Black Looks

  • A page out of a book – somewhere in Bangalore

    Posted: January 31, 2011, 7:32 pm by Sokari

    On Sabbatical, hiatus, recess, time out, break, something else

  • An obituary to David Kato by his friend and colleague, Val Kalende

    Posted: January 28, 2011, 5:26 pm by Sokari

    Val Kalende remembers David and the deep love he had for all LGBTIQ people.  She also provides some insight into the last few days before David was murdered.

    Sorrow, loss, and grief engulf Uganda’s LGBT community as we lay to rest our friend, brother, and colleague, David Kato Kisule. As we mourn the loss of Africa’s brave human rights defender, we celebrate him for the leader and visionary that he was.

    David lived his life for his friends, even defending those he hardly knew. His energy and quick response to security matters within the LGBT community was why we named him “security.” David was always concerned for the safety of others. Many times, he put himself out of the way for the sake of others. He fed, dressed, comforted, and housed many members of the community who were homeless.

    Who Killed David?

    As investigations into the murder of David proceed, many will point to different places and indicators in search for answers. As someone who has lived and worked with David, i know that his death is unfortunate but it should not surprise us too much. For those who still doubt the impact of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, the murder of David should make us think again. David’s death warrant was signed and stamped the day the Family Life Network of Uganda hosted American revisionist Scott Lively and his entourage of self-confessed gay men. Lively’s time bomb has finally exploded and it’s David’s body on the alter of hate. Lively’s four-hour behind-closed-doors meeting with Ugandan Members of Parliament has finally culminated in Uganda’s worst hate crime against LGBT people. The series of hate crime since the Lively hate-spitting delegation left Uganda are undeniable. Some of David’s interviews indicate that he anticipated that the worst was going to happen. It was only a matter of time.

    Continue reading here

    Burial arrangements are underway today Friday 28, 2011 at 2PM at David’s ancestral home in Namataba, Mukono District.

  • Brutal Murder of Gay Ugandan Human Rights Defender, David Kato

    Posted: January 27, 2011, 1:11 pm by Sokari

    Press Release by Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG)
    For Immediate Release: Wednesday, 26 January 2011

    Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) and the entire Ugandan Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Intersex Community stands together to condemn the killing of David Kato and call for the Ugandan Government, Civil Society, and Local Communities to protect sexual minorities across Uganda.

    David was brutally beaten to death in his home today, 26 January 2011, around 2pm. Across the entire country, straight, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex Ugandans mourn the loss of David, a dear friend, colleague, teacher, family member, and human rights defender.

    David has been receiving death threats since his face was put on the front page of Rolling Stone Magazine, which called for his death and the death of all homosexuals. David’s death comes directly after the Supreme Court of Uganda ruled that people must stop inciting violence against homosexuals and must respect the right to privacy and human dignity.

    Sexual Minorities Uganda and the Ugandan Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Intersex Community call on the Police and the Government of Uganda to seriously investigate the circumstances surrounding David’s death. We also call on religious leaders, political leaders and media houses to stop demonizing sexual minorities in Uganda since doing so creates a climate of violence against gay persons. Val Kalende, the Chair of the Board at Freedom and Roam Uganda stated that “David’s death is a result of the hatred planted in Uganda by U.S Evangelicals in 2009. The Ugandan Government and the so-called U.S Evangelicals must take responsibility for David’s blood!”

    As United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recently declared, “I understand that sexual orientation and gender identity raise sensitive cultural issues. But cultural practices cannot justify any violation of human rights. . . . When our fellow humans are persecuted because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, we must speak out. . . . States bear the primary responsibility to protect human rights advocates. I call on all States to ensure the freedom of expression and the freedom of assembly that make their work possible. When the lives of human rights advocates are endangered, we are all less secure. When the voices of human rights advocates are silenced, justice itself is drowned out.”

    David’s life was cut short in a brutal manner. David will be deeply missed by his family and friends, his students, and Human Rights organizations throughout Uganda and around the world. Speaking about what the death of David means in the struggle for equality, Frank Mugisha, the Executive Director of Sexual Minorities Uganda said, “No form of intimidation will stop our cause. The death of David will only be honored when the struggle for justice and equality is won. David is gone and many of us will follow, but the struggle will be won. David wanted to see a Uganda where all people will be treated equally despite their sexual orientation.”

    Burial arrangements are underway for Friday 28, 2011 at 2PM at his ancestral home in Namataba, Mukono District.

    Press contacts:
    Frank Mugisha: +1 646 436 1858
    Email. fmugisha@sexualminoritiesuganda.org
    Val Kalende: +1 857-247-1184
    Email. kalendenator@gmail.com
    Pepe Julian: +256 772 370 674
    Email. jpepe@sexualminoritiesuganda.org

  • David Kato Rest In Peace my friend.

    Posted: January 27, 2011, 9:57 am by Sokari

    On Wednesday 26th January 2010  David Kato – Ugandan Kuchu, activist, human rights defender, Man of courage, stubborn, intense, the real. He lived without trimmings literally and metaphorically. David lived his life on the edge with no protection from the sickening campaign of hate unleashed by political and religious leaders in Uganda and their supporters in the US and elsewhere.

    So today i am writing about David and whatever I write it will not be enough to express my feelings for him or on his murder.   I only met him in person exactly one year ago. He was in York on a human rights defender course. I was in London. He wanted to organise a tour speaking on the Ugandan anti-homosexuality Bill – the hate bill and thats how we came together.  `He stayed with me a couple of times and we traveled to Canterbury, London and Manchester speaking about the Bill and LGBTIQ struggles on the continent.  David was always cracking sarcastic jokes when he was speaking about the Bill. He traveled to Brussels where one woman asked him to wear a suit for his presentation. Where the fuck am I going to get a suit said David. Will they buy me a suit? Who do they think I am?  David, intense, stubborn and not given to idle chat whether in person, on the phone or  email.  I would get intense abrupt emails informing me of the latest hate in Uganda, requesting information or discussing strategy or just what the fuck is this – whats wrong with these people?

    A couple of weeks ago he asked me to find out about a suspected WSF money scam. I tried but did not get back to him in time so I know I didn’t try hard enough.  David had been beaten up many times. He was constantly harassed, his home broken into. The last time this happened a few months ago he tried to raise some funds to make his home secure but it was not enough.  This is no blame time – people do what they can when they can. It’s just a fact.  He walked around with a dislocated shoulder in constant pain from a particularly severe beating – he tried to get it fixed in York but the NHS couldn’t or wouldn’t provide him with the treatment he needed.

    Recently David together with Kasha Jacqueline and Pepe Onziema won a landmark case against the Ugandan tabloid, Rolling Stone who had published the names and photos of what it called “Ugandans top 100 homos” on October 2nd 2010 which also included the headline “Hang Them”. A number of the photos were ones used by activists on their Facebook profiles including David’s. The High Court ruled that Rolling Stone had “violated their constitutional rights to privacy and safety” and warned them and other news media not to repeat the outings. We do not yet know the exact details surrounding David’s murder but the fact that he has received repeated death threats since the Rolling Stone outing we see there are consequences to actions which actively encourage hatred.

    [Updated with links]

    The responsibility for the repeated harassment, beatings, death threats and now possibly his murder lies with all those politicians and religious leaders around the world who have led the campaign of hate against LGBTIQ people: David Baharti who introduced the anti-homosexuality bill in the Ugandan parliament; the Red Pepper tabloid which like the Rolling Stone had published names of people they alleged were gay; Martin Ssempa who led the Ugandan national task force against homosexuality; Ugandan Minister of Ethics Nsaba Buturu who has rabidly spoken out against homosexuality; the following religious leaders who have fueled the anti-gay campaign in the region: Archbishop of Rwanda, Onesphore Rwaje, Archbishop Henry Orombi of Uganda, the All African Bishops Conference, Apolo Nsibambi of Uganda, Rev. Bernard Ntahoturi of Burundi, Archbishop Akinola, Pastor Mulinde of Trumpet Church Uganda, Bishop Lawrence Chai of Free Apostolic Churches of Kenya and Sheikh Ali Hussein of Masjid Answar Sunna Mosque and Nicholas Okoh of Nigeria; Peter Karamaga of the National Anti-Homosexual Task-force Uganda; President Museveni who has showed no support for gay Ugandans saying that homosexuality is a western import receiving support from other African presidents like President Mugabe and Mrs Museveni who in the same vein has called homosexuals an abomination to African culture; American Christian right pastors Lou Engle, Rick Warren, Scott Lively and Dan Schmierer of the ex-gay group Exodus International, for their continued support of anti-gay legislation; South African diplomat Jon Qwelane and President Jacob Zuma. Finally, responsibility lies with those in power in regional and international bodies who have refused to take a stand on homosexuality as a human rights issue. Last year, the African Union denied the Coalition of African Lesbians observer status. Around the same time, the UN General Assembly Human Rights Committee passed a resolution condemning extrajudicial executions, deleted from this resolution was an amendment that explicitly addressed protections based on sexual orientation.

    The lives of all Ugandan Kuchus are now at risk – how will they be protected? Who will protect them? How will there be justice for David? One way is to ensure there is a sincere investigation into his murder including the role played by the homophobia of MPs and religious leaders and what must be done to protect others. Another is to speak about this as widely and as much as possible.

    Condolences David’s family, his brothers and sisters at SMUG and to all those who knew and loved David.

    Rest In Peace David, we remember you for your courage, honesty and unwavering commitment to the struggle for the right and dignity for all of us to be who we are. We remember you, David for the beautiful human being you were and you will always live in our hearts. We have lost a great activist and a great man

    “Determined to struggle till a yard done to the journey of liberating the LGBTI community from the discrimination and oppressional laws in the name of sodomy!” David Kato

  • A petition against “corrective rape”

    Posted: January 25, 2011, 6:00 pm by Eccentric Yoruba

    According to this site, in South Africa

    In the last 10 years:
    *31 lesbian women have been murdered because of their sexuality
    *More than 10 lesbians a week are raped or gang raped in Cape Town alone
    *150 women are raped every day in South Africa
    *For every 25 men accused of rape in South Africa, 24 walk free

    In the past Sokari has written on the beating and rape of Milicent Gaika, the case which spurred this petition to declare “corrective rape” a hate-crime.

    If you are interested in showing support by signing the petition, please do so here.

    Interview with South African Justice minister on corrective rape.

  • Still Life

    Posted: January 23, 2011, 1:15 am by Rethabile

    When Van Gogh’s lobe fell pinna up
    on the tiles, its face a shrivelled funnel
    like a floor’s ear listening to the universe,
    and deftly he traded razor for brush,
    he painted potato-eaters. Which gave him
    ideas for the outline of two cut sunflowers
    on a blue table in the moonlight, the pain
    suddenly abated, the whirring heart mute.
    That’s how artists are, pondering one thing
    and birthing another. He splashed colour
    and painted the afternoon away, knowing
    without question the direction to take.
    How could he not, when he was planning
    such a starry night over the Rhone?
    Besides, answers now grew in him, tubers
    of earth reaching into his fingertips
    as he painted: blood-soaked oaks to forest,
    to meerkats waiting for the end, to August
    when dust rises to meet the newly dead.
    If one answer is to be given, why did god
    promise my father the kingdom of heaven,
    then imprison him and give me his amulet
    to wear on my neck? No spirit ought to dim,
    for neither heaven nor hell can contain him.

    For Namanyana, 1931-2010

  • Happy Birthday, Derek Walcott

    Posted: January 23, 2011, 11:27 am by Rethabile


    The poet and playwright Derek Walcott was born and raised in St Lucia. His work has been described as an evolving conversation with his birthplace.

    In Omeros, his adaptation of the Illiad, he centres on the rivalry between Achilles and Hector, who are portrayed as two St Lucian fishermen.

    He maintains a presence on the island, though he lives in America, where he has been a visiting professor at Boston University since 1985.

    He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992 and will be in Trinidad this summer to collect another award. Derek Walcott is 79 today.
    [source...]

  • Tweets of the Week

    Posted: January 22, 2011, 10:00 pm by Sokari

  • “Situating Feminism” talk by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

    Posted: January 21, 2011, 6:34 pm by Sokari

    This week’s Women’s Magazine broadcasts a shortened version of a keynote talk at UC Berkeley by  Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, titled “Situating Feminism” [historically and geographically].    Reading the Berkeley website’s introduction one would have expected a deeply theoretical discussion on feminism, post colonialism and globalisation…..

    This presentation will attempt to situate feminism geographically, in terms of the triumph of the Euro-specific (even Anglo-specific) model, in terms of the history of both of Marxism and Capitalism. It will trace feminism’s itinerary through both coloniality and globalization. It will also attempt to situate feminism historically in terms of the provenance of what we at radical U.S. universities call feminism and see how it reflects on the development of mobility among women in terms of not only capital but also the great engines of world governance.

    Instead Spivak, [in the WM clip] begins by revisiting her landmark essay “Can the Subaltern Speak” with humour,  self-reflection and a clarity, which for me was not always present, when reading the text.  She begins by admitting that the essay was “very hard for me to write”. She goes on to say it was more  a critique of “the Hindus, it’s not really an anti-colonialism essay” ……” because none of them really touched on subject formation of  the women concerned just passed good laws”.  This is interesting because I never got that and I am sure most readers didnt.

    Another interesting fact she reveals is that the sentence “the white men, are saving  brown women from brown men” was a sentence which enabled her to get more in touch and more involved with “subalternity” in India and elsewhere.  It was not “the heart of the essay” but as a very general assertion it is “ignorant and racist” and was used merely as a way of  beginning – a way to start.  She gives the example later realising she was using Freud – “turning to a white man – Freud, in order to save the brown women who were getting on the ‘chitas’ to be burned.

    In talking about Feminism she returns to her child and her parents, especially her mother, who brought her up as a “woman to woman” person sparing her from the possibility of an arranged marriage.  Her mother worked with poor women in Calcutta in what she describes as “undercover work” in the 1950s.  In other words she was, like many of us, a feminist – but never a single issue feminist,  [it is impossible for WOC to be single issue feminist whatever part of the world they live in] before she even heard the word let alone was able to attach any meaning to it in relation to herself and other women.

    Listen to the edited version here and the full talk here.

  • Haiti, “Harvest of Hope”: The making of a movement for democracy

    Posted: January 21, 2011, 3:32 pm by Sokari

    Harvest of Hope is an exceptional must watch film which documents the rise of the Lavalas movement and the coming of democracy to Haiti in December 1990. The film traces Haitian history from the US occupation – 1915-1934, through the brutal regimes of Francois and Jean-Claude Duvalier – the latter fleeing in 1986. This was followed by a series of brutal leaders until finally the election of President Aristide in 1990. Aristide’s own presidency is disrupted by a coup in 1991 by General Raoul Cedras [and officer in Duvalier regimes and later found to be on the CIA payroll] following which thousands of Lavalas supporters were murdered some even whilst sleeping. . He returns in 1994 which is where the film ends.

    What is interesting about the film in the context of the return of Jean-Claude Duvalier last Sunday, is that in the 1990 elections, the Duvalierists and Macoutes hoped to use the chaos and insecurity in the country as an opportunity to return to power, this time through the ballot box. Fortunately it fails as one hopes this new plan by Duvalierists to return will also fail.

    One note, given Rene Preval’s betrayal of Aristide’s vision and his aloofness towards the Haitian people to the point where he is despised by the majority, it is strange seeing him speak favorably about the movement and Aristide presidency.

    The film is dedicated to the mothers who sacrificed so much to bring democracy during this period. Below is a trailer but the full film can be watched online on the HIP website

    [Via the Haitian Information Project]

  • Before Duvalier: Interview with historian Matthew J Smith

    Posted: January 20, 2011, 5:07 pm by Sokari

    Informative piece from Ansel Herz introducing “Red & Black in Haiti: Radicalism, Conflict, and Political Change, 1934-1957” by Dr Matthew J Smith.

    It’s the first comprehensive history of the post-occupation era, arguing that “the period (from 1934 until the rise of dictator François “Papa Doc” Duvalier to the presidency in 1957) constituted modern Haiti’s greatest moment of political promise.”

    The post also includes excerpts from an interview with Dr Smith in September 2010 which has great insight into Haiti’s recent past and present and the misinformation presented by the ‘establishment’ media.

    Can you talk about what common threads, if any, that you see connecting the leftist opposition profiled in your book to today’s Haitian left? For example, is there a continuing disconnect between educated activists and the rural peasantry?

    The situation has changed a lot in terms of urban left connections with the rural sectors. One major reason for this is that the rural sectors have become far more prominent through grassroots organizations and community development organizations than during the time covered in the book. The presence of peasant organizations and community-based organizations since the 1980s is an important development.

    A major weakness of the leftists of the 1940s was their inability to develop strong regional networks. This is not to say that rural sectors were not politically involved then. They probably were. But the evidence connecting them to the larger movements in Port-au-Prince is not strong. So the fact that activists today include the rural peasantry in their focus is a major difference.

    The media often talk about Haiti as a failed state or lacking in democratic traditions. In one recent story about Wyclef Jean, the Associated Press concluded, ” Presidents have only rarely completed a constitutional five-year term — most in history have been overthrown, assassinated, declared themselves “president-for-life” or some combination of the three.” What do you make of the mainstream media’s treatment of Haitian history, to the extent that it is referenced at all?

    There is a tradition of misinformation about Haiti and its history is often reduced to being simply one of chaotic politics. It is true that Haiti has had a great many short-term presidents. That is undeniable and a part of historical record. But it is easy to highlight the short rule of presidents and the weaknesses of democratic institutions in the country.

    I would doubt that any of the overthrown or assassinated presidents expected to be assassinated or exiled when they took the oath of office. There are deeper issues about why democracy has not been successful in Haiti that are never really addressed in media reports. Since the earthquake there have been really abysmal treatments of Haiti’s history in the mainstream media that seems to insinuate that the Haitian Revolution was the root cause of the country’s problems, including the earthquake. I can’t think of any other country that has been subject to this sort of massive misinformation. Some will argue that it is deliberate……Read the full interview here.

    Via MediaHacker: Informative and intelligent writing on Haiti

    Also worth reading is “Understanding Jean Claude Duvalier’s weekend visit to Haiti” by Hudes Desrameau which goes a long way to explaining why Duvalier arrived in Haiti last Sunday – possibly the most plausible explanations I have read so far including the fact that a “Martelly win would surely bring Haiti back to the pre-1986 environment.”

    [via@ezilidanto Also informative and intelligent writing on Haiti]

  • MLK Day – Keeping the dream alive

    Posted: January 17, 2011, 4:22 pm by Sokari

    I live in Miami so I decided I should start writing about the city. Martin Luther King Day is a good day to start. On this day as we watch one dictator flee in Tunisia and one return in Haiti  these two quotes by Martin Luther King come to mind!

    A riot is the language of the unheard.

    Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see.

    In this video Ms Yvonne Stratford remembers Liberty City the once vibrant neighbourhood back in the day of the Civil Rights Struggle.

    “Just dont tear down and don leave nothing. Always leave a print of something that was there”

  • Happy Birthday, Muhammad Ali!

    Posted: January 17, 2011, 2:15 am by Rethabile

    Muhammad Ali was born on 17 January 1942. Happy Birthday to him.
    © and photo credit: http://en.wikipedia.org

  • The Bridge Between

    Posted: January 16, 2011, 2:01 pm by Rethabile

    Some of us think the strong will not leave
    And that Armageddon will never come;
    That is what we think. When we get home
    And you are not there we start to disbelieve
    The story we imagined, how if no one may see
    These souls on their freeway out of here, which
    Einstein predicted, that they don’t go. The bridge
    Between worlds. A figure on the solitary quay.
    Either way, there’s a hole where your body was.
    Then of course there are rituals: eyelids to close
    After the season; dogs to feed and find homes for;
    A single tomb to dig or a room to build with four
    Greek pillars at the corners. Coming from the crypt,
    Your granddaughter nestled in my arms, and slept.

  • Tweets of the Week

    Posted: January 15, 2011, 10:00 pm by Sokari
    • Fighting counterfiet drugs #Nigeria #Ghana [bit.ly] #

    • RT @Gsquare86: #Egypt [#African leaders take note] will follow 1st: #Tunisian Uprising Result of Repressive Government [ow.ly] #
    • RT @Gsquare86: Video RT @justicentric: [twitvid.com] – Live video of celebrations Tunisian Embassy in Cairo #Tunisia #Egypt #fb #
    • RT @ReggieNel: 'the internet created new generation of activists credited wth driving movement forward #Tunisia …' [bbc.in] #
    • RT @HaitianNewsNet: US Set to Resume Deportations to Haiti – THIS IS SO WRONG – [bit.ly] #
    • RT @tweetmeme Call for workshops and skillsharing: INCITE! at the 2011 Allied Media Conference « I.. [bit.ly] #
    • Black Looks Daily is out! [bit.ly] ▸ Top stories today by @gsquare86 #
    • #FF @Renewal4Haiti @danwibg @ReggieNel @EthanZ @ifikra #socialJustice #WritingRights #
    • US Tour of #Palestine #Queer Activists [on.fb.me] #
    • Call for submissions on dealing wth body /hair/size/fat phobia 4 & by indigenous ppl and POC [bit.ly] #
    • A good #Haitian story – [bit.ly] #
    • #Zimbabwe *blood* diamonds #China link [bit.ly] #
    • Post primary explosion at #LabourParty office in Bayelsa #NigeriaElections [bit.ly] #
    • #NigerDelta environmental rights activists receives death threats #Nigeria [bit.ly] #
    • Vote for Lola to represent #Nigeria on the #Arctic Quark exp and travel to the North Pole – E [t.co] via @AddThis #
    • Black Looks Daily is out! [bit.ly] ▸ Top stories today by @carlosqc @linkssocialism @forakin #
    • I nominate @ElementsOfJazz in the 3rd Annual Shorties for #music because…its the best source of Jazz on Twitter [bit.ly] #
    • Domestics: We are here. We are organizing. We have something. [t.co] #
    • Black Looks Daily is out! [bit.ly] ▸ Top stories today by @pierredevos @thefworduk @saharareporters @ezilidanto @colorlines #
    • The American WikiLeaks Hacker [t.co] #
    • Black Looks Daily is out! [bit.ly] ▸ Top stories today by @ifikra @public_archive #
    • Just watched a programme on #oral cancer caused by #HPV transmitted by #oralsex More info needed esp for #teenagers [bit.ly] #
    • Review of "Create Dangerously" Edwidge Danticat. Powerful, have read it twice already. Walk with it & hold it close – [nyr.kr] #
    • More intimidation, more killings in Kennedy Road – #shackdwellers #South_Africa #Durban [bit.ly] #
    • Black Looks Daily is out! [bit.ly] ▸ Top stories today by @saharareporters @blacklooks @thefworduk @ezilidanto @myweku #
    • Black Looks Daily is out! [bit.ly] ▸ Top stories today by @adriennemaree @ifikra #
    • An insider's critique of what went wrong in Haiti | Al Jazeera Blogs [t.co] via @ajenglish #
    • How #Schizophrenia was redefined as hostile, aggressive and Black illness in the 50s & 60s #Racism #MadnessRadio [bit.ly] #
    • We Will Not Forget, A Week of Activities in Haiti to Mark Anniversary of the Earthquake: [t.co] #
    • Black Looks Daily is out! [bit.ly] ▸ Top stories today by @ezilidanto @zawadin @thefworduk @saharareporters #
    • Blog Post Side by Side: Kehinde Wiley & Zanele Muholi: Khi Baldwin, on bklyn boihood makes the connection betwee… [bit.ly] #
    • Have untangled myself from all political election foolishness #Nigeria #USA #
    • I support #WikiLeaks @wikileaks @nekessa #hellobigbrother #
    • The common elements of oppression [bit.ly] #
    • My son is blasting #LCD_SoundSystem quot; – amazing sounds – am impressed [bit.ly] #
    • Soundcities Lets You Remix the World [t.co] via @RWW #
    • Black Looks Daily is out! [bit.ly] ▸ Top stories today by @public_archive @forakin @nkemifejika @ethanz @danwibg #
    • Blog Post Kwame Dawes – Poems on Haiti: Writer Kwame Dawes reporting and writing poems about people in Haiti. [bit.ly] #
    • Thanks for all Reteets this year. @eggheader good to see u r on form #mamiwata #
    • Blog Post Sounds of London: While away your days and nights listening to SoundCities. I listened to the ones fr… [bit.ly] #
    • Will Hall – #Madness Radio – Voices and Visions From Outside Mental Health – [itun.es] #
    • There is a great deal of anger & pain in the wld but we need 2 funnel our energies in right direction & at the right ppl #Noborders #
    • Black Looks Daily is out! [bit.ly] ▸ Top stories today by @dollabrand @pierredevos @africanewsfeed @rooble2009 #
    • RT @EthanZ: "Mapping My Megacity" – terrific new blog post frm @oso, in part engaged wth my recent games/wandering post: [is.gd] #
    • Nearly 1 yr anniversary of #Haiti earthquake and aid/NGOs falling over themselves in shameless self promotion – Absence of Truth #
    • RT @Rooble2009: Zooming into the Past: A Mercenary by Any Other Name -private military behind the scenes n #Africa [bit.ly] #
    • RT @public_archive: Reprt. Transparency of Relief Orgs Responding 2 #Haiti Earthquake -a kind of self certification! [scr.bi] #
    • RT @BettyFckinWhite: Huckleberry Finn is eliminating the "N" wd frm new editions 2b less offensive. Moby Dick will now b called Moby Penis. #
    • #KONBIT #SMS for jobs for #Haitians [bit.ly] #
    • Countdown to #classified ads – 3wks [appx] from start to go impressive @whiteafrican #Kenya #Nigeria #Africa [bit.ly] #
    • Black Looks Daily is out! [bit.ly] ▸ Top stories today by @myweku @danwibg @bilericoproject @mobileactive @solomonsydelle #
    • RT @Gsquare86: LIVE TWEETS FRM #EGYPT A mass march is coming toward us !!! [yfrog.com] #
    • RT @tweetmeme THE BEST LITERARY BLOG vote for Geoffrey Philp [bit.ly] #Caribbean #Literature #Blogs #
    • #Haiti Food aid prevents long term food security. in 1986 the country produced 80% of its food by 2008 it was 42%. [bit.ly] #
    • Black Looks Daily is out! [bit.ly] ▸ Top stories today by @saharareporters @africanewsfeed #
    • #Jesus facts – did he rise from the dead? is he God? Was he real? Read all about it [bit.ly] #
    • Corporate drug experiments in #Africa #Asia E Europe & S America [wapo.st] #
    • RT @MSF_USA Op-Eds & Articles: #Haiti Where Aid Failed [bit.ly] #
    • RT @tweetmeme Special Report: Ten Stories That Mattered in Access to Medicines in 2010 | Doctors W.. [bit.ly] #
    • WikiLeaks' collateral damage in Zimbabwe | [t.co] via @guardian #
    • RT @3arabawy: protests in Egypt. hope the rest of Arab / African wld joins soon! RT: @CrowdVoice: Protests in Tunisia – [is.gd] #
    • #Saraba – the TECH issue [bit.ly] #
    • #Mobiles dreaming of more money [bit.ly] #
    • #Net_neutrality – what it means to non corporate bloggers twitters facebookers etc etc etc et c [bit.ly] [viaFlip Flopping Joy] #
    • A couple of different angles on #WikiLeaks [bit.ly] [bit.ly] #
    • Victory for #Uganda #LGBTI as court rules in their favour against outings by Rolling_Stone Uganda [bit.ly] #
    • Black Looks Daily is out! [bit.ly] ▸ Top stories today by @melindayiti @kiwanja @forakin @adriennemaree @dollabrand #
    • Breaking News #AbujaBomb market #Nigeria C @bubusn 4 details [via @rmajayi ] @solomonsydelle @Chykere @pdbraide @eggheader @forakin #
    • Watched girl with dragon tattoo now on the girl who played with fire. love this kick ass free frm tyranny woman [bit.ly] #
    • Happy new year to followed & f.ollowers . Giving thanks & praises for making it though 2010 & looking forward to continuing struggle of 2011 #
    • 2011 : Support communities in struggle & act in solidarity . beware of fake "grassroots" & stop supporting NGOs /Int aid / UN institutions #
    • The beauty of data visualization [t.co] via @guardian #
    • Isabel Allende " Island Beneath the Sea" #Haitian revolution meets #Louisiana_Purchase [bit.ly] #
    • Via @nprnews: 'Create Dangerously': The Heart And Healing Of Haiti | [t.co] #
    • Via @nprnews: Trans-Atlantic Journeys Traced In Slave Trade Atlas | [t.co] #
    • Jake – The American #WikiLeaks Hacker #TOR Hero [t.co] #
    • A nite of revelry in no frills xmas in #Haiti Everyone happy to have made it this far. Thanks & Praises #fb #
    • 20,000 #Nigerian girls trafficked as sex slaves to Mali [bbc.in] #
    • Black Looks Daily is out! [bit.ly] ▸ Top stories today by @melindayiti @firozem @ezilidanto @myweku @runnymedetrust #
    • Black Looks Daily is out! [bit.ly] ▸ Top stories today by @ijdh @rmajayi @thefworduk @mediahacker #
    • Black Looks Daily is out! [bit.ly] ▸ Top stories today by @ezilidanto @blacklooks @myweku @linkssocialism @dollabrand #
    • Black Looks Daily is out! [bit.ly] ▸ Top stories today by @pierredevos @jgoodlucktweets @mobileactive @thezenhaitian #
    • Black Looks Daily is out! [bit.ly] ▸ Top stories today by @sangonet @nkemifejika @ifikra @mediahacker #
    • Its been confirmed – all OUR leaders are liars charlatans thieves swindlers murderers and incompetents #wikileaks #
    • Thanks for the #FF – have not had electricity and now my internet connection is so slowwwwwwww #
    • Black Looks Daily is out! [bit.ly] ▸ Top stories today by @danwibg @ezilidanto #
    • Black Looks Daily is out! [bit.ly] ▸ Top stories today by @melindayiti @thefworduk @thezenhaitian #
    • Black Looks Daily is out! [bit.ly] ▸ Top stories today by @greenpeaceafric @myweku @africanforums #
    • Black Looks Daily is out! [bit.ly] ▸ Top stories today by @blacklooks @ezilidanto @chykere @kenyaimagine @dollabrand #
    • #Ghana W'mens Rights Defender calls 4 Path 2 Criminalisation of Homosexuality – funders need to be called out on this [bit.ly] #
    • After a day of no electricity rain & stinking cold, news of da resign of Dele Momodu left me laughing at those trying to fix #Nigeria #
    • Black Looks Daily is out! [bit.ly] ▸ Top stories today by @mediahacker @danwibg @pierredevos @ijdh @avinunu #
    • Black Looks Daily is out! [bit.ly] ▸ Top stories today by @eggheader @sahelblog @colorlines @blacklooks @chykere #
    • Haiti to the US Embassy: Here’s the Will of the People [t.co] #
    • #NigerDelta town destroyed by #JTF forces #Ayakoromo #Nigeria [bit.ly] #
    • Black Looks Daily is out! [bit.ly] ▸ Top stories today by @booksa @mediahacker @ezilidanto @avinunu #
    • Black Looks Daily is out! [bit.ly] ▸ Top stories today by @rooble2009 @jeremyweate @pazuzu_hsp #
    • Black Looks Daily is out! [bit.ly] ▸ Top stories today by @tmsruge @africanewsfeed @irinnews @dollabrand @colorlines #
    • CEP says will recount votes #Haiti (via Pascal Robert) ABC breaking news #CYA #lack_credibility #
    • Someone phoned to say ppl in camps in Champ Mars are throwing toilets onto streets?? #Haiti and MSF hospitals cannot cope with #cholera #
    • Just heard fighting broken out in Cite Soleil bet supporters of Celestine, Martelly and others, shooting & machetes. #Haiti #
    • Black Looks Daily is out! [bit.ly] ▸ Top stories today by @greenpeaceafric @sahelblog @rmajayi @ezilidanto @solomonsydelle #
    • Black Looks Daily is out! [bit.ly] ▸ Top stories today by @ijdh @thegenderwire @pierredevos @colorlines @irinnews #
    • #Haiti Elections sounds like a fix and not even a subtle one = #shame – no school tomorrow! #
    • #Ghana to ban sale of used panties #
    • #Julian_Assange arrested in London [bit.ly] #
    • RT @ifikra: Read the hypocrisy, My God, shameless USG !! [is.gd] U.S. to Host Wld Press Freedom Day in 2011 #wikileaks #cablegate #
    • Black Looks Daily is out! [bit.ly] ▸ Top stories today by @danwibg @ethanz @ezilidanto @runnymedetrust @melindayiti #
    • RT @mediahacker: RT @madversity If Assange ws in China, West wld hve called him a dissident & given him Nobel prize #wikileaks #
    • Someone is going ballistic on the radio about #Haitian politicians & elite – #
    • AM News 81,000 now with #cholera and 2,000 dead – of course these are the ones they know, #Haiti #
    • Black Looks Daily is out! [bit.ly] ▸ Top stories today by @emeka_okafor @solomonsydelle @blacklooks @mediahacker @afrigadget #
    • Rivers State Governor Amaechi with ITT doesnt get away with his bullshit #NigerDelta [bit.ly] #
    • More #protests in #Haiti this morning – calling for annulment of elections #fraud # #
    • New "evidence" #Shell & #Nigerian military framed #SaroWiwa – we hve known this frm day 1 shell still denies guilt [ind.pn] #
    • Black Looks Daily is out! [bit.ly] ▸ Top stories today by @EthanZ @africanewsfeed @solomonsydelle @kenyanpundit @Dollabrand #
    • The #haiti Daily is out – read this Twitter newspaper on [bit.ly] (218 contributions today) #
    • Black Looks Daily is out! [bit.ly] ▸ Top stories today by @melindayiti @blacklooks @mediahacker @mobileactive #
    • The #haiti Daily is out – read this Twitter newspaper on [bit.ly] (236 contributions today) #
    • PETITION #South_African GOVERNMENT TO DECLARE CORRECTIVE RAPE A HATE CRIME #LGBTI [bit.ly] #
    • Black Looks Daily is out! [bit.ly] ▸ Top stories today by @Greenpeaceafric @ipsnews @solomonsydelle @avinunu @kenyanpundit #
    • The #haiti Daily is out – read this Twitter newspaper on [bit.ly] (228 contributions today) #
    • Black Looks Daily is out! [bit.ly] ▸ Top stories today by @mobileactive @blacklooks @kenyanpundit @avinunu #
    • The #haiti Daily is out – read this Twitter newspaper on [bit.ly] (257 contributions today) #
    • Black Looks Daily is out! [bit.ly] ▸ Top stories today by @Greenpeaceafric @mediahacker @africanewsfeed @Ezilidanto #
    • The #haiti Daily is out – read this Twitter newspaper on [bit.ly] (213 contributions today) #
    • Black Looks Daily is out! [bit.ly] ▸ Top stories today by @blacklooks @africanewsfeed @irinnews @kenyanpundit #
    • Black Looks Daily is out! [bit.ly] ▸ Top stories today by @solomonsydelle @myweku @TheAngryindian @ipsnews @avinunu #
    • The #haiti Daily is out – read this Twitter newspaper on [bit.ly] (335 contributions today) #
    • Watching protests on streets #Matterly – seems like the hero of the day #
    • Crazy day at voting stations in PAP – ppl very angry at not being able to vote – chaos, confusion, despair #Haiti #elections #
    • Black Looks Daily is out! [bit.ly] ▸ Top stories today by @avinunu @irinnews @kenyanpundit @africanewsfeed #
    • The #haiti Daily is out – read this Twitter newspaper on [bit.ly] (127 contributions today) #
    • Everything quite seems to be a curfew in PAP ppl searching 4 where to vote nothiing much happening this side – arrived safe & sound #Haiti #
    • Black Looks Daily is out! [bit.ly] ▸ Top stories today by @TheAngryindian @irinnews @ipsnews @kenyanpundit #
    • The #haiti Daily is out – read this Twitter newspaper on [bit.ly] (182 contributions today) #
    • RT @Mwistar: Beware #Kenyan tweeps & facebookers: NCIC is watching you No ETHNIC HATRED ON FB & TWITTER [bit.ly] #
    • Black Looks Daily is out! [bit.ly] ▸ Top stories today by @thegenderwire @africanewsfeed @blacklooks @EthanZ #
    • Naija-Daily is out @solomonsydelle @eggheader @Chykere @pdbraide @rmajayi @nzesylva @toluogunlesi @saratu @fowora #
    • The #haiti Daily is out – read this Twitter newspaper on [bit.ly] (251 contributions today) #
    • Black Looks Daily is out! [bit.ly] ▸ Top stories today by @blacklooks @Greenpeaceafric @ipsnews @kenyanpundit @tmsruge #
    • The #haiti Daily is out – read this Twitter newspaper on [bit.ly] (355 contributions today) #
    • Conservative candidate ah that explains it gross #
    • Black Looks Daily is out! [bit.ly] ▸ Top stories today by @thegenderwire @ipsnews @EthanZ @Pazuzu_hsp #
    • The #haiti Daily is out – read this Twitter newspaper on [bit.ly] (371 contributions today) #
    • How to write a brief history of Congo and not even one line on Patrice Lumumba #DRC [bit.ly] #
    • Condensation & myths of participatory #democracy & fantasies of #communication *drowning in data* #technology [bit.ly] #
    • #Niger_Delta "2 million man march" to protest crisis – women left out and anyway this is a dream to far [bit.ly] #
    • RT @ifikra: new anti-censorship bookmarklets by @astrubaal proxyfied shorten URLs, force https on facebook, jump via… [bit.ly] #
    • #Ethiopia jouranlist awarded "Freedom to Write" -http://bit.ly/dMfFiV #Sisay_Agena #
    • Black Looks Daily is out! [bit.ly] ▸ Top stories today by @Dollabrand @ipsnews @mobileactive @mediahacker #
    • The #haiti Daily is out – read this Twitter newspaper on [bit.ly] (356 contributions today) #
    • RT @Zawadin: Read The LGBTI Rights Paper top stories by @KenneMwikya @paulakahumbu and @Joliea ▸ [paper.li] #
    • RT @rmajayi: "#NigerDelta Politicians Behind Recent Violence" – Ex-militants [bit.ly] #
    • The role of donors in the movement for social justice in #Africa [bit.ly] #
    • Black Looks Daily is out! [bit.ly] ▸ Top stories today by @allafrica @ipsnews @Chykere @emeka_okafor #
    • The #haiti Daily is out – read this Twitter newspaper on [bit.ly] (370 contributions today) #
    • RT @ogundamisi: "For The Past 30 Years Nothing New Was Built in Lagos" Fashola Indicts Past Lagos Gov. [bit.ly] #
    • RT @Ezilidanto: All Elements of Society Are Participating – Impressions of Cap Haitien's Movement Against UN [huff.to] #haiti #
    • Undercover #Queer blog somewhere in the #Middle_East – via @Pazuzu_hsp [ht.ly] #
    • RT @Dollabrand: “@FramerFramed: V&A Museum UK "Hidden Histories: Africa" relationship bet Britain, Africa diaspora. [bit.ly] #
    • Redefining #Englishness – cups of tea dont wash any more [ind.pn] #
    • being a migrant in the UK [t.co] via @guardian #
    • Why don't Africans make wildlife films? | Nanjala Nyabola [bit.ly] @theguardian_ext #
    • Black Looks Daily is out! [bit.ly] ▸ Top stories today by @mediahacker @tmsruge @ipsnews @Dollabrand #
    • Equatorial Guinea reject gender cheating claims from #Nigeria #women_soccer [news.bbc.co.uk] #
    • #MiamiBookFair Ngugi wa Thiong'o, memoir "Dreams in a Time of War – what a lovely lovely man so full of wit & beautiful words that sing #
    • Excellent talk by #Paul_Farmer on #Cholera Need to focus on clean delivery of WATER WATER WATER #
    • The #haiti Daily is out – read this Twitter newspaper on [bit.ly] (336 contributions today) #
    • Black Looks Daily is out! [bit.ly] ▸ Top stories today by @EthanZ @mediahacker #
    • The #haiti Daily is out – read this Twitter newspaper on [bit.ly] (351 contributions today) #
    • Drawing from memory [bit.ly] #stephen_Wilshire #
    • Another media is possible [bit.ly] [bit.ly] [bit.ly] #
    • Inexcusable.+Newsweek+leads+the+pack+with+sh…+http://www.mediahacker.org/2010/11/inexcusable-newsweek-leads-pack-shallow-haiti-journalism/ #
    • Tell #Newsweek #Haiti deserves better coverage [bit.ly] #
    • RT @solomonsydelle: New Nollywood movement to compete wth Hollywood – better movies New Nigeria Cinema [ow.ly] "Go #Naija " #
    • RT @jester: And, to continue the #ff love-in, @cathredfern @doctoe @melsil @trine @brokenbottleboy @threewayswitch @carmenego #
    • #FF #Naija Top Tweets @forakin @rmajayi @Chykere @eggheader @pdbraide @fowora @solomonsydelle #Nigeria #
    • Excellent discussion on #Haiti #Cholera "bordering on ethnic cleasning" who cares [bit.ly] #
    • Black Looks Daily is out! [bit.ly] ▸ Top stories today by @mediahacker @thegenderwire @africanewsfeed @irinnews #
    • The #haiti Daily is out – read this Twitter newspaper on [bit.ly] (374 contributions today) #
    • RT @Ezilidanto: Wake all our DEAD folks- especially these living #Haiti zonbies who've forgotten the Ancestors [bit.ly] #
    • #Edwidge_Danticat on the immigrant artist at work [bit.ly] #Haiti #
    • Black Looks Daily is out! [bit.ly] ▸ Top stories today by @tmsruge @africanewsfeed @ipsnews #
    • As a form of protest I think we shld use #Naija #termofaffection @solomonsydelle @rmajayi @eggheader @forakin @Chykere @fowora #
    • The #haiti Daily is out – read this Twitter newspaper on [bit.ly] (368 contributions today) #
    • Check this video out — Archbishop Desmond Tutu on Ending Violence and Criminal Laws against LGBTI [t.co] via @youtube #
    • Black Looks Daily is out! [bit.ly] ▸ Top stories today by @thegenderwire @solomonsydelle @africanewsfeed #
    • The #haiti Daily is out – read this Twitter newspaper on [bit.ly] (199 contributions today) #
    • RT @Rethabile: Close To Home – The Reporter – Volume 1, Number 4: [bit.ly] Six #Miami Dade College professors will be reading #
    • #UN removes reference to #sexual_orientation from resolution condemning unjustified executions #Africa #LGBTI [bit.ly] #
    • Black Looks Daily is out! [bit.ly] ▸ Top stories today by @mediahacker @emeka_okafor @kiwanja #
    • The #haiti Daily is out – read this Twitter newspaper on [bit.ly] (369 contributions today) #
    • Black Looks Daily is out! [bit.ly] ▸ Top stories today by @africanewsfeed @tmsruge #
    • The #haiti Daily is out – read this Twitter newspaper on [bit.ly] (339 contributions today) #
    • How much for #Blogger [bit.ly] #
    • Black Looks Daily is out! [bit.ly] #
    • RT @rmajayi: . Dr Gurley created this simple, universal how-to video to help aid workers combat cholera in Haiti [su.pr] #
    • The #haiti Daily is out – read this Twitter newspaper on [bit.ly] (328 contributions today) #
    • Black Looks Daily is out! [bit.ly] ▸ Top stories today by @mediahacker @africanewsfeed @irinnews @mobileactive #
    • The #haiti Daily is out – read this Twitter newspaper on [bit.ly] (269 contributions today) #
    • Good news to wake up to #Aung_San_Suu released #Burma #
    • Black Looks Daily is out! [bit.ly] ▸ Top stories today by @mediahacker @solomonsydelle @melindayiti @AfricanWriters #
    • The #haiti Daily is out – read this Twitter newspaper on [bit.ly] (277 contributions today) #
    • #Uganda government omits sexual minorities from the Health Sector Strategic Plan III #sexworkers #LGBTI [bit.ly] #
    • The Uganda Homophobia Spectacle: [t.co] #
    • Epidemic advisory system set up in #Haiti #cholera – better late than never I guess [ht.ly] #
    • RT @melindayiti: Di MSF imagines patients will be lying in streets waiting for care #Cholera #Haiti [bit.ly] RT @MSF_USA #
    • Black Looks Daily is out! [bit.ly] ▸ Top stories today by @solomonsydelle @blacklooks @Dollabrand @kiwanja @Pazuzu_hsp #
    • The #haiti Daily is out – read this Twitter newspaper on [bit.ly] (335 contributions today) #
    • RT @Dollabrand: Friday demo #London 4 Jimmy #Mubenga #Angolan refugee died during deportation [on.fb.me] [bit.ly] #
    • Children need sanitizers, rehydration, water purifiers #Donate #Haiti #Cholera [bit.ly] #
    • #Haiti #cholera crimes against humanity People in camps & districts not been given even the most basic prevention or treatment medication #
    • Black Looks Daily is out! [bit.ly] ▸ Top stories today by @blacklooks @solomonsydelle @kiwanja @mobileactive #
    • The #haiti Daily is out – read this Twitter newspaper on [bit.ly] (303 contributions today) #
    • Thats sad if u get chance see him dance out of this world Sokari

      Toilets are a human right: From poo to compost in 6 months

      Posted: January 14, 2011, 5:04 pm by Sokari

      I met  Sasha Kramer the co-founder of SOIL [Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods] one Sunday afternoon at a Haitian  family wedding party high up on the top of a hill in Pernier district of Port-au-Prince.    About 20 of us piled into the flat bed truck and drove up and up at some points the road was so steep and so full of rocks and holes I feared those in the back would fall off.  Sasha and her colleague Nick who were already there and later Nick would give a “best man” speech in fluent Kreyol which was pretty impressive.  As in most Haitian gatherings there was a great deal of singing – I always wonder why hymns always sound so much better when sung in one of the many African languages or in Black churches! This is a whole other story so I will leave it aside for now.

      Sasha arrived in Haiti in 2004 working for a Human Rights organisation. Two years later she and her friend Sarah Brownell founded SOIL and started putting up toilets in Cap Haitian in the north of the country.  We think about the right to food, water and shelter but most often forget the sanitation – what goes in must come out – there is no way to avoid it.  And Haiti along with water supplies  desperately needs a sanitation system starting with collection of market waste which following SOIL’s vision could be turned into compost for farmers.

      After the earthquake Sasha came down to Port-au-Prince to help out and met Rea Dol and began helping out with the emergency food distribution along with Rea’s family, friends and neighbours. Everyone worked day and night buying food, packaging it into plastic bags and distributing to anyone in need. Shortly after the earthquake SOIL were approached by Oxfam and asked to build 200 toilets in the camps across the city. There were moments of panic as they did not feel they were ready but recognising the desperate need managed to gather together a team in PAP and began building the toilets.

      The philosophy behind SOIL which they describe as  ”liberation ecology” is

      dedicated to protecting soil resources, empowering communities and transforming wastes into resources in Haiti. We believe that the path to sustainability is through transformation, of both disempowered people and discarded materials, turning apathy and pollution into valuable resources. SOIL promotes integrated approaches to the problems of poverty, poor public health, agricultural productivity, and environmental destruction. We attempt to nurture collective creativity through developing collaborative relationships between community organizations in Haiti and academics and activists internationally Empowering communities, building the soil, nourishing the grassroots.

      Toilets too are a human right.

      the toilets are pretty cool – much needed in Haiti and we could do with some in Nigeria, other parts of the global south and rural areas everywhere.  There had been some problems with the one in the school – getting the kids to put the loo paper in a separate bucket rather than the toilet was frustrating but then with no running water, having to buy water and carry buckets to flush the toilet the compost still remained a better option.

      The toilets are based on a compost system starting with the poo and ending up with fertilizer for growing food.  First the toilet which consists of two compartments, one for urine and the other for poo placed exactly where you would sit or stand up.

      Next to the toilet is a bucket full of wood shavings and one for the toilet paper. After use, you take a handful of shavings and sprinkle over the poo. This continues until the barrel is full.  Instructions on how to use the loo are written on the door.

      It is then removed through a side door, sealed and left for 6 months while it ferments nicely towards becoming compost and used to fertilizer gardens and farms.  Eventually the hope is that a complete “waste collection and transport system” will be built including a treatment plant using garden and market waste, tested to meet standards and sold at a low cost to farmers across the country.

      The one I used which was near a small church and presumably used by visitors was extremely clean with absolutely no smell, no bugs,  nothing and outside was a tap to wash your hands, though to be on the safe side in the time of cholera  people should try and use a sanitizer as well.

      PS: If you are thinking about an organisation to donate to in Haiti then SOIL is one to consider – will write more on  a a couple of other transformational actions taking place.

    • Haiti Can Hold Me

      Posted: January 12, 2011, 5:40 pm by Sokari

      In remembering and honouring all those who died on January 12th 2010  I would also like to honour those who have  survived the awfulness of this past 12 months.   Quite rightly blogs and some media are  full of stories of the terrible things which Haitians especially in Port-au-Prince have had to endure, the betrayals, the negligence, cholera [There is serious evidence that this was brought into the country] and disrespect for their lives. Those responsible need to be called to account over and over till they begin to see change their way of doing things.  We should also be wary of those who appear to be acting in the interests of  ordinary Haitians but in reality have been co-opted by the interests of the Haitian elite and international corporations and governments. A friend of mind put it this way

      The only way clear of this mess is to leave the twentieth century’s greedy, self serving corporate rules and enter a world of a generous self powered equality.  Things grow so quickly here it continues to astonish me.  My hope and work revolves around trying to have human beings grow as quickly as the nature around them.

      But there are also other stories which need to be told. The stories, for example of the thousands of women  and men who have used their survival of the earthquake to envision a different Haiti and have, with total commitment and determination,  chosen to make positive transformational changes to their own lives and that of their communities. Those bypassed by NGOs and government officials.    The teachers who work for next to nothing to rebuild their schools and to create new educational and economic opportunities based on mutual support and shared reward.  Women who have taken charge of their situations, supported each other and called their abusers to account for their actions.

      Che Guevara once said “At the risk of sounding ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by feelings of love.” When I first read this I thought it poetic but never ridiculous. Now I have experienced this kind of love – I know it to be true.  It’s one which keeps everything ticking and touches everyone physically and emotionally and is based on sharing and collective action.  And unlike others who do not believe this possible, does not attach material value to everything.

      HAITI CAN HOLD ME

      my eyelids press mercilessly, too tightly upon my eyes.
      i fall, stumble and falter; quake and stop to look:
      observing the end. wishing i could finger my tarnished rosary beads.
      it is as though somebody else closed my eyes for me
      for the darkness in its finality is solid enough to touch.

      solitary silences. jolting tremors.
      behind hidden eyes i watch wisps of clouds
      scatter, and the clear blue sky stand firmly behind the sun;

      and i marvel when dusk fans the smoldering coals in
      the dusty horizon and – JOLT!- again darkness plants itself in the path of the sun:
      observing the end. observing the end.

      ashen cement has choked the tears in my eyes. behind choked eyes i see
      tropicbirds in angelic white fly with wild abandon, and palm trees sway
      carelessly with a new air of sureness.
      saints right then tell me about this land. that it is big and strong from being fed the blood and
      water of rebellious slaves. and for that it held firmly our bare and blithe feet as the first black-led
      republic. for that, Haiti can hold me, too.

      i stop pushing; i. stop. the land can hold me.
      i will not spend my last moments crying behind a painted face, a face whitened by dusky
      crumbled cement. i know i am pressed against the same gritty earth that held Toussaint upright.

      and so behind useless eyes i see Port-au-Prince as it was. i see Hotel Montana in its white
      grandiosity; i see myself two hours ago serving rum and coke to rich white people who speak
      through their noses. i watch the smiling sun part the clouds and break the unsuspecting dawn,
      commanding my Haiti to rouse, to do, to pray.

      Donald Molosi © 2011

      This post was first published on New Internationalist Blog

    • Palafrugell

      Posted: January 11, 2011, 8:25 pm by Rethabile

      (for Ordibehesht)

      Now that we’re in Spain and we sit
      at the cantina of our Catalonia Plaça
      drinking pink margaritas and cerveza,
      the light is right for watching boats
      that bring in fresh fish loads heaped
      on wet decks, men in yellow garments
      and gumboots yelling around them,
      the sun that hits their clothes halved
      by the cauldron’s rim, like a peach in
      a sea-blue bowl. This Mediterranean is
      where we sip cocktails. Half-lit trawlers
      glow like flies in the dark, and tables
      are prepared for shrimp, or mullet,
      or mussels that came in nets like coal,
      dropped from deck onto sodden dock,
      the smell of brine in our nostrils. Girls
      here wear red, paint nails and lips red.
      And when the moon increases,
      we leave the crowd and go to where
      on the sea-lipped edge all night long
      water likes the shore with its tongue.

    • Haiti: Before and After – A year later

      Posted: January 11, 2011, 4:29 pm by Sokari

      I recently finished my second reading of “Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist at Work”
      [Excellent Review here] I consider Danticat to be a courageous writer. She is not afraid to expose her vulnerability, her self-doubt, her longing to be included whilst recognising that she is outside of Haiti – the place she knows so intimately and so desires to be and is part of.

      On the anniversary of the 12th January earthquake she once again commits her “one thousand words or less” [Create Dangerously] to Haiti. In one of her essays from Create Dangerously, “Our Guernica” she writes about her first visit after the earthquake and her cousin, Maxo who was killed in the earthquake along with his ten-year old daughter, Nozial in the rubble of their family home in Bel Air. At one point she suddenly realises that the Haiti she is witnessing is like a “historical novel”…

      Suddenly, this stunning chronicle of a homecoming to a very recent Haiti feels like a historical novel. Then it hits me. From now on, there will always be the Haiti before the earthquake and the Haiti after the earthquake. And after the earthquake, the way we read and the way we write, both inside and outside Haiti, will never be the same”

      Danticat’s essay in yesterdays New Yorker ” A Year and a Day” is mostly about death and there is much death in Haiti both before and after but after is a different kind of story. Even the national anthem declares “Mourir est beau” – to die is beautiful. Haiti is also about ancestors who are now gone but remain very much alive through their spirtis.

      “In Haiti, people never really die,” my grandmothers said when I was a child, which seemed strange, because in Haiti people were always dying. They died in disasters both natural and man-made. They died from political violence. They died of infections that would have been easily treated elsewhere. They even died of chagrin, of broken hearts. But what I didn’t fully understand was that in Haiti people’s spirits never really die. This has been proved true in the stories we have seen and read during the past year, of boundless suffering endured with grace and dignity: mothers have spent nights standing knee-deep in mud, cradling their babies in their arms, while rain pounded the tarpaulin above their heads; amputees have learned to walk, and even dance, on their new prostheses within hours of getting them; rape victims have created organizations to protect other rape victims; people have tried, in any way they could, to reclaim a shadow of their past lives.

      The statues of the Black revolutionaries remain standing amongst the rubble of Champ Mars, rising above the tented camps and fallen palace. For me there were a number of possible reasons for their refusal to die…

      Rising above the devastation of Port-au-Prince in twisted irony, the heros of the revolution remain standing – Toussaint L’Overture, Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Henri Christophe. Do they speak of a fallen people or to a people on the verge of rising once again? The weirdest structure also still standing is the “2004” cone tower soaring above the whole city and built by President Aristide. No one seems to know what exactly it represents but I take it to be a symbol of the “2nd Haitian revolution” – the flood of Lavalas. It speaks, you are trying to kill us but we are not dead yet, there is a 3rd revolution to come…….

    • Are You Not Entertained?

      Posted: January 10, 2011, 6:03 pm by Sokari

      “Are you not entertained” is the first of three poems I am publishing on the anniversary of the 2010 January 12th earthquake in Haiti which killed over 200,000 people and has left millions homeless, forced to live in horrendous conditions in tent camps across the city. I recently returned from a month in Port-au-Prince and nothing I had seen on TV, photographs or anything written comes anywhere near adequately describing the reality of the conditions people have been condemned to live for the past 12 months. Much has been written on the “NGO Republic of Haiti”, betrayals, corruption, fraudulent elections so I am not going to repeat those stories here.

      I chose this poem by Donald because it speaks to the “spectacle” that Haiti has become in the international media, on the TV screens of US, UK, France etc so much so that Haitian babies are now transported in special planes chartered by the French government to new white French families. God knows what will become of these children in 15/20 years of being spectacles!

      A recent article in OpEd News, criticial of the NGO corporate activities used the title
      “Port-au-Prince Still Buried Under the Rubble of Competing NGOs“. Part of the competition between NGOs is to make a spectacle of Haitians – the more the spectacle the more the bottomless pot of cash keeps flowing.

      The international institutions, NGOs etc which rush to “save” Haitians from Haiti, “luxuriate” and with photos and videos and hundreds of text “stare at the nakedness” of the people marveling at their “resilience” and refusal to collapse and die from the pain engulfing their lives. They are startled at

      “my colorful beads unaware that the combination of these gaudy colors, just howlingly gaudy, are an ancient love letter to my ancestors whose spirits quietly tend me day by day. how do you do it….”

      Below is Donald’s poem….

      Are You Not Entertained? by Donald Molosi © 2011

      how do you do it,
      how do you summon faith
      yet not love first by what you see in blood and flesh?

      you traverse roiling oceans and
      menacing forests to get to my humble home.
      once here you luxuriate. and stare at my nakedness and point out my round buttocks,
      startled.
      you brashly marvel at my colorful beads unaware that the combination of these gaudy
      colors, just howlingly gaudy, is an ancient love letter to my ancestors whose spirits
      quietly tend me day by day. how do you do it,
      how do you hide your cross so deep in privilege that heaven cannot find it?

      an oddity on display for an animated safari story, a conversation-starter:
      i remain frozen in your photographs.
      preserved in a loveless way that blinks at the breath of God in me.

      how could you be any different when privilege preaches that everything and everyone
      are there to amuse you, to tell you stories different enough to be interesting?

      still, i am dying to ask -

      how could you afford God in his invisibility sparkling reverence

      and yet refuse to speak to the simple fullness of your bother’s humanity?

    • Side by Side: Kehinde Wiley & Zanele Muholi

      Posted: January 8, 2011, 5:20 pm by Sokari

      Khi Baldwin, on bklyn boihood makes the connection between the “queer portraiture of Zanele’s photography and Kehinde Wiley’s paintings

      “In thinking about how dope it is to see Muholi’s representations of queer people of color, it reminded me of seeing Kehinde Wiley’s portrait work for the first time. And although one medium is painting and the other photography, there is something strikingly similar about both artists work. From the emotions captured, to the background textures and contrast, the work, for me creates a similarly captivating feeling. And while Muholi’s subjects are queer and Wiley’s undertones and perspective inherently is, I think both artists create unique modern depictions of queer portraiture. Wiley is quoted as saying: “That’s partly the success of my work—the ability to have a young black girl walk into the brooklyn museum and see paintings she recognizes not because of their art or historical influence but because of their inflection.” I think both artists’ work have this same effect – they create a certain amount of visibility that didn’t previously exist that allows people to see themselves reflected within the work.


    • Kwame Dawes – Poems on Haiti

      Posted: January 7, 2011, 4:57 pm by Sokari

      Writer Kwame Dawes reporting and writing poems about people in Haiti.

    • Sounds of London

      Posted: January 7, 2011, 7:02 am by Sokari

      While away your days and nights listening to SoundCities. I listened to the ones from London – well south London, which is distinctly different from more hip areas up north like Kentish Town and Kilburn. I started to wish I was back on Kilburn High Road recording the late night rats in the garbage from Nandos, the drunks coming out of the pubs, sirens all day long, endless chatter and traffic, kids playing – well screaming in the park, couples fighting, youths dealing, singing beer drinking out of town football fans from strange places like Wigan and Stoke City, and my own music trying to silence all these external noises and the neighbour shouting and banging on my wall trying to silence me.

      Thanks to Oso for his wonderful post “Mapping my MegaCity.

    • Ugandan LGBTI win court case over Rolling Stone

      Posted: January 4, 2011, 4:33 pm by Sokari

      The High Court of Uganda ruled that the Rolling Stone had violated the constitutional rights to privacy and safety and has awarded the three plaintiffs damages of £400 each plus a warning to the magazine not to repeat the outings. This is fantastic news and a tremendous win for LGBTI people in Uganda. Congratulations to all those who had the courage to fight this case.

      The front page of Rolling Stone, started by journalism graduates from Makerere University in Kampala, claimed that the country’s homosexual community aimed to “recruit 1,000,000 children by 2012″, and that parents “face heart-breaks [sic] as homos raids schools”. Inside, a headline read: “Hang them; They are after our kids!!”

      It was published shortly before the first anniversary of the introduction to Uganda’s parliament of a controversial anti-homosexuality bill calling for the death penalty for those convicted of repeated same-sex relations. Inspired at least in part by a group of US evangelicals with close links to Uganda, the bill stalled after an international outcry, though it has not been scrapped.

      The Civil Society Coalition said it had filed a complaint against the newspaper on behalf of three members, and the high court had ordered Rolling Stone not to publish any further such stories. According to the group the court ruling, released today, noted that the issue was not homosexuality but the “fundamental rights and freedoms” of those named, particularly through the incitement to violence.

      Adrian Jjuuko, from the group, said: “The ruling firmly establishes the principle that constitutionally protected rights belong to all Ugandans, whatever their perceived sexuality.”

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