Category Archives: Caribbean

Caribbean, Haiti, International, USA

Haiti: The Aid Masquerade

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By Kerry Trueman
January 14, 2010 – Green Fork

HaitiThe horror in Haiti is beyond anything we can imagine in the U.S., but this apocalyptic catastrophe has something in common with Hurricane Katrina; in both cases, a terrible natural disaster was made infinitely worse by human negligence and incompetence. How many thousands of Haitians could have survived the earthquake if the country weren’t crippled by chronic poverty, shoddy infrastructure, environmental degradation and a host of other ills that have plagued Haiti for centuries?
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Caribbean, Haiti, International, USA

Cuba is Missing… From US Reports on the International Response to Haiti’s Earthquake

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By Dave Lindorff
January 15, 2010 – thiscantbehappening.net

HaitiThere are only two US media outlets that have reported on Cuba’s response to the deadly 7.0 earthquake that hit Haiti. One was Fox News, which claimed, wrongly, that the Cubans were absent from the list of neighboring Caribbean countries providing aid. The other was the Christian Science Monitor (a respected news organization that recently shut down its print edition), which reported correctly that Cuba had dispatched 30 doctors to the stricken nation.
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Caribbean, Haiti, International, USA

Catastrophe in Haiti

By Ashley Smith
January 14, 2010 – socialistworker.org

HaitiA devastating earthquake, the worst in 200 years, struck Port-au-Prince on Tuesday, laying waste to the city and killing untold numbers of people. The quake measured 7.0 on the Richter scale, and detonated more than 30 aftershocks, all more than 4.5 in magnitude, through the night and into Wednesday morning.

The earthquake toppled poorly constructed houses, hotels, hospitals and even the capital city’s main political buildings, including the presidential palace. The collapse of so many structures sent a giant cloud into the sky, which hovered over the city, raining dust down onto the wasteland below.
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Caribbean, Haiti, International, USA

Our Role in Haiti’s Plight

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If we are serious about assisting this devastated land we must stop trying to control and exploit it

By Peter Hallward
January 13, 2010 – guardian.co.uk

HaitiAny large city in the world would have suffered extensive damage from an earthquake on the scale of the one that ravaged Haiti’s capital city on Tuesday afternoon, but it’s no accident that so much of Port-au-Prince now looks like a war zone. Much of the devastation wreaked by this latest and most calamitous disaster to befall Haiti is best understood as another thoroughly manmade outcome of a long and ugly historical sequence.
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Caribbean, Haiti, International, USA

7.0 Earthquake Devastates Haiti

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Haiti earthquake aftermath

Wyclef Jean, Fellow Celebs Solicit Support for Haiti

Photos

Large Number Of UN Staff Missing After Haiti Quake -Official

Hundreds feared dead in Haiti earthquake

7.0 quake hits Haiti, hospital collapses
A strong earthquake hit Haiti on Tuesday, where a hospital collapsed and people were screaming for help. The earthquake had a preliminary magnitude of 7.0 and was centered about 10 miles west from Port-au-Prince, the USGS said. (Jan. 12)
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Caribbean, Haiti, International, Race and Identity

Report says 225,000 Haiti children work as slaves

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By Evens Sanon and Jonathan M. Katz
Associated Press writer © 2009 The Associated Press

HaitiPORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Poverty has forced at least 225,000 children in Haiti’s cities into slavery as unpaid household servants, far more than previously thought, a report said Tuesday.

The Pan American Development Foundation’s report also said some of those children — mostly young girls — suffer sexual, psychological and physical abuse while toiling in extreme hardship.

Full Article : chron.com

Africa, Caribbean, CARICOM, CHOGM, Culture, International, Media, Politics, Race and Identity

CHOGM’s Shameful Legacy

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By Ras Tyehimba
December 09, 2009

Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) 2009Trinidad and Tobago recently hosted the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) 2009 under the theme “partnering for a more equitable and sustainable future”. Fifty-three leaders of countries, formerly direct colonies, gathered in Port of Spain, under the symbolic leadership of Queen Elizabeth II. The general responses to the Summit have been quite unsatisfactory, especially in terms of the lack of critical perspectives and understanding of the operations of the Commonwealth organisation and our own government’s participation in this. The shallow mainstream media reporting and discouragement of perspectives and activities that may “embarrass the government” has meant that people of the so-called Commonwealth, in countries across the world, have been locked into the agendas of Imperial countries. By looking at the Commonwealth of Nations from a historical perspective, there can be greater awareness of how various hierarchies and systems of control have evolved from the period of direct colonialism to the present.
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CARICOM, CHOGM, International

PoS CHOGM ends

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Trinidad and Tobago News Blog
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog

Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) 2009PoS CHOGM ends
COMMONWEALTH leaders yesterday paid glowing tribute to Trinidad and Tobago for hosting one of the most successful Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings (CHOGM) in the 60-year history of the organisation. The leaders paid their tributes as they delivered their closing statements in the presence of local and international journalists during the final executive meeting of the CHOGM in the Port-of-Spain ballroom of the Hyatt Regency Hotel and Conference Centre.
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CARICOM, CHOGM, Finance, International, Politics, Security

An ‘old boys club’ headed by an old lady

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By Raffique Shah
November 29, 2009
Trinidad and Tobago News Blog
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog

Commonwealth 2009 Heads of State
Commonwealth 2009 Heads of State

Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) 2009Friday morning. Big day for Prime Minister Patrick Manning. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II heads a list of dignitaries attending the CHOGM. Over the next three days Trinidad and Tobago, this small country, will showcase its wonderful Chinese architecture to our envious Commonwealth brethren. Look at me! Watch my costume (including my brand-name ‘darkers’ that I don’t take off, not even to look Her Majesty in the eye, as royal etiquette demands). Don’t mash my Performing Arts cape! I’m on the world stage!
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