DOWNLOAD: MyAyiti.Com Presents - “L’Union Fait la Force” Unity Makes Strength Vol. 1 Mixtape Released
September 30th, 2008
MyAyiti.Com Presents - “L’Union Fait la Force” Unity Makes Strength Vol. 1
Release Date - Oct. 01,2008
Archive
Archive for September, 2008
WFP Struggles To Find Haiti Aid
September 30th, 2008
The World Food Program (WFP) only has resources to help flood victims in Haiti through November and needs more money for the Caribbean country hit by four storms, the director of the UN agency said.
While the WFP has the knowledge to deal with the kind of disasters that have hit Haiti, inadequate funding prevents the program from getting the job done, Josette Sheeran said.
“WFP knows how to do this. We do it in tsunamis, floods, earthquakes all over the world, and that’s why the world created us,” Ms Sheeran said in an interview.
“Our mission is to come in and help with the emergency team, but right now we don’t have the funding to get the job done.”
The United States, Japan, the European Community, Switzerland and Canada have stepped up with $US11 million ($13.3) of $US54 million needed, according to the WFP.
Haiti was hit by four storms; Fay, Gustav, Hanna and Ike in just over a month.
The storms killed at least 800 people, including 520 in the hardest-hit city of Gonaives.
Disaster Assistance Urgently Needed In Haiti
September 30th, 2008
Haiti has been devastated in recent weeks by Hurricanes Fay, Gustav and Ike, and tropical storm Hanna. Fay was the first to hit, on August 15, and Ike was the last, on September 7.
Partners in Health (Zanmi Lasante), a pioneering health services provider in Haiti, estimates as many as 1000 people may have perished, and more than 1 million people have been left homeless. Severe damage to food production has occurred throughout the country.
An eyewitness report from journalist Reed Lindsay on Canadian Broadcasting Commission Radio One’s The Current on September 15 said Gonaives, Haiti’s third-largest city, remained under water one week after Hanna struck.
Once again, Haiti has been devastated by natural phenomena whose human consequences are greatly magnified by the deterioration of the country’s forest cover, and the weakening and undermining of the national government by foreign powers.
Haiti’s government does not have the material resources nor the freedom of action to undertake the kind of massive hurricane preparation that saved all but a few lives in neighbouring Cuba, hit by the same storms. That’s because it has been the victim of constant interference and intervention from foreign powers that do not wish the country to prosper.
McCain’s Lost Chance
September 30th, 2008
Obama Holds His Own on Foreign Policy
By E. J. Dionne Jr.
postchat@aol.com
September began as John McCain’s month and ended as Barack Obama’s. McCain’s high-risk wagers aimed at shaking up the campaign turned into very bad investments. And Friday’s debate eliminated McCain’s best chance to deliver a knockout blow to an opponent whose most important asset may be his capacity for self-correction.
McCain is supposed to own the foreign policy issue — and he should have owned Friday’s debate. During their respective primary battles, McCain was a better debater than Obama, who could be hesitant, wordy and thrown off his stride.
But the Obama who showed up at Ole Miss was sharper and more concise than the man who frequently lost debates against his Democratic foes. He was also resolutely calm in standing his ground against McCain, whose condescension became a major talking point after the debate. If Al Gore suffered from his sighs during the 2000 debates, McCain will be remembered for his supercilious repetition of seven variations on “Senator Obama doesn’t understand.”
This gave special power to Obama’s peroration about McCain’s “wrong” judgments on going to war in Iraq. McCain’s dismissal of Obama brought back memories of how advocates of the war arrogantly dismissed those who insisted (rightly, as it turned out) that the conflict would be far more difficult and costly than its architects suggested.
CODEP Reforests Haiti Slopes
September 30th, 2008
BY Jay Price
Local women replenishing the algae-producing compost for a fish pond.
FOND DE BOUDIN, HAITI - One reason the Caribbean’s frequent tropical storms damage Haiti worse and more often than other countries is that it has been stripped almost bare of trees.
With few sources of income and a huge market for cheap cooking fuel, the trees that once nearly covered the island have been cut for charcoal, leaving less than 2 percent of the nation forested by 2006. With nothing to hold the topsoil in place, it is washed downstream, leaving little to absorb rain. Downpours from storms wash quickly into rivers that then rage past their banks, destroying homes and crops and killing people and livestock.
Since the early 1990s, a group started by Jack Hanna, a former Westinghouse executive who lived in New Bern, has been fighting the problem with a reforestation program, now in three mountain watersheds in the southern part of the country. In the past two years alone, the Comprehensive Development Project has planted about 2 million trees in the once-barren mountains, said one of the program’s two field directors, Rick Land, who wore a Durham Bulls cap as he rode through the mountains on the back of a flatbed truck.
The program gets contributions from all over the United States, but mainly the Southeast. Churches in Cary, Durham, Wake Forest, Chapel Hill, Raleigh, New Bern, Tarboro, Winterville and Fayetteville are among those that have helped.
Chavez Reaffirms Russia Alliance During Visit
September 30th, 2008
MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) — In his second visit to Russia in as many months, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez met with counterpart Dmitry Medvedev Friday in the southern city of Orenburg.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (left) shakes hands with his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez.
The meeting focused on the recent events in Georgia and joint naval exercises scheduled to take place in November
Just three days ago Russia dispatched a naval fleet of warships to the Caribbean, led by the Peter the Great nuclear cruiser.
After the meeting, the countries signed bilateral documents concerning energy cooperation, according to the Kremlin’s website.
Russia also offered Venezuela $1 billion in credit to buy Russian weapons to develop military ties in a time when relations between Russia and the United States are worsening, according to Russian news agency Interfax.
Chavez reaffirmed his strong support for the measures taken by Russia during the war in South Ossetia.
“We are well aware of the reasons behind the conflict — who attacked the people of South Ossetia and how. We once again express our complete and firm support for your actions,” he said.
Is Palin Qualified To Be President?
September 30th, 2008
MUSIC:David Bontemps “The Future Of Haitian Composers”
September 30th, 2008
David is a fantastic pianist who started his music studies in Haiti before immigrating to Montreal where he not only continued with his studies but has also formed a Afrocentric Jazz ensemble called “Makaya Jazz”. After listening to David’s piano playing alone and with his his Makaya brothers, I am even more optimistic about about the future of Haitian Music.
“Emmanuel David Bontemps was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. His musical formation was done with the pianist and composer Serge Villedrouin. With him, he gave his first recital, represented with success his country in inter Caribbean piano contests, got into Haitian classical composers, and began to compose opus of his own. He arrived in Montreal in 2002, where he shares the Haitian piano repertoire in many concerts. The musicologist Claude Dauphin presented him as “the future of Haitian composers”.To this date, his most significant collaboration is with the soprano Chantal Lavigne, with whom he created and recorded the integral of the “Offrandes Vodouesques” from the Haitian composer Werner Jaegerhuber. After one of his own composition “Makaya”, which combines Caribbean traditional music, classical and jazz music, he decides to create the group Makaya Jazz to keep on sustaining and exploring this kind of musical fusion.”
MySpace.Com - David Bontemps
MySpace.Com - Makaya Jazz
Source: OpaMizik
Crime Increases In The Dominican Republic
September 30th, 2008
Santo Domingo.– Statistics released by Interior and Police Minister Franklin Almeyda reveal that between January and July this year 34.51% of the Dominican Republic’s 1,440 registered deaths were the result of violent incidents.
Of all violent deaths, 66% were victims of gun wounds. In 2007 38% of deaths were attributed to criminal activity, compared to 65.5% this year. Almeyda said 58.4% of all victims were between the ages of 18 and 34, while 62.5% of all crimes happened between 6 PM and 6 AM.
The statistics also reveal 55.2% of crimes happened between Monday and Thursday and 92.6% of victims were men. The country´s most violent cities were Santo Domingo with a 42.25% crime rate, Hato Mayor 41.08%, the National District 40.72%, La Vega 40.51%, Samana 39.18%, San Jose de Ocoa 38.48% and San Cristobal 31.58%.
Almeyda pointed out that despite the increase in crime after the presidential elections, the Dominican Republic continues to be a safe place to live.
Source: DominicanToday.Com
Damon, Jean Among Celebs Helping Haiti
September 30th, 2008
Miami pop stars Gloria and Emilio Estefan donated money. Actress Mia Farrow visited and played with orphaned children while musician Wyclef Jean and actor Matt Damon trudged through mud.
The devastation created by four back-to-back storms in Haiti has attracted school children, politicians — and celebrities.
Wrapping up his annual Clinton Global Initiative gathering in New York, where Haitian President René Préval and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair were among the speakers Friday, former President Bill Clinton threw his weight behind helping Haiti.
Clinton highlighted several commitments in the works to help Haiti, and pledged his support to helping Haitians rebuild their lives after this summer’s storms that have ravaged the fragile Caribbean nation, left hundreds dead and a million homeless.
Among the endeavors:
• Jean and his Yéle Foundation’s initiative to provide hot meals for 14,000 poor schoolchildren, food for 20,000 families a month, thousands of new agriculture jobs and grants to help farmers recoup their crops.
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