Mark Schuller

This Tuesday, April 10, Rick Santorum, who had given Republican frontrunner Mitt Romney a serious run for his money, bowed out of the race, leaving the former Massachusetts governor the heir apparent, barring an unpredictable surge in Tea Party support for one of the two other remaining candidates....

"Ou te bwe soup?" (Did you drink soup?) is one of the most common questions the days following the new year in Haiti.

This question refers to a tradition for January 1, also Haiti's independence day, when in 1804, former slaves for the first and only time in world...

In many senses the lack of progress following Haiti's earthquake centers on housing. Assessing the damage, a team evaluated 382,256 housing units in Port-au-Prince. Of these, 205,539 were tagged "green," ready for human habitation, 99,043 "yellow," requiring significant repair, and 77,674 "red," which were so damaged so as to require...

By Mark Schuller and Mark Snyder

There is a Haitian proverb, se bouch ki manje tout manje, men se pa bouch ki pale tout pawòl, the mouth eats all the food, but not all talk comes from your mouth. In the U.S. we would say, actions speak louder than words....

Written with Mark Snyder

A thick and fetid coating of slick mud covers most of the streets in Port-au-Prince. Last night (June 6) it rained for the sixth night in a row. While it is too soon to confirm, last night's rain caused at least twenty-three deaths. At...

On my first unsupervised trip on the subway to the city with high school friends to see a White Sox game, we were approached by a con artist. A group of suburban white kids decked to the nine in Sox paraphernalia, we were an easy mark. The point of the...

Today marks the one-year anniversary of the earthquake in Haiti that rocked the world. At least 230,000 people died during the quake. Thousands more have died since then.

People in the street I know like Reynald, Murielle, and Michaëlle plan on staying home or going to pray. Reynald lost both...

Haiti is being battered from every which direction, it seems.

People who have survived the earthquake now have to contend with a deadly outbreak of cholera, which evidence seems to indicate has come from Nepalese UN troops. Vulnerability to cholera was unfortunately highly predictable, given the

Haiti's 1.5 million homeless have once again become invisible. Because they are not seen or heard in mainstream media, most people assume things are improving, the problem solved.

Unfortunately they are wrong.

While it goes unseen, and therefore the U.S. Congress is not being pressured during this midterm...

Midnight was the deadline for candidates for president of Haiti to submit their materials to the CEP, the provisional electoral council. The Miami Herald reported that 34 candidates have submitted papers, including Grammy-winning hip-hop artist Wyclef Jean, who announced his candidacy on CNN's Larry King Live and wrote...

HUMAN RIGHTS AND SOCIAL JUSTICE BRIEFING 1:
Arizona's Immigration Law - S.B. 1070

Guest Blogger: Prof. Josiah Heyman, University of Texas-El Paso

Arizona's controversial immigration law, S.B. 1070, is being challenged by the Obama administration. A U.S. District Court is currently weighing in on...

It's about 7:30 local time as I write this. We'll see if I can connect to the internet and post.

I just got off the phone with Leslie, a friend and leader in Asanble Vwazen Solino (the Solino Neighborhood Assembly). Knowing the answer, he asked me, "is it raining...

Monday it will be six months since Haiti's devastating earthquake.

Haiti is entering another phase, medium-term stabilization in hopes for beginning long-term reconstruction. The CIRH -- Interim Commission for Haiti's Reconstruction -- co-chaired by Bill Clinton and Haitian Prime Minister Max Bellerive and comprised of mostly foreigners is looking...

Today marks three months since the earthquake that shook up the world. Private citizens and companies have been generous with their aid, giving over $2 billion; official donors have pledged $10 billion in the response. Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) who have been charged with the emergency aid and resettlement reconstruction generally...

April 4, 2010

(Port-au-Prince) Today is Easter, an important symbol of rebirth. Christians everywhere rejoice in the victory over death. In Haiti the faithful celebrate in ra-ra bands, processions in the street led by a brass band, often hand-fashioned instruments. Children fly hand-made kites, symbolizing the resurrection and hope.

March 24, 2010

(Miami) This week former Presidents Clinton and Bush are in Haiti, trying to drum up support for Haiti's reconstruction and setting the stage for the upcoming donor conference at the U.N. on March 31. There is no shortage of needs, and even plans to...

Yesterday was the Oscars. Last year's Best Actor Sean Penn made the morning's headlines, donating a million dollars to Haiti's relief / reconstruction effort. Collectively U.S. citizens have donated $1 billion so far. Two questions arise: one, which I and many others have asked numerous times, where is this money...

First of all, my sympathies to those in Chile who have lost their houses, their livelihoods, their family members, and their sense of stability. Last weekend's earthquake was unquestionably damaging. At 8.8 on the Richter scale, it was also almost a hundred times more powerful than January's quake in Haiti....

It is finally official: Haiti's earthquake is the most expensive in recent memory, even more than the 2004 tsunami (see AFP story cited on Common Dreams). Conservative estimates are $16 billion. This is no surprise given the human causes, the vulnerability, of this earthquake. Meanwhile there...

On January 12, a 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti, just outside the capital of Port-au-Prince. The damage is beyond human comprehension. Since then, groups have lurched to deliver emergency aid while the survivors have done an amazing job sharing what they have. The situation is still fragile: Haitian people are still...