The Gloomy Human Rights Situation in Haiti

William O'Neill, UN expert on the human rights situation in Haiti

Haiti's survival is at stake

Hello everyone, thank you for being here.

I am just back from Haiti where I was on a field mission to take stock of the human rights situation.  This was my fourth visit since my appointment by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights two years ago.

This brief stay enabled me to assess the situation, not only how serious it is, but also and above all, above all, the pain and despair of an entire population.  Suffering permeates all social strata, especially the most vulnerable.  Despite the efforts of the Haitian National Police (PNH) and the Multinational Security Support (MSS) Mission, the risk of the capital falling under gang control is palpable.

These violent criminal groups continue to extend and consolidate their hold beyond the capital.  They kill, rape, terrorize, set fire to homes, orphanages, schools, hospitals, places of worship, recruit children and infiltrate all spheres of society.  All this, with the utmost impunity and sometimes, as many sources point out, with the complicity of powerful actors.

The testimonies we received speak for themselves and need no comment.

*P., aged 16, survived the worst.  “Seven masked gunmen broke into my home in Kenscoff, raped and beat me and my stepmother.  Then they killed my father in front of me.  The pain is excruciating.

Sometimes I forget it, then it comes back.  At night, I scream”.

In the meantime, she says she “dances” and “dreams of being a psychologist for young survivors,” like herself.  The young girl has been housed in a refuge for a few weeks.  According to civil society, violence exacerbates all needs.  There are not enough resources to take care of all the victims.

“I just want to go back to the street,” concluded 12-year-old L., a child forcibly recruited by gangs.  He is currently incarcerated at the Centre de Rééducation des Mineurs in Port-au-Prince and accused of association with the gangs.  “I don't want any more bandits in my country.  Later, I'll be a pilot,” he added.

The violence has internally displaced over a million people (IDPs), and thousands more have been displaced just in recent weeks.  They have nowhere to go.  Students recently threw stones at IDPs attempting to occupy their school.  The desperate turning against the more desperate.  In the makeshift camps, hunger and sexual violence are widespread.  For many, it's a matter of survival.

Unity and solidarity must guide political action at all levels, in the interests of the population.

They must be the guiding principles for all Haitian actors, in order to ensure security,  the primacy of justice and the survival of the State.

The fight against impunity and corruption are major obstacles to the dismantling of gangs.  The Haitian State must therefore make the fight against these two scourges an absolute priority.

The fight against gangs must be conducted in strict compliance with international human rights law, particularly the right to life.  No circumstances, however exceptional, can justify the violation of this fundamental right.

The international community, for its part, must act without delay to implement the commitments it has made, particularly with regard to the sanctions regime, the arms embargo, and the substantial reinforcement of multinational security support, in compliance with international human rights law.

There is not a day to lose.  There is no alternative.  Haiti's survival is at stake.

*Names withheld to protect the identity of victims.

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The Deep State Started The War in Ukraine!

It was the Obama CIA/State Dept that funded Nazi militant groups to start a civil war in Ukraine, and initiated regime change to a CIA/State Dept puppet, Yatseniuk

Covert elements within the US government, along with their European partners in NATO, used espionage to overthrow and take control of the nation of Ukraine, then built a massive standing army on Russia’s border, then tried to bring Ukraine into NATO, and thus start WW3

By Annabelle Novack

If you still believe that Russia started this conflict in 2022, then you are either corrupt, ignorant, or brainwashed.  If you don’t know who Victoria Nuland is, or what she was doing in Ukraine in 2014, then you have no idea what’s going on.

The Deep State started this war.  It was the Obama CIA/State Dept that funded Nazi militant groups to start a civil war in Ukraine, and initiated regime change to a CIA/State Dept puppet, Yatseniuk.  This was all revealed in the leaked phone call between State Dept diplomats and Deep State agents, Victoria Nuland and Geoffrey Pyatt.

After the Maidan coup in February 2014, the US CIA/State Dept owned Ukraine via proxy, and the CIA began using Ukraine as a giant offshore playground for criminal racketeering and money laundering.  Ukraine became one giant CIA base, directly on Russia’s border.

Then the US/NATO began building up Ukraine’s army for the sole purpose of one day fighting Russia.  The US/NATO began supplying Ukraine with weapons, equipment, missiles, training, intelligence, etc.

Covert elements within the US government, along with their European partners in NATO, used espionage to overthrow and take control of the nation of Ukraine, then built a massive standing army on Russia’s border, then tried to bring Ukraine into NATO, and thus start WW3.

If you are still buying the official MSM narrative about this conflict, you should not be engaged in conversations. Everything the MSM told you about Ukraine/Russia has been a lie, and in many cases, the inverse of the truth.

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Trump to Zelensky, GTH-OOH!

Trump Card

By Dennis Dames
Nassau, NP, The Bahamas

What is President Trump dealing with?  We could take days perhaps to fully articulate an answer to such a question.

But, I world like to touch on one of the cards which I think President Trump has laid soundly on the international political table – to the ire of many national sucker and cut-sucker leaders throughout our world.

Trump made it clear to Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas that the USA has had enough of being taken advantage of; as many of the nations and international organizations which have been suported by US tax dollars over the decades – have been and are still supporting enemies of the United States of America, American ideals and interests.

Some seem to want something for nothing – like the hapless leader of Ukraine, Mr. Zelensky.  Trump had the right to run that cut-sucker out of the White House, in my humble opinion.

SpaceX Rocket Landing in The Bahamas

Bahamian Perspectives on SpaceX Rocket Landing in The Bahamas

SUDDENLY NEARLY EVERY BAHAMIAN IS A ROCKETEER; WHETHER FOR OR AGAINST!

By Professor Gilbert Morris
Nassau, NP, The Bahamas

I am not a rocketeer either way, and I have only a common curiosity about them, beyond lighting up cans of “flit” with my devilish cousins in Freeport, before Mumsy put an end to that!

But I am overqualified to speak to the methodical protocols of the public debate…which essentially if my official role as “National Public Reader!"

To start: let’s stop all this gapseed and fast talk that has so many engaged.

The matter of these rocket landings can’t be assessed one dimensionally or emotionally.

We can’t just imagine every permutation of potential impact, as a mean.  It’s like people are saying, “gurrl I felt my finger hurt when that rocket landed.  "We at risk!"

Alternatively, we can’t evangelise benefits we could have but never built into this opportunity.  We can’t start talking about “space tourism”, which has nothing to do with watching rocket landings and more to do with actually going into space…which we are not doing!!

In both sides: those who talk as if any potential negative possibility is a risk and those who think that they can just claim that suddenly The Bahamas is a player in the space game.  We could be…but we are NOT; because that’s not what we designed or cultivated.

More importantly, we must take more matured, rather than a wild speculative approach; on both sides!

"Public rationality” is the ability of a society to frame agreements and disagreements around ratios informed by a fact-pattern that is acceptable to all sides, even when they disagree.  The discourse around this rope tells me we need more Baysians Logic, statistics and probability together with general knowledge of risk metrics; starting in kindergarten!

When we consider these rocket landings, we must consider….mmmmmmmm…some basics:

First, there is the question of Musk himself.  Some people are offended by his character and attitudes and thinks black nation should not entertain such a person.  That must be weighted against the variety of personalities - many actual Nazis and gangsters - we’ve dealt with over the decades in The Bahamas; with known similar odious views!

Second, risks-benefits analysis are always comparative: it is, invariably always a calculus…of the actual or potential downsides in their variety (as was spoken to above), offset by relevant, substantive and potential, nameable, actionable benefits.

First, the thug has happened: we can’t be talking now about what this “could mean to The Bahamas”. 

We’re not 7!

We must say what the 3 or 5 initiatives are that we are doing.  These may include internships at Space X, Saturday master classes in rocket science, certified post-landing cleanup technicians etc.

We mustn’t say it’s the first time a rocket took off from in country and landed in another.  It’s not true. John Glenn landed at Turks and Caicos, February 2nd. 1962…and I can guarantee you, he didn’t take off from there.  Perhaps based on the clear skies designation of Turks and Caicos and The Bahamas, together with the angular geometry of rocket launches that designate the Bahama region for landing, we would develop a joint space monitoring centre.

If you want to go big: maybe the last scheduled launch should be a Bahamas satellite.

When it comes to the risks, we must be diligent…but we mustn’t be to cute:

We have been a greater threat to our environment than any external force.  Any assessment should begin with our own renewed sensibilities toward our neglected responsibilities based upon public rationalities.

So the question isn’t whether the sensible risk concerns raised are irreparable determinants; but are the overrides, offsets, compensations, redundancies and other inter-leavening weights in our risk models, such that overall it generates net benefits for The Bahamas?

Otherwise everyone will simply jump in talking about flies and roaches that are being “impacted”.

Rather let’s use this moment to show we are capable of credible ASSESSMENTS, productive of instructive risk/benefits ratios.

Have we such an outtake?

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The Unipolar World Order versus The Multipolar World Order

A NEW (KINDA OLD) WORLD ORDER!

By Professor Gilbert Morris
Nassau, NP, The Bahamas

Every American founding father - in letters and speeches - lusted after the creation of a global U.S. empire; with the exception of Alexander Hamilton (the Caribbean man, born in Nevis).

The empire emerged as American aristocratic novelist Gore Vidal explored in 5 historical novels beginning in 1824 with the Monroe Doctrine.

(The novels, all brilliant: Empire, Burr, 1876, Lincoln, United States)

Henry Kissinger took the view - beyond international law - that there was a “collective superpower prerogative”, so that Russia-China-US (with EU and Africa at the children’s table) should reflect the structure of the world order.

That is to say: Kissinger believed that led by the U.S., together with Russia and China, they should set the global agenda and the rest of the world should follow!

The Reaganites accused Kissinger of being “anti-American” for expousing a variety of multipolarity.  That is, Reagan attacked Kissinger for not promoting the idea of “America first and leading with the other superpowers following and the rest of the world following them.

I leave it to you to determine whether Reagan should ever have been allowed in the same room with Kissinger.

But now, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio - one can’t get used to the notion - has withdrawn from the Reagan hubris of sole superpower, to a hybrid of Kissinger’s world order model; adding ‘zero sum’ insular multipolarity; meaning every man (nation) for himself!

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MARCUS GARVEY THE GREAT!

Marcus Garvey can be credited in America, with linking Blackness to Africa

WAS MARCUS GARVEY GREAT?

By Professor Gilbert Morris
Nassau, The Bahamas

Marcus Garvey is less a complex, than an opaque figure.  He can be credited in America, with linking Blackness to Africa; whilst positing that the diaspora were one people. (That’s where Bob Marley got the idea).

Strange as it may seem now, that association with Africa was verboten; as whites had convinced blacks and blacks convinced themselves, that there was nothing of value to and/or in Africa.

Countee Cullen - the American poet who was Black, who moved me most, who was the high school teacher of James Baldwin and married to WEB Dubois’ daughter - wrote “what is Africa to me/Spicy grove, cinnamon tree/what is Africa to me?”  (Derek Walcott - the St Lucian Nobel Laureate poet - also wondered about the conundrums of a far distant Africa and the alien beloved tongue in which he wrote now.  In “A Far Cry From Africa” (a double entendre titling), he wrote: “The gorilla wrestles with the superman/I who am poisoned with the blood of both/Where shall I turn, divided to the vein?/I who have cursed/The drunken officer of British rule, how choose/Between this Africa and the English tongue I love?”

This in many ways was the more enlightened, but not the general sentiment.

It wasn’t until in the Harlem Renaissance - 1920, the Benin Bronzes were shown and Alain Locke - father of the Harlem Renaissance - posited the cultural history of Africa in his “Essays on Value”, which lead Blacks to take a second look eventually.  Then came the structural decolonising/independence movements after 1950, which quickened the rise of Africa in America; even and especially amongst Blacks…including in the Caribbean.

Garvey initiated that in the 1920 with his Universal Negro Improvement Association and his philosophy of Pan-Africanism, which argued for the intellectual and cultural plentitude of Africa.

Garvey was quite entrepreneurial and established his own black Shipping Company: Black Star Line…with an unthinkable self-confidence, which was mimicked by persons such as Jack Johnson, the Black heavyweight champion boxer.

In 1922, Garvey was charged and convicted of wire fraud, but it was not for defrauding schemes of any sort.  It involved the selling of shares in his shipping company…and it is agreed by most scholars that the charges were used to silence him.

Joe Kennedy at the time was engaged in actual fraud and opium dealing…and yet saw no pause in his freedom.  Garvey’s sentence was commuted by President Andrew Jackson and in 1927, President Calvin Coolidge ordered Garvey deported to Jamaica.

Two points of note: 

1. Garvey’s main opposition in America was not whites, but Blacks like A. Philip Randolph and Walter Wilkins.  They were elite blacks who had gotten inroads with whites.  They felt that Garvey - a bit of a show off was compromising their status, speaking about this hated Africa, which they regarded as backwards.  They appealed to the Attorney General to investigate Garvey; who as a bit of a ‘dandy’, which didn’t help because of his flamboyance.  These are the same Blacks who rail-roaded Paul Roberson and who opposed Dr. Martin Luther King jr. who - from 1963 until his death - was the most hated Black man in America for his stance on the Vietnam War and for planning the “Poor People’s March on Washington”.

2. Marcus Garvey never set foot on the African continent.  Why?  Because before 1950, the countries were all colonies and no colonial government would allow his entry, which would have been a challenge to their authority.

Even in dress Garvey was audacious: there is a rich history to the uniform he wore…but in the simplest terms, he mimicked W.E.B. Dubois, who himself mimicked the Prussian elite nation builders - like Karl von Bismarck and others - who established the state of German in 1870.  Dubois studied at the Univeristy of Berlin - which I’ve visited for research purposes and where he is still well regarded - having helped to developed the discipline of sociology with Wilhelm Dilthey, Max Weber and others.  Dubois and Garvey wanted to achieve the same ends in the manner…that at last…all the German people were united; so they wished to advance the same amongst Blacks in the diaspora with the African continent.

So was Garvey a great man?

His contribution was significant.  He lacked the multivarious talents or global prominence of Paul Roberson, the majesty, education, pedigree and vision of Dr Martin Luther King Jr. or the sheer natural brilliance and discipline of Malcom X.  But they rose and stood on the shoulders of his natural audacity to think Africa and African origins and of an African future as substantive.

His ideas were 100 years before their time: only now we see in the Sahel, where 5 nations - Mali, Niger, now Togo and Chad together with Burkina Faso (led by the magnetic Ibrahim Traoré) have broken (are breaking) from France…steeped they are…the philosophy of Marcus Garvey, as there is no other self-dependent blueprint for Black nations confident in their significance.  Garvey is the sole philosopher in that space.  And as it was for Garvey, Roberson and King, their most strident opposition came from fellow Black presidents of African nations over-tethered to the West…even against or within their own narrow interests!

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Trump's World

Trump Rules!

Trump For a New Division of The World

By Elson Concepción Pérez
January 9, 2025

We are "living" in the 21st century and, for Donald Trump, the almost new president of the United States, life and the integration of the world must go backwards, and he is trying to recycle the colonialist formulas of yesteryear, with the addition that this time money is the main factor when it comes to appropriating foreign territories and reformulating even the geography itself, as if it were a poker game or the stock market.

It is almost impossible for the reasoning of a human being to be able to "digest" that we have reached 2025 with wars, genocide, sanctions and threats, all with the participation and direction of the American governments, and that, far from using all the resources to stop the human carnage that is being staged in Palestinian territory, new threats, this time territorial ones that would surely become war scenarios or, at least, of destabilization, are coming to the public arena.

Trump's proposal is a provocative attempt to retake the Panama Canal, the inter-oceanic waterway that the Isthmian country recovered when Presidents Omar Torrijos and Jimmy Carter signed on October 1, 1979, the Treaties that established that the Central American country would take full control of it on December 31, 1999.

It is a waterway through which 6 % of world trade transits, and almost 60 % of the containers transported from Asia to the East Coast of the United States.

Even though the Panamanian president, José Raúl Mulino, rejected Trump's threats and assured that "the sovereignty and independence of the country are not negotiable", the Republican magnate reiterated that "the plan to recover the Panama Canal is currently under consideration", and did not rule out the possible use of military force to achieve it, according to Sputnik reports.

In our own region, Trump's policy has led him to expose another of his hegemonic blunders: "I am going to announce in the next few days that we are going to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America."  "What a beautiful name!  It's appropriate," Trump said in a press conference.

All these ideas are accompanied by economic and financial threats, such as "imposing harsher tariffs, if the Aztec country does not accept."

Trump also suggested that Canada could become the 51st state of the U.S.  "If we remove the artificially drawn line, and analyze what it looks like, we will also greatly improve national security.  Let's not forget: basically, we protect Canada," the magnate assured.

In this regard, Justin Trudeau, who until two days ago was Canadian Prime Minister, exclaimed that "there is not the slightest possibility that Canada will become part of the United States".

Another obsession that Trump had already raised in his first term, is that of "buying" Greenland, or, in other words, the accession of that territory.  Defiantly, as is his wont, he said that "people don't even know if Denmark has any rights to that territory, but if they do, they should give it up, because we need it for national security, that is, for the free world."

Let us conclude with the following appreciation: this is the beginning of a new year, 2025.  It is the prelude to a Republican administration in the United States, under the leadership of Donald Trump, the man who, even without reaching the White House, plans to undertake a new "sharing of the world", something very similar to a new colonization, this time not carried out by European metropolises, but under total American leadership.

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