ONE out of every four prisoners in the world is in a U.S. penitentiary. The composition of these prisoners is profoundly racist: one out of every 15 black adults is incarcerated; one out of every 9 is aged 20-34 years; and one out of every 36 Hispanics. Two-thirds of those serving life sentences are African Americans or Latinos, and in the case of New York state, only 16.3% of prisoners are white.
Every year, 7,000 people die in U.S. prisons, many of them murdered or suicides.
For example, U.S. prison guards routinely use Taser guns on prisoners. According to a recent report, 230 U.S. citizens have died as a result of the use of these weapons since 2001. The report refers to the case of a county jail in Garfield, Colorado, accused of regularly using Taser guns and pepper spray on prisoners, and then tying them to chairs in extreme positions for hours at a time.
It was recently reported that 72 people have died in the last five years in immigrant detention centers.
A report released by the U.S. Justice Department during W. Bush’s final term in office said that 22,480 prisoners in state and federal penitentiaries were HIV positive or AIDS patients, and an estimated 176 state and 27 federal prisoners died from AIDS-related causes. For example, a September 20, 2007 article in the Los Angeles Times reported that 426 cases of death were recorded in California prisons in 2006 as stemming from belated medical treatment. Eighteen of these deaths were considered "preventable" and 48 others as "possibly preventable." A 41-year-old diabetic patient, Rodolfo Ramos, died after having been left abandoned and covered in his own feces for one week. Prison officials did not provide him with medical treatment even though they were aware of his condition.
In at least 40 of the country’s 50 states, courts treat juveniles of 14 to 18 years old like adults. About 200,000 minors in the United States are subjected to trials in courts for adults, even though it has been demonstrated that this proceeding is wrong.
Juveniles in 13 juvenile detention centers in the United States suffer from high rates of sexual abuse, and an average of one out of every three incarcerated minors report being attacked.
Approximately 283,000 prisoners are mentally ill, four times the number of patients in psychiatric hospitals.
In U.S. state and federal prisons, 4.5% of prisoners have suffered one or more sexual attack, and 2.9% report having suffered incidents involving prison staff. In addition, 0.5% reported having been sexually assaulted both by other prisoners and by prison staff.
Physical, direct forms of brutal treatment and torture of prisoners are endemic to U.S. prisons. A British film released a few years ago, Torture: America’s Brutal Prisons, features footage from prison security cameras in Florida, Texas, Arizona and California, in which guards can be seen severely beating prisoners – even killing some – and using Taser guns and electric prods, attack dogs, chemical sprays and dangerous paralyzing devices.
However, the most harmful effect of this prolonged isolation is that the mental abuse of prisoners affects them alarmingly. Many prisoners go crazy (if they weren’t already mentally ill), or commit suicide, as a result of this inhuman punishment. They are in restricted segregated units, and many of them are also in isolation – but the government does not release that information. The majority of prisoners in the United States who are in isolation have been so for more than five years.
Translated by Granma International
granma.cu
An International Caribbean Online Log about the news and opinions in the Americas and World. This Caribbean Blog of global reach and appeal is maintained by Bahamian Blogger - Dennis Dames with all readers and subscribers in mind.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Creation of Community of Latin American and Caribbean States: a historically significant event
• States Raúl, addressing the Summit of Latin American and Caribbean Unity, which ended on Tuesday • Two declarations and eight special documents adopted, including a condemnation of the U.S. blockade of Cuba
Lazaro Barredo Medina
Lazaro Barredo Medina
RIVIERA MAYA, Mexico.— The creation of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States is a historically significant event, and we believe it appropriate to strive to promptly define its statutes and mode of functioning, so that they cover the collective interest in the greater integration and unity of our region, Cuban President Raúl Castro Ruz said on Tuesday, Feb. 24, in addressing the Unity Summit’s final session.
Raúl’s speech was closely followed by those present in the large auditorium, and he made a number of points that were later referred to by other speakers.
The Summit ended on Tuesday after two declarations were approved: the Declaration of Cancun, and the Declaration of the Unity Summit, which establish the main programmatic commitments to political and economic coordination and cooperation. In addition, eight special documents were passed on: migratory cooperation; solidarity with Haiti; a declaration on the Malvinas issue, backing Argentina’s legitimate rights in its dispute with the UK; and a special communiqué, supporting Argentina’s demands regarding hydrocarbon exploration on the continental platform, in terms of the persistent unilateral British actions.
The summit also passed a declaration on Guatemala, congratulating that country for the outcome of investigations by the International Commission against Impunity, which cleared President Alvaro Colom of any responsibility for the death of lawyer Rodrigo Rosenberg in 2009.
Likewise, the meeting passed a resolution supporting the Ecuadorian initiative known as Yusuní-ITT, a voluntary gesture on the part of Ecuador not to exploit 846 million barrels of oil that lie under the subsoil of the Yasuní National Park, to benefit the environment and ensure the conservation "of one of the places of most biodiversity in the world." Another document expresses solidarity with Ecuador after the Financial Action Task Force included it, in a manipulative move, on the list of countries that have failed to adequately address money laundering and the financing of terrorism.
Other resolutions include a condemnation of the U.S. economic, commercial and financial blockade of Cuba.
In listing the underlying principles of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, Mexican President Felipe Calderón said the new organization "should prioritize the advancement of regional integration with a view to promoting our sustainable development, advancing our regional agenda in global forums, and having a better position in response to relevant world events."
Likewise, he announced that in July 2011, in Caracas, Venezuela, the various government representatives are to define the guidelines of the new bloc, which is to comprise the Rio Group and the Latin American and Caribbean Summit. In 2012, they will meet again in Chile, the country that assumed the rotating presidency of the Rio Group for the next two years in a ceremony in which President Michelle Bachellet bid farewell to the other presidents and introduced her successor, Sebastián Piñera, who spoke briefly, reaffirming his commitment to take forward the summit’s agreements.
Outgoing Costa Rican President Oscar Arias also bid farewell to those present, with a speech whose tone was somewhat pessimistic regarding the new Latin American and Caribbean coordination organization. He also made contradictory statements which, using certain sophisms in defense of democracy, expressed potentially divisive opinions which focused conflicts evidently on nations that have put up the greatest ideological and political resistance in recent years.
On that, shortly afterward, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva called upon his colleagues to always take an optimistic attitude: "There is no reason at all for us to be pessimists," he said.
The Brazilian president addressed a number of issues, and questioned the United Nations for its lack of decisiveness in relation Argentina’s sovereignty in its conflict with Britain over the Malvinas Islands, and he asked for a discussion of the role and composition of the Security Council, which, he said, represents the geopolitical interests of World War II, "and fails to take into account the changes that have happened in the world."
Another issue extensively addressed by Lula was the recent Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen, where, Brazil, China and India stated their belief that "it is possible to find a new formula to reach an agreement."
"The rich countries like the United States and the European Union have to take into account the interests of Africa and Latin America in making decisions to mitigate global warming," he affirmed.
At the end of the session, the Cuban delegation remained for some time in the auditorium to attend to various heads of state and government, as well as other important figures, officials and delegation members who approached the Cubans to greet them, exchange opinions and take photos with Raúl. Almost the last to leave, Raúl and President Hugo Chávez walked away chatting like brothers, greeted by many people, including security personnel, journalists and hotel workers.
Translated by Granma International
February 24, 2010
granma.cu
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Chavez considers regional integration urgent
HAVANA, Cuba (ACN) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez described on Monday in Cancun, Mexico, the need for the integration of Latin American and Caribbean peoples as urgent and a life or death issue.
We can’t think of surviving in a world affected by the crisis and the inordinate desires of the powerful, “unless we come together,” Chavez said at the Summit of the Latin America and the Caribbean Unity, attended among others by the Cuban delegation headed by President Raúl Castro.
After considering the present world as dangerous for poor and developing countries, Chavez noted that many scholars consider the current world situation marked by “the perfect crisis, because it concerns economics, finance, weather, food and many important aspects at once.”
He highlighted that 200 years after it was raised as an imperative by Simón Bolívar, the nations of Latin America and the Caribbean are meeting in Mexico with its sights set on the unity.
The Venezuelan president also dubbed the Organization of American States as “something obsolete and it serves no purpose and should no longer exist,” and added that the Mexico Summit can’t recognize the current Honduran government, as emanating from a coup.
He reiterated the support of Venezuela to Argentina for the recovery of the Malvinas Islands, while he underlined the need for the Cancun forum to speak with one voice in favor of that aspiration, which he described as legitimate.
February 23, 2010
caribbeannetnews
We can’t think of surviving in a world affected by the crisis and the inordinate desires of the powerful, “unless we come together,” Chavez said at the Summit of the Latin America and the Caribbean Unity, attended among others by the Cuban delegation headed by President Raúl Castro.
After considering the present world as dangerous for poor and developing countries, Chavez noted that many scholars consider the current world situation marked by “the perfect crisis, because it concerns economics, finance, weather, food and many important aspects at once.”
He highlighted that 200 years after it was raised as an imperative by Simón Bolívar, the nations of Latin America and the Caribbean are meeting in Mexico with its sights set on the unity.
The Venezuelan president also dubbed the Organization of American States as “something obsolete and it serves no purpose and should no longer exist,” and added that the Mexico Summit can’t recognize the current Honduran government, as emanating from a coup.
He reiterated the support of Venezuela to Argentina for the recovery of the Malvinas Islands, while he underlined the need for the Cancun forum to speak with one voice in favor of that aspiration, which he described as legitimate.
February 23, 2010
caribbeannetnews
Monday, February 22, 2010
Watch this investment summit on Haiti
Concerns over two-day Miami event
Analysis by Rickey Singh
LAST week as the prime minister of Canada, Stephen Harper, and President Nicolas Sarkozy of France were on separate visits to earthquake-ruined Haiti, there were concerns about a United States of America private sector-initiated "investment summit" in Miami next month that would focus on economic reconstruction in that Caribbean Community member state.
Scheduled for March 9-10, the organisers and sponsors claim to be working on "reconstruction principles" identified at last month's Montreal Conference on Haiti hosted by Prime Minister Harper.
However, Caricom, which participated in the Montreal Conference and which has been mandated by Haiti to function as its special advocate at international fora in relation to the country's post-earthquake reconstruction, received no invitation or official information about this upcoming summit.
At the time of writing two days ago, the indication given was that it was "most unlikely" that Caricom would have an official present at the scheduled investment summit.
Instead, the Community is immersed in preparations, in collaboration with the Haitian administration of President René Préval, for the United Nations Donors Conference on Haiti currently being organised for late next month in New York.
While the Miami investment summit will be focused on garnering private contracts with an eye on security-related development, the UN's upcoming conference on Haiti will reflect current concerns over "the scale and nature of the challenges we face not only on the relief side, but also the course for the recovery and development later on", according to Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes.
In contrast, promotion of the two-day investment summit being organised for next month has pointed to the benefits that could accrue to private corporations from private discussions.
Engaging in customary humanitarian rhetoric, the organisers of the summit - a number of whom are linked to some big names in private security operations, and not all with flattering credentials - state, for instance, on its promotion website (www.investmentsummits.com/haiti) the following:
"The summit benefits from a proven event model that includes plenary addresses on key areas with the opportunity for private discussions between attending companies and the various international delegations in attendance....
The Agenda
"The format is aimed at ensuring that attending companies have the opportunity to meet with leading stakeholders and demonstrate the important roles they have to play in the aid reconstruction and redevelopment of Haiti, essentially making for a mutually beneficial multilateral relation forum..."
For co-author of the book Capitalising on Catastrophe, Nandini Gunawardena (the other author is Mark Schuller), "the event seems to allow private corporations, in various disguises, to talk up international humanitarian agencies and convince them how they would be best placed to bring in various services and undertake reconstruction tasks, essentially to make no-bid contracts and deals (as in the past) which promise to wreak further disruption and disempowerment in the lives of Haitians..."
Linking last month's Montreal Conference on Haiti with the upcoming investment summit in Miami may be quite tactical on the part of the organisers. But are the objectives the same - to serve Haiti's best interest in its post-earthquake reconstruction?
Doubts, and even warnings, are already surfacing among those with reservations about sponsors like the security firm Sabre International, in conjunction with the International Peace Operations Association (IPOA), described as a British "provider of business summits".
It is hoped that should Caricom governments and private sector representatives be among invited participants who turn up for this investment summit, they will be quite vigilant in honouring their own policies and mandates - in the best interest of Haiti and the wider Community.
In the meantime, as new human tragedies continue to plague Haitians - the latest being the collapse of a school from a mudslide that killed four children, amid warnings of further dislocation from expected heavy rains - varying estimates are emerging on the enormous scale of international aid required for reconstruction and redevelopment of Haiti.
France's "aid"
While the Montreal Conference on Haiti came up last month with a projected US$10-billion aid plan over five years, the Inter-American Development Bank, in its latest assessment, has declared that the level of economic assistance could require at least US$14 billion for what it has categorised as, proportionately, "the most destructive natural disaster of modern times".
During their respective visits to Haiti last week, Canadian Prime Minister Harper announced a US$555-million reconstruction aid package over five years, and France's President Sarkozy promised US$378 million in assistance.
That disclosure in Port-au-Prince prompted the Jamaica-born regional economist, Dr Norman Girvan, to juxtapose on his website that focuses on Caribbean political economy, Sarkozy's announced US$378-million aid with the estimated US$22 billion owed by France as compensation to Haiti for the demands made for recognition of Haiti's independence.
"The indemnity imposed by France," Girvan noted in a media statement to coincide with Sarkozy's visit to Haiti, "condemned the Haitian people to a cycle of indebtedness, environmental degradation and underdevelopment from which they have yet to recover.
"And if President Sarkozy were to make the restitution, in the name of all the decent people of the French republic, for this historic wrong, and support the efforts of the Haitian people to rebuild their shattered lives and economy, he would undoubtedly gain the respect of the entire world and be a prime candidate for the award of the Nobel Peace Prize for 2010..."
Sarkozy does not seem to be in such a courageous mood. Just think of the announced US$338-million aid from Haiti's former ruthless coloniser compared with the level of interest shown and financial help already committed by, for example, Canada.
February 21, 2010
jamaicaobserver
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Dust from distant lands may affect climate, health in the Caribbean, say scientists
SAN DIEGO, USA -- Residents of the southern United States and the Caribbean have seen it many times during the summer months -- a whitish haze in the sky that seems to hang around for days. The resulting thin film of dust on their homes and cars actually is soil from the deserts of Africa, blown across the Atlantic Ocean.
Now, there is new evidence that similar dust storms in the arctic, possibly caused by receding glaciers, may be making similar deposits in northern Europe and North America, according to Joseph M Prospero from the University of Miami in a February 19 presentation to the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
“Our recent work in Iceland has shown that most of the dust events there are associated with dust emitted from glacial outwash deposits, which may be carried into the northern latitudes and into Europe by synoptic weather events,” says Prospero, professor of marine and atmospheric chemistry at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science, in his talk “Intercontinental Dust Transport: The Linkage to Climate and its Environmental Impact.”
Satellite data have shown large dust plumes in the arctic, but persistent cloud cover has made finding the origins difficult. The glaciers have been retreating in Iceland for decades, and the trend is expected to continue with the changing climate. Prospero predicts that dust activity from the newly exposed glacial deposits will most likely increase in the future in Iceland and possibly from other glacial terrains in the Arctic.
Prospero’s lifelong work has been to measure the effects of airborne dust. Since 1965, he and his colleagues have been measuring dust particles in Barbados, West Indies, thus creating the longest dust measurement data set in science. They found that dust transport increased greatly during the late 1960s and early 1970s at the same time as a severe drought in Northern Africa.
“The first 30 years of the dust record showed a strong relationship between dust transport across the ocean to rainfall amounts in the Sahel and Soudan regions of Africa,” says Prospero. “It’s important to note that the level of dust transport is not necessarily related directly to rainfall but possibly to other climate factors associated with the variability of rainfall.”
Some of the most intense periods dust transport are associated with strong El Niño events, which may affect such factors as wind speeds and variability as well as rainfall—the same factors that affect dust mobilization and transport. However, since the late 1990s, the pattern of drought and dust transport has been disrupted -- dust transport rates were actually greater than what Prospero’s earlier model would indicate.
“We still have work to do to understand the fundamental processes and relationship between climate, rainfall, and dust transport,” says Prospero. “Predicting the long-term effects of climate and dust transport is exacerbated by the fact that many of the climate prediction models for lower latitude Africa are not consistent.”
Also needing more study is whether the dust particles pose any health threat to the people below. More than half of the particles in the dust mass transported over the Atlantic to the Americas is smaller than 2.5 microns, defined as “respirable particles” by the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
Over the Caribbean region, the atmospheric concentration of fine dust particles frequently is within the range of and sometimes exceeds the US EPA’s standards for respirable particles.
“Although to date there is no strong evidence that African dust constitutes a health hazard, this possible impact would seem to warrant study especially since some climate change projections show increased dust transport in the future,” concludes Prospero.
Prospero is a panelist in a symposium called “Dust in the Earth System,” which will examine dust and its effects in the Earth system while considering societal impact at the local and global levels by exchanging information, ideas, and perspectives across diverse disciplines.
February 20, 2010
caribbeannetnews
Now, there is new evidence that similar dust storms in the arctic, possibly caused by receding glaciers, may be making similar deposits in northern Europe and North America, according to Joseph M Prospero from the University of Miami in a February 19 presentation to the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
“Our recent work in Iceland has shown that most of the dust events there are associated with dust emitted from glacial outwash deposits, which may be carried into the northern latitudes and into Europe by synoptic weather events,” says Prospero, professor of marine and atmospheric chemistry at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science, in his talk “Intercontinental Dust Transport: The Linkage to Climate and its Environmental Impact.”
Satellite data have shown large dust plumes in the arctic, but persistent cloud cover has made finding the origins difficult. The glaciers have been retreating in Iceland for decades, and the trend is expected to continue with the changing climate. Prospero predicts that dust activity from the newly exposed glacial deposits will most likely increase in the future in Iceland and possibly from other glacial terrains in the Arctic.
Prospero’s lifelong work has been to measure the effects of airborne dust. Since 1965, he and his colleagues have been measuring dust particles in Barbados, West Indies, thus creating the longest dust measurement data set in science. They found that dust transport increased greatly during the late 1960s and early 1970s at the same time as a severe drought in Northern Africa.
“The first 30 years of the dust record showed a strong relationship between dust transport across the ocean to rainfall amounts in the Sahel and Soudan regions of Africa,” says Prospero. “It’s important to note that the level of dust transport is not necessarily related directly to rainfall but possibly to other climate factors associated with the variability of rainfall.”
Some of the most intense periods dust transport are associated with strong El Niño events, which may affect such factors as wind speeds and variability as well as rainfall—the same factors that affect dust mobilization and transport. However, since the late 1990s, the pattern of drought and dust transport has been disrupted -- dust transport rates were actually greater than what Prospero’s earlier model would indicate.
“We still have work to do to understand the fundamental processes and relationship between climate, rainfall, and dust transport,” says Prospero. “Predicting the long-term effects of climate and dust transport is exacerbated by the fact that many of the climate prediction models for lower latitude Africa are not consistent.”
Also needing more study is whether the dust particles pose any health threat to the people below. More than half of the particles in the dust mass transported over the Atlantic to the Americas is smaller than 2.5 microns, defined as “respirable particles” by the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
Over the Caribbean region, the atmospheric concentration of fine dust particles frequently is within the range of and sometimes exceeds the US EPA’s standards for respirable particles.
“Although to date there is no strong evidence that African dust constitutes a health hazard, this possible impact would seem to warrant study especially since some climate change projections show increased dust transport in the future,” concludes Prospero.
Prospero is a panelist in a symposium called “Dust in the Earth System,” which will examine dust and its effects in the Earth system while considering societal impact at the local and global levels by exchanging information, ideas, and perspectives across diverse disciplines.
February 20, 2010
caribbeannetnews
Saturday, February 20, 2010
The Haiti Brand
By Jean H Charles:
In my mythical Haiti, I have often compared Haiti to Tahiti. For myself, there are only two paradises on earth, Tahiti in the Pacific and Haiti in the Atlantic. They are both French and original, magical and mysterious.
From time immemorial, Haiti has fascinated its visitors. Christopher Columbus was the first fanatic enthusiast of the island. ‘This is fabulous’ was his cry of excitement when he set foot on the bay of St Nicholas.
The culture, the physical setting, the people all combined to make the country the best place for him and his crew to establish the first European settlement in the Western Hemisphere.
For the next three hundred years, this mystical Haiti was this exciting woman that most European countries were fighting to seduce. Spain yielded to the French buccaneers, who established their outpost on the island of Tortugas. From there the French jumped to the mainland, and the rest is history.
The French invasion, mixed with the Africans brought as slaves from Dahomey and Angola, created an empire so powerful and so successful that the British for three centuries tried to lure the country into their arms.
Fortunes to make, exciting women to enjoy, neither black nor white, but with the malice and the charm of both, were the lot of men with bravura and daring who could settle onto that magical island!
Haiti was also the dreamland for young American men at the birth of their Republic. Rich and bronzed like a Creole was the ultimate goal of the gentlemen from Baltimore, Maryland, to Newport, Rhode Island.
When Toussaint Louverture took command of the island in 1800, he maintained or re-created a mythical Haiti that was set to become the talk of the world in gentleness and hospitality for all, white or black. John Adams was of the party, he was plotting to help Toussaint crown himself King of Haiti. Napoleon Bonaparte put an end to that utopia.
The Haiti that emerged from the Revolution of 1804 did not succeed in building a nation hospitable to all. There was first Dessalines, the Avenger of the Black Race, commandeering in Haiti the murder of all white people with the exception of the priests and the doctors, for inflicting three centuries of cruelty on African descendants.
There was later Alexander Petion, recreating a de facto apartheid Haiti, still in force today. The kingdom of Henry Christophe that relied on the British to create an ethos of self-dependence in Haiti did not last long.
The earthquake of January 12, 2010, put Haiti back on the world stage. No amount of money could buy such a range of advertising for a country. Children and adults all over the world are counting pennies and dimes to send to Haiti, which suffered one of the worst catastrophes in modern times.
The brand Haiti has had exposure all over the world. CNN has shown the squalor of Haiti, but there is also the splendor as soon as you set foot into the country.
The earthquake occurred in the midst of a splendid afternoon, as the sun set itself to go to sleep over the mountain surrounding the city of Port au Prince. The energy and the creativity of the people that has known no other savior but their own to survive every day has been set in motion.
Haiti, through its paintings and its art destroyed in the Cathedral St Trinity or the art gallery, will revive on the art market in St Martin and in Curacao. The paintings will bounce back into Haiti as its Diaspora is ready and willing to rebuild and continue the brand. It is present in the food well-spiced with Indian, African and French ingredients.
As I was passing through the Dominican Republic, stopping at the well known Bani cafeteria and eating the bland goat meat, I told the owner, he should get himself a Haitian cook to suit the setting to the meal and bring diners from Santiago who will not mind the long travel to enjoy good food.
The brand Haiti is also present in the music, muted now to bury the dead, but ready to revive since the joie de vivre is also the essence of being Haitian. It is this nostalgic spell that holds the visitors unto the land and attracts the Diaspora as a siren into this enchantress, magical and mysterious Haiti.
The brand Haiti, like a good coffee, will last in spite of itself. It is unique, it is different, and it is tasty. Years ago, meeting some French tourists on the Dominican side at the Club Med in La Romana, they told me they would prefer to be in Haiti with its gorgeous mountains, its culture, and its hospitality, if “only, you Haitian people could stay put for a while.”
Will Haiti stay put after the earthquake to enjoy its brand name? The reconstruction of Haiti planned in New York, Santo Domingo, Cayenne or Montreal will need the Haitian ingredient. My slogan for the Haitian electorate is: Pose, stay put!
Someone concerned enough to believe in the brand name will bring Haiti back into the Renaissance enjoyed under the short reign of Toussaint Louverture!
February 20, 2010
caribbeannetnews
In my mythical Haiti, I have often compared Haiti to Tahiti. For myself, there are only two paradises on earth, Tahiti in the Pacific and Haiti in the Atlantic. They are both French and original, magical and mysterious.
From time immemorial, Haiti has fascinated its visitors. Christopher Columbus was the first fanatic enthusiast of the island. ‘This is fabulous’ was his cry of excitement when he set foot on the bay of St Nicholas. The culture, the physical setting, the people all combined to make the country the best place for him and his crew to establish the first European settlement in the Western Hemisphere.
For the next three hundred years, this mystical Haiti was this exciting woman that most European countries were fighting to seduce. Spain yielded to the French buccaneers, who established their outpost on the island of Tortugas. From there the French jumped to the mainland, and the rest is history.
The French invasion, mixed with the Africans brought as slaves from Dahomey and Angola, created an empire so powerful and so successful that the British for three centuries tried to lure the country into their arms.
Fortunes to make, exciting women to enjoy, neither black nor white, but with the malice and the charm of both, were the lot of men with bravura and daring who could settle onto that magical island!
Haiti was also the dreamland for young American men at the birth of their Republic. Rich and bronzed like a Creole was the ultimate goal of the gentlemen from Baltimore, Maryland, to Newport, Rhode Island.
When Toussaint Louverture took command of the island in 1800, he maintained or re-created a mythical Haiti that was set to become the talk of the world in gentleness and hospitality for all, white or black. John Adams was of the party, he was plotting to help Toussaint crown himself King of Haiti. Napoleon Bonaparte put an end to that utopia.
The Haiti that emerged from the Revolution of 1804 did not succeed in building a nation hospitable to all. There was first Dessalines, the Avenger of the Black Race, commandeering in Haiti the murder of all white people with the exception of the priests and the doctors, for inflicting three centuries of cruelty on African descendants.
There was later Alexander Petion, recreating a de facto apartheid Haiti, still in force today. The kingdom of Henry Christophe that relied on the British to create an ethos of self-dependence in Haiti did not last long.
The earthquake of January 12, 2010, put Haiti back on the world stage. No amount of money could buy such a range of advertising for a country. Children and adults all over the world are counting pennies and dimes to send to Haiti, which suffered one of the worst catastrophes in modern times.
The brand Haiti has had exposure all over the world. CNN has shown the squalor of Haiti, but there is also the splendor as soon as you set foot into the country.
The earthquake occurred in the midst of a splendid afternoon, as the sun set itself to go to sleep over the mountain surrounding the city of Port au Prince. The energy and the creativity of the people that has known no other savior but their own to survive every day has been set in motion.
Haiti, through its paintings and its art destroyed in the Cathedral St Trinity or the art gallery, will revive on the art market in St Martin and in Curacao. The paintings will bounce back into Haiti as its Diaspora is ready and willing to rebuild and continue the brand. It is present in the food well-spiced with Indian, African and French ingredients.
As I was passing through the Dominican Republic, stopping at the well known Bani cafeteria and eating the bland goat meat, I told the owner, he should get himself a Haitian cook to suit the setting to the meal and bring diners from Santiago who will not mind the long travel to enjoy good food.
The brand Haiti is also present in the music, muted now to bury the dead, but ready to revive since the joie de vivre is also the essence of being Haitian. It is this nostalgic spell that holds the visitors unto the land and attracts the Diaspora as a siren into this enchantress, magical and mysterious Haiti.
The brand Haiti, like a good coffee, will last in spite of itself. It is unique, it is different, and it is tasty. Years ago, meeting some French tourists on the Dominican side at the Club Med in La Romana, they told me they would prefer to be in Haiti with its gorgeous mountains, its culture, and its hospitality, if “only, you Haitian people could stay put for a while.”
Will Haiti stay put after the earthquake to enjoy its brand name? The reconstruction of Haiti planned in New York, Santo Domingo, Cayenne or Montreal will need the Haitian ingredient. My slogan for the Haitian electorate is: Pose, stay put!
Someone concerned enough to believe in the brand name will bring Haiti back into the Renaissance enjoyed under the short reign of Toussaint Louverture!
February 20, 2010
caribbeannetnews
Friday, February 19, 2010
Haiti 'restavek' tradition called child slavery
By Jim Loney
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Reuters) -- Living in a tent after an earthquake left a million Haitians in the streets, Melila Thelusma says she cannot support her two daughters and is ready to give them away to foreigners if she can find a good home for them.
Despite her desperation, Thelusma said she would never turn 11-year-old Gaelle and 6-year-old Christelle over to a Haitian family, as tens of thousands of other poor parents have done.
"Not a Haitian family. Haitians will make them suffer," Thelusma, 39, said. "They ... force the child to work like a animal. They don't really take care of them."
Deeply ingrained in the culture of the impoverished former slave colony, the practice of poor families giving away children to wealthier acquaintances or relatives is known in the native Creole as "restavek," from the French words rester avec, or "to stay with."
The children, they said, are taken in as servants, forced to work without pay, isolated from other children in the household and seldom sent to school.
"A restavek is a child placed in domestic slavery," said Jean-Robert Cadet, a former restavek who now runs a foundation to improve the lives of restavek children (www.restavekfreedom.org).
After the January 12 earthquake, the Haitian government warned that child traffickers could take advantage of the ensuing chaos to prey on vulnerable children. The well-publicized drama surrounding 10 US missionaries caught trying to spirit 33 children over the border seemed to reinforce the threat.
But critics say tens of thousands of Haitian children have been freely given by their own parents to a life of slavery within Haiti.
A 2002 study for UNICEF and other organizations by Norway's Fafo Institute for Applied Social Science said there were 173,000 restavek children, more than 8 percent of the population between 5 and 17. Cadet believes there are more than 300,000.
"When I was a child, the family basically owned me," said Cadet, whose mother died young. He was given away to a wealthy family when he was four.
"I grew up sleeping under the kitchen table. I got up early, swept the yard, washed the car, fetched water, emptied the chamber pot. I went to the market, bathed the children, walked the children to school and I couldn't come to school," he said. "I never ate with the family. I was abused physically. I was abused emotionally with bad words."
The restavek tradition may date to the time when Haiti was a French slave colony, when the children of slaves worked as domestics in the home of the master. Cadet said a relic of that era, a twisted cowhide whip known in Creole as a rigwaz, is still used to beat restaveks.
"It's the same whip that the French used during colonial times to beat slaves," he said. "You can buy them in the markets (in Port-au-Prince) today."
The restavek tradition lives on in part because it is accepted, or at least tolerated, in Haitian culture. Some families school and feed their restavek children, and some argue the children would die if they remained with their poor parents.
A family that has taken in a restavek child, Cadet said, will never admit to mistreating that child, and the government is reluctant to interfere in domestic affairs.
Marie Regine Joseph Pierre calls her 16-year-old charge, Rosaline, her cousin, and says she took in the girl when she was eight.
Rosaline lives "like brothers and sisters" with Pierre's own children, she says, and goes to school.
"My behavior with them, it's like a mother," she said.
Expatriates have carried restavek traditions to the United States, Two years ago, a mother and her adult daughter were convicted in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, of keeping a Haitian teenager as their slave for six years.
The girl, Simone Celestin, described in court how she was beaten, forced to sleep on the floor and bathe from a bucket.
Although Haiti is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, Caroline Bakker, a child protection adviser for UNICEF, said it has no laws to protect restavek children.
Haiti needs new laws to protect children in domestic servitude from illegal labor practices, as well as social service programs to help parents who might otherwise give their children away.
"It should go hand in hand, protection and criminalization," she said. "Set up programs ... so that those families are able to keep those children with them, in their family, so that they can go to school (and) have a normal life with their families."
Jean-Robert Cadet said he sang along with his host family at the birthdays of their children, but never knew how old he was and believed that restaveks did not have birthdays.
"It's like a restavek child is not really a person. It's almost like you are disposable cloth," he said. "They use you and they throw you away."
February 19, 2010
caribbeannetnews
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Reuters) -- Living in a tent after an earthquake left a million Haitians in the streets, Melila Thelusma says she cannot support her two daughters and is ready to give them away to foreigners if she can find a good home for them.
Despite her desperation, Thelusma said she would never turn 11-year-old Gaelle and 6-year-old Christelle over to a Haitian family, as tens of thousands of other poor parents have done.
"Not a Haitian family. Haitians will make them suffer," Thelusma, 39, said. "They ... force the child to work like a animal. They don't really take care of them."
Deeply ingrained in the culture of the impoverished former slave colony, the practice of poor families giving away children to wealthier acquaintances or relatives is known in the native Creole as "restavek," from the French words rester avec, or "to stay with."
The children, they said, are taken in as servants, forced to work without pay, isolated from other children in the household and seldom sent to school.
"A restavek is a child placed in domestic slavery," said Jean-Robert Cadet, a former restavek who now runs a foundation to improve the lives of restavek children (www.restavekfreedom.org).
After the January 12 earthquake, the Haitian government warned that child traffickers could take advantage of the ensuing chaos to prey on vulnerable children. The well-publicized drama surrounding 10 US missionaries caught trying to spirit 33 children over the border seemed to reinforce the threat.
But critics say tens of thousands of Haitian children have been freely given by their own parents to a life of slavery within Haiti.
A 2002 study for UNICEF and other organizations by Norway's Fafo Institute for Applied Social Science said there were 173,000 restavek children, more than 8 percent of the population between 5 and 17. Cadet believes there are more than 300,000.
"When I was a child, the family basically owned me," said Cadet, whose mother died young. He was given away to a wealthy family when he was four.
"I grew up sleeping under the kitchen table. I got up early, swept the yard, washed the car, fetched water, emptied the chamber pot. I went to the market, bathed the children, walked the children to school and I couldn't come to school," he said. "I never ate with the family. I was abused physically. I was abused emotionally with bad words."
The restavek tradition may date to the time when Haiti was a French slave colony, when the children of slaves worked as domestics in the home of the master. Cadet said a relic of that era, a twisted cowhide whip known in Creole as a rigwaz, is still used to beat restaveks.
"It's the same whip that the French used during colonial times to beat slaves," he said. "You can buy them in the markets (in Port-au-Prince) today."
The restavek tradition lives on in part because it is accepted, or at least tolerated, in Haitian culture. Some families school and feed their restavek children, and some argue the children would die if they remained with their poor parents.
A family that has taken in a restavek child, Cadet said, will never admit to mistreating that child, and the government is reluctant to interfere in domestic affairs.
Marie Regine Joseph Pierre calls her 16-year-old charge, Rosaline, her cousin, and says she took in the girl when she was eight.
Rosaline lives "like brothers and sisters" with Pierre's own children, she says, and goes to school.
"My behavior with them, it's like a mother," she said.
Expatriates have carried restavek traditions to the United States, Two years ago, a mother and her adult daughter were convicted in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, of keeping a Haitian teenager as their slave for six years.
The girl, Simone Celestin, described in court how she was beaten, forced to sleep on the floor and bathe from a bucket.
Although Haiti is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, Caroline Bakker, a child protection adviser for UNICEF, said it has no laws to protect restavek children.
Haiti needs new laws to protect children in domestic servitude from illegal labor practices, as well as social service programs to help parents who might otherwise give their children away.
"It should go hand in hand, protection and criminalization," she said. "Set up programs ... so that those families are able to keep those children with them, in their family, so that they can go to school (and) have a normal life with their families."
Jean-Robert Cadet said he sang along with his host family at the birthdays of their children, but never knew how old he was and believed that restaveks did not have birthdays.
"It's like a restavek child is not really a person. It's almost like you are disposable cloth," he said. "They use you and they throw you away."
February 19, 2010
caribbeannetnews
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