Tag: Racism

Tè Tremblé

The title of today’s post means “the earth trembles” in Creole. One of Haiti’s two official languages — the other language being French. I’ve chosen that title along with the subject of today’s post as an ever so small gesture of solidarity with the Haitian people. For those unaware, there has to be one or two of you out there, and cares that today marks the one year anniversary of the catastrophic earthquake that merely furthered, but exponentially worsened, the destruction, misery and hardship a bunch of nations, Canada most definitely included, has unleashed on Haiti.

No matter how desperate things may seem and are on the ground in Haiti, I guess the least — as in the very least — I could do is let the world know I’m thinking about them and trying to get others to do the same?

Continue reading Tè Tremblé

Can You Seriously Blame Haitians?

Just a quick note this morning, a purely reactionary one to a bit I heard on CBC this morning, concerning Haitian distrust over solutions (read: medication) to fight the raging cholera epidemic. And apparently Voudoo is getting the blame for that distrust.

However I do think the a much more relevant reason for why Haitians apparently distrust advice from people trying to help them is, remember, where this advice (read: “guidance”) is coming from.

The same people who have occupied their country since a Western backed coup of their democratically elected President, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, in 2004? The same people who have exiled him and continue to keep their President banished in central South Africa? The same people who refuse to let the most popular political party in Haiti, Fanmi Lavalas, to run in the upcoming elections. The same people who, arguably, brought this epidemic to Haiti, in the first place (apparently the strain of cholera making its rounds in Haiti right now is endemic of Nepal, not the Caribbean)? The same people holding back aid money that was promised to them after the January 12th earthquake? I could go on…

Continue reading Can You Seriously Blame Haitians?

When all is said and done

What could I add to a quote from Robert Fisk’s recent piece The shaming of America about the recent WikiLeaks disclosure of “The Iraq War Logs”? Not a fuck of a lot. So;

The truth, of course, is that if this vast treasury of secret reports had proved that the body count was much lower than trumpeted by the press, that US soldiers never tolerated Iraqi police torture, rarely shot civilians at checkpoints and always brought killer mercenaries to account, US generals would be handing these files out to journalists free of charge on the steps of the Pentagon. They are furious not because secrecy has been breached, or because blood may be spilt, but because they have been caught out telling the lies we always knew they told…

Typical Fisk fashion, pure class!

Accepting Myth as Reality

I just watched Chris Hedges give a talk concerning his new book, The Death of the Liberal Class. And I know I say this much too often to remain relevant anymore, but if you’ve ever taken my advice and actually visited any of the websites I’ve cited here in the past, I assure you this is not the time to start ignoring me. Everyone must witness what was said for themselves.

In short;

We can’t talk about hope until we’ve grasped reality…

Keep in mind, I saw these series of video’s after reading Yves Engler’s piece UN vote reveals what world thinks of Canadian foreign policy this week.

We all, Canadian’s most definitely included, need to swiftly remove our heads, as abruptly as possible, from our collective hind parts and stop accepting myth (a.k.a. illusion) as reality…