Prison Aid to Haiti for Captive Slave Labor

By Dady Chery Haiti Chery Haiti’s incarceration rate of roughly 100 prisoners per 100,000 citizens in 2016 was the lowest in the Caribbean. Nevertheless, there is a systematic campaign underway for more prisons. Canada and Norway have each given one … Continue reading →

Cholera in Haiti and Africa: The Peacekeepers’ Footprint

By Dady Chery Haiti Chery Like the plantain weed, Plantago major, which so reliably matched the movements of European settlers through North America that it became known as “the white man’s footprint,” the cholera epidemics of the last 15 years … Continue reading →

Humanitarian Imperialism: Aid as a Trojan Horse

By Dady Chery Haiti Chery We lived sustainably, with color and panache Long before the word sustainable became fashionable, before Scott and Helen Nearing experimented with non-establishment living in the 1930s and concluded that their project had failed because it … Continue reading →

Haiti’s Open Vein at Caracol Industrial Park

By Dady Chery Haiti Chery Haitians, who previously sold their kin as outright slaves and sugar-cane cutters, continue to sell them into sweatshops and other horrific work environments at home and abroad. Consider the case of Caracol Industrial Park, in … Continue reading →

United Nations (UNHCR) Census Targeted Dominicans of Haitian Ancestry to Be Denationalized

By Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Dominican Constitutional Court Ruling TC168 of September 23, 2013 denationalizes over 200,000 Black Dominicans belonging to four generations whose ancestors entered the Dominican Republic between 1929 and 2007.

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Homage to My Mothers: Restavek, Vodou, and Haiti’s Stolen Children

By Dady Chery Haiti Chery “There are no orphans in Haiti!” After a long silence at the other end of the line, my friend Jordan murmurs: “Come again?” He must be thinking I lost my senses. I realize how I … Continue reading →

GDP Measures the Wealth of Bankers

By Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Libya’s gross domestic product (GDP) increased by 108 percent in 2012. By contrast, the growths of Japan and other developed countries, as measured by their GDP, have stagnated at values below three percent and sometimes negative. If you are shaking your head, thinking there must be a mistake in the World Bank’s computations, think again.

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Haiti: Wrecking Ball Capitalism in Real Time

By Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. How does one drag a people with a sense of enough into the capitalist enterprise? In Haiti, this process is exposed in all its hideousness as it happens in real time.

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USAID: Dictator’s Little Helper

By Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. USAID’s goals were originally to diminish the threat of communism and open new markets for the US; these have expanded to include: developing “countries’ policies and institutions” and even “rebuilding government.”

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Haiti’s Assembly Workers Promised 87 Cents Per Hour

By Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Haiti’s sweatshop factory owners enjoy unprecedented duty free and quota-free access to the U.S. market, and only prison wages come close to the scandalously low 30 to 50 cents/hour earned by Haiti’s workers.

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Deadly Denim

By Staff, International Labor Rights Forum. Two separate fires in Pakistan killed more than 300 trapped workers: 289 workers in a Karachi apparel factory (sweatshop) and 25 workers in a Lahore shoe factory on Tuesday September 11, 2012. National Trade Union Federation of Pakistan (NTUF) leader Nasir Mansoor called this the “darkest and saddest day in the history of Pakistan’s labor movement.” The fires are considered to be the logical result of the low prices buyers offer the factories and the quick deliveries they demand.

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Top Five Reasons Why Caracol Industrial Park is Disastrous for Haiti

By Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. The Caracol Bay area was slated to be a World Heritage Site and Marine Park because of its breathtaking barrier reef, mangroves, and migratory birds. The area is also the site of archaeological finds including Guacanagaric, one of the largest and most complete Taino Indian villages. The area has been converted into the massive Caracol Industrial Park (or Free-Trade zone, FTZ) that is expected to pollute the Trou du Nord River and the bay and get served by a deep-water port.

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Corruption by ‘Peacekeeping’: The Lure of Foreign Exchange

By Staff, AsiaOne | Editorial comment by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Bangladeshi UN “peacekeepers” have sent home nearly $1.24 billion during the past three years. In 2010 Bangladesh sent its first female MINUSTAH contingent, a group of 110, to Haiti.

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The Rush to Haiti’s North | La ruée vers le Nord

By Roberson Alphonse, Le Nouvelliste | Commentary and translation by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. According to Dieuseul Anglade, director of Haiti’s Office of Mines and Energy in Haiti, during the negotiations for mineral exploitation, the Haitian State will keep a close watch to ensure that Haitian citizens benefit from the country’s wealth. Meanwhile, the mayors have been dismissed, and land prices have skyrocketed. (English | French)

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