The Dominion - USA

Ten Things the US Can and Should Do for Haiti

WadnerPierre — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 20:44:34 +0000

by Bill Quigley

One. Allow all Haitians in the US to work. The number one source of money for poor people in Haiti is the money sent from family and workers in the US back home. Haitians will continue to help themselves if given a chance. Haitians in the US will continue to help when the world community moves on to other problems.

Two. Do not allow US military in Haiti to point their guns at Haitians. Hungry Haitians are not the enemy. Decisions have already been made which will militarize the humanitarian relief - but do not allow the victims to be cast as criminals. Do not demonize the people.

Three. Give Haiti grants as help, not loans. Haiti does not need any more debt. Make sure that the relief given helps Haiti rebuild its public sector so the country can provide its own citizens with basic public services.

Four. Prioritize humanitarian aid to help women, children and the elderly. They are always moved to the back of the line. If they are moved to the back of the line, start at the back.

Five. President Obama can enact Temporary Protected Status for Haitians with the stroke of a pen. Do it. The US has already done it for El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Sudan and Somalia. President Obama should do it on Martin Luther King Day.

Six. Respect Human Rights from Day One. The UN has enacted Guiding Principles for Internally Displaced People. Make them required reading for every official and non-governmental person and organization. Non governmental organizations like charities and international aid groups are extremely powerful in Haiti - they too must respect the human dignity and human rights of all people.

Seven. Apologize to the Haitian people everywhere for Pat Robertson and Rush Limbaugh.

Revolutionary Haitian Priest, Gerard Jean-Juste, Presente!

WadnerPierre — Sun, 31 May 2009 18:38:50 +0000

Wadner Pierre Fr.Gerard Jean-Juste in the court 26nov 2007 458.JPG

Sunday, 31 May 2009

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/05/31

Published on Sunday, May 31, 2009 by CommonDreams.org

by Bill Quigley

Though Haitian priest Father Gerard Jean-Juste died May 27, 2009, at age 62, in Miami from a stroke and breathing problems, he remains present to millions. Justice-loving people world-wide mourn his death and celebrate his life. Pere Jean-Juste worked uncompromisingly for justice for Haitians and the poor, both in Haiti and in the U.S.

Pere Jean-Juste was a Jesus-like revolutionary. In jail and out, he preached liberation of the poor, release of prisoners, human rights for all, and a fair distribution of wealth. A big muscular man with a booming voice and a frequent deep laugh, he wore a brightly colored plastic rosary around his neck and carried another in his pocket. Jailed for nearly a year in Haiti by the U.S. supported coup government which was trying to silence him, Amnesty International called him a Prisoner of Conscience.

Jean-Juste was a scourge to the unelected coup governments of Haiti, who served at the pleasure, and usually the direction, of the U.S. government. He constantly challenged both the powers of Haiti and the U.S. to stop killing and starving and imprisoning the poor. In the U.S. he fought against government actions which deported black Haitians while welcoming Cubans and Nicaraguans and others. In Haiti he called for democracy and respect and human rights for the poor.

Haïti: Exposition sur les conséquences du coup d'état de 2004

darren ell — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 17:05:27 +0000

Rewind_Email_invitation_CHAN.jpg

Le photographe Montréalais Darren Ell présente sa nouvelle exposition intitulée Haïti: Rembobiner. M. Ell a créé l'expo en réponse à la politique canadienne, française et américaine en Haïti. L'expo comporte des photos, des extraits de vidéo et des textes ramassés lors de ses voyages en Haïti entre 2006 et 2008. Elle expose le rôle des puissances étrangères dans la déstabilisation et le renversement du gouvernement populaire de Jean-Bertrand Aristide en février 2004. Elle examine aussi les séquelles du renversement du gouvernement élu, un événement avec lequel les Haïtiens vivent encore aujourd'hui. M. Ell remet en question la supposée bienveillance de la présence militaire et policière des Nations-unies qui est la puissance prédominante en Haïti depuis 2004.

Les photographies et les projections de l'expo situent l'intervention étrangère dans l'histoire coloniale d'Haïti. Des photos ont été prises lors des opérations onusiennes et des manifestations contre la vie chère. Elles évoquent les tableaux des peintres français œuvrant au plus fort de la puissance impériale française, et elles rappellent le travail du peintre activiste américain Léon Golub.

La première projection combine un paysage tranquille et abandonné de Cité Soleil avec la voix du Canado-Haïtien Jean St-Vil, qui récite le témoignage de Frantz Gabriel, seul témoin de l'enlèvement de Jean-Bertrand Aristide le 29 février 2004. Gabriel fut responsable de la sécurité d'Aristide et a été lui-même enlevé. La deuxième projection montre des douzaines de noms, accompagnés de données légales, de prisonniers politiques emprisonnés pendant le coup d'état.

Haiti: Photo Exhibition about the Consequences of the 2004 coup d'état

darren ell — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 17:01:03 +0000

Rewind_Email_invitation_CHAN.jpg

A new exhibition by Montreal photographer Darren Ell is set to open on September 18th. Ell's exhibition, Haiti: Rewind, was created as a response to Canadian, French and U.S. policy in Haiti and comprises material drawn from Ell's visits to Haiti between 2006 and 2008. The photo exhibition exposes the role of these three powers in the destabilization and subsequent overthrow of the popular government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide in February 2004.

The photo exhibition looks at the consequences of the overthrow of the elected government, an event with which the Haitian people are living to this day. It questions the purported benevolence of the United Nations force that has been the predominant power in Haiti since 2004.

The photographs and video installations of the exhibition place current foreign meddling in Haiti squarely within colonial history. Photographs taken in Port-au-Prince during UN police raids and popular demonstrations against rising prices harken back to French painters working at the height of French imperial power in Haiti in the late 1700's and to activist American painter Leon Golub.

The first video installation features a serene but abandoned landscape from Cité Soleil with a voice-over by Haitian-Canadian Jean St-Vil reading Frantz Gabriel's eye-witness account of the abduction of Jean-Bertrand Aristide on February 29th, 2004. Gabriel was responsible for Aristide's security and was abducted himself.

The second video installation is a looping projection of legal data concerning the hundreds of political prisoners still detained in Haiti. The information for this piece was obtained from Haiti's Bureau des avocats internationaux (Office of International Lawyers).

The Longest Walk 2 in Baltimore, Quechan Sacred Sites, and Other Wanderings

Sandra — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 11:08:32 +0000

Baltimore.ChildrensStaffCircle.JPG

Greetings from a teepee in Delaplane, Virginia...

The Longest Walk 2 (www.longestwalk.org) for Mother Earth, health, sacred sites & indigenous rights is rapidly approaching Washington, DC, after thousands of miles of walking and running from Alcatraz on the west coast. Thirty years ago, in 1978, the American Indian Movement's original Longest Walk walked into DC to present their manifesto: Affirmation of Sovereignty of the Indigenous People of the Western Hemisphere.

Four days from now, the 2008 Longest Walk 2's Manifesto for Change "All Life is Sacred" will be presented to the United States government when both the southern and northern routes of the Walk converge in DC, after the July 8-10 Cultural Survival Summit in Greenbelt, MD.

The day before yesterday, a small group of us from the southern route traveled to Baltimore to meet up with the northern route for a press conference in the middle of a plaza in the city's Inner Harbour district. A photo-essay about the event will be online on my other blog - thistidehasnoheartbeat.wordpress.com - very soon, likely before you read this one. The photograph above was taken at the press conference of the young girl who carries the lead staff of the northern route: the children's staff, for the future generations.

I was invited to go along to Baltimore to take a break from the 18-hour workdays. I haven't been able to walk for over a week now because of a foot injury (the doc says achilles tendonitis, but then again he also tried to inject me with something I had just told him I was allergic to), so I've been working with the Manifesto writing & editing team. Luckily there's usually a steady stream of coffee.

Merida Initiative: More US backed militarization in Mexico, Central America and DR-Haiti

dawn — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 19:33:26 +0000

The War Funding Bill was signed into law by President Bush today, allocating another $162 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan without a timeline for troop withdrawl.

Buried away in the Bill is $465 million for the first year of the 'Merida Initiative.'

The Merida Initiative, formerly known as 'Plan Mexico,' is a military plan whose aim, according to the Bush Administration, is to "combat the threats of drug trafficking, transnational crime, and terrorism in the Western Hemisphere."

The Merida Initiative will further militarize Mexico and Central America, and will likely mark an increase in the criminalization of migrants heading towards the US.

The total budget for the Merida Initiative is 1.6 billion dollars. During the first year, $400 million is destined for Mexico, and $65 million will be divided between Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Belize, Panamá, the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

The budget is destined for: helicopters and surveillance aircraft, increased US participation in policing, communications surveillance technologies, and "non-intrusive" inspection equipment, ion scanners and canine units for Mexican customs, the new federal police and military to "interdict trafficked drugs, arms, cash and persons."

The War Funding Bill, which was rejected by Democrats in May, was passed by 311-106 last week by the Democrat led House of Representatives.

Mining: Drummond & Mongolia...

News Updates — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 15:03:35 +0000

Drummond cleared of paramilitary links. Stevenson Avila, Sintramienergetica president states "We knew this was becoming a question of state policy, and that America protects its companies, but we held out hope that presenting real, documented evidence of the company's responsibility, that justice would be served."

Advice for Haiti Activists in Canada and US

darren ell — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 13:34:09 +0000

Mario Joseph, the leading human rights lawyer in Haiti, granted me a long interview yesterday in Port-au-Prince. We discussed many things (published soon), but when I asked him about what activists should be doing in Canada and the US, he said: "Keep your eyes wide open, watch your governments closely, be sophisticated in your research." He expressed deep gratitude as well to all those who have been working for democracy in Haiti.

The Auditor: Canus Superfundus

dawn — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 20:14:16 +0000

Matt Vincent of the Montana Standard has written a piece that is funny, sad and ironic as anything. Saturday morning reading at its finest.

Mongrel calls Berkeley Pit home for 16 years introduces us to the long term environmental catastrophe of open pit mining with an astounding honesty, permissible perhaps because in this story, it is a dreadlocked dog bearing the impact.

Incredible. Villages of people affected by these same phenomena, and only "The Auditor" gets special treatment.

US refuses to reveal groups receiving funding in Venezuela

Wed, 27 Sep 2006 06:15:27 +0000

Members of Venezuela's government are calling for full disclosure of US
funding to opposition groups in Venezuela. Documents acquired by the
Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act listed 132
contracts totalling in the millions of dollars, but more than half of the names
and other identifying information had been redacted, rendering the
recipients anonymous.

The programs, which are funded by the National Endowment for Democracy
(NED) and USAID's "Office of Transition Initiatives," are ostensibly
aimed at promoting democracy and human rights.

According to a USAID official, the funding will go to "a wide range of
seminars, educational programs and even public service TV commercials
aimed at promoting dialogue between pro- and anti-Chavez camps. Other
projects include workshops on conflict resolution, efforts to promote
human rights, and training for positive citizen involvement in their
communities."

Chavez supporters and some observers claim that funding for "democracy
promotion" is a way to channel funds to political groups that carry out a
political agenda set by the US. Through USAID and NED, the US government
has provided hundreds of millions of dollars to opposition groups and civil society
organizations in hundreds of countries. Notably, the programs have
achieved success in Serbia, Montenegro, Georgia, Haiti and Ukraine, among
others, where US-funded opposition groups have come to power, though not
always through elections.

"Can you imagine the Venezuelan government financing a project in the
US to evaluate the effectiveness of the US Constitution?" asked
journalist Eva Golinger, referring to one US-funded program in Venezuela.
"It's total intervention." The US government was among the first to
recognize a military coup that removed Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's elected
president, and provided funding to many of the groups that backed the coup.
The coup, however, was overturned by popular demonstrations and
diplomatic pressure.

One USAID official said, "We're happy to make known the types of
grants, the kinds of things that we're doing... All we've done is try to
withhold the names of the groups."

For Venezuelan lawmakers, that is not enough. "We want everything to
come out publicly," said congressman Jose Albornoz, "where those funds go
and what they're used for." The Venezuelan Congress has proposed
legislation aimed at cracking down on foreign funding of local organizations,
sparking criticism from some groups.

Kumi Naidoo of CIVICUS, an alliance of non-profit groups based in South
Africa, said the legislation could "endanger the existence of an
independent civil society." He added, however, that the US policy "reeks of
double standards" and is "giving ammunition" to the government, "an
excuse for a . . . broader-based intervention."

The US government has a multi-decade record of opposing democratically
elected governments in Latin America, and favouring military juntas,
dictators like Augusto Pinochet, and paramilitaries with foreign aid,
often in the form of military equipment and training. For example, according to
declassified documents, in 1975, then-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger met
with heads of secret police from Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay and
Uruguay to co-ordinate "Operation Condor." According to some estimates,
50,000 people were murdered, 30,000 "disappeared" and 400,000 were
incarcerated during the seven-year "anti-communist" crackdown which officially
ended with the fall of the military junta in Argentina in 1983.

By many accounts, the NED is the heir to the CIA covert operations of the Cold War era. Writing in the New York Times, David K. Shipler noted that the NED's funding program "resembles the aid given by the Central Intelligence Agency in the 1950s, 60s and 70s to bolster pro-American political groups." Speaking to the Washington Post, NED founder Allen Weinstein said that "a lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA."

Dru Oja Jay

» Associated Press: U.S. Aid Stirring Suspicion in Venezuela

» Guardian: US accused of bid to oust Chávez with secret funds

» Associated Press: Chavez allies say Venezuelan recipients of U.S. funding should be public, NGO agrees

» Al-Jazeera: Chavez suspicious of US aid