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2010 January
Monthly Archives: January 2010
New Martin Luther King Day report shows that economic policies must be targeted to...
A new report released today finds that African Americans and Latinos are experiencing the brunt of the economic recession, from joblessness to foreclosures, and that targeted economic policies are required to address the racial economic divide in the U.S.
Reflections by Comrade Fidel: Haiti’s lesson
It is amazing that no one says a word on the fact that Haiti was the first country where 400,000 Africans, enslaved and brought to this land by Europeans, rebelled against 30,000 white owners of sugarcane and coffee plantations and succeeded in making the first great social revolution in our hemisphere.
Martin Luther King Day special: Ben Jealous statement, Cornel West speech, Dr. King in...
In the spirit of Dr. King and guided by Pierre Labossiere of the Haiti Action Committee, the SF Bay View and Block Report Radio are preparing to send a media-medical team to Haiti to serve the people most in need. A fundraiser will be held Sunday, Jan. 24, 6:30 p.m., at the Black Dot Café, 1195 Pine St. in West Oakland. Spread the word! Be there! Bring medical supplies.
The media called: Earthquake victims still await help, I say
Haiti needs humanitarian help. Obama sent a bipartisan military invasion – 10,000 military guns sent come to help us to death. Just as the Black Katrina victims were vilified and criminalized, so too shall the Haitian earthquake victims be criminalized, vilified and evacuated at the point of guns.
The right testicle of hell: History of a Haitian holocaust
Defense Secretary Robert Gates wouldn’t send in food and water because, he said, there was no “structure ... to provide security.” For Gates, appointed by Bush and allowed to hang around by Obama, it’s security first. That was his lesson from Hurricane Katrina. Blackwater before drinking water.
Why the U.S. owes Haiti billions: The briefest history
The U.S. has worked to break Haiti for over 200 years. We owe Haiti. Not charity. We owe Haiti as a matter of justice. Reparations. The U.S. owes Haiti Billions – with a big B.
Singing and praying at night in Port-au-Prince
Several hundred people had gathered to sing, clap and pray in an intersection here by 9 o’clock last night, a little more than four hours after an earthquake had devastated much of the Haitian capital.
Shades of Katrina: No help for Haitians who need it most
"Rescue efforts were stalled today in Port-au-Prince with foreign rescue workers overwhelmed and unprepared to deal with impoverished people. Crews arrived with neither vehicles, nor gas, nor translators, nor guides." Make your tax-deductible donation to the Haiti Emergency Relief Fund through www.HaitiAction.net, an organization that will use your gift wisely, for the people who need it most.
The Haitian tragedy and mainstream media response
Time is of the essence in Haiti, yet the international response has been painfully, tragically slow. Would this pace of rescue – where every minute counts in digging people out of the wreckage – have been the case if the earthquake victims were European?
‘We should be there, in Haiti’: Statement by Dr. Jean-Bertand Aristide
In the spirit of solidarity President Aristide invokes and guided by Pierre Labossiere of the Haiti Action Committee, the SF Bay View and Block Report Radio are preparing to send a media-medical team to Haiti to serve the people most in need. Come to the fundraiser Sunday, Jan. 24, 6:30 p.m., at the Black Dot Café, 1195 Pine St. in West Oakland. Bring medical supplies. Spread the word!
‘The Other America’
"The Other America" by Martin Luther King Jr. "is a chilling, troubled speech made with the background of urban riots, pleas for Black Power and the Vietnam War." - Ishmael Reed
King’s legacy serves as a call to arms on crisis in Haiti
Today provides a moment for reflection on the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., born 81 years ago on this day. It is also a moment of intense anguish for the survivors and those continuing to suffer in the wake of the tragic earthquake in Haiti.
Too little too late for Haiti? Six sobering points
Hundreds of thousands of people in Haiti have had no access to clean water since the quake hit. Have you ever felt the raw fear in the gut when you are not sure where your next drink of water is going to come from? People can die within hours if they are exposed to heat without water.
Ninth Circuit strikes down Washington state’s felon disfranchisement law in landmark voting rights case,...
In a precedent-setting decision, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the state of Washington’s law barring felons from voting on Jan. 5, just in time to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, for whom the issue of voting rights for the disenfranchised was a top priority. The Ninth Circuit ruled that the law violates the federal Voting Rights Act.
How the U.S. impoverished Haiti
The horrific disaster that befell Haiti Jan. 12 may have killed hundreds of thousands. According to the media, Haiti’s weak infrastructure and poor quality of construction account for the large number of deaths. Left to their own efforts, however, Haitians would have been more than able to build a reliable democracy with adequate infrastructure. But they have never been allowed to do so.
Haiti and America’s historic debt
Once the French army had subdued L’Ouverture and his rebel force, Napoleon intended to advance to the North American mainland, basing a new French empire in New Orleans and settling the vast territory west of the Mississippi River. By 1803, a frustrated Napoleon – denied his foothold in the New World – agreed to sell New Orleans and the Louisiana territories to Jefferson.
Ten things the U.S. can and should do for Haiti
Allow all Haitians in the U.S. to work and send money home. Do not allow U.S. military in Haiti to point their guns at Haitians. Do not allow the victims to be cast as criminals. Give Haiti grants as help, not loans. Enact Temporary Protected Status for Haitians. Release all Haitians in U.S. jails who are not accused of any crimes. And more.
Wealth care
The richest nation in earth’s history can’t agree on how to insure that its citizens get good health care, while one of the poorest nations on earth – Cuba – not only provides free universal health care, but it provides well-trained, humanistic doctors to developing and poor countries all over the world. In fact, there are more Cuban doctors helping people overseas than there are from the U.N.’s World Health Organization (WHO).
AFL-CIO debates ‘Why are no Blacks working?’
In response to “Why are no Blacks working?” by Bay Area Black Builders President Joseph Debro that appeared in print and online in the SF Bay View, Tom Owens, a high level official with the AFL-CIO Construction Trades Department, sent the following message via email to Debro. Debro’s emailed rebuttal follows.
Harry Reid and the demagogues
The idiotic controversy that is the focus of the nation’s media and which claims Nevada Sen. Harry Reid uttered racist comments is mind boggling in its obtuseness. Democrats and honest Republicans, white and Black, cannot seem to gather the moral energy and mental clarity to call the Republicans who are promoting this issue by their true name: demagogues.