This is so heartbreaking. I had no idea Haitians have to resort to something like Dirt Cookies. I knew there was crushing poverty, but just knowing this makes their plight more real. I've always wondered how one side of an island can be so poor while the other side thrives. I'm still not sure and I hope you'll write about that more.
If their camping under a bridge in Texas can bring more awareness to what they have to face in their homeland, so be it. But how did they get there? Who gave them directions and told them they would be safe there? These human tragedies are never-ending. Only the locations change. We have to do better to save them all from such desperation they literally put their lives in danger on the off-chance that some of them will be saved.
I wonder, too, about the Clinton's actions in Haiti. I've heard two decidedly different versions and I'm hoping you can clarify. In any case, I'll subscribe to your newsletter, and add it to my blogroll on Constant Commoner.
Thank you for doing this. These stories are so necessary.
Thank you so much, Ramona. I don't have any definite answers to many of those questions. I have my suspicions, of course, and my biases, and I try hard not to express them, as a journalist. I try to keep as bias-neutral as I can. It is difficult. Your comment tells me that perhaps I should try and collate some of the possible answers, and put something out on the subject. The short version that I can tell you right now is that it's very complicated. Just the matter of Mexican labor along the border going all the way back to the Texas revolution is some wild stuff. My biggest suspicion revolves around the facilitation of Non Governmental Organizations. Most are filled with great people, who sincerely want to help. But, as a whole, they are difficult to trace and hold accountable to the public, even as they absorb large amounts of tax money and foreign aid dollars. And some are almost certainly involved in transporting and aggregating Haitians from the Haitian diaspora and bringing them up through Mexico. They go by many names, and if one were to choose to, they could shut one down, and reopen under a new name soon after. Anyway, I'll try and save the rest of it for a future dispatch. Welcome aboard, and I hope you and your readers will enjoy.
This is so heartbreaking. I had no idea Haitians have to resort to something like Dirt Cookies. I knew there was crushing poverty, but just knowing this makes their plight more real. I've always wondered how one side of an island can be so poor while the other side thrives. I'm still not sure and I hope you'll write about that more.
If their camping under a bridge in Texas can bring more awareness to what they have to face in their homeland, so be it. But how did they get there? Who gave them directions and told them they would be safe there? These human tragedies are never-ending. Only the locations change. We have to do better to save them all from such desperation they literally put their lives in danger on the off-chance that some of them will be saved.
I wonder, too, about the Clinton's actions in Haiti. I've heard two decidedly different versions and I'm hoping you can clarify. In any case, I'll subscribe to your newsletter, and add it to my blogroll on Constant Commoner.
Thank you for doing this. These stories are so necessary.
Thank you so much, Ramona. I don't have any definite answers to many of those questions. I have my suspicions, of course, and my biases, and I try hard not to express them, as a journalist. I try to keep as bias-neutral as I can. It is difficult. Your comment tells me that perhaps I should try and collate some of the possible answers, and put something out on the subject. The short version that I can tell you right now is that it's very complicated. Just the matter of Mexican labor along the border going all the way back to the Texas revolution is some wild stuff. My biggest suspicion revolves around the facilitation of Non Governmental Organizations. Most are filled with great people, who sincerely want to help. But, as a whole, they are difficult to trace and hold accountable to the public, even as they absorb large amounts of tax money and foreign aid dollars. And some are almost certainly involved in transporting and aggregating Haitians from the Haitian diaspora and bringing them up through Mexico. They go by many names, and if one were to choose to, they could shut one down, and reopen under a new name soon after. Anyway, I'll try and save the rest of it for a future dispatch. Welcome aboard, and I hope you and your readers will enjoy.