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

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.

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’

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

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

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’

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

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

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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A Revolution for Women | Revolución de Mujeres

By Tortilla con Sal | Jade (music). The following video gives a snapshot of the many different Nicaraguan women who are rebuilding their country, in concert with the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN), led by Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo. (Spanish | English subtitles)

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