The Underside of International Adoption in Haiti | Les dessous de l’adoption internationale en Haïti

Amos Cincir, Le Nouvelliste | Staff, HPN | Commentary and translation by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Over 2,000 Haitian children are adopted each year by foreigners, over 55 percent of them French. This is an activity fraught with scandal. The Haitian government has announced that it will resume international adoptions that had been frozen since the earthquake.

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Brazil Construction Boom Eases Integration of Haitians | Megaobras facilitan inserción de haitianos

By Mario Osava, IPS. There are nearly 700 Haitians in Porto Velho, a Brazilian city of 436,000. The Santo Antonio hydroelectric plant has hired 100 Haitians to work in construction of a dam. Odebrecht has hired 42 Haitians to help build Teles Pires, another hydroelectric dam 800 km east of Porto Velho; 40 to work on a shipyard building submarines in Itaguaí near Rio de Janeiro, and 22 for a sugar plant in the central state of Goiás. (English | Spanish)

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World Bank Organizing to Privatize World Fisheries

By Meredith McCarthy, Food & Water Watch. An international alliance coordinated by The World Bank and called The Global Partnership for Oceans proposes a global expansion of a program called “catch share” that allocates percentage quota of fish per year to coastal areas and arranges for these quota to be leased, bought, and sold.

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Bradley Manning Receives Nobel Peace Prize Nomination, Faces Court Martial

By Lauren Indvik, Mashable | Naomi Spencer, WSWS. The entire Icelandic Parliament and the Oklahoma Center for Conscience and Peace Research are among those who have nominated24-year old U.S. Army private and Wikileaks whistleblower Bradley Manning for a Nobel Peace Prize. On Feb 23, after 9 months of detention without charge, 22 formal charges were brought for the first time against Manning.

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Garzon Cleared of Remaining Charges By Spanish Supreme Court | El Supremo considera que Garzón erró, pero no prevaricó, y lo absuelve

By Joseph Yoldi and Julio M. Lazaro, El Pais | Translated from the Spanish by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. By a vote of 6 to 1, Spain’s Supreme Court acquitted ex-Judge Baltasar Garzon of the charge of overstepping his jurisdiction while trying to open an investigation into Franco-era fascist crimes. The court held, however, that Garzon had misinterpreted the Spanish amnesty law as being like those of South America. Another case against Garzon, alleging his corruption was dismissed. The decision to disbar him remains in effect. (English | Spanish)

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Chicago Window Plant Occupiers Win Reprieve, Former CEO Faces Felony Fraud Charges

By Jane Slaughter, Labor Notes | Melissa Harris, Chicago Tribune | Alternet | Labor Beat, YouTube. Members of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America Local 1110 (UE) won another reprieve for a Chicago window factory after they re-occupied the plant they famously held in 2008, this time with support outside from Occupy Chicago.

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Globally Threatened Seabird Found Nesting in La Selle Mountains, Haiti: First Ever Chick Photos, Video | Las primeras imágenes captadas de un pichón dan esperanza a un ave marina amenazada del Caribe

By Staff, Bird Life International | Groupo Jaragua | Commentary by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. The Black-capped Petrel is a Globally Threatened bird species with a population estimated at 1,000 breeding pairs. With support from Cornell’s Laboratory of Ornithology, a Haitian-Dominican field team found several individuals in Haiti’s Massif de la Selle. (English | Spanish)

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Speakers of Haitian Parliament Issue Urgent Call for Popular Vigilance to Respect for Law | Les présidents des deux chambres appellent à la ‘Vigilance’ citoyenne pour ‘éviter le pire’

By Haitian Speaker of the Senate and Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, AlterPresse | Translated by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. “You stood up in 1804, 1934, 1986 and 1990. Stand up today for respect for the preamble to the 1987 Constitution and respect for the laws passed by Parliament! Stand up and call for the President of the Republic to respect his oath and faithfully follow the Constitution and the laws of the Republic! Stand up to back democratic gains, and demand free and fair elections within the time prescribed by the law and the Constitution!” – Joint statement from Simon Dieuseul Desras and Levaillant Louis-Jeune.

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Haiti’s Elected Mayors Dismissed, Illegally Replaced by Presidential Appointees | Prefeitos Eleitos do Haiti Demitidos, Substituídos Ilegalmente por Nomeados pelo Presidente

By Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Thirteen Haitian mayors were dismissed and replaced on February 18, 2012 by presidential decree. In a press conference, one mayor said that a new individual recently arrived claiming to be his municipality’s new mayor, and two days later he got a letter telling him to assist this person in taking inventory of the region’s heritage. Another mayor wrote in open letter on February 3 that his life is under threat. Secretary of the Interior Georges Racine is thought to be behind the wave of illegal dismissals. (English | Portuguese)

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Poem From My Mother | Poème de ma mère

“Le baiser d’une mère” | Commentary by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Before I could speak or even breathe, my mother, with a broad smile, read this poem to me. I copy it here from a version she wrote from memory. Based on the style, some of the phrases, and her fondness for Oswald Durand, I think it is his. (French | English)

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Pioneering Cholera Scientist Gives Thumbs Down to Oral Vaccines Promoted for Haiti | Un pionnier scientifique du choléra dit que les vaccins oraux promus pour Haïti sont inutiles

By Rashid Haider, Haiti Chery. Prof. Richard A. Finkelstein, an eminent microbiologist and Nobel-Prize nominee for his pioneering studies on cholera, advises that for cholera “the best solution resides in providing safe drinking water and sewage disposal.” In Dec 2010, alarmed by the oral vaccination plans for Haiti, he wrote to the health officials, including Jon Andrus, the Deputy Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) that the proposed use of Dukoral was “a useless and expensive waste of resources.” This vaccine was not adopted, but a campaign immediately started for the use of Shanchol, another questionable oral cholera vaccine. (English | French)

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Scientists, and Squirrels, Regenerate a Plant — 30,000 Years on

By Staff, Seed Daily | Commentary by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Scientists have managed to grow flowering plants from the 30,000-year-old flesh of a fruit retrieved from squirrel burrows in the same layer as the bones of animals from the Late Pleistocene Age.

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Carnaval 2012: A Musical Indictment of Corruption in Haiti

Music by Don Kato, Boukman Eksperyans, Vwadezil | Commentary by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Nearly every Haitian Carnival 2012 song is an indictment of the current state of affairs: corruption, cholera, rapes, MINUSTAH. We’re not partying to forget but to remember. (songs in Kreyol)

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Palestinian Khader Adnan Wins Freedom from Detention with 66-Day Protest Hunger Strike

By Pierre Klochendler, IPS | Staff, We Speak News. Khader Adnan, a 33-year-old Palestinian baker, went on a hunger strike that lasted 66 days from the start of his detention without charge or trial on Dec 18 in an Israeli jail. Over 300 Palestinians are so-called administrative detainees, some of whom have been held for over four years.

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