On the Ground in Haiti: Hell and Hope

Smoke and flames rose from the sidewalk. A white man took pictures. Slowing down, my breath left me. The fire was a corpse. Leg bones sticking out of the flames. Port-au-Prince police headquarters is gone, already bulldozed. A nearby college is pancaked. Government buildings are destroyed. Stores fallen down. Tens of thousands of structures destroyed; hundreds [...] Read more »

From the IndyBlog

National

• Walking the Dream: Immigrant College Students Push for Reform
  By Karen Yi, in the Jan 29, 2010 issue
  Miami-Dade Community College student Felipe Matos has a new schedule this spring semester. Each day starts with a 5:30 a.m. wake-up call, a big breakfast, a quick stretch and securing his feet with a thick layer of duct tape. Then Matos sets off for a 17-mile walk interspersed by several breaks of singing songs, and later stops to sleep in a different place every night — RVs, churches or even strangers’ homes. (5 comments)
• The Value of Work: An Interview with Journalist Gabriel Thompson About Immigrant Labor
  By Micah Williams, in the Jan 29, 2010 issue
  Even the most virulently anti-immigrant activists in our country can’t deny that immigrants, documented and undocumented, work hard — very hard. Slaughtering animals at breakneck speed, dodging reckless taxis on bicycle to deliver meals, breaking their backs picking vegetables in far-flung fields: traditional immigrant work is brutal. (1 comment)
• History Loses One of Its Own HOWARD ZINN DIES, 87
  By Jessica Lee, in the Jan 29, 2010 issue
  Legendary historian, playwright and social activist Howard Zinn likely died just the way he would have wanted — from a heart bursting with love and revolutionary spirit while on a speaking tour highlighting the voices of uncommon heroes in American history. (0 comments)
• History: Cruelty and Compassion: Howard Zinn In His Own Words
  By Howard Zinn, in the Jan 29, 2010 issue
  In this awful world where the efforts of caring people often pale in comparison to what is done by those who have power, how do I manage to stay involved and seemingly happy? (0 comments)
• Let’s Break from the Party of War and Wall Street
  By Stanley Aronowitz, in the Jan 8, 2010 issue
  People cannot live without hope. The long night of the eight Bush years was tolerated only because many of us believed it would come to an end. That Obama seized on that belief better than his Democratic opponents is a testament to the high expectations people had that regime change in Washington just might bring about a better life. (2 comments)
• Waiting for the Rapture
  By Nicholas Powers, in the Jan 8, 2010 issue
  Can it be a year ago that we celebrated Obama’s victory? I danced in Harlem where cars honked like a wild jazz band. A woman climbed on a hood and screamed. People flooded the streets of cities around the world as a great love surged through us and swallowed the planet whole. In the midst of celebration I raised my arms and yelled, “This is who we really are!” A year later, why do we still have faith in him? (4 comments)
• Hope Has Left the Building
  By Arun Gupta, in the Jan 8, 2010 issue
  If one case encapsulates the disaster that is the Obama administration, it may be the dustup over the A.I.G. bonuses last March. Recall that extreme gambling by A.I.G. Financial Products nearly crashed the world in 2008, necessitating a taxpayer bailout of $182.3 billion (and counting). (8 comments)
• The Hot Topic: A Growing Climate Change Movement Emerges
  By Bryan Farrell, in the Nov 20, 2009 issue
  (0 comments)
• Why Seattle Still Matters: 1999 WTO Protests Exposed Deep Flaws in Global Capitalism That Remain Unaddressed
  By John Tarleton, in the Nov 20, 2009 issue
  It was still pitch dark outside and a thin, cold mist was in the air when the affinity groups charged with blockading Sixth Avenue and Union Street met for the last time. Scouts reported that the coast was clear. Sitting in the wooden pews of an old downtown Seattle church we reviewed our target once more. After days of nervewracking preparation, we were ready to do our part to shut down the World Trade Organization (WTO). (1 comment)

Local

• Taking the Public Out of Schools
  By John Tarleton, in the Jan 29, 2010 issue
  As soon as New York City Department of Education Chancellor Joel Klein leaned into his microphone and started to speak, the jeering began. When he proclaimed the DOE had to shut down 19 schools because “my first obligation is to our children,” the crowd of two thousand public school supporters roared in disbelief. (7 comments)
• Inside Columbus High School
  By Mary Annaïse Heglar, in the Jan 29, 2010 issue
  Brittany Rosado, who attends Christopher Columbus High School in the Northeast Bronx, used to belong to a gang and skip class regularly. Now, after being accepted into Columbus’ Renaissance program, Rosado is on track to graduate. (0 comments)
• The Faces of School Reform
  By John Tarleton, in the Jan 29, 2010 issue
  Led by a band of billionaires, the school-reform movement has gained increasing momentum during the past decade, spreading its reach into urban communities across the country. But instead of truly transforming public schools, private funders want to restructure them. They insist running schools like a business is the solution. At stake is not only control over hundreds of billions of dollars in local, state and federal funding, but also the future of the next generation of schoolchildren. (5 comments)
• Bloomberg’s 12-Step Method to Close Down Public Schools
  By John Tarleton, in the Jan 29, 2010 issue
  There is a method to his madness. Bloomberg and his Chancellor Joel Klein have initiated shut down or initiated the closing of more than 100 public schools, many of which have deep roots in their communities. (3 comments)
• New York City Schools by the Numbers
  By John Tarleton, in the Jan 29, 2010 issue
  (0 comments)
• FIRST PERSON: Stealing the Best and Brightest from Public Schools
  By Seung Ok, in the Jan 29, 2010 issue
  For all my anger, I do not believe that Mayor Bloomberg and his fellow billionaires are acting maliciously when they close public schools and replace them with charter schools. (1 comment)
• City Cracks Down on Illegal Hotels
  By Michael Martin, in the Jan 29, 2010 issue
  While Oscar Tenorio lives in a one-room apartment on the Upper West Side, his living situation is quite different from his more affluent neighbors. He shares bathroom and kitchen facilities with other tenants. In the hallways, wires and pipes hang from the ceilings, and crushed bedbugs dot the walls. There are holes in the walls and floors and bare light bulbs illuminate the hallways. (3 comments)
• Community Calendar
  By Indypendent Staff, in the Jan 29, 2010 issue
  (0 comments)
• Reader Comments
  By Indypendent Staff, in the Jan 29, 2010 issue
  (0 comments)

International

• Same Old Interests Have Plan for ‘New Haiti’
  By Isabel MacDonald, in the Jan 29, 2010 issue
  In the wake of the earthquake that has killed almost 200,000 people in Haiti, the foreign ministers of several countries calling themselves the “Friends of Haiti” met on Jan. 25 in Montreal to discuss plans for “building a new Haiti.” (0 comments)
• Haiti: How to Turn Disaster into Catastrophe
  By Arun Gupta, in the Jan 29, 2010 issue
  Since 1950, Port-au-Prince’s population has exploded from 144,000 to about 2.5 million. While the wealthy capital-area suburb of Petionville was largely spared, with few homes destroyed, poor people packed in shoddy housing, bore the brunt of the death and destruction. The underdevelopment of Haiti is the underlying cause. (7 comments)
• Remittances to Haiti Fill Funding Fractures
  By Jaisal Noor, in the Jan 29, 2010 issue
  Despite suffering a fractured vertebrae and a chest contusion, Leigh Carter feels lucky. “I always imagined an earthquake would start as a tremor,” she says of the magnitude 7.0 earthquake that ravaged Haiti Jan. 12. But “we were at 7.0 very suddenly, being thrown violently around the office with everything moving, falling and crashing around us.” (0 comments)
• Haiti in Aftershock
  By Nicholas Powers, in the Jan 29, 2010 issue
  PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti—Walking through the tent cities of Port-au-Prince, one sees in the hobbling amputees, skull-faced children and hungry people the aftershocks of “The Event.” (0 comments)
• Gaza, One Year Later
  By Alex Kane, in the Jan 29, 2010 issue
  BEIT HANOUN , Gaza Strip—One year after Israel’s ferocious assault, Dr. Mustafa El-Hawi, a professor at Al-Aqsa University, traveled by bus to attend a protest against the continuing Israeli siege of Gaza. (0 comments)
• Gaza Freedom March: Full Text of Cairo Declaration in the Dec 31, 1969 issue
  End Israeli Apartheid Cairo Declaration January 1, 2010     We, international delegates meeting in Cairo during the Gaza Freedom March 2009 in collective response to an initiative from the South African delegation, state:   In view of:   o   Israel’s ongoing collective punishment of Palestinians through the illegal occupation and siege of Gaza; o   the illegal occupation of the West Bank, including East [...] (0 comments)
• Honduras’ Crossroads
  By Belén Fernández, in the Dec 11, 2009 issue
  Adapted from reports by Belén Fernández. Photos by Tim Russo. (1 comment)
• The Fog of War
  By Arun Gupta, in the Dec 11, 2009 issue
  As Obama commits 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, reporter Anand Gopal makes sense of a war without end. (2 comments)
• Clock is Ticking in Copenhagen
  By Jessica Lee, in the Dec 11, 2009 issue
  The COP-15 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Dec. 7–18 is generating huge amounts of news coverage in the mainstream media but little of it is adding to the public’s understanding of the issues involved. (4 comments)

Culture

• Dances With Space Smurfs: A Review of Avatar
  By Raj Patel, in the Jan 29, 2010 issue
  Under what rock have you been hiding to miss the storm around James Cameron’s environmental parable, Avatar? Certainly not beneath a hunk of unobtanium: it floats. (4 comments)
• A Faith-driven Renaissance: Performers Highlight Muslim Art and Culture
  By Amy L. Dalton, in the Jan 29, 2010 issue
  On Saturday, Jan. 23, a dozen musicians, comedians and spoken word artists teamed up at Harlem’s historic Apollo Theater for a multilingual, transnational explosion of Muslim arts and culture. (0 comments)
• The Old, New Right
  By Bennett Baumer, in the Jan 8, 2010 issue
  A Review of The Death of Conservatism by Sam Tanenhaus and Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement that Shattered the Party by Max Blumenthal (0 comments)
• Stubborn Hope
  By Patrick Bond, in the Jan 8, 2010 issue
  World-renowned political organizer and one of Africa’s most celebrated poets, Dennis Brutus, died Dec. 26 in Cape Town, in his sleep, aged 85. (1 comment)
• All Things Considered: Climate Change from Different Angles
  By Steven Arnerich, in the Jan 8, 2010 issue
  Now that more people are attuned to the ticking clock of climate change, there is no shortage of theories for how the next act will play out. Though scientists, activists and theorists have been wildly off the mark so far, they continue to guess at what will be the solutions — and pitfalls — for getting the planet back on track. (2 comments)
• Artists Reclaim Public Space: A Conversation with Public Ad Campaign Founder Jordan Seiler
  By Danny Valdes, in the Jan 8, 2010 issue
  Everywhere you turn in New York City, there are advertisements—posters featuring attractive models schilling perfume, pop bands promoting their latest albums and celebrities endorsing soft drinks. The Public Ad Campaign, a collective of street artists, sees the prevalence of these advertisements as an intrusion into public space. Founded by Jordan Seiler in 2000, this group [...] (3 comments)
• Activist Café Celebrates 30 Years
  By Chris Seymour, in the Jan 8, 2010 issue
  How would you celebrate 30 years of presenting politics with a musical beat? Well, Peoples’ Voice Café has the answer — host a concert with the New York Society for Ethical Culture (NYSEC) featuring multicultural lesbian and gay gospel choir Lavender Light and roots-rock duo emma’s revolution. (1 comment)
• The Great White Way Sees Red: A Review of Finian’s Rainbow and Zero Hour
  By Judith Mahoney Pasternak, in the Dec 31, 1969 issue
  Finian’s Rainbow Book by E.Y. Harburg and Fred Saidy Music by Burton Lane, Lyrics by E.Y. Harburg Zero Hour Written and Performed by Jim Brochu They’re singing “When the Idle Poor Become the Idle Rich” again on Broadway, which is good news for those of us who like our pop culture liberally seasoned with politics. And if Finian’s Rainbow is [...] (0 comments)
• Feathers, Politics and Jazz Hands: A Review of Bailout: The Musical
  By Judith Mahoney Pasternak, in the Dec 31, 1969 issue
  Bailout: The Musical Written by Wreckio Ensemble Music and Lyrics by Will Larche Bailout: The Musical, says its collective author the Wreckio Ensemble, puts “the fun back in government funding.”  They’re not wrong (even if the fun is a little slow getting started). In a barely distant future, economic collapse has ravaged Off-Off-Broadway, and the only hope for experimental [...] (0 comments)