The Headlines
For quite some time, but with renewed vigor, in the last six months or so, a few unscrupulous news writers have been hammering the following headlines into the minds of their readers: Haitians are so poor, they eat dirt. Mud: staple diet in Haiti. Haitians resort to eating dirt. Half of Haitians now literally eating mud to survive.
How about the thousands of foreigners (Americans, Canadians, French and others) who call Haiti home? What are they eating? Are they also partaking of this staple diet?
How about the thousands of foreigners (Americans, Canadians, French and others) who call Haiti home? What are they eating? Are they also partaking of this staple diet?
The Infamous Links
- The Independent (Feb. 2005)
- The mud biscuits sold in the markets and stacked high by the street vendors in the most desperate parts of Port-au-Prince are made in a part of the city known as Fort-Dimanche.
- National Geographic News (Jan. 2008)
- Faced with skyrocketing food prices, Haiti's poor have turned to "mud cookies": salt, vegetable oil, and dirt to stave off their hunger.
- The Guardian (Jul. 2008)
- With little cash and import prices rocketing half the population faces starvation
Del.icio.us Haiti bookmarks
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Where is the help?
If it is really this bad, how come every humanitarian organization is not rushing to help us? How come it is not raining bags of seeds and fertilizers? I do not see those huge cargo planes unloading "ble ak sinistre" (USDA wheat and powdered milk). Why not? Are we beyond help, or perhaps not deserving, like the other minority groups or needy people on this planet?
What is a Staple Diet?
According to the following Wikipedia entry, Staple Food is something the inhabitants of a particular area, eat pretty much every day. In the U.S that would be beef for example; in Italy, that would be pasta; in China, Haiti and the rest of the Caribbean, that would be rice.
Nobody, anywhere on this planet, sits in front of a bowl of mud, at dinnertime. Nobody! That is what the phrase "eating mud" entails, doesn't it? Anybody who writes this has to have further motives. It is clearly a Smear Campaign against Haitians. Nibbling on a piece of chalk or clay, is NOT the same thing as eating mud!
Nobody, anywhere on this planet, sits in front of a bowl of mud, at dinnertime. Nobody! That is what the phrase "eating mud" entails, doesn't it? Anybody who writes this has to have further motives. It is clearly a Smear Campaign against Haitians. Nibbling on a piece of chalk or clay, is NOT the same thing as eating mud!
Let it be said!
Geophagy links
- Geophagy - Eating Dirt
- Geophagy is a traditional practice which does provide nutrients to the body by eating dirt or clay.
- GEOPHAGY
- The practice of eating earthy and non-food materials
- GEOPHAGY
- The practice of eating earthy and non-food materials
- Definition and Much More from Answers.com
- The eating of earthy substances, such as clay or chalk, practiced among various peoples as a custom or for dietary or subsistence.
Truth in Reporting
Journalists? NOT! You people are dangerous
Earlier, I used the term "unscrupulous". Actually, you people are downright dangerous. Your kind is worst than vermin. You just keep spreading your poison. I am going to show everybody, how low and utterly useless you are.
Why does every "so called" or "self-proclaimed" journalist just go on repeating what has been said too many times already? Can't you get your own stories? How many times am I going to hear the same old tired lines: "Two-thirds of the population of Haiti is living on less than two dollars a day". Drop this line already, it has been said a gazillion times before. "China and Cuba need to improve their human right records". So, is it better here? I am not going to waste a response on this. I will just say: Do you Google?
Why does every "so called" or "self-proclaimed" journalist just go on repeating what has been said too many times already? Can't you get your own stories? How many times am I going to hear the same old tired lines: "Two-thirds of the population of Haiti is living on less than two dollars a day". Drop this line already, it has been said a gazillion times before. "China and Cuba need to improve their human right records". So, is it better here? I am not going to waste a response on this. I will just say: Do you Google?
Haitians In the Public Eye
- blackgivesback
- Wyclef Jean, one of the Top Ten Black Celebrity Philanthropists of 2007
- Pikliz.com
- Mr. Kwame Raoul (D-Illinois)
- Edwidge Danticat
- Edwidge Danticat, Author. National Book Award finalist, American Book Award winner.
You could be one of these helping hands
There are so many worthwhile issues to be brought to light. You could go and do some honest reporting on the pressing needs of these poor people. You could also spare a few bucks from your six-figure salary, and help these worthy organizations and their miracle workers.
Entities really helping the Haitian people
Here are a few individuals and organizations trying to make a difference in Haiti. You will not find amy mention of mud cakes here.
- HaitiChildren.com
- Giving hope and dignity to Haiti's children
- Yéle Haiti
- Organization established by musician Wyclef Jean to assist his native land of Haiti
- Helping in Haiti
- A story of hope, charity & faith
- B.C. Barns
- God's Little Children provides you the opportunity to make an eternal difference in a child's life by showing that you care.
- Peanut Butter medicine helping Haitian children | Who are Americans?
- American charity Meds & Food for Kids is helping malnourished Haitian children by providing Medika Mamba, a peanut butter fortified with vitamins and minerals.
- About the Haitian Project
- The Haitian Project is a Catholic Mission which supports and operates Louverture Cleary School (LCS), a tuition-free, Catholic, co-educational secondary boarding school for economically under-privileged Haitian children.
- Working in the field with MSF
- Doctors Without Borders
- Partners In Health (PIH)
- Health Care for the Poor
- Non-Profit Organizations Helping Haiti
- Here is a list of Countries, Organizations and Individuals really helping the Haitian People in their time of need (This is a work in progress... )
Flickr Photos (Haiti)
Helping Haiti Takeov...
Pastor Martinez Jovi...
Pastor Martinez Jovi...
Emma Jovin
Pastor Martinez Jovi...
Emma Jovin
Food Distribution
Food Distribution
Food Distribution
Food Distribution
automatically generated by Flickr
Drugs and Guns vs. Books and Medicine
It is really sad to see what has become of our lovely country. Do you know that, twenty five years ago, armed robbery was absolutely non-existent in Haiti? Now we rank among the top five in kidnappings, worldwide. Do you know that only a few Haitians, living in Haiti, knew what marijuana was? They were mostly people with ties with foreigners, or who had traveled to North America. Now, Haiti is said to be a major stop on the drug route to the U.S. What happened?
Everyone with access to a microphone, is having a field day telling us how low the literacy rate is in Haiti. Why don't you send a few millions books there, like some helpful souls have done and are still doing? Here are a couple of links, go ahead and help someone! Try The International Book Projet or The Directory of Book Donation Programs.
Nowadays, almost every Black or Hispanic celebrity and other concerned minority thinkers, are coming out with a version of the following phrase. But, I heard it first from the lips of Mario Van Peebles in "In the line of duty": "How come the guns and the drugs always get there, but the books never get there?" Won't you please answer this question for us, Mister Senior Political Analyst or Prize-winning News Correspondent?
Everyone with access to a microphone, is having a field day telling us how low the literacy rate is in Haiti. Why don't you send a few millions books there, like some helpful souls have done and are still doing? Here are a couple of links, go ahead and help someone! Try The International Book Projet or The Directory of Book Donation Programs.
Nowadays, almost every Black or Hispanic celebrity and other concerned minority thinkers, are coming out with a version of the following phrase. But, I heard it first from the lips of Mario Van Peebles in "In the line of duty": "How come the guns and the drugs always get there, but the books never get there?" Won't you please answer this question for us, Mister Senior Political Analyst or Prize-winning News Correspondent?
Haitian Writers or Writings on Haiti
An Unbroken Agony: Haiti, from Revolution to the Kidnapping of a President
Amazon Price: $12.20 (as of 02/10/2010) 
On That Day, Everybody Ate: One Woman's Story of Hope and Possibility in Haiti
Amazon Price: $10.20 (as of 02/10/2010)
Travesty in Haiti: A true account of Christian missions, orphanages, fraud, food aid and drug trafficking
Amazon Price: $15.99 (as of 02/10/2010)
Haiti in Focus: A Guide to the People, Politics, and Culture (In Focus Guides)
Amazon Price: $10.36 (as of 02/10/2010)
Culture and Customs of Haiti (Culture and Customs of Latin America and the Caribbean)
Amazon Price: $18.00 (as of 02/10/2010)
Something different, please!
Second, why is it that, when someone important is speaking live, all twenty or so News Channels have to carry the exact same story? I mean the same headshot? Come on! Give me some overhead shots. How about an axonometric view? Show me the back of his head, his shoes or something. Keep me interested with the yawning and sleeping members of the audience. Show me chemtrails in the sky overhead. Something different, please!
I mean, the same headshot! I think we could do all right with one channel. But, to their credit, I must say they do try and vary it a bit, by making some lame comments along with the speaker's speech. News Anchors are always trying to explain what everyone has heard countless times, in every country in the world, from the same conmen. You know the kind: Kings, Queens, Prime Ministers, Presidents, Dictators, etc. It is always the same story: "Everything is fine, we are making progress, bla bla bla..."
I mean, the same headshot! I think we could do all right with one channel. But, to their credit, I must say they do try and vary it a bit, by making some lame comments along with the speaker's speech. News Anchors are always trying to explain what everyone has heard countless times, in every country in the world, from the same conmen. You know the kind: Kings, Queens, Prime Ministers, Presidents, Dictators, etc. It is always the same story: "Everything is fine, we are making progress, bla bla bla..."
Survival
How can you be sitting there
Telling me that you care -
That you care?
When every time I look around,
The people suffer in the suffering
In everyway, in everywhere.
Robert "Bob" Nesta Marley
The Best in the World? ROTFLMAO. I mean off!!!
Third, I am tired of all these number ones and "best"s in American News Media. So, if everyone is the best in News Coverage, or has the best Political Analysts, who is the worst? Any takers?
I am going to tell you who is the best. No one! I said it, there is not a single Journalist in the United States (you can fill in your country here) worth anything! They are sell-outs, all of them. Anyone who can read and write can be a journalist, because all you have to do is read or write what your master orders you to read or write. Period.
I am going to tell you who is the best. No one! I said it, there is not a single Journalist in the United States (you can fill in your country here) worth anything! They are sell-outs, all of them. Anyone who can read and write can be a journalist, because all you have to do is read or write what your master orders you to read or write. Period.
Haitian Art
Fetching new data from eBay now... please stand by
Put up or Shut up!
Please, prove me wrong, I beg you!
I want to be proven wrong. Let me see the ones who are offended by this statement come out tomorrow and say anything negative about the State of Israel. They are not perfect. I believe they have made a few mistakes along the way. So, go ahead point out a few of them. I mean, really bring it! I dare you!
It is easy to pick on Haiti, but let me see any of you, posers, say anything good about Fidel Castro. God knows there is a lot to be said about his accomplishments. Among other things, they have a much better and equitable healthcare system than the U.S. by comparison.
For a poor country under a 40-year embargo, their literacy rate is virtually equal to that of the U.S. Literacy in Cuba (From the CIA World factbook): 99.8% of people age 15 and over can read and write (male: 99.8%, female: 99.8%) (2002 census)
Not too many people know about the various Exchange Programs between a few major American Universities and their Cuban counterparts. Don't you think, as a journalist, you should pass this information along? I believe this is front page news, don't you?
It is easy to pick on Haiti, but let me see any of you, posers, say anything good about Fidel Castro. God knows there is a lot to be said about his accomplishments. Among other things, they have a much better and equitable healthcare system than the U.S. by comparison.
For a poor country under a 40-year embargo, their literacy rate is virtually equal to that of the U.S. Literacy in Cuba (From the CIA World factbook): 99.8% of people age 15 and over can read and write (male: 99.8%, female: 99.8%) (2002 census)
Not too many people know about the various Exchange Programs between a few major American Universities and their Cuban counterparts. Don't you think, as a journalist, you should pass this information along? I believe this is front page news, don't you?
Something worth knowing
- Latin American School of Medicine (Cuba) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Latin American School of Medicine (Cuba) Escuela Latinoamericana de Medicina (ELAM)
- Cuban and Caribbean Studies Institute - Tulane University
- Tulane University in recent years has had a greater presence of faculty, staff, graduate and undergraduate students in Cuba than any other American university.
Make your mama proud
I could go on and on, but why? You can fill in the remaining stories. You have plenty of time to research the matter, since you just repeat stuff anyway. So every time one of you feel like writing something demeaning about Haiti or any other poor country, remember that people are eating right out of garbage bins in the streets of New York City, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., etc, and those of most large cities in the world. Why don't you piggyback this story on the mud cakes bit?
Leave Haiti and the other striving countries alone. If you really feel the urge, write about the inhumane treatment of immigrants, the covert slavery, the weapons and the drugs being pushed on the minorities and the poor. There is a wealth of material here, no matter where you live. I bet you are a grad from a top ten university, you can find and give an interesting slant to the story. Can't you? Go ahead, make your mama proud!
Leave Haiti and the other striving countries alone. If you really feel the urge, write about the inhumane treatment of immigrants, the covert slavery, the weapons and the drugs being pushed on the minorities and the poor. There is a wealth of material here, no matter where you live. I bet you are a grad from a top ten university, you can find and give an interesting slant to the story. Can't you? Go ahead, make your mama proud!
We need Help
Not CONTEMPT!
Haitian Pride at Lakay Graphics
Kids Royal Blue T-Shirt
Price: 20.99
Organic Cotton Tee
Price: 21.99
Throw Pillow
Price: 18.99
Women's Violet T-Shirt
Price: 22.99
Haitians helping the U.S.
They don't want you to know that
- Haitian Americans Helping Katrina victims
- Katrina Moves Haitian Americans to Help on Gulf Coast
- GovTrack.us
- Haitians fighting for America
In every country, there is a line you cannot cross
I mentioned Israel, Castro, etc, because these are red hot topics here, in North America. Nobody, I mean nobody in the public eye, who cares about keeping his job, can go against what is currently accepted in these matters. Here, it is what they called "being politically correct"; you have to go with the flow. But you are free to fill in your own taboo topics, depending on what part of the world you happen to be living at the moment. The same thing is happening everywhere at every level.
Books on Haiti
Breath, Eyes, Memory (Oprah's Book Club)
Amazon Price: $10.08 (as of 02/10/2010)
Krik? Krak!
Amazon Price: $10.08 (as of 02/10/2010)
Haitian Creole Dictionary and Phrasebook: Haitian Creole-english, English-haitian Creole (Hippocrene Dictionary & Phrasebook)
Amazon Price: $10.17 (as of 02/10/2010)
Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution
Amazon Price: $15.12 (as of 02/10/2010)
The Serpent and the Rainbow: A Harvard Scientist's Astonishing Journey into the Secret Societies of Haitian Voodoo, Zombis, and Magic
Amazon Price: $10.80 (as of 02/10/2010)
Stand Up and Be Counted!
Let me drive the last nail in your "journalistic" coffin! Right now, nobody in the American Media, (or anybody famous for that matter), can come out publicly and say anything positive about the Reverend Louis Farrakhan. This is a career-ending move right there!
Have you seen those newspeople or celebrities apologizing at length, for days, and weeks sometimes, after some innocent comment or a slip of the tongue. Oh, it is pitiful! Liberty of Press my foot!
So, you have it: in order to graduate from my School of Journalism, you must write an Essay pointing out at least 10 Positive Facts about the Leader of The Nation of Islam. Of course, you must be available for discussions and comments. Go ahead, I double dare you!
And please, remember, Haitians do not eat mud. No one in the world does. Do not repeat that, it is not fair!
Have you seen those newspeople or celebrities apologizing at length, for days, and weeks sometimes, after some innocent comment or a slip of the tongue. Oh, it is pitiful! Liberty of Press my foot!
So, you have it: in order to graduate from my School of Journalism, you must write an Essay pointing out at least 10 Positive Facts about the Leader of The Nation of Islam. Of course, you must be available for discussions and comments. Go ahead, I double dare you!
And please, remember, Haitians do not eat mud. No one in the world does. Do not repeat that, it is not fair!
Yummy!
Nobody sits in front of a bowl of mud, at dinnertime. Nobody!
Every little bit helps
Something to do while thinking on your assignment
- Rocks in the Sun | Grassroots International
- Haiti's Struggle for Water Rights
- Lambi Fund of Haiti
- The Lambi Fund provides financial resources, training and technical assistance to peasant-led community organizations that promote the social and economic empowerment of the Haitian people.
- FATEM
- Rebuilding and developing a common hope for a brighter, revitalized Mirebalais!
- International Action
- An organization dedicated to providing clean water in Haiti.
Haitian T-shirt Store
Is this a Smear Campaign or not?
What do you think?
Fetching blurbs now... please stand by
Lakay_Graphics says:
It definitely is! Just like the AIDS (SIDA) rumor, some time ago.
Posted August 05, 2008
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by Lakay_Graphics
My name is Antoine Pierre-Paul. I was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, a few decades ago and now reside in the United States (New York area).
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