Are Foreign NGOs Rebuilding Haiti Or Just Cashing In?

The devastating earthquake that struck Haiti five years ago was followed by a flood, as billions of dollars were poured into a reconstruction effort largely led by private non-governmental organizations. Almost immediately, Haitians, activists, and well-wishing donors the world over began to ask: “Where did the money go?” This summer, ProPublica and NPR released a report on exactly where some of that money went. The headline — “How the Red Cross Raised Half a Billion Dollars for Haiti ­and Built Six Homes” — neatly summed up the beloved charity’s big-picture failures in the country. But perhaps the most damning parts of the report concerned the Red Cross’ over-reliance on non-Haitian employees, who were highly compensated despite often not even speaking the local Creole or French.

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Are Beethoven’s African Origins Revealed By His Music?

Historical debate on German composer Ludwig Van Beethoven was reignited on June 1st 2015, when a collective of Historians and musicians published a website named Beethoven Was African.

The collective ambitions to provide a different lens with which to appreciate the legacy of Beethoven, by re-focusing the debate surrounding Beethoven’s origins on the core question: his music. In the following interview, ANY, a member of the collective and the pianist who plays the sonatas in Beethoven Was African: Polyrhythmic Piano Sonatas, gives us some more insights on the results of the research.

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Lessons of Black International Internationalism from Central America

Resistance to enslavement has been a defining characteristic of Black communities in the United States and across the Americas. From rebellions aboard slave ships, to insurrections on plantations, to maroon societies, African peoples and their descendants have challenged the horrors of white supremacy with remarkable resistance in the name of self-determination and self-defense.

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40 Reasons Our Jails and Prisons Are Full of Black and Poor People

40 Reasons Our Jails and Prisons Are Full of Black and Poor People
These are our brothers and sisters and cousins and friends of our coworkers.
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) reports 2.2 million people are in our nation’s jails and prisons and another 4.5 million people are on probation or parole in the US, totaling 6.8 million people, one of every 35 adults. We are far and away the world leader in putting our own people in jail. Most of the people inside are poor and Black. Here are 40 reasons why.
One. It is not just about crime. Our jails and prisons have grown from holding about 500,000 people in 1980 to 2.2 million today. The fact is that crime rates have risen and fallen independently of our growing incarceration rates.

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Something to Remember on Memorial Day’

As Memorial Day approaches our nation pauses to remember those men and women who served, and many of whom died in defense of freedom at home and around the world. I remind my fellow citizens that African Americans also fought and died in all of our nation’s wars. Even though there was great resistance by many in this country to allowing African Americans to enlist and serve in the armed forces or even to work in the defense industries, these black men and women made great contributions to the nation during the challenging times when the nation was at war.

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A Beat Calls Puerto Ricans to their African Roots

Jose Ortiz stood on the steps of the Andrew Freedman Home on the Grand Concourse, a gorgeous Bronx palazzo bathed in sunshine, his barrel drum by his side. Before him, on the lawn, a circle of people gathered, passing a calabash or sage leaves as they blessed one another. As the faint scent of gardenia and lavender wafted through the air, Mr. Ortiz straddled his drum and played.

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Why am I insulted when people mistake me for a samba dancer?

brazilLet me give you some snippets of what it is like to be black in Brazil: A few months ago Ana*, a well-to-do, Afro-Brazilian friend of mine, dressed in head-to-toe perfection, was asked to go into the service entrance of her (white) friend’s apartment building (yes, residential buildings in Brazil have separate service entrances for the exclusive use of housekeepers, gardeners, plumbers etc.). She was livid and spewed her wrath at the doorman, insisting that she be shown the regular entrance..

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