Reality in Writing : Caribbean Political Economy

The Man-made Aftershocks of A Natural Disaster: Haiti One Year Later Originally posted on: NACLA.org Link: https://nacla.org/node/6868 Jan 26 2011 Kevin Edmonds More than a year has passed since Haiti’s 2010 earthquake, along with one of the largest international relief efforts in modern history. Yet, for many people in Haiti today, little has changed, and for many others life has become worse. While the uncontrollable forces of nature can be blamed for the death and destruction of the earthquake (in which an estimated 300,000 Haitians perished), the extreme vulnerability of the nation both before and after the disaster was entirely man-made. One year after the quake, 1.3 million people still are living in unsanitary and makeshift tent camps despite $10 billion dollars of aid pledged by the international community. Many Haitians think that instead of an international aid effort, they are witnessing the continuation of a lengthy h

Today was my first apperance on television. It was on TVO's The Agenda with Steve Paikin. Niraj at the Toronto Haiti Action Committee forwarded my name to the producer who invited me on. It was both a unique and stressful experience - always second guessing my answers as I was speaking. Thankful for the opporunity to speak about Haiti. Hopefully next time they will include Haitians in their discussion about the lack of reconstruction about their own country.

Today I had the opportunity to go on the Radio Basics show on CHRY 105.5fm in Toronto. The hosts were great, giving me the time and space to express the questions in depth. They really knew their stuff. Looking foward to doing it again. http://kevinedmonds1.podomatic.com/entry/2011-02-19T13_32_32-08_00

Originally Posted on: Rabble.ca Posted on: January 6th, 2011 Link to Original: http://www.rabble.ca/news/2011/01/another-well-placed-critic-western-policy-haiti-removed A Critic of Western Policy in Haiti Loses his OAS Job By: Kevin Edmonds Rabble.ca January 6, 2011 On December 25, the Organization of American States removed their special representative, Ricardo Seitenfus, from Haiti. The reason was very simple. He told the truth. In an interview four days earlier with the Swiss newspaper Le Temps, Seitenfus bluntly expressed the popular discontent which the Haitian people have been saying since the arrival of MINUSTAH (United Nations Stabilization Force in Haiti) on June 1, 2004 -- simply put, that their presence " solves nothing, it makes things worse. [They] want to turn Haiti into a capitalist country, an export platform for U.S. market, it's absurd." The French language article can be read

Haiti One Year Later: Misery Loves Companies (NGO's) Originally Posted on: Basicsnews.ca Posted on: January 6th, 2011 Link to Original: http://www.basicsnews.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4477:kevin-edmonds&catid=1:latest-news&Itemid=69 Haiti One Year Later: Misery Loves Companies (NGOs) By: Kevin Edmonds Basicsnews.ca January 6, 2011 On January 12, one year will have passed since the catastrophic 7.0 earthquake devastated an already troubled Haiti. When the dust settled, nearly 300,000 people had perished, 1.5 million had been left homeless, and much of the government infrastructure (schools, hospitals, and administrative buildings) had been destroyed. Immediately after the earth stopped shaking, the United Nations and the major donor nations of the United States, Canada and the European Union vowed to “build Haiti back better.” One year into the reconstruction effort, many Haitians’ lives remain in the same d