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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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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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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In Famatina, Water Is Worth Far More Than Gold | El agua vale más que el oro en Famatina | Famatina, onde a água vale mais do que o ouro

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)

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Shale-Shocked: Fracking Gets Its Own Occupy Movement

By Ellen Cantarow, Tom Dispatch. “This is what my kids are made of. They are made of water. They are made of the food that is grown in the county that I live in. And they are made of air…. And when you poison these things, you poison us.” – Sandra Steingraber

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Tunisians ‘Occupy’ Police, Courts, Government | Les Tunisiens continuent à affronter la police, les tribunaux, le gouvernement

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)

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Bigger Greenhouse Gas Footprint from Fracking

By Lynn Herrmann, Digital Journal. According to a study by scientists at Cornell University, compared to conventional oil, gas, or coal, the shale gas from hydraulic fracturing (fracking) has a greater impact on climate change because of a bigger greenhouse effect due to release of high levels of methane.

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Fracking for Shale Gas Pollutes Water, Leads to Earthquakes

Staff, British Columbia Women’s Institute Josh Fox, You Tube. Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is looking increasingly like a technology that will have to be left alone, not only because it pollutes the atmosphere and water, but also because the high-pressure injection of waste water from this process is thought to allow ancient faults to slip, leading to earthquakes.

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No Time Left to Adapt to Melting Glaciers | Noroeste de Perú sin tiempo para adaptarse al deshielo glaciar

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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Caracol Haiti Industrial Park With Projected Adverse Environmental Impact | Caracol, un parc industriel d’Haïti Parc qui aurait un impact environnemental négatif

By Staff, Haiti Grassroots Watch. Part 6 of 7. The same week over 300 agricultural plots in Caracol, Haiti, were unexpectedly destroyed, the Haitian government signed an agreement with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, IDB, and Korean textile giant Sae-A Trading to convert the lands into an industrial park. This park will dump its wastes into a bay with extensive coraf reefs and one of the country’s last mangrove forests. (English | French)

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Harvesting Water to Save Crops and Lives | Recolección de agua para salvar cultivos y vidas

By Isaiah Esipisu, IPS. If, in Africa and Asia, immediate action were taken to increase investment in diverse methods of water storage, then an estimated 500 million people would benefit from improved agricultural water management. (English | Spanish)

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Sweatshops: Stepping Stone or Dead End? | Tremplin ou cul-de-sac?

By Staff, Haiti Grassroots Watch. Part 5 of 7. Are low-wage, low-skilled assembly industries in Haiti really a “stepping stone” to more complex industrial development? In the Mexican maquiladora boom areas, the water table is dropping by 1 to 1.5 meters every year due to intensive use of water; the blue dye run-off from jeans pollutes rivers and irrigation ditches; 67% of homes have dirt floors, and 52% of streets are unpaved. (English | French)

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Climate Change Blamed for Storms, Flooding, Drought

By Cathy Yamsuan and Kristine L. Alave, Philippine Daily Inquirer | Commentary by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Two months before the recent huge loss of lives, Filipinos were warned to guard against climate change by protecting forests and improving drainage, as if a forest could indefinitely hold back the rising sea levels and more violent storms caused by the climatic changes brought on by the carbon emissions from developed countries.

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