Mourning the death of a colleague, and fearing for the life of another
Sometimes the work we engage in as people who believe in a just peace in the face of a brutal world is quite simply heart breaking. Today is such a day.
Carol Schachet, Author at Grassroots International | Page 11 sur 28
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Closure in Beit Ommar violates resource rights
This article, Israel lays Gaza-like siege on West Bank village, highlights many threats to resource rights in Palestine, as the people living there have diminishing access to land, water, and food. These developments in Beit Ommar not only show the severity of the politics of occupation, but also stand in the way of a just peace .
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Update from farmers in Japan
Below is an update from Grassroots International’s partner, the Via Campesina, concerning the situation of farmers in Japan. To keep up to date with the Nouminren blog, visit http://earlybirds.ddo.jp/earlybirds/saigai/?lang=en.
News from Nouminren, La Via Campesina member in Japan “I do not think that I can farm this year, but with the members of local NOUMINREN, we will take one step after another to make a come back of our agriculture in our village! -
Fact Sheet: Elbit, TIAA-CREF and the Wall
"No company is more deeply embedded in Israel's brutal architecture, occupation and segregation than Elbit."
-- Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster CapitalismThe Wall, currently being built by Elbit Systems Ltd., separates Palestinian families from thousands of acres of farmland, aqueducts and wells. To make way for the massive structure, more than 100,000 olive trees have already been uprooted. And with each slab of concrete erected and security trench expanded, Elbit reaps ever greater profits while Palestinians endure violations to their resource and human rights.
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Charity Ratings: What Does It Mean to See a Falling Star?
Like many other non-profit organizations, last year Charity Navigator lowered our rating from four stars (excellent) to two stars (needs improvement). Since many donors rely on third-party rating services such as Charity Navigator to inform their giving, we would like to offer an explanation.
Since 2007, Grassroots International received Charity Navigator’s highest rating of four stars. However, after a review in November 2010, Charity Navigator downgraded the rating to two stars. When asked why, we were given the following reasons: -
Manifest Haiti: U.S. Food Aid and Monsanto
Make no mistake: Haiti needs seeds and food. Following last January’s devastating earthquake, it’s been all hands on deck in the small island nation—but decision-making on rebuilding is very often in all hands but Haitian hands.
Since long before the earthquake, Haiti has been known as the Republic of NGOs and is bound by more free trade agreements than any other country in the hemisphere. And this kind of outside intervention has failed Haiti time and again—especially since last year’s unprecedented disaster. -
God Willing and the Creek Don’t Rise…
Those living on the margins have very little wiggle room for survival even in good times. But when disasters happen – be they natural or human made – simply not falling off the face of the earth takes Herculean effort.
Disasters happen, and the proverbial creek does rise. But which type of disaster (flood, war, famine, tsunami, etc.) and when remain anyone’s best guess. That’s why planning for a disaster is nearly impossible in the specific, but it is absolutely necessary in general. -
One Year on in Haiti
Sheer numbers never convey the magnitude of a disaster because they leave out the human stories. News reports offer constant access to images and analysis, but the suffering can just seem too distant at times. And then there are those other times when it hits personally, all in one dreaded moment.
For me, that moment came when I got word that Flo McGarrell, a friend and fellow student of Haitian Creole died in last year’s earthquake when a hotel collapsed on him in Jacmel. As survivors began a weeklong search for Flo’s body, everything about what was going on in Haiti felt painfully close to home—even from half a world away (I was in Jerusalem at the time). Each story became Flo’s story. -
Gaza: Stories of Strength amid Assault and Siege
Year before last, I was sitting in the living room of my childhood home sharing a cup of morning coffee with my mother and musing over the holidays. We laughed over kitschy Christmas gifts from well-meaning relatives before deciding to turn on the news for five minutes on the brink of another vacation day. Those five minutes would turn out to be one of those times like 9/11—when you never forget exactly where you were when you found out. "Oh no," gasped my mother, tears welling up immediately in her eyes. "Gaza Explodes..." scrolled across the bottom of the screen, and plumes of smoke hung on the living room wall in high definition.
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Petitioning the Israeli High Court for Justice
Our partner, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), works to protect human rights and promote the rule of law. They have been recognized as an effective voice of the Palestinian people through awards such as the Human Rights Prize from France. PCHR has gained an international reputation as an independent voice on human rights vis-à-vis both Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
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Setting the Standard for Global Resource Rights Defense
The United Nations designates December 10 as International Human Rights Day. At Grassroots International, we give special recognition to the efforts of our partners and allies around the world—but for them, it’s just another day in the trenches to realize these rights as communities in action.
From the Middle East to Latin America and the Caribbean to Africa and Asia, our partners engage in determined struggles for resource rights—the human rights to land, water, and food. Despite enormous obstacles like land grabs, poisoned water, and decreased access to local food, our partners build local solutions to solve problems from the bottom up. -
« Miami Rice »: The Business of Disaster in Haiti
As we file this article, Port-au-Prince is thick with the smoke of burning tires and with gunfire. Towns throughout the country, along with the national airport, are shut down due to demonstrations. Many are angry over the government's announcement on Tuesday night of which two presidential candidates made the run-offs: Jude Célestin from the widely hated ruling party of President René Préval and the far-right Mirlande Manigat. This is another obvious manipulation of what had already been a brazenly fraudulent election. A democratic vote is one more thing that has been taken from the marginalized Haitian majority, compounding their many losses since the earthquake of January 12.
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New Map Shows Concentration of Factory Farms
Food & Water Watch today unveiled the newest version of its pioneering Factory Farm Map (www.factoryfarmmap.org) that charts the concentration of factory farms across the country and the impacts these massive operations have on human health, communities, and the environment. The interactive map illustrates the geographic shift in where and how food is raised in the U.S. and allows anyone to quickly search for the highest concentration of animals by region, state and county.
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A New Kind of Disaster in Haiti in the Midst of Stagnant Reality
Haitian peasant leader, Chavannes Jean Baptiste, put it best: “Haiti is going from disaster to disaster.” He was talking about debilitating disease among displaced people in squalid living conditions, tropical storms destroying agricultural land, and international aid programs undermining local organizing.
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International Caravans for Life, Resistance, and Climate Justice in Mexico
The Via Campesina – a Grassroots International partner – is organizing a long march in Mexico for life and environmental justice, prior to the United Nations conference on Climate Change in Cancun. Led by indigenous and peasant families, the caravans will depart from different locations and converge in Mexico City's Zocalo for a mass demonstration on November 30. Along the way, participants will visit communities affected by environmental disasters, such as those caused by the San Javier mining site in the state of San Luis de Potosí and El Zapotillo Dam in Jalisco.
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Outrage in a Time of Cholera
Many of us involved in the post-earthquake reality of Haiti have both feared and expected the kind of health crisis that recently surfaced in the news. In many ways, the seeming inevitability makes it all the more tragic – because a full and coordinated response might have averted the ongoing catastrophe.
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Update from Mexico since the September Mudslide
For a week in late September, steady rain in the southern states of Mexico created mudslides and floods, affecting communities and farms in Oaxaca, Chiapas and surrounding southern states. Fortunately early reports overestimated the number of people killed in the disaster in Oaxaca.
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Communities in Oaxaca Buried in Mud
The hillsides of Oaxaca literally slipped into mud and slid through community villages nearby. Among those affected by the deluge are Grassroots International partners: Mixe Peoples' Services; Center to Support the Popular Movement in Oaxaca;
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Via Campesina Denounces Gates Foundation, Monsanto Connection
La Via Campesina, a global peasant movement representing small farmers, landless workers, fisherfolk, rural women, youth and indigenous peoples, with 150 member organizations from 70 countries on five continents, has denounced the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust’s recent acquisition of Monsanto Company shares. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was founded in 1994 by Microsoft founder William H. Gates, and today exerts a hegemonic influence on global agricultural development policy. The Foundation channels hundreds of millions of dollars into projects that encourage peasants and farmers to use Monsanto’s genetically-engineered (GE) seed and agrochemicals.
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Resource Rights Video
Big business wants to gobble up our resources—grabbing land, privatizing water, patenting seeds and trying to squeeze out anyone who gets in the way of their profits. Fortunately, an alternative exists that places the rights of people and communities ahead of big business. The alternative is resource rights.
Grassroots International produced a short video that explains the challenges and hope surrounding the movement for Resource Rights, starting with the story of our partner, Dona Maria. By sharing it through social networks like Facebook, you can help spread word of this powerful movement to secure land, water and food right for all.