Cuba Strengthens Regional Ties | Cuba fortalece lazos con su región sin descuidar su frente norte

By Patricia Grogg, IPS | Anna Ramdass, Trinidad Express. President Raúl Castro recently traveled to Trinidad and Tobago to participate in the 4th Cuba-CARICOM summit. CARICOM chairman Dr Denzil Douglas has since called on the U.S. to put an immediate end to the trade embargo against Cuba. Cuba maintains diplomatic ties with CARICOM’s 14 members, including Haiti. (English | Spanish)

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Kambo, Frog Spirit of the Shaman

By Marcelo Bolshaw Gomes, Entheogene. Rare frogs are drawing a lot of scientific interest these days, partly because the slimes of some frogs contain important medicinal substances.

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Interviews of Sonia Pierre, in Memoriam | Entrevistas de Sonia Pierre, in Memoriam

By Sonia Pierre, You Tube, Courtesy of Global Fund for Children | RFK Center. Sonia Pierre was the founder and director of Movimiento de Mujeres Dominico-Haitianas (MUDHA). Sonia’s death on Sunday, December 4, 2011 is a great loss to Haiti and the Dominican Republic. (English | Spanish)

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Death Sentence Dropped for Mumia Abu-Jamal, a Friend of Haiti! Demand His Freedom

Press Release. “Now that it is clear that Mumia should never have been on death row in the first place, justice will not be served by relegating him to prison for the rest of his life—yet another form of death sentence.” Desmond Tutu. From death row Mumia Abu-Jamal has called for the release of human-rights activist Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine and spoken up about the coups against President Aristide, the reasons for the high death toll from the earthquake, and many other issues concerning Haiti. Push for Mumia’s freedom. DC

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Why is Haiti ‘Attractive’?Pourquoi Haïti est si ‘attrayante’?

By Staff, Haiti Grassroots Watch. Part 3 of 7. Haiti is the only country that guarantees the U.S. market duty-free and quota-free access. With every free-trade zone that gets built on prime agricultural land, more farmers are put out of work. Thus Haitians import more food as real wages drop to rock bottom in the sweatshops, where there are now plans to legalize 3 x 8 hours work shifts. In Haiti, we sometimes talk figuratively about being eaten up. This comes pretty close to the real thing. DC (English | French)

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Congo Deserves a Leader Who Cares About the Congolese People

By Eric Kamba, SF Bay View. The U.N. force in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is called MONUSCO and is headed by Roger Meece, a former U.S. ambassador to the DRC. In addition to fixing elections, killing, raping, and generally doing everything MINUSTAH does in Haiti, MONUSCO deals in weapons and valuable minerals.

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Anti-Union, Pro-‘Race to the Bottom’Anti-syndicalisme, pro-‘course vers le bas’

By Staff, Haiti Grassroots Watch. Part 2 of 7. “It’s a big error to bet on the slave-wage labor, on breaking the backs of workers who are paid nothing while [foreign] companies get rich. It’s not only an error, it’s a crime…. [Assembly factories] work with imported materials, they’re enclaves. They don’t have much effect on the economy.” – Haitian economist Camille Chalmers. (English | French)

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Carbon Credits in the ‘Valley of Death’

By Jeremy Kryt, In These Times. The U.N. is endorsing two biogas plants at African-palm plantations in Honduras’ fertile Aguan Valley and ignoring its own report that biofuel production is a leading cause of food shortages worldwide. As farmers try to resist the theft of their lands, the Honduran homicide rate rises. It is currently 82 per 100,000: the highest in the world.

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Biopiracy Leaves Native Groups Out in the Cold | Cazadores de la medicina perdida

By Humberto Márquez, IPS. Traditional Yanomami Indian medicine discovered that some fungi at the top of Venezuela’s mountains can cure many serious illnesses. These fungi will soon be a new source of the anti-cancer drug Taxol that makes $1.6 billion a year for Bristol Myers Squibb. (English | Spanish)

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Egyptians Launch New Battle for Minimum Wage | Nueva batalla por salarios dignos

By Cam McGrath, IPS. Egypt recently approved its first ever minimum wage for the private sector, bringing it in line with the minimum wage for public sector employees set at 700 Egyptian pounds (US $117) per month. “In Cairo, you’d be lucky to find a small apartment for that price. But then you have to eat, and that’s expensive too.” – A gas meter inspector. (English | Spanish)

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Salaries in the ‘New’ Haiti | Les salaires dans la « nouvelle » Haïti

By Staff, Haiti Grassroots Watch. Part 1 of 7. In Haiti, the minimum wage went from $3.00 per day in 1982, to 200 gourdes today, which is about $1.61 PER DAY in 1982 dollars. This represents a 46 percent drop in real salary compared to 1982 wages. (English | French)

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China Minimum Wage Up By 21.7% Despite Economic Cooling

By Staff, BBC News | Commentary by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. In China, Beijing offers the best hourly rate of 13 yuan ($2), and Shenzhen guarantees the highest monthly minimum wage of 1,320 yuan ($207). As surplus capacity from the U.S.-Europe recession causes China to turn to its domestic market, the cost of Chinese-made goods will increase abroad.

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Revealed – the Capitalist Network that Runs the World

By Andy Coghlan and Debora MacKenzie, New Scientist. An analysis of the relationships between 43,000 transnational corporations has identified a relatively small group of companies, mainly banks, with disproportionate power over the global economy.

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