Any sustainable future in Haiti requires a re-ener
gized rural economy. This
article provides some excellent background on the destruction of Haiti's aricultural economy and student demands to change course.
Latest from Haiti Analysis on student demonstrations calling for a change to Haiti's agricultural policies. The story was picked up by Inter-Press Service.
Photos from the press conference and protest.
We also want to point our several publications on Haiti's debt that can be used for education and advocacy that came out in December.
The Center for Economic Policy Research prepared a report "Debt Cancellation for Haiti: No Reason for Further Delays."
Marlene Bastien of FAMN (Haitian Women of Miami) published an appeal for immediate cancellation in the Miami Herald (link goes to article reprint at the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti)
Joe Emersberger published an article on Monthly Review's website on Haiti's debt Friday that has good background and summary of the two articles mentioned above.
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Preval's January 1st Speech, in Gonaives, Haiti can be read in english at the MINUSTAH website (other source welcome!) The economy is a major theme of the speech, of course. Mid-way through the speech Preval mentions a program that is interesting for potentially meeting dual goals - reforestation and employment. It is an imagintative approach that if truly participatory could help by creating an economic incentive to plant. Such an approach could be expanded to other products as well...
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Wadner Pierre has launched a new blog - Blog de Port-au-Prince. Wadner is a wonderful photographer in addition to his writing, and the images themselves are worth a visit to his new blog.
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The vote on the McGovern amendment to cut funding for the School of the Americas was very close last Thursday - 203-214. Just six votes the other way would made the difference. Thanks to everybody who made a phone call or otherwise supported this effort. We get closer every year!. You can read up dates about the vote and the work ahead at SOA Watch's website.
Update from SOA Watch on Foreign Operations Vote and amendment to close the SOA. FOr the latest go to SOA Watch website.
SOA Watch has received NEW information, that WHINSEC has a secret weapon and that the Pentagon's public relations campaign has won some influence with the Representatives who have already told you they will vote YES.
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Jeb Sprague and Wadner Pierre wrote a great article for Inter-Press Service on the strike last week - providing background on PetroCaribe implementation and more background on the demands of the strikers. The article also appears on Haiti Analysis and was picked up by the Caribbean News Net. Also from Alter-Presse today a brief article on negotiations between the unions and Preval.
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See story from Alter-Presse - (translated from French below) Haiti : Strike of Public Transport against price increase of petrol products Translated from French by Menno Ernst Tuesday 12th June 2007
P-au-P, June 12th, 2007 [AlterPresse] --- Hundreds of people, students, young girls and young boys, women and men, are walking around by foot or are waiting, at different crossroads in the metropolitan area of the capital, to find some kind of transport vehicle together during the first ours of this Tuesday 12th of June, notifies the online agency AlterPresse. Taxis, vans and other tap tap (name given to public transport vehicles) are very rare in various streets of Port-au-Prince, in the north and in the south, from the east to the west.
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The New York Times ran a front page story yesterday based on the findings of a recent study that found an extremely high level of bias in the way that asylum cases are decided. The paper, titled Refugee Roulette: Disparities in Asylum Adjudication, will be in the Stanford Law Review's next issue and can be read on-line here.
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Sarah Anderson of the Institute for Policy Studies wrote an excellent commentary on Mr. Zoellick's nomination to run the World Bank. Anderson reminds us of Zoellick's hardball tactics and many uncompromising, ideological stances that have been the hallmarks of his career in the Bush administration.
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