Reality in Writing : Caribbean Political Economy

The October MINUSTAH report is now translated into Kreyol. Many thanks to Other Worlds for the translation. MINUSTAH: Èske se yon fòs k ap mentni lapè, Oubyen k ap conspire kont li? is attached below: MINUSTAH Study Oct 2011 Kreyol

Today, I was lucky enough to be invited to briefly speak on the MINUSTAH report and the role of NGO's in Haiti at this event. It was great to meet Dr. Balsiero, hear about his extremely important and inspiring work - in addition to meeting lots of people who are already doing their own work to help Haiti. Attached are my prepared remarks, but I had to freestyle it because time was cut short: Good evening, my name is Kevin Edmonds and I am a representative of the Toronto Haiti Action Committee, and wanted to thank Elizabeth Hill and the Canadian Cuban Friendship Association for the invitation, in addition to Dr. Balsiero for coming all the way up here to inform us of what great work Cuba is doing in Haiti. Thank you very much. So very quickly, the reason that I am here is because I and several other doctors and human rights advocates recently finished a report on a group which has made the Cuban medical doctors work much, much harder in Haiti. That group is the United Nations. The r

Stabroek News, October 17th, 2011 Available at: http://www.stabroeknews.com/2011/features/10/17/%E2%80%9Cwho-protects-us-from-you%E2%80%9D-%E2%80%93-minustah-and-haiti/ Almost two years after the devastating January 12th earthquake, the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH by its French acronym) was given increased funding, personnel and an extended mandate to provide security and stability for the Haitian people. On October 4th, a Harvard based research group comprised of Canadian and US human rights advocates, doctors, journalists and public health experts released an extensively researched report which highlighted that the United Nations force has in fact been a continuous source of human rights abuses, helping to perpetuate the insecurity and instability they had been entrusted to fight. Prior to the earthquake, MINUSTAH’s record was far from clean, as they had been involved in numerous scandals, related to sexual assault, political repression and the murders of

Conference info here: http://www.acp-cpa.ca/en/ConProgram2011.html On Saturday October 15th, Roger Annis and I will be at the Canadian Peace Alliance Conference @ Ryerson University presenting a workshop on "Canada in Haiti: The military face of the neoliberal agenda" which is essentially a discussion about Canada’s ongoing military/police presence in Haiti, and how it supports Canadian corporate interests in the Caribbean and Latin America. Time: 10am - 11:15am Room: TBA - but will be finalized and posted @ event

Today I had a chance to talk with Kabir of Radio Basics about the role of MINUSTAH in Haiti, and the recently released report on this involvement in human rights abuses. As always, Kabir was on point and brought up the importance of understanding the failure of MINUSTAH to prevent such "peacekeeping" episodes in Libya or Syria. Audio will be posted here: http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/search/

Haiti Beyond the Headlines Thursday, October 13th · Eyewitness reports on weak and inadequate post-earthquake reconstruction · Paralysis of the presidency of Michel Martelly · Wikileaks documents exposing role of U.S. government and its allies in subverting Haiti’s sovereignty and development · Crimes of UN intervention and Haitian resistance to UN military occupation · Roger Annis, coordinator of the Canada Haiti Action Network in Vancouver and director of a ten-day fact-finding and solidarity mission to Haiti in June, 2011 · Rosena Joseph, learning coach in Toronto, member of CUPE Local 3393 and member of the fact-finding mission · Kim Ives, editor of Haiti Liberté, a news weekly based in Brooklyn and Port au Prince · Kevin Edmonds,THAC member and co-author of "Stabilizing Haiti: Mission Accomplished?" - Forthcoming report on the UN role in Haiti Date: Thursday, October 13, 7 pm Location: Sidney Smith Hall, room 2135, University of Toronto For more information: www.thac.ca

Minustah White Paper(1)