Fracking for Shale Gas Pollutes Water, Leads to Earthquakes

Staff, British Columbia Women’s Institute Josh Fox, You Tube. Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is looking increasingly like a technology that will have to be left alone, not only because it pollutes the atmosphere and water, but also because the high-pressure injection of waste water from this process is thought to allow ancient faults to slip, leading to earthquakes.

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Aid as a Trojan Horse: On the Anniversary of the Haitian Earthquake

By Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Long before the word sustainable became fashionable, before Henry David Thoreau noted that “A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone,” there was Haiti.

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Hunger in the U.S.

By Staff, Minority News | Black Radio Network. A USDA report shows that “food insecurity” (hunger) is high for households near or below the poverty line ($22,350 for a family of four) — typically households with children headed by a single woman or man, and black and Hispanic households.

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Eight U.S. States Raise Minimum Wage

By Dick Meister, Truthout | Brock Haussamen blog | US Dept of Labor. When the minimum wage is adjusted for inflation, one can see that its real value has dropped since 1978. So these increases in the minimum wage are overdue. Unlike the rich, minimum-wage workers spend virtually all that they earn on necessities. So when the minimum wage is increased, this raises the demand for goods and services and leads to job creation.

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Cuba Announces Massive Prisoner Release, Gradual Ease of Travel Restrictions

By Staff, Xinhua | Commentary by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. The release of 2,000 Cuban prisoners on the anniversary of the release of the Bay of Pigs invaders by Cuba is hardly coincidental. It is now the United State’ turn to free the Cuban 5.

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Sweatshops: Stepping Stone or Dead End? | Tremplin ou cul-de-sac?

By Staff, Haiti Grassroots Watch. Part 5 of 7. Are low-wage, low-skilled assembly industries in Haiti really a “stepping stone” to more complex industrial development? In the Mexican maquiladora boom areas, the water table is dropping by 1 to 1.5 meters every year due to intensive use of water; the blue dye run-off from jeans pollutes rivers and irrigation ditches; 67% of homes have dirt floors, and 52% of streets are unpaved. (English | French)

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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.

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Beware the Peddlers of Despair | Mefiez-vous des marchands de desespoir

By Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. All around us empires are tearing a trail of destruction. This is not a sign of strength but one of weakness, because the aim of empire is not to destroy but to conquer.

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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)

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U.S. to Sell Arms to Haiti | Les États-Unis comptent vendre des armes à Haiti

By Staff (gp), AlterPresse | Commentary and translation by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Director General of Haitian police, Mario Andresol, says the drug traffic in Haiti has intensified, but Assistant Secretary of State for the U.S. Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, William Brownfield, says the drug traffic has slowed. Nevertheless they agree that Haiti needs more weapons and militarized police. (English | French)

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What’s Planned for Haiti? | Quel est le plan pour Haïti?

By Staff, Haiti Grassroots Watch. Part 4 of 7. ”You get some factories and some salaries, and everything else is imported…. People need to know what FTZs are, what has happened in Mexico, or Honduras, so they don’t think these things will ‘save’ us.” – Camille Chalmers, Economist. (English | French)

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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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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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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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