C.O. B. - Another ‘New’ Day!
The Bahama Journal Editorial
For quite some time now, The College of The Bahamas has been able to make the news for all the wrong reasons.
The College has made the news when a president was found to be a plagiarist; on another, it made the news when it was discovered that some other senior people were egregiously incompetent.
The College has also made the news when some of its faculty decided that they could or would bring the institution’s work to a screeching halt.
Had we so wished, we could today write reams and volumes about some other nightmare stories now going the rounds in that hapless place. One such involves the alleged theft of a brand-new $7,000.00 aluminum gate; with this rip-off allegedly taking place sometime between mid-night and eight in the morning of January 4, 2011.
To date, no one from the College of The Bahamas has seen fit to raise a public alarm about this alleged theft of public property.
And perhaps, today we might have raised such an alarm.
To date, we have not done so; and this, because we have concluded that such an alarm should have already been raised by the most appropriate College of The Bahamas personnel – perhaps, its new president!
Even now, we await some response or some sounded alarm from the College of The Bahamas.
If – in the most unlikely of cases – it is discovered that we are mistaken, we gladly admit error.
But “believe you me” we are convinced that our informant was telling the truth when she alleged that an aluminum gate was stolen from the College sometime on January 4, 2011 in those hours when most Bahamians were fast asleep.
Regrettably, the gate thieves were doing what they do best, ripping off gates.
Notwithstanding the bad news, there was some news that could be put in the good news bracket.
In the first instance, we can report that, a new four-year industrial agreement between The College of The Bahamas and the Union of Tertiary Educators of The Bahamas has been sealed.
This was done during a so-called “private” ceremony which was said to have been held in the board room of the College.
It is also being reported that, UTEB President Jennifer Isaacs-Dotson is of the view that, [this signing] came as a relief to many of the men and women who teach and lecture in the College of The Bahamas.
The signing bonus of $500.00 might have something or the other to do with their new-found sense of both release and relief, however small each might turn out to be as far as such matters are concerned.
The agreement will expire in 2012.
Signing on behalf of the college were Board Chairman T. Baswell Donaldson, President Dr. Betsy Vogel-Boze, and Council Secretary Wendy Poitier-Albury.
Signing on behalf of the union were Isaacs-Dotson, UTEB's Vice-president External Vicente Roberts and Trustee Janet Donnelley.
But even here, these folk have to wait for another barrier to be hurdled; this involving minutiae regarding registration of the document signed on their behalf.
They who have waited patiently, now wait some more.
For them, this passes for what some of them might call good news.
In the second instance of some of what might also be called good news, we have information to the effect that, The College now has another brand new president; and that her name is Dr. Betsy Vogel-Boze.
We are also told that, this fine lady took up the reins of power in The College with effect from January 1, 2011 to December 31, 2014.
The same public relations script noted that, the appointment of Dr. Earla Carey-Baines as President would have come to an end on December 31, 2010; and that, the College was greatly indebted to Dr. Carey-Baines, has resumed responsibilities as Dean, with effect from January 1, 2011...”
We are told that, “Dr. Vogel-Boze comes to The College with a wealth of experience in building and transforming tertiary academic institutions; and that her experience in academic administration spans 20 years in multi-campus university structures.
We note also that, “Kent Stark is a public liberal arts university offering baccalaureate and masters degrees. It has a student population of 5,400 enrolled in academic programmes and about 5,000 that enroll annually in executive education programmes...”
Note also that, “Dr. Vogel-Boze holds a PhD in Business Administration from the University of Arkansas, a Masters in Business Administration and a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology, both from Southern Methodist University. She currently holds the post of Senior Fellow at the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU), a leadership organization for 430 public colleges and universities...”
We wish this fine lady well.
And for sure, we also hope that she will do her utmost to help the police find the gate.
January 17, 2011
The Bahama Journal Editorial
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.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Caribbean integration is a mockery - CSME at a standstill
by Oscar Ramjeet
It seems as if Caribbean leaders are not serious about regional integration. The talk about freedom of movement is only lip service and there is no genuine effort for this to become a reality.
It is since 1989, more than 21 years since the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) agreement was signed and, although there has been a series of meetings throughout the region, very limited progress has been achieved to date, especially in the area of free movement of capital, skilled labour and the freedom to establish business enterprises anywhere in the Community.
It is rather surprising that former Barbados Prime Minister Owen Arthur, who had been travelling from island to island "preaching" regional unity and for governments to adhere to CSME, has criticised St Lucian-born Mara Thompson, for contesting the vacant seat in St John created after the death of the late prime minister.
The action by Arthur is very surprising and, in my view, very ridiculous because it defeats CSME and the regional integration process, but two friends of mine who are very familiar with regional affairs reminded me that Thompson, when he was prime minister, completely disregarded CSME when he took stringent, harsh and unconscionable action against non-Barbadians, especially Guyanese. He chased them out of the country and many of them did not get the opportunity to take their assets with them.
My friends said that you reap what you sow and said that the sins pass on to the third and fourth generation.
However, two wrongs cannot make a right and Arthur, who served three terms as prime minister, should know better because Mara is a citizen of Barbados and under the Constitution she can hold office as a lawmaker. The Constitution does not state that you have to be a Barbadian by birth. It states a citizen of Barbados and she has been a citizen for the past 21 years by marriage and residency.
Barbados Prime Minister Freundel Stuart has expressed surprise at Arthur's comments.
It seems to me that there is a dim future for the regional integration movement and recently distinguished commentators have been questioning if the CSME has a future. One is David Jessop, Director of the Caribbean Council. He spoke of the criticism meted out against CARICOM Governments and institutions for not ensuring the capacity and economic strength to create a sound regional economic base for investment and trade.
He also touched on the failure to implement regional and external agreements which, he suggests, indicates at best the absence of any coherent long term strategy and, at worse, irreconcilable divisions.
Sir Ronald Sanders, former Caribbean diplomat and well known commentator, suggested that the time had come to stop playing with the aspirations of the Caribbean people and argued that CARICOM needed to devise urgently a comprehensive regional plan utilising the best Caribbean brains that can be assembled from inside and outside the region.
Jessop agrees with Sir Ron's comments and said there is desperate need for a commission with popular support to be empowered to make recommendations on how to move forwards and modernise CARICOM.
The delay by most of the regional governments to abolish appeals to the Privy Council and accept the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) is another glaring example of the lapse by the various administrations. So far only three jurisdictions, Guyana, Barbados and Belize have accepted the CCJ as the final appellate court.
January 15, 2011
caribbeannewsnow
It seems as if Caribbean leaders are not serious about regional integration. The talk about freedom of movement is only lip service and there is no genuine effort for this to become a reality.
It is since 1989, more than 21 years since the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) agreement was signed and, although there has been a series of meetings throughout the region, very limited progress has been achieved to date, especially in the area of free movement of capital, skilled labour and the freedom to establish business enterprises anywhere in the Community.
It is rather surprising that former Barbados Prime Minister Owen Arthur, who had been travelling from island to island "preaching" regional unity and for governments to adhere to CSME, has criticised St Lucian-born Mara Thompson, for contesting the vacant seat in St John created after the death of the late prime minister.The action by Arthur is very surprising and, in my view, very ridiculous because it defeats CSME and the regional integration process, but two friends of mine who are very familiar with regional affairs reminded me that Thompson, when he was prime minister, completely disregarded CSME when he took stringent, harsh and unconscionable action against non-Barbadians, especially Guyanese. He chased them out of the country and many of them did not get the opportunity to take their assets with them.
My friends said that you reap what you sow and said that the sins pass on to the third and fourth generation.
However, two wrongs cannot make a right and Arthur, who served three terms as prime minister, should know better because Mara is a citizen of Barbados and under the Constitution she can hold office as a lawmaker. The Constitution does not state that you have to be a Barbadian by birth. It states a citizen of Barbados and she has been a citizen for the past 21 years by marriage and residency.
Barbados Prime Minister Freundel Stuart has expressed surprise at Arthur's comments.
It seems to me that there is a dim future for the regional integration movement and recently distinguished commentators have been questioning if the CSME has a future. One is David Jessop, Director of the Caribbean Council. He spoke of the criticism meted out against CARICOM Governments and institutions for not ensuring the capacity and economic strength to create a sound regional economic base for investment and trade.
He also touched on the failure to implement regional and external agreements which, he suggests, indicates at best the absence of any coherent long term strategy and, at worse, irreconcilable divisions.
Sir Ronald Sanders, former Caribbean diplomat and well known commentator, suggested that the time had come to stop playing with the aspirations of the Caribbean people and argued that CARICOM needed to devise urgently a comprehensive regional plan utilising the best Caribbean brains that can be assembled from inside and outside the region.
Jessop agrees with Sir Ron's comments and said there is desperate need for a commission with popular support to be empowered to make recommendations on how to move forwards and modernise CARICOM.
The delay by most of the regional governments to abolish appeals to the Privy Council and accept the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) is another glaring example of the lapse by the various administrations. So far only three jurisdictions, Guyana, Barbados and Belize have accepted the CCJ as the final appellate court.
January 15, 2011
caribbeannewsnow
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Without violence, without drugs
Reflections of Fidel
(Taken from CubaDebate)
(Taken from CubaDebate)
YESTERDAY I analyzed the atrocious act of violence against U.S. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, in which 18 people were shot, six died and another 12 were wounded, several seriously, among them the Congresswoman with a shot to the head, leaving the medical team with no alternative other than to try to save her life and minimize, as much as possible, the consequences of the criminal act.
The nine-year-old girl who died was born on the same day the Twin Towers were destroyed and was an outstanding student. Her mother declared that there has to be a stop to such hatred.
A painful reality came to my mind, which surely would concern many honest U.S. citizens who have not been poisoned by lies and hatred. How many of them know that Latin America is the region with the greatest inequality in the distribution of wealth in the world? How many have been informed of the rates of infant and maternal mortality, life expectancy, medical services, child labor, education and poverty prevalent in other countries of the hemisphere?
I will confine myself to merely noting the level of violence, starting with the detestable event which took place yesterday in Arizona as a starting point.
I have already indicated that every year hundreds of thousands of Latin American and Caribbean immigrants, driven by underdevelopment and poverty, make their way to the United States and are arrested, often even separated from their close family members, and returned to their countries of origin.
Money and merchandise can cross the border freely, but, I repeat, not human beings, no. Drugs and weapons, on the contrary, cross unceasingly in one direction or the other. The United States is the largest consumer of drugs in the world and, at the same time, the largest supplier of weapons, symbolized by the gunsight cross-hairs published on Sarah Palin's website and the M-16 on ex- marine Jesse Kelly's election posters with the subliminal message to fire the full barrel.
Is U.S. public opinion aware of the level of violence in Latin America associated with inequality and poverty?
Why is the relevant information not released?
An article by Spanish journalist and author Xavier Caño Tamayo, published on the ALAI website, offers some facts that U.S, citizens should know.
Although the author is skeptical about the methods currently being used to defeat the power gained by the big drug traffickers, his article provides information of unquestionable value which I will try to summarize within a few lines.
"... 27% of violent deaths in the world occur in Latin America, although its population represents less than 9% of the planet's total. Over the last 10 years, 1.2 million people have died violently in the region.
"Violent slums occupied by military police, murders in Mexico, disappearances, assassinations and massacres in Colombia […] the highest murder rate in the world is in Latin America.
"How can such a terrible reality be explained?
"The answer is provided in a recent study by the Latin American Social Science Foundation. The report shows how poverty, inequality and lack of opportunity are the fundamental sources of violence, although trafficking in drugs and handguns act as accelerators of murder crimes.
"According to the Ibero-American Organization of Youth, half of Latin American young people aged 15 to 24 are without work and have little chance of finding any. [...] According to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the region has one of the highest rates of informal employment among youth and one in four Latin American youths is not working or studying.
"According to ECLAC, in the last few years, poverty and extreme poverty in Latin America has affected and is affecting 35% of the population, almost 190 million Latin Americans. And, according to the OECD [Cooperation and Economic Development Organization], some 40 million more citizens have succumbed or will succumb to poverty in Latin America before the end of this 2010.
"According to the United Nations, poverty exists when people cannot satisfy basic needs in order to live with dignity: adequate nutrition, potable water, decent housing, essential medical care, basic education… the World Bank quantifies this poverty, adding that those facing extreme poverty survive on less than $1.25 a day.
"According to a report on world wealth in 2010 published by Capgemini and Merrill Lynch, the fortunes of the Latin America rich […] grew 15% in 2009 […] in the last two years, the fortunes of the Latin America rich grew more than in any other region of the world. There are 500,000 rich, according to the report by Capgemini and Merrill Lynch. Half a million, as opposed to 190 [...] if so few have so much, many are in need of everything.
"... There are other ways to explain violence in Latin America [...] poverty and inequality are always related to death and pain. [...] Is it an accident that [...] 64% of the eight million who died as a result of cancer in the world lived in regions with the lowest income, where only 5% of the funds dedicated to cancer are spent?
"In your heart and looking us in our eyes, could you live on $1.25 a day?" Xavier Caño concludes his article.
The news of the massacre in Arizona is filling today’s pages of the main U.S. media today.
Specialists at the University of Arizona Medical Center in Tucson are cautiously optimistic. They have praised the work of emergency personnel who saw to it that the Congresswoman was treated within 38 minutes of the shooting. Such information was available on the Internet between 6:00 and 700pm this afternoon.
According to these reports, "The bullet entered the forehead, very close to the brain, on the left side of the head."
"She can follow simple directions, but we know that inflammation of the brain could cause a turn for the worse," they stated.
They explain the details of every one of the steps taken to control her respiration and reduce pressure on the brain. They add that her recovery could take weeks or months. Neurosurgeons in general and experts in the field, will follow with interest the information released by the medical team.
Cubans follow health issues closely, are usually well informed and are will also be pleased by the success of those doctors.
On the other side of the border, we know the extremes to which violence has escalated in the adjoining Mexican states, where there are also excellent doctors. Nevertheless, it is not unusual for drug traffickers, equipped with the most sophisticated weapons produced by the U.S. war industry, to enter operating rooms to finish off their victims.
The infant mortality rate in Cuba is less than 5 for every 1,000 live births; and the victims of violent acts, less than 5 for every 100,000 residents.
Although it belies our modesty, it is our bitter responsibility to indicate for the record that our blockaded, threatened and slandered country has demonstrated that Latin American peoples can live without violence and without drugs. They can even live, as has transpired for more than half a century, without relations with the United States. The latter, we have not demonstrated; they have done so.
Fidel Castro Ruz
January 9, 2011
7: 56 p.m.
Translated by Granma International
granma.cu
Friday, January 14, 2011
...the real McCoy in today’s blood-drenched Bahamas – Blam/gadjammit!
“…bite and blam…”
Rough Cut,
By Felix F. Bethel
The Bahama Journal
“Today it is the right that amuses itself with violent chat and proclaims an injured innocence when its flammable words blow up…” Jacob Weisberg.
“The officer approached her and [grabbed] her, [yanked] her hair and then the woman (Farah) threw her drink in the officer’s face, and the officer bit her,” Gibson claimed. “You should know the law. If you approach her, you’re supposed to arrest her and carry her. How could you beat her and bite her... what is this? Are we not humans anymore?”
From what I am hearing, some tourists are not coming back to the Bahamas – ever! “They said they’re not coming back here because if this is the way the police treat Bahamians they don’t want to return.”
As some of them are said to have described the police… They’re nasty… [The police] scared us…”
Ho dear what can the matter be…oh dear; ho dear, who cares anymore… and so [and on this note], I wish to remind you that, now that they are done with their pleasantries about a merry Christmas; a happy and prosperous new year and a host of other bull, the nigs and the nig police have returned to their nasty past-times.
And so the hurt continues; and as police beatings make the headlines and [sadly] the same tired-assed politicians are bleating like lambs on the way to the slaughter –with some bleating about national security and others bloviating nonsense galore about majority rule.
In the meantime – as the following news excerpts reveal – the beat continues.
Story number one concerns an event that involved two women, a fight, some biting and fine some face-scratching – and a bevy of shocked tourists.
Here I am told that, “…Tourists and Bahamians looked on in horror as a police officer allegedly beat a woman before hauling her off to jail yesterday in the area just behind the downtown straw market.
Edena Farrah is the name of the woman who was allegedly beaten by an off-duty officer for reasons that are still unknown.
Now note this: “The lady (Farah) was on the scooter with about 12 tourists following her… She stopped and was talking to the tourists, and the police woman, who wasn’t even in uniform, grabbed the woman by her hair and started to beat her…”
And then we have the question: “How could we have policemen in the force like that? The police should not be [acting] like that…”
Thereafter I am told that, some of the tourists on the tour chimed in with color commentary to the effect that, the police who beat the woman was truly nasty.
“They’re nasty… [The police] scared us. We came here; we spent our money and what are they doing? They beat the woman. They’re showing us bad things. They should not do that. It’s scary because you know you have lots of tourists here. They should cut it out. The policemen are a little too aggressive here. Just let them tour... let them serve us. We’re coming here because of the people. Don’t be aggressive here.”
And then there was even more commentary: Referring to the vendors who had served her earlier in the day, the woman added: “These are lovely people. The police should help - not hurt.”
“They’re nasty… [The police] scared us.
Now hear some of what happened ex post facto; and now – for emphasis – and after the nasty facts on the ground, Superintendent Wayne Miller informed media that he could not give details on what happened as the matter was still under investigation.
And as the investigation begins, Miller explained that, “Right now I’m trying to restore calm… We’re going to look at everything that happened then give a report…”
Yeah, Miller, I hear you.
Even now, I wonder if Miller heard what one witness said she saw and thereafter what the newspaper said she said.
Here I am told that, Wendy Nixon, a straw vendor, said she was sickened by what she witnessed.
As I am told she said that, “The police beat her like they wanted to kill her. I’m calling on the chief of police to investigate the officers. They are not officers; they are bullies.”
The plot sickens and thickens: Natasha Farrah said she was told that her sister was punched in the face several times. Several family members gathered yesterday at the Tourism Police Station on Bay Street where Farrah was being held…”
Another sister said police would only say that Edena Farrah was arrested for disorderly conduct.
And then we get another blast of hot opinion: “She’s in there bruised and bloodied. She is not a robber. She is not a thief. And she is not a murderer. Instead of beating her they need to go and do their job…”
Oh dear, [and sadly so] they are doing their jobs!
The only mercy in all that stuff that involved the police woman who they said bit the woman and then and thereafter yanked her hairy head has to do with the fact that there was no blam-gadjammit involved this time around.
Thank God for little mercies.
While this was so here; things were decidedly different there in Tucson, Arizona where as one Jacob Weisberg wisely advises: “…First you rile up psychotics with inflammatory language about tyranny, betrayal, and taking back the country.
“Then you make easy for them to get guns. But if you really want trouble, you should also make it hard for them to get treatment for mental illness.
I don't know if Loughner had health insurance, but he falls into a pool of people who often go uninsured—not young enough to be covered by parents (until the health-care bill's coverage of twenty-somethings kicked in a few months ago), not old enough for Medicare, not poor enough for Medicaid.
“If such a person happens to have a history of mental illness, he will be effectively uninsurable. To get treatment, he actually has to commit a crime. If Republicans succeed in repealing the Obama health care bill, that's how it will remain.
“Again, none of this says that Tea Party caused the Tucson tragedy only that its politics increased the odds of something like it happening.
And as the wise one concludes and as I concur; “…It was in criticizing writers on his own side for their naiveté about communism that George Orwell wrote, "So much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot."
Blam/gadjammit in Tucson, Arizona where a gunman armed with a Glock semi-automatic killed so very many people. Ironically, had he made it to the army and thence to the place where killing is condoned, Obama may have had reason enough to call him a hero.
Oh dear…Ho dear!
Sure seems as if contexts do matter when you set about that nasty business of wishing or wanting to kill people.
Here I end as I might not have wished but nonetheless, I have for you some real blam/gadjammit coming from the bloodied eye of that storm coursing its own destructive way through these islands, rocks and cays that belong to so very many foreigners.
The facts are clear and simple enough: A pre-school teacher was shot about the body multiple times with a shotgun by a lone gunman on Sunday night, leaving her school community in a state of shock and her family devastated.
According to police, Denise Adderley, 39, of Chippingham, was at Texaco Service Station on Wulff Road and Kemp Roads when she was shot.
Adderley died on the scene, bringing the murder count up to three for the year.
A man was arrested and a shotgun seized, according to police.
There it is: the real McCoy in today’s blood-drenched Bahamas – Blam/gadjammit!
January 13, 2011
The Bahama Journal
Rough Cut,
By Felix F. Bethel
The Bahama Journal
“Today it is the right that amuses itself with violent chat and proclaims an injured innocence when its flammable words blow up…” Jacob Weisberg.
“The officer approached her and [grabbed] her, [yanked] her hair and then the woman (Farah) threw her drink in the officer’s face, and the officer bit her,” Gibson claimed. “You should know the law. If you approach her, you’re supposed to arrest her and carry her. How could you beat her and bite her... what is this? Are we not humans anymore?”
From what I am hearing, some tourists are not coming back to the Bahamas – ever! “They said they’re not coming back here because if this is the way the police treat Bahamians they don’t want to return.”
As some of them are said to have described the police… They’re nasty… [The police] scared us…”
Ho dear what can the matter be…oh dear; ho dear, who cares anymore… and so [and on this note], I wish to remind you that, now that they are done with their pleasantries about a merry Christmas; a happy and prosperous new year and a host of other bull, the nigs and the nig police have returned to their nasty past-times.
And so the hurt continues; and as police beatings make the headlines and [sadly] the same tired-assed politicians are bleating like lambs on the way to the slaughter –with some bleating about national security and others bloviating nonsense galore about majority rule.
In the meantime – as the following news excerpts reveal – the beat continues.
Story number one concerns an event that involved two women, a fight, some biting and fine some face-scratching – and a bevy of shocked tourists.
Here I am told that, “…Tourists and Bahamians looked on in horror as a police officer allegedly beat a woman before hauling her off to jail yesterday in the area just behind the downtown straw market.
Edena Farrah is the name of the woman who was allegedly beaten by an off-duty officer for reasons that are still unknown.
Now note this: “The lady (Farah) was on the scooter with about 12 tourists following her… She stopped and was talking to the tourists, and the police woman, who wasn’t even in uniform, grabbed the woman by her hair and started to beat her…”
And then we have the question: “How could we have policemen in the force like that? The police should not be [acting] like that…”
Thereafter I am told that, some of the tourists on the tour chimed in with color commentary to the effect that, the police who beat the woman was truly nasty.
“They’re nasty… [The police] scared us. We came here; we spent our money and what are they doing? They beat the woman. They’re showing us bad things. They should not do that. It’s scary because you know you have lots of tourists here. They should cut it out. The policemen are a little too aggressive here. Just let them tour... let them serve us. We’re coming here because of the people. Don’t be aggressive here.”
And then there was even more commentary: Referring to the vendors who had served her earlier in the day, the woman added: “These are lovely people. The police should help - not hurt.”
“They’re nasty… [The police] scared us.
Now hear some of what happened ex post facto; and now – for emphasis – and after the nasty facts on the ground, Superintendent Wayne Miller informed media that he could not give details on what happened as the matter was still under investigation.
And as the investigation begins, Miller explained that, “Right now I’m trying to restore calm… We’re going to look at everything that happened then give a report…”
Yeah, Miller, I hear you.
Even now, I wonder if Miller heard what one witness said she saw and thereafter what the newspaper said she said.
Here I am told that, Wendy Nixon, a straw vendor, said she was sickened by what she witnessed.
As I am told she said that, “The police beat her like they wanted to kill her. I’m calling on the chief of police to investigate the officers. They are not officers; they are bullies.”
The plot sickens and thickens: Natasha Farrah said she was told that her sister was punched in the face several times. Several family members gathered yesterday at the Tourism Police Station on Bay Street where Farrah was being held…”
Another sister said police would only say that Edena Farrah was arrested for disorderly conduct.
And then we get another blast of hot opinion: “She’s in there bruised and bloodied. She is not a robber. She is not a thief. And she is not a murderer. Instead of beating her they need to go and do their job…”
Oh dear, [and sadly so] they are doing their jobs!
The only mercy in all that stuff that involved the police woman who they said bit the woman and then and thereafter yanked her hairy head has to do with the fact that there was no blam-gadjammit involved this time around.
Thank God for little mercies.
While this was so here; things were decidedly different there in Tucson, Arizona where as one Jacob Weisberg wisely advises: “…First you rile up psychotics with inflammatory language about tyranny, betrayal, and taking back the country.
“Then you make easy for them to get guns. But if you really want trouble, you should also make it hard for them to get treatment for mental illness.
I don't know if Loughner had health insurance, but he falls into a pool of people who often go uninsured—not young enough to be covered by parents (until the health-care bill's coverage of twenty-somethings kicked in a few months ago), not old enough for Medicare, not poor enough for Medicaid.
“If such a person happens to have a history of mental illness, he will be effectively uninsurable. To get treatment, he actually has to commit a crime. If Republicans succeed in repealing the Obama health care bill, that's how it will remain.
“Again, none of this says that Tea Party caused the Tucson tragedy only that its politics increased the odds of something like it happening.
And as the wise one concludes and as I concur; “…It was in criticizing writers on his own side for their naiveté about communism that George Orwell wrote, "So much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot."
Blam/gadjammit in Tucson, Arizona where a gunman armed with a Glock semi-automatic killed so very many people. Ironically, had he made it to the army and thence to the place where killing is condoned, Obama may have had reason enough to call him a hero.
Oh dear…Ho dear!
Sure seems as if contexts do matter when you set about that nasty business of wishing or wanting to kill people.
Here I end as I might not have wished but nonetheless, I have for you some real blam/gadjammit coming from the bloodied eye of that storm coursing its own destructive way through these islands, rocks and cays that belong to so very many foreigners.
The facts are clear and simple enough: A pre-school teacher was shot about the body multiple times with a shotgun by a lone gunman on Sunday night, leaving her school community in a state of shock and her family devastated.
According to police, Denise Adderley, 39, of Chippingham, was at Texaco Service Station on Wulff Road and Kemp Roads when she was shot.
Adderley died on the scene, bringing the murder count up to three for the year.
A man was arrested and a shotgun seized, according to police.
There it is: the real McCoy in today’s blood-drenched Bahamas – Blam/gadjammit!
January 13, 2011
The Bahama Journal
Thursday, January 13, 2011
The crime against the Democratic Congresswoman
Reflections of Fidel
(Taken from CubaDebate)
(Taken from CubaDebate)
AS is known, the state of Arizona, a territory that was snatched from Mexico by the United States together with many other expanses of land, has been the scene of painful events for the hundreds of Latin Americans who die trying to immigrate to the United States in search of work or to join parents, spouses or other close family members who are there.
In that country, it is they who do the hardest jobs and live under the constant fear of arrest and forced deportation. Despite drastic measures, the number of people dying in the attempt is growing every year and those expelled to their countries of origin annually are in the hundreds of thousands.
The number of U.S. citizens opposed to that abuse is also growing, like those who supported and, for the third time, elected the young Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.
The state of Arizona is currently one of the richest in the United States on account of the minerals extracted there, especially copper and molybdenum; large-scale cotton and meat production, which utilizes huge expanses of its land; the beauty of its landscapes, including the Colorado River Grand Canyon, considered one of the loveliest on the planet, and one of the three major indigenous communities. The state is annually visited by 30 million national and foreign tourists. Approximately 30% of its population is of Hispanic-American origin.
On the other side, the Tea Party, constituted by the most reactionary and politically backward elements of society, is trying to drag the Republican Party into extremist and warmongering positions which, in the midst of the crisis and disappointment over the promises that Obama has not wanted or has been unable to fulfill, would take the country into the abyss. The relevant conclusions can de drawn from the debate that will obligatorily have to take place.
As for the state of the Congresswoman's health, the Spanish press website El Mundo, published:
"The bullet entered the back part of the Democratic congresswoman’s head, […] crossed the left hemisphere of the brain and exited the front. After a two-hour operation, in which they extracted the remains of the bullet, part of the dead cerebral tissue and approximately half of her cranium – which they have kept to re-implant later – surgeons at the Medical Center attached to the University of Arizona, Tucson […] are expressing ‘cautious optimism.’
"It would seem that the surgery went well, according to Dr. Peter Rhee, head of Traumatology at the hospital, who explained that, despite the patient being sedated and on a respirator, which means that she cannot talk, she has been able to communicate with gestures and respond to simple commands, ‘like squeeze a hand or raise two fingers,’ something which indicates the existence of ‘cerebral function.’"
"Dr. Francisco Villarajo, head of Neurosurgery at the Niño Jesús Hospital and La Luz Clinic and with experience in this kind of surgery, explained to El Mundo: ‘What is most dangerous for the congresswoman at this point is brain swelling, given that, in its passing, the bullet has taken with it portions of bone, which could result in inflammation. A risk that is further increased after surgery, as the area is highly sensitive.’"
I hope that world public opinion will learn clearly and precisely the real condition of the congresswoman as soon as possible. It is a matter of interest to everyone.
Fidel Castro Ruz
January 10, 2011
7:11 p.m.
Translated by Granma International
granma.cu
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
One year since the earthquake in Haiti
Bill Van Auken
Today marks the first anniversary of the magnitude 7.0 earthquake that devastated the impoverished Caribbean nation of Haiti, leaving a quarter of a million of its people dead, more than 300,000 injured, and approximately a million and a half homeless.
One year after this natural disaster, the horrors facing Haiti’s population have only deepened, with a cholera epidemic claiming thousands of lives and a million left stranded in squalid tent camps.
This festering crisis underscores the social and political sources of the suffering inflicted upon Haiti’s working class and oppressed masses. That such conditions prevail virtually on the doorstep of the United States, which concentrates the greatest share of the world’s wealth, constitutes a crime of world historic proportions and an indictment of the profit system.
Those familiar with the conditions on the ground in Haiti provide an appalling account of the indifference and neglect of American and world imperialism toward the country’s people.
“The mountains of rubble still exist; the plight of the victims without any sign of acceptable temporary shelter is worsening the conditions for the spread of cholera, and the threat of new epidemics becomes more frightening with each passing day,” said former Jamaican Prime Minister P.J. Patterson, the Caribbean community’s special representative to Haiti. “In short, there has been no abatement of the trauma and misery which the Haitian populace has suffered.”
Roland Van Hauwermeiren, country director for the NGO Oxfam in Haiti, described 2010 as “a year of indecision” that had “put Haiti’s recovery on hold.” He added, “Nearly one million people are still living in tents or under tarpaulins and hundreds of thousands of others who are living in the city’s ruins still do not know when they will be able to return home.”
Of the approximately one million people living in makeshift tents or under tarps in the crowded camps of Port-au-Prince, more than half are children.
The Haitian capital remains buried in rubble. It is estimated that less than 5 percent of the debris has been cleared by Haitian workers attacking the mountains of fallen concrete and twisted metal with shovels and their bare hands. Heavy equipment has not been present in any significant amount since the withdrawal of the US military more than six months ago.
At its height, the US deployed some 22,000 soldiers, Marines, sailors and airmen in Haiti, seizing unilateral control of the country’s main airport, port facilities and other strategic facilities. The US military’s priority was to secure the country against the threat of popular upheaval and to deploy a Coast Guard and naval force to prevent Haitian refugees from making their way to the US.
To those ends, in the critical first weeks after the earthquake when aid was most needed to prevent loss of life and limb for the hundreds of thousands of injured, the Pentagon repeatedly turned away planes carrying medial aid and personnel in order to keep runways free for US military assets.
Within just 11 days of the earthquake, the US-backed Haitian government of President Rene Preval declared the search and rescue operation over—with only 132 people having been pulled alive from the rubble. Had an adequate response been organized, many more could have been saved. Decisions were taken in Washington based not on humanitarian considerations, but rather on the cold calculus of national interests and profits. Undoubtedly, this included the calculation that rescuing injured Haitians would only create a further drain on resources.
In contrast, the spontaneous response of the people of the United States and the entire world was one of solidarity with the suffering Haitian masses. An unprecedented outpouring of support yielded $1.3 billion in contributions from the US alone, the vast majority of it coming from ordinary working people.
One year later, however, just 38 percent of those funds have actually been spent to aid in the recovery and rebuilding of Haiti, according to a survey by the Chronicle of Philanthropy. In Haiti, there are widespread suspicions that vast amounts of money have been diverted into the coffers of NGOs and aid organizations.
Even worse is the response of governments. At a donors’ conference convened in March of last year, more than $5.3 billion was pledged. Of that, only $824 million has been delivered. Worst of all is the response of Washington, which pledged $1.15 billion for 2010, only to subsequently announce that it was postponing payment of virtually the entire pledge until 2011.
Last July, former US President Bill Clinton, who serves as the Obama administration’s envoy to Haiti, the UN’s special envoy to the country and the co-chair together with Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive of the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC), expressed frustration over the slow pace of the payments and promised to pressure donors to make good on their promises. Apparently he has had little success in this effort, including with his own wife, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. He has repeatedly made it clear that the only acceptable path to Haiti’s reconstruction lies through private investment and the assurance of profitable conditions—based largely on starvation wages--for US-based banks and transnationals.
On top of the earthquake’s devastation has come an epidemic of cholera, which has already claimed 3,600 lives and is expected to infect at least 400,000 people. Public health experts acknowledge that the spread of the disease has still not peaked, yet the terrible toll of this disease merits barely a mention in the US media.
The Obama administration’s indifference to Haitian life has been underscored by the decision to resume deportations to the country, with 350 Haitians slated to be sent back this month. With many of these people destined for incarceration in Haitian jails, which are rampant with cholera, the action amounts to a death sentence.
The epidemic is not a product of the earthquake, but rather, like the extraordinarily high death toll from the quake itself, the outcome of grinding poverty and backwardness resulting from the domination of Haiti by imperialism and, in particular, the role played by the US government and American banks and corporations over the past century.
Haiti is by far the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Even before the earthquake, less than half of the urban population and less than a fifth of those in rural areas had access to sanitation, leaving the country vulnerable to cholera. Prior to the quake, nearly three quarters of the Haitian populace was living on less than $2 a day, while barely 20 percent had jobs in the formal economy and 86 percent of urban dwellers were housed in slums.
These conditions are inextricably bound up with an oppressive political and social order that was forged through the US military occupation from 1915 to 1934, the savage 30-year dictatorship of the US-backed Duvalier dynasty, and the subsequent enforcement of so-called "liberal free market" policies by Washington and the International Monetary Fund.
The growing frustration and anger of the Haitian people over the criminal policies of Washington and the country’s narrow and corrupt financial elite have erupted repeatedly in mass resistance in recent months, first against the United Nations troops over the spread of cholera and then in response to the fraudulent November 28 election.
This popular resistance deserves the full support of working people in the US and internationally. The demand must be raised for immediate and massive aid to Haiti.
But aiding the people of Haiti and rebuilding the country on the basis of human needs rather than the interests of the native elite and the foreign banks and corporations can be achieved only by uniting the working class in Haiti, the US and throughout the hemisphere in a common fight for the socialist transformation of society.
12 January 2011
wsws
Today marks the first anniversary of the magnitude 7.0 earthquake that devastated the impoverished Caribbean nation of Haiti, leaving a quarter of a million of its people dead, more than 300,000 injured, and approximately a million and a half homeless.
One year after this natural disaster, the horrors facing Haiti’s population have only deepened, with a cholera epidemic claiming thousands of lives and a million left stranded in squalid tent camps.
This festering crisis underscores the social and political sources of the suffering inflicted upon Haiti’s working class and oppressed masses. That such conditions prevail virtually on the doorstep of the United States, which concentrates the greatest share of the world’s wealth, constitutes a crime of world historic proportions and an indictment of the profit system.
Those familiar with the conditions on the ground in Haiti provide an appalling account of the indifference and neglect of American and world imperialism toward the country’s people.
“The mountains of rubble still exist; the plight of the victims without any sign of acceptable temporary shelter is worsening the conditions for the spread of cholera, and the threat of new epidemics becomes more frightening with each passing day,” said former Jamaican Prime Minister P.J. Patterson, the Caribbean community’s special representative to Haiti. “In short, there has been no abatement of the trauma and misery which the Haitian populace has suffered.”
Roland Van Hauwermeiren, country director for the NGO Oxfam in Haiti, described 2010 as “a year of indecision” that had “put Haiti’s recovery on hold.” He added, “Nearly one million people are still living in tents or under tarpaulins and hundreds of thousands of others who are living in the city’s ruins still do not know when they will be able to return home.”
Of the approximately one million people living in makeshift tents or under tarps in the crowded camps of Port-au-Prince, more than half are children.
The Haitian capital remains buried in rubble. It is estimated that less than 5 percent of the debris has been cleared by Haitian workers attacking the mountains of fallen concrete and twisted metal with shovels and their bare hands. Heavy equipment has not been present in any significant amount since the withdrawal of the US military more than six months ago.
At its height, the US deployed some 22,000 soldiers, Marines, sailors and airmen in Haiti, seizing unilateral control of the country’s main airport, port facilities and other strategic facilities. The US military’s priority was to secure the country against the threat of popular upheaval and to deploy a Coast Guard and naval force to prevent Haitian refugees from making their way to the US.
To those ends, in the critical first weeks after the earthquake when aid was most needed to prevent loss of life and limb for the hundreds of thousands of injured, the Pentagon repeatedly turned away planes carrying medial aid and personnel in order to keep runways free for US military assets.
Within just 11 days of the earthquake, the US-backed Haitian government of President Rene Preval declared the search and rescue operation over—with only 132 people having been pulled alive from the rubble. Had an adequate response been organized, many more could have been saved. Decisions were taken in Washington based not on humanitarian considerations, but rather on the cold calculus of national interests and profits. Undoubtedly, this included the calculation that rescuing injured Haitians would only create a further drain on resources.
In contrast, the spontaneous response of the people of the United States and the entire world was one of solidarity with the suffering Haitian masses. An unprecedented outpouring of support yielded $1.3 billion in contributions from the US alone, the vast majority of it coming from ordinary working people.
One year later, however, just 38 percent of those funds have actually been spent to aid in the recovery and rebuilding of Haiti, according to a survey by the Chronicle of Philanthropy. In Haiti, there are widespread suspicions that vast amounts of money have been diverted into the coffers of NGOs and aid organizations.
Even worse is the response of governments. At a donors’ conference convened in March of last year, more than $5.3 billion was pledged. Of that, only $824 million has been delivered. Worst of all is the response of Washington, which pledged $1.15 billion for 2010, only to subsequently announce that it was postponing payment of virtually the entire pledge until 2011.
Last July, former US President Bill Clinton, who serves as the Obama administration’s envoy to Haiti, the UN’s special envoy to the country and the co-chair together with Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive of the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC), expressed frustration over the slow pace of the payments and promised to pressure donors to make good on their promises. Apparently he has had little success in this effort, including with his own wife, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. He has repeatedly made it clear that the only acceptable path to Haiti’s reconstruction lies through private investment and the assurance of profitable conditions—based largely on starvation wages--for US-based banks and transnationals.
On top of the earthquake’s devastation has come an epidemic of cholera, which has already claimed 3,600 lives and is expected to infect at least 400,000 people. Public health experts acknowledge that the spread of the disease has still not peaked, yet the terrible toll of this disease merits barely a mention in the US media.
The Obama administration’s indifference to Haitian life has been underscored by the decision to resume deportations to the country, with 350 Haitians slated to be sent back this month. With many of these people destined for incarceration in Haitian jails, which are rampant with cholera, the action amounts to a death sentence.
The epidemic is not a product of the earthquake, but rather, like the extraordinarily high death toll from the quake itself, the outcome of grinding poverty and backwardness resulting from the domination of Haiti by imperialism and, in particular, the role played by the US government and American banks and corporations over the past century.
Haiti is by far the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Even before the earthquake, less than half of the urban population and less than a fifth of those in rural areas had access to sanitation, leaving the country vulnerable to cholera. Prior to the quake, nearly three quarters of the Haitian populace was living on less than $2 a day, while barely 20 percent had jobs in the formal economy and 86 percent of urban dwellers were housed in slums.
These conditions are inextricably bound up with an oppressive political and social order that was forged through the US military occupation from 1915 to 1934, the savage 30-year dictatorship of the US-backed Duvalier dynasty, and the subsequent enforcement of so-called "liberal free market" policies by Washington and the International Monetary Fund.
The growing frustration and anger of the Haitian people over the criminal policies of Washington and the country’s narrow and corrupt financial elite have erupted repeatedly in mass resistance in recent months, first against the United Nations troops over the spread of cholera and then in response to the fraudulent November 28 election.
This popular resistance deserves the full support of working people in the US and internationally. The demand must be raised for immediate and massive aid to Haiti.
But aiding the people of Haiti and rebuilding the country on the basis of human needs rather than the interests of the native elite and the foreign banks and corporations can be achieved only by uniting the working class in Haiti, the US and throughout the hemisphere in a common fight for the socialist transformation of society.
12 January 2011
wsws
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Honouring our commitment to Haiti
By Senator Kirsten Gillibrand
Families across New York will be reflecting this week on the first anniversary of the devastating earthquake that ravaged Haiti. The tragic loss of life and hardship from this disaster has anguished the people of Haiti and their families here at home.
While we mourn the more than 300,000 people who died during this tragedy, we must also not forget the over one million displaced Haitians who are still living in crowded camps and many others still without basic services.
Now that the cameras have gone, we cannot leave Haiti behind.
In the aftermath of the earthquake there was an outpouring of support from governments, ordinary Americans and people across the globe. And while we have made some progress, a number of events from deadly storms, to a cholera outbreak, and contested local elections have further complicated long term reconstruction efforts.
We must not let up on our pledge to help rebuild Haiti.
The way forward requires commitment and vision. I saw the challenges firsthand when I spent time in Port au Prince last year, and I believe there are opportunities to tackle the country’s serious needs.
First, the Haitian people deserve free, fair and inclusive elections and a stable, working government that responds to their needs. Election fraud must be addressed and corrected. Only then can the Haitian people have confidence that their government will effectively use international and Haitian resources to help move the displaced out of camps and into permanent homes, strengthen schools, and create new economic opportunities. I am closely following the Organization of American States (OAS) review of the election results and will work to ensure a fair election process.
Second, we must do a better job of partnering and working with the Haitian people and the Diaspora community. I have consistently raised this issue with the Administration and will continue to urge the USAID Director to ensure that we stay true to our government’s commitment to engaging with all the stakeholders in supporting a Haitian-led recovery.
Third, I will continue to call on the United States to make a high quality, public school system a top priority in our relief efforts. It was inspiring to see eager schoolchildren in backpacks on their first day of school during my visit. If Haiti is ever going to rebuild, and if these children are ever going to succeed, Haiti needs a strong publicly funded school system serving as community cornerstones, offering health clinics, immunizations, literacy education, job training and nutrition for children and families.
While we seek to rebuild Haiti, we must protect Haitian nationals residing in our borders. In the hours after the earthquake, I called on President Obama to grant temporary protected status (TPS) for Haitians living in America. I am grateful the Administration took swift action, allowing Haitians in the US to continue to live here without fear of returning to a country ravaged by devastation.
With TPS set to expire in July of this year, I am urging the president to once again extend temporary protected status for an additional year through 2012.
I am also renewing my push to help 35,000 Haitians who have US government-approved family immigrant petitions reunite with their families in the US.
Due to visa backlogs, some Haitian spouses and minor children of US permanent residents or adult children of US citizens could wait for years to come to America. This month I will re-introduce legislation in the Senate to allow such individuals to leave Haiti and work in the US.
Haiti faces a series of enormous challenges and there is more work to do. We must do more to ensure that the problems of Haiti do not become a forgotten cause. The survivors of the tragedy remind us of the strength, resilience, and hope that emerged from the rubble. We must stand in unity with the Haitian people and remain steadfast in our mission to see Haiti overcome, recover, and succeed.
January 10, 2011
caribbeannewsnow
Families across New York will be reflecting this week on the first anniversary of the devastating earthquake that ravaged Haiti. The tragic loss of life and hardship from this disaster has anguished the people of Haiti and their families here at home.
While we mourn the more than 300,000 people who died during this tragedy, we must also not forget the over one million displaced Haitians who are still living in crowded camps and many others still without basic services.
Now that the cameras have gone, we cannot leave Haiti behind.
In the aftermath of the earthquake there was an outpouring of support from governments, ordinary Americans and people across the globe. And while we have made some progress, a number of events from deadly storms, to a cholera outbreak, and contested local elections have further complicated long term reconstruction efforts. We must not let up on our pledge to help rebuild Haiti.
The way forward requires commitment and vision. I saw the challenges firsthand when I spent time in Port au Prince last year, and I believe there are opportunities to tackle the country’s serious needs.
First, the Haitian people deserve free, fair and inclusive elections and a stable, working government that responds to their needs. Election fraud must be addressed and corrected. Only then can the Haitian people have confidence that their government will effectively use international and Haitian resources to help move the displaced out of camps and into permanent homes, strengthen schools, and create new economic opportunities. I am closely following the Organization of American States (OAS) review of the election results and will work to ensure a fair election process.
Second, we must do a better job of partnering and working with the Haitian people and the Diaspora community. I have consistently raised this issue with the Administration and will continue to urge the USAID Director to ensure that we stay true to our government’s commitment to engaging with all the stakeholders in supporting a Haitian-led recovery.
Third, I will continue to call on the United States to make a high quality, public school system a top priority in our relief efforts. It was inspiring to see eager schoolchildren in backpacks on their first day of school during my visit. If Haiti is ever going to rebuild, and if these children are ever going to succeed, Haiti needs a strong publicly funded school system serving as community cornerstones, offering health clinics, immunizations, literacy education, job training and nutrition for children and families.
While we seek to rebuild Haiti, we must protect Haitian nationals residing in our borders. In the hours after the earthquake, I called on President Obama to grant temporary protected status (TPS) for Haitians living in America. I am grateful the Administration took swift action, allowing Haitians in the US to continue to live here without fear of returning to a country ravaged by devastation.
With TPS set to expire in July of this year, I am urging the president to once again extend temporary protected status for an additional year through 2012.
I am also renewing my push to help 35,000 Haitians who have US government-approved family immigrant petitions reunite with their families in the US.
Due to visa backlogs, some Haitian spouses and minor children of US permanent residents or adult children of US citizens could wait for years to come to America. This month I will re-introduce legislation in the Senate to allow such individuals to leave Haiti and work in the US.
Haiti faces a series of enormous challenges and there is more work to do. We must do more to ensure that the problems of Haiti do not become a forgotten cause. The survivors of the tragedy remind us of the strength, resilience, and hope that emerged from the rubble. We must stand in unity with the Haitian people and remain steadfast in our mission to see Haiti overcome, recover, and succeed.
January 10, 2011
caribbeannewsnow
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