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Three Days of Prayer for Haiti
March 9, 2010
Videographer Siraj Fowler “tells the truth about the real conditions a proud and G’d-fearing people are living in,” their “city turned demolition zone/cemetery.” Don’t miss the media-medical team’s report-backs and their film ‘Haiti: Rising from the Ashes’ on Wednesday, March 17, 7 p.m., at the Richard Oakes Multicultural Center in the Cesar Chavez Student Union (upstairs on the T-Level), San Francisco State University; and Thursday, March 25, 7 p.m., at the Kaos Network, 4343 Leimert Blvd, Los Angeles.
The Haiti response: Guns or doctors?
March 8, 2010
As Haitians engage in their latest war for survival, it is instructive to see how certain neighboring nations responded to this crisis, for a nation’s response unveils its motive, its fears and its hopes. Cuba sent doctors; the U.S. sent soldiers.
House vote imminent on Rep. Maxine Waters’ bill to cancel Haiti’s debt
March 7, 2010
“Haiti faces enormous challenges now, and the burden of paying off foreign debt would prevent the nation from taking necessary steps to help its people at this perilous time. I introduced H.R. 4573 so that Haiti can use its limited resources to make both immediate and long-term investments in essential humanitarian relief, reconstruction and development efforts,” said Congresswoman Maxine Waters.
The Red Cross collected $255 million for Haiti relief effort but only sent $80 million!
March 5, 2010
The latest figures for Haiti are $333 million donated to the Red Cross but only $106 million spent, while thousands of Haitians are dying preventable deaths and only half of the 1.3 million homeless have even a tarp as the rainy season begins. Send YOUR donations to the Haiti Emergency Relief Fund at HaitiAction.net! And protest at UN headquarters Wednesday, March 31, 9:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, 47th & First, NYC.
Haiti: A tale of two disasters
March 4, 2010
Dr. Chris Zamani, who led the medical contingent of the medical-media team that Minister of Information JR took to Haiti, writes of the oppression in Haiti as “the imperialists … warning of what will happen to those that dare to grasp their own destiny and establish freedom for their descendants by any means necessary.” Watch the unforgettable film of their trip and meet them in person: “Back from Haiti” Thursday, March 11, 7 p.m., Black Dot Cafe, 1195 Pine St., West Oakland, and Thursday, March 18, 7 p.m., SF State, 1600 Holloway Ave., San Francisco.
The earthquake takes Port au Prince back to the Stone Age
February 24, 2010
“Downtown Port au Prince, Haiti, looks like it was hit with an atomic bomb. People live in makeshift tents and damaged cave-like buildings. It was cold blooded to see how they are being done by the international community. Nobody cares whether they live or die,” writes JR. He is looking for venues for Haiti report-backs. Call him right away if you can help: (510) 689-7964.
Three in a million: Voices from the Haitian camps
February 18, 2010
I think it is going to get worse for us in the camps. We need tents and food. We need water and school and jobs. We need help to find a place to stay. The rain is coming soon. Water is going to come and our babies will lose their lives.
Jounen jèn, Days of Remembrance
February 16, 2010
Friday, Feb. 12, one month after the earthquake, the first day of Jounen jèn, the days of mourning and remembrance, and we walked through the twisted iron and dusty shards of glass of the shattered National Cathedral. It was as though the world had ended.
Minister JR from Haiti, Part 2: The feel of a plantation
February 16, 2010
An old school relentless plantation-style colonialism governs the country currently through mostly white non-governmental organizations just as well as through armies like those of the U.S. and U.N. that control the flow of resources. – MULTIMEDIA BONUS: Listen to Davey D’s interview with Minister of Information JR immediately after his return from Haiti.
Two poems for Haiti: ‘We be Spirit People’ and ‘Statistics of loss’
February 14, 2010
Be strong, Ayiti! Be strong, Afrikans! Sending love, respect and honor to our Afrikan family in Ayiti, the Congo and around the planet – not in honor of their bloody valentine, but in solidarity with those who know it’s time. For too long we have stayed the wind; now let the wind blow, while we Move the Village to Higher Ground.
U.S. brags Haiti response is a ‘model’ while more than a million remain homeless in Haiti
February 14, 2010
Despite the fact that over a million people remained homeless in Haiti one month after the earthquake, U.S. Ambassador to Haiti Ken Merten is quoted at a State Department briefing on Feb. 12, saying: “In terms of humanitarian aid delivery … frankly, it’s working really well. And I believe that this will be something that people will be able to look back on in the future as a model for how we’ve been able to sort ourselves out as donors on the ground and responding to an earthquake.”
Haiti! … in one form or another
February 13, 2010
They shoot us, then display us as looters. / Then they bring in the U.N. and the rest of the U.S. friends, / Blackwater forces who now go under the new name Xe, / Who, like a fatal disease, once they get in, they don’t / Never plan on leaving. … / Haiti! The land of my brotherman … and sister woman, / The ones that kicked Napolean’s ass, / The land of sugar cane and Africans, / The land in which the enslaved revolt.
The myth of the orphan – from Haiti to Hayward
February 13, 2010
Institutionally racist and classist U.S. adoption and foster care agencies, along with county-run child protective services agencies, are all established with a core mission that includes the goal to “protect” children in need, which is a good goal. But it becomes problematic when the concept of “in need” is judged through a Western, Eurocentric lens.
Minister JR from Haiti, Part 1: Starvation and Jim Crow racism
February 12, 2010
Today, on the one month anniversary of the earthquake in Haiti, I went all over Port au Prince and saw the devastation firsthand and the occupation by Brazil under the guise of the U.N., and of course the U.S.A. I rode through Port au Prince all day and didn’t see one act of recovery going on. I don’t see where the millions of dollars that have been raised for Haiti are going. Everywhere people are starving.
Protesters clash with police following rain in Haiti
February 11, 2010
About one inch of rain fell on the capital of Port au Prince early this morning sparking angry protests that tied up traffic near the airport for nearly four hours. Police held the march back as a short scuffle broke out with angry protesters demanding tents, food, water and the return of former President Aristide.
Hope rising from the ashes
February 11, 2010
People have found an inner fortitude, a reserve of compassion and dedication that was released by the quake, a river of courage that spills from their hearts, and every day people traumatized by loss are engaging in extraordinary acts of kindness.
Haiti numbers – 27 days after the quake
February 10, 2010
A million people are still homeless or needing shelter in Haiti. A million have been given food by the U.N. World Food Program in Port au Prince – another million in Port au Prince still need help.
Haiti from the front lines: Genocide by omission
February 9, 2010
In many of the areas there is desperate need for food and relief. AID agencies MUST find a more humane way to reach out to the women and children who are most vulnerable and desperate. Caribbean citizens have offered help yet many have even been denied entry.
A cry for help from Haiti: ‘They are cutting off limbs needlessly and taking our dignity; the babies need to eat tonight’
February 8, 2010
“The doctors (in the Dominican Republic) are cutting off EVERYTHING: arms, legs, toes, feet, fingers. You have a cut or a wound and they just cut off the limbs. The people returning from the DR are always missing a limb. They are doubly traumatized and more depressed.”
Adoptees of Color say, ‘Stop all adoptions from Haiti’
February 7, 2010
This statement reflects the position of an international community of adoptees of color who wish to pose a critical intervention in the discourse and actions affecting the child victims of the recent earthquake in Haiti and who feel compelled to voice our opinion about what it means to be “saved” or “rescued” through adoption.