Melting Ice Could Lead to Massive Waves of Climate Refugees

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As the Earth warms, the melting of its two massive ice sheets—Antarctica and Greenland—could raise sea level enormously.via SolveClimate.com.

Last month's earthquake in Haiti brought out two sides of Bahamians: the all-too-common bigotry that holds tight onto what we've achieved over the past forty years and refuses to share our good fortune with others, and a generosity and compassion that signals a possible change in the way we talk about ourselves, our country, and our neighbours.What struck me, though, was the almost unquestioning subtext of both: the growing-old refrain that we are blessed, we are special, God has smiled upon us, and therefore we must either keep that blessing selfishly to ourselves or spread it more generously than we have done in the past.And we've gone off to thank God, to congratulate ourselves, that we were not so unfortunate as to have had an earthquake here in our land, that we are mostly outside the earthquake zone (except Inagua, which is close enough to the fault that shook Port-au-Prince to have experienced the earth's shaking at different times in its history).What I wonder about, though, is the question of why in all our discussions about blessedness, in all our wrangling about who-won-Elizabeth, in all our self-centredness and short-sightedness, no one -- not during the debates, not during the discussions on the air, nowhere, not even during the Copenhagen talks last year -- has raised the issue that should have every Bahamian deeply concerned: the question of the impact that global warming will have on ocean warming, the melting of the ice caps, and the eventual rising of the seas.Now it's possible for us to not-believe all the science about global warming. I myself, while accepting the research and the results, and believing entirely that the earth's climate is experiencing some major changes, am vaguely sceptical about the stated causes of climate change, and am also not always convinced about the predicted results of it.BUT.  One thing that isn't in dispute at the moment is that the ocean temperature is currently rising. Or, to be more precise: "July 2009 was the hottest month for the world's oceans in almost 130 years of record-keeping" (Seas at Risk.Org); and that scientists are noticing a shrinkage of the ice sheets of both Greenland and Antarctica.Here's what that means:

If the Greenland ice sheet were to melt, it would raise sea level 7 meters 23 feet. Melting of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet would raise sea level 5 meters 16 feet. But even just partial melting of these ice sheets will have a dramatic effect on sea level rise.Senior scientists are noting that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change IPCC projections of sea level rise during this century of 18 to 59 centimeters are already obsolete and that a rise of 2 meters during this time is within range.via Melting Ice Could Lead to Massive Waves of Climate Refugees | SolveClimate.com.

Here's what that means to our country.The Bahamas is flat, low-lying, with few points on any island that can be considered high ground. Our highest point, way away on Cat Island, is 206 ft (63 metres) above sea level. But what's perhaps more worrying is that our fresh water sources are universally fresh water lenses, which rely to some degree on the stability of the salt water levels to continue to provide us with fresh water levels. Consider the fact, too, that New Providence gets its fresh water barged in from Andros (having long outgrown/contaminated the local freshwater lens, which was once considerable for a Bahamian island, but which can in no way support Nassau's population of a quarter of a million people, give or take), and that Andros is one of the flatter, lower islands. We don't know what impact rising sea levels might have on that.So it's not inconceivable that rising sea levels will turn Bahamians back into what for the past three generations we have not been: migrants, refugees, emigrants in search of dry land. It's not inconceivable that Atlantis, for the past decade or so our "saviour", may be what we actually become one of these days -- a sunken country, our property reclaimed by the sea. One of these days, The Bahamas may become just a memory to be kept alive by those most reviled of us all -- our artists.Just saying.

Poor political salesmen? Give me a break.

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In the Tribune today, Adrian Gibson comments on the Elizabeth by-election:

With no easily certifiable winner and throngs of voters who shunned the polls, the Elizabeth by-election has revealed voter discontent and, at this juncture, shown-up both the FNM and the PLP as poor political salesmen.The Elizabeth by-election, featuring a virtual tie, ensuing recounts, hordes of lawyers and the possibility of an election court challenge, appears to have been the most contentious by-election campaign in recent history and has caused a political circus in that constituency.The by-election was a nail-biter, initially yielding a razor-thin margin of victory for the FNM's candidate and a thoroughly inconclusive outcome.via The Tribune.

No offense, Adrian, but "poor political salesmen"? I don't think so.  More like irrelevant, condescending, cowardly, and out of touch. How can you sell the vision you don't have? How can you represent a people you don't respect? How can you expect greatness out of a people when your supporters behave like hooligans and you are too afraid to correct them?Neither major party has outlined any clear position on governance and their concepts of the Bahamian future are mired firmly in the past. Neither major party seems to think enough of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas and its citizenry to demand standards of behaviour that showcase the parties and the nation at their best, preferring apparently to reinforce and reward our worst. Neither major party has shown the courage it needs to correct the clear failures inherent in our system (like our outdated, bloated, inefficient and misnamed "civil service", our overreliance on tourism and foreign investment at the expense of real investment in the Bahamian citizenry, or our crucial need to address and rethink the question of (im)migration in The Bahamas, or the  overpopulation and underrepresentation of our capital city at the expense of the entire country). Both seem to believe that ad hominem attacks on their rivals, bombast and one-upmanship will satisfy the people they are sworn to serve. Neither seems to have cottoned on to the fact that Bahamian people want, and expect, far more.The BDM has gained some loyalty but is not much better when it comes to vision. Rodney Moncur for the Workers Party is as he always was: radical, irreverent, interesting, but ultimately divisive. The NDP may prove to be an exciting new force, especially with its bid for more direct democracy with regard to parliamentary representation, but cautious (or jaded) voters will demand more before they throw their full support behind them.What the by-election suggests to me is that the time is ripe for people of conscience and conviction to take a chance and stand up as true representatives of the Bahamian people -- that committed independents and new parties may well be a force to reckon with in the coming General Election, that anything is possible in this post-Obama world, that yes, we can reaches beyond the US borders.

Bahamas B2B: Elizabeth Lessons

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There at least three important lessons to be learned from the Elizabeth by-election.

  1. Bahamian voters are fed up with "politics as usual".
    • Voter turnout for the by-election was around 64%, low for The Bahamas, where the usual turnout is over 90%.
  2. Independent candidates are now a formidable force in Bahamian politics.
  3. The governing FNM party will not coast to a victory in 2012.

--Bahamas B2B, Lessons from Elizabeth

Hear, hear. More on this later.

Elizabeth By-Election: a Tribute to Idiocy, Absurdity and the Lowest Common Human Denominator

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Vote Independent. Or New Party. Let us try and find some adults to run our country. Let us behave like adults at least some of the time.

11:10am Supporters of both sides continue to hurl abuse at one another. FNM Deputy Leader Brent Symonette put his hand on one woman's shoulder, asking her to calm down, and as he turned to walk away, she hit him in the shoulder. He didn't report it to the police or have her removed from the area.10:30am Barricades have now been put up to separate FNM and PLP supporters. Even though they've now been physically separated, the angry shouting continues. PLP candidate Ryan Pinder, who at the moment remains down by a single vote, arrived a short while ago and stopped to speak with the media gathered there. He chided the media for focusing attention on the acrimony between the two groups, suggesting that by doing so, they're fueling the problem. 10:26am Police have had to form a human barrier around the gate to the Thelma Gibson Primary School where the recount is taking place. This after they had to break up groups of passionate, arguing supporters of the FNM and the PLP. Inside, FNM Deputy Leader Brent Symonette and PLP Leader Perry Christie shook hands for the cameras. via The Tribune.

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-02-14

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A tiny ethnography of the earthquake

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I want you to know that, before the earthquake, things in Haiti were normal. Outside Haiti, people only hear the worst -- tales that are cherry-picked, tales that are exaggerated, tales that are lies. I want you to understand that there was poverty and oppression and injustice in Port-au-Prince, but there was also banality.via Salon.com Mobile.

The writer of the above is Laura Wagner, an American PhD candidate in anthropology who was studying in Haiti at the time of the earthquake. She was injured in the quake, which killed at least one of her friends, and she still does not know what happened to the rest of them. Read the article. It gives a far more balanced account of what happened -- and what still is happening -- than most other writing, which focusses on the sensational, the (mostly foreign) heroics (because of course poor black people are incapable of their own heroism) and the predictable -- "looting" and "social breakdown".This is what anthropology is good for, which is something that I keep reminding myself as I teach it, and as I situate myself in this hybrid, postcolonial, complex society on the edge of the written world. It's good for getting inside places and people, for jettisoning the expected and the prejudiced, and for telling the story of individuals, the kinds of people who don't generally get stories told about them on any global level. That isn't to say that anthropologists and ethnographers are the "voices" of these people. They're (we're) not. But they/we do stand sometimes as interlocutors, challenging prejudice with actuality, and provide pieces of the puzzle of reality that are often overlooked, often missing.So go read the piece. And let it add just a little to whatever idea of "Haiti" and the "earthquake" you have in your minds. Let it make those ideas just a little more complicated. A little more real.

Now that the first journalistic burst has ended, now that the celebrity telethons have wrapped, the stories you hear are of “looters” and “criminals” set loose on a post-apocalyptic wasteland. This is the same story that has always been told about Haiti, for more than 200 years, since the slaves had the temerity to not want to be slaves anymore. This is the same trope of savagery that has been used to strip Haiti and Haitians of legitimacy since the Revolution. But at the moment of the quake, even as the city and, for all we knew, the government collapsed, Haitian society did not fall into Hobbesian anarchy. This stands in contradiction both to what is being shown on the news right now, and everything we assume about societies in moments of breakdown....Social scientists who study catastrophes say there are no natural disasters. In every calamity, it is inevitably the poor who suffer more, die more, and will continue to suffer and die after the cameras turn their gaze elsewhere. Do not be deceived by claims that everyone was affected equally -- fault lines are social as well as geological. After all, I am here, with my white skin and my U.S. citizenship, listening to birds outside the window in the gray-brown of a North Carolina winter, while the people who welcomed me into their lives are still in Port-au-Prince, within the wreckage, several of them still not accounted for.via Salon.com Mobile.

February 11. Day of Absence. All day.

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The idea behind the Day of Absence is political because all of the above are connected. The oppression shared by Haitians in The Bahamas (and the Americas), and by African-Americans in the USA in the pre-civil rights era is the same oppression that makes the arts irrelevant to us today. They all stem from the same origin: the need to justify the widespread enslavement and maltreatment of a group of people in order to create an empire or a world for oneself. The first is the economic end-product of that original sin, if you like. The second is the political end-product. The third -- the place, or lack of place, of art in our society is the psychological by-product.In order to enslave an entire "race" of people, you have to displace them, you have to deprive them of their possessions, you have to deprive them of their rights, and -- most insidious of all -- you have to deprive them of their sense of who they are. The last is, like art in The Bahamas, invisible, and so it is the hardest of all to counteract. You have to tell them, and tell them so they come to believe it, that they have no culture, that nothing good ever came out of their country of origin, that they are fortunate to have been enslaved, so that they might learn culture and art from the enslavers. (For those who find this language offensive, I apologize, but if you know some other way to say it without lying about it, I'm interested to see it).

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Jackson Burnside on Day of Absence

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Is the Emperor naked? Is Art really absent? Nicolette makes it abundantly clear that, “We Bahamians have cultivated the habit of supporting certain cultural endeavours simply because they are produced by Bahamians, regardless of quality. We have suppressed our critical faculties. We have come to expect sub-standard work from Bahamians, so much so that the very adjective “Bahamian” stands for mediocrity.” While this sad case of affairs is undeniable, it is also true that there is an abundance of individuals and organizations that, in spite of the culture of the “Emperor and his court”, produce diverse expressions of the highest standards.This is a blow that Nico strikes on the defensive in her “Second Response” to Ward’s stinging critique. She asks two questions, how good are we? And, how do we get better? She also argues that most of us choose to present the culture of mediocrity to make the argument that we are not that good. She turns that argument on itself and begs us to focus on the positive. There is no argument from any of us that for a country of our size we have produced an enormous volume of excellent Artwork of all kinds.Ward argues, however, that when we think of “the world of Art”, we are thinking mostly of artists generally from outside our borders. This is a very important issue, in his mind, because he says, ” The reality is that most, if not all of the images and products that filter our way from great foreign cultural creators, such as the United States, have been produced by professionals who have already been paid. To ask the right question therefore, is to ask, what would the Bahamas be without Bahamian Art?”I agree with Ward that the metaphor of absence must be questioned. Ward says. “We do not need any more absence. We need to make our presence felt”. We particularly need to make our presence felt to ourselves, so that we, Bahamians, would not automatically conclude that to get quality creative production or design, we need to look outside of ourselves.

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-02-07

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Day of Absence '10: 11 February 2010

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If you're a follower of this blog, you'll know that about a month and a half ago there was considerable activity here online about the Day of Absence concept. For those who don't know or don't remember, here's a short refresher, both about the original idea and the critique that it sparked.Thirty-six years after independence and forty-one years after majority rule, creative workers in our country are unable to find work in the areas in which God has gifted them. There are virtually no avenues in The Bahamas to enable creative people to develop and hone their talents, or to enable them to make use of them when they are developed. Our greatest brain drain is arguably in the area of the arts; like Sidney Poitier over sixty years ago, Bahamians who want to exercise their talents in the cultural industries are faced with the choice of pursuing their callings as hobbies at home, or of leaving home to make a living by their gifts elsewhere. And we are all the poorer for it.Nicolette Bethel, "Day of Absence: 11 February", Blogworld, January 30 2009The idea behind the day of observance was to sensitize people -- Bahamians primarily, but anyone, really, who regards the arts and cultural activity as luxuries, upper-class frivolities that have no place in the real life of adults -- to the centrality of the arts. In a nutshell, it asks people to imagine a day without art. To imagine life without music, design, decoration, colour, rhyme, story, or dance. To imagine worship without these things; to imagine working or living or moving from place to place without them; to believe the lie that art is a luxury.And then to consider according art and artists the respect that they deserve.

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Rex Nettleford Dies

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Professor Rex Nettleford Is Dead Prof. Rex. Nettleford CaribWorldNews, WASHINGTON, D.C., Weds. Feb. 3, 2010: Vice Chancellor Emeritus of the University of the West Indies, Professor Ralston Milton `Rex` Nettleford, is dead. Nettleford died at 8 o`clock tonight in the George Washington Hospital last night. He was 76.via CaribWorldNews.com - Global Caribbean Daily Newswire.

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-01-31

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  • Link for the last tweet: http://bit.ly/99ziAY #
  • So here's the thing. If Haiti is really a failed state just who is fixing the roads & the phone lines? #
  • Peculiarly quiet Saturday night in town. Thought it was odd earlier but now it's midnight and there is not much noise. Not even dogs. Hm. #
  • Masekela's Chileshe - thinking about the complexity of the influences and wondering when we will swallow ours and put out beauty like this #
  • On Poland & Haiti - http://bit.ly/cM54h1 #
  • In T&T (and in Nassau Bahamas) business as usual: by-election in Nassau, carnival & politics in T&T #
  • Haitian girl survives 15 days http://bit.ly/98gDyW #
  • News not good about #Nettleford Intensive care in DC. Bahamian friends praying for him. #
  • RT @anniepaul Full 100: False alarm - Jamaican mute mistaken for Haitian refugee - JamaicaObserver.com: http://bit.ly/dz4Fui #
  • RT @anniepaul False alarm! CVM News says the man presumed to be a Haitian was a fisherman from Portland! His mother identified him! #
  • RT @anniepaul And he was so famished he went to the bar looking for food. 1st reported Haitian fugee in Jamaica. #
  • RT @anniepaul A Haitian man just arrived at a bar in St Mary, Ja, wet and starving, the residents fed and clothed him #
  • Lynn Sweeting on prejudice & hate. http://bit.ly/bUhohm #
  • Helen Klonaris' latest post is a must-read - on Haiti, the colonial self, race http://bit.ly/czYj5D #
  • LOL RT @ledrama don't u hate telling a story to a stupid person? if you don't, ur probably the stupid one. #
  • RT @anniepaul Jamaican icon Rex Nettleford suffers heart attack in Washington, DC, is in intensive care in a US hospital #
  • RT @caribbeanaxis Caricom owes debt to Haitian people http://bit.ly/aTxQbs #
  • RT @georgiap RT @globalvoices: Haiti: Security vs. Relief? http://bit.ly/a9vAyg #
  • RT @KatyEvansBush RIP Salinger on Baroque in Hackney, this news feels important http://bit.ly/1Nob92 #
  • RT @nplaughlin Afro Modern at Tate Liverpool: Cbn artists include Ronald Moody, Wifredo Lam, Christopher Cozier: http://bit.ly/6Rjf2l #
  • RT @la_davis Aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti-current numbers recorded at 170,000-just around the population of New Providence, Bahamas! #
  • RT @RAMhaiti Jacmel is a special town. Look like part of the French Quartier in New Orleans. An undeveloped version. #
  • RT @RAMhaiti Destroying historical homes in Jacmel that could potentially be saved would be a crime. #
  • RT @anniepaul RT @BeautyinWordz: Even tho he's in jail reggae artist Buju Banton sent clothes & cash 2 the earthquake victims of haiti #
  • Whose Army? Save Jacmel! RT @RAMhaiti Army Corps of Engineers want to knock down historic buildings in Jacmel. #
  • RT @georgiap On global Voices & the Haitian blogosphere http://bit.ly/cv1ym1 in reply to georgiap #
  • Well Twitlonger ga hattie do more work den - RT @anniepaul RT @ceoSteveJobs: Just to make you jealous, I'm tweeting today from the tablet. #
  • Cmon Arnold- the world has shrunk & sending problems offshore won't solve them. Time we all learned that. http://bit.ly/a8Ohz4 #
  • You probably all know this already but worth mentioning anyway: survivor rescued after 14 days. http://bit.ly/9wlRCV #
  • RT @OneNightStanzas RT @poetryireland Deep feeling doesn't make for good poetry. A way with language would be a bit of help. - Thom Gunn #
  • Or occupation? RT @RAMhaiti I hear 13,000 US troops on the island but only saw 2 sand colored jeeps 2day as I drove round town. Indecision? #
  • RT @RAMhaiti There's a pretty heavy duty PR campaign against African based religions as well as Afro Caribbean religions;KNOW YOUR ROOTS. #
  • RT @ledrama RT @Ampero: good morning gray sky, good morning nippy breeze, good morning potcakes and yellow elder trees.. I just love Nassau #
  • via @wardmin - a timely piece of satire: http://su.pr/2LvnXf #
  • Interesting: RT @pathways Coconut palms block nutrient flow in tropical ecosystems—by driving birds to poop elsewhere http://bit.ly/7LomEV #
  • The need for ongoing research at the College/University of The Bahamas - well said, Jones Communications: http://su.pr/6c1BF8 #
  • Take heart and learn how to live - http://bit.ly/8l1YSQ #
  • Cmon Bahamians let's get some facts straight. Silly myth no 1: the Bahamas is a small country. Nope. Third biggest AngloCarib land mass! #
  • RT @RAMhaiti The corruption isn't limited just to Haitians. People in the International Community are also involved. #
  • RT @RAMhaiti The Haitian population is convinced the Govt buildings were destroyed because of corruption #
  • Three local pastors respond to Pat Robertson's idea that Haiti was cursed. Read and judge. I with Myles myself. http://su.pr/9rezkc #
  • RT @Tribune242: Bahamas telethon for Haiti tonight 8-10 on local tv. Reporting in real time on tribune242.com. http://bit.ly/8at5VI #fb #
  • The Caricom initiative in Haiti, or what presented itself as such, is suffering considerably. http://su.pr/8M94U7 #
  • Resemblance between Toussaint L’Ouverture & Obama - http://su.pr/4glugh #
  • RT @anniepaul: Suggestion that Obama read Black jacobins. good one. RT @aravindadiga: Haiti: http://bit.ly/8aP6HJ #

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The Gaulin Wife: Making Connections

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This is not the crux of Helen's post, but I chose it to inspire people to want to read the whole thing. It's crucial reading.

I have to remind myself to continue making connections, and to look for the triumphant in the stories of disaster, to look for the survivance in them, for the ways people continue to refuse to be victims. I have to remind myself, because on the screen the stories being told are told with such potent images, of the dead and the dying, of the grieving, of those who have lost, and they are almost always brown skin people. And the people with microphones in front of their faces, telling the stories, and the people behind the camera lenses, making the pictures, are almost always beige, pale skin people. Beige, pale skin people who appear magically in these places of such pain, while they themselves appear untouched, able to leave when they want to, to smile even, in the midst of it all.I have to remind myself because I am also beige, pale. And though my socialization is a complex thing – I was raised in a Caribbean country; my way of being in the world, my physical sense of relationship to others is both Africanized and Anglicized and both are rooted in my ancestral Greekness, Greeks from islands, Greeks who were peasants from villages and not aristocrats from the cities – I am still a beige person in a racially polarized society and my imagination is at stake. And what I know is our potential for human transformation depends on our ability to imagine.via The Gaulin Wife: Making Connections.

Womanish Words: Teach the Children Well

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Hear, hear, Lynn.

It upsets me when I hear the little children I know and love speaking in the the racist/religious/hateful language of the local Bahamian press/the moneyed elite/the generally ignorant. There are probably more than a million orphan children struggling to get through the day today in Haiti. It is natural for children to want to help. That natural inclination in our children is at risk. It is hard to hear a child you love speaking about Haiti with no compassion, no natural wanting to help. We Bahamians who enjoy wealth and privilege (and that means anyone not in Port au Prince right now with time and ways enough to read this blog) must wake up and face the fact that we were mis-educated when it comes to Haiti, stop defending the ignorance and selfishness and get on with doing some reading, some learning, some changing and transforming, and some GIVING. Because our innocent children are watching. Teach the children well.via Womanish Words: Teach the Children Well.

10 to Watch in 2010, 01/10 | The Independent

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Kareem Mortimer listed as one of the "ten filmmakers to watch in 2010" put out by the Independent Newspaper, UK:

DAY TWO of TEN - KAREEM MORTIMERBahamian filmmaker Kareem Mortimer shakes up his homeland's homophobia with Children of God, which debuted last month. Read what his mentor, Steven Beer, had to say about Mortimer's savvy handling of actors and a limited budget, only on Facebook.via 10 to Watch in 2010, 01/10 | The Independent.

Read more. And congrats to Kareem!!

Peter Hallward, "Securing Disaster in Haiti"

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Well worth reposting, reading, and savouring in days to come. Sobering commentary indeed.

Nine days after the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti on 12 January 2010, it's now clear that the initial phase of the U.S.-led relief operation has conformed to the three fundamental tendencies that have shaped the more general course of the island's recent history. It has adopted military priorities and strategies. It has sidelined Haiti's own leaders and government, and ignored the needs of the majority of its people. And it has proceeded in ways that reinforce the already harrowing gap between rich and poor. All three tendencies aren't just connected, they are mutually reinforcing. These same tendencies will continue to govern the imminent reconstruction effort as well, unless determined political action is taken to counteract them.via Peter Hallward, "Securing Disaster in Haiti".

Geoffrey Philp - Two More Ways to Help With Haiti Relief

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And you know that I'll be buying into the first of them for sure!!! Via Geoffrey Philp.

I'll be making a contribution to Cafe Cocano because it represents some of the things in which I believe: the ability of Caribbean peoples to overcome any situation and that we are responsible for creating the changes we want to see. Unless we (InI) do it for ourselves, nothing will happen.***Because I also believe in the power of the Word and that with giving, we can also speak/write/do great good, I'm recommending a site--thanks Randy!-- VWA{Poems for Haiti):VWA: Poems For Haiti was created by Caper Literary Journal as a way to inspire people to think about the tragedy in Haiti. We want people — readers and writers alike — to generate hope through a time that is very dark. We have luxuries many do not, and though some of us cannot help in major ways, sharing your work in the name of their pain and strength is something we can do. VWA, the kreyòl word for voice, aims to turn the pain and inspiration into literary works.via Two More Ways to Help With Haiti Relief.

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-01-24

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  • Tanks fa da plug! Glad you liked it. #
  • Watching Dialogue with Travolta Cooper re the Stafford Sands movie (Monday @ 7:00 PM). Go see it. #
  • Haitian-Bahamian Solidarity: http://wp.me/p1AQe-lq #
  • RT @georgiap: Reading: "#Haiti earthquake: BBC to start Creole broadcasts" http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8475381.stm #
  • Hear hear hear. RT @RAMhaiti: The opening of banks and wire services;Vital step forward in "Post Earthquake Haiti". #
  • Haitian-Bahamian Solidarity on ArtOvation now #
  • I done buy my own RT @nicobet $7 for GHS AllStars CD @ Juke Box & GHS go support our artists. Go buy it. #
  • $7 for GHS AllStars CD @ Juke Box & GHS go support our artists. Go buy it. #
  • RT @tadaLive ArtOvation w/tada - http://www.star106fm.com @8am EST guests - Fava Records & GHS Magic AllStars soundin GOOD #
  • Yes-I. Let's ban the word "looting" from our disaster vocabulary until we know how to use it. Cheers. http://su.pr/8t4I8d #haiti #
  • http://bit.ly/4phEgL I really like this idea - both for a present & as a fundraising strategy. Via @HeracliteanFire #
  • Great article on reporting the disaster - via Erin Greene http://su.pr/1JN9DO #
  • What I say? Aw. - Guy-Uriel Charles agrees: STOP CALLING QUAKE VICTIMS LOOTERS. http://su.pr/2uNvec #
  • READ THIS! RT @anniepaul RT @huffingtonpost Gina Athena Ulysse: Haiti Will Never be the Same http://tinyurl.com/ycux8zp #
  • Haiti: http://wp.me/p1AQe-lp #
  • More perspective on Haiti - distribution of aid, reality with regard to violence, cracks in the system, and hope: http://su.pr/2ePd7M #
  • Caribbean response to quake criticized http://su.pr/3fhVYo #
  • Hear, hear, Rick Lowe: http://su.pr/1UqOb3 #
  • #artsandbusiness Sitting in a workshop offered by You in Music - worth it!! #
  • Interesting how quickly the term is applied during situations when the participants happen to be, not to put too fine a point on it, black. #
  • "Looting" privileges the object above the human being. Let's change the language. In #Haiti right now "looters" = food foragers. #
  • Please can we stop using the term "looting" to describe the most basic human response to hunger - finding ways to subsist? #haiti #
  • Many Haitians I know best have been extraordinarily fortunate; they are safe and their families are accounted for. This is not true for all! #
  • Worth noting. http://su.pr/2gNRla #
  • Never seen such flippity-floppety in all my life. Bahamian gvt announces the umpteenth policy shift regarding Haitian immigrants. WTF? #
  • Some interesting geology, specially given the other quakes in the region this past weekend: http://su.pr/1QCwGs #
  • Worth consideration for more than one reason RT @ScharadL Learned today that comfort stops success. http://myloc.me/30EIQ #
  • RT @wardmin RT: Amy Goodman and Democracy Now! Reporting From Haiti http://bit.ly/7ie5x2 (@democracy_now) #
  • RT @erinaferguson THE HAITIAN SITUATION - http://bit.ly/692kOb - Worth reading in full - Gilbert Morris comments #
  • RT @globalvoices Brazil: Viewing the Haitian earthquake from without and within: The Brazilian blogosphere is in uproar http://bit.ly/4uqxfB #
  • http://bit.ly/4GKbA2 via Jackson Burnside & Facebook - Hilary Beckles gives context for Haitian suffering #
  • This the HAI we know: "imagine hypocrites in church Sunday morning & saying we must detain ppl & send em back to Haiti" http://su.pr/61PvTk #
  • 2nd poorest Caricom country, Guyana, announces that it will provide US$1 million in immediate assistance to Haiti. http://su.pr/3hK70e #
  • RT @georgiap: YouTube channel of Haitian media outlet Le Nouvelliste - reporting by Haitian journalists http://bit.ly/5HPCkM #Haiti #
  • WHOA - repayment would be right. RT @georgiap: "Baby Doc" Duvalier "donates" (repays?) US$8 million to Haiti http://bit.ly/6fxGBO #
  • RT @georgiap: "Don't Count Haiti Out" writes @amywilentz http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-wilentz15-2010jan15,0,2404187.story #
  • RT @nplaughlin: Charity workers apparently running the airport in Jacmel to get in relief supplies: http://bit.ly/7elIaJ #Haiti #
  • RT @Morning_Porch: Sorry @pathways: Pat Robertson in blackface compounds offense, & "Voodoo dolls" come from Europe. Vodun not comparable. #
  • RIP ANDREW CURRY - Bahamian musical giant. Join the choir of angels, Andrew! #
  • USA: Never forget you do not own Haiti, which freed itself as you did from colonial domination. Let the planes land. http://bit.ly/8z64Yn #
  • Haiti not Babylon. RT @anniepaul dem nuh follow fashion RT @bigblackbarry: I dont see 1 rasta in Haiti. Why is that? What does that signify? #
  • Reading @qarrtsiluni's "Words of Power" issue I LOVE this poem: http://bit.ly/7fEZt6 @morningporch #
  • RT @globalvoices Haiti: Power of Music: Repeating Islands - music by Haitian artists is making a difference http://bit.ly/6QZ2N8 #
  • Suffering from a headcold. Grouchy & unoriginal. This should explain all the retweets. #
  • RT @nplaughlin Images of Jacmel post-earthquake by the director of the Ciné Institute there (on Flickr): http://bit.ly/7oX8GX #
  • Read this of facebook back before the quake but it's still worth a read: http://bit.ly/5Cccxf Avatar: Another Neocolonial Story #
  • http://bit.ly/8tIIPx It may be unfair, maybe even insensitive, of me to wish for more pre-disaster images of Haiti @ #
  • Official statements from Ministry of Foreign Affairs as reported in the Bahama Journal: http://bit.ly/7vkPci #

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The Bahamas & Haitians - WeblogBahamas.com

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People who read this blog regularly know that Rick and I rarely agree on anything, and that when we do it's a cause for commemoration. But there is not one thing in this article with which I take issue.Here's just a taste:

There has always been a love hate relationship between Bahamians and Haitians. We love them when they do the physical labour we don't want to do, but hate them when they start to aspire to do more for themselves.When we consider the reactions to the government documenting and releasing 119 Haitians from the detention centre here as a result of the earthquake devastation to Port au Prince, Haiti one wonders how we can call ourselves a "Christian" nation.via The Bahamas & Haitians - WeblogBahamas.com

Go read the whole thing.

How we Bahamians are helping

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All right, enough responding to the inappropriate reactions of Bahamians to the Haitian earthquake. You know what the old people say: don't mind the noise in the market, just mind the price of the fish. So what the fish costing these days?

I thought I'd start a list of things that ordinary Bahamians are doing. As often happens, people involved in doing good are too busy working to make noise, and so it's easy to get distracted by the more vocal among us and imagine that we Bahamians are not giving or assisting. So I thought I'd make a list of what we are doing. I am absolutely certain that I will miss many people out, so I invite anyone who wants to add to this list. Let's make it as long as we can. (I've got a list over on FB too but let's push it here to the blog, where it can last for a long long time).

We can start with these:

Use the comment thread to post more info! (one note - please be patient when you post your comment - you need to have had a comment approved for it to show up immediately -- if you're a first-time commenter your comment will be held for moderation till I approve it - but be patient, I will!)