Category Archives: USA

Haiti: The Aid Masquerade

By Kerry Trueman
January 14, 2010 – Green Fork

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

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

By Dave Lindorff
January 15, 2010 – thiscantbehappening.net

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

Catastrophe in Haiti

By Ashley Smith
January 14, 2010 – socialistworker.org

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

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

Our Role in Haiti’s Plight

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

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

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

7.0 Earthquake Devastates Haiti

Haiti earthquake aftermath

Wyclef Jean, Fellow Celebs Solicit Support for Haiti

Photos

Large Number Of UN Staff Missing After Haiti Quake -Official

Hundreds feared dead in Haiti earthquake

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

The American Elite

By William Blum
January 6th, 2010 – killinghope.org

1900 Campaign poster for the Republican PartyLincoln Gordon died a few weeks ago at the age of 96. He had graduated summa cum laude from Harvard at the age of 19, received a doctorate from Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, published his first book at 22, with dozens more to follow on government, economics, and foreign policy in Europe and Latin America. He joined the Harvard faculty at 23. Dr. Gordon was an executive on the War Production Board during World War II, a top administrator of Marshall Plan programs in postwar Europe, ambassador to Brazil, held other high positions at the State Department and the White House, a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, economist at the Brookings Institution, president of Johns Hopkins University. President Lyndon B. Johnson praised Gordon’s diplomatic service as "a rare combination of experience, idealism and practical judgment".
Continue reading The American Elite

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on How to Tackle Climate Change: “We Must Go from Capitalism to Socialism”

December 23rd 2009
by Amy Goodman – Democracy Now!

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

President Hugo ChavezVenezuelan President Hugo Chavez spared no criticism of the climate conference in Copenhagen. At a joint news conference he held with the Bolivian president Evo Morales on Friday afternoon—this was before President Obama announced the accord—Chavez called the proceedings undemocratic and accused world leaders of only seeking a face-saving agreement. He described President Obama as having won the “Nobel war prize” and said the world still smelled of sulfur, referring to his comments about President Bush at the United Nations last year. Well, shortly after the news conference, I caught up with President Chavez for a few minutes.
Continue reading Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on How to Tackle Climate Change: “We Must Go from Capitalism to Socialism”

Obama Pledges Action With Or Without Climate Deal

United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark

President Barack Obama — December 18, 2009

President Barack Obama spoke on the last day of climate talks at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. The President called on all major economies to put forward decisive national actions that will reduce their emissions and turn the corner on climate change.
Continue reading Obama Pledges Action With Or Without Climate Deal

The Peace Candidate Myth: Yeswecanistan

By William Blum
December 10, 2009

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

Barack ObamaAll the crying from the left about how Obama “the peace candidate” has now become “a war president” … Whatever are they talking about? Here’s what I wrote in this report in August 2008, during the election campaign:
Continue reading The Peace Candidate Myth: Yeswecanistan