Poison Seeds, Herbicides, Pushed Again on Haitian Farmers | Des semences empoisonnées et des herbicides encore forcées sur les paysans haïtiens

By Edner Son Décime, AlterPresse | Benjamin Fernandez, Le Monde Diplomatique | Marie-Monique Robin, YouTube | Commentary and translation by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Monsanto hybrid and genetically modified (GMO) seeds are once again being pushed as aid. Together with expensive fertilizers, and harmful pesticides, and noxious herbicides, these seeds represent a project to convert Haitian farmers from producers into helpers. (English | French)

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Caracol Free-Trade Zone Jeopardizes Natural and Cultural Heritage | La zone franche de Caracol met en péril le patrimoine naturel et culturel du Nord-Est

By Rachelle Charlier Doucet, AlterPresse | Commentary and translation by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. A massive industrial park is scheduled to open in the Caracol Bay area of Haiti, although no plan is in place to mitigate the park’s impact on a region that has been proposed as a World Heritage Site for its ecological, historical, and archaeological importance. (English | French)

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Are Stealth Oral Cholera Vaccines in Haiti’s Recently ‘Expanded Program of Immunization’? | Les vaccins anticholériques oraux furtifs: sont-ils dans le ‘programme élargi de vaccination’?

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)

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The Illusion of Aid

By Muhammad Mustafa, al-Ahram | English translation by Magda Gilpin with editing by Peter McGuire for Watching America. In exchange for every dollar spent by the U.S. on development in Egypt, Egypt spends $37 on U.S. imports. Is it possible for Egypt to renounce U.S. aid? The short answer is yes.

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Haiti’s Elected Mayors Dismissed, Illegally Replaced by Presidential Appointees | Prefeitos Eleitos do Haiti Demitidos, Substituídos Ilegalmente por Nomeados pelo Presidente

By Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Thirteen Haitian mayors were dismissed and replaced on February 18, 2012 by presidential decree. In a press conference, one mayor said that a new individual recently arrived claiming to be his municipality’s new mayor, and two days later he got a letter telling him to assist this person in taking inventory of the region’s heritage. Another mayor wrote in open letter on February 3 that his life is under threat. Secretary of the Interior Georges Racine is thought to be behind the wave of illegal dismissals. (English | Portuguese)

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Pioneering Cholera Scientist Gives Thumbs Down to Oral Vaccines Promoted for Haiti | Un pionnier scientifique du choléra dit que les vaccins oraux promus pour Haïti sont inutiles

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)

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Foreign Aid, Foreign Wastes

Data from USAID | Commentary by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. A policy of tied aid has until now required that USAID funds be spent on goods and services exclusively from U.S. companies. A new policy will allow USAID to buy many goods and services from developing countries, but not food, motor vehicles, or U.S.-patented pharmaceuticals.

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Warning: Haiti ‘Cholera Vaccination’ Campaign Will Involve AIDS Researchers | Avertissement: Des chercheurs sur le SIDA participeront à la ‘vaccination contre le choléra’ en Haiti

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)

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Nicaraguan Youth Reclaim Their Country

Courtesy of Tortilla con Sal, You Tube | Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Nicaragua and Haiti have shared the same history of repelling a U.S. occupation only to face the harder task of resisting the unpatriotic army the occupation left behind. Nicaraguans are reclaiming their country, with the youth leading the charge and being the living proofs that the smiles are well worth the process.

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Oral Cholera Vaccines Cannot Control Haiti Cholera: Rebuttal to an Article in Scientific American

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.

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Where the Devil Did the Reconstruction Money Go? | Mais où diable est passé l’argent de la reconstruction?

Bill Quigley and Amber Ramanauskas, Courrier Internationale | San Francisco Bay View | Commentary by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery | Live from Haiti, Video. Emergency aid funds for Haiti were used by the U.S. mostly to pay itself. Another way to think about this story is to consider that earthquake-ravaged Haiti has become the world’s biggest aid donor per capita. (English | French)

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Haiti-Bound Cholera Vaccine ‘Absolutely Useless’ According to Bangladesh Field Trial | Le vaccin pour Haïti contre le choléra est ‘absolument inutile,’ d’après un essai au Bangladesh

By Dr. Rashid Haider, The Independent | Ahmed Sadiq, News from Bangladesh | Translated by Dady Chery for Haiti Chery. Incidents of scientific fraud have reached a record high, and one area that requires careful scrutiny is vaccine trials in far-away developing countries. A detailed report of Bangladesh’s 2011 field trials, for the Shanchol vaccine being pushed on Haiti, thoroughly disproves claims made about this vaccine. (English | French)

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Cholera Vaccines Unnecessary, Ineffective, Expensive, and Dangerous

By Rashid Haider, Haiti Chery | Commentary by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Cholera vaccines are being pushed on Haiti, especially Shanchol, a vaccine that protects only 45 percent of those vaccinated during the first year and is unsuitable for controlling epidemic or endemic cholera. Shanchol is expensive. In addition, preparations of it for use in developing countries contain the mercury-based preservative thiomersal.

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Aid as a Trojan Horse: On the Anniversary of the Haitian Earthquake

By Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Long before the word sustainable became fashionable, before Henry David Thoreau noted that “A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone,” there was Haiti.

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