Screening of Sugar Pathways at Maysles Cinema on Fe. 12, 2010

We, the Dominican people, did and will do everything that we should do in this painful and torturous time for the Haitian people and we appeal for them, for ourselves and for all the people of the world.

Confronted by the tragic earthquake that shook the ancestral destitution of the suffering Haitian people, a lot of debris has come to light: on the one hand, the reality of a country, which has been pillaged, exploited and oppressed; punished for its heroism, for being the first place to abolish slavery, for its feats against Napoleon’s army, for the color of its mahogany skin, and for its dignified stance on wanting to be free has been demonstrated dramatically.

On the other hand, it has also been demonstrated to the world that the alleged interest of the powerful countries to end poverty is a contradiction. In Haiti, misery has not been decreasing but increasing exponentially. While the powers discuss how to fulfill their promise of ending poverty, nature takes charge of ending it her way.

The human value of sympathy has also been demonstrated, the greatest sympathy from people around the world, from the Haitians themselves and most certainly from the Dominicans, who set out neighborhood by neighborhood, street by street seeking help which in return flowed like a torrent, overflowing in the capacity for sharing out the tasks. It has demonstrated that there are no enemies, that there is no resentment, that there are two brothers divided by a line drawn by a small few: the victors of war.

It has been demonstrated that the powers continue believing themselves to be masters of human destiny, they believe themselves authorized to exploit the territory of a free country, to exploit its institutions, to overshadow or rescind governments and their institutions.

It has been extremely obvious before the eyes of the world that it is possible to build a better and more just and humane society, with our help, the people, without interference, without trauma, without interventions, merely with the compassionate, frank, and open will of many good people around the world. Therefore it has been shown that it is possible to build a new world, where life is not a miracle, nor a gift, and much less the privilege of a chosen few.

We, the Dominican people, did and will do everything that we should do in this painful and torturous time for the Haitian people and we demand for them, for ourselves and for all the people of the world: respect for their sovereignty, for their institutions, and for their independence. These principles are not for sale, nor are they a game, yet and very much in spite of the thousands of bodies that are still lying everywhere: “Together: we the people will continue dreaming of the legitimate right to a better world”.

Miguel Gil. Dominican Republic

Translation: Rhona Desmond

The daily newspaper, Le Matin, plans to reduce its staff to eight journalists and to broadcast information only on Internet. It is also the case of the Nouvelliste, temporarily moved in the complex Promenade, in Pétionville. Indeed, all media intend to reduce their staff.

Signal FM, Métropole, Solidarité, Mélodie FM, Kiskeya, Caraïbes FM, Vision 2000, Lumière, RFM, Scoop FM are modifying their programming due to cracked buildings, as a result of the earthquake. Television channels do not work for the moment in Port-au-Prince: there is no electricity (posted : January 27, 2010).

Reporters Without Borders and the Canadian media group, Quebecor, decided to set up an emergency center of operations for Haitian journalists. A center, situated rue Chériez, in the neighborhood of Canapé-Vert, in Port-au-Prince, will shelter the communication equipment.

The project consists, first and foremost, in providing essential means of communication to journalists having no means to work at all.

The center intends to facilitate contact between editorial representatives and to offer, to political authorities and non-governmental organizations, a communication frame with the Haitian media.

The Canapé-Vert center also aims to provide a service to international news media seeking to understand Haitian reality.

In the end, the center of operations could become an autonomous place of production and dissemination of news and Information, employing, for example, journalists with Haitian print media, whose distribution have been suspended after the earthquake.

The center is opened to Haitian and foreign journalists. They have at their disposal computers connected to Internet, wireless system and two international telephone lines.

The center has a terrace fitted out and opened to journalists, Non Governmental Organizations and government members, to convene, for example, press conferences. Up to 20 journalists will be able to work in the center at any one time. It also has a news conference room and a terrace that can hold respectively 40 and 60 people. It will have broadband Internet, telephone lines, an audio and video conference system, a satellite TV link and printers, as well as facilities for journalists in distress.

The center of operations received the support of the Minister of Culture and Communications of the Republic of Haiti, Marie-Laurence Jocelyn-Lassègue. A meeting between Reporters without Borders, Quebecor and the Minister is planned on January 21st, 2010 in Port-au-Prince (9am local time) to approve the operating procedures of the center and the appointments of Haitian journalists who will be in charge.

Translation provided by Alexandra Bonvalot

SAN JOSE

Laura Chinchilla thanked supporters for electing her Costa Rica’s first female president and only the fifth ever in Latin America late Sunday (Monday in Manila), as her opponents accepted defeat.

The 50-year-old ruling party candidate joined thousands of supporters after first results showed she had won 47 percent of the votes counted, way ahead of her main opponents and above the 40 percent needed to avoid a run-off.

“Thank you, Costa Rica,” Chinchilla said in an address in a hotel in the capital, San Jose.“It’s certainly a moment of happiness, but above all of humility . . . I won’t betray that confidence.”

Center-left opposition candidate Otton Solis won 24 percent of the votes counted and right-wing lawyer Otto Guevara garnered 21 percent.

“With a lot of respect, we accept the reality,” Solis, who lost by a whisker to current President Oscar Arias in 2006, told a gathering of his followers.

Guevara congratulated “our president Laura Chinchilla,” shortly afterwards.

The opposition had criticized Chinchilla as being a puppet of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Arias, and she was expected to continue his policies of promoting free trade and international business ties.

The slight, long-haired graduate of Georgetown University in the United States served as vice president under Arias and is socially conservative on issues such as abortion.

Her National Liberation Party (PLN) bet on her past experience as public security minister and justice minister to win voters over on the issue of crime—a growing concern here.

Balloting took place calmly throughout Latin America’s oldest democracy, which has no army, amid fears of high abstention rates.

Abstention was at 33.43 percent, according to initial results, of some 2.8 million eligible to vote for a new president, two vice presidents, as well as 57 lawmakers and municipal leaders.                          

AFP