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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on March 5th, 2010
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on February 19th, 2010 « Rencontre Régionale: Adaptation aux changements climatiques au Maghreb: Bilan et Perspectives » from: Prof. Dr. Med-Saïd KARROUK to African Le Comité National IGBP, et l’Université Hassan II, Faculté des Lettres et des Sciences Humaines Ben M’Sick, Casablanca (Maroc) – Avec le soutien du programme ACCA du CRDI et du DFID Organisent : La « Rencontre Régionale: Adaptation aux changements climatiques au Maghreb: Le 16 et 17 mars 2010, FLSH Ben M’Sick, Casablanca Préambule : En réponse aux défis environnementaux et socio-économiques majeurs liés aux changements climatiques, placés actuellement au cœur de l’ordre du jour des grandes réunions internationales, et dans la perspective d’une contribution à l’effort mondial de sensibilisation sur les enjeux du changement du climat, que cette rencontre sur l’adaptation aux changements climatiques au Maghreb est organisée, à laquelle seront invitées des personnalités de très haut niveau et d’éminents scientifiques et experts. D’autre part, un plan d’action concret sera proposé pour la mise en place de projets prioritaires d’adaptation pour les gouvernements, les entreprises et la société civile. Ceci permettra en même temps d’imprimer une dynamique nouvelle aux actions jusqu’ici timides des pays maghrébins sur le plan international dans le domaine des changements climatiques. La diffusion de l’information recueillie durant cette conférence sera effectuée par le réseau « ClimDev » qui desserve plus de 10 000 lecteurs francophones à travers le monde. A cela s’ajoutera la publication des actes de la conférence qui seront adressés aux différents acteurs visés par la conférence : les décideurs, les scientifiques, les ONG, …etc. Objectifs de la rencontre : Cette rencontre a trois objectifs : Les axes de cette rencontre sont les suivants : Enjeux : Gravement préoccupés par la vulnérabilité des systèmes socioéconomiques et de production du Maghreb au changement climatique et aux faibles capacités de riposte de la région, les décideurs politiques ont retenu le changement climatique comme l’une des préoccupations prioritaires et ont lancé un appel de coopérations aux partenaires pour appuyer leurs pays et les communautés économiques régionales afin qu’ils puissent intégrer de façon efficace la problématique du changement climatique dans leurs plans de développement. Les négociations actuelles sur le changement climatique recherchent un nouvel élan pour l’après 2012 qui prendrait en compte les leçons du Protocole de Kyoto et la nécessaire convergence des priorités des diverses Parties. Dans cette perspective elles ont identifié quatre domaines-clés pour un dialogue de haut niveau, pour la coopération et l’action de long terme sur le changement climatique. Il s’agit : Le Maghreb se doit d’y inscrire sa spécificité et ses priorités et d’en saisir les opportunités pour son développement. La Rencontre de Casablanca s’intègre dans cet élan et souhaite participer à l’aide à la décision pour une adaptation efficace par la recherche et le renforcement des capacités vis-à-vis de ce crucial problème, celui des Changements Climatiques au Maghreb. Public cible : Comité scientifique : KARROUK Mohammed Saïd, Faculté des Lettres et des Sciences Humaines Ben M’Sick, Casablanca Comité d’organisation : KARROUK Mohammed Saïd, Faculté des Lettres et des Sciences Humaines Ben M’Sick, Casablanca Date-limite et directives pour soumettre des résumés : Nous voudrions inviter les participants à présenter des communications orales et des affiches basés sur les thèmes de la rencontre, liés à la région du Maghreb. Les résumés doivent être soumis avant le 31 janvier 2010 par courriel, en anglais, français ou arabe. Aide aux participants : La rencontre fournira l’aide de voyage, d’hébergement et de restauration, partielle ou totale, à un nombre limité de participants qui sont dans le besoin d’aide financière. On s’attend à ce que les participants puissent financer leurs propres dépenses et ou recevoir l’appui d’une autre organisation pour couvrir les frais. Conditions : Frais de participation : Conférences invitées : Programme Prévisionnelle : Programme : 09:00 – 09:30 *************** Directeur Exécutif du Comité National IGBP (Global Change) Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on February 11th, 2010 Post-Copenhagen – ALDE MEPs Corrine Lepage (MoDem, France) and Chris Davies (Liberal Democrat, UK) have called on the EU to be bolder in its strategy to help forge a legally binding global deal on carbon emission cuts in the wake of the failed Copenhagen Climate Change Summit. Speaking after the European Parliament voted today to set a target of cutting EU emissions by more than 20% Lepage, vice-chair of the Environment Committee said: “This resolution should be considered as a first step. Our priority must be to re-establish the trust of our citizens in scientific data. It is vital to convince them that the promotion of a low carbon economy is a response both to the effects of climate change and, in part, to the economic crisis. It is equally crucial that Europe speak with one voice in favor of an agreement with the main emitters of CO2, notably the US and China. Finally, it is essential to stick to our financial commitments with regard to developing countries.” “After the disappointment of Copenhagen the EU has to raise its game and take a lead. By saving energy and improving energy efficiency we will save resources, drive down emissions, and make our economy more competitive.” Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on February 2nd, 2010 The White House has said that the US President would not be attending what used to be the regularly scheduled EU-US talks, which have been planned to take place in Madrid in May 24-25, 2010 by the Spanish Rotating EU Presidency for the First half of 2010. Honestly, why should he participate in the European Games while there are so many real problems on his plate? The EU has three Presidents – if they cannot decide who is their President in fact – do they really expect for Obama to travel trans-Atlantic, and sit at Summits chaired by all three of them – Herman Van Rampuy, The Permanent EU President, Jose Manuel Baroso, the President of the European Commission, and the Spanish Prime Minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who is presently the Rotating President of the EU? Papers write of a “Snub.” This is ridiculous and for us who watched the Copenhagen Conference that was saved by President Obama under a G-2 arrangement with China, because he had to act fast if he wanted to save the meeting from itself, and there was no strong man or woman of the EU to stand at his side, the above “News” are old hat – and we say – we told you so! Actually, we welcome Charles Forelle writes as “World News” in the Wall Street Journal of today: “Things haven’t been good recently for Europe’s position on the world stage. Despite the new treaty ambition to make the EU a bigger player, the bloc has sometimes seen itself shut out. At climate talks in Copenhagen in December, Mr. Obama hammered out a last-minute accord with China and other emerging nations. The Europeans were left out of the picture.” This recognition of reality in a WSJ article is very unusual – but this is real life. If the EU does not get together – and still claims 7 seats at the G-20 – rather then one seat for real – they are turning themselves, by their own choice, into world political irrelevancy. The same is true at the UN where we see more and more a 2 1/2 seats situation – with France and the UK in Security Council seats but Germany on practical UN Security Commissions, and no EU representative with any powers what so ever. Obama’s decision not to go to Madrid is no snub to Mr. Zapatero or to Spain – but rather the cleareeded sign that he wants to go and meet the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED EUROPE. Had Obama decided to go to Masdrid it would have been as if someone from Europe would come to a meeting of the US Governor’s Association. Just think – Germany id California, France is New York, the UK is Texas, Spain is Florida, Poland is Illinois, Austria is Vermont … etc etc. Perhapse indeed Van Rampuy should come to the US Governor’s Association meeting in order to learn what is needed in order to create out of the EU the neededpartner for Obama in order to turn the G-2 into a G-3 and to create out of the G-20 a new meaningful global body. ———————– The best article on this we found is from The Telegtaph: By Bruno Waterfield in Brussels – from Telegraph.com The White House has said that Barack Obama will not be attending the EU-US talks planned to take place in Madrid in May. Honestly, why should he particioate in the European Games while there are so many real problems on his plate. Even the venue for the summit, Madrid or Brussels, has been “up in the air” after a tussle between Spain, which holds the EU’s rotating presidency and Herman Van Rompuy, the new created President of Europe. Under the terms of the Lisbon Treaty, Mr Van Rompuy, President of the European Council which represents EU heads of government, should host the summit in Brussels as Europe’s lead negotiator in global bilateral talks. But Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, the Spanish prime minister, insisted that he should host the summit because the EU was in “transition” after the Lisbon Treaty entered into force in December. A US official told the Wall Street Journal that President Obama had not yet received an a formal invitation to the EU-US summit, a twice yearly meeting that has taken place since 1991. “We don’t even know if they’re going to have one. We’ve told them, ‘Figure it out and let us know’,” said the official. Other American diplomats have blamed confusion over which of the three EU “presidents” is in charge of the summit – Mr Van Rompuy, Mr Zapatero or José Manuel Barroso, the European Commission president. “Who attends from the US and at what point will depend on who’s calling the meeting,” said a US state department official. Many national and EU diplomats are dismayed at the institutional infighting that has followed the entering into force of the Lisbon Treaty. “The Spanish are behaving badly. They’ve made a mess of the summit but Van Rompuy and the post-Lisbon EU institutions will carry the can in the long term. The squabbling has damaged the EU in the eyes of the most powerful nation in the world,” said a senior source. A European Commission spokesman hinted that the meeting would have to be downgraded or cancelled if Mr Obama did not show up. “Normally a summit is a summit because it is attended by heads of state and government,” said the spokesman. A Spanish foreign ministry spokesman said: “The EU-US summit is scheduled to take place in May in Madrid, as was foreseen and we are still preparing it.” US officials have indicated that Mr Obama might reschedule talks with the EU in the wings of a Nato summit in Portugal this autumn. Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on February 1st, 2010 Foreign Drillers Rush at Uganda’s Promising Oil Reserves. By GUY CHAZAN in London And NICHOLAS BARIYO in Kampala, Uganda A skirmish over an oil field on the shores of Africa’s Lake Albert highlights Big Oil’s intense interest in Uganda—a rising star of African energy. Tullow Oil is competing with Eni, Total and Cnooc to secure an oilfield stake owned by partner Heritage. The battle centers on the Ugandan assets of Heritage Oil PLC, a small U.K.-based explorer, which is selling its stakes in the much-coveted Lake Albert Rift Basin. The area has yielded some of sub-Saharan Africa’s largest onshore oil discoveries of recent years. Big energy companies like Italy’s Eni SpA, France’s Total SA and China National Offshore Oil Co. all are vying for access to Uganda’s oil wealth. Uganda’s onshore oil is particularly appealing because it is relatively inexpensive to produce. That sets it apart from other frontier provinces, like the deep waters off Brazil’s coast and the Arctic Ocean, where the majors require an oil price of around $60 a barrel just to break even. Initially, Eni looked to be the likely winner, announcing in November that it was buying Heritage’s stakes for $1.5 billion in cash and assets. But Tullow Oil PLC, Heritage’s partner in the oil field, exercised its contractual right to block the sale and acquire the stakes itself at the same price. Tullow’s purchase, however, is subject to approval by the Ugandan government. The initial reaction was negative, with the country’s energy minister saying the government didn’t want one company to end up with control of the whole oil field and would prevent the sale if necessary. Heritage and Tullow share ownership of two blocks in the oil field, while Tullow owns all of a third. Acquiring Heritage’s stakes would give Tullow full ownership of all three blocks, covering 10,000 square kilometers—about one-third the size of Belgium. The government’s position appeared to soften after Tullow Chief Executive Aidan Heavey met with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni in Kampala recently. Tullow said that once in full possession of the oil field it would sell half to either Cnooc or Total to help finance the construction of a refinery and a 1,300-kilometer pipeline that would carry Uganda’s oil to world markets. Such an arrangement would allow Tullow to control who it works with as well as concentrate on its core activities—exploring for and pumping oil, rather than refining and transporting it to market. Tullow also announced plans last Wednesday to raise around $1.6 billion in a rights issue to help it develop Uganda’s oil. Tullow now is the favorite to take the Heritage stakes, with Cnooc edging out Total as Tullow’s most-likely partner, a person familiar with the matter said. Mr. Museveni met with Cnooc executives in Kampala last week and is expected to meet them again this week to finalize details, the person said. Cnooc and Total declined to comment. Eni hasn’t given up, however, and last week sweetened its package. The company’s CEO, Paolo Scaroni, said in a newspaper interview that Eni would not only develop the Lake Albert field and build a refinery and pipeline to the Indian Ocean, but also would construct an electricity plant in Uganda and upgrade a railway line from Kampala to the Kenyan port of Mombasa. He said Eni would invest $13 billion in the “integrated development plan.” Eni declined to comment for this article. Tullow declined to comment on Eni’s new offer. What has attracted companies like Eni to Uganda is the one billion barrels of crude already discovered in the Lake Albert Rift Basin, a vast, oil-rich area close to Uganda’s border with Congo to the west, and the huge untapped potential of the region. Tullow estimates that about 1.5 billion barrels, roughly the same amount as Yemen’s oil reserves, remain to be discovered in the basin. Uganda also is seen as more stable politically than many of its neighbors, though the north of the country is wracked by armed conflict between the army and a rebel group, the Lord’s Resistance Army, that has displaced hundreds of thousands of people. Some of the most promising prospects are in Lake Albert itself, however, and will require offshore drilling using floating platforms. Industry experts have said there could be large amounts of oil on the Congo side of the lake, which remains largely unexplored. Uganda plans to produce around 150,000 barrels of oil a day in four to six years, most of which will be exported. For comparison, that is slightly less than the output of Brunei. The steady revenue stream from oil could radically change the fortunes of the east African country, one of the world’s poorest. “It doesn’t move the needle in terms of global oil supply, but it’s one of the few countries that will see growth in the coming years in a world of shrinking opportunity,” said Bob McKnight, an oil expert at consulting firm PFC Energy. Tullow and Heritage have had an almost unbroken run of successes since they started drilling for oil in the Lake Albert area five years ago, with most of their wells encountering crude. Tullow’s share price nearly doubled last year on the back of the discoveries. Write to Guy Chazan at guy.chazan at wsj.com and Nicholas Bariyoat nicholas.bariyo at dowjones.com
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on January 30th, 2010 From sergeberdugo@yahoo.fr The Statement by Morocco Itinerant Ambassador Serge Berdugo, a Jew of prominent standing in Morocco, to the UN International Holocaust 2010 Commemoration. The Importance of the Panel was more then anything else – towards the Islamic World of today. January 28, 2010 Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, It is my privilege to be part of this ceremony on the history of the Jewish Community of Morocco during the Second World War and to tell you how the European policy on Holocaust impacted the lives of this community. This presentation will illustrate and I quote His Majesty Mohammed VI: “tell the rest of the world how Arab and Islamic countries, such as mine, resisted Nazism and said “No” to the barbarity of the Nazis and to the villainous laws of the Vichy government”. Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, First, let me remind you that in 1939 Morocco was under the French and Spanish protectorate. Following the defeat of France and the coming into power of the Vichy Government, the Jews were faced with a systematic ideological anti-Semitism that led to the implementation of the Vichy anti Jewish legislation in Morocco. According to the second concession, bans and quotas were not applied to the Jewish religious institutions. This concession allowed Jewish institutions including schools to function properly and to receive 80% of their funding from the State budget. Furthermore, business and handicrafts activities remained open to Jews. The anti Jewish laws had only a little impact on them. They continued to practice their religion and do business. Their children received a Jewish and secular education of good quality. Nevertheless, the minority of Jews, who embraced modernity and the European lifestyle, suffered all types of discrimination, humiliation and exactions. They were forced to live in overpopulated Mellah. They were excluded from the civil service, from the private sector (no more than 2% of Jewish doctors and lawyers) and from French schools (a maximum of 10% of Jewish students in high schools and 3% in universities). From 1940 to 1943, the life of the Jews was certainly difficult and precarious but not more than that of the Muslims, who were themselves victims of discrimination by the Europeans. Discrimination against Jews as well as Muslims included access to swimming pools, public places, theaters and stadiums. During this enduring period, no major tension existed between the Jews and Muslims. In fact, the war had a little impact on the relationship between the two communities. The opposite was true of relations with the European which were enterable to the extent that the Jews lived in a permanent fear to be humiliated and sometimes beaten by European mobs. This violence reached its climax with the French fascist group “S.O.C.” which planned a pogrom targeting Jews in Casablanca on November 15th, 1942. In these circumstances, the Jews could not rely on the French police to protect them. Fortunately, on November 8th, 1942, the landing of American forces in Casablanca prevented the implantation of such hideous action. Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, It was thanks to the courage and fairness of the young Moroccan Sultan that the discriminatory laws targeting those whom the King referred to as “his loyal Jewish subjects”, were never applied in an integral and uniform way. Indeed the Presidents of the 4 most important Jewish communities were taken secretly in a covered small van, walking then through the kitchens and the offices, to be received thereafter by the Monarch in his Apartment without any Protocol present. The King said ‘I know your fears but I ask you to assure my Jewish subjects of my constant and full protection. Let them know that nothing will affect them that it did not affect first my family and myself’. Informed that the French requested an inventory of the Jewish assets, while the law concerned only the real estate, the Sultan gave then his instructions to slow down the census and abstain from transmitting the files to the French authorities. Following the landing of the US in November, 1942, and upon a request by the Sultan, my father was an eyewitness of the destruction of all the documents related to the census. Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, Beyond all these clear statements and positions, in favour of his Jewish subjects, the King of Morocco undertook courageous actions. He took brave initiatives that the recent disclosures of French and British archives illustrate eloquently. Let me quote from a confidential report drawn in 1985 from the French MFA archives: Credible sources informed us that the relations between the Sultan of Morocco and the French authorities became much tenser the day the Residence put into application the decree on the “measures” against the Jews despite the strict opposition of the Sultan. The Sultan refused to make differences amongst his loyal people and he was offended to see that his authority was overtaken by the French authorities. The Sultan waited for his crowning anniversary and publicly announced that he forbade the measures against the Jews. On this occasion, the Sultan generally offered a banquet attended by the French representatives and eminent Moroccan personalities. For the first time, the Sultan invited to the banquet the representatives of the Jewish community who sat next to the French officials. He declared to the French officials, who were surprised by the presence of Jews at this meeting: “I absolutely do not agree with the new anti-Semitic laws and I refuse to associate myself with a measure I disagree with; I reiterate as I did in the past that the Jews are under my protection and I reject any distinction that should be made amongst my people”. End of quote. Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, In assuming his spiritual role as “Commander of the faithful”, the King of Morocco, as descendant of the Prophet, is bound to protect Jews as much as he does Muslims. The Sultan guarantees the security and the safety of the three components of the Kingdom: Arab, Berber and Jew, who for centuries lived in Morocco in harmony and brotherhood. Today, “His Majesty the King Mohammed VI reiterated ‘His religious, historical and constitutional responsibility in the preservation of the persons, the rights and the sacred values of His subjects of Jewish confession”. Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, We cannot address the issue of Holocaust in North Africa without referring to ‘forced labor camps’; these real ‘concentration camps’ created by Vichy to receive Gaullist, socialist, and communist opponents, Germans anti-Nazis, Spanish Republicans, Jewish refugees of Central Europe, Gypsies and even Muslim resistants. These camps were under the total control of the French Army. The prisoners who were at the mercy of their European Guardians experienced horrible conditions of detention. The 2000 Jews detainees representing 30% of the overall number of prisoners kept in over 30 camps. The camp of Berguent received exclusively 400 Jewish prisoners. According to testimonies made by former prisoners in these camps, collected by British Foreign Office. ‘The only signs of humanity came from Muslim guards who took risks to relieve our sufferings’. I draw your attention to the fact that as long as Moroccan Jews were enjoying the protection of the Sultan, no one was in custody in any of these camps. This dramatic episode of the war was forgotten rather than hidden. Since the publication of this book, which tackles the Holocaust in the Arab countries, the Moroccan media published long surveys and articles on this ‘Forgotten story’, thus demonstrating that in an Arab and Muslim country, such as Morocco, one could speak about the Holocaust without taboos or any temptations of delayed . This attitude of the Moroccan populations is in perfect symbiosis with the message of support addressed by King Mohammed VI to the ‘Aladin Project on the Holocaust’. In this message read by the Moroccan Minister of Religious Affairs in UNESCO in March 2009, the Monarch stated: ‘My reading and that of my people are not one of amnesia. Our reading is the one of a memorial wound which we recorded in one of the most painful chapters in the Pantheon of the World history’. The King invited also the participants: ‘to think differently about one of the most tragic and the most terrible stigmas of the Contemporary History, while nobody can pretend to make a total reading of the Holocaust, that is irrefragable and without concession nor dishonest compromise’. Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, One has to draw one lesson it is the importance of a Head of State in setting the tone for recognition, respect and treatment of minority faiths within its territory. We can only hope that other Heads of State, seeking the enduring affections of their people, will come to realize that the way forward lies not in fanning the expedient fires of the moment, but in setting, as the King of Morocco does, a tone for tolerance and peaceful coexistence that will endure forever. In conclusion, I would like to stress that although life for the Jews in Morocco was not always one of “wine and roses”, it was better than what other Jews experienced in most parts of the world, particularly in Europe. Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on January 30th, 2010
As that was the week with Haiti on our mind – the first question was - The participants reminded us of the history of colonialism and Brzezinski also pointed out that Haiti takes US attention away from In Haiti we must create a Nation State – this is a Nation Building issue, but Haiti is not the Germany of 1945. A Marshall plan is a huge commitment and Dominique Strauss-Kahn of the IMF talks of reviving a viable economy "with people building and selling." He says the Haitians must be in the driver’s seat. Calls for US, French, Canadians involved. Edmond Mulet – the French Guatemalan in charge of the UN in Haiti, after the previous French speaking Tunisian leader died in the earthquake, was also brought to the program, but this segment seemed rather like a call back to the old ways of the UN and the US. Edwidge Danticat, a successful Haitian-American writer from Miami, was brought to the Program – this as evidence of Haitian success when free to compete and unleash their talents, though fully aware of their close family having undergone oppression back home and here in the US. she Spoke of family loss in Haiti. Peggy Noonan, with the Haiti topic out of the way, turned to the Walter Isaacson, the author of “The Wise Men: Six Friends and the Obama was in a different direction from the people, Reagan was in the The point is that Obama should go to the Republicans and say – we need As we waited for a week before writing up what was said last Sunday - Looking at China – Fareed Zakharia picked up the fact that China We say – if they do not really become part of a Climate Change agreement- what is there to hold the rest of the world back from changing WTO rules so there are carbon taxes at the border? Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on January 30th, 2010 Haiti revival after quake could take generations says UN chief: Bleak outlook for decades to come and fears of health calamity when rainy season starts in May. Rory Carroll, Latin America correspondent, and Tom Phillips in Port-au-Prince Rebuilding Haiti will take generations because the earthquake-shattered country was starting from “below zero” and logistics remained a “nightmare”, the United Nations warned today. The bleak long-term assessment came as basic medical supplies in Port-au-Prince ran dangerously low and concerns grew of a public health calamity with the onset of the rainy season. Several hospitals and clinics reported shortages of painkillers and antibiotics for patients with fractures, amputated limbs and infections. Relief agencies said there was also an urgent need for tents. Edmond Mulet, acting head of the UN mission in Haiti, warned that emergency relief efforts were the start of a commitment that would be much longer than the international community might realise. “I think this is going to take many more decades … this is an enormous backwards step in Haiti’s development,” he told the BBC. “We will not have to start from zero but from below zero.” Foreign governments this week pledged to back a decade-long rebuilding effort but that timescale could need revising at a donor conference in the coming months. The US military signalled plans to start transferring authority to the state and aid agencies within three to six months. The magnitude-seven quake on 12 January caused the deaths of an estimated 200,000 people, left 1.5 million homeless and 3 million in need of aid. It destroyed much of Haiti’s infrastructure. Some 200,000 heavy-duty tents have been ordered to cope with the rainy season, which typically begins in May, and the hurricane season soon after. Only about a 10th of that number of tents has reached Haiti. Salvage crews have started clearing rubble in Port-au-Prince but with three-quarters of the buildings mostly demolished the task is immense. There are plans for “tent cities” outside the capital and suggestions the city could be moved to a site less vulnerable to quakes. Some relatively unscathed neighbourhoods show a semblance of normality: markets, shops and banks were working today and schools were due to open on Monday. Water, food and medicine is reaching more of the improvised camps. Mullet, who is also the UN’s assistant secretary-general for peacekeeping, said coordination between Haitian police and UN troops was improving aid delivery but relief logistics remained a “nightmare”. That was apparent in hospitals where doctors and nurses complained of scarce medical supplies as they struggled to treat 200,000 survivors in need of post-surgery medical care as well as an unaccounted number with untreated injuries. Nancy Fleurancois, a volunteer doctor at Jacmel, told a visiting UN official her team desperately needed antibiotics and surgical supplies. “You see people come here and they are at death’s door,” she said. “More help is needed.” Kathleen Sejour, a hospital administrator, told AP: “Malaria is becoming a big problem and we don’t have enough anti-malaria drugs. Most of the kids right now have it. We had a good supply but we can’t keep up.” Large amounts of aid have reached Haiti but the need is so vast, and the infrastructure so ruined, many survivors have been left to cope on their own. The maternal mortality rate was expected to jump. Unicef said the disaster was likely to have separated thousands of children from their parents or guardians, and the agency repeated warnings about the threat of child traffickers. Bo Viktor Nylund, Unicef’s senior children protection adviser, said hospitals had been alerted. “We are informing all hospitals that they should not discharge unaccompanied children without getting in touch with us or the government.” In Port-a-Prince, Solveig Routier, a Canadian child protection specialist from Plan International, said that her group had received reliable reports of at least 15 cases of children being snatched from hospitals. Aid groups estimate that there were 300,000 orphaned children here even before the recent disaster, and the devastation of Port-au-Prince means things have now become much worse. Following the earthquake dozens of children were taken to the Sunshine House, a cramped concrete social centre in Pétionville which is home to 44 orphaned or abandoned children. Sultane Ganthier, the orphanage’s 77-year-old director, said she had had to turn away children for lack of space. “Many people have asked us to take children [since the quake]. But we can’t do it. I can’t handle it,” she said. Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on January 27th, 2010 Ranjit Devraj writes for IPS Terra Viva at the UN that the BASIC Group meeting concluded with an amazing – ‘Copenhagen Accord Not Legal, Kyoto Protocol Is.’ Nevertheless Brazil, South Africa, India and China – will submit their plans for voluntary mitigation actions by the Jan. 31, 2010 deadline stipulated by the Copenhagen Accord. That amounts to positive participation and denying it also. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 27, 2010 ‘Copenhagen Accord Not Legal, Kyoto Protocol Is’ NEW DELHI, Jan 26 (IPS) – While the BASIC bloc countries – Brazil, South Africa, India and China – will submit their plans for voluntary mitigation actions by the Jan. 31 deadline stipulated by the Copenhagen Accord, they have taken care to emphasise that the agreement, reached at the end of the December climate change summit in the Danish capital, has no legal basis. Ramesh explained that the Accord was not a legal document and that the “understanding reached at Copenhagen was that the accord will facilitate the two-track negotiating process which is the only legitimate process to reach a legally binding treaty in Mexico.” The two-track negotiation process was agreed upon at the December 2007 Bali conference, pertaining to Long-Term Cooperative Action under the UNFCCC and the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The BASIC meeting and the press conference were attended by Carlos Minc, the Brazilian environment minister, his counterpart from South Africa, Buyelwa Sonjica, and the vice-chairman of China’s National Development and Reform Commission, Xie Zhenhua. Pathak said that while BASIC appeared keen to consolidate itself as a group and also take along the G-77 countries, it needed to “demonstrate leadership, both in furthering negotiations on a fair, ambitious and legally binding agreement, and in terms of pushing industrialised counties to urgently reduce GhG (greenhouse gas) emissions and make their own appropriate contributions.” Other analysts said the BASIC meeting had the potential of cementing differences both within and outside the bloc. “What is crucial now is to see whether China and India will stick to carbon intensity figures in their action plans, as they announced before the Copenhagen meet,” said Siddharth Mishra, director at CUTS International, a leading economic policy and advocacy group. Carbon intensity is a measure of carbon dioxide emissions per unit of production. “This will suit China well because it is already on a trajectory of lowering its energy intensity and it has voluntarily announced cuts of 40-45 percent before Copenhagen,” said Mitra. “India, too, can reduce the trend of the growth of its emissions and specify domestic regulations to ensure reductions in emissions from its dirty industries,” Mitra told IPS. Mitra added: “We don’t know what the back-of-the-envelope calculations are, but both China and India may benefit from the pledge of 100 billion U.S. dollars by the end of the decade for developing countries to adapt to climate change and limit the global rise in temperatures, since industrialisation began, from exceeding two degrees Celsius.” After the BASIC countries joined hands with the United States in negotiating the Copenhagen Accord, at the end of the summit in the Danish capital, several developing countries expressed fears that the document would become legal and dilute the Bali two-track process. BASIC ministers have also asked the rich nations to speedily distribute the 10 billion dollars they had pledged to the least developed countries and the islands to address climate change this year. Brazil’s Minc said at the press conference that BASIC had decided to create its own fund to help small island states and the least developed countries. “The actual contributions will be decided at the next meeting of the BASIC in South Africa,” he said. A day before the BASIC meet, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh let it be known that he had reservations over pressure from Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen and United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon for follow-up action on the Copenhagen Accord and get results by the Jan. 31 deadline. While the Accord had called for “economy-wide emission targets” by 2020 by the Annex-1 (rich countries) and the other countries to submit “mitigation actions,” Rasmussen and Ban had written separately to all heads of state and governments on Dec. 30, urging them to submit their commitments by Jan. 31. Their joint letter was silent on the Kyoto Protocol, raising suspicions. Mitra said that such suspicions first surfaced after the UNFCCC executive secretary, Yvo de Boer, failed to mention the Kyoto Protocol at a press conference held soon after the Copenhagen Accord. “The impression that there is a plan afoot to bury Kyoto is not helped by the fact that the European Union is pushing it as a first step to new negotiations.” The Accord was opposed by Venezuela, Bolivia, Cuba, Nicaragua and Sudan on both substantive and procedural grounds. For that reason, it could not be accepted or endorsed by the CoP, which only “took note” of it, denying the document status at the U.N. The Hindu editorial said one positive outcome of the “common strategy” adopted by BASIC countries was the fostering of “active South-South cooperation” to advance science. “Given that intellectual property rights on technology remain a major barrier to achieving higher energy efficiencies, such joint efforts involving India and China hold great promise.” Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on January 27th, 2010 WORLD – France Moves Toward Ban on Full-Face Veils. Dana Kennedy French lawmakers said Tuesday they want to ban Muslim women from veiling their faces in public facilities, a plan applauded by some French Muslim women but criticized by Muslim leaders, who said it could provoke Islamic extremists in France and abroad. Sarkozy began the debate in June when he said that the full-face veil was “not welcome” in France, currently home to more than 5 million Muslims, the largest such population in Europe. At present, fewer than 2,000 Muslim women wear the full-face veil in France, according to Interior Ministry statistics. Lawmaker André Gerin, the president of the 32-person, multiparty parliamentary panel, has called the full-face veil in France “the visible part of the iceberg” and warned that “behind the iceberg is a black tide of fundamentalism.” Mohammed Moussaoui, leader of the government-sponsored Muslim Religion Council, has said that while Islam does not require women to wear full-face veils, banning them would “stigmatize” Muslim women, as he claims they were by a 2004 law forbidding headscarves and other expressions of religious allegiance in French public schools. “It’s a false debate,” said Mohamed Iboudaaten, a regional president of the Muslim Religion Council, said Tuesday. “It’s a political strategy by Sarkozy. The full-face veil is not an issue in France.” But Iboudaaten warned that the panel’s report could cause trouble. “It’s not good because it will provoke Muslims not only here in France but in the world,” he said. Hassen Chalghoumi, a controversial imam who supports the burka ban, claimed that about 80 men burst into his mosque in the Paris suburb of Drancy on Monday night. He contended that some of them grabbed a microphone and told the 200 worshippers inside the mosque that he was a “nonbeliever” and an “apostate” and threatened to “liquidate” him. The incident could not be independently confirmed. French television broadcast debates and reports on the controversy all day Tuesday and featured a number of interviews with French Muslims wearing full burqas. One woman, identified only as “Nelly,” who said she was a gym teacher in a public school, defended her right to wear the full-face veil. “I teach my students, I travel all over the country and do everything any other woman does,” she told French TV. “Wearing a burqa is my choice, and it doesn’t prevent me from living my life like anyone else.” The panel’s recommendation for the ban will not lead immediately to a new law. Any action on the report would not come before March regional elections and may first take the form of a resolution simply denouncing the veil. Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on January 27th, 2010 http://www.menafn.com/qn_news_story_s.as…
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on January 22nd, 2010 UN Dodges on Search and Safety, 278 National Staff Unaccounted For, Blames MediaBy Matthew Russell Lee UNITED NATIONS, January 19 — As UN officials in Haiti lash out at the media for reporting on looting, they are unable or unwilling to answer Press questions about the safety of their building, rescue efforts made or a helicopter “crash” that they themselves reported. Top UN Peacekeeper Alain Leroy on Tuesday morning told Inner City Press he had heard the same reports of a helicopter crash in Haiti, but to ask his deputy Edmond Mulet, who was appear at noon by video link for Haiti. When he did, Mulet said “I’ve heard about this crash” but that “the UN and MINUSTAH have nothing to do with it.” But the UN says it is playing the central coordinating role. Inner City Press asked for an update on MINUSTAH’s inquiry into the safety of its 1200 national Haitian staff, on whom at first it did not report. Mulet responded that 278 are still unaccounted for, adding that perhaps some are “dealing with their own grievances.” Video here, from Minute 21:26. Speaking of grieving, Inner City Press asked what had been done to try to find and save staffer Alexandra Duguay, an energetic Canadian who until recently worked at UN headquarters, as well as running marathons. During Sunday’s whirlwind tour of Port au Prince by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and some hand selected media, complaints were made that not enough was done to find Ms. Duguay. Since then, the National Post quoted her parents that she had been found, dead. Still, MINUSTAH spokesman David Wimhurst replied that he had no information, “I don’t have” ID’s, while mentioning another building that collapsed with ten people inside. Video here, from Minute 32:20. On Monday evening, Inner City Press directed to Mr. Wimhurst a question about the helicopter crash on which UN sources were reporting, without any further information being given. Rather, the UN’s communications strategy appears to be to attack media which reports on looting or rioting in Haiti.
Ruins of UN’s rented Hotel Christopher, with copter in background Mr. Mulet calls such reports “irresponsible” — he also called looting “normal” — while Mr. Wimhurst, pointing out that he attended Columbia School of Journalism and was “well trained,” chided media for “looking for conflict,” for trying to blame the UN for things. One wonders what Mr. Wimhurst, and others in the UN, thought of the media’s coverage of Hurricane Katrina and responses in New Orleans. It is known that the Secretariat and Spokesman have reacted angrily to this comparison. Mulet said he wasn’t aware if the UN’s headquarters in the Christopher Hotel, for which it paid out $94,000 a month, had been brought into MOSS compliance. Mulet said all the records were destroyed. It seems strange that records on a contract and lease of this size were stored in the building itself. Mulet said this would be followed up on. We will be following up. * * *
At UN on Haiti, Ban Dodges on Immigration, Armenians Rebuffed, No Copter By Matthew Russell Lee Inner City Press asked about the Dominican Republic’s offer of a battalion, said to number 800, and whether Ban and the UN think that countries should be less stringent with their immigration restrictions after the Haitian earthquake. Mr. Ban replied by praising the Dominican Republic for its troop offer — which some see as simply blue helmeting a border guarding force — and for its help with the humanitarian effort. He is aware, he said, of the Dominican Republic’s attempt to accommodate Haitians within the Republic’s “rules and regulations.” Inner City Press asked Ban about reports that the UN had run out of fuel for its trucks to deliver aid. Top humanitarian John Holmes passed a note to Ban Ki-moon, who read out that last night 10,000 gallons of fuels had arrived. When Holmes himself took to the custom made podium brought out for Ban Ki-moon, Inner City Press asked him about a reported complaint by Armenia’s Mission to the UN, that they had offered a rescue team last Thursday but were never told of any UN acceptance or decision. Holmes replied that he was unaware, but that there are always issues of matching needs with offers. But from member states? Inner City Press, which reported exclusively Monday evening about what UN sources said
UN’s Ban and former spokeswoman, answers on immigration not shown The Ambassador of China Zhang Yesui , this month’s Security Council president, came out at announced the Council’s vote. While usually he leaves the stakeout without taking any questions — on Monday he walked away as Inner City Press asked about the attacks in Afghanistan — this time he called on Xinhua, and offered a long answer on camera, in Chinese. It concerned the UN’s role in responding to Haiti. Asked if China would offer any more troops — its 125 member contingent is, as Inner City Press has reported, a “riot squad” that when rotated has flown back to Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region — Zhang Yesui said it would be taken under advisement. The last speaker at the stakeout was U.S. Deputy Ambassador Alejandro Wolff, who came prepared with an answer to Inner City Press’ question of Monday, whether the $100 million of aid announced by President Barack Obama would be part of the UN’s flash appeal. No, Ambassador Wolff said, the $100 million is “bilateral.” But he said that the US will be contributing generously to the UN’s flash appeal, in the coming days. We’ll see. Footnote: because the UN and even Security Council has become all Haiti, all the time for now, Inner City Press asked the U.S.’s Alejandro Wolff about reports of bombing in Darfur, requests to protect civilians, and Chad’s statement it does not want the mandate of the Darfur related MINURCAT peacekeeping mission renewed. Wolff said the U.S. is concerned and is seeking more information. Inner City Press has asked the UN too, and hopes to be able to write more on this topic shortly. Watch this site. From the UN’s January 19 transcript:Inner City Press: Mr. Secretary-General, the Dominican Republic has offered a battalion – it has been said publicly – they’ve also said that they are very concerned about immigration and people crossing the border. Does the UN have anything to say whether countries should loosen their immigration restrictions on Haitians, or otherwise, after this crisis? And also, does the UN still have gas to run its trucks? There was a report in USA Today that the UN was running out of gas for its food distribution trucks. SG Ban Ki-moon: From the beginning of this crisis, the Dominican Republic Government has been providing very generously and swiftly all possible assistance to their neighbouring country, Haiti, and we are very much grateful to them. I am also aware of the Dominican Republic’s intention to dispatch troops there – that is also welcome. For the immigration issues, I am also aware that the Dominican Republic Government is trying to accommodate as many as possible, those people within the existing rules and regulations of their country, but they have been very generous. Of course, this fuel is quite limited in Haiti. Ten thousand gallons of fuel, I think, arrived last night from the Dominican Republic. That will help more, as we continue our operations. ======= Among UN P-5, France and UK Talk Secret, US Fetes New Diplomat, Russia Dubious on Yemen, China Flew in 3 HoursBy Matthew Russell Lee UNITED NATIONS, January 19 — Amid the Haitian earthquake emergency, attacks on Kabul, in Yemen and in Darfur, the US Mission to the UN on Tuesday night welcomed a diplomat into the fold, on the 42nd floor of the Waldorff Towers. As U.S. Deputy Permanent Representative Alejandro Wolff put it in his introduction, Rick Barton has represented the US in 30 countries in ten years. And on his family vacation, he went to post-Katrina New Orleans to build homes. The well attended reception, complete with miniature grilled cheese sandwiches and brownies, began with somber statements for Haiti. In the crowd, many asked Inner City Press if the coverage of the UN was too negative, unfair, sensational. CNN’s Anderson Cooper showed looters; the Washington Post’s new Turtle swung for the fences dubbing Haiti “Ban’s Katrina.” At a UN Foundation luncheon on Tuesday, Ban Ki-moon took that author to task for several minutes, publicly. This, apparently, is the new take-charge Ban, more general than secretary, at least for now. From Haiti via video link Ban’s former spokesman Michele Montas also said the media is being too negative. Ban envoy Edmond Mulet called the Press irresponsible. The Missions to the UN of the UK and France take a different approach to the media. Each has an off the record briefing scheduled January 20 for selected reporters. The two used to hold such briefings on different days, but then even the “Western diplomat” moniker was too transparent. Now they hide behind each other, only because few file stories between the UK’s early morning briefing and France’s 5 p.m. follow up. Call them the taciturn twins. One knows what was said but it not supposed to report it. What then is the point? Here’s one the UK Ambassador should be asked: is it true, as Middle Eastern sources say, that the UK is trying in the Security Council to bring up the conflict in Yemen, specifically targeting Iran’s support for some parties?
UK’s Lyall Grant and US in Council, Yemen and secret briefings not shown In this account, the Russians balked, saying as Missourians do, Show me. Or at least wait until the conference on Yemen in London on January 27. Before that, on January 25 in Montreal, there’s a conference on Haiti. France’s Ambassador Araud — who initially put the date at February 25 — took a decidedly different stance on the U.S. in Haiti than did his foreign minister and Cooperation minister. The ministers questioned U.S. domination, while Araud stepped back and said, we are grateful, we live here. But what will he say behind closed doors? A French journalist, while suggesting to Inner City Press that Araud was being diplomatic — imagine that! — also lambasted the Obama administration’s resurrection of the Monroe Doctrine. “They have spoken with the Brazilians and the Canadians,” he said, “as if that is enough.” So the US hardly briefs anymore, and the UK and France do so mostly on deepest background. What has happened, some wonder, to these P-2, P-3, even P-5? Chinese Ambassador Liu on Tuesday night told Inner City Press that China had its search and rescue team in the air to Haiti three hours after the earthquake. He asked, of disaster forecasting, “But why didn’t they have notice?” Why indeed. Ironically the Chinese mission can be more open than the UK or France. With decided irony, a Chinese diplomat told Inner City Press that the Council first Press Statement on Haiti was only unobjectionable because of the UN presence there. Otherwise, he said with a wink, it would be an internal matter. Meanwhile the UN Missions of the UK and France, while espousing free press, play a more elite game, casting aspersions on background, what some call a secret club of slander and others call diplomatic. They want their positions put in a positive light, but provide only selective illumination. Tuesday night Rick Barton, after a stirring speech of the type that perhaps shouldhave been deployed earlier in Massachusetts, ended with a folksy talefrom his childhood. He lived in Bronxville — connected he said toworld affairs by one who died with Dag Hammarskjold in his Central African plane crash — and visited the UN. His mother ran across First Avenue, causes taxi after taxi to screech to a stop. “Heylady,” the last cabbie shouted, addressing his mother as he had never heard before. “Next year, the Olympics!” Barton related this challenge to his UN work, a marathon of plenary speeches. But that’s only the onthe record part. Watch this site. * * * AtUN, It’s “All Hail” to US in Haiti, While Elsewhere Franceand Brazil Are Critical ByMatthew Russell Lee UNITED NATIONS, January 18 — As the UNSecurity Council emptied out Mondayat noon, sources told Inner City Press that in closed consultations,the U.S. said that to strengthen the mandate of the UN Mission in Haiti, MINUSTAH, would “send the wrong message… that the Haitian government is weak.”Deputy Ambassador Alejandro Wolff, who represented the U.S. in the meeting and spokeafterwards to the Press, said that the U.S. is supporting UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s request for a vote authorizing 2000more troops and 1500 more police for MINUSTAH. InnerCity Press asked Ambassador Wolff if it is true that the U.S. thinking strengthening the mandate would send some wrong message. Wolffr eplied that the UN, including chief Peacekeeper Alain Leroy, has not identified any deficiency in the mandate. AsBrazil’s A mbassador left the Council, Inner City Press asked her about publicquotes from Brazil that MINUSTAH’s mandate should, in fact, bebolstered. She, however, called the mandate “sufficient.” When askedabout any difficulties Brazilian NGOs have had gettinginto Haiti through the airport, now run by the U.S., she said therehave been “no such problems.” French Ambassador Gerard Araud, too, was over the top in his praise of the U.S.,telling the Press that “we are living in the US after all.” Inner City Press asked if, as reported, France supported Medecins Sans Frontierescomplaints about having planes blocked by the Americansfrom the Portau Prince airport.
French Ambassador Araud, ministers’ critiques of U.S. not shown Araudquickly answered (video here)that the Americans are doing a good job, that the airport is small by international standards, and that “we are living inthe US after all.” Infact, French Cooperation Minister AlainJoyandet made a complaint about the blocking of MSF’s plane. And Araud’s boss Bernard Kouchnerhas said the airport has become an “annex or Washington,” according to France’s Ambassador to Haiti Didier Le Bret. So what is France’s position — these two statements, or Araud’s? From the French Mission’stranscription, of question dubious, ofanswer less so: Inner City Press:Médecins sans frontières complained that its planes couldn’t get in to the airport and blamed the Americans. Does France confirm that? Amb. Araud: Of course, no.I think we areextremely grateful and personally I said it in the Council, extremely grateful for what the US government is doing, and especially managing the airport. You know, frustrations are understandable. You have asmall airport, in international terms, which was devastated by the earthquake and you have hundred of planes which want to land. So it’s totally normal that there are delays, but I think that the situation has dramatically improved. Yesterday, you know, it was possible tohave sixty planes landing and today it will be one hundred planes landing. But the most important will be to work on the port. We have to rehabilitate the port where we can bring most of the aid. Once again, we are living in the US after all, and we want to express our gratitude for the mobilization of the US administration and the US people. From the US Mission’s transcript:Inner City Press: Someone said on this idea of strengthening the mandate that the U.S. had a concern that this would send a message some how that the Government of Haiti was too weak. I just want to know whether you think there is a danger in that type of message being sent. And also whether the U.S. will be participating in the UN’s Flash Appeal that was announced on Friday, whether the $100 million announced by President Obama in any way is related to that or should be counted towards that. Ambassador Wolff: I’ll get back to you on the later question, I want to make sure I have the right information for you, exactly how that $100 million fits into that,into the Flash Appeal. As to the mandate issue, there is no indication, indeed neither the Secretary-General nor Undersecretary-General Le Roy mentioned any deficiency in the current mandate. And so, if the UN is satisfied and the troop contributors are satisfied and the force commander is satisfied then we should focus on what we need to do under the current mandate. Of course, asyou indicate, we will need to look and evaluate over the longer term,as we assess the long term impact of this tragedy on the country andon the UN’s ability to function, and whether the requirements for the UN have to be adapted in any way. That is something that we dowith any mandate and we will obviously do it with particular attention in this case. Watch this site. Footnote: Since the Security Council has other matters on its agenda, Inner City Press tried to ask this month’s Council president, Chinese Ambassador Zhang Yesui, if and when heexpects the Council to address Afghanistan. But having been asked if the Chinese search and rescue team stopped after finding the Chinese delegation who’d met with Hedi Annabi, Zhang Yesui just walked away. Who will replace him as China’s Ambassador is not yet known. Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on January 20th, 2010 The end of Slavery in Brazil and Haiti: Cultural similarities that led to the Zumbi semi-mythical events of 1695 in the Northeast of Brazil, and to the playing out of the local and global forces in Haiti of the post-French Revolution of 1789. Condomble and Voodoo, black natural generals and politicians. Reasons we think that Brazil involvement in Haiti could be most understanding. Brazil abolished slavery in 1888. Unipalmares – a University in Sao Paolo is named after rebel slave Zumbi dos Palmares. Zumbi also known as Zumbi dos Palmares (1655 – November 20, 1695, pronounced: ‘zoombee’) was the last of the leaders of the Quilombo dos Palmares, in the present-day state of Alagoas, Brazil. Quilombos were fugitive slave settlements or slave refugee settlements. Quilombos represented slave resistance which occurred in three forms: slave settlements, attempts at seizing power, and armed insurrection. Members of quilombos often returned to plantations or towns to encourage their former fellow slaves to flee and join the quilombos. If necessary, they brought slaves by force and sabotaged plantations. Slaves who came to quilombos on their own were considered free, but those who were captured and brought by force were considered slaves and continued to be slaves in the settlement. They could be considered free if they were to bring another captive to the settlement. Quilombo dos Palmares was a self-sustaining republic of Maroons escaped from the Portuguese settlements in Brazil, “a region perhaps the size of Portugal in the hinterland of Bahia”. At its height, Palmares had a population of over 30,000. Forced to defend against repeated attacks by Portuguese colonial power, the warriors of Palmares were expert in capoeira, a martial arts form that was brought to or created in Brazil by African slaves circa the 16th century. By 1678, the governor of the captaincy of Pernambuco, Pedro Almeida, weary of the longstanding conflict with Palmares, approached its leader Ganga Zumba with an olive branch. Almeida offered freedom for all runaway slaves if Palmares would submit to Portuguese authority, a proposal which Ganga Zumba favored. But Zumbi was distrustful of the Portuguese. Further, he refused to accept freedom for the people of Palmares while other Africans remained enslaved. He rejected Almeida’s overture and challenged Ganga Zumba’s leadership. Vowing to continue the resistance to Portuguese oppression, Zumbi became the new leader of Palmares. Fifteen years after Zumbi assumed leadership of Palmares, Portuguese military commanders Domingos Jorge Velho and Bernardo Vieira de Melo mounted an artillery assault on the quilombo. February 6, 1694, after 67 years of ceaseless conflict with the cafuzos, or Maroons, of Palmares, the Portuguese succeeded in destroying Cerca do Macaco, the republic’s central settlement. Before the king Ganga Zumba was dead, Zumbi had taken it upon himself to fight for Palmares’ independence. In doing so he became known as the commander-in-chief in 1675. Due to his heroic efforts it increased his prestige. Palmares’ warriors were no match for the Portuguese artillery; the republic fell, and Zumbi was wounded in one leg. Though he survived and managed to elude the Portuguese and continue the rebellion for almost two years, he was betrayed by a mulato who belonged to the quilombo and had been captured by the Paulistas, and, in return for his life, led them to Zumbi’s hideout. Zumbi was captured and beheaded on the spot November 20, 1695. The Portuguese transported Zumbi’s head to Recife, where it was displayed in the central praça as proof that, contrary to popular legend among African slaves, Zumbi was not immortal. This was also done as a warning of what would happen to others if they tried to be as brave as him. Remnants of quilombo dwellers continued to reside in the region for another hundred years. ————— A Black Spartacus in the Northeast of Brazil – some reality – some myth – but from that myth reality in Brazil was born. Excerpts from - ZUMBI DOS PALMARES (Slave Freedom Fighter: 1655-1695) by Fernando Correia da Silva c. 1600: Blacks who have escaped slave labour on the sugar plantations in Pernambuco found the maroon community, or quilombo, of Palmares in the Serra da Barriga hills. The population grows incessantly, later reaching 30 thousand. For the slaves, Palmares is the Promised Land. – 1630: The Dutch invade the Northeast of Brazil. – 1644: Just as the Portuguese failed, the Dutch also fail in their attempt to destroy Palmares. – 1654: The Portuguese drive the Dutch out of the Northeast of Brazil. – 1655: Zumbi is born in one of the many settlements of Palmares. – 1662(?): Still a child, Zumbi is taken prisoner by soldiers and given to Father António Melo. He is baptised Francisco and later learns to help at mass and studies Portuguese and Latin. – 1670: Zumbi runs away and returns to Palmares. – 1675: In the battle against Portuguese soldiers commanded by Sergeant-Major Manuel Lopes, Zumbi shows himself to be a great warrior and military organiser. – 1678: Pedro Almeida, governor of the captaincy of Pernambuco, is more interested in the submission of Palmares than its destruction and approaches chief Ganga Zumba with a proposal of peace and freedom for all runaway slaves. Ganga Zumba accepts, but Zumbi is opposed to the idea; he cannot accept that some blacks should be free while others remain in slavery. – 1680: Zumbi becomes the leader of Palmares and commands the resistance movement against the Portuguese soldiers. – 1694: With the help of heavy artillery, Domingos Jorge Velho and Vieira de Mello lead the final attack against Cerca do Macaco, the main settlement of Palmares. Although wounded, Zumbi manages to escape. – November 20, 1695: Turned in by an old companion, Zumbi is hunted down, taken prisoner and beheaded. CANDOMBLÉ I become good friends with Ricardo, a fair-skinned mulatto, considerably older than myself. He is an economist with a good job at Banco do Brasil. But he has never been promoted. His white peers, who started at the same time as he did, are already on double the salary. He tells me sarcastically, “My friend, I’m not white enough to be the boss but too white to mop the floors.” Richard points out a Banco do Brasil office clerk, Zé Pelintra, ebony black, a weak figure, lacklustre, timid, modest. But when he is possessed by his orixá, Ogum, in Candomblé rites, he becomes dominating and belligerent. I interrupt: “Ogum is Saint George, isn’t he? Ricardo becomes irritated. “At this altar, Ogum is Ogum, not Saint George; Iansã is Iansã, not Saint Barbara; Xangô is Xangô, not Saint Jerome, Oxalá is Oxalá, not Jesus Christ. There is no confusion; it’s all authentic, not a carnival for the tourists. It is not a sect – it’s the religion of the oppressed. Understand, my friend?” I understand, but I want to see it with my own eyes. He hesitates. Only blacks go to this temple. And people would be suspicious of or even opposed to the presence of a white. I don’t let the opportunity slip: “Wait a minute, Ricardo. What’s the story? Is this racism in reverse? He decides to take me. It’s the night of November 19, this I remember. They really do eye me with mistrust. Some even snort and snarl in hostility. There is a rhythmic beating of drums. Babalorixás and Ialorixás, priests and priestesses chant canticles, alaluê, alaluá, and goodness knows what else in an African language or dialect. Zé Pelintra slips into a trance, foams at the mouth, shudders and falls to the ground, writhing. He gets up quickly and really has changed personality; his eyes even spark. Saravá! Ogum has arrived. Always commanding, counselling and protecting his followers, some of whom also go into a trance when touched by his hands. Suddenly, he looks at me and points. “You don’t believe, do you?” I nod my head, but he insists. “Seeing is believing, like St. Thomas, right? You want a beer?” “Wine if there is any. I prefer red.” “That’s the drink of Xangô, your orixá, by the looks. Let’s call him…” He comes closer to me, places his hands on my forehead. I black out. When I recover my senses it’s already the 20th. There is a beating of drums and people singing: “Zumbi, Zumbi, oia Zumbi! Oia Zumbi the saviour. Oia Zumbi! CANE FIELDS Early morning at the Candomblé temple, the ground is scattered with wilted flowers. Ogum has gone. There is just Zé Pelintra, that weak figure, his timidity resurfaced. Ricardo tells me that in spite of the fact that I’m white, Axé, the life force of God, revealed himself through me. Xangô, the orixá of justice, possessed me. Then Princess Aqualtune spoke through me, followed by her sons, Ganga Zumba and Gana Zona, and finally her grandson, Zumbi dos Palmares. Today is the 20th of November, the date on which Zumbi was executed. Perhaps that is why… If an orixá used me to reveal itself in this world, I, on the other hand, used it to see the other. Ricardo tells me that this cannot happen, it is not possible, ever! I shake my head. Never? But I see everything, everything, and how I see it! I see the swaying sugar cane fields along the entire north-eastern coast of Brazil. I see the slave ships weighing anchor in Recife, having set sail from the West Coast of Africa. Is white always the colour of oppressors? What about the African chieftains and rulers that sold other blacks – their prisoners – to the white slave traders? Transported like cattle in the hold, I see Yorubas, Angolas, Benguelas, Kongos, Cabindans, Monjolos, Kilwans, Minas and so many others; men, women, even children being offloaded in Pernambuco. I see Princess Aqualtune being sold at a slave auction. I see her being taken to a plantation owner’s manor house. She is given a bath and new clothes and will be trained to wait on the table. I see her brothers and sisters and her people crammed into the slaves’ quarters. I see that they are woken with whips before sunrise, and driven to the cane fields where they begin cutting. Some blacks are promoted to foremen and they also use whips. Is white always the colour of oppressors? I see the captives gathering and bundling up cane. I see them carrying the bundles on their backs to the sugar mill. I see the rollers, boiling house, furnaces, coppers, sheds and deposits, blacks toiling endlessly. Much work, little food, they’ll live another six or seven years at the most. “Let them die!” says one slave-owner. “In Africa there is no shortage of them. The important thing is to produce!” I see the demand for this sugar in the European markets. I see an exhausted captive slacken the pace of his work. A foreman (black, black…) whips him across the back. Another whacks him across the buttocks. They rub salt into his wounds, live flesh. This is the punishment for laziness; the pain will be forever branded in his memory. o freedom… “Palmares must be destroyed, and those runaway slaves brought back, sold or killed!” say the plantation owners and the Portuguese soldiers. And they try, I see them trying to destroy the quilombo again and again, but they are always fought off. The settlement of Cerca do Macaco alone is protected by three stockades, each of which is guarded by 200 men. The defence of liberty is, without a doubt, the great organising force of the people of Palmares. First the Portuguese are fought off, followed by the Dutch in 1644. I see that the Dutch finally give up their siege on the quilombo. They have other more pressing wars… In 1654 the Portuguese drive the Dutch out of the Northeast of Brazil. After 24 years of guerrilla warfare, life in the captaincy returns to normal, and so does sugar production. “Now we must bring down Palmares!” I hear the plantation owners protesting and I see the Governor agreeing with their demand. But I also see that the following year one of Princess Aqualtune’s daughters gives birth to a baby boy who is given the name Zumbi, meaning The Spirit! How I know this, I’m not exactly sure… ZUMBI Zumbi returns to Palmares. I see that the young Zumbi is free to roam through the cultivated land of his home settlement, Cerca do Macaco. I see that at the age of seven Portuguese soldiers catch him off guard and haul him off with other blacks to Porto Calvo. I see the boy being offered to Father Antönio Melo. The priest christens him Francisco and teaches him Portuguese and Latin. He learns quickly and begins to help at mass. He is considered a bright boy and a trustworthy captive, his watch slackens and he plots his escape. I see that at the age of fifteen he finally flees the parish and returns to Palmares, to his own. I see that in this same year, 1670, Ganga Zumba, son of Princess Aqualtune, Zumbi’s uncle, becomes leader of the quilombo. After a bloody battle in 1675 the troop commanded by Sergeant-Major Manuel Lopes occupies a settlement with more than a thousand huts. The blacks retreat. I see that five months later the blacks counter-attack, there is fierce fighting and Manuel Lopes is obliged to retreat to Recife. The leader of the guerrillas is Zumbi, already revered at only 20 years of age. I push aside the souls in my path, find him, and say: “Is that you, black Spartacus? He eyes me suspiciously. He has a seriousness that reminds me of Agostinho Neto. “Who’s that? “He was a rebel slave leader in ancient Rome.” “What happened to him?” “He fought to the end, was taken prisoner and executed. He died on the cross. “Better that than the one that Father Melo wanted to force on me…” I protest: “Why do you say that? Especially you, who learned Latin and helped at mass…” He grins and I recognise the smile of Amilcar Cabral. It is all I need to get caught up in another time warp and I find myself suddenly in the mother church of Olinda. The famous preacher Ricardo was referring to was, after all, Father António Vieira himself. Preaching docility, he addresses the blacks gathered before him: “If only the blacke people taken from the thickets of their Æthiopia and brought to Brazil knew how indebted they were to God and the Holy Mother for what might appear to be exile, captivity and misfortune, yet is nothing less than a miracle, a great miracle!” Antonio Vieira then speaks of Korah, referring to Calvary. “David reveals the identity of the workers of these laborious workshops in the title of the last psalm; they are the sons of Korah: Pro torcularibus filiis Core. There is no work, nor life in this world that better resembles the cross and the passion of Christ than yours on these plantations.” And he concludes: “Blessed are those of you who recognise the grace of your state, a great miracle of providence and divine mercy.” I see and hear everything, the time warp smoothes out and I return to Palmares. I want to continue talking but Zumbi, smiling like Amilcar, waves goodbye and take his leave. He has more pressing things to see to, his guerrillas await him. BLACK MAGIC I see that in 1686 there is a new Governor of Pernambuco, Souto Maior, and the war against Zumbi and Palmares is as bloody as ever. I see that Souto Maior sends for Domingos Jorge Velho from the state of São Paulo who, with his troop of fierce soldiers, was capturing and killing the Piauí Indians. I see that he is invited to take part in the war against Palmares in return for a fifth of the value of the blacks recaptured, plus land and pardon for any crimes committed by his men. The government will provide weapons, ammunition and supplies. I see that they sign an agreement in 1691. I see a thousand men attacking Palmares and Zumbi and the Young Guard resist them at Cerca do Macaco. Domingos Jorge Velho retreats to Porto Calvo. But I also see that the Governor sends Captain-Major Vieira de Mello to help Domingos Jorge Velho. The soldiers try to break through the stockade twice between the 23rd and 29th of January of 1694, and are driven back twice. Even women throw boiling water on the Portuguese soldiers from above. But on February 6 bombard cannons arrive from Recife and, under heavy fire, manage to break through the settlement’s triple stockade. The soldiers invade the citadel through this opening; there is face to face fighting, massacre, puddles of blood. I see that Zumbi is shot twice but manages to escape. The blacks pray: “Zumbi won’t die, oia Zumbi! He can’t die, oia Zumbi! He is protected against evil, oia Zumbi!” I see that in 1695, on the road from Penedo to Recife, an old quilombo dweller is captured. He is promised his life if he tells them where Zumbi’s hideout is. He agrees. André Furtado de Mendonça leads the siege, succeeds, takes Zumbi prisoner and beheads him. It is the 20th of November, 1695. His head is taken to Recife, the bells toll, and the day is declared a public holiday, a day of thanksgiving. “Zumbi, Zumbi, oia Zumbi! Oia Zumbi the saviour. Oia Zumbi!” I see that the imprisoned blacks are all sold to faraway captaincies, nipping in the bud any hope of regenerating the quilombo. The lands of Palmares are divided into lots and given to the victorious captains. From 1600 to 1695… For almost one hundred years, a thorn in the side of the slave owners of Pernambuco… Those of the manor houses and slave quarters; that Luso-tropical myth… Today – Zumbi dos Palmares International Airport is an international airport serving Maceió in Brazil. The airport has connections to several major airports in Brazil and international connections to Milan in Italy and Buenos Aires in Argentina. To this day the Quilombo dos Palmares, its history, still lives on for it is recognized by some as the birthplace of Capoeira. Zumbi, as ruler of the quilombo, is largely responsible for that. Being the warrior he was Zumbi earned the respect and loyalty of the people fighting and dying for their freedom. He led the slaves of the Palmares in their struggle and resistance against the Portuguese and, eventually, to their emancipation. He may have lived over 300 years ago, but Zumbi exists today as a symbol of the African slaves fight for freedom and social equality. (a few notes from http://nolacapoeira.com/node/5 a School of Capoeira in New Orleans, Louisiana. Further, an activity as recent as November 12, 2009 mentions this ——————- From the above – forward to Haiti: The shortest account which one typically hears of the Haitian Revolution is that the slaves rose up In 1791 and by 1803 had driven the whites out of Saint-Domingue, (the colonial name of Haiti) declaring the independent Republic of Haiti. It’s certainly true that this happened. But, the Revolution was much more complex. Actually there were several revolutions going on simultaneously, all deeply influenced by the French Revolution which commenced In Paris in 1789. - The planters’ move toward independence. From an essay by Bob Corbett I gleaned this convoluted history of how Haiti became independent of France – in wars that involved the British and Spain, as well as influence from the newly independent United States. Further, the internal structure of the this richest French colony was such that it provided for many different alliances. Reading this, one sees the roots of Haiti’s problems, but one still remains perplexed why the economy of this western one third of the Hispaniola Island has deteriorated to its present situation. The colony of Saint-Domingue, geographically roughly the same land mass that is today Haiti, was the richest colony in the West Indies and probably the richest colony in the history of the world. Driven by slave labor and enabled by fertile soil and ideal climate, Saint-Domingue produced sugar, coffee, cocoa, indigo, tobacco, cotton, sisal as well as some fruits and vegetables for the motherland, France. Where has all this potential gone? When the French Revolution broke out in 1789, there were four distinct sets of interest groups in Saint-Domingue, with distinct sets of interests and even some important distinctions within these many categories: - The whites The Whites There were approximately 20,000 whites, mainly French, in Saint-Domingue. They were divided into two main groups: The Planters These were wealthy whites who owned plantations and many slaves. Since their wealth and position rested entirely on the slave economy they were united in support of slavery. They were, by 1770, extremely disenchanted with France. Their complaint was almost identical with the complaints that led the North American British to rebel against King George in 1776 and declare their independence. That is, the metropole (France), imposed strict laws on the colony prohibiting any trading with any partner except France. Further, the colonists had no formal representation with the French government. Virtually all the planters violated the laws of France and carried on an illegal trade especially with the fledgling nation, the United States of America. Most of the planters leaned strongly toward independence for Saint-Domingue along the same lines as the U.S., that is, a slave nation governed by white males. It is important to note at the outset that this group was revolutionary, independence-minded and defiant of the laws of France. Petit Blancs The second group of whites were less powerful than the planters. They were artisans, shop keepers, merchants, teachers and various middle and underclass whites. They often had a few slaves, but were not wealthy like the planters. They tended to be less independence-minded and more loyal to France. However, they were committed to slavery and were especially anti-black, seeing free persons of color as serious economic and social competitors. The Free Persons of Color There were approximately 30,000 free persons of color in 1789. About half of them were mulattoes, children of white Frenchmen and slave women. These mulattoes were often freed by their father-masters in some sort of paternal guilt or concern. These mulatto children were usually feared by the slaves since the masters often displayed unpredictable behavior toward them, at times recognizing them as their children and demanding special treatment, at other times wishing to deny their existence. Thus the slaves wanted nothing to do with the mulattoes if possible. The other half of the free persons of color were black slaves who had purchased their own freedom or been given freedom by their masters for various reasons. The free people of color were often quite wealthy, certainly usually more wealthy than the petit blancs (thus accounting for the distinct hatred of the free persons of color on the part of the petit blancs), and often even more wealthy than the planters. The free persons of color could own plantations and owned a large portion of the slaves. They often treated their slaves poorly and almost always wanted to draw distinct lines between themselves and the slaves. Free people of color were usually strongly pro-slavery. There were special laws which limited the behavior of the free people of color and they did not have rights as citizens of France. Like the planters, they tended to lean toward independence and to wish for a free Saint-Domingue which would be a slave nation in which they could be free and independent citizens. As a class they certainly regarded the slaves as much more their enemies than they did the whites. Culturally the free people of color strove to be more white than the whites. They denied everything about their African and black roots. They dressed as French and European as the law would allow, they were well educated in the French manner, spoke French and denigrated the Creole language of the slaves. They were scrupulous Catholics and denounced the Voodoo religion of Africa. While the whites treated them badly and scorned their color, they nonetheless strove to imitate every thing white, seeing this a way of separating themselves from the status of the slaves whom they despised. The Black Slaves There were some 500,000 slaves on the eve of the French Revolution. This means the slaves outnumbered the free people by about 10-1. In general the slave system in Saint-Domingue was especially cruel. In the pecking order of slavery one of the most frightening threats to recalcitrant slaves in the rest of the Americas was to threaten to sell them to Saint- Domingue. Nonetheless, there was an important division among the slaves which will account for some divided behavior of the slaves in the early years of the revolution. Domestic Slaves About 100,000 of the slaves were domestics who worked as cooks, personal servants and various artisans around the plantation manor, or in the towns. These slaves were generally better treated than the common field hands and tended to identify more fully with their white and mulatto masters. As a class they were longer in coming into the anti-slave revolution, and often, in the early years, remained loyal to their owners. Field Hands The 400,000 field hands were the slaves who had the harshest and most hopeless lives. They worked from sun up to sun down in the difficult climate of Saint-Domingue. They were inadequately fed, with virtually no medical care, not allowed to learn to read or write and in general were treated much worse than the work animals on the plantation. Despite French philosophical positions which admitted the human status of slaves (something which the Spanish, United States and British systems did NOT do at this time), the French slave owners found it much easier to replace slaves by purchasing new ones than in worrying much to preserve the lives of existing slaves. The Maroons There was a large group of run-away slaves who retreated deep into the mountains of Saint-Domingue. They lived in small villages where they did subsistence farming and kept alive African ways, developing African architecture, social relations, religion and customs. They were bitterly anti-slavery, but alone, were not willing to fight the fight for freedom. They did supplement their subsistence farming with occasional raids on local plantations, and maintained defense systems to resist planter forays to capture and re-enslave them. It is hard to estimate their numbers, but most scholars believe there were tens of thousands of them prior to the Revolution of 1791. Actually two of the leading generals of the early slave revolution were maroons. The French Revolution of 1789 In France was the spark which lit The Haitian Revolution of 1791. But, prior to that spark there was a great deal of dissatisfaction with the Metropolitan France and that dissatisfaction created some very strange alliances and movements. All the whites of Saint-Domingue began to sport the red cockade of the revolution, and the French bureaucrats were painted with the white cockade of French monarchy. However, this was an uneasy alliance. The white planters were not revolutionaries in the French sense at all. Nor did they want full rights for the petit blancs. It was a doomed alliance and didn’t last long. On the other hard, the natural allies of the white planter’s were the free people of color. Both were from the wealthy class, both supported independence and slavery and neither wanted to change the traditional control of society by wealthy propertied people. The change would have been to allow the wealthy free persons of color their share in power, wealth and social prestige in this union. This was extremely difficult for the white planters to do until it was too late. Rich Saint-Domingue mulatto, Vincent Oge had been in Paris during the debates of March, 1790. He had tried to be seated as a delegate from Saint- Domingue and was rebuffed. He and other Saint-Dominguan men of color had tried to get the General Assembly to specify that the provision for citizenship included the free persons of color. Having failed in all of that, Oge resolved to return to Saint-Domingue and one way or the other, by power of persuasion or power of arms, to force the issue of citizenship for free persons of color. The Deaths of Oge and Chavannes In early November Oge and Chavannes’ forces were badly beaten, many of their tiny band of 300 captured while Oge and Chavannes escaped into Santo Domingo, the Spanish part of the island. The Spanish happily arrested the two and turned them over to the whites in Cape Francois. On March 9, 1791 the captured soldiers were hanged and Oge and Chavannes tortured to death in the public square, being put on the rack and their bodies split apart. The whites intended to send a strong message to any people of color who would dare to fight back. Thus ended the first mini-war in the Haitian Revolution. It had nothing to do with freeing the slaves and didn’t involve the slaves in any way at all. Yet the divisions among slave owners, the divisions among the whites, the divisions among colonial French and metropolitan French, the divisions among whites and free persons of color, all set the stage to make possible a more successful slave rebellion than had previously been possible. The Slave Rebellion of August 21, 1791 Typically historians date the beginnings of the Haitian Revolution with the uprising of the slaves on the night of August 21st. While I’ve given reasons above to suspect that the revolution was already under way, the entry of the slaves into the struggle is certainly an historic event. And the event is so colorful that not even Hollywood would have to improve upon history. Boukman and the Voodoo Service For several years the slaves had been deserting their plantations with increasing frequency. The numbers of maroons had swollen dramatically and all that was needed was some spark to ignite the pent up frustration, hatred and impulse toward independence. This event was a Petwo Voodoo service. On the evening of August 14th Dutty Boukman, a houngan and practitioner of the Petwo Voodoo cult, held a service at Bois Caiman. A woman at the service was possessed by Ogoun, the Voodoo warrior spirit. She sacrificed a black pig, and speaking the voice of the spirit, named those who were to lead the slaves and maroons to revolt and seek a stark justice from their white oppressors. (Ironically, it was the whites and not the people of color who were the targets of the revolution, even though the people of color were often very harsh slave owners.) The woman named Boukman, Jean-Francois, Biassou and Jeannot as the leaders of the uprising. It was some time later before Toussaint, Henry Christophe, Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Andre Rigaud took their places as the leading generals who brought The Haitian Revolution to its final triumph. Word spread rapidly of this historic and prophetic religious service and the maroons and slaves readied themselves for a major assault on the whites. This uprising which would not ever be turned back, began on the evening of August 21st. The whole northern plain surrounding Cape Francois was in flames. Plantation owners were murdered, their women raped and killed, children slaughtered and their bodies mounted on poles to lead the slaves. It was an incredibly savage outburst, yet it still fell short of the treatment the slaves had received, and would still continue to receive, from the white planters. The once rich colony was in smoldering ruins. More than a thousand whites had been killed. Slaves and maroons across the land were hurrying to the banner of the revolution. The masses of northern slaves laid siege to Cape Francois itself. In the south and west the rebellion took on a different flavor. In Mirebalais there was a union of people of color and slaves, and they were menacing the whole region. A contingent of white soldiers marched out of Port-au-Prince, but were soundly defeated. Then the revolutionaries marched on Port-au-Prince. However, the free people of color did not want to defeat the whites, they wanted to join them. And, more importantly, they didn’t want to see the slaves succeed and push for emancipation. Consequently, they offered a deal to the whites and joined forces with them, turning treacherously on their black comrades in arms. This was a signal to the whites in Cape Francois of how to handle their difficult and deteriorating situation. On September 20, 1791 the Colonial Assembly recognized the Paris decree of May, and they even took it a step further. They recognized the citizenship of all free people of color, regardless of their property and birth status. Thus the battle lines were drawn with all the free people, regardless of color, on the one side, and the black slaves and maroons on the other. When the commissioners arrived In December, 1791, their position was considerably weaker than the General Assembly had suggested. Instead of 18,000 troops they had 6,000. In the meantime the whites in the south and west had attempted to revoke the rights of free people of color, and broken the alliance. Not only did the free people of color break with the whites and set up their own struggle centered in Croix-des-Bouquets, but many whites, particularly the planters, joined them. Thus thus south and west were divided into three factions, and the whites in Port-au-Prince were in a most weakened position. In Cape Francois the Colonial Assembly did not move against the free people of color, but the slaves intensified their struggle and the whites were virtual prisoners in the town of Cape Francois. Most of the northern plain was in ruins. Back in France it became apparent that the First Civil Commission with its 6,000 troops could not bring peace back to Saint-Domingue. When the authorities in France debated the issue it was clear to them that the problem was to bring unity between the free people of color and the whites against the rebelling slaves. Thus once again Paris reversed itself and with the historic and landmark Decree of April, 4, 1792, the free people of color were finally given full citizenship with the whites. The Assembly in Paris prepared a Second Civil Commission to go to Saint- Domingue and enforce the April 4th decree. This commission contained Felicite Leger Sonthonax, a man who was to figure importantly in the future of The Haitian Revolution. The French National Assembly was deeply worried by the independence movement among the white planters and free men of color. There are even those historians who believe the French government itself engineered the initial slave uprising of 1791 in order to drive the land owners back into the arms of France’s protection. If so, the Assembly unleashed a Pandora’s box of ills for France! By early 1792 the slaves controlled most of the rich northern plain, and Cap Francois (modern Cap Haitien) was under constant siege. Hundreds of whites had been killed, the plantations were in ruins and the slaves were learning their military skills. Yet it was not the slaves whom the Assembly feared. It was the struggle between free persons of color and the white planters. Many of the planters openly favored independence. They were carrying on an illegal and profitable trade with the newly formed United States. Not only were they profiting economically, but the U.S.’s recent revolution against Britain was a model which the planters studied well. On the other hand, the free persons of color looked to France as their sole hope. Britain, France, Spain and the United States did not allow citizenship to blacks. The French had at least declared the universal Rights of Man, and this ambiguous principle seemed to offer free men of color the right of citizenship. This position was further clarified and emphasized with the king’s signing of the decree of April 4, 1792 providing citizenship for property owning free men of color. It was the belief of the Assembly that if the struggle between the white and black property owners (and slave owners) could end, and their loyalty be won back to France, then the “slave question” would be a simple issue. The rebellion would be quickly broken and the slaves returned to their plantations. There had been rebellions in the past, there would be rebellions in the future. But, reasoned the Assembly, slaves could be managed in the long run. But a decree announcing this citizenship was one thing; to enforce it another. On June 2, 1792 the French National Assembly appointed a three man Civil Commission to go to Saint-Domingue and insure the enforcement of the April 4th decree. Toussaint Louverture and the Slave Rebellion: The primary black generals in the earliest days of the slave rebellion were Jean-Francois, Biassou and Jeannot. Jeannot was soon put to death by Jean-Francois and Biassou for excessive cruelty. Shortly after the 1791 uprising, Toussaint Louverture, a former slave who was over forty years old, joined the camp of the rebels as a medical officer. Toussaint practiced herbal and African healing, but unlike most such healers, he was not a Voodoo houngan. However, Toussaint did not remain a medical officer for long. His ability to organize, train and lead men became immediately apparent. Toussaint rose from his position of aide-de-camp to become a general, first fighting under Biassou, and then a general of his own troops. Sonthonax and the other commissioners realized the British would probably attack Saint-Domingue, as would the Spanish and their Saint-Domingue slave army. They began to prepare their defenses as best they could. However, they were immediately betrayed from within. General Galbaud, a Frenchman, had been left in charge of Cap Francois while Sonthonax joined the other commissioners to prepare the defenses of Port-au-Prince. Galbaud, himself a land owner, conspired with the planters to deport the commissioners and to work with the British to return the ancient regime, negating the citizenship of free men of color. Sonthonax learned of this and returned to Le Cap with a large force of free men of color. They surprised Galbaud and he seemingly agreed to return to France. However, he convinced 3000 sailors and French troops to fight with him and the battle was joined on June 20, 1793. It looked as though Galbaud’s forces would triumph. Sonthonax took the ultimate plunge — he offered freedom and the rights of French citizenship to 15,000 slaves, part of the slave army encamped just outside Le Cap, if they would fight for France and the commissioners. They accepted and Galbaud was quickly defeated. Sonthonax, now faced with 15,000 new citizens, had a problem. Most of these men had wives and children who were still slaves. Thus, in short order he also freed the entire families of the new French soldiers. AUGUST 23, 1793: Sonthonnax’ Emancipation The engines of emancipation had been set in motion. Sonthonax had long protested that he came to Saint-Domingue to defend the free persons of color. He had explicitly stated that he DID NOT intend to free the slaves. However, the Galbaud affair had forced him to free 30,000 to 40,000 people to protect his position. Now he was in a major bind. The white planters and petit blancs were totally outraged. Even his allies, the free persons of color, were appalled. They were mainly slave holding property owners. They did not want any more slaves freed. Yet Sonthonax knew his time was running short. The British were preparing to invade, the Spanish were training, arming and supplying a large slave army in Santo Domingo. Sonthonax’ position was difficult. There was no hope of reinforcements or even supplies from France. The European war precluded that. How could he possibly save the colony for France? The slaves seemed his only hope. There were 500,000 of them. Toussaint, Jean-Francois and Biassou had a well-armed, well-trained army in Santo Domingo. Other slaves were not armed or trained, but their sheer numbers might provide some defense. Would they fight to defend France? Certainly not. Would they fight to defend their freedom? It was a gamble Sonthonax felt he had to take. On August 29, 1793 Sonthonax unilaterally decreed the emancipation of slavery in Saint-Domingue. Robert Stein, Sonthonax’ biographer, calls this “…the most radical step of the Haitian Revolution and perhaps even of the French Revolution.” But, would the slaves respond? Would the gamble pay off? Sonthonax could only wait and see. The British Campaign Begins Sonthonax was right to expect the British to invade. Saint-Domingue had been the richest colony in the Caribbean. Since the British navy controlled access to the Caribbean, Saint-Domingue seemed easy pickings. British General Cuyler assured British officials in London that he had “no apprehension of our successes in the West Indies.” On September 19, 1793 the British landed at Jeremie. They were welcomed by the white property owners, who had already signed a secret accommodation with Britain. In exchange for their support, Saint-Domingue would become a British colony. Slavery would be reinstated, people of color would be stripped of citizenship, and the conditions of Britain’s economic policies would favor the colonists more than did France’s exclusif. By June 4, 1794 the British had captured Port-au-Prince and held most of the port towns from St. Nicholas in the north to Jeremie at the southern tip. It looked as though the French forces, with little support from Saint- Domingue land owners, could not hold out against the Spanish supported British onslaught. The Volte-Face of Toussaint Louverture Like Stein, one may well regard Sonthonax’ freeing of the slaves as the most significant event of this period, nonetheless, the volte-face, the changing sides, of Toussaint Louverture, had the most immediate practical effect. Republican France’s position in Saint-Domingue was pushed to the wall. The British held many port towns and the white planters were mainly in the British camp. The bulk of the slaves under arms were with the Spanish. However, France’s enemies were not without their own problems. France was prohibited from supplying Sonthonax and the commissioners by the British fleet and the press of the war in Europe. But, that same war left the British without supplies and reinforcements too. The British army, suffering desperately from yellow fever, and seemingly ignored by London, was quickly being depleted and suffered from extremely poor morale. The Spanish were in grave difficulty in the European war, and were declining as a force to be reckoned with. Finally, the free persons of color, despising Sonthonax’ freeing of the slaves, were nonetheless becoming convinced that neither the British nor Spanish were any real hope for them. More and more of the people of color were returning to the French banner. The war in Saint-Domingue was going badly for the French, but, despite the British gains in the south, the situation was improving, though it was grave and dangerous. Clearly the turning point in this war and in all Haitian history was the return to the French side of Toussaint Louverture and eventually all his black and mulatto forces. But when and why did Toussaint return? This is a very difficult question and scholars are not in agreement. I find myself persuaded by the arguments of David Geggus who fixes the date of the volte-face at around May 6, 1794. The reasons for the turn are not quite certain, but Geggus argues it was a collage of several factors: Toussaint was sincerely fighting for general emancipation of slavery, and Sonthonax’ emancipation weighed on him. By May 6th it is unlikely that Toussaint knew that the French National Assembly had already ratified Sonthonax’ move on Feb. 4th. However, Toussaint had a close relationship with the French General Laveaux, and seems to have already been negotiating with him to come over to the French side. Laveaux may well have convinced him that France was sincere in the emancipation. Toussaint turns out to be the primary force for four years, May, 1794 to October, 1798. In that time he had driven the British out of Saint- Domingue, overseen the retreat of the Spanish, ousted all genuine French authority and become commander in chief and governor general of the Saint- Domingue. As he saw it there were only three challenges left to his supreme authority. The French, fearing Toussaint’s growing power and suspecting that he had sentiments toward independence, sent special agent Thomas Hedouville to save the colony for France. Hedouville managed to hammer home the fatal wedge between Toussaint and mulatto general, Andre Rigaud. The primary interest which Toussaint felt toward the United States was the better deal Saint- Domingue could get in trade. France imposed the “exclusif” on Saint- Domingue. Under this law of colony to metropole, Saint-Domingue could only trade with France, who then had the power to set the prices. Further, manufacturing of finished goods from the raw farm products was forbidden by France. All manufacturing of Saint-Domingan goods was reserved for France. The United States, on the other hand, paid a more competitive price for Saint-Domingan goods and placed no restrictions on their form. Even the landowners supported trade with the United States. At first it would seem that this was not in their economic interests. Sonthonax had freed the slaves and Toussaint would certainly uphold this emancipation. This meant that the former slaves became paid field hands, and the landowners would lose approximately 50% of their income to the government and to farm labor. Nonetheless, the 50% that they could earn on the free market was more than 100% of what France was willing to pay under the exclusif. Nonetheless, Toussaint kept up the appearance of loyalty to France and appointed Philippe Roume, French agent in Santo Domingo, to replace Hedouville as France’s representative in Saint-Domingue. Toussaint’s loyalty to France was not all posturing. There was a very strong call of culture from France. This was especially true among the affranchais, the blacks and mulattos freed before the general emancipation. They wanted to separate themselves from the slaves. They had adopted French culture and customs as their identity, scorning anything African. They spoke French, dressed in European fashion, practiced the Catholic religion and, in general, idealized France and French culture. Even Toussaint was pulled in this direction and had a strong bond to France. On June 16, 1799 Rigaud attacked Petit Goave, putting many people to death with the sword. It was from Rigaud’s violence with the sword that this civil war got it’s name — The War of Knives. The first five months of war were characterized by gruesome excesses on both sides. Finally, by mid-November, the war centered on Rigaud’s stronghold at Jacmel, defended by Alexander Petion. Jean-Jacques Dessalines was the besieging general for Toussaint. Dessalines was to become the first president, then emperor of free Haiti in 1804, and Petion was to become the president of The Republic of Haiti in 1807. On March 11, 1800 Jacmel fell, virtually ending Rigaud’s resistance. Nonetheless, he hung on until July, finally fleeing to France until he returned as part of Napoleon’s invasion force in 1802. Toussaint had a reputation for clemency and avoiding unnecessary bloodshed. But, he appointed the blood thirsty and violent Dessalines as pacifier of the south. Dessalines butchered many mulattos (the estimates range from 200 to 10,000!). When Toussaint finally halted the massacre he reportedly said: “I did not want this! I told him to prune the tree, not to uproot it.” The Conquest of Santo Domingo By August, 1800 Toussaint was ruler of all Saint-Domingue and no foreign power was on Saint-Domingue soil. He was governor general of the whole colony. However, Santo Domingo, present day Dominican Republic, was an intolerable situation to him. The Spanish had ceded Santo Domingo to the French in the Treaty of Bale on July 22, 1795. Nonetheless, the Spanish never turned the colony over to the French, and the French, unsure of Toussaint’s loyalties, never pressed the issue. Spain’s presence in Santo Domingo was in France’s interest. They could keep an eye on Toussaint. But he now set out to claim France’s (and his own) authority over the entire island of Hispaniola. Toussaint’s Constitution: The Document that Tweaked Napolean On July 26, 1801 Toussaint published and promulgated a new constitution for Saint-Domingue which abolished slavery, but did allow the importation of free blacks to work the plantations. The constitution recognized the centrality of sugar plantations to the Saint-Domingue economy, and accepted Roman Catholicism as the state religion. Perhaps two of the most significant items were that Toussaint was governor-general for life and that all men from 14 to 55 years of age were in the state militia. Nonetheless, the constitution professed loyalty and subservience to France. The most galling thing for Napoleon was that Toussaint published and proclaimed the constitution without prior approval from France and the First Consul. Both Britain and the United States treated with Toussaint as though he were the head of an independent state, though Toussaint’s constitution and public demeanor claimed that he was a loyal French citizen who had saved the colony for France. For Napoleon, the die was cast. “This gilded African,” as he called Toussaint, would have to go. Bonaparte chafed at the power of the black first consul, but there was little he could do while France was at war with Britain. However, on Oct. 1, 1801 France and Britain signed a peace treaty and Napoleon’s hands were free to deal with Toussaint. It is important to note that Bonaparte’s personal detestation of Toussaint was only one factor in his decision to retake Saint-Domingue to more trustworthy French rule. The French Directory, before Napoleon’s coup d’etat of Nov. 9, 1799, had already set a West Indian policy in which Saint-Domingue was the center piece. Napoleon inherited this foreign policy and inherited the constant political pressure of the French planters who had been disenfranchised by the liberation of the slaves. Bonaparte needed the wealth of Saint-Domingue and there seemed a grave danger that Toussaint would lead the colony toward independence. All of these issues, and others, weighed in Bonaparte’s decision to launch an invasion against his own governor-general of Saint-Domingue. Once committed, Napoleon sent a well-outfitted troop of 12,000 soldiers under the leadership of his brother-in-law, General Charles Leclerc. In Leclerc’s invasion force Toussaint was going to have to deal with many old enemies including Alexander Petion and Andre Rigaud. Napoleon gave Leclerc a set of secret instructions which demanded Leclerc give his word of honor about many things and then violate it. The general plan was to first promise the black leadership places of authority in a French-dominated government. Then, once having established control, to move to the second stage of arresting and deporting any black leaders who seemed troublesome, especially Toussaint Louverture. The third and final stage was not only to disarm all the blacks, but to return the colony to slavery and the pre-Revolutionary colonial state. Virtually no one in Saint-Domingue was fooled by Leclerc’s protestations of benevolent purpose. On Feb. 2, 1802 Leclerc arrived in the bay of Cap Francois, the city governed and defended by Henri Christophe, one of Toussaint’s most important generals, and later on Haiti’s second president and first and only king. Christophe would not allow the French to disembark, and prepared to burn the city to the ground if they tried. Leclerc pressed the issue and, true to his word, Christophe torched this Paris of the Americas. The black armies retreated to the interior to fight a guerilla war and Leclerc took over a huge pile of ashes. The final stage of the Haitian Revolution had begun. The Leclerc Campaign Phase 1: Crete-a-Pierrot Leclerc’s forces quickly took most of the coastal towns, though Haitians burned many of them before they retreated. Eventually a decisive moment came as Dessalines and his second in command, Lamartiniere, were asked to hold the small former British fort, Crete-a-Pierrot, an arsenal of the Haitians. Both sides claimed victory. It sort of depends on what measure one uses. The French ended up with the fort, but they lost twice as many men as the Haitians, and were shocked to discover how well the blacks could fight in a pitched battle. The Haitians took great solace in their ability to hold off the French for so long. For the rest of the war they used Crete-a-Pierrot as a rallying cry. After abandoning the fort, the Haitians retreated into the Cahos mountains and fought a guerrilla war from then on. Phase 2: Surrender By April 26 Christophe and his troops surrendered to Leclerc. Toussaint followed on May 1st. Even though things had not gone as Napoleon planned, within two months Leclerc had achieved Napoleon’s first goal–pacification of the leaders. Now Leclerc was free to implement phase 2 — the arrest and deportation of “trouble makers.” The Arrest and Deportation of Toussaint Louverture After Toussaint’s surrendered, he ostensibly retired to his plantation at Enery to live out his days. However, there is a good deal of historical controversy about this. Some argue that Toussaint immediately began to plot anew against the French. I really don’t know which way the factual evidence leans, but the logic of the situation leads me to suspect that these charges against Toussaint were true. First of all it is not like Toussaint to simply walk away and abandon the struggle of the past 10 years. Further, he had to have suspected that the French would reinstate slavery and the old colonial system. Again, it’s not like Toussaint to quietly acquiesce in such a turnabout. Finally, he must have known how weakened the French were becoming from the ravages of yellow fever. How long and how seriously could the French fight with only a fraction of their men? But all of this is mere logical speculation, not factual knowledge. What we do know are the details of Leclerc’s dishonorable subterfuge to arrest and deport Toussaint. On June 7 Toussaint received a message from French General Brunet to meet with him at a plantation near Gonaives. Brunet assured Toussaint that he’d be perfectly safe with the French, who were, after all, gentlemen! Shortly after arriving at the plantation he was arrested and shipped off to prison in France. Toussaint was taken to Fort de Joux, a cold, damp prison near the Swiss border. Toussaint soon withered away and died on April, 7, 1803. So much for French honor! The dishonorable treatment of the aging Toussaint was not only a moral outrage, but a practical error of irreversible scope. The Haitians were so incensed, and recognized that if Toussaint could be so treated, so could anyone else. The masses realized the French must be defeated once and for all. Leclerc made a second tactical blunder upon the heels of Toussaint’s arrest. He immediately began a disarmament campaign, planning to disarm all the blacks. The net effect was to open the eyes of many and drive thousands back under the banner of the revolution. From June to October, 1802 Leclerc’s soldiers carried on this mainly unsuccessful campaign. During this period both Dessalines and Christophe were working with the French. Dessalines was a particularly vicious warrior against the rebels. However, there is a strong case to be made that he was more interested in his own position of power than anything else. Working with the French he could have it both ways. On the one hand, if the French prevailed he was becoming increasingly indispensable to whatever order prevailed, thus assuring his position there. On the other hand, he was capturing and killing rebel leaders. Thus if the revolution were to once again catch fire, he was in a position to bolt the French and take up leadership of the rebels, which is exactly what he did. Haitian independence and black rule seem to have been honestly desired by Dessalines. But, first and foremost he wanted Jean-Jacques Dessalines to be an important power in whatever government prevailed in Saint-Domingue. As the situation deteriorated for the French, Dessalines, Christophe, Petion and Clairveaux all conspired with rebel leaders. On Oct. 13, 1802, Petion and Clairveaux deserted to the rebels. Christophe and Dessalines followed and within days only Cap Francois, Port-au-Prince and Le Cayes were fully in French hands. The final battle had begun. Nov. 2, 1802 the rebel leaders met at Arcahaye, a small village south of St. Marc. The leaders elected Dessalines as rebel commander-in-chief and chose the red and blue flag as their banner. The story is that Dessalines took the tricolor French flag — a band each of red, blue and white, and tore out the white, announcing to the cheering assembled mass that Haiti, too, would drive out the whites. Certainly such a dramatic symbol, if it actually occurred, would have been an inspiring and motivating gesture. By the time of the Arcahaye conference most of the maroons had also come to see that the French were the true enemy. Prior to this the maroons had been separated and vacillating, not really joining the revolution, but fighting an independent war of self-interest wherever and whenever it served their purposes. But now they joined in unified fashion with the rest of the Haitians to drive the French from the island for once and for all, and to preserve the nation as a free, non-slave entity. Dessalines and Rochambeau Each side was under the leadership of a capable and ruthless leader. Each side traded atrocity with atrocity, the particular description of which are sickening and defy credulity of even those used to human inhumanity to humans. Torture, rape, brutal murders, mass murders of non-combatants, mutilation, forcing families to watch the torture, rape and death of loved ones and on and on. The last year of the Haitian Revolution was as savage as any conflict one can read of in human history. Thomas Ott says this had become a war of racial extermination on both sides. Despite the ravages of yellow fever and the increasing numbers of Haitians joining the revolution, Rochambeau’s forces made considerable gains in early 1803. Napoleon, heartened by the return of slavery to Guadeloupe, sent a further reinforcement of 15,000 troops. Rochambeau seized the moment to launch a vigorous attack on the rebels. A New European War Helps Shift the Balance On May 18, 1803 Europe was again plunged into war, and Britain declared war on France. Dessalines was now a welcomed ally of Britain who provided arms and naval support. At the same time this European war announced the end of reinforcements and supplies for the French. The conditions were set for a reversal of the fortunes of the revolutionaries. By the end of October the French were reduced to holding only Le Cap and were besieged and in danger of starvation. Finally on November 19, 1803 Rochambeau begged for a 10 day truce to allow the evacuation of Le Cap, thus giving Haiti to the Haitians. Independence Day, January 1, 1804 After 13 years of revolutionary activity France was formally removed from the island and Haitian independence declared, only the second republic in the Americas. The country was in ruins, the masses mainly uneducated and struggling for survival. The western world’s large and interested nations, the United States, Britain, Spain and, of course, France, were all skeptical and nervous about an all-black republic. After all, the large nations were all slave-owning states.
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on January 19th, 2010 Disaster in Haiti – French Minister Criticizes US Over Haiti Aid. PARIS (Jan. 18) AP – The United Nations must investigate and clarify the dominant U.S. role in earthquake-ravaged Haiti, a French minister said Monday, claiming that international aid efforts were about helping Haiti, not “occupying” it. U.S. forces last week turned back a French aid plane carrying a field hospital from the damaged, congested airport in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, prompting a complaint from French Cooperation Minister Alain Joyandet. The plane landed safely the following day. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner warned governments and aid groups not to squabble as they try to get their aid into Haiti. “People always want it to be their plane … that lands,” Kouchner said Monday. “(But) what’s important is the fate of the Haitians.” But Joyandet persisted. “This is about helping Haiti, not about occupying Haiti,” Joyandet, in Brussels for an EU meeting on Haiti, said on French radio. In another weekend incident, 250 Americans were flown to New Jersey’s McGuire Air Force Base on three military planes from Haiti. U.S. forces initially blocked French and Canadians nationals from boarding the planes, but the cordon was lifted after protests from French and Canadian officials. The U.S. military controls the Port-au-Prince airport where only one runway is functioning and has been effectively running aid operations. However, the United Nations is taking the lead in the critical task of coordinating aid. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Saturday the U.S. government had no intention of taking power from Haitian officials. “We are working to back them up, but not to supplant them,” she said. Both nations have occupied Haiti in the past. France occupied Haiti for more than 100 years, from 1697 to independence in 1804 after the world’s first successful slave uprising. More recently, U.S. Marines occupied the country from 1915 to 1934 to quiet political turmoil. U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes said, “Clearly it can be a problem if every leader in the world wants to turn up. It will inevitably cause problems, particularly for the leadership of these operations, although not, of course, for the humanitarian workers on the ground. ————– MORE TOP NEWS Haiti chaos hampers aid delivery; death toll rises. Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on January 17th, 2010 Considering the large number of clicks on our postings about the Haiti catastrophe we decided to continue monitoring the situation from pure humanitarian angles – but true to our website we will look also at what the world must learn from its reaction to the goings-on in this stricken half of the Hispaniola Island and about the ways this reflects on the UN, the US, Brazil and the ALBA States. Will we realize that even without seeing any connection between this earthquake and climate change, though we did see connections between the Asian plates tectonic rim and the melting of the Antarctic ice cap, we do not see this here. But we see the denuding of the island from trees – this in order to have created the sugar cane and other plantations, as a clear contributing factor to global warming that caused the enhancement and increased frequency of the Hurricanes. We know that the interest in our postings has to do also with our suggestion that Haiti is now the chance for Brazil to prove that they have arrived to the point that they should be considered as members of the small club of Nations that willl make a difference in the 21st century. Brazil, that joined the powers that were on the winning side of WWII only close to the end, was nevertheless recognized by being posted as first speakers at the yearly UN General Assembly meeting. It was clear that the size of the country, and its tremendous potential, will bring it to the forefront of the new developing, post-war, world. OK – it took 60 years – but now they are there. Their history of colonizers in the Caribbeans is zero, but their background started with lots of similarities and to its advantage, it was distance wise very remote from Europe so it could breeze easier. Big Brazil and small Haiti have both much to owe to African culture and Europe induced agriculture. Yes – sugar cane, coffee, black slaves, sunny weather and so on. There was a time that in both countries life was easy as the Gershwins sing in Porgy and Bess. But Haiti fell behind. Haiti is the world’s pits. An island South East of Puerto Rico, with a tremendous history of having been the second independent state of the Western Hemisphere, and the only one created by a rebellion of black slaves, with a French culture and lots of Voodoo, and some sons and daughters that did very well outside the country at times the country fell under local dictatorship or US invasions, has never become, just like Cuba, a working US dependency. Perhaps this is thanks to the Americans not being able to stomach this entrenched different culture mix and the realization that it could “dilute” the white protestant US culture. While the top layer of sugar-cane growers did very well, denuded the western part of the Hispaniola island of trees and increased their bank-holdings on the back of their brothers that spiralled into abject poverty – to the dishonor of being the only western hemisphere State that is on the UN list of the 50 least prosperous countries in the world. Actually – they are on the bottom of that list and even have the added disadvantage of being battered by natural disasters – one after another – in this last decade – three major Hurricanes and this last major Earthquake with its 7.0 epicenter just 10 miles from their capital. Now, does the world owe them rescue? As a humanitarian obligation the answer is obviously a very strong YES. From the climate change / environmental angle – sure a clear YES with a but. Now, let us write about the BUT. - THE NEW YORK TIMES January 17, 2010, QUOTATION OF THE DAY - “Their priorities are to secure the country, ours are to feed. We have got to get those priorities in sync.” PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — As the focus on Saturday turned away from While countries and relief agencies showered aid on Haiti, only a Hunger drove many to swarm places where food was being given out. Still, recovery and aid efforts were widening. And even the Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived in Port-au-Prince, But with Haitian officials relying so heavily on the United States, About 1,700 people camped on the grass in front of the prime Haitian officials said the bodies of tens of thousands of victims had The United Nations also confirmed the death of three of its most Even as the United States took a leading role in aid efforts, some aid The World Food Program finally was able to land flights of food, “There are 200 flights going in and out every day, which is an He added: “Their priorities are to secure the country. Ours are to American officials said they were making substantial progress. Mrs. The United States Agency for International Development was helping Yet problems remain. American officials said that 180 tons of relief Fuel shortages were mounting. At several gas stations around Some aid workers were critical of the United Nations, as well, arguing But many United Nations employees were killed in the earthquake. And Criticism of the United Nations “may reflect people’s frustrations Michel Chancy, appointed by Mr. Préval to coordinate relief, said that “The palace fell,” he said. “Ministries fell. And not only that, the At the American Embassy in Port-au-Prince, American rescue teams “People need to get the message, we’re out, we’re doing stuff,” said Though the numbers are fluid, he said four American teams had helped Some airplanes, after circling the capital’s airport, have been “We’re all going crazy,” said Nan Buzard, senior director of Among the aid groups avoiding the logjam in Port-au-Prince by entering A caravan of eight trucks from the federation was creeping toward the The group had originally planned to touch down in Haiti, but the “Every minute counts, I know that, but we cannot be on standby to land Mr. Préval, speaking at the airport, now the effective seat of the Mr. Préval said he was making food, water, medical supplies and the Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on January 16th, 2010 The full reporting follows and besides the imediate issue at hand, there are some coments that are of special interest to us: “Most recently, Ban has been accused by French President Nicolas Sarkozy of saying and accomplishing too little before, at and after the Copenhagen climate change talks.” – please remember here the Seal-the-Deal campaign for the no-deal in site. We saw in this at that time a very negative campaign! “As UN Ban Plans Sunday Haiti Trip, Picks South Korean and UN Media, Spurned Sources Say.” By Matthew Russell Lee UNITED NATIONS, January 15 – UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will fly to Haiti for a one-day trip on Sunday. To publicize his trip, Ban will be accompanied by journalists from France’s wire service and television station, and in a surprise to some, South Korean media. Several journalists who had put their names on the list to go demanded to know why they were not included, while not only South Korea media but also the UN’s own in house self documentarians were selected. One reporter, representing a major South Florida daily, says he was told by Ban’s spokesman Martin Nesirky, this is not like selecting a soccer team, I don’t have to say how I made choices, remember, I’m not new at this job, I was with Reuters for years. When pressed, Nesirky told the reporter the criteria included multi-media platforms, “coverage of the UN,” circulation, history of covering the region and inclusion in the directory of the UN Correspondents’ Association. At least one of the invitees does not comply with this last criterion. And it is unclear, at least to some, if by “coverage of the UN” positive or negative coverage is meant. While the inclusion of South Korean media seems designed, several correspondents told Inner City Press, to feed Ban Ki-moon’s image in his native country, they also saw a wider communications strategy at work. The earthquake was and is a disaster, they were quick to acknowledge. (We agree.) But for both Ban and his spokesman to resist for days now answering questions on any topic but Haiti represented, to them, a drive to remain “on message” as a politician would. At the January 15 noon briefing, Nesirky told Inner City Press that “today I am dealing with Haiti,” when a question about a rocket attack near the UN in Kabul was being raised. While Nesirky later relented and allowed this and a question about the UN in Somalia to be asked, ten hours later neither question had been answered. UN’s Ban and his spokesman on Jan. 14, only Haiti questions, even those (on Haitian staff) not answered Notably, a 2000 word expose of corruption in Ban’s UN that moved on American newswires on Tuesday was never asked about or responded to, lost in the UN’s wall to wall statements on Haiti. Even on Haiti matters, controversies were identified, outsourced and marginalized. When questions arose about Ban not counting casualties above the UN’s national Haitian staff in the nation-specific presentations he made, to member states and to the press, Ban next said he would not report by nation, only Nesirky would. Ban received several waves of negative coverage in 2009, on topics ranging from seeming weak with strongmen in Myanmar and Sri Lanka. (Inner City Press went on Ban’s May 2009 Sri Lanka trip, remaining on the issue since and, in full disclosure, applying to cover Ban Haiti trip.) Most recently, Ban has been accused by French President Nicolas Sarkozy of saying and accomplishing too little before, at and after the Copenhagen climate change talks. In this case, Ban himself needs better coverage — the correspondents tied it to Ban’s drive to get a second five year term as Secretary General, since more than three years of his first term have expired — and so he, rather than Egeland’s successor John Holmes, is presented day after day at the stakeout camera. And now on a flash tour of Haiti, documented by the UN itself and South Korean media. Mr. Ban has scheduled a meeting with UN staff in New York for Monday at 11am. ….. * * * By Matthew Russell Lee UNITED NATIONS, January 14 – At the UN it became even less clear what the UN Mission in Haiti is doing for its national staff, including how it is counting them. In the casualty figures released by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in the morning, no national Haitian staff were included. Inner City Press is informed that a MINUSTAH staffer, close with Hedy Annabi { that is the head of the UN Mission in Haiti – whose whereabouts are not known }, has been found alive. A reliable source told Inner City Press that “Patrick Hein, working closely with Annabi was rescued… brought up from the mess of concrete. According to his dad Philippe Hein ( who has visited him at one point in Haiti and used to work at WTO ) his office is next to Annabi. Father was a bit piss off at Kouchner for saying that everyone has perished.” If true, this is good news. But what about national Haitian UN staff? When Pressed, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator for Haiti, the tri-lingual Kim Bolduk, said that UNDP had sent out three missions to check on its national staff in their homes. When Inner City Press tried to follow up this answer to MINUSTAH’s director of communications, UN Spokesman Martin Nesirky cut in to disallow this follow up. Hotel Christopher, rented by UN for $94,000 a month, in ruins – MOSS compliant {this are the UN safety regulations}? By Matthew Russell Lee Now, he said, the UN is going out to the listed home addresses of its national staff to check on them. But will they now begin reporting the Haitians, equally, in their public statements? Footnote: after Ban and his spokesman left the stakeout, another journalist — not this one — marveled that the UN would focus on internationals and not Haitians, who are the people most impacted, and of most interest to her as a journalist. ————— Inner City Press: I understand that now you are saying that the nationality of those killed will be given by the Spokesman. Yesterday it was mentioned that a Haitian national was among those who were deceased, and then in what you said yesterday evening, it wasn’t mentioned. Some questions have arisen whether the numbers the UN is given actually include the Haitians that are hired, the national staff. What is the figure, or what are the procedures for checking how the actual Haitian nationals employed in various functions for the UN are faring? SG Ban Ki-moon: In saving lives, there is no difference, no distinction between international and national staff. We have 1,200 national staff employed by the United Nations [in Haiti]. There seems to be very much a difficulty in communicating with all the national staff. Some of their houses have been affected. It is very difficult to account for all the national staff. We are doing, on the same principal: that we will try to save all the lives, without any distinction. Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on January 13th, 2010 Daimler eyes alliance with Nissan, Renault. “We have confirmed that we are in discussions with Renault. It is not just discussion, but there are other discussions going on as well,” Daimler Chairman Dieter Zetsche said Monday at the North American auto show in Detroit. “If the discussions (with Renault) would come to any results, then obviously the potential expansion with Nissan is something to consider,” he said. Zetsche said Daimler wants to strike a deal with Renault in the first half of this year. Nissan and French maker Renault formed a capital tieup in 1999. If Daimler ties up with Nissan, the two are likely to work together on environmentally friendly vehicles, including electric cars, according to industry watchers. —————————– Earlier in the day, Ford Motor Co. Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally said his firm will maintain the current capital and business alliance with Mazda Motor Corp. “We treasure our relationship with Mazda. It’s been very useful and beneficial for both of us even though we had to take down our equity position,” Mulally said. Ford has had an 11 percent equity stake in Mazda since selling part of its shareholding in fall 2008. The share sale was due to Ford’s financial plight amid the recession, Mulally said. “Our relationship with Mazda will keep going,” he added. Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on January 7th, 2010 This was received from Sudha Ravi from the Indian Consulate, New York, Trade Commission commerce at indiacgny.org and here we learn two things: (1) that the Indians are proud og having earned a green future contest that was set up by Mayor Bloomberg (2) that the immigration regulations will make it difficult for the US to take maximum benefit from the participation of bright minds from developing countries. The loser will thus be the US. Mayor: Difficulty Teams Now Face Obtaining Visas and Launching Plans Highlights Need for Comprehensive Immigration Reform. MAYOR BLOOMBERG ANNOUNCES WINNER OF “NYC NEXT IDEA” GLOBAL BUSINESS PLAN COMPETITION: ENTREPRENEUR TEAM FROM INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY “Cities around the world hope to be a place of innovation where entrepreneurs want to go to launch businesses,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “New York City doesn’t have to hope – we are that place. Just look at the talented teams from the world’s leading business and engineering schools that participated in our NYC Next Idea inaugural global business plan competition. But it’s not enough to be a place entrepreneurs want to go; we also have to make sure our city – and our country – is a place they can go. That’s why we are committed to working with the Obama Administration to pursue sensible immigration reform. No one can say for sure whether the finalists’ ideas will translate into successful job-creating businesses. What a shame, though, if they and countless others are denied the opportunity even to try.” Business plans targeted sectors such as Financial Services, Media & Technology, Green Technology and Bioscience, and included a new screening product for infectious diseases, a zero-emission bike-share program, and new telecom technology. In addition to the cash prize, the winning team will be offered free space within one of the City’s new business incubators for two years. “A key to maintaining New York’s status as the world’s economic capital is ensuring that we continue to attract and retain talented entrepreneurs from around the globe,” said New York City Economic Development Corporation President Pinsky. “To this end, we recently launched our new NYC Next Idea competition – a competition designed to bring the business leaders of tomorrow to the City, today. We are thrilled that this competition has been such a success in its inaugural year and are proud to add it to our growing list of offerings aimed at the entrepreneurial community, including programs providing access to much-needed start-up financing and inexpensive space, as well as training and networking opportunities.” “This competition is about discovering the next generation of business innovators in New York City, and we’re grateful that the city’s development leaders have turned to Columbia for support in that endeavor,” said Laura Resnikoff, director of the Columbia Business School Private Equity Program and adviser to the New York City Economic Development Corporation’s competition team. The teams were judged in the final round by FirstMark Capital CEO and Managing Director Lawrence Lenihan, RRE Ventures General Partner Will D. Porteous, Greycroft LLC Partner Andrew B. Lipsher, Ascent Biomedical Ventures Partner Arthur Tinkelenberg, Ph.D, and NYCEDC Executive Vice President Steven Strauss, Ph.D. Columbia Business School alumni including W Capital Partners Vice President Eugene Song, Latin America Venture Capital Association Director of Strategy and Product Development Ariel Muslera, and Greenhill Capital Partners Vice President Somak Chattopadhyay judged the second round. This week, NYCEDC released a Request for Proposals today to solicit a university partner for NYC Next Idea 2010-2011. Information on the RFP will be available at www.nycedc.com In the last year alone, the City has announced more 50 initiatives to address a wide range of obstacles faced by the small- and medium-size businesses throughout the five boroughs who are creating the building blocks of our new economy. These range from lowering taxes, to increasing capital availability, to starting training and networking programs, to providing opportunities to secure thousands of discounted work stations across the five boroughs. —— BIOFONT · University: INSEAD: Institut Européen d’Administration des Affaires (European Institute for Business Administration) – FRANCE —— NYCYCLING ——- The Greenext Technology Solutions team strongly believes that today’s challenges in the energy sector can be addressed through clean-technology solutions such as smart grids that hold the potential to meet growing energy demands. Greenext Technology Solutions team is convinced that with energy demand continuing to rise rapidly on the one hand and both energy availability and supply efficiency struggling to meet it on the other, financial incentives and deregulation of electricity markets will make their solution a highly viable one in the future. And New York City is a prime locale for such technology because of its burgeoning population and energy needs, as well as an electric grid in need of innovative upgrades. Warm Regards Sudha Ravi Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on January 6th, 2010 From the latest news coming from Washington – “Under the new airport There may be a Jamaican convert to Islam who preached terrorism in the UK But what about Cuba? Fidel Castro is more atheist then Catholic, surely Mr. President, I watched Bolivia and Venezuela leaders speak in Copenhagen, Please start by taking him of that list! Having said the above – let us get now to the point – MR PRESIDENT - * * * * Please look – I am posting here four reference – links to news New Air Security Checks From 14 Nations to U.S. Draw Criticism In Yemen, U.S. Faces Leader Who Puts Family First Behind Afghan Bombing, an Agent With Many Loyalties Kenya Seeks to Deport Muslim Cleric to Jamaica ———————— THE UPDATE: We have received a comment on this post and it presents a very valid point supposedly made at the UN General Assembly by the Foreign Minister of Cuba: “I mean if they were going to include us, then they should have at least thrown in North Korea.” Even if the e-mail we received from ajay - akazif at gmail.com as presented by www. eggplantpost.com in http://eggplantpost.com/2010/01/05/cuba-… were a made up story, the argument holds water nevertheless. DID THE US INCLUDE CUBA ON THAT LIST BECAUSE IT WANTED TO AVOID BEING SEEN AS GOING AFTER A RAG-TAG OF ISLANIC COUNTRIES? Now, we believe that US security should be spoken here – not again US appeasement-for-oil please! Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on January 5th, 2010 “Full-body scanners on display at Reagan National Airport: Many experts say the full-body scanners would have detected the explosives carried aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Christmas Day, but the TSA – Transportation and Security Administration – tries to assuage privacy concerns about full-body scans. By Philip Rucker Already shoeless, beltless and waterless, more beleaguered air passengers will be holding their legs apart, raising their arms and effectively baring it all as they pass through U.S. airport security Add the “full-body scan” to the list of indignities that some travelers are confronting in the post-Sept. 11, 2001, era of vigilance. Federal authorities, working to close security gaps exposed by the thwarted Christmas Day terrorist attack on a Detroit-bound airliner, are multiplying the number of imaging machines at the nation’s biggest - – - – - - Washington, D.C. | January 5, 2010 | www.adc.org | The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) is deeply concerned by the new Transportation and Security Administration (TSA) directives, which went into effect on January 4th at midnight. According to news sources, these directives will require citizens from 14 countries, all Arab or Muslim countries, with the exception of Cuba, to go through enhanced security screening. Such screening can include full pat-downs, scans, delays, and anything associated with secondary screening – an extra search of the passenger’s carry-on luggage may also be required. News sources also stated that the directives are applicable to any travelers, including US CITIZENS, who have passed through one of these 14 countries, or who have taken flights that have originated from these 14 countries. ADC is very troubled as such directives will have negative ramifications on Arab-Americans, citizens of the 14 countries, and all Americans who visit these countries. A disparate segment of the Arab-American community will be scrutinized because of these new guidelines. The blanket labeling of hundreds of millions of civilians based solely on their country of citizenship or travel is not only unfairly discriminatory based on national origin, but also improperly labels millions of innocent people as somehow suspect or possible terrorists. The new directives came following the Christmas Day attempted airline attack that threatened our national security, and which ADC has strongly condemned. Implementing an effective and productive counterterrorism tool is paramount. However, casting a wide net against individuals based on their country of origin, race or religion is not an effective counterterrorism tool. During the past decade, similar racial, ethnic and religious profiling tactics and practices have time and again misdirected precious counterterrorism resources, damaged foreign relations with key allies, fueled the fires of extremists by giving them an excuse, stigmatized communities, and most importantly did not have any discernible impact on security. Based on precedent, these new directives will be no different than these past practices and their adverse consequences; and while such directives may appear to make us feel safer, the reality is that they discriminate against innocent persons and divert attention from real threats. Resources must instead be focused on high-risk individuals based on proper intelligence, better coordination and communication between different governmental agencies. In addition, continued engagement with the Arab, Muslim, Sikh, and South Asian community groups must be strengthened, and must not be discouraged by ethnic profiling tactics. ADC has been in contact with TSA and the Department Homeland Security (DHS) and is planning to file a complaint and request for additional information with the Department. ADC urges all travelers affected by these new guidelines to always comply with the Transportation Security Officer’s (TSO’s) request. In the event of any abuse or misuse of authority, please request the TSO’s name and badge number, and file a complaint with ADC’s Legal Department at legal at adc.org. ============== Honestly, I feel the pain of decent members of the ADC, but am appalled at the chutzpah to announce the complaints of that organization without a single word attached saying that as loyal citizens to this country they are ready to organize themselves in units of informers when it comes to transgressions by people from their country of birth, that are endangering the security of the country that gave to the ADC members the privilege of life under a secular democracy. Yes, I know that the ADC has members that are Muslim, Christian or atheists. I know they have no Jews in ADC, but that is not the issue. The Arab countries, other Asian countries, and the African Arabized countries, on the list of 13, are all Islamic countries – in all of them Christians and Jews face very serious difficulties. Further, I know of good Muslims in the US and overseas, that participate with enlightened Jews in order to build bridges between communities. in Copenhagen I actually participated during the Climate conference at a pilgrimage that took us to places of worship that were Jewish, Buddhist, Christian, and Muslim (that last meeting was held in the rooms of a Danish humanist society) – in this time sequence. Yes – good relationships are possible, but that will happen only when, and if, there is a clear understanding, and voiced recognition, that Islamic terrorism originates with Muslim individuals, and that in order to safeguard ourselves, profiling in search of instruments of terror is not a dirty word, but a means of self defense. And one more item – this website does speak up for Cuba as they surely are not part of the group of countries responsible for Islamicists performing acts of terror. So, they do not belong on that list of 14. Permalink |
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