Final Vote on Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement ACTA on July 4th

By Georgi Gotev, EurActiv. A European Parliament Committee rejected the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) on June 21st despite pro-business lobbying by Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht, who insisted that Parliament should not decide before the European Court of Justice gives its opinion. A final vote in the full Parliament is expected on July 4th.

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Drones, Cholera in Broadened UN ‘Peacekeeping’ Mandate | Le ‘mandat étendu’ de la MINUSTAH

PRESS RELEASE, UN via RadioTV Caraibes | Translation by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. The heads of the UN peacekeeping missions forces in the Congo (MONUSCO), Haiti (MINUSTAH) and South Sudan (MISNUSS) said that these operations have broad mandates: from classical peacekeeping to conflict mitigation, and even the fight against cholera. (English | French)

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Crucial ACTA Vote Kept Open and Honest, ACTA Soon to Depart

Press Release, La Quadrature du Net. The “International Trade” (INTA) committee of the EU Parliament will adopt its draft report on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), on Thursday June 21. Under pressure from the EU Commission and industry lobbyists, members of the committee could decide, potentially in a secret vote, to call for the adoption of ACTA or postponement of the final vote for years. Citizens participation is crucial to ensure the Parliament follows the general interest and votes a clear rejection of ACTA.

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Stone-Age Animation

By Bruce Bower, Science News | Commentary by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Thirty thousand years ago, when humans had just arrived to Europe from Africa and probably numbered only a few hundreds, they used cartoon-like techniques to create the illusion of wild beasts charging across cave walls.

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Blues for Bad Girls, Part 1: Don’t Start Me to Talking, Stop Watching Your Enemies

By Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. So many superb blues for bad girls! This was a tough choice. In the end, I picked Etta James’s marvelous rendition of Sonny Boy Williamson’s “Don’t Start Me to Talking,” and one of Koko Taylor’s many excellent versions of her own song “Stop Watching Your Enemies” because they are an excellent commentary on the week’s news about France’s possible role in Rwanda’s genocide and UNASUR’s decision on a slow military withdrawal from Haiti.

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UN Documents and Belgian Peacekeeper Implicate French Authorities in Rwanda Genocide | Des documents de l’ONU et un casque bleu belge impliquent les autorités françaises dans le génocide à Rwanda

By Linda Melvern, Liberation | Translation by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Belgian peacekeeper Yves Teyssier testified that the night before the April 6, 1994 attack he was blocked by the Rwandan army from entering the Camp Kanombe area, and the next day he heard a UN colleague’s voice report on UN radio that two missiles were fired at president Habyarimana’s plane from the camp. (English | French)

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Withdraw UNASUR’s UN Troops from Haiti!

By Staff (sgl/emw/mgt/jrr) Prensa Latina | Commentary by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. At a meeting of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), Member countries discussed a timetable for South America’s withdrawal from MINUSTAH. But the plan so far looks more like one for a gradual replacement of Latin American troops with Asian and African troops.

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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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Sandino: Beyond Borrowed Masks, True Identity | Sandino : el abandono del disfraz a favor de la identidad

By Toni Solo, Tortilla con Sal, Haiti Chery | Commentary by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Imperialist collaborators take pride in the degree to which they can assume the posture and mask of the oppressor. The predecessors of Augusto Cesar Sandino and inheritors of his legacy make it possible to shed those masks. (English | Spanish)

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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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Nurses Lead Protest Against NATO, For Financial Transactions Tax

By David Moberg, In These Times | Haiti Chery. At a Friday, May 18, 2012 rally in Chicago to kick off no-NATO protests, nurses wore Robin Hood attire to demand a financial transaction tax, also called the Robin Hood tax.

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Haitian MPs Who Support Mayors’ Dismissal Will Get Community Development Funds | La Fenamh met l’exécutif en garde contre tout renvoi des cartels municipaux

By Gerard Maxineau, Le Nouvelliste | Editorial comment by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. The National Federation of Haitian Mayors (FENAMH) has fingered the executive and some lawmakers as having recently drafted a plan to dissolve 140 municipal councils and replace them with municipal boards at the service of the parliamentarians, but this plan was drafted abroad in the prefab constitution that came along with Haiti’s prefab president and its prefab parliament exactly one year ago. It is a plan especially designed to grab lands in northern Haiti.

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Financial Enslavement of West Africans By France

By Antoine Roger Lokongo, Pambazuka News. Francophone Africans from 14 countries deposit 65 percent of their hard currencies yearly into the French Treasury, without French nationality or access to the public goods and services available to French taxpayers. Close to 1,500 billion CFA (Communauté Financière d’Afrique common currency) francs generated from the surplus of West African states’ foreign reserves are placed on the foreign stock markets and out of the reach of the Africans who own the money. In addition the French force money payments, like an Ivory Coast compensation for the recent war.

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When Will Haiti’s Next elections Take Place? | A quand les prochaines élections en Haïti?

By Staff (EJ), Radio Metropole | Commentary and translation by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. The mandates of one third of the Haitian Senate and various municipal executives expired in mid-January 2012, and the mandate of another third of the Senate expired on May 8. Mayors and local officials have been replaced by presidential decree, and no administrative provision is in place to organize new elections. (English | French)

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