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Georgianne Nienaber is an investigative environmental and political writer. She lives in rural northern Minnesota and South Florida. Her articles have appeared in The Society of Professional Journalists' Online Quill Magazine, the Huffington Post, The Ugandan Independent, Rwanda's New Times, India's TerraGreen, COA News, ZNET, OpEdNews, Glide Magazine, The Journal of the International Primate Protection League, Africa Front, The United Nations Publication, A Civil Society Observer, b*tch Magazine, and Zimbabwe's The Daily Mirror. Her fiction expose of insurance fraud in the horse industry, Horse Sense, was re-released in early 2006. Gorilla Dreams: The Legacy of Dian Fossey was also released in 2006. Nienaber spent much of 2007 doing research in South Africa, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. She was in DRC as a MONUC-accredited journalist, and was living in Southern Louisiana investigating hurricane reconstruction and getting to know the people there in 2007. Nienaber is continuing "to explore the magic of the Deep South." She was a member of the Memphis Chapter of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences and is a current member of Investigative Rorters and Editors.
(29 comments) SHARE Tuesday, August 23, 2016 Recently Leaked Documents Confirm Clinton Haitian Gold Scheme
Another email linked to Hillary Clinton's pay-for play scandal involving State Department favors for the Clinton Foundation has surfaced, but it is not one of Clinton's famously deleted emails. A confidential email to possible capital investors for a $26.5 fully operational open-pit gold processing facility in Haiti says it all. Series: Clintons/Haiti (1 Articles, 24974 views)
SHARE Monday, July 30, 2007 Dian Fossey and the Gorilla Killings
It is time to go back to Dian Fossey's story and consider how she would handle the recent senseless gorilla killings juxtaposed with the unspeakable atrocities committed against women and children in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
(10 comments) SHARE Wednesday, September 26, 2007 Should the World Boycott the Beijing Olympics? The Horrific Story of the Falun Gong
On August 3, Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, the Ranking Member on the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight, introduced a House Resolution to boycott the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing.
(5 comments) SHARE Saturday, January 25, 2014 Murder, Mayhem and Mexican Mafia Stalk the Bakken Oil Fields
The Bakken oil patch is slowly turning into a killing field winding through 9,000 temporary housing projects called "man camps." Fueled by drugs, alcohol and desperation, the innocent homeless and the guilty desperate dregs of humanity are forced to sleep in cars and under bridges as the workforce explodes, infrastructure implodes, and social mores collapse.
(4 comments) SHARE Sunday, September 1, 2013 Bakken Oil: Fighting for Control of Fort Berthold and the Three Affiliated Tribes
Part I of a series is a cautionary tale about fracking for crude on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in western North Dakota. It is a story about communication between state and federal agencies and treaty obligations that are sometimes met, and occasionally ignored. Series: Bakken Oil (3 Articles, 26113 views)
(51 comments) SHARE Monday, November 12, 2012 "Sticks in Vaginas:" This Is What a Massacre Looks Like
My source made it clear to me that MONUSCO is stretched to the breaking point and in many instances unable to guarantee the safety of civilians. There is no ethnic group or rebel organization that does not have blood on its hands. It is well past the time to sort out ethnic tensions. The violence must stop.
Warning: Photos in this article are stomach-wrenchingly graphic.
(1 comments) SHARE Sunday, September 8, 2013 Bakken Oil: An Elder Speaks To Power
Parshall is within the boundaries of the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation--home to the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nations. It was obvious that the use of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing to tap into the massive Bakken Oil Formation had unleashed a maelstrom of unstoppable, damaging, and unpredictable industrial development. Series: Bakken Oil (3 Articles, 26113 views)
(26 comments) SHARE Monday, July 14, 2008 Fox-Owned National Geographic Uses Gorillas as Cover for Exploitation of Congo
If readers take the time to apply tenets of critical thinking to a deconstruction of the cover story "Who Murdered the Mountain Gorillas," has education been enhanced? Has the truth been exposed? Or, has National Geographic once again used a story about the senseless killing of animals to deflect attention away from what is actually happening in central Africa?
SHARE Wednesday, October 12, 2016 Documentary Exposes Exploitation of Native American People in North Dakota
"This journey not only opened my eyes to the extent of the desecration fracking had brought to the landscape, it also opened my eyes to the stunning beauty of the land in this part of the country." ~~Jane Wells Series: Bakken Oil (3 Articles, 26113 views)
(11 comments) SHARE Saturday, February 4, 2017 Legitimizing Plunder at Standing Rock Part II
A society of thousands that had its genesis in a prayer camp in the summer of 2016 at the confluence of the Cannonball and Missouri Rivers has evolved into something that is almost unrecognizable from those languid summer days. Series: Standing Rock Stands Against DAPL (43 Articles, 113478 views)
(3 comments) SHARE Sunday, December 9, 2007 Baghdad on the Bayou Redux: Tab Benoit Interview
The first thing that needs to be done is the government needs to tell people the truth. I thought that the FEMA meetings would be that opportunity. These are public meetings, here's a chance to tell everybody that lives in the lower ninth ward. It was a good opportunity to get everybody to evacuate and get everybody out of there.
(1 comments) SHARE Sunday, October 28, 2007 Sinead O'Connor Delivers Magic at New Orleans' Voodoo Fest
Nothing compared to Sinead O'Connor as she commanded center stage at New Orleans' Voodoo Fest on Saturday, October 27. Two years post Katrina, New Orleans is still struggling to reclaim its heritage and culture, and festivals like Voodoo provide a welcome escape and just plain fun.
SHARE Tuesday, August 19, 2008 Mr. Bill: "OH NO, Fix the coast you broke, Shell Oil!"
An ominous email came in to the sluggo.com listserv, and writers for independent media knew it could only mean one thing. Mr. Bill was ramping up for another confrontation with the "bad guys" at Shell Oil in New Orleans. Mr. Bill and his entourage, which included bodyguards and super models, promised an appearance on the steps of One Shell Square, at 701 Poydras today, August 19.
SHARE Monday, December 3, 2007 Baghdad on the Bayou: Disaster Capitalism and the War on Equality
This Katrina thing was handled as if it would have been Iraq. It was handled in a military way for resources; resources were the main focus, and the only difference is that the hurricane scattered people instead of bombs.
(8 comments) SHARE Thursday, February 2, 2017 Legitimizing Plunder at Standing Rock Part I
Tribal budgets as well as the annual tribal audits are available upon the request of tribal members, at the tribal finance office. This is often not the case with crowd-sourced funding. Series: Standing Rock Stands Against DAPL (43 Articles, 113478 views)
(10 comments) SHARE Monday, September 5, 2016 DAPL Destroys Sioux Nation Sacred Artifacts: Women and Children Attacked By Dogs
It will be a challenge for the persecuted to stay vigilant, stay strong and stay true to their beliefs. So far the People have remained nonviolent in the face of dog attacks on their bodies and their horses, while facing extreme psychic trauma in the form of desecration of graves and sacred sites. Series: Standing Rock Stands Against DAPL (43 Articles, 113478 views)
(2 comments) SHARE Thursday, September 20, 2007 Are USAID Funds Being Used for Covert Operations in Central Africa?
In 2005, Amnesty International reported large quantities of weapons and ammunition from the Balkans and Eastern Europe were flowing into Africa's conflict-ridden Great Lakes region, Kivu Province, and Virunga Park.
SHARE Tuesday, November 17, 2009 International Court Acquits Suspect in Murder of Dian Fossey
The International Crimes Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) announced it has overturned a 20-year sentence and acquitted Protais Zigiranyirazo, accused genocidaire and suspected murderer of American primatologist Dian Fossey. Citing "serious errors" during the 2008 trial, ICTR Chamber Judge Theodore Meron ordered the immediate release of Zigiranyirazo, known as Mr. Z.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, February 16, 2011 Haiti: Clean Water Is a Human Right If You Can Find it
OCHA reports that several non-governmental "charity" organizations (NGOs) are about to reduce their activities relating to clean water and sanitation "because of a lack of funding or to focus on longer term strategies." The problem is that, once introduced into an ecosystem, the cholera bacterium will not go away, even if the relief organizations do so.
(4 comments) SHARE Thursday, December 8, 2016 Fate of Dakota Access Pipeline Remains in Limbo Over Missing Documents
The fight over the Dakota Access Pipeline is not over yet. Lawyers for Energy Transfer Partners requested that U.S. District Judge James Boasberg issue a ruling at a hearing scheduled Friday morning that would allow the company to complete the project Series: Standing Rock Stands Against DAPL (43 Articles, 113478 views)
(33 comments) SHARE Tuesday, December 4, 2012 Is Rwanda the Victim in a Modern Day Salem Witch Trial?
A critical analysis will ask why a photo, freely available on the Internet, of the commander of the M23 rebels wearing US patterns was left out of the report of the UN Group of Experts . Reason? It does not fit the narrative developed and nurtured by a biased panel that defines aid to rebels by the cammo patterns on their uniforms.
(2 comments) SHARE Wednesday, March 19, 2008 Gorilla Industry Exposed (Again) in Central Africa
International Press Scratches the Surface on "Inside Job" Behind Gorilla Slaughter While Big Stories of Depopulation, Corporate Plunder and War Remain Hidden in the Mists of Propaganda
(5 comments) SHARE Thursday, January 11, 2007 CONGO REBELS SHOOT SILVERBACK GORILLA
An endangered silverback gorilla was shot and killed in the Democratic Republic of Congo 29 years after Dian Fossey's "Digit" was killed.The killing happened on January 5, 2007, less than 600 metres from a patrol post at Bikenge, which was recently abandoned following rebel attacks.
(25 comments) SHARE Sunday, July 18, 2010 Thad Allen Tells BP Seabed "Seeping" and Demands More Monitoring
Adm. Thad Allen released a letter to BP Chief Managing Director Bob Dudley tonight in which he demands that BP provide more monitoring information, citing "a detected seep a distance from the well and undetermined anomalies at the well head."
(5 comments) SHARE Monday, July 5, 2010 BP's PR Firm Embedded with Coast Guard
In her own words, Polish is a media liaison for the Coast Guard, a Coast Guard reservist, a photographer for the Coast Guard, a branding and media specialist, and is working for Ogilvy, whose client is BP, "Creating engaging experiences designed to promote awareness, brand loyalty, advocacy and conversion."
SHARE Wednesday, January 6, 2010 Congo Volcano Still Active: Lava Flow Approaches Goma/Bukavu Road
The National Institute for the Conservation of Nature though stated today that it was concerned about the threat posed by this eruption on the Virunga National Park ecosystems and wildlife, including the
(7 comments) SHARE Saturday, July 10, 2010 Social Networking on Steroids Spotlights BP Spill
It is impossible for news organizations and independent journalists to be everywhere, but the people of the Gulf Coast have access to every bayou, every backwater, every inch of Pensacola Beach, the Atchafalaya Basin, Grand Isle, Orange Beach and every drop of oil that is ruining their lives. Now, they can document it for the world to see.
(2 comments) SHARE Friday, January 7, 2011 Port-au-Prince Still Buried Under the Rubble of Competing NGOs
Both OXFAM and the Disaster Accountability Project released reports this week that enhance already serious criticism of the relationship between the Government of Haiti and NGOs, and the inability of both to offer support to the Haitian people.
(12 comments) SHARE Sunday, December 4, 2016 Hawaii's Tulsi Gabbard Joins Water Protectors at Standing Rock
In a show of solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux, Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard is joining thousands of veterans from across the United States who have come to Standing Rock and the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation to protest the building of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). Series: Standing Rock Stands Against DAPL (43 Articles, 113478 views)
(3 comments) SHARE Sunday, February 15, 2015 Documentary Oscar Nominee "Virunga" Offers Fantasy and Not Fact
There is a film, Virunga, competing for Best Documentary. Virunga has the potential, if it has not already, to greatly harm people of eastern Congo by conflating the political narrative to "humans vs. environment." People care more about a charismatic non-human species than they do about millions suffering under a brutal regime.
SHARE Friday, July 29, 2011 Sex for Work in Haiti
Could it be true that transactional sex, kickbacks, and other "favors" are de facto requirements for Haitians applying for work that is funded by USAID?
(5 comments) SHARE Thursday, August 14, 2008 New Orleans Musicians Take Wetlands Message to DNC and RNC
Tab Benoit and the Voice of the Wetlands All Stars have accomplished something that is quite remarkable. They will open the Democratic Convention in Denver and continue with a string of non-partisan fund- raisers road show that will end on September 1st in Minneapolis for an invitation only, non-partisan Republican Convention after party.
(3 comments) SHARE Saturday, February 19, 2011 Death in a Bottle for a Handful of Haitian Coins
nternet chatter began in earnest on January 26 when foreign medical interests in Haiti reported sudden onsets of blindness, breathing difficulties, paralysis and death in the remote Haitian village of Fond Baptiste. Men, women, and babies were falling ill with no apparent epidemiologic reason. It was not cholera and it was not polio.
(3 comments) SHARE Sunday, April 27, 2008 Local Women Rock New Orleans Jazz Fest 2008 on Acura Stage and West Bank
Like their protecting presence in so much of southern life, women dominated the main Acura Stage at The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival 2008, and the opening acts featured New Orleans' sweetheart Susan Cowsill, honkey tonk queen Kim Carson, and the incomparable and indefinable Theresa Andersson.
(10 comments) SHARE Monday, August 29, 2016 Spirit Wins and Media Lies Lose at Standing Rock Protest
A federal judge will rule on the legality of the Dakota Access Pipeline on September 9. It remains to be seen whether the traumatic past will be repeated and define the present. How much can be endured; how much more can be stolen? This is a spiritual battle for seven generations to come. Series: Standing Rock Stands Against DAPL (43 Articles, 113478 views)
(12 comments) SHARE Friday, March 28, 2014 Hollywood Debunked: What Really Happened Inside the Hotel Rwanda
"For those who have learned of this story only through the famous movie Hotel Rwanda, the story of Edouard Kayihura is a privileged opportunity to put reality to the Hollywood dramatization." -- Lieutenant-General Romeo Dallaire (Retired) Force Commander of the United Nations peacekeeping force for Rwanda between 1993 and 1994
(5 comments) SHARE Tuesday, August 4, 2015 Canadian Oil Company Trashes Indian Land and Faces Spiritual War
Another example of the voices of American Indians being disregarded in favor of the rich and powerful. It is no coincidence that the route preferred by Canadian-based Enbridge crosses miles of vulnerable watersheds, crossing the poorest counties in Minnesota with the highest Native American populations, exposing those impoverished communities that already suffer from health disparities to severe and irreparable ecological harm
(5 comments) SHARE Friday, July 2, 2010 EPA Test for Endocrine Disruptors in Corexit Misses the Point
The question any chemistry major might ask is why was a test for "endocrine disruption" the first test of choice when one would not expect 2-butoxyethanol to be an endocrine disruptor based on its chemical structure? The tests for endocrine disruption in 2-butoxyethanol were negative and that is a result one would expect. The real threats of dispersants were not addressed in this study.
(3 comments) SHARE Saturday, August 8, 2015 "We Are Enbridge and We Don't Go Around Anything"
No one seems able to answer the question as to how Enbridge became a "Public Utility" in Delaware, thereby assuming the powers of condemnation of Botsford's land in North Dakota. Enbridge doesn't provide any public services to North Dakotans, but wants to get its oil out of the state as quickly as possible for sale on the world market. Series: Searching for the Sandpiper (7 Articles, 14718 views)
(1 comments) SHARE Sunday, September 15, 2013 Arms and the Man: Who is Chief UN Peacekeeper Herve Ladsous?
Why is the man who was France's second in command at the United Nations during the Rwandan genocide, while France was actively engaged in arms smuggling to the genocidaires, now in charge of peacekeeping in the same region? Can he reasonably be trusted with peacekeeping in the tinder boxes of Central Africa and the Middle East? Are Herve Ladous's hands clean? Series: Who Is Herve Ladsous? (2 Articles, 4083 views)
(2 comments) SHARE Saturday, March 2, 2013 M23: Today's Doomed Rebels or Tomorrow's Revered Revolutionaries?
M23 reports to OEN News and the LAPROGRESSIVE today that 95% of the M23 soldiers are now with General Sultani Makenga. "(ICC wanted warlord) Ntaganda is only with his body guard without weapon. He has been defeated, we are following him, he is heading to Nyiragongo mountain."
(13 comments) SHARE Wednesday, December 7, 2016 A Tribal Chairman Talks Trump, Pipelines and Poverty on the Plains
The participation of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe is an important and overlooked piece of the history of Standing Rock protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline. While major media satellite trucks were lining up at the Highway 1806 entrance to Oceti Sakowin in Morton County in anticipation of the arrival of thousands of veterans on December 4, something was happening just a two-hours drive to the south. Series: Standing Rock Stands Against DAPL (43 Articles, 113478 views)
(2 comments) SHARE Wednesday, June 16, 2010 Dead Dolphin Teeth, BP, PR, and Reality on the Gulf
The decaying head was protruding from new excavation in the beach grasses. Moran said that the stench was so bad that he could not dig into the mound to see if anything else was buried there. After reading the report about mandated toxic waste disposal, it seemed important to document the burial mound.
(8 comments) SHARE Tuesday, July 6, 2010 EPA, Coast Guard, and BP PR Tied to Airborne Corexit Denials
However, the EPA site which provides real time data for air quality monitoring on the Gulf Coast indicated that from May 18-June 6 "two chemicals found in dispersants" were detected at numerous GPS locations on the Gulf.
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, July 30, 2012 State Department Says Obama Official Misquoted on Rwanda
Unfortunately, the erroneous suggestion by the British press that the US spokesman Paul Rapp was calling for the specific prosecution of Paul Kagame was immediately picked up by world media and subsequently used by anti-Rwanda hate groups and lobbying organizations calling for the United States to pull back funding.
(3 comments) SHARE Sunday, June 20, 2010 New Photos: Suffering Dolphins in Barataria Bay
Toxic poisons are stalking the dolphins in Barataria Bay, Louisiana, and no one is discussing or reporting the fact that the oiled mammals are struggling in the waters near Grand Terre Island.
(9 comments) SHARE Sunday, November 21, 2010 Watchdog Group Says NGOs "Duped" Donors and "Failed Haiti"
Major relief organizations raised billions of dollars, while telling the public that their relief efforts included water and sanitation work. With half of the funds raised still in the bank, DAP says that aid organizations failed to use the funds with the same urgency conveyed to donors, and that a cholera epidemic was avoidable.
(2 comments) SHARE Wednesday, May 27, 2015 Banyamulenge Tutsi Refugees Just Want to Go Home
So, we are left with some hope and the reality that 14,000 people just want to go home to their fertile valleys. It is one thing to be displaced within your own country, and quite another to be part of a generation forced to flee from country, home and history.Yes, hope does spring eternal, but the Banyamulenge and other Tutsi refugees do not have the luxury of eternal life in this world.
(5 comments) SHARE Friday, May 23, 2008 Xenophobic Violence Escalates in South Africa
"It is really a social crisis, of people trying to survive." This writer can confirm the dismal poverty facing residents of the South African Townships.
(2 comments) SHARE Thursday, September 13, 2007 S.O.S in Eastern Congo:Magic Sticks, Corruption and Gorilla Warfare
In a stunning revelation, investigators from the Innovation for the Conservation and Protection of the Environment (I.C.P.E.)-affiliated with the World Society for the Protection of Animals and supported by Animal Rights of Hawai'i-describe "a network of people who are in search for sticks that the big apes, such as those the gorillas and the chimpanzees use." Congo today is a humanitarian disaster that makes the Titanic look
(1 comments) SHARE Sunday, August 12, 2012 Defining Good Rebels vs. Bad Rebels in Congo
We don't want them (M23) to survive as a movement, as an ideology, we don't want to see their actions continue... there is no question about it, and there is nothing to discuss, to negotiate.
(5 comments) SHARE Sunday, April 14, 2013 UN: Sacrificing African Lives for Political Expediency
he United Nations is organizing three battalions of 3,000 troops from South Africa, Tanzania, Malawi and Mozambique to conduct "offensive operations" against rebels in eastern Congo. 19,815 MONUSCO troops are currently deployed in the country. This action will effectively pit Africans against Africans in the forests of Congo, opening the door to a regional bloodbath, while ignoring the problems that have plagued the Kivu Provi
(14 comments) SHARE Wednesday, June 27, 2012 United Nations' Leaks Against Rwanda Pollute Press Pool
In recent weeks, Rwanda has suffered the brunt of what can only be called a media feeding frenzy as international news organizations threw a series of "leaks," allegations, speculation, and rumor into the press pool. In what may be the most egregious violation of ethics, the United Nations leaked 47 pages of an addendum to the interim Group of Experts (GoE) report on the Democratic Republic of Congo.
(4 comments) SHARE Tuesday, May 27, 2008 Reports from South Africa Focus on Crime and Ignore History
In the rural areas of Africa the people's lives and histories revolve around their communities and connections with people, the land and tradition. To people living in Africa, white and black alike, the land is not exotic, wild or foreign, it is "home." And home does not always provide safety and comfort.
(2 comments) SHARE Sunday, November 4, 2007 Believe in Susan Cowsill's "Just Believe It"
It's a writer's dream to be given the opportunity to recount an artist's telling of the beginnings of her career and the soundtrack of an era. But, there is another story surfacing that has been lost. It's the story of too many artists who are bought and sold down the river by record companies, deep pockets, pressure to perform no matter what, and artistry that is either ignored or subject to the whimsy of news arcs.
(12 comments) SHARE Friday, July 16, 2010 Mikulski Slams EPA on Dispersants: "Tighten Up So We Don't Screw Up"
Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Maryland) asked EPA head, Lisa Jackson, if dispersants could become the "Agent Orange of the Gulf," and then opened the door to the possibility that Mikulski will subpoena the manufacturer, Nalco Holding Co. at a future date. The maker of Corexit 9500 refused to attend the Senate Appropriations science subcommittee hearing on Thursday.
(6 comments) SHARE Monday, February 27, 2012 UN Catches Obama Donor in Congo Gold Smuggling Scheme
Obama donor, oil executive and trade representative, Kase Lawal, is now implicated by the United Nations in a gold smuggling operation in the Democratic Republic of Congo
(3 comments) SHARE Tuesday, February 9, 2010 Congo's Kabila Wants Peace Without Justice; Rebel Generals Join Forces
Ugandan General Gadi Ngabo is ready to move against Kinshasa.
A reliable UN source today said, "General Gadi claims to control 10,000 troops in Petit-Nord. Neither Bosco Ntaganda's forces (FARDC) will stop nor will they fight against Gad's men, Bosco confirmed." The source added, "Only a go-ahead is being awaited to jointly fight Kabila's government."
(4 comments) SHARE Thursday, September 2, 2010 Oil Rig Incident in Vermillion Bay, Louisiana
A Coast Guard spokesman said that 13 people were on the rig and that 1 person was injured and the other 12 have been accounted for. (UPDATE) As of noon CST all workers are accounted for and safe.During the last week of August 2010, production from this facility averaged approximately 9.2 million cubic feet of natural gas per day and 1,400 barrels of oil and condensate.
(4 comments) SHARE Thursday, February 10, 2011 Haiti: Can We Find Truth in Empathy?
Dying is fascinating. The living are not as interesting. And it is the living who make up the connective tissue that holds Haitian society together. Unless they are allowed to heal, Haiti cannot heal. The displaced and dispossessed are invisible because we do not look closely, preferring to hold ourselves at a safe distance
(21 comments) SHARE Monday, June 23, 2008 Floods: Army Corps Says PR Turns Babblers into Spokespersons
A calculated form of disinformation played out in mainstream newspapers, radio networks, and internet sites this weekend as spin doctors acted as apologists for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). This planned distraction was perpetuated while massive levee failures continued up and down the great Mississippi River Basin
SHARE Wednesday, April 6, 2011 A 'To Do' List for US Troops Now Arriving in Haiti
Depending on the source, up to 300 US troops now have "boots on the ground" in Haiti in anticipation of the announcement of election results this past Monday.
(2 comments) SHARE Thursday, August 13, 2015 Enbridge Wins Round One in Lawsuit Against James Botsford
James Botsford was beaten but unbowed as he stood in the lobby of the Grand Forks County District Courthouse, his wife Krista at his side. North Dakota Pipeline Company LLC (NDPL) had sued the couple for the right to an easement over his farmland located twenty miles from where he stood. Botsford's land is a lynchpin in the proposed $2.6 billion Sandpiper Pipeline. Series: Searching for the Sandpiper (7 Articles, 14718 views)
(3 comments) SHARE Monday, December 13, 2010 Are Cholera Vaccines Good For Haiti?
The bottom line remains sanitation infrastructure, and if the WHO's plan to institute a cholera vaccine program that is unproven, untested and seemingly unreliable according the WHO's own studies is implemented, the result will be a panacea as far as the world is concerned.
(6 comments) SHARE Friday, August 27, 2010 Orange Beach AL Testing the Waters As Rumors Flow Faster Than Oil
Orange Beach, Alabama has been the subject of many questions, accusations and rumors regarding the presence of Corexit components, oil, and "cover-ups" regarding the safety of the area for residents and tourists alike. So, we took a drive and spent two days in the area, interviewing activists and city officials.
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, January 15, 2013 US Sanctions Darken Internet in Congo
Even as a journalist, I was concerned enough to seek reassurance that the mere writing about the sanctions, timelines, lobbying and disputed reports would not land me in trouble--sobering thoughts for an American citizen to have. Could I still interview members of the M23 to get their side of the story?
(3 comments) SHARE Thursday, August 2, 2012 United Nations Aids Congolese Army as Civilians are Bombed
Congolese villagers in Kivu province provide vivid photographic evidence that United Nations is responsible for civilian casualties and that Congolese army is using UN ammunition and artillery
(9 comments) SHARE Saturday, November 28, 2009 UN Report on Congo: A Boeing 727 From Florida, US Stonewalling, and Gold for Dubai
You gotta read the full report to believe it...Arms shipments or suspected shipments to the DRC from Spain, North Korea, Ukraine, Iran, Libya, China, Belgium, Tanzania, the British Virgin Islands and others; US stonewalling on bank and phone records and 727 purchase from Florida.
(33 comments) SHARE Thursday, January 24, 2008 Elie Wiesel: Please Help Us Write about Gaza and Israel
It is unconscionable that Israel would turn its chokehold blockade of Gaza into a full-scale lockdown of all food, water and humanitarian aid. Bowing to international pressure instead of the pressures of morality, Israel on Tuesday permitted shipments of cooking gas and fuel to power Gaza's one power station.
(4 comments) SHARE Monday, September 14, 2015 What Are We Missing About Haiti in the Hillary Emails?
The Fourth Estate is in foreclosure. The "who, what where, when, and why" of traditional coverage is missing. A thorough analysis of what is redacted or completely missing in the Clinton emails is not forthcoming, and the real scandal resides in politically motivated reporting. It is time that the press wipe themselves clean of political bias and stop shouting about the paper tiger of wiped servers. Series: Haiti Elections (3 Articles, 3621 views)
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, July 9, 2010 Winona LaDuke Pledges Help for Native Tribes Drowning in BP Oil
LaDuke said, "Honor the Earth made a decision in late June to apply $l0,000 of it's resources to support Indigenous communities advocacy in the Gulf of Mexico, in this time of disasters."
(1 comments) SHARE Sunday, June 10, 2012 Interviews Discredit "Defectors" Who Say Rwanda Armed Them in DRC
Judging by my mail, the genocide deniers are having their way with Rwanda. Personally, I cannot deny the suffering I have seen on both sides of that arbitrary border in the Virungas. A confidential dossier compiled by a joint verification team casts serious doubt on the HRW report that Rwanda is arming rebel movement in Congo
(15 comments) SHARE Friday, September 23, 2016 Sacred Burial Grounds Sold to Dakota Access Pipeline
The sale puts additional mapping of spiritual sites essential to tribal identity in jeopardy. Adding to the insult and uncertainty, there is a 1500-foot easement on either side of the property, according to protest spokespeople. Series: Standing Rock Stands Against DAPL (43 Articles, 113478 views)
(3 comments) SHARE Friday, September 27, 2013 Native Riders Protest Enbridge Alberta Clipper Pipeline
This Sunday, Anishinaabe horseback riders will ride across 1855 treaty lands to draw attention to a proposed expansion of a tar sands pipeline by Enbridge.
SHARE Sunday, January 9, 2011 Think Tank Report: Haiti's Election "Fatally Flawed"
Today, Sunday January 9,The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) has released a report of its independent recount of vote tally sheets from Haiti's November 28 election. CEPR supports claims from candidates, the Haitian press, and other observers that the election was plagued by fraud.
(3 comments) SHARE Monday, October 30, 2017 Will Nikki Haley's Tears Flow into a River of Compassion for Congo?
We can only hope that the recent bloody news from Goma, combined with Haley's emotional visit to the Mungote Camp in Kitchanga, translates into a river of compassion. News reports in the US mainstream focused on Haley's difficult visit with rape survivors and her first-hand look at the atrocious conditions in an IDP camp of 15,000 located 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of Goma.
(3 comments) SHARE Monday, March 29, 2010 Haiti: Public Health Crisis Looming and Where is Media?
The rainy season is about to hit earthquake-ravaged Haiti. The meteorological forecast for next week calls for thunderstorms beginning this Wednesday, lasting at least through the following Tuesday, and Dr. Jim Wilson is worried.
(4 comments) SHARE Wednesday, August 1, 2007 Deconstructing Newsweek and the Gorilla Killings in Congo
Newsweek's coverage of the gorilla killings in Congo not journalism-it is more of a public relations fabrication serving as both a fundraiser and cheerleader for Wildlife Direct-and its backer and board member Walter Kansteiner. The Congo rangers trained by Wildlife Direct are mostly outsiders with no ties to the local communities around the park. In a place like Congo, this ethnic influx is tantamount to a foreign invasion.
SHARE Wednesday, January 13, 2010 Frigid Florida Waters Decimating Fish and Turtles
The extreme cold that has most of the nation in the deep freeze has filtered down into the Sunshine State where unusually cold water temperatures are injuring and killing thousands of animals statewide, including at least 2,000 sea turtles and uncounted fish.
(6 comments) SHARE Monday, February 18, 2013 Costa Rica's Hidden Treasure: Mystica
Finding a hidden treasure in a country with no army. It is true that writers do not want to write when they are happy.
SHARE Monday, February 16, 2009 Open Letter to Time Magazine on Ben Affleck and Congo
The first thing that assaults credibility is the description of the landscape as a "bucolic jungle." Eastern Congo is not a "jungle," it is forested in some areas, and it is certainly not "bucolic."
(2 comments) SHARE Thursday, June 3, 2010 How Foreign Aid Is Ruining Haiti's Health Care System
The infant with the withered arm is Haiti. She is struggling in all of her suffering to wave the flies of foreign interference, hubris, and foreign aid feeders away from her face. For all of the "attention" and "aid" offered to Haiti, she has been abandoned as surely as the infant with the damaged arm.
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, June 27, 2014 North Dakota Culture of Silence Opens the Door Wide for Big Oil
Are we collectively opening the door to unbridled oil exploration when we do not question intent or at the very least demand information on infrastructure? Are we a generation of unwitting guides, leading the way to the destruction of our culture and way of life? Series: Searching for the Sandpiper (7 Articles, 14718 views)
(3 comments) SHARE Thursday, May 24, 2012 Can You Hear Them Now? Congo M23 Rebels Tell Their Story
The bottom line political reality is that M23 wants to tell its story, and it is an account that deserves international attention and investigation. All one has to do is ask.
(4 comments) SHARE Monday, June 14, 2010 British Petroleum Rebuffs Better Boom Barrier
The boom material used by British Petroleum to contain the massive river of oil that it flowing into the Gulf of Mexico is not working. So, ask yourself why BP is unwilling to use a product that seems far superior to the bloated, filthy, broken "sausage" absorbent boom that is washing up along miles of sensitive marshlands on the Louisiana Coast.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, November 10, 2010 Haiti: Ground Truthing Cholera in Mirebalais
Why was the Nepalese contingent of the United Nations "Occupation Force" in Haiti illegally blocking a certified journalist from walking about near their camp while still on public Haitian soil? could it be that they have something to hide? Sure looks like it.
(2 comments) SHARE Wednesday, October 30, 2013 Will UN's Samantha Power Cleanse Congo with Her Tears?
What is going on in eastern Congo? Do we believe the UN, or do we look to the root causes of the conflict? Is Samantha Power the only western diplomat who gets it?
SHARE Sunday, May 6, 2007 Primate Worship? Or Depo-Privations?
In the jungle of international human rights, the primate protection community and international conservation organizations can hardly be said to care a sniff for the rights of the humans who live in the environments of the great apes themselves. Viennese chimp "Hiasl" has more human rights.
(4 comments) SHARE Monday, November 19, 2007 Hold Presidential Debates in New Orleans, for God's Sake!
We are going to get skewered for saying this, but racism and the agenda of big oil is everywhere. People are afraid to speak out and have left it to white northerners from white bread country to open the discussion.
It is unbelievable, as Landry so astutely points out, that the Commission on Presidential Debates has rejected an application to host presidential debates in New Orleans!
(20 comments) SHARE Tuesday, August 14, 2012 Pe' Sla Sacred Grounds on Development Auction Block
In a race against the clock, the Sioux Nation is fighting to save Pe' Sla, one of its most sacred religious sites. Pe' Sla, located in the Black Hills of South Dakota, is the epicenter of the creation story of the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota nations. Tribal elders and spiritual leaders conduct ceremonies essential to their culture and beliefs.
(7 comments) SHARE Thursday, June 26, 2008 Floods: New Orleans Keeping an Eye on 17th Street Levee
Tim Doody has his hands full right now trying to seat an independent review panel to look at leaks on the 17th street drainage canal that failed catastrophically during the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, flooding much of New Orleans.
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, January 18, 2011 Breaking: "Baby Doc" Duvalier in Custody. Preval's Distraction?
t approximately 10:15 EST Haitian Police Commissioner La Croix, government commissioner Aristidas, and Judge Ambroise Gabriel converged on Room 303 of the Karibe Hotel to issue an arrest warrant for former dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc'' Duvalier.
(2 comments) SHARE Thursday, August 23, 2012 Pe' Sla Sale on Hold but Sacred Land Still at Risk
Update: A message on the auction house's website on Thursday afternoon says the land sale of Pe' Sla has been cancelled at the owners' direction. The auction house said they had no comment.
(3 comments) SHARE Sunday, November 27, 2016 Army Corps to Evict Oceti Sakowin Camp on December 5
In a shocking but not entirely surprising move, given the escalation of violence at the Oceti Sakowin Camp, The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has issued what amounts to an eviction notice to Tribal Chairman Dave Archambault. Series: Standing Rock Stands Against DAPL (43 Articles, 113478 views)
(13 comments) SHARE Friday, April 17, 2015 Obama Ignores Atrocity and Tells Congo: Keep Up the Good Work
A mountain of CLA reports confirm that Congo is more than a failed state, aided and abetted by the blind eyes of the international community, the USA, the State Department and our President. Congo is a cauldron of misery, blood and greed, stirred by the worst humanity has to offer.
(1 comments) SHARE Sunday, July 15, 2012 "What Kind of Peace Are the Congo UN Peacemakers Keeping?"
I honestly don't know what else I can say or write or do except to encourage readers to stay informed. We owe it to Agathe, since we paid for the gunship that killed her.
SHARE Monday, September 28, 2009 Did Saint Dian Fossey Predict Genocide?
I can't wait to read Margaret Atwood's new book, The Year of the Flood. My motives are somewhat narcissistic. Over the weekend I noticed a huge spike in hits on my mostly dormant web page. At the same time, a forgotten article written two years ago about Dian Fossey and a spate of gorilla killings in Congo was enjoying resurgence over at OEN News.
(8 comments) SHARE Thursday, January 20, 2011 The Return of Duvalier: Haiti's Denouement?
The story of the unexpected and shocking return of former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier on Sunday, and the spectacle of his questioning by Haitian authorities on Tuesday, has as many subplots as a Greek drama.
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, October 9, 2007 General Nkunda Makes His Move in Virunga: Perhaps a Good Thing?
Nkunda has always been an enigma. It is true that remnants of the Interahamwe genocidairres infest regions of eastern Congo. So do innocent Hutus and Tutsis alike. One must separate the civilian population from the armed militias when speaking about this region and not paint a false portrait with a brush soaked in the colors of ethnic tensions and multi-national interests.
(6 comments) SHARE Thursday, August 30, 2018 The Messenger and the Mermaid
The story of the death of the Whale Shark is true. His biography is based on science and research. The Mermaid might be real.
SHARE Monday, February 28, 2011 Samia Salomon: A Central Pillar of Haiti's Community Journalism Network
Do we need foreign correspondents when there are trained journalists in-country? Who can best tell the story? Who understands Haiti better than a Haitian journalist? Who can tell the story of women in Congo, Iraq, or China and Tibet better than Chouchou Namegabe, Atwar Bahjet, and Tsering Woeser. What does it mean, exactly, to be a feminist journalist in Haiti?
(4 comments) SHARE Sunday, March 21, 2010 REPORT FROM HAITI: Time for an NGO Police?
Meet Canadian Doctor Tiffany Keenan, who has almost single-handedly turned the medical relief situation around in one area of Haiti.
(9 comments) SHARE Wednesday, April 9, 2008 Falun Gong "Disappearing by Thousands"
Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) said in a recent speech, "China is the "world's worst human right's abuser," and added that Falun Gong practitioners are "disappearing by the thousands."
(2 comments) SHARE Tuesday, May 9, 2017 Did Murdered U.N. Expert Unknowingly Tell Her Killers How to Find Her?
The orders to kill villagers in Febraury came from high up the chain of command, and by his denials and blame directed at a "roughly edited" videotape, DRC spokesman Lambert Mende was introducing the possibility of culpability. Did Mende videotape and stage the killings of the UN experts.
(3 comments) SHARE Thursday, October 25, 2007 New Orleans Not Resting Easy Two Years Post Katrina
This writer wants desperately to tell you the story of this place where people ask me if they are still part of the United States. She has fallen in love with the people, the ambiance and the craziness that drives some away and makes others even more determined to stay. New Orleans and all of southern Louisiana is a sight to behold.
SHARE Sunday, June 21, 2009 Ticketmaster/Echomusic Abandons Artist's Websites
Fans of up to 200 mid-level artists and lower tier musicians hosted by Nashville's Echomusic who went to check out touring schedules on their websites in the last few days may have found a darkened site or just a note that the site was under reconstruction.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, September 1, 2010 Bill Clinton Puts Influential Muscle Behind Agriculture In Haiti
Clinton has a personal stake in Haiti's agricultural projects, resulting from his regret over policies that basically pushed Haiti to accept subsidized US imports (rice) at the expense of Haiti's agricultural infrastructure. How do we know? He said so.
(2 comments) SHARE Saturday, November 13, 2010 Haiti:Tracking Deadly Cholera Through the Central Valley
Haiti is facing an uncontained crisis. It is eleven months since the January earthquake, and the streets are still filled with garbage and rubble, the camps are filthy, and cholera will ultimately have its way.
SHARE Sunday, April 4, 2010 Naomi Campbell Bails Out of Haiti Fearing Malaria While Infants Remain in Peril
Naomi Campbell has reportedly postponed a planned trip to Haiti following an outbreak of malaria in the earthquake-ravaged country. The only difficulty is that there is no outbreak of malaria in Haiti now, but there are far more dire warnings of increases in infant diarrhea that are being ignored.
(1 comments) SHARE Sunday, June 3, 2012 UN: No Evidence Rwanda Supported M23 Rebels in Congo
The United Nations on Wednesday confirmed 11 Rwandans had been recruited to join army mutineers in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, but said there was no evidence the Rwandan government played any role.
(5 comments) SHARE Thursday, July 29, 2010 Reality Flyover at Macondo Wellhead: Oil Is Still There Folks
Our featured NASA pilot, Bonny Schumaker, took NBC up for a tour of the oiled waters yesterday. NBC is taking the lead now and stressing that the oil has not disappeared, it is just hidden. See the report here
(2 comments) SHARE Tuesday, June 17, 2014 North Dakota Land and Water in Peril
We agreed that oil exploration and extraction in the Bakken Formation was taking a mighty toll on indigenous and white communities alike. The stark difference was that white residents of North Dakota seemed to be rolling over to the inevitability of big oil and its impact upon the social, political and environmental landscapes of their communities. Series: Searching for the Sandpiper (7 Articles, 14718 views)
(4 comments) SHARE Wednesday, July 21, 2010 BP Oil Pollution Produces Pressure for Poor Water and Air Analysis
Are the waters off the coast of Louisiana clear of public health hazards? Or was the opening of recreational fishing due to pressure from the recreational industry as well as the specter of lost income? The end result is that sport fishermen may be relying upon a visual inspection of the water and a smell test.
(13 comments) SHARE Wednesday, February 4, 2015 Reservation Kids Doused With Beer at Hockey Game
Did students and staff from the American Horse School on the Pine Ridge Reservation deserve to have beer thrown on them and suffer additional verbal abuse by a group of grown and presumably drunk men at a hockey game? Should a ten-year-old native child be expected to assimilate a threat of "go back to the reservation," because an abusive white man accused him or her of not standing during the National Anthem?
(3 comments) SHARE Sunday, July 13, 2014 Following the Sandpiper: Pipelines As Modern Trade Routes
Will we, as a nation, fall prey to "treaties" promising us riches beyond belief that big oil dangles? Will Congress and our President also lie to us, just as Jefferson did? Will we wrap ourselves in oil and drown in the salty byproducts of fracking while we watch towns burn from train explosions and die of thirst after our aquifers are poisoned? Series: Searching for the Sandpiper (7 Articles, 14718 views)
(4 comments) SHARE Tuesday, March 31, 2009 Elephants and Ivory: A Tale of Human Greed Exposed
John Frederick Walker functions as a "memorist," with his soul rooted in centuries past, as he begins his tour de force examination of the history of ivory, humankind's lust for this exquisite treasure, and the demise of the elephant and human decency in the process of this unholy quest.
(11 comments) SHARE Sunday, February 10, 2008 Is Nothing Sacred, Nothing Holy in Hawaii?
Development on Maui will desecrate the graves, homes, and remnants of the ancient Hawaiian villagers, and by doing so, the hearts, hopes and symbolism of a society that is in great danger of fading from existence.
(2 comments) SHARE Wednesday, April 25, 2007 More "Regime Change" as Bush Outs "Terrorists" in Somalia
Machine gunfire, mortars, rape, disease and more are plaguing the African nation of Somalia, and civilians are taking the brunt of yet another mess created by the United States.
(5 comments) SHARE Sunday, December 27, 2009 Save Congo: Send Hillary Clinton AVATAR
So, what would happen if Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made good on her expressions of solidarity with the Congolese, and actually used her power to do something?
SHARE Monday, December 10, 2007 HUD Huffing and Puffing to Blow Down NOLA Public Housing by Christmas
The ghost of hurricane Katrina is blowing through New Orleans this week as activists try to put the brakes on Housing and Urban development (HUD) plans to bulldoze thousands of low-income apartments in New Orleans.
(9 comments) SHARE Wednesday, November 21, 2012 Goma Falls and US Responds With Weasel Words
The people of Goma and the dispossessed of eastern Congo are weary of conflict and feel abandoned by their government. They want protection and rule of law and M23 is offering that tantalizing possibility.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, November 15, 2012 Ojibwe Creation Symbol Desecrated by Minnesota Wolf Hunt
Despite lawsuits and public opposition, wolf hunting began in Minnesota on November 3. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR), with the full support of Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton (D), offered 6,000 licenses to kill 400 wolves. As of now, 109 wolves are dead.
(4 comments) SHARE Sunday, May 27, 2012 Mountain Gorillas Again Used As Pawns in Western Propaganda War
There is great pressure now from the Congolese government, Rwanda, China and other robber barons of the Congo to quell the M23 rebellion. Suggestions that more gorillas may be killed will certainly galvanize public opinion against the M23. Once again, the gorilla population is being used in what looks like a propaganda war in the British press.
(3 comments) SHARE Sunday, January 31, 2010 "Bhutto:The Film" Offers Heartbreaking and Thought-Provoking History Lesson
Bhutto: The Film was one of sixteen documentaries selected for judging at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. Entertaining, compelling and heartbreaking, Bhutto did not "win" at Sundance, but in this case winning is certainly not everything.
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, October 22, 2012 Last Real Indians' Tribute To Russell Means
Chase Iron Eyes of Last Real Indians offers this moving tribute to American Indian activist Russell Means, who led the Second Battle at Wounded knee in 1973.
(3 comments) SHARE Tuesday, January 27, 2015 Psychopathic Politics in Congo Buries Opposition
Kabila had telegraphed his intentions while he was carefully grooming the international press, NGOs, and filmmakers to ignore his pathological behavior against the opposition. Kabila successfully triangulated his relationships in order to justify vilification of anyone who successfully protested his regime.
(4 comments) SHARE Thursday, August 7, 2008 New Orleans Musicians Unite: Obama and McCain Flee from YouTube; Landrieu Goes to the Mat
In a stunning lack of sensitivity to the biggest natural disaster this country has faced in recent memory, neither Senator Barack Obama nor Senator John McCain have committed to a debate in New Orleans about Louisiana coastal wetlands restoration and hurricane recovery.
SHARE Friday, February 27, 2009 Louisiana's Landrieu Calls for Resignation of FEMA Chief of Staff
Now, the ghosts of hurricanes past and the specters of hurricanes future are blowing through New Orleans and the Mississippi Delta as hearings and investigations reveal massive foul-ups in the FEMA offices in New Orleans
(1 comments) SHARE Saturday, June 13, 2015 Ten Years After Katrina: NOLA Can Finally Throw Off the Cloak of Shame
he flooding of New Orleans was not due to political pressure put on the Army Corps of Engineers by the OLB. The answer is profound in its simplicity and found in the details of an engineering study. Human error, subsequent finger pointing and the inability of the Army Corps to admit mistakes, contributed mightily to the post catastrophe suffering of the citizens of New Orleans.
SHARE Saturday, January 20, 2007 Man Bites Gorilla Is News, Not Man's Inhumanity to Man
General Laurent Nkunda issues statement denying involvement in gorilla killings in DRC, while his troops continue to control areas where gorillas were killed. Media sensationalizes accounts of gorilla killings while ignoring human suffering.
SHARE Wednesday, March 14, 2012 Film "Arise" Shows Power of Women to Heal the Earth
The women of Arise are called by destiny to protect the earth while at the same time utilizing earth's bounty for the nourishment of life and community. Living on the earth responsibly requires partnership. One must replenish what one uses in a spirit of respect and stewardship. There is no longer room on the planet for narcissistic caretakers whose self-absorption and greed is sucking the life from our planet.
(2 comments) SHARE Friday, October 22, 2010 Haiti: Cholera Outbreak Metaphor for No Accountability
Our and Haitians' worst fears are beginning to materialize, that the totally UNSAT living conditions of well over a million Haitians have put them at risk for a serious disease outbreak. In fact cholera has begun to spread, so now it will take a concerted international health effort to prevent this from becoming a deadly epidemic. And then something real must be done for Haitians to get them out of these fetid conditions.
(3 comments) SHARE Monday, August 29, 2016 A Native Pediatrician Talks About the Protest at Standing Rock
Dr. Sara Jumping Eagle of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation speaks eloquently of the reasons behind the protest of the North Dakota Access Pipeline. KOLC-TV did the filming. Jumping Eagle works at the government hospital on the reservation and is a graduate of Stanford University. Series: Standing Rock Stands Against DAPL (43 Articles, 113478 views)
(3 comments) SHARE Saturday, January 23, 2010 Academia vs. Reality: Data Bomb Crushes Mortality Numbers in Congo
In a phone conversation today, the Human Security Report editor, Dr. Andrew Mack, categorically denied that he stands behind a media-attributed death toll number of 900,000, which is far below accepted estimates of 3 to 7.5 million souls lost. "What we are really saying in our methodology argument is that no one knows the correct figure," Mack said.
(3 comments) SHARE Friday, February 13, 2009 Alison Des Forges, Leading Rwanda Expert Killed in Plane Crash
Dr. Alison Des Forges, was killed in the crash of Flight 3407 from New York to Buffalo on February 12, 2009. Des Forges, senior adviser to Human Rights Watch's Africa division for almost two decades, dedicated her life to working on Rwanda and was the world's leading expert on the 1994 Rwanda genocide and its aftermath.
SHARE Saturday, April 23, 2011 Violence Erupts in Wake of New Election Shenanigans in Haiti
Haiti's newly elected president, Michel Martelly, has requested that the international community "not recognize the results of the Parliamentary elections" in press release issued late Friday night. Martelly charges that vote tabulations for senators and deputies who were leading in the polls were excluded in favor of candidates representing the ruling party, INITE.
(11 comments) SHARE Friday, August 13, 2010 Women Artists Defy Gulf Oil Tragedy
Their art incorporated individual acts of defiance against the atrocity of BP's negligence, and in the process of creating these bold acts of emotional insubordination they brought forth hope, as women often do in their roles as healers and life-givers
(3 comments) SHARE Wednesday, June 18, 2008 Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu Comments on Flooding in the Midwest
United States Senator Mary L. Landrieu, D-La., today made the following statement on flooding in the Midwest. Sen. Landrieu is chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Disaster Recovery Subcommittee.
(5 comments) SHARE Thursday, April 17, 2008 Flood Warnings in New Orleans--The Rest of the Story
Hurricane Katrina was the kill, but the water never relents-always moving, sometimes retreating, forever on the move. This week the National Weather Service issued a flood warning for New Orleans as record snow melts and spring rains flowed into the Mississippi River Basin.
(2 comments) SHARE Saturday, January 21, 2012 Did Media Collude With Rwanda to Set Up Congo General Laurent Nkunda?
The United Nations High Command on Refugees issued a press release today saying in part that renewed violence variously involving "government troops, FDLR forces, and local defence groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo's volatile eastern region has forced over 100,000 civilians out of their homes since late November." Attacks in Shabunda have displaced some 70,000 people since November.Nkunda can't be blamed for this.
SHARE Friday, May 15, 2015 Sacred Land Film Project Premieres Sunday on PBS
This Sunday, May 17 at 9 pm ET, the PBS World Channel will begin its national broadcast of Standing on Sacred Ground, starting with "Pilgrims and Tourists." The next three episodes will run weekly on Sundays at 9 pm with "Profit and Loss" on May 24, "Fire and Ice" on May 31, and "Islands of Sanctuary" on June 14.
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, November 19, 2012 BREAKING: M23 Declares Ceasefire as Goma Reports "Fear Was Total and the Sky Was Black"
Before considering an analysis of the situation and reports from the United Nations and M23, here is an email from a civilian Congolese citizen who lives in Goma. Readers looking for an unfiltered and unbiased account will find it in his words.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, August 16, 2007 Kong Six: Mapping the Road to Tayna
"There is too strong of a linking of funds to geographic areas without adequately linking them to existing governance regimes. Specifically, this led several observers to characterizing the landscape grants as "pork" for the conservation movement with minimal CARPE ownership by national governments."--The Weidemann Consortium, 2006
(3 comments) SHARE Thursday, March 7, 2019 Mercenaries, Arms, and Our Men in Haiti
Our average news consumer knows much about current arguments for and against regime change in Venezuela and Syria. Conversely, when told that on February 17 eight mercenaries were arrested in Haiti with assault weapons, pistols, drones, several different license plates, and sophisticated satellite communication equipment, the same people will express complete disbelief.
(2 comments) SHARE Thursday, April 9, 2009 DRC: Nkunda Languishes While Rwandan Rebels and Regular Congolese Army Rape and Maim
250,000 people who were living in their homes before the arrest of Nkunda are now displaced, rape and murder is on the rise, Nkunda, a man with no warrants against him, languishes in detention in a corrupt Rwandan court system, Kabila rules Congo in spite of extreme human rights violations, and a man wanted by the Hague, Bosco Ntaganda is in charge of troops in eastern Congo.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, April 7, 2010 Remembering the Rwandan Genocide Sixteen Years "After"
I almost forgot. How could I forget? My friend and cinematographer Noel Donnellon who has worked in Congo and Rwanda reminded me that my friends in Central Africa were in mourning. They will be in mourning for all of April. But I forgot.
(14 comments) SHARE Friday, December 19, 2014 UNHCR Finally Speaks Out on Beni Massacres in Congo
he United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) held a briefing in Geneva early this morning and condemned the ongoing massacre of civilians in the Beni area of eastern Congo. It is about time. Atrocities have been ongoing since October
(3 comments) SHARE Monday, March 26, 2007 "You Cannot Eat Propaganda, and You Cannot Eat Hope..."
Nearly 4 million people have died from hunger and disease in DRC in an unreported war which has raged since 1998. The UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC) is reporting that over 100 people were killed in the capital city of Kinshasa in two days of heavy fighting that ended Friday. Try to find this story in mianstream media.
(4 comments) SHARE Sunday, June 3, 2007 Gorillas and the Myths
Why are mainstream media so loathe to demystify the myths of African savages? Don Imus was crucified for racist comments that pale compared to what conservation organizations are saying about villagers in the Democratic Republic of Congo who are fighting starvation. Allow them to plant some maize in the Virungas, for gods's sake.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, August 22, 2013 UN Sanctions Committee Investigates Congolese Writer's "Genetic Signature"
Imagine the Congolese poet's shock and fear when she received a letter from "SECO" demanding to know about her "relationship" with the M23 rebel leader Colonel Sultani Makenga. Her crime? She wrote a poem in an ethnic language and posted it on her Facebook Page.
SHARE Sunday, June 27, 2010 Journalist Murdered and Independent Press Under Attack in Rwanda
The killing of Rugambage was not the first incident of violence against journalists. In February 2007, a group of assailants attacked the independent newspaper Umuvugizi's editor, Jean-Bosco Gasasira, in a near fatal incident outside his house, after he spoke out at a presidential news conference about the harassment of journalists. No one has been brought to justice for the attack.
(3 comments) SHARE Saturday, October 11, 2014 Indian Country: Big Oil and Inter-Generational Trauma
When Winona LaDuke asked me to take a look at a piece she wrote for Indian Country Today this week, I knew immediately that her perspective needed an audience that Indian people often have difficulty reaching.
(3 comments) SHARE Wednesday, July 21, 2010 Rwandan Elections Rigged with Fear As Opponents Murdered
Just when it seemed that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was going to hold all central African dictators' feet to the fire, the silence of the United States is offering tacit approval to the Kagame regime and elections that are being rigged with fear.
(2 comments) SHARE Monday, October 22, 2012 Take a Break from Politics and Listen to a Working Girl's Guitar
While not exactly "obscure" in the sense that Patti Smith writes about, Flores has certainly been overlooked in an evolving music business that has streamlined label rosters to include only the most commercially viable artists. In fact, Flores honed her considerable talent at North Hollywood's Palomino Club (think country music west) in the '80s following the leads of Linda Ronstadt, The Flying Burrito Brothers ...
(14 comments) SHARE Wednesday, February 6, 2019 The Stories People Tell About Abortion
The stories we tell offer anecdotal evidence of the moral, emotional and sociological damages of abortion. Evidence-based medicine offers scientific reasons to expose political machinations as misleading and dangerous. More importantly, injecting politics into life and death decisions puts our spiritual identity at grave risk, no matter how the stories are framed.
SHARE Saturday, December 30, 2006 Christmas Charities Got Your Goat?
Charitable donors want to see the biggest piece of the NGO pie going to program services-but pie charts can be misleading.
(2 comments) SHARE Monday, March 18, 2013 US Embassy Accepts Surrender of Warlord Bosco Ntaganda
Wanted International Criminal Court (ICC) warlord Bosco Ntaganda has walked into the United States Embassy in Kigali, Rwanda and surrendered to US authorities.
(3 comments) SHARE Friday, June 20, 2008 Floods: Can't Blame New Orleans, God, or Mother Nature Anymore
Everyday for the past week there has been another tragedy to report in the heartland."What happened in New Orleans could happen anywhere, but this problem had not been addressed until the recent Midwest flooding."
(2 comments) SHARE Friday, November 4, 2016 Morton County Sheriff Blames USACE for Police Violence at Standing Rock as Journalist is Shot
This action resulted in a journalist Erin Schrode being shot with a rubber bullet and knocked to the ground. She accidentally filmed herself being shot while she was interviewing a water protector on the far side of the Cantapeta Creek. Schrode was no where near the protectors, who were standing in freezing water to protest the assembly of riot police on sacred lands Series: Standing Rock Stands Against DAPL (43 Articles, 113478 views)
(4 comments) SHARE Tuesday, February 28, 2017 Ambassador Nikki Haley Has Unique Opportunity After Congo Massacres
The YouTube video posted on February 17, 2017, shows men in Congolese army uniforms fatally shooting a group of villagers. A close look at the grainy footage shows that the victims are carrying slingshots, machetes and spears as as they are mowed down by machine gun fire.
The United States reactedthrough Obama era holdover and State Department interim spokesperson Mark Toner.
(3 comments) SHARE Wednesday, November 16, 2016 Did Trump's Visit to Little Haiti Help Him Win Florida?
It would be a denouement dripping with irony if voter analysis indicates that the Haitian/American electorate removed the shackles from closet Trump-leaning supporters in a Florida election. The verdict is still out, but it certainly appears possible that Haitians may have achieved some payback for an election rigged by Cheryl Mills and the Clinton State Department.
(6 comments) SHARE Saturday, July 27, 2013 I Want a Face Transplant from a Dead Congolese Woman
It is just a face. It has no skull structure, no bones, and no body to give it context because it was peeled from her skull by a Ukrainian pilot working for the Congolese Army. Afraid to be hit by enemy fire, he was flying too high to identify military targets.
(10 comments) SHARE Thursday, March 30, 2017 Nikki Haley Calls Out Congo as Predatory: "Let's End This"
This was the first time in this writer's memory that the United States publicly called out the Congolese regime of Joseph Kabila for violence against its own people
SHARE Monday, October 5, 2009 Argentina's Mercedes Sosa: "She Died a Free Woman."
Argentina's "voice for the voiceless ones" passed away on Sunday, and the country's National Congress declared three days of mourning with flags to be flown at half mast on public buildings. This is the power of music. This is the power of true "folk singing." Mercedes Sosa was the most loved Latin-American singer of her generation.
(4 comments) SHARE Monday, September 24, 2007 VOICES FROM CONGO: "What pain! We do not know where we are going. What is this war?"
"You can't image how I felt. It was like you are in a desert dying with thirst and suddenly you have some one in front of you handing you some water, just to lift it up to have a drink, to find it was an empty container. This is how I suffered."
SHARE Tuesday, October 12, 2010 DR Congo: War Criminal Ntaganda and Rwandan Security Agents Accused of Assassinations
HRW says that Ntaganda's victims are family members or former supporters of the Tutsi rebel leader General Laurent Nkunda, whom Ntaganda ousted from the leadership of the National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP) rebel group in January 2009 with the help of military authorities from nearby Rwanda.
SHARE Wednesday, October 24, 2007 Human Rights Watch Details "Horrific" Crimes in DR Congo Province
Amid ongoing violence in Democratic Republic of Congo's Nord Kivu province, Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a one hundred page report denouncing "horrific" crimes perpetrated there against civilians.
SHARE Tuesday, January 22, 2008 Journalist Jailed in Congo for Investigating Mining Sectors
Investigative journalist Maurice Kayombo has been behind bars In the Democratic Republic of Congo since January 9 on charges of "blackmail and bringing (the mining) authority into disrepute," according to Journalists in Danger and the International Federation of Journalists.
SHARE Saturday, December 25, 2010 "Ayiti Kale Je" Video Offers Fearless Look at Haiti's Christmas Cholera
If reading about Haiti's cholera epidemic is your cup of tea on Christmas Eve, sensationalist news coverage of lynchings of voodoo priests will top your Google search. UPI, Reuters, Agence France-Presse and others are reporting that 45 Vodun (the uninformed term it "voodoo") priests were killed by angry mobs allegedly blaming them for the spread of cholera.
(7 comments) SHARE Sunday, June 29, 2008 Floods, Fear, Serpents and Murder
Blood coagulated between the eyes of the water moccasin like the Hindu bindi as its flaccid five-foot length dangled from the outstretched arm of the boy
SHARE Wednesday, January 17, 2007 More Gorillas Killed in Eastern DRC
Rebel forces take over critically endangered mountain gorilla habitat in Democratic Republic of Congo. Villagers report that gorilla remains are placed in pit latrines. MONUC supports recovery.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, January 21, 2010 Florida Cold Weather Update: 53,000 Fish Lost But Turtles Rescued
Sanibel Island's Gulf waters have rebounded from a chilly 47 degrees recorded during last week's unprecedented cold snap that decimated fish populations and threatened to do the same to endangered species of sea turtles in Florida. The Sanibel-Captiva Marine Laboratory River, Estuary and Coastal Observing Network (RECON) recorded water temperature measurements ranging from 59 to 63 degrees Fahrenheit on January 20.
(3 comments) SHARE Tuesday, January 11, 2011 OCHA: 2.2 Million Haitian Children at Risk for Cholera
Nearly 2.2 million Haitian school children are at risk of contracting cholera due to poor sanitation and health practices, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
SHARE Wednesday, November 2, 2016 FCC Investigates Stingray Spies While DAPL Works in Secret at Standing Rock
Remember the September day when the DOJ "stopped" construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline on Federal Lands, but asked for a "voluntary pause" on construction on private lands? DAPL has ignored that request from the DOJ and is likely actively working with Morton County authorities to invade the cellular network and personal information of peaceful protestors. Series: Standing Rock Stands Against DAPL (43 Articles, 113478 views)
(4 comments) SHARE Monday, December 14, 2009 HRW Report on Congo: Fetuses Ripped From Wombs and Children Burned Alive
HRW released this report today. My lede should read: "News that will break your heart." The Congolese have experienced this since colonial days when Leopold's soldiers exacted a severed hand for each bullet spent.
(7 comments) SHARE Wednesday, January 23, 2008 War in DRC Did Not End Today: 45,000 Die Per Month
A new International Rescue Committee (IRC) survey has found that 5,400,000 people have died from war-related causes in Congo since 1998. The study does not mince words and terms the war "the world's deadliest documented conflict since WW II."
(3 comments) SHARE Thursday, November 13, 2014 Supermodel Astronauts are Everywoman and Every Woman Should Hear This
For those of you completely freaked out by the Internet video featuring very young girls dressed like street-walking Cinderellas and spouting more F-bombs than one would hear in an Eastern European women's correctional facility, there is a soon-to-be viral antidote.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, November 1, 2007 Katrina Road Home Money Tied Up in Congress
Katrina victims are seeds scattered by the wind to Houston, Galveston, and Baton Rouge. They are waiting for the promise of Road Home money that has been held up by an Iraq spending bill. You hear "Road Home" again and again.
SHARE Tuesday, May 4, 2010 Grassroots Ground Truthing of of Deepwater Oil Impact
Social networking may turn out to be the first line of defense against public relations spin by providing real time gathering of data on the massive river of oil flowing into the Gulf of Mexico from the Transocean/Deepwater Horizon well explosion.
(1 comments) SHARE Saturday, January 2, 2010 Congo Volcano Erupts: Lava Flows Southwest Toward Settlements
Eastern Congo awoke in the early hours between Friday and Saturday there to the eruption of Mount Nyamulagira, located 16 miles from the provincial capitol of Goma. Lava is flowing into the World Heritage Virunga Park, burning the forest, and threatening endangered chimpanzees at the Tongo Chimpanzee Sanctuary. Fortunately the 200 or so mountain gorillas are not near the lava flows at this time.
(16 comments) SHARE Sunday, January 24, 2016 Haiti's Political and Electoral Crisis Worsens
Haiti's scheduled January 24 Presidential election has been postponed. It seems all the chickens have come home to roost after U.S. meddling and vote changing in the previous 2010 Presidential election, which installed Martelly under the watchful eyes of then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Series: Haiti Elections (3 Articles, 3621 views)
(2 comments) SHARE Saturday, September 26, 2009 Delta Music Provides Heartbeat for G-20 Heinz-Kerry Reception
Quint Davis produced the presentation of Louisiana's bayou musical heritage, featuring the Savoy-Doucet Cajun Band, Allen Toussaint, Trombone Shorty, and Cajun bluesman Tab Benoit. Policy was eschewed in favor of fun while Savoy-Doucet and Benoit took their turns on the tiny stage in the main reception area, and Toussaint and Trombone Shorty played the more formal main stage. But the Cajun bayou ruled the younger crowd.
SHARE Thursday, November 18, 2010 STATE DEPT WAKING UP ON HAITI, SORT OF, WHILE UN CIRCLES WAGONS
While the UN is circling the wagons trying to dodge blame for introducing cholera into Haiti, the US State Department is now taking note of the spreading epidemic, stating that they have a four-pronged approach to dealing with it. But will this even begin to slow down such a virulent strain now beginning to show up in Miami? Doesn't Haiti really need a Marshall Plan to get a million plus people out of wretched tent cities?
(2 comments) SHARE Saturday, July 28, 2007 Sexual Violence Against Women and Children in DRC of "Unimaginable Brutality": But Gorilla Killings Get Top Billing
The mainstream press has been all over the senseless and tragic killing of four mountain gorillas in the Democratic Republic of Congo. But, no one has yet reported an important release from the United Nations' Mission to DR Congo (MONUC) that there have been 4,500 cases of sexual violence against women and children in the first six months of this year in South Kivu Province alone.
(5 comments) SHARE Tuesday, August 4, 2009 Dear Secretary Clinton: Could You Please Find Out if This Congolese Child Is Still Alive?
Women, constant targets of sexual violence, are eager to step forward with their stories and offer witness. We recorded this at the camp. It is the same everywhere, really, and one story echoes 10,000 stories. How many times do we really need to listen to the stories before we do something about it?
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, May 12, 2010 Fear, Confusion, and Misery in Haiti Four Months Post Earthquake
The passageways were compelling. The writer pressed forward and wondered what would be in the next tent. How bad could this get? There had to be a limit. Then, a hand. A Grandma literally grabbed the writer's hand as she passed by the opening to the woman's tent.
(15 comments) SHARE Friday, June 13, 2008 Africa is No More Overpopulated than Iraq was a Haven for Weapons of Mass Destruction
What in the heck is a hectare? I know. Do you? Make it your business to know, because the devil is the details. Otherwise we will believe the propaganda that the innocent people of Africa are weapons of mass destruction. We fell for it once. Are you ready to fall for it again?
SHARE Saturday, May 24, 2008 Sloppy Forensics Cloud Verdict in DRC Journalist Serge Maheshe's Murder
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) supported the acquittal of two friends of Radio Okapi journalist Serge Maheshe who were accused of taking part in his murder. However, IFJ said in a press release that there were "irregularities" in the trial which precluded discovery of who, exactly, was responsible for Maheshe's murder
SHARE Tuesday, January 22, 2008 Is the War Over in Congo? Go Ask Alice, I Think She'll Know
GOMA, Congo, Jan 21, 2008 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Congo's government and rebel generals have ended an insurgency that displaced more than 450,000 people in the past year.
But, MONUC reports this:
GOMA, Congo, Jan 21--Dozens of civilians were killed during fighting between rebels and militia in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, both sides said Saturday, as a peace conference proposed declaring the area a "disaster zone."
(2 comments) SHARE Monday, May 28, 2012 Al Jazeera Breaks Through Media Silence with M23 in Congo
Correspondent Nazanine Moshiri of Al Jazeera has just filed this exclusive interview with M23 in eastern Congo. In it, fighters of the faction vow to fight "to the last man" if the Congolese government does not sit down with them and talk. Al Jazeera is the first news organization to go behind the lines and interview M23.
SHARE Saturday, November 7, 2009 The Campaign: The Audacity of Hope Did Not Die in Maine
The Campaign tells the story of a lost battle, inspiring hope through the passionate work of those committed to re-energizing the fight for gay rights. Christie Herring captures the essence of this emotional journey.
SHARE Thursday, March 23, 2017 Shark Fins: Waste or Resource for Florida Fishing?
Why kill an animal if you are only going to use part of it? If possession of shark fins is banned, but you can legally keep the shark, isn't that the definition of waste?
SHARE Wednesday, December 12, 2007 Rhythms Rising II: Ruby Rendrag's Class Act in New Orleans
Ruby Rendrag's Katrina song is intense. She wasn't sure she wanted to play it out for us, since, as she said, it is an "angry" song. The strong, anxious arrangement and hard-hitting chord progressions certainly conveyed fury and more.
When Rendrag sings "all night long...waiting for the sound of a gun," you know exactly what the aftermath of Katrina meant for those who stayed.
SHARE Monday, August 10, 2009 Will Hillary Face Down Congo's Kabila? Or Will He "Crush" Her Also?
Kabila's army is committing a majority of the atrocities, and Hillary is going to be face to face with the man behind the curtain. Her husband's inattention in Rwanda in 1994 contributed to the murder of one million. This will be the test as to whether the United States can really exert influence in central Africa. Can Clinton offer a moral compass in this humanitarian tragedy, or will we once again turn our back on humani
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, September 25, 2009 Day One G-20: Point of View is Everything
There were so many journalists, that I decided to become a “lost tourist†at the checkpoints. I could have been a terrorist with my stuffed backpack. I even tested a few checkpoints by driving my car “accidentally†into restricted space to see what would happen. The point is that nothing happened.
SHARE Thursday, June 28, 2007 Despite Aid, Violence and Displacement Plague Eastern Congo--MONUC Reports
Eastern DRC is one of the most violent regions in the world, but this story has been grossly under-reported. Kemal Saiki, spokesman for the U.N. force in Congo reports that in the eastern town of Kisharu about 25,000 displaced civilians have been unable to receive assistance because of the risk of looting. Many have fled their homes towards the Ugandan border.
(8 comments) SHARE Monday, July 19, 2010 Thad Allen Says Team Observing Macondo Well for Seepage and Possible Methane
At 5:41 AM this morning National Incident Commander Admiral Thad Allen issued a statement that a conference call last night between BP and a federal science team was convened to discuss a seep near the blown Macondo well-head and a "possible observation of methane" over the well.
SHARE Wednesday, November 3, 2010 Time to Rebrand Haiti's Tent Cities as Tomas Approaches
A soon to return to Hurricane status tropical storm Tomas is several days away from a direct hit on Haiti if current weather models are correct. The potential for a full scale disaster exists because there is little to no shelter for hundreds of thousands of Haitians still trapped in a myriad of relocation camps that will be badly exposed to wind, rain and flooding once Tomas hits. The global community needs to take action.
SHARE Tuesday, November 9, 2010 Haiti: Testimony From Camp Corail as Cholera Looms
Independent journalist and OpEdNews contributor Georgianne Nienaber has just returned from a 3-day investigation of Hurricane Tomas-stricken Haiti and warns that this has only exacerbated the festering cholera outbreak, which threatens to turn into a full-scale epidemic at any time. Conditions in the camps are deplorable, as you will learn from the testimony of Haitians themselves in this article.
SHARE Friday, July 23, 2010 BP Sock Puppets Open Fisheries as Bonnie Looms
There is no doubt that Gulf commercial fishermen have been suffering greatly from a lack of income in the aftermath of the explosion of the Macondo well-head. States have lost revenue from fishing licensing and supportive recreational industries, and BP would certainly like to reduce its liability for lost income and wages.
(2 comments) SHARE Friday, November 2, 2007 Louisiana Labor Department Announces Katrina Clean-Up Grant
The Louisiana Department of Labor announced on Thursday, November 1, that it has received a $10.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor to assist 3,500 citizens in hurricane-affected parishes. LDOL requested the National Emergency Grant, which will allow the agency to continue serving those affected by hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
(6 comments) SHARE Tuesday, May 20, 2008 Missing New Orleans: Nagin, Drag Queens, Obama, and "the old white guy"
God, I miss New Orleans.
A daughter's college graduation and other family matters have prompted a return to Minnesota for the summer, but already I feel like I am missing out on--well--everything.
SHARE Thursday, May 7, 2009 Spin or Advice in NOLA? USACE Pays Huge Price in New Orleans
There is a big difference between spin and conspiracy. Spin is happening in New Orleans, that if not toned down, begins to look and feel like conspiracy. New Orleans needs a break.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, March 18, 2010 REPORTING FROM HAITI: "All the Resources Are in the Wrong Place"
Haiti remains in dire straits with little of the vast global financial donations getting through to where they are needed. There is panic, great corruption and widespread hunger and disease, despite an algae bloom of NGOs throughout the island nation. Often they are but part of the problem. All this while the rainy season approaches, another catastrophe in the making with hundreds of thousands lacking decent shelter.
SHARE Monday, November 19, 2007 Betty Harris Raises Temperature of New Orleans' West Bank
Betty Harris, on the list of the greatest soul singers of all time, gave a knock down, drag-out-all-the-emotion performance at New Orleans' Old Point Bar on St. Algiers Point. Some of the city's finest back-up musicians were there to support her in the person of Marc Stone's Band.
(8 comments) SHARE Thursday, July 24, 2008 DR Congo: Peace Accord Fails to End Killing of Civilians
There is a human rights crisis that is unfolding today in the Democratic Republic of Congo that requires the attention of all journalists. A photographer working in the region was quoted as saying that ANY journalist, publisher, or news organization that turns its back on this crisis is as guilty of pulling the trigger as any warlord in the region.
SHARE Monday, November 26, 2007 Second Urgent SOS from Virunga Park: ICCN Conservationists Torture School Principal
OpEdNews received an urgent plea from the Democratic Republic of Congo today. On September 27, 2007, Raphael Muhindo YALALA, Director of the Lulimbi Primary School, and headmaster of the Nyakakoma secondary school, was savagely beaten and tortured by conservationists working in Virunga National Park, DRC
(6 comments) SHARE Sunday, June 1, 2008 "Truth" Telling vs. TRUTH Telling
There is truth telling, and then there is truth telling. Scott McClellan's contention that Bush manipulated the American public through discarded intelligence about Iraq's capacity to produce weapons of mass destruction is not a revelation of truth. It might be news, and it might be true, but it is not truth telling.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, January 21, 2016 North Dakota Landowner Still Fighting Enbridge and Winning
North Dakota Grand Forks District Judge Debbie Kleven ordered Canada's Enbridge Energy Partners to pay farmland owner James Botsford $45 thousand of $60 thousand in attorney fees. Judge Kleven also ruled that Enbridge would lose their easement if the proposed pipeline is not completed within five years. Series: Searching for the Sandpiper (7 Articles, 14718 views)
SHARE Friday, June 15, 2007 Congo soldiers arrested for Radio Okapi journalist's murder
Police have arrested suspects in the murder of Serge Maheshe, a broadcaster for Radio Okapi, a nationwide radio network set up to aid the peace process in Congo after the 1998-2003 war, was shot on Wednesday in the South Kivu provincial capital of Bukavu. He has a wife and two children.
(7 comments) SHARE Sunday, June 1, 2008 State of New Orleans, Nagin, and a "Little Wet Spot" in the Dike
Less than a month before the start of the 2008 hurricane season, Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans offered a surprisingly sunny outlook for NOLA. Meanwhile, a mysterious "little wet spot" appears in the levee on the 17th Street Canal
(15 comments) SHARE Saturday, June 7, 2008 Day Two NCMR: Moyers Saves the Day
Day Two of the National Conference for Media Reform opened with a slam/dunk speech by Bill Moyers that reminded conference goers what, exactly, is at stake for our democracy.
(2 comments) SHARE Tuesday, June 5, 2007 Research Watchdog Demands Probation for Harvard and Vanderbilt
SAEN, a national research watchdog organization has demanded that the Association for the Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care (AAALAC) place Harvard Medical School and Vanderbilt University on probation for incidents of animal abuse and negligence.
(7 comments) SHARE Saturday, October 24, 2009 If It's Art, Must It Be Pornography?
Men, leave the Vagina Monologues to Eve Ensler. Reviewers, don't mask porn as art. It's dangerous for women and children.
SHARE Tuesday, October 2, 2007 Sun News: Virungas of Eastern Congo: Population and World Heritage in Peril
Bloodletting in Congo began in 1876 with Henry Morton Stanley's mission as a mercenary agent of exploitation, employed to "open up the Congo" for Belgian's King Leopold. The Leopold/Stanley enterprise resulted in horrible suffering and massacres, setting the stage for what is happening in Central Africa today.
SHARE Friday, July 13, 2007 Condoleezza Rice to Skip Congo Visit but Can Catch Up on Africa Here
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has canceled a planned trip to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. She can catch up on Africa here. An International Peace Conference, sponsored by the United Nations Association of San Diego, was held two weeks ago and featured keynote speaker Professor Amii-Omara Otunnu, the North American UNESCO Chair holder in Human Rights, and journalist keith harmon snow.
(4 comments) SHARE Wednesday, November 14, 2007 30,000 Flee Gunfire in DRC While Conservation Groups Salivate Over Satellite Photos
30,000 refugees fled in panic through the hills. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) does not believe the camps themselves were targeted, according to information supplied by MONUC. Meanwhile, in an absolutely stunning disconnect of priorities, conservation groups have been spewing out press notices that IKONOS satellite photos have been donated to them to monitor gorilla habitat.
(5 comments) SHARE Thursday, November 29, 2007 Rhythms Rising: Musicians Fight for New Orleans
Singer and songwriter Dana Abbott is recalling the day that Lake Pontchartrain devoured the 17th street canal in New Orleans.
(5 comments) SHARE Monday, January 25, 2016 Haiti's Martelly and His Henchman Set the Stage for Tragedy
Let's think about the evil absurdity of the crisis playing out in Haiti, and the complicity of international forces that set the stage for this looming tragedy five years ago. Series: Haiti Elections (3 Articles, 3621 views)
(2 comments) SHARE Tuesday, December 18, 2007 Baghdad on the Bayou: New Orleans-Racial Whitewash, No Housing, and New Heroes
It is time to love the flower girl again.New Orleans is facing a housing crisis of epic proportions, but this crisis did not suddenly spring full blown from the heads of politicians or think tanks. Local heroes have been speaking out long before the housing crisis was hijacked by politicians.
(4 comments) SHARE Wednesday, April 11, 2007 Whining Sportswomen Beat Burning Congo Rape Victims in Imus Media Ratings
When will Americans wake up, and turn away from glorified sports heroes and champion the poor, the dispossessed, the robbed, and the abused in the third world? The Imus tempest in a teapot is a national shame and shows how ignorant Americans are of real suffering and racism.
(3 comments) SHARE Sunday, March 2, 2008 The Stones of the Golden Women: A-Bombs, a Tsunami and a Hackberry Tree Define Art at P.E.N.
"Screamed, Survived, Start Anew," is the theme of the Japan P.E.N. club's sponsored event, which has attracted writers and musicians from around the world. They have just spent five days presenting their work and discussing human responses to the fury of nature. Every participant at the conference has produced a body of work that speaks to the essence of humanity in the face of the unspeakable.
SHARE Wednesday, July 30, 2008 Commentary: Landrieu Protects Journalists and Dogs FEMA
United States Senator Mary L. Landrieu, D-La., commented on Senate Republicans blocking consideration of a law to protect journalists from imprisonment for keeping confidential sources' identities and rips FEMA for report full of blank pages.
SHARE Saturday, May 8, 2010 A Hymn For Nature in Peril on the Gulf Coast
This is a very personal attempt by this writer to explain the beauty of this area. I have been around the world and have never experienced a place of such peace, beauty, and rejuvenation. I can understand why the natural world uses the Gulf Coast as a place of refuge.
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, March 16, 2010 GEORGIANNE NIENABER REPORTS FROM HAITI: Haitian Women: Rea Dol vs. the Republic of NGOs
Take a walk for ten years in Rea Dol's shoes and you might learn something about the imperialist attitude of NGOs in Haiti. You will also learn something about tenacity, hope, and the indomitable spirit of the women of Haiti. Haitians have a term for it -- "Poteau Mitan" -- women are the "central pillars" of society.
SHARE Monday, March 15, 2010 GEORGIANNE NIENABER REPORTS FROM HAITI: Haiti Watch: There Are No Loaves and Fishes in This Purgatory
A soft rain has just begun to fall, but it is a terrible event here in Petionville, Haiti. There are 5,000 people with no shelter, food, or sanitation on Highway 1, about an hour from here. Babies are sleeping in dust that is turning to mud alongside mothers with shriveled breasts who are offering the infants paint chips mixed with dirt because they believe it is nutritious.
(5 comments) SHARE Tuesday, June 17, 2008 Disaster Flood Engineering: Get Busy Iowa and Missouri, and Top Those Levees
On Monday, The Army Corps of Engineers admitted flood waters currently contained by 27 levees along the Mississippi River could spill over about two dozen levees along the river in Iowa and Missouri "unless people top the levees with enough sandbags." Short of that there is always "A crystal ball."
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, December 3, 2015 Cholera Cases Triple in Haiti Since last Year
Haiti recorded cholera cases triple (19,949 and 170 deaths) in July 2015 compared to July 2014 (7,739 cases and 56 deaths); a situation that raises concerns and requires vigilance in the contexts of the rainy season and hurricanes.
(17 comments) SHARE Thursday, June 19, 2008 Questions Upstream and Downstream: Oil, Food, Floods, War, Broken Levees
Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) is at one end of the flooding Mississippi River and Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) is at the other. Both are Democrats and both do not see eye to eye on Bush's call for more oil drilling in our coastal waters.
(10 comments) SHARE Monday, June 9, 2008 The Road to Nowhere: NCMR Conjures Memories for an "Old" Journalist
I slid my card across the table to her and mentioned that I was working in New Orleans, and that the Shock Doctrine was still very much in evidence there, and that free press really could use some assistance there, and how could we make this happen?
SHARE Thursday, October 18, 2007 University of Washington Accused of Falsifying USDA Reports
University of Washington officials in Seattle are accused of filing false reports to the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture. A major news conference to release details of the complaint is scheduled on THURSDAY, 10:15 a.m. at the Seattle Tower.
SHARE Monday, September 17, 2007 Moral Snake Oil Soothes as Sexual Abuse of Women Continues in DRC
Today's human rights report from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was a non sequitur. How can a report detailing the fact that a FARDC (Regular Congolese Army) soldier allegedly raped and then chopped a Hutu woman to death along with her three-month-old baby be termed a chronicle of "human rights?"
(9 comments) SHARE Friday, November 23, 2007 3000 Words and a Song for Louisiana
Air, water, land and people are suffering. Injury is visible and pain is palpable. Three proverbial pictures must suffice for now where words cannot.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, June 11, 2008 Source Asks "What is the Real Water Policy of the United States?"
New Orleans is not alone. Catastrophic dam failures are occurring up and down the Mississippi watershed today in the "Flood of 2008," which has the potential to eclipse the Midwest flood of 1993 in tragic consequences.
SHARE Thursday, December 6, 2007 Primate Experimentation Reaches All-Time High
Recent USDA reports have revealed that the use of non-human primates in laboratories has reached an all-time high with 62,315 primates falling under the knife in 2006. At the same time violations of the Animal Welfare Act by laboratories have increased by over 90% in the last five years, the research watchdog group SAEN said today.
SHARE Thursday, June 14, 2007 IFJ Condemns Shooting of Journalist in DRC; Killing Is Third in Two Years
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) today condemned the killing of radio journalist Serge Maheshe, whose shooting yesterday evening in the eastern town of Bukavu made him the third journalist murdered in the country since November 2005.
(2 comments) SHARE Tuesday, June 12, 2007 Coleen Rowley for Congress...Er, Prophet
I smiled as I saw the email from Coleen Rowley. She is the former 911 FBI whistleblower, Time Magazine Person of the Year, and I happily worked on her campaign for Congress last year. The email subject line said something about "rapture insurance" and I immediately thought Coleen was in one of her witty moods about policy, so I promptly clicked on the link she provided-- http://www.sovereigndeed.com
(11 comments) SHARE Wednesday, June 18, 2008 Midwest Floods: Pundits Have Their Heads in the Sand
There are now 33 levees in danger of breaching-up from 27 yesterday. New breaches and bridge and road closings are occurring by the hour and the pundits are worried about wasting time and energy on Bush and Cheney. What is the matter with all of you?
SHARE Friday, October 5, 2007 Reports of Deaths in Congo Plane Crash Under-Reported
MONUC reports that civil aviation authorities had said 19 people were reported to be on board, while police reported nobody had survived the crash and fire but officials said planes often gave incorrect passenger manifests to avoid paying taxes.
SHARE Thursday, August 2, 2007 MN State Senator Steve Murphy Said Governor Ignored Safety in May
MN State Senator Steve Murphy, DFL-Red Wing, responded to Governor Pawlenty's veto of a transportation bill back in May 2007.
Sen. Murphy expressed his disappointment in Gov. Pawlenty's May decision to veto a bonding bill, which provided funding for public works projects throughout Minnesota.
(3 comments) SHARE Tuesday, December 5, 2006 The Day the Coleen Rowley Campaign Faced the Advertising on the Wall
Former FBI whistleblower and Time Magazine Person of the Year, Coleen Rowley, faces the reality of Republican swift-boating in her first Congressional bid in Minnesota CD-2. In the year after 9/11, most Minnesotans, if they did not know Coleen Rowley's name, knew that there was a former FBI agent from the Minneapolis area who suspected there was something fishy about Zacarias Moussaoui.
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, March 27, 2007 DRC Update From Ground: "Ay Ay Ay, This is Grave!"
At a press conference in Kinshasa this Tuesday March 27 2007, the representatives of the European Union countries to the DRC expressed their 'indignation' at the recourse to the violent armed Kinshasa conflict of March 22 to 25 2007, 'when all routes to dialogue were not yet exhausted.' German ambassador Karl Albrecht Wokalek said the death toll 'could reach 600.'
SHARE Wednesday, January 9, 2008 Gambit Weekly Honors LRA Chairman for New Orleans Recovery Efforts
LRA press officer Melissa Landry made our job incredibly easy while we were in the NOLA area for six weeks in October and November 2007. Landry obtained the contacts we needed on Governor Blanco's office, and returned every email and every phone call with what can only be called extreme efficiency and mutual professional respect.
SHARE Wednesday, September 26, 2007 IFJ Fears Detained Journalist Killed in Gambia
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) today expressed its fear that Chief Ebrima Manneh, who has been missing for more than a year and was reportedly being held incommunicado, has been killed in jail in The Gambia.
SHARE Monday, June 25, 2007 Congo Plane Crash "Embarrassment" for International Airline Industry-Bush Blocks Rulemaking
American Gail Dunham, President of the National Air Disaster Alliance/Foundation (www.planesafe.org/) responded by saying, "The aviation safety statistics in Africa are awful, just awful," but pointed out that the United States can only force safety standards if airlines fly into the U.S.
(1 comments) SHARE Saturday, June 21, 2008 Gov. Haley Barbour (R-MS): Diverting Housing Money
Today, Ana Radelat of Mississippi's Clarion-Ledger reports that Gov. Haley Barbour is trying to redirect $600 million in hurricane housing money toward enlarging the Port of Gulfport. The money would be attached to a bill that would fund the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, August 2, 2007 MN Senators Klobuchar and Coleman Briefed about Bridge Collapse
In background for OPED News Senator Amy Klobuchar's office said that the Senator is meeting with Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybek, Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters and Senator Norm Coleman at this time and Klobuchar will have another statement for OPED News later today.
(4 comments) SHARE Tuesday, May 15, 2007 The Greening of Hate Exposed
Hiasl the chimp might just expose the haters in the environmental movement.The Greening of Hate is real. Racism and prejudice is the soft underbelly of the animal rights movement, which in itself, is a noble concept.
SHARE Monday, October 22, 2007 Congo War Takes Civilian Toll: New Voices from Congo
The mainstream media continues to ignore the war between the DRC armed forces and Nkunda and the civilian toll its exacts. No one knows for sure what price the innocents will pay. The so-called "conservation" situation is a mess and a front for the proxy wars.
SHARE Tuesday, November 6, 2007 US Aid Flows to Gorillas and Zoos While Children are Gunned Down in DRC Refugee Camps
Police in North Kivu province opened fire on refugees during a violent protest over food distributions, killing a child and wounding 11 civilians. Hundreds of villagers have been driven from their homes in recent weeks by fighting between government soldiers (FARDC) and rebels.
(10 comments) SHARE Thursday, August 2, 2007 Bridge Collapse: Possible Structural Issues
Minneapolis ABC Television outlet Channel 5 has reported that the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MNDot) conducted a study in 2006 which rated the I-35 bridge as "low to moderate" and stated that there was fatigue cracking of the deck. In addition, "there was out of plane bending of an approach span girder."
SHARE Thursday, October 4, 2007 Malian Legislature Holds Discussions on Female Genital Mutilation
On October 2, 2007 the president of the Malian National Assembly, Djongouda Traoré, received a delegation from Sini Sanuman (Healthy Tomorrow), which presented him with over 30,000 signatures on the Pledge Against Excision. Excision is a form of female genital mutilation
SHARE Thursday, April 12, 2007 Greenpeace Report Exposes Empty Promises in Congo
Greenpeace, to their credit, has gone after the World Bank and International logging companies. NOT ONE DOLLAR of the World Bank imposed taxes on logging companies has gone to local authorities, according to the report. However, conservation organizations have mysteriously remained immune from criticism.
SHARE Thursday, August 2, 2007 MN State Senator Mary Olson Reports on Bridge Collapse
Minnesota State Senator Mary Olson (District 4) reports that she and family were traveling within sight of the I-35 W Bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis five minutes before it collapsed.
(7 comments) SHARE Thursday, February 7, 2008 Kenyans, on the blood of my children, I indict you all
Even with all these achievements, I have no more reason to live. If you want to look for me as you read this, go to City Mortuary where I have determined to fester among the anonymous people there.
(10 comments) SHARE Thursday, August 2, 2007 Bridge Collapse Update: MN Department of Public Safety
Situation Report #1 was released by the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, on August 1, 2007 at 10:00 p.m.
(1 comments) SHARE Sunday, June 15, 2008 Considering Graduations, Birthdays and Eternity
Yesterday, the writer's daughter graduated magna cum laude from a very tough school known for lack of grade inflation. The mother/writer watched for four years as her child fought for knowledge and the skills of her trades.
(6 comments) SHARE Tuesday, November 13, 2007 FWC CREATES CENTER FOR PREDICTION OF RED TIDES: Why Not Stop It Instead?
Money spent on enforcement of existing environmental regulations on industry would go a long way towards mitigating red tides and other harmful algae blooms. There is no reason to track it if you can't stop it. Humans can get out of the way, but wildlife remains vulnerable.
(2 comments) SHARE Friday, May 23, 2008 Hope "Stands Watch Until the Morning"
Disaster results from betrayals by humanity and nature. Songwriter Caroline Herring Herring suggests that the true of heart tackle the challenge facing heart and mind anyway; running headlong in the maelstrom.
SHARE Sunday, January 14, 2007 Is Old Media Holding New Media Hostage?
Africa, especially the Democratic Republic of Congo, is a subject that is under-reported. The MONUC website is a primer for a crash-course on the DRC and an opportunity to swim free from the current news cycles, open our collective eyes, and take a breath of new air.
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, October 26, 2007 Voice from Congo: Is the Pen Mightier Than the Sword?
What you are doing might seem to be insignificant as I said up before all these powers of evils (multinational powers, the power of humanitarians killing us while they are smiling, Christian NGOs not doing what they preach).
SHARE Tuesday, November 6, 2007 Now, Republicans Threaten to Hold Road Home Money AND Congress Hostage
Louisiana Recovery Authority (LRA) announced late today (Tuesday, November 6) that that Congressional negotiators have agreed to provide an additional $3 billion for Louisiana's Road Home program in a pending defense bill.
(2 comments) SHARE Wednesday, March 26, 2008 Americana Music as Art and History Lesson--Humility and Caroline Herring
Americana roots singer/songwriter Caroline Herring reflects upon her southern heritage and demonstrates that songwriting can be intelligent, contain razor-sharp observations, and function as a tool for social consciousness.
SHARE Tuesday, March 27, 2007 DRC Update: Shape-Shifting and Ignoring the Truth
The US State Department issued a belated release late Monday (March 26), condemning the violence of last week in the Democratic Republic of Congo. What is most disturbing is that the number of dead and wounded was low-balled at 12 dead and 47 wounded by China, which has huge economic interests in the region.
(2 comments) SHARE Thursday, October 11, 2007 Nkunda Says DRC Bombs Raining Down on Villages
Once again, this writer is asking the readers of OEdNews to apply tenets of critical thinking to the mainstream news reports flooding out of the Democratic Republic of Congo today.
SHARE Thursday, November 1, 2007 SPJ leaders call FEMA-staged news briefing an abuse of public trust
The Federal Emergency Management Agency's Oct. 23 press conference in southern California, where agency employees posed as news reporters, was a blatant abuse of public trust, leaders of the Society of Professional Journalists said this week.
SHARE Friday, December 15, 2006 Ebola! What would Dian Fossey Do?
The world media has hysterically latched onto a study suggesting that an Ebola outbreak in wildlife sanctuaries which straddle the border between Gabon and the Republic of Congo killed over 5,000 lowland gorillas. There are two glaring problems with the extrapolations on the study: there is no accurate count of the numbers of lowland gorillas in the world, and there are many areas of the Congo interior that are inaccessible.