Author Archives: Dady Chery

About Dady Chery

Dr. Dady Chery is a Haitian-born poet, playwright, journalist and scientist. She is the author of the book "We Have Dared to Be Free: Haiti's Struggle Against Occupation." Her broad interests encompass science, culture, and human rights. She writes extensively about Haiti and world issues such as climate change and social justice. Her many contributions to Haitian news include the first proposal that Haiti’s cholera had been imported by the UN, and the first story that described Haiti’s mineral wealth for a popular audience.

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

avatarPosted on by December 12, 2018

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

avatarPosted on by September 25, 2021

“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

avatarPosted on by December 14, 2018

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

avatarPosted on by March 11, 2019

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

avatarPosted on by March 11, 2019

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

avatarPosted on by December 20, 2018

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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Racist Incarceration Regime in U.S. Enabled by Sentencing Guidelines

avatarPosted on by February 26, 2019

By Marisa Taylor, McClatchy | By Law Professors, Sentencing Law and Policy | Al Jazeera, YouTube. Black and Hispanic men became likely to receive longer prison sentences than their white counterparts after the Supreme Court loosened federal sentencing rules, according to studies in 2010 and 2011 by the U.S. Sentencing Commission.

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Schoolhouse to Jailhouse: Children of Color Under Arrest in U.S.

avatarPosted on by February 26, 2019

By Kanya D’Almeida, IPS. Metal detectors, teams of drug-sniffing dogs, armed guards and riot police, forbiddingly high walls topped with barbed wire: such descriptions befit a prison or perhaps a high-security checkpoint in a war zone. But in the U.S., these scenes of surveillance and control are most visible in public schools. Children as young as 6 years old have been arrested for ‘crimes’ like trespassing.

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U.S. National Occupy Day in Support of Prisoners, Monday Feb 20th | Bay Area ‘Occupy San Quentin’

avatarPosted on by February 26, 2019

By Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity | Occupy Oakland. On Monday, February 20, 2012, over a dozen rallies and demonstrations for a National Occupy Day in Support of Prisoners will be held throughout the U.S. including the San Francisco Bay Area’s Occupy San Quentin.

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Sustainable Artisanal Fishing Could Boost Economy of Haiti’s South East | La pêche est l’avenir de Marigot

avatarPosted on by March 11, 2019

By Joachim Dieudonne, Le Nouvelliste | Commentary and translation by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Artisanal fishing could be an almost inexhaustible wealth for the fishermen of southeast Haiti, but they feel unappreciated and complain of a lack of credit.

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Western Biologists Study Tuna Collapse as Their Countries’ Fleets Pillage World Coasts | Pesca de atún requiere sacrificios a corto plazo

avatarPosted on by March 11, 2019

Julio Godoy, IPS, Tierramérica | Enrique Gili, IPS | Commentary by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. The world’s tuna populations, and particularly bluefin tuna, are being overfished to extinction. Despite numerous violations for overfishing, vessels fly flags of convenience, change their names, swap crews and continue to operate. (English | Spanish)

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How Somalia’s Fishermen Became ‘Pirates’

avatarPosted on by March 11, 2019

By Ishaan Tharoor, Time Magazine | Chebucto | Commentary by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Since 1991, Somalia’s 2,000-mile coastline, the longest in continental Africa, has been pillaged by foreign vessels. An estimated $300 million of seafood is stolen from Somalia each year by countries that include France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Pakistan, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Spain, and Taiwan.

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Don’t Force Statehood on Somalia

avatarPosted on by February 26, 2019

By Richard Dowden, African Arguments | Haiti Chery. “The model for Somalia is Switzerland…. Strong centralised states are the legacy of colonial rulers and unsurprisingly the inheritor governments have kept it that way.” – Richard Dowden.

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Poland Government: We Were Wrong, We Will Not Ratify ACTA

avatarPosted on by March 11, 2019

By Alice Trudelle, Warsaw Business Journal | By Staff, The Slovenia Times | Commentary by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. “I was wrong,” said Polish Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, who announced that he wrote to his party not to back ACTA in the EU Parliament in its current form. A protest by Anonymous is underway.

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