Saving themselves: Haiti’s unsung grassroots heroes do the work of rebuilding communities
Jacome’s portrait piece seeks to highlight the stories of Haitians changing Haiti, a story sometimes overlooked by the international aid apparatus and muffled by the country’s political instability.
Haitians are not benefiting as fully as they should from this global aid. Despite billions of dollars earmarked for Haiti, nearly 100,000 people still live under plastic tarps in displacement camps. Poverty has worsened all around the capital: more beggars on the streets, an increase in teen pregnancy, and more people turning to sex work. A cholera epidemic has wrought further devastation, killing thousands; the CDC and others have suggested the strong possibility that cholera was brought to Haiti by United Nations peacekeepers, the very force tasked with stabilizing the country. In truth, a great deal of the “redevelopment” has gone to help the rich and powerful, not the impoverished and displaced people who need it the most.
As Haiti’s Parliament Dissolves, Oversight of Billions in Gold Mining Could Be Axed
This investor-friendly mining bill, which President Michel Martelly could unilaterally pass into law now that the Haitian Parliament’s mandate expired on Monday, would replace a decades-old convention that has stymied foreign exploration of the country’s untapped mineral deposits. The document is consistent with the Martelly administration’s slogan, “Haiti is open for business,” welcoming an influx of foreign capital that would bring much-needed tax revenues and new jobs to the struggling country — but at the risk of significant social and environmental cost.
Why Colombians don’t believe a deal with the rebels will make a difference
And far away from the chic and leafy streets of Bogota and Medellin, there will be cities like this one, where the main presence of the state takes the form of soldiers and low-flying helicopters, where the hospitals are bad and the schools are worse, and where a young woman is the only kid from her neighbourhood to make it to adulthood with her dream of something better intact.
UN to Set up Human Rights Office in Violence-Marred Honduras
The announcement comes as Garifuna groups denounced another act of violence against the community of Nueva Armenia, which recently recuperated their territory.
Former mayor charged with kidnapping in case of missing 43 Mexican students
The Mexican attorney general’s office is pursuing charges of kidnapping against the former mayor of the southern city of Iguala where 43 students went missing in September after being attacked by municipal police allegedly working with a local drug cartel.
Ayotzinapa: 100 Days of Rage, Sorrow and Struggle in Guerrero
Mexico has not been the same since the forced disappearance in Iguala, Guerrero of 43 Normalista students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers College on September 26, 2014. Hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets to demand that the students be returned alive and also to denounce political corruption and the “Narco-Government.” The Southern state of Guerrero has been the epicenter of these protests and a wide range of actions including citizen searches, takeovers of tollbooths, a statewide caravan, the burning of government buildings, and more.
Still, the faithful and their anti-mining allies face many dangers in this battle that pits small farmers against big industry, indigenous groups against local elites and foreign investors, and water quality against wealth. Mining-affected communities have been witness to government crackdowns and police repression. Environmental activists and indigenous leaders have been subject to kidnapping, intimidation, torture, arrest and imprisonment for their outspoken advocacy. And the attack against Oquelí was no anomaly. Guatemala is a country where resistance can get you killed.
In Bolivian prisons, blood is thicker than bars
Bolivian law allows the children to live with their mothers, but only in women’s prisons and only till the age of 6. Once they are older, the law says, the children must go live with extended family or, if that is not an option, into group homes with orphans and other children whose families cannot care for them. But in reality, hundreds of kids, many of them well beyond age 6, live in low- and medium-security men’s prisons. According to estimates by Bolivia’s independent human rights office, the number of children living in prisons ranges between 800 and 1,500. This is a constantly fluctuating population, say experts, and up-to-date information on how many children live in each prison is difficult to obtain, but the majority are found in the country’s three major urban areas of La Paz/El Alto, Cochabamba and Santa Cruz.
Indigenous Bolivia begins to shine under Morales
Mr Morales represented profound change for Bolivia. Not only was he the country’s first indigenous president, he came to power promising a better deal for the nation’s indigenous people, who make up nearly two-thirds of the population. One of his biggest achievements was passing a new constitution in 2009 that included comprehensive rights for Bolivia’s indigenous communities – 36 identified groups in total.
Sky transport of Bolivia: no congestion, quicker trips to work
“What we want is for the cable car system to create greater integration and unity for people in both cities,” he says. “We want people who live in El Alto to be able to come into the centre of La Paz to eat or to see a film and for them then to be able to get home safely and comfortably. We also want people in La Paz to be able to go to El Alto to enjoy the restaurants and views there.” Such mingling, he hopes, will yield not just a greater sense of unity and equality, but also help the two cities work together to tackle shared problems such as transport, rubbish, sewerage, landfill and crime.