by Tyler Westbrook on Friday, March 12, 2010 at 10:51pm

Well, My last of two nights in a hotel. I searched high and low for a net connection fast enough to upload some videos… and ended up here in this posh hotel. AC, flush toilet, net and everything… Damn swimming pool to boot. The sound of music and gentle laughter fills the air as the elite enjoy relaxing, eating swimming and lounging. I heard valley dialect ” Like, Oh my god, my flight was terrible” One might think one was in a resort in Florida.

I had a choice, lunch or dinner, with the funds I had left, and choose to go out of the gates to find food cheap enough to afford both. A young boy I met out the gates led me to a shack made of tin and plastic sheeting where food was made by a Creole Mamma, in the midst of a tent city. It seemed a million miles away from inside the Gates. The desperation, hunger and thirst was clear. This is a place where I doubt a white man had ever been. The road impassible for the rubble, and my presence a surprise. Even Haitians from outside the city fear to tread in such places, but I was hungry and needed some smokes and was not willing nor able to pay American prices.

I tipped my young guide well, and walked back the block or two to my hotel, with a gathering but polite crowd and returned to my room to eat a delicious street cooked food of vegetables, beans and rice, and a little chicken to boot. The face of the woman serving the food gave me trust in her delicious cooking.

Luxury and desperation but a block apart. But the walls keep each from seeing the other. Tomorrow The Priest comes for me… and back to the country I go.

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Black farmers marched on Washington on September 23, to demand payment from the government for discrimination black farmers have suffered through systematic practices at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The settlement has been approved by the Obama Administration and the farmers, and funding passed the House. The Senate has tried and failed 8 times to take up the bill. Senate leadership has indicated that the only way Black farmers will receive funding is by unanimous consent, coupled with the Cobell settlement. Cobell deals with mismanagement of Native American trust accounts by the U.S. Department of the Interior, while the Black famers’ settlement seeks to give Black farmers and Blacks who attempted to farm the opportunity to have their claims of discrimination by the USDA determined on their merits.

MEDIA CONTACTS:
• Greg Behr (919) 272-5621, Billy Warden (919) 412-0630

–
The Communications &
Imagination Group
(919) 412-0630
www.billywarden.com

Black farmers marched on Washington on September 23, to demand payment from the government for discrimination black farmers have suffered through systematic practices at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The settlement has been approved by the Obama Administration and the farmers, and funding passed the House. The Senate has tried and failed 8 times to take up the bill. Senate leadership has indicated that the only way Black farmers will receive funding is by unanimous consent, coupled with the Cobell settlement. Cobell deals with mismanagement of Native American trust accounts by the U.S. Department of the Interior, while the Black famers’ settlement seeks to give Black farmers and Blacks who attempted to farm the opportunity to have their claims of discrimination by the USDA determined on their merits.

1 June 2010

Palestinian civil society calls for intensifying boycott and sanctions as Israel massacres humanitarian relief workers and international solidarity activists

Occupied Palestine, 1 June 2010 - The Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC) strongly condemns last night’s fatal attack by the Israeli navy on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla carrying humanitarian aid to the occupied and besieged Gaza Strip. The BNC conveys Palestinian civil society’s condolences to the families and friends of those killed by the Israeli assault and warmly salutes the principled solidarity and moral commitment of all those involved in the Gaza Freedom Flotilla.

In response, the BNC calls on international civil society to:

· Mobilize for an emergency Global BDS Day of Action on Saturday 5 June 2010 — the 43rd anniversary of the Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem

· Pressure governments to start implementing trade sanctions and arms embargos

We call specifically on transport and dock workers and unions around the globe to:

· Refuse to load/offload Israeli ships and airplanes, following the historic example set by the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (SATAWU) in Durban in February 2009 and endorsed by the Maritime Union of Australia (Western Australia).

The Flotilla, which was attacked in international waters in violation of international law, was carrying relief supplies that Israel has persistently prevented from entering Gaza, including medical supplies, cement and food. Israel’s siege is considered a form of collective punishment, a war crime under Article 33 of the Geneva Convention. All of the relief workers and activists on board the Gaza Flotilla ships were unarmed. In legal terms, Israel’s military assault against the Flotilla is an act of aggression against the countries whose flags the ships were carrying; politically, it is an assault against human decency and all people of conscience around the world who support freedom and justice.

Israel’s impunity is the direct result of the international community’s failure to hold it accountable for its ongoing occupation, colonization and apartheid against the Palestinian people. Israel’s most recent war crimes committed in Gaza and documented in the Goldstone report as well as crimes committed in 2006 against the Lebanese people did not trigger any UN or official sanctions, entrenching Israel’s feeling of being above the law. In fact, Israel’s grave violation of international law was recently rewarded when the OECD voted unanimously to accept its membership. The BNC urges international civil society to end this deep and fatal complicity.

The BNC also welcomes and affirms the call of the UN expert on human rights Prof. Richard Falk who stated, “It is time to insist on the end of the blockade of Gaza. The worldwide campaign of boycott, divestment, and sanctions against Israel is now a moral and political imperative, and needs to be supported and strengthened everywhere.”[1]

The UN Security Council has, unsurprisingly, failed to hold Israel accountable for its aggression against the Gaza Freedom Flotilla.[2] The BNC calls upon the UN General Assembly, the European Union, the Arab League and their member states to undertake practical measures which will end Israel’s impunity for its massive and systematic violation of international law, including by:

· Immediately ending all collusion with Israel’s unlawful blockade of the Gaza Strip and pressuring Israel’s to guarantee unrestricted humanitarian access and freedom of movement of people and products into and out of the Gaza Strip;

· Bringing to justice all Israeli officials and military personnel who took the decision and/or implemented this latest massacre as well as earlier war crimes;

· Pressuring your government to immediately suspend arms trade with Israel, and to implement trade sanctions and arms embargos against Israel.

· In particular, we call on the EU to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement, the Mercosur to suspend the FTA, India to reverse decision to hold negotiations around an India-Israel FTA and to stop arms deals with Israel, and Turkey to impose an arms embargo on Israel.

The BNC also calls on people of conscience and citizen groups all over the world to intensify BDS campaigns against Israel as the most effective means of holding it accountable to international law and ending its fatal impunity.

For action ideas and updates, please see: http://bdsdayofaction.net/

For more information and coordination of action, please contact:

Ziyaad Lunat (Europe) Michael Deas (Europe)

ziyaad@bdsmovement.net bnc.europe@bdsmovement.net

+4412465822

[1] For the full statement of Prof. Richard Falk, see:

http://www.badil.org/en/press-releases/135-2010/2257-press-en-19

[2] SC/9940 of 31 May 2010, UN Security Council, Presidential Statement S/PRST/2010/9

From The Orphanage

From The Orphanage

Sustainable Orphanages for Haitian Youth

This will be a work in progress with updates forthcoming. I have just returned home, and will be processing video and photos as I can.

We have started several projects in Haiti , including building a sustainable orphanage, and wind-powered irrigation for agriculture.

As these ideas emerge we will share them with you and ask for your help.