SWAZILAND: Dating in a Time of HIV March 25, 2010

By Mantoe Phakathi

Jabulile Dlamini (16) is scared to date because she is HIV-positive.  Credit:Mantoe Phakathi/IPS

 Jabulile Dlamini* is sweet sixteen and has never been kissed. And she is not expecting to be kissed any time soon or to even receive any gifts this Valentine’s Day. 

While most of the girls in her class are excited about receiving presents from their boyfriends on February 14, Dlamini – who is HIV-positive – does not think she will get any. 

She is reluctant to become involved in a relationship because of the complications her HIV-status will bring to it. But the secondary school student admits that she is not immune to love and is attracted to someone she goes to church with. 

The hate and the quake February 3, 2010

cc Gloria Mundi‘Haiti did not fail,’ writes Hilary Beckles, ‘it was destroyed by two of the most powerful nations on earth, both of which continue to have a primary interest in its current condition.' Buried 'beneath the rubble of imperial propaganda', says Beckle, is 'the evidence which shows that Haiti's independence was defeated by an aggressive North-Atlantic alliance that could not imagine their world inhabited by a free regime of Africans as representatives of the newly emerging democracy.’

The University of the West Indies is in the process of conceiving how best to deliver a major conference on the theme ‘Rethinking and rebuilding Haiti’.

I am very keen to provide an input into this exercise because for too long there has been a popular perception that somehow the Haitian nation-building project, launched on 1 January 1804, has failed on account of mismanagement, ineptitude, corruption.

Buried beneath the rubble of imperial propaganda, out of both Western Europe and the United States, is the evidence which shows that Haiti's independence was defeated by an aggressive North-Atlantic alliance that could not imagine their world inhabited by a free regime of Africans as representatives of the newly emerging democracy.

The evidence is striking, especially in the context of France.

Human Organs Are Being Trafficked In Aftermath Of Quake January 30, 2010

Cameroon in Solidarity with Haiti January 25, 2010

 

The Minister of Communication in a press briefing last Friday clarified public opinion on Cameroonians in Haiti. 

The Minister of Communication, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, during a press briefing in Yaounde last Friday made an exact appraisal of the situation of Cameroonians on official missions in Haiti after the 12 January earthquake that occurred some 16 kilometres from the capital city, Port Prince, killing over 100,000 people with huge material damage. The Minister told pressmen that after the Head of State’s message of solidarity, condolence and compassion to his Haitian counterpart, President Biya is preparing to give the Haitians the necessary assistance that will help revamp their economy and other needs.

France bridles at US Haiti Take-over January 19, 2010

It did not take long for France to start quarrelling with the United
States over Haiti. The American take-over of the relief operation has
not gone down well with Paris. Media cover over the past two days has
depicted a virtual American invasion, with heavy-handed military
pushing around French agencies. The words domination and even
occupation were used on radio news reports this morning. 

Alain Joyandet, the Minister supervising the French operation, said
that he had requested a formal protest to Washington after US
controllers refused landing permission to a French Airbus with a field
hospital on Saturday. The role of the US needs to be clarified,
Joyandet said on Europe1 radio this morning. "It's a matter of helping Haiti, not occupying Haiti." [watch interview here]