By Richard Raznikov, The Rag Blog | Democracy Center | Haiti Chery. About 20 years ago, it dawned on the bankers and some major corporations that if oil was a lucrative commodity, water would be even more so…. The trick was how to take it away from the people and sell it back to them.
Continue reading →By Mergenat Exalus, AlterPresse | Commentary and translation by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. The city of Gonaives, Haiti, has been without water since a sabotage of three water pumping stations three months ago. The forced dependence of the Haitian population on bottled water, not inspected by local health authorities, poses a grave danger. (English | French)
Continue reading →By Aline Sainsoivil, Le Matin | Commentary and translation by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Haiti’s Ministry of Public Health and Population (MSPP) presented a plan to strengthen its Expanded Program of Immunization (EPI) at a meeting on Monday, March 12, 2012 with UN organizations UNICEF, PAHO, and WHO. Might this strengthened EPI involve the administration of oral cholera vaccines? (English | French)
Continue reading →By Raúl Zibechi, La Jornada | English translation by Chiapas Support Committee. What is happening in Latin America in relation to water, land, and biodiversity is something more than a succession of local conflicts. The struggle for the commons is at the top of the agenda in the entire region. (English | Spanish)
Continue reading →By Dady Chery, Haiti Chery | You Tube. Superb orchestral and dance performances of Astor Piazzolla’s Libertango are offered as a nod to the residents of Famatima and Chilecito whose protests have helped to save their lands and water from Canadian mining.
Continue reading →By Staff, MercoPress. Residents of the towns of Famatina and Chilecito, in Argentina, led a huge march that arrived on Thursday March 1, 2012, at their governor’s office in La Rioja – the provincial capital – to call for a halt to Canadian firm Osisko’s open-pit gold mining project.
Continue reading →By Roger Clark, Arizona Republic. Environmentalists, Native Americans, and Arizonans welcomed a 20-year ban by the U.S. Interior Secretary on Jan 9th on new uranium claims on a million acres of public land around the Grand Canyon National Park because mining activities would have violated sacred sites, polluted the river and aquifer, created relatively few short-term jobs, and principally benefited foreign companies. The ban was challenged with a lawsuit on Monday Feb 27th by the National Mining Association.
Continue reading →By Rashid Haider, Haiti Chery. Prof. Richard A. Finkelstein, an eminent microbiologist and Nobel-Prize nominee for his pioneering studies on cholera, advises that for cholera “the best solution resides in providing safe drinking water and sewage disposal.” In Dec 2010, alarmed by the oral vaccination plans for Haiti, he wrote to the health officials, including Jon Andrus, the Deputy Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) that the proposed use of Dukoral was “a useless and expensive waste of resources.” This vaccine was not adopted, but a campaign immediately started for the use of Shanchol, another questionable oral cholera vaccine. (English | French)
Continue reading →By Dady Chery, Haiti Chery | Staff (jep kft gp), AlterPresse. According to Haitian Director General of the Department of Public Health and Population (MSPP), Gabriel Timothee, initial tests of a cholera vaccine will start in Haiti in February 2012 in disadvantaged areas of Port-au-Prince and the Plateau Central. Studies of the vaccination will be conducted in collaboration with Zanmi Lasante (Partners in Health, PIH) and a center called Haitian Studies of Kaposi Syndrome and Opportunistic Infections (Gheskio). (English | French)
Continue reading →By Kristin Palitza, IPS | Informações de Envolverde | Holistic Health | Haiti Chery. Moringa oleifera is a fast-growing, drought-resistant tree that produces leaves full of nutrients and medicines, and pods full of protein. The seeds can purify water and furnish cooking oil, and the flowers are decorative and medicinal. Moringa already grows in most of the South where it is often called Malunggai. In Haiti, it is called Benzolivier.
Continue reading →By Rashid Haider, Haiti Chery | Commentary by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. From the moment cholera appeared in Haiti, a group of supposed experts started to promote oral cholera vaccines for the country. Dr. Rashid Haider provides a devastating rebuttal of the most recent of such articles, which extensively quotes Paul Farmer and appeared in the January 12, 2012 issue of Scientific American.
Continue reading →By Marcela Valente, IPS | Periodismo Humano | TN Argentina | You Tube. Thousands in the northwest Argentina province of La Rioja are mobilizing to stop an open-cast gold mining project in the Nevados de Famatina, a snowy peak that is the semi-arid area’s sole source of drinking water. “We take turns [blocking the road to the mountain], and we’re going to hold our ground until the government and the company drop this project,” – Carina Diaz Moreno, teacher from Famatima. (English | Spanish | Portuguese | Includes music video)
Continue reading →By Staff, Tunisia News Agency. In Zarzis, Tunisia, youths stormed a police station and freed a friend who had been arrested for suspicion of damage to property; in Kebili, relatives of several individuals who had been arrested in September have been blocking the activities of a military court for over three days so as to get them transferred to civil justice; in Mazouna, a general strike is in effect to demand provision in the budget for the agricultural sector, reopening of factories, electricity, and clean water. These are just a few examples. (English | French)
Continue reading →By Stephen Leahy, IPS | Tierramerica. Glacier water from the Cordillera Blanca, vital to northwest Peru, is decreasing 20 years sooner than expected. “The decline is permanent. There is no going back.” – Glaciologist Michel Baraer. (English | Spanish)
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