"Aurora" Latest Collage

My latest collage entitled "Aurora". It's 11" x 14" and I created it using magazines and imagination. :)

Tent City Neighborhoods-2 years later-Hope

Close Ups

Modern Woman Revisited-#3 in the Basket Women Series

This is woman can go from the market and then to a party after work.
Hand done collage. Copyright Mirlande Jean-Gilles 2011

Modern Woman-#2 in the Basket Women Series

She is a traditional, yet fashionable. She has the modern necessities needed to handle her business.

This is a collage and it was all done by hand.

Hurricane Tomas

Hurricane Tomas is a devastating hurricane heading towards Haiti and Jamaica. The folks in Haiti who are already homeless and living in tents and tent cities are now being told to evacuate. These folks do not have any place to go. The little they have will either be destroyed by the hurricane or demolished, stolen, anything can happen. People are not even sure if they can return to their tent/tarp homes. This is very sad.
There are very few safe structures in the capital that can be used to shelter all those people from this ferocious storm. Not enough has been done since January to improve the lives of the people in Port au Prince. They are left vulnerable, homeless, jobless and becoming more and more hopeless.

News links
http://www.dailyfinance.com/article//confusion-fear-as-haiti-camps-evacuate/1088914/?cid=13

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/11/04/tropical.weather/index.html?hpt=T2

Cholera in Haiti

Cholera is a terrible and painful disease. https://health.google.com/health/ref/Cholera
It hasn't been found in Haiti for many years. The Nepalese army is being investigated as the source of the outbreak. They might have inadvertently contaminated a major water source with their waste products.
Without proper sanitation, like clean water and soap to wash hands the disease will spread. There are no public water works on the island.

Cholera clinics are being burned down by worried residents.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/28/world/americas/28haiti.html

NPR has comprehensive coverage of the outbreak.
http://www.
npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130731239

A great article by Ezili Danto
http://www.opednews.com/populum/linkframe.php?linkid=120863

Democracy Now coverage of cholera outbreak
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/10/26/partners_in_health_physician_cholera_will

It's very sad to watch the people of Haiti suffer so much. It's event after awful event striking an already stressed population. There was so much aid promised after the earthquake and yet there has been no change in the condition of the people in terms of jobs, housing, removal of rubble, food and water security.

Wyclef for president?

Wyclef's bid for president of Haiti had folks talking about the country again. For a moment people were interested in the island. On the news, on facebook and twitter Haiti was the trend. Wyclef definitely enlivened the politcal espirit of the youth.

Haiti is such a deeply complicated and monumentally troubled country it needs someone in charge who really knows what she/he is doing. It needs someone who has lived there and knows how things run. There are so many levels, so many layers.

After the earthquake in Haiti we heard more from Wyclef than the real president. His foundation Yele raised millions. Him and his wife picked up dead bodies from off the streets days after the earthquake. Yele distributes water and food to many homeless and hungry Haitian. I don't think that translates to an ability to govern a nation.

http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=129090122&m=129090112
After hearing this interview on NPR I was disappointed in Wyclef.

New York Times article about Wyclef's bid.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/06/world/americas/06briefs-Haiti.html

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE67L1HC20100822
Wyclef's bid for presidency rejected.

Pras doesn't support his homie
://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_YN30mR2j4

Haiti Today

The progress in Haiti is very slow. These images are beautiful and heart wrenching.




Haitian Flag Day May 18th, 2010
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/05/19/1636237/preval-appeals-for-unity.html


Seeds

The multinational agricultural biotechnology corporation know as Monsanto is donating millions of dollars worth of seeds to Haiti. They have a horrible global track record that is against the rights of farmers and they pollute the environment. They produce "Franken-foods" with no long term research on the side effects of GMO's on human health.
They are currently under investigation by the US gov't for anti tariff issues in their policies with farmers.
Their seeds produce a large percentage the cotton grown and the soybeans and corn we eat in the US.
Some of the Haitian farmers have vowed to burn the Monsanto seeds rather than plant them.
This article by Beverly Bell addresses some of these issues.

www.huffingtonpost.com/beverly-bell/haitian-farmers-commit-to_b_578807.html

True Facts about Monsanto.
They developed the bovine growth hormone.
They introduced caffeine into Coke.
They made Agent Orange!
Helped develop Nuclear weapons!
And developed PCBs!

Haiti Cherie

My beloved country, how we suffer! Natural disasters happen, but they are so incredibly devastating to Haiti for many reasons. They are so bad because of things that happened in Haiti a long time ago and things not so long ago.
It started when the Spanish came and eradicated an entire civilization of Tainos. Then Africans were kidnapped, enslaved and brought in to work the fields. Forests were demolished to make room for the bounty of crops that the "Jewel of the Antilles" produced and exported. Which led the way to the current deforestation in the country.

Haiti was the only nation whose FREEDOM was gained through a successful slave rebellion. It was the 1st post colonial black people led nation! Slaves that ended their enslavement! They created their own armies to defeat those that had chained them.
In 1825 the French demanded restitution for money loss due to the slaves taking their freedom. And they had to pay so that France would recognize them.
Then then there are the coups that destabilized the government, corrupt presidents who stole millions, brutal dictatorships, embargoes, the slaughtering of millions of pigs in the 70's and 80's that Haitians counted on for food or to trade. US gov't forced Haiti to kill all because of "African swine flu" and then they had to import American mid west pigs who were not resilient.
And then there are the hurricanes.

Forward to our current crisis in Port au Prince. So many people have lost their lives. Numbers as high as 200,000 dead.
All of my immediate family is accounted for. A lot of good friends who have family have heard both positive and bad news. Mostly positive.
In Haiti it seems these tragedies they come one after the other, not giving enough time to get even rebuilt before the next event.

What can our hands do? Yes, hands move concrete! Families and neighbors move mountain of debris off of the living.
And wait.

I remember when I lived in Haiti when I was a child. My family lives in Gonaives which is in the north. I haven't been there since I was a kid. I remember freedom and security. I was only four and could walk alone or with my friend who was also four, to my aunt's house down the block.
I remember fruit trees. I remember the coral colored interior walls of our house, now broken and battered by the waters of Hurricane Jeanne that hit in Sept. 2004 and then a quadruple hit in 2008 by hurricanes, Fay, Gustav, Hanna, and Ike.
http://www.wunderground.com/education/haiti.asp?MR=1

Port au Prince is devastated! I am watching and reading the coverage a lot. My husband tries to stop me or he tells me to lessen the amount of media I expose myself to. It makes sense. So, I've pulled back. I want to know. I need to know. There are still so many unaccounted for. The dead lay in the street. It's so much!

I had to stop and ask what can I do?

I decided to provide links about donating, news, twitter updates and history. History is important. In the wake of the earthquake many bozos have stepped up and claimed they know why Haiti is the way it is. pat rbertson saying some pact with the devil was made. When it was the devil who had his boot on the neck of the people. But they rose up and took their place in history.

What I'm feeling is more than 420 characters. I gotta do this. For my own sanity, so I don't feel so helpless. It is the social networking sites like twitter and facebook getting information EVERYWHERE!

Here are some links-

A site where you can post names of people that are missing and where they live.
http://koneksyon.com/?CategoryID=2

This is Wyclef Jean's website. Please donate to Yele. They are on the ground in Port au Prince. Last night Wyclef said he spent the day with his wife picking up the dead off the street. He is on the front line of this mission to save lives. He is also calling on Haitians in the US to do something!
http://wyclefjean.wordpress.com/

An amazing and right on article by the great writer Farai Chideya called
"Haiti is cursed-by our ignorance."
http://www.faraichideya.com/haiti-is-cursed-by-our-ignorance/


Young Haitian film students who survived the earthquake are working on the streets to get images of the earthquakes aftermath! They are in Jacmel Haiti an area hard hit by the earthquake.
http://www.cineinstitute.com/news/


Folks who are giving information from Haiti-
On twitter- I've been following Richard Morse who is in Port-au-Prince and is trying his best to get out as much information as he can.
http://twitter.com/ramhaiti

This twitter page gives you blogs, pix, other tweeters all dealing with Haiti.
http://twitter.com/Haitifeed

Dr. Sanjay tweeting from Port au Prince. He is on the ground helping the injured and reporting what is going on.
http://twitter.com/sanjayguptaCNN


There is so much work to do.

Peace