The New Dark Age

25 January, 2010

Cruising to Haiti
Do the images of cruise tourists playing on Haiti’s north coast, not far from scenes of devastation, evoke outrage or portend a path out of Haiti’s cycle of poverty?
mshaw.c.topica.com/maanJ5iabVOy1bLJGqTeafpKwO/

Anderson Cooper Saves Haiti
BAG looks at over-the-top and exploitive coverage of earthquake victim recoveries in Port-au-Prince
mshaw.c.topica.com/maanJ5iabVOy5bLJGqTeafpKwO/

Hope for Haiti Now’ telethon sets new record at $58 million and counting
USA Today
The star-studded Hope for Haiti Now telethon this past Friday brought in millions of viewers and dollars for crucial Haiti relief efforts. …
content.usatoday.com/communities/kindness/post/2010/01/hope-for-haiti-now-telethon-sets-new-record-at-58-million-and-counting/1

Next News From Haiti: Pulling Out
New York Times
Anderson Cooper of CNN in Haiti last week. Soon, he laments, “people are just going to lose interest in this as a story.” By BRIAN STELTER The CNN anchor …
www.nytimes.com/2010/01/25/business/media/25coverage.html

Death Toll Rises in Haiti Quake Rises to 150000
Voice of America
More than 110000 people have been confirmed as killed in Haiti’s devastating earthquake, the Interior Ministry said, making it the deadliest on record in …
www1.voanews.com/english/news/americas/Death-Toll-Rises-in-Haiti-Quake-Rises-to-150000-82564527.html

Bellerive Says Reports of Haiti Violence Aren’t True
Bloomberg
24 (Bloomberg) — Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive said today that the country is “calm” and that reports of major violence in the Caribbean nation …
www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=a7JhPXy2qs8c

A long wait for orphans in Haiti
MetroWest Daily News
Before the magnitude-7 quake struck, Haiti already had more than 350000 orphans, according to UNICEF. “The amount of interest in adopting Haitian children …
www.metrowestdailynews.com/features/x1685420666/A-long-wait-for-orphans-in-Haiti

Haiti Rescue Efforts Fade as Donor Nations to Meet in Montreal
BusinessWeek
25 (Bloomberg) — Rescue workers wound down the search for survivors of Haiti’s earthquake as officials from 20 nations headed to Montreal for a meeting …
www.businessweek.com/news/2010-01-25/haiti-rescue-efforts-fade-as-donor-nations-to-meet-in-montreal.html

History shows obstacles can block Haiti’s recovery
Washington Post
By ANDREW O. SELSKY AP — Former President Bill Clinton, now the UN special envoy to Haiti, says the country can be made into a better place than existed …
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/24/AR2010012401849.html

UPS encourages workers to help in crises like Haiti quake
USA Today
By Jayne O’Donnell, USA TODAY When UPS executive Craig Arnold returned to the Salvation Army children’s home in Haiti after the devastating earthquake, …
www.usatoday.com/money/companies/management/2010-01-24-haiti-ups-volunteers_N.htm

Castro decries US, others sending troops to Haiti
Washington Post
AP HAVANA — Fidel Castro is questioning why the US and other countries sent soldiers to quake-ravaged Haiti, saying military presence hindered …
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/24/AR2010012401398.html

Firedoglake “ Repaying Debts – from Haiti to Guantanamo
By Siun
Let’s start with Haiti. The fundraising for aid has been unprecedented and the need will continue for years to come. How Haiti is rebuilt will be a real test of how we engage with others – will we replay the earlier meddling which left …
firedoglake.com/2010/01/24/repaying-debts-from-haiti-to-guantanamo/

Marginal Revolution: Some problems they are having in Haiti
By Tyler Cowen
In a disaster setting (e.g. Haiti), markets are non-functioning, and at least the first round of allocation is achieved through a central planner. So, my question is how do Aid organizations attempt to mimic markets and distribute aid …
www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2010/01/some-problems-they-are-having-in-haiti.html

Haiti may rescue Venezuela
By Nick Rosen
At the same time as the Venezuela government introduces measures to ration electricity, President Hugo Chavez accuses the US government of deliberately engineering the Haitian earthquake. But the sight of U.S. Marines on Venezuelan TV, …
www.off-grid.net/2010/01/24/haiti-may-rescue-venezuela/

Global Voices Online “ Guatemala: United for Haiti After Earthquake
By Renata Avila
Now, Guatemalans are united to stand in solidarity with the people of Haiti. Various efforts from different communities are taking place to lend support to those victims of the Haiti earthquake. …
globalvoicesonline.org/2010/01/24/guatemala-united-for-haiti-after-earthquake/

Sean Penn Speaks Out from Haiti – OK! Magazine – The First for …
By Gena Oppenheim
While many of Hollywood’s best have been rallying together to raise money for the relief efforts in Haiti, Sean Penn has taken the reconstruction fight to 201001.
www.okmagazine.com/2010/01/sean-penn-speaks-out-from-haiti/

10 days after quake, Israelis rescue man in Haiti – Yahoo! News
An Israeli search team has pulled a 22-year-man from the rubble a staggering 10 days after an earthquake leveled much of the Haitian capital.
news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100122/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cb_haiti_earthquake

Haiti: 150000 bodies recovered in capital – Haiti earthquake …
The confirmed death toll from Haiti’s devastating earthquake has topped 150000 in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area alone, the communications minister …
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34928950/ns/world_news-haiti_earthquake/

Reuters AlertNet Venezuela to U.S. Send Haiti vaccines not troops
Source: Reuters * Venezuela’s Chavez tells Obama to send vaccines to Haiti
* Chavez says US using earthquake to occupy the country CARACAS, Jan 24 (Reuters) …
www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N24131629.htm

Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua says US using relief in Haiti as …
By boliviareport
Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua says US using relief in Haiti as cover up for military takeover. By boliviareport. Presidents from three Latin America countries said the same thing. They believe the US is using their “relief operation” …
boliviareport.wordpress.com/2010/01/24/venezuela-bolivia-and-nicaragua-says-us-using-relief-in-haiti-as-cover-up-for-military-takeover/

24 January, 2010

Castro slams US ‘occupation’ of Haiti
Sydney Morning Herald
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Bolivia’s Evo Morales and Nicaraguan leader Daniel Ortega have all described the presence of some 20000 US soldiers in …
news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/castro-slams-us-occupation-of-haiti-20100125-msue.html

Haiti quake death toll hits 150,000, fear of disease rises 25 Jan 2010
The Haitian government has raised the official death toll for the January 12 earthquake to 150,000. In addition, as many as three million have been injured or left homeless as a result of the 7.0 magnitude earthquake. Health officials in Haiti have also expressed serious concerns about outbreaks of infectious diseases in the myriad tent cities due to the unsanitary conditions.
www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=116966&sectionid=351020706

Haiti earthquake: government fears toll could rise to 300,000 24 Jan 2010
Haiti’s government has claimed the toll from the country’s earthquake could rise to as many as 300,000 dead. The confirmed death toll was raised to 150,000 on Sunday, but that was only the count of bodies so far found and collected in the capital Port-au-Prince. It did not include those recovered in other areas like the shattered city of Leogane, near the earthquake epicentre, and Jacmel on the southern coast.
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/centralamericaandthecaribbean/haiti/7067411/Haiti-earthquake-government-fears-toll-could-rise-to-300000.html

Haiti nursing home still waiting on food pledges
Washington Post
The Haitian Red Cross is providing drinking water, and an international contingent of doctors funded by the Venezuelan government is evaluating their health …
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/24/AR2010012402128.html

Venezuela to US: Send Haiti vaccines, not troops
Reuters UK
CARACAS, Jan 24 (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Sunday that American relief efforts in Haiti had fallen short and told US President …
uk.reuters.com/article/idUKN24131629._CH_.2420

USS Gunston Hall Diverted from West Africa to Haiti – US AFRICOM News
U.S. Naval Forces Africa is the maritime component of U.S. Africa Command ( AFRICOM). (U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Martin Cuaron) …
www.africom.mil/getArticle.asp?art=3871&lang=0

23 January, 2010

Human traffickers find easy prey amid the rubble of Haiti
Island of Lost Children
by Nicolette Grams
January 23, 2010 – In Haiti’s unstable post-quake atmosphere, at least one industry is poised to flourish. For those who buy and sell children for sex and cheap labor, Haiti is ripe with opportunity. When the earthquake struck the impoverished island country last Tuesday afternoon, human traffickers suddenly gained access to a new population of displaced children. With parents dead, government offices demolished, and international aid organizations struggling to meet life-or-death demands, these kidnappers are in a unique position to snatch children with very little interference. In today’s world, the twin causes of human slavery—poverty and vulnerability—increase exponentially after natural disasters…
www.uruknet.de/?p=62491

As US prepares long-term occupation, Haiti’s quake victims still without aid
By Bill Van Auken
January 23, 2010 – With the US military “surge” into Haiti expected to include some 20,000 troops on land and on ships parked offshore by this weekend, a US official indicated that Washington is preparing for a protracted occupation of the impoverished and earthquake-devastated Caribbean nation. “We are there for the long term, this is not something that will be resolved quickly and easily,” said Ambassador Alejandro Wolff, the US deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, on Haiti following a meeting on aid to the battered country…
www.uruknet.de/?p=62489

Maariv: ‘The painful truth: Haiti’s disaster is good for the Jews’
By Paul Woodward, War in Context
January 23, 2010 – If I came up with a headline claiming the devastation in Haiti is “good for the Jews”, I could reasonably be accused of being anti-Semitic. But it’s not my headline. It comes from this report on a site run by Israel’s popular Hebrew daily, Maariv. Every disaster needs a hero, the report says, and the heroes in Haiti are the Israelis. The message that Israel is saving Haiti was likewise captured in an editorial cartoon in Yediot Aharonot which shows American soldiers digging for earthquake survivors. A voice from beneath the rubble calls out, “Would you mind checking to see if the Israelis are available?” Bnei Akiva, the largest religious Zionist youth movement in the world, in partnership with Latet, an Israeli humanitarian aid organization, launched a Haiti appeal saying: “We are not only helping Haitians with their tragedy, but uniting the Jewish world and demonstrating the Jewish values of the State of Israel…
www.uruknet.de/?p=62509