haiti
We Can Do Better for Haiti: Demand Transparency and Improved Aid Distribution Institute for Justice And Democracy in Haiti, The world responded generously to Haiti's earthquake, immediately donating over $2.5 billion, with another $1.2 billion pledged, even before the March 31 UN Donor's Conference. This works out to over $1,000 per earthquake victim. But over two months later, hundreds of thousands of Haiti's earthquake victims live without waterproof shelter, eat once a day or less, and do not receive adequate medical care. More...
International Donors' Conference Towards a New Future for Haiti
International Donors' Conference Towards a New Future for Haiti More... http://www.haiticonference.org/
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Clinton Apologizes to Haiti: Too Little, Too Late
Bill Clinton realized a decade or so too late that he messed up by prioritizing Arkansas rice farmers over Haitians. In a stunning and wonderful apology, Clinton said:
It may have been good for some of my farmers in Arkansas, but it has not worked. It was a mistake... I had to live everyday with the consequences of the loss of capacity to produce a rice crop in Haiti to feed those people because of what I did; nobody else.More..
No end in sight for Zimbabwe
HARARE, Monday Zimbabwe’s feuding political parties look set to miss yet another deadline to conclude talks on outstanding issues from their power sharing agreement with indications that sharp differences have started to emerge.
South African President Jacob Zuma who was appointed by the Southern African Development Community to mediate in the negotiations between the three governing parties in the unity government had given the negotiators up to March 31 to round off the talks.
President Zuma a fortnight ago raised hopes that the 18 month inclusive government’s reform agenda was back on track when he announced that President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF and the Movement for Democratic Change led by Prime Minister Tsvangirai had agreed on” a package of measures.” More...
South African President Jacob Zuma who was appointed by the Southern African Development Community to mediate in the negotiations between the three governing parties in the unity government had given the negotiators up to March 31 to round off the talks.
President Zuma a fortnight ago raised hopes that the 18 month inclusive government’s reform agenda was back on track when he announced that President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF and the Movement for Democratic Change led by Prime Minister Tsvangirai had agreed on” a package of measures.” More...
MDC-T shocked by Mugabe claims
MDC-T has described President Robert Mugabe’s claims that the three political parties in the unity agreement have not reached an agreement as a “gobsmacking political somersault” which will not be tolerated. Mugabe told a Zanu PF central committee meeting on Friday that Zanu PF was still insisting that it would not compromise in the current talks over outstanding Global Political Agreement (GPA) issues until sanctions imposed by the West were removed.
His outbursts were at variance with comments by the mediator South African President Jacob Zuma that the parties had agreed to a package of measures during his intervention a fortnight ago.
The negotiators met on Thursday and Friday and are expected to round off the talks tomorrow. A report will be presented to Zuma before the Southern African Development Community considers a way forward. More...
His outbursts were at variance with comments by the mediator South African President Jacob Zuma that the parties had agreed to a package of measures during his intervention a fortnight ago.
The negotiators met on Thursday and Friday and are expected to round off the talks tomorrow. A report will be presented to Zuma before the Southern African Development Community considers a way forward. More...
Zim no go area: German business group
HARARE – A German business delegation has cancelled a visit to Zimbabwe, put off by Harare’s controversial plan to force foreign-owned firms to cede controlling stake to local blacks.
The German African Business Association (GABA) said the trip had been called off because Zimbabwe has become a “no go area” for foreign investors following promulgation of the empowerment laws that give foreign-controlled business up to 2015 to sell majority stake to indigenous Zimbabweans or face punitive levies and taxes from the government.“Under the current circumstances Zimbabwe is a 'no go' area for foreign investment,” said Andreas Wenzel regional manager for southern Africa for the GABA that was helping organise the visit. More...
Western firms stay away from trade fair
BULAWAYO – Only one British company has confirmed participation at the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) as Western firms continue to shun Zimbabwe despite formation of a coalition government that has stabilised the economy and eased political tensions in the country.
“We only have one small consultant company from the UK that is coming. As for the US (United States) and other western countries, there is none,” ZITF chairman Bekithemba Ndlovu told journalists at the weekend.
European and American firms have since 2001 boycotted the trade fair in protest against President Robert Mugabe’s human rights record and failure to uphold democracy and the rule of law. More...
“We only have one small consultant company from the UK that is coming. As for the US (United States) and other western countries, there is none,” ZITF chairman Bekithemba Ndlovu told journalists at the weekend.
European and American firms have since 2001 boycotted the trade fair in protest against President Robert Mugabe’s human rights record and failure to uphold democracy and the rule of law. More...
Governors blame sanctions for long travel
BULAWAYO – A provincial governor has blamed international travel restrictions imposed by the United States and European Union member countries on President Robert Mugabe and 200 other government officials for forcing her to commute more than 240 kilometres daily to work at taxpayers’ expense.
Matabeleland South governor Angeline Masuku (Zanu-PF) says in a bid to beat the sanctions she is forced to drive more than a thousand of kilometres to work each week in her chauffer-driven government issue Mercedes Benz E280 as she commutes between a farm on the outskirts of Bulawayo and her offices in Gwanda. More...
Matabeleland South governor Angeline Masuku (Zanu-PF) says in a bid to beat the sanctions she is forced to drive more than a thousand of kilometres to work each week in her chauffer-driven government issue Mercedes Benz E280 as she commutes between a farm on the outskirts of Bulawayo and her offices in Gwanda. More...
UN reports El Nino Patterns may Lessen Haiti's Hurricane Risk
GENEVA -- The U.N. weather agency says the ongoing El Nino weather system could lessen the strength of hurricanes in the North Atlantic and mean good news for earthquake-rattled Haiti.
The World Meteorological Organization says the El Nino effect may persist through midyear, halfway through the region's March-November hurricane season. More..
Ban Ki-moon's View on Haiti Renewal
The Petionville Golf Club sits on a hillside overlooking Port-au-Prince and the sea. These days, its once-groomed fairways are home to nearly 50,000 people, among the 1.2 million displaced by theearthquake that devastated Haiti in January. They are crowded together in tents or tarpaulin lean-tos provided by the United Nations or international relief agencies..More..
Washington Post:Haiti to release far-reaching spending plan to rebuild country
UNITED NATIONS -- Haitian President René Préval will unveil a $3.9 billion plan Wednesday to begin radically reshaping his country's post-earthquake economy and infrastructure, according to a Haitianreconstruction action plan.
The plan, which Préval will present to donors at a U.N. conference in New York, would essentially redirect much of Haiti's economic development outside Port-au-Prince, creating provisional economic hubs to compete with the capital. More..
NY Times:Quake Accentuated Chasm That Has Defined Haiti
The lights of the casino above this wrecked city beckoned as gamblers in freshly pressed clothes streamed to the roulette table and slot machines. In a restaurant nearby, diners quaffed Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin Champagne and ate New Zealand lamb chops at prices rivaling those in Manhattan.A few yards away, hundreds of families displaced by the earthquake languished under tents and tarps, bathing themselves from buckets and relieving themselves in the street as barefoot children frolicked on pavement strewn with garbage. More...
IPS Reports:HAITI: Artists Join UN to Rebuild Cultural Life
PARIS, Mar 25, 2010 (IPS) - As international donors prepare to meet at the United Nations headquarters in New York to discuss ways to rebuild Haiti, after the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake, the country’s artistic community has been mobilising to make culture a key aspect of reconstruction.More...
IPS- HAITI: U.N. Gears Up for Major Aid Meet
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 29, 2010 (IPS) - Although the humanitarian crisis in Haiti remains dire, with over a million still homeless and hundreds of thousands in need of adequate shelter for the upcoming rainy season, the international community has started looking towards the country's long-term reconstruction. More..
Monday, March 29, 2010
Clampdown on Vulture Funds Preying on Poor Countries
Clampdown on Vulture Funds Preying on Poor Countries, by Heather Stewart, The Observer, March 28, 2010 A Labour government would introduce legislation early in the next parliament to ban so-called "vulture funds" from preying on the world's poorest countries, Treasury minister Stephen Timms announces today. The move comes as a bid to draw a clear electoral dividing line with the Conservatives on overseas development....Tamara Gaw, a Washington-based lawyer at campaign group TransAfrica Forum, which campaigns to help vulture funds' victims, welcomed Labour's new promise. More...
HAITI: Civil Society Wants Bigger Role in Reconstruction
HAITI: Civil Society Wants Bigger Role in Reconstruction, IRIN, March 28, 2010 Haitian government appeals for an estimated US$11.5 billion in recovery and development funding at a UN donor conference on 31 March, NGOs – through which 65 percent of current donor contributions are channeled - are looking for a more coherent role in rebuilding the country. Ahead of the conference, a host of major civil society groups gathered at New York University on 25 March in a consultative meeting hosted by former US President Bill Clinton, who is the UN Special Envoy for Haiti, and with the European Union and InterAction, a coalition of US-based international NGOs. More...
DIANNA GAMES: Making up for wasted time after Zimbabwe’s ‘lost decade’
EMMANUEL Munyukwi, CE of the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE), has had a stressful time during Zimbabwe’s lost decade — keeping interest alive in a stock market increasingly disconnected from the rest of the world.
Hyperinflation, peaking far north of the last official rate of 231-million percent, a government driven by political expedience and a currency in freefall were just some of the other headaches Munyukwi, along with the rest of the country’s business sector, had to cope with over the past 10 years. The ZSE saw foreigners pulling out and local companies using the exchange as a hedge against inflation. In 1997, 30% of trading was driven by foreigners; in 2008 it was closer to 2%.
More...
Hyperinflation, peaking far north of the last official rate of 231-million percent, a government driven by political expedience and a currency in freefall were just some of the other headaches Munyukwi, along with the rest of the country’s business sector, had to cope with over the past 10 years. The ZSE saw foreigners pulling out and local companies using the exchange as a hedge against inflation. In 1997, 30% of trading was driven by foreigners; in 2008 it was closer to 2%.
More...
Letter from Africa: Zimbabwe through a different prism
David Smith visits Harare and finds that life for Zimbabweans is not all conflict and despair...
Audiostream...
Audiostream...
SA to tighten immigration laws
March 28, 2010
By Mxolisi Ncube JOHANNESBURG – The South African government is looking at ways of tightening its immigration laws in a bid to limit the continued influx of foreign nationals, a government minister said this week. Due to its economic stability when compared with other countries on the continent, South Africa is the most preferred choice for illegal immigrants, especially those from neighbouring Zimbabwe and Mozambique. Already, the country is home to an estimated three million Zimbabwean refugees, who fled political persecution and economic problems in their home country. More...
By Mxolisi Ncube JOHANNESBURG – The South African government is looking at ways of tightening its immigration laws in a bid to limit the continued influx of foreign nationals, a government minister said this week. Due to its economic stability when compared with other countries on the continent, South Africa is the most preferred choice for illegal immigrants, especially those from neighbouring Zimbabwe and Mozambique. Already, the country is home to an estimated three million Zimbabwean refugees, who fled political persecution and economic problems in their home country. More...
Zimbabwe Students Arrested As Police Crash Demo
Harare, March 29, 2010 - Police have arrested 15 students in Harare and 10 in Masvingo as they pounced on the students who were preparing for a demonstration demanding the full implementation of a power sharing agreement and against the deteriorating education conditions. More...
Boston Globe: Haiti 70 Days Later
In Haiti, the survivors of the magnitude 7.0 earthquake that struck about two and a half months ago continue to struggle, with a few signs of hope as international assistance is beginning to make measurable progress, some international debt is being forgiven, and some businesses and institutions start to come back to life. In a country still mourning the loss of a now-estimated 230,000 citizens (on par with the 2004 Indian Ocean quake), over one million people remain housed in makeshift tent cities, uncertain about their future or security. According to a recent draft summary of the Haitian government's damage and needs assessment, the country will need $11.5 billion to rebuild. Collected here are a handful of recent photographs from Haiti, a country still in need. More...
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Anderson Cooper 360: Danny Glover visits Haiti
Danny Glover visits Haiti, Anderson Cooper 360: Blogs from CNN.com, March 26, 2010 Posted 08:20 PM ET Anderson interviews Danny Glover [Chair of TransAfrica Forum] and Nicole Lee [President of TransAfrica Forum] on the state of rebuilding in Haiti. More...
How Can Lawyers Help Haiti?
How Can Lawyers Help Haiti? by Afua Hirsch, The Guardian (UK), March 26, 2010 From monitoring NGOs to supporting children's rights, international lawyers are vital to Haiti's reconstruction efforts More...
Ghosts Threaten to Return to Haiti
Ghosts Threaten to Return to Haiti, by Nikhil Aziz, Foreign Policy In Focus, March 25, 2010 Some of the advice for how Haiti ought to rebuild after the earthquake sounds hauntingly familiar. There are echoes of the same bad development advice Haiti has received for decades, even before the nation faced its current devastating situation. To avoid repeating past failures, we would be wise to review how previous aid models led down the wrong path.
Twelve years ago, Grassroots International released a study entitled "Feeding Dependency, Starving Democracy: USAID Policies in Haiti." Offering an in-depth examination of USAID development policies in Haiti, the study concluded that official aid actually damaged the very aspects of Haitian society it was allegedly trying to fix. The aid was undermining democracy and creating too much dependency. More...
Twelve years ago, Grassroots International released a study entitled "Feeding Dependency, Starving Democracy: USAID Policies in Haiti." Offering an in-depth examination of USAID development policies in Haiti, the study concluded that official aid actually damaged the very aspects of Haitian society it was allegedly trying to fix. The aid was undermining democracy and creating too much dependency. More...
Friday, March 26, 2010
Hundreds of Haitian Families Moved to First of New Campsites – UN
Hundreds of Haitian Families Moved to First of New Campsites – UN, UN News Service, March 26, 2010 Some 200 Haitian families have been moved into the first of an expected five transitional sites being set up to decongest spontaneous settlements of those left homeless by the 12 January earthquake, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported today. More...
IRIN--HAITI: Children Struggle in Make-Shift Orphanage
HAITI: Children Struggle in Make-Shift Orphanage, IRIN, March 22, 2010 Mami George, a retired teacher, sits in a courtyard at the small orphanage she manages in San Marie, Port-au-Prince. The area, once home to 2,000 residents, now accommodates some 6,000 people who lost their homes in the January earthquake. George began feeding the orphans living on the streets near the site and within days found herself caring for more than 50 children aged between three and 15. Only 500 orphans have been registered with the different local and international agencies in Haiti since the quake, not including the ones living in orphanages before the disaster. According to local caretakers, most children who had one living relative were taken in by them, explaining the relatively low number of orphans. The children in George’s care, however, have no one. More...
The World Reports: Haiti Struggles to Rebuild Infrastructure
Haiti Struggles to Rebuild Infrastructure, by Amy Bracken, PRI's The World, March 25, 2010 President Barack Obama has asked Congress for $2.8 billion in emergency funds to help post-earthquake reconstruction efforts in Haiti. At least 220,000 people died in the January quake and more than a million lost their homes. The catastrophe took a heavy toll on the infrastructure including the nation’s postal service. Now mailmen are back on the streets but facing enormous challenges....More...
http://www.theworld.org/2010/03/25/haiti-struggles-to-rebuild-infrastructure/
http://www.theworld.org/2010/03/25/haiti-struggles-to-rebuild-infrastructure/
Announcing the Haiti News Project
Announcing the Haiti News Project, March 20, 2010 A group of journalism organizations have been communicating regularly since early February to determine how to help Haitian print journalists recover from the devastating earthquake of Jan. 12, 2010. The group originally consisted primarily of staff and representatives of the American Society of News Editors (ASNE) and the Inter American Press Association (IAPA), but over the course of several rounds of conference calls has grown to include the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE), UNITY: Journalists of Color, Poder Magazine and the Poynter Institute. More...
Haiti’s Misery
Haiti’s Misery, Editorial, The New York Times, March 26, 2010 The emergency in Haiti isn’t over. It’s getting worse, as the outside world’s attention fades away. Misery rages like a fever in the hundreds of camps sheltering hundreds of thousands of the 1.3 million people left homeless by the Jan. 12 earthquake. The dreaded rains have already swamped tents and ragged stick-and-tarp huts. They have turned walkways into mud lakes and made difficult or impossible the simple acts of collecting and cooking food, washing clothes, staying clean and avoiding disease. The rainy season peaks in May. More...
Keeping the Focus on Haiti at Teaching for Change's Busboys and Poets Bookstore
Keeping the Focus on Haiti at Teaching for Change's Busboys and Poets Bookstore--Books and Resources on Its People and History
Resources:
TransAfrica Forum's Haiti petition and other resources
Other Worlds Are Possible - rebuilding a just Haiti
Teaching about Haiti - downloadable teaching guide and resource links
More...
Resources:
TransAfrica Forum's Haiti petition and other resources
Other Worlds Are Possible - rebuilding a just Haiti
Teaching about Haiti - downloadable teaching guide and resource links
More...
Thursday, March 25, 2010
HAITI: Watching the Sky with Dread
HAITI: Watching the Sky with Dread, by Daniel Zueras, Inter Press News Service, March 25, 2010 With the spring rains and hurricane season just around the corner in Haiti, some 600,000 people are still living in camps, many in areas prone to flooding. And plans to provide solutions for the survivors of the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake are moving forward slowly. More...
HAITI: Artists Join UN to Rebuild Cultural Life
HAITI: Artists Join UN to Rebuild Cultural Life, by A. D. McKenzie, Inter Press Service News Agency, March 25, 2010 As international donors prepare to meet at the United Nations headquarters in New York to discuss ways to rebuild Haiti, after the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake, the country’s artistic community has been mobilising to make culture a key aspect of reconstruction. More...
South Africa: Aid Shipment Destined for Haiti
South Africa: Aid Shipment Destined for Haiti, BuaNews (posted on allAfrica.com), March 12, 2010 A shipment of aid is expected to leave South Africa on Freedom Day, April 27, for Haiti in solidarity with the world's first black republic, the Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, Lindiwe Sisulu, announced today. More...
Liberian Group Makes Donation to Haiti Earthquake Victims
Liberian Group Makes Donation to Haiti Earthquake Victims, Liberian Government (posted on allAfrica.com), March 25, 2010 Cash in the amount of L$25,000 and US$200, collected by a group from Maryland County, was today presented to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for onforwarding to the people of Haiti, in the wake of the devastating earthquake which hit that island country in January. More...
DEVELOPMENT: Haiti Must Destroy Before Rebuilding
DEVELOPMENT: Haiti Must Destroy Before Rebuilding, by Garry Pierre-Pierre. Inter Press Service News Agency, March 22, 2010 When the Jan. 12 earthquake struck this mountainous country, in less than a minute, it transformed it from one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere to the largest construction site this side of the Atlantic. More...
Obama Seeks $2.8B in Aid to Haiti
Obama Seeks $2.8B in Aid to Haiti, by Lesley Clark and Jacqeline Charles, The Miami Herald, March 25, 2010 Exactly one week before international donors meet to help Haiti, the president has asked Congress for $2.8 billion in aid funds. More...
Haiti Recovery Blueprint Includes Foreign Donors
Haiti Recovery Blueprint Includes Foreign Donors, by Jacqueline Charles, The Miami Herald, March 23, 2010 That's the amount each donor nation will have to ante up for a say in Haiti's early recovery under a plan Haitian President René Préval plans to present at an international donors conference in New York at month's end. More...
Haiti's Diaspora Hopes to Play Role in Reconstruction
Haiti's Diaspora Hopes to Play Role in Reconstruction, by Lesley Clark, The Miami Herald, March 24, 2010 Those who left Haiti and now live abroad, Edeline Clermont says, can't help but feel a twinge of guilt. ``Maybe if we had been there we could have done more,'' she said, acknowledging a sense of helplessness as she watches news reports about the Jan. 12 earthquake that killed more than 200,000 people and left the government reeling. It's that sense of responsibility, she said, that prompted the Miami nurse and 500 others with Haitian roots to spend three days in conference rooms at the Organization of American States this week, hoping to carve out a role for Haiti's diaspora in the country's reconstruction. ``We want to be a part of it,'' Clermont said of the engineers, teachers, architects, doctors and entrepreneurs who took part in the meeting. More...
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/24/1544294/haitis-diaspora-hopes-to-play.html#ixzz0jECX9ekp
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/24/1544294/haitis-diaspora-hopes-to-play.html#ixzz0jECX9ekp
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
NYT: Americas Development Bank Forgives Much of Haiti’s Debt
MEXICO CITY — Haiti received a boost to its balance sheet on Monday when the Inter-American Development Bank, meeting in the Mexican resort city of Cancún, agreed to forgive $479 million of the country’s $1.2 billion in foreign debt.
To draw attention to Haiti’s long-term needs, meanwhile, former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush met Monday with President René Préval on the grounds of the toppled National Palace in Port-au-Prince and toured the central plaza, which has been transformed into a sprawling squatter camp. More..
To draw attention to Haiti’s long-term needs, meanwhile, former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush met Monday with President René Préval on the grounds of the toppled National Palace in Port-au-Prince and toured the central plaza, which has been transformed into a sprawling squatter camp. More..
Friday, March 19, 2010
Customs stalling aid efforts in Haiti
Customs stalling aid efforts in Haiti, by Frances Robles, Miami Herald, March 18, 2010.
As foreign do-gooders try to send humanitarian supplies, they are encountering problems -- for a variety of different reasons. More...
As foreign do-gooders try to send humanitarian supplies, they are encountering problems -- for a variety of different reasons. More...
Trees for Haiti campaign starts -- slowly
Trees for Haiti campaign starts -- slowly, by Andres Oppenheimer, Miami Herald, March 18, 2010
Shortly after the devastating earthquake in Haiti, I wrote that the hundreds of millions of dollars pledged by the international community to rebuild the country would be a waste of money unless accompanied by a massive re-forestation effort.
I said each of us should donate one tree for Haiti. Nearly two months later, we're beginning to see the first -- admittedly limited -- steps in that direction. More...
Shortly after the devastating earthquake in Haiti, I wrote that the hundreds of millions of dollars pledged by the international community to rebuild the country would be a waste of money unless accompanied by a massive re-forestation effort.
I said each of us should donate one tree for Haiti. Nearly two months later, we're beginning to see the first -- admittedly limited -- steps in that direction. More...
AIDS care rebounding in Haiti, though many lack shelter
AIDS care rebounding in Haiti, though many lack shelter, by Michael Vasquez and Carol Rosenberg, Miami Herald, March 19, 2010
HIV/AIDS services in Haiti fared better than the country as a whole after the Jan. 12 earthquake, but the rise of tent cities presents challenges when it comes to prevention. More...
HIV/AIDS services in Haiti fared better than the country as a whole after the Jan. 12 earthquake, but the rise of tent cities presents challenges when it comes to prevention. More...
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