African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
33 p., Warns that without an inclusive national pact on critical priorities, President Michel Martelly faces the spectre of a failed presidency, and Haiti risks international abandonment. To finally start the long-promised transformation, Martelly should build on the tenuous Christmas Eve 2012 agreement for a credible electoral body to hold much delayed Senate, municipal and local polls quickly. He also should bring key actors into a national dialogue on selecting the Constitutional Council and resolving credibility questions about the appointment of the president of the Supreme Court and the Superior Judicial Council, as well as on pursuing other critical short- and longer-term public policies. Figures, Appendixes, References.
"I was very impressed with Minister [Lisa Hanna]'s presentation," said Carmeta Albarus, Forensic Social Worker and Death Penalty Mitigator and author most recently of the The Making of Lee Boyd Malvo: The D.C. Sniper.
Examines the sources of domestic political will for intervention, particularly the role of partisanship, ideology, and public opinion on Congressional members' willingness to support US intervention for humanitarian purposes. Analyzes several Congressional votes relevant to four episodes of US humanitarian intervention: Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, and Kosovo. Finds that public support for humanitarian intervention increases Congressional support and that other political demands, primarily partisanship and ideological distance from the president, often trump the normative exigencies of intervention.
The ongoing review of defamation laws by the Jamaican government has sharpened the focus on the need to identify appropriate standards for public officials in libel actions in light of the growing recognition of a need for transparency. This article explores how British, Caribbean and U.S. jurisdictions have sought to manage the paradigm shift between the right to reputation and the need to ensure responsible and accountable governance. The aim is to identify a path of reform for Caribbean defamation law that ensures greater public official accountability and better incorporates twenty-first century notions of democracy.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
20 p., Haiti has concluded its latest election cycle, although it is still finalizing the results of a few legislative seats. The US provided 16 million dollars in election support through the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Like many of the previous Haitian elections, the recent process has been riddled with political tensions, violence, allegations of irregularities, and low voter turnout. Other issues include the destabilizing presence of former dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier and former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and the newly elected government's ability to handle the complex post-earthquake reconstruction process and its relationship with the donor community.
She said that, these are the harsh realities which result in significant measure from pervasive and systemic injustice and discrimination, for which the international community needs a "wake up call" in order to accelerate regional and international cooperation, "to ensure people of African descent have full enjoyment of their rights to participate in all the political, economic, social and cultural facets of society". The Acting CARICOM Secretary General said that the region's "highly respected international reputation' as being intolerant of inequality and discrimination' was built partly on the foundation of the unrelenting resistance of enslaved Africane, embodied in martyrs and leaders of the slave revolts such as Toussaint L'Overture in Haiti; Nanny and Tacky in Jamaica; Codjo, Mentor and Present in Suriname; Bussa in Barbados and Cuffy and Damon in Guyana. [Lolita Applewhaite] said the Rastafarian movement that "revolutionised the consciousness of the Caribbean people and many others outside of the region", pointing also to the strong influence of people of African descent in the creation of a "distinctive Caribbean brand".
Minister of Youth, Sport and Culture, Olivia 'Babsy' Grange, believes that newly crowned World 100m champion and the second-fastest man over 200m, Yohan Blake, is a source of inspiration for Jamaica's youth and encouraged the 21-yearold to remain humble and respectful. "I have a soft spot for Yohan and have always felt that he is a special athlete, having followed his career since he was a student at St Jago," Grange said. "So when Usain false started, I was confident that he would rise to the occasion and win. When Everyone was shocked about the false start, I was focused on Jamaica winning because I knew Yohan would make it happen."
Haiti's election debacle of November 28 can be directly linked to the 1991 and 2004 coups. The political upheaval in both cases allowed the de facto president to unilaterally select members of the electoral council, bypassing constitutional provisions requiring popular representation. The result this time: the arbitrary banning of 14 political parties, including Haiti's largest and most representative, the Fanmi Lavalas party of ousted, exiled former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
14 p., This paper has to do with a question that is important for the future of the Hemisphere: namely, what to do about the Organization of American States (OAS)? On February 23, 2010, heads of state from throughout Latin America and the Caribbean met in Cancun and formed a new organization: the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC). It has the same membership as the OAS, but without the United States and Canada, and it includes Cuba.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
442 p., Once the lucrative European colony in the Caribbean, Haiti has become one of the divided and impoverished countries in the world. This title analyzes how and why President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's enemies in Haiti, the US and France instigated a second coup in 2004 to remove Aristide and a mobilization known as Lavalas for good.
