Tana Delta Erosion: The Future in Real Time
I recently spent 26 days in Kenya traveling the coastal towns and villages north of Mombasa with Kenyan Queer activist Layla Laura Wangari where we spent time engaging with LGBTIQGNC identified communities. Our intention was to create a textual and…
Haiti: Liberation Ecology: Poo to compost to nutrition and sustainable living
World Toilet Day! [19th November] reports that 40% of the world’s population do not have access to toilets which is about 1 in 3 people. Sanitation and waste disposal is a human right but like most rights, exists only on…
![Haiti: Occasional Musings 21, Environmental cost of construction boom [Photo Essay]](https://blacklooks.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/P1012928-150x150.jpg)
Haiti: Occasional Musings 21, Environmental cost of construction boom [Photo Essay]
The construction boom in Haiti driven by Diasporan money, UN [MINUSTAH] and government funds is destroying the local environment around the outskirts of Port-au-Prince. Hillsides are being cut away and river beds decimated to feed the huge demand for rock…
After the bees and the frogs we are not far behind
In an August 2013 report, Haiti Grassroots Watch wrote that Haiti’s mineral wealth could be worth as much as $US 20 billion and for this already land has already been given to US and Canadian businesses fronted by Haitian firms. …
Growing Haiti – Piti, piti, wazo fe nich li.
Growing Haiti is a South-South collaboration which focuses on strengthening Haitian women and families via sustainable micro gardening initiatives. With the support of friends and family, Mark Jacobs- a Guyanese farmer, writer, and educator has been working with Haitian people…
Haiti – Cholera still an emergency issue
From Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) a report on the deplorable condition of cholera related healthcare in four departments in Haiti. Part of the problem is that increasingly over the past 18 months cholera has been downgraded to a ‘development’ issue rather than an emergency one. However as the report states there has been an increase in mortality rates of 4% in 2012. Another factor which has the potential to exacerbate the cholera situation is the reduction of DINEPA staff responsible for all aspects of monitoring water and sanitation in the ‘official’ camps.
Haiti: Occasional Musings, 11 – International Women’s Day
I have a general wariness around national and international days which are set aside to remind us of a particular issue or celebration such as the Day of the Child, Human Rights Day, Water Day, Day Against Homophobia and International…
Redux: Odi & Filling Nigeria’s Memory Hole
After 14 years, Nigerian courts have ordered the government to pay compensation to Odi Town in the sum of nearly $240 million within 21 days. He described the attack on Odi as
“brazen violation of the fundamental human rights of the victims to movement, life and to own property and live peacefully in their ancestral home.”
Banks, multinationals, billionaires buying up water
land grabs taking place across the global south including across Africa – see here and here and the push towards water privatization. There are two additional ‘disturbing trends’ around the supply and access to water. The first is the multinationals and banks buying up water, lakes, water rights, acquirers and water technology.
Interactive Land Matrix – Resource in documenting land grab across Africa
Over the past five years there has been a staggering increase in land for investment deals across Africa by foreign governments and private investors. The Oakland Institute has been researching and documenting land grab investments..
#16Days: – Nigeria’s Memory Hole*
In the early hours of the morning of the 20th November, 1999, 27 trucks carrying over 2000 soldiers plus 4 armored personnel carriers mounted with machine guns drove into Odi Town in Bayelsa State. Between 2pm that afternoon and 6pm the following day, the town was bombarded with artillery fire. By the end of the two days, practically every building in the town was flattened, set on fire and/or looted. In all 2,483 persons – mainly women, children and the elderly were
Africa still pumping oil in the age of solar!
An insightful talk by Nigerian environmental activist Nnimmo Bassey – “Africa still pumping oil in the age of solar”. Nnimmo advocates keeping the oil in the soil and strong discounts the argument that oil is in any way beneficial to Nigeria…
Not a pretty picture: A short documentary on Nigeria
Via Sahara Reporters TV
Ken Saro-Wiwa on how it was, how it remains & how it could be
KSW reminds us of a struggle Nigerians have largely ignored or at best dismissed. The Nigerian media [pre social media] has to take major responsibility for the lack of information and analysis no doubt bullied as usual by military and…
On the condition of Nigeria by Nigerians….
Three excellent insightful articles by Nigerians on Nigeria with my brief comments. “People In The Niger Delta Now Recognize That Jonathan Is A Waste Of Time” — Isaac Osuoka Issac Osuoka is a long time environmental and social justice activist…
Beyond COP17 – language and grassroots realities
A clip from a roundtable discussion on the South African media’s reporting on Climate Change which has failed to amplify the voices of those most affected.
Excuse me while I die
We are 4 days into the 16 Days of Activist Against Violence Against Women which dates back to 1999. Fourteen years of days and weeks where the world supposedly focuses on violence against women will end on Human Rights Day,…
Normalisation of oil pollution and violence in the Niger Delta
A new series of photos from Nigerian photo activist George Osodi presented at Bamako 2011. The series shows “the duality of life” in the Niger Delta where oil pollution and violence have become a normalised everyday part of life
Japan to donate food from Fukushima region to global south countries
NHK [Japan National Broadcasting] reported that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is proposing to purchase industrial and canned fish products from disaster hit areas, Fukushima, Miyagi, Iwate as “a means to tackle harmful rumor against their products”. The Ministry applied…
Report finds Shell complicit in human rights abuses & payments to militants
A new report has found that Shell fuelled human rights abuses in Nigeria by paying huge contracts to armed militants. The report, called Counting the Cost, is published by Platform and a coalition of NGOs and featured in todays UK…
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