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)

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Now I Am Without Weight: Excerpt from Katherine Dunham’s ‘Island Possessed’

By Katherine Dunham, Doubleday 1969, University of Chicago Press Edition 1994 | YouTube | Commentary by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. In 1936, Katherine Mary Dunham, a brilliant and adventurous young woman torn between dance and anthropology, went solo to Haiti to study primitive dance and ritual. Videos include Dunham in the dance sequence of Stormy Weather and in a 1962 interview.

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Haiti’s Agriculture Expected to Crash in 2012 | Vers la diminution de la production agricole en 2012

By Pierre Ricardo Placide, Le Matin. After a 20% drop in Haiti’s agricultural production last year, the agricultural sector is under threat of a more drastic reduction of food supply. This situation could exacerbate food insecurity in the most vulnerable households in the Departments of the North, Northeast, South, Artibonite and Central Plateau. (English | French)

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Help Haiti’s Farmers, End Rice Subsidies

By Jacob Kushner, Global Post | U.S. Farm Bill 2012, Develop Trade Law | Environmental Working Group | Commentary by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. U.S. Farm Bill 2012 could reverse a decades-long policy of agricultural subsidies that has undercut Haiti’s local rice production.

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Port Market Burns in Port-au-Prince Again and Again | Le marché du Port est incendié encore et encore

By Reynold Aris, Le Matin | Staff, Radio Kiskeya | Commentary and translation by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. The Port Market in Port-au-Prince went up in flames early in the morning on June 18, 2012 and again on July 12-13, 2012, about one year after another fire. Traders at the market say they’ve received numerous threats about a fire, and the city’s Chief Prosecutor noted that three attempts to burn this market had recently been aborted. (English | French)

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Latin-American Soldiers, ‘Peacekeepers’ to Train in Urban Warfare at New US Base in Chile

By Joaquín Rivery Tur, Granma | Commentary by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. A new U.S. base was hurriedly built in Fort Aguayo, Chile, in 60 days. The facility will train United Nations ‘peacekeepers,’ and Latin-American soldiers and police, in urban warfare. Chilean civil society has denounced the supposed military college as a center to train future repressors and torturers.

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Doctors of the World, from Cuba to Haiti

By Amelia Duarte de la Rosa, Granma | YouTube. Twenty-two new graduates from Havana’s Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM) arrived in Haiti on an internationalist mission. They will work alongside the Cuban Medical Brigade to provide medical attention and preventive and rehabilitation services for Haitians, while specializing in comprehensive general medicine.

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Violent protests Against Months of Blackouts in Parts of Haiti | Violentes protestations contre les black-outs à Cabaret, Haiti

By Staff, Radio Kiskeya | Commentary and translation by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. At least three people were injured by gunfire, plus a dozen houses and a police car were torched on Tuesday June 12 at Cabaret — about 19 miles north of Port-au-Prince — where residents violently protested against a prolonged power outage. (English | French)

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U.S. and Dominican Republic Killing Haitian Organic Egg, Poultry Production | L’importation massive d’œufs et de volailles inquiète les productrices et producteurs au Plateau Central

By Ronel Odatte (kft and rc), AlterPresse | Commentary and translation by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Small farmers from Haiti’s Central Plateau are losing their livelihood due to a massive influx of eggs and poultry from abroad; likewise farmers of freshwater fish from the same region are being driven to bankruptcy by a massive and incessant influx of fish from the Dominican Republic and U.S. (English | French)

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Verifiable-Vote Elections

By Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. The only one who may be absolutely trusted to defend a voter’s right is the voter. Demand nothing. A demand assumes good faith from those in power. The reason why the world’s elites call for elections here, there, everywhere, today without trepidation is because, to them, democracy has been licked. It will remain so until votes are verifiable.

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Blues for Bad Girls, Part 1: Don’t Start Me to Talking, Stop Watching Your Enemies

By Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. So many superb blues for bad girls! This was a tough choice. In the end, I picked Etta James’s marvelous rendition of Sonny Boy Williamson’s “Don’t Start Me to Talking,” and one of Koko Taylor’s many excellent versions of her own song “Stop Watching Your Enemies” because they are an excellent commentary on the week’s news about France’s possible role in Rwanda’s genocide and UNASUR’s decision on a slow military withdrawal from Haiti.

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Lolita in the Dominican Republic

By Staff, Diario Libre | Humberta, Diaspora Women | Editorial comment by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. The Dominican Republic has the highest percentage of pregnant adolescents of all Latin American and Caribbean countries. According to the Statistical Yearbook of Public Health, there were 118,730 births in 2011, 60% of them to mothers under 18 years old. Moreover, 40% of these births were by Caesarian section. Instead of confronting these problems, Dominicans have focused on Haitian births.

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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.

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A Little Dictatorship to Make the Band March in Time | Une petite dictature pour améliorer la fanfare militaire

By Frantz Duval and Robenson Geffrard, Le Nouvelliste | Commentary and translation by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Satisfied with his achievements during his first year, but frustrated about red tape that has his palace band without instruments, Michel Martelly announced that his team has started to think about an emergency law. (English | French)

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