Hurricanes and Climate Change
By Brenda Ekwurzel, Union of Concerned Scientists | NOAA | Haiti Chery. Scientific evidence links the destructive power of hurricanes to higher ocean temperatures driven by global warming.
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Gold Mine Suspended Over Spill During Philippines Typhoon
By Rhea Sandique-Carlos, 4-Traders. The Philippines has indefinitely suspended the operations of the country’s largest gold mine, officials said Monday August 6, after a waste spillage near a major river due to heavy rains. Philex Mining Corporation had previously insisted the spillage consisted only of water and sediment, which were “non-toxic and biodegradable.”
Continue reading →Typhoon Gener, Climate Change Wreak Havoc in Philippines
Commentary by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery | Elena L. Aben and Ellalyn B. De Vera, Manila Bulletin | By Staff, Sun Star. Large farming towns north of the capital Manila, as well as heavily populated coastal areas remain under waist-deep floods. Fierce winds and heavy rains from slow-moving Typhoon Gener (international codename Saola) have battered the country, killing at least 39 people and displacing about 200,000.
Continue reading →World’s Coral Reefs in State of Emergency | Arrecifes en situación de emergencia | Arrecifes em situação de emergência
By Stephen Leahy, IPS | Envolverde. Threats to coral reefs have gone from worrisome to dire. Bleaching, overfishing, pollution and disease have largely wiped out the fabulous coral communities of the Caribbean, which has lost 80 percent of its corals since the 1970s, say scientists at the 12th International Coral Reef Symposium (ICRS). (English | Spanish | Portuguese)
Continue reading →U.N. Uses Private Military and Security Contractors
By Kim-Jenna Jurriaans, IPS | UPDATE from Haiti Chery. The United Nations is increasingly hiring Private Military and Security Companies (PMSCs) for its missions across the world, raising concerns over the use of firms known for participation in human rights abuses, as well as an overall lack of accountability structures governing these contractors within the U.N. system. UPDATE 1: DynCorp boasts of having trained 400 “Haitian police” and is awarded a $48.6 million contract to insert 100 contractors and 10 advisors into the “UN police force” in Haiti.
Continue reading →Drones, Cholera in Broadened UN ‘Peacekeeping’ Mandate | Le ‘mandat étendu’ de la MINUSTAH
PRESS RELEASE, UN via RadioTV Caraibes | Translation by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. The heads of the UN peacekeeping missions forces in the Congo (MONUSCO), Haiti (MINUSTAH) and South Sudan (MISNUSS) said that these operations have broad mandates: from classical peacekeeping to conflict mitigation, and even the fight against cholera. (English | French)
Continue reading →Withdraw UNASUR’s UN Troops from Haiti!
By Staff (sgl/emw/mgt/jrr) Prensa Latina | Commentary by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. At a meeting of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), Member countries discussed a timetable for South America’s withdrawal from MINUSTAH. But the plan so far looks more like one for a gradual replacement of Latin American troops with Asian and African troops.
Continue reading →Corruption by ‘Peacekeeping’: The Lure of Foreign Exchange
By Staff, AsiaOne | Editorial comment by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Bangladeshi UN “peacekeepers” have sent home nearly $1.24 billion during the past three years. In 2010 Bangladesh sent its first female MINUSTAH contingent, a group of 110, to Haiti.
Continue reading →Privatization of Water: Benign as Lucifer
By Richard Raznikov, The Rag Blog | Democracy Center | Haiti Chery. About 20 years ago, it dawned on the bankers and some major corporations that if oil was a lucrative commodity, water would be even more so…. The trick was how to take it away from the people and sell it back to them.
Continue reading →Haitian Senate Resolution: UN Soldiers Accused of Rape Should Be Tried In Place | Le Sénat vote une résolution réclamant que des soldats de l’ONU accusés de crimes soient jugés en Haïti
By staff, AHP | Commentary by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. The Haitian Senate has strongly condemned the latest rape of a boy on Jan 20, 2012 by Pakistani UN soldiers and noted that in such cases it is the law of the place where the crime is committed that should prevail. (English | French)
Continue reading →U.N. Tightens Belt: No More Cruise Ship Hotels | La ONU se ajusta el cinturón : No mas barcos de crucero
By Thalif Deen, IPS. Compared to the $5.4 B U.N. budget for 2010-11, the 2012-13 budget will be cut by $260 M. This is a cut of less than 5%, but the news are still significant because, since its inception over 50 years ago, the U.N. has expanded every year, except for one instance 14 years ago. (English | Spanish)
Continue reading →Climate Change Blamed for Storms, Flooding, Drought
By Cathy Yamsuan and Kristine L. Alave, Philippine Daily Inquirer | Commentary by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Two months before the recent huge loss of lives, Filipinos were warned to guard against climate change by protecting forests and improving drainage, as if a forest could indefinitely hold back the rising sea levels and more violent storms caused by the climatic changes brought on by the carbon emissions from developed countries.
Continue reading →Disastrous ‘Durban Package’ Accelerates Onset of Climate Catastrophe | Le ‘paquet’ désastreux de Durban accélère la catastrophe climatique
By Nnimmo Bassey and staff, Friends of the Earth International via Common Dreams. The UN climate talks in Durban take the world a step back by undermining an already inadequate system. The developing countries’ promised reductions are greater than those of the industrialized world, which is responsible for 75 percent of the total human emissions in the atmosphere. (English | French)
Continue reading →Feathered Labour for Philippines Rice Farmers
By Marga Ortigas, Al Jazeera | You Tube | Asian Journal of Agriculture and Development. In integrated rice-duck farming, farmers forgo pesticides or fertilizers; ducks fertilize the fields, keep the water in the paddies fresh, and they remove weeds and other pests that might damage the crops.
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