Riot Alert: Haiti;Wyclef for President

Haiti is one of the poorest countries if not the poorest county in the world is back in the news. Political turmoil has been part of the status quo since the 50's, but not until recently has this tipping point finally been reached due to the rising cost of living and a food shortage. Rene Preval, the raining emperor/president of Haiti decided to stand up and make a statement for his country.

"To those who are stirring up violence, I order you to stop because it is not going to solve the problem," Rene Preval

Way to be proactive Captain Obvious. Riots rarely stop any problem, but they are the voice of the forgotten. It is obvious that the people in HAITI need HOPE and food. In a country with the land size that is smaller land size than Maryland and a population of 8 million plus. Captain obvious needs a better plan then telling the people of the great country to stop. BBC reports on his address to citizens earlier today.

Food prices, which have risen 40 percent on average globally since mid-2007, are causing unrest around the world. But they pose a particular threat to democracy in Haiti, where most people live on less than US$2 (euro1.27) a day.

Preval acknowledged that in his address, saying Haiti's predicament comes partly from its dependence on imported rice that has weakened national production.

But it was unclear whether the address would appease the rioters, who are demanding Preval's resignation for failing for tame the rising prices. (AP)

In a country with no major exports and not enough natural resources or agricultural resources to provide adequate food for the population. What in the hell are you doing, if the people and Haiti are starving.

I hope I am wrong but this might be another coup d'etat to add to Haiti's volatile yet rich history.
Wyclef for President, he isnt elected and he cares. Vote for Haiti's favorite Son.

RIOTS, now thats just dirty

You dont see these pictures in the Italian travel agencies.

The Italian army moved into Naples as tensions over the city's mounting rubbish
crisis erupted in violence. Entire districts of the city are lying submerged
under more than 5,000 tons of waste. The pile is growing at the rate of 800 tons
a day. No rubbish has been collected in Naples since Dec 21, when the city's
dumps reached their capacity. While the residents are furious at the stink, and
the risk of disease, there have also been protests at plans to create new dumps
or reopen old ones. Riots broke out at Pianura, the site of an enormous open-air
dump that the locals say pollutes the area with deadly dioxins...the Italian
prime minister, sent in the army to restore calm and to start shifting the
rubbish from the city. "We are taking charge," he said, "because the
world is watching and I do not want them to have this negative image of Italy". Army engineers used bulldozers to clear waste from schools in the
Caserta region. The government called for the schools to be opened, but no
students arrived. Clemente Mastella, the justice minister, said the dead hand of
the Camorra, or Neapolitan mafia, was behind the crisis. "People who set
fire to buses are not citizens, but usually people sent by the mafia,"
he said. It is in the Camorra's interests for rubbish to build up in the city,
since the clans own most of the rubbish recycling companies that would
eventually win contracts to dispose of the waste. (Speigalonlineinternational)

Thats right prime minister, it isnt your fault you are just controlling the situation. There is no way to know if a landfill is almost full, except by looking at it. I understand you though, that takes to much effort, and it is stinky at those landfills. If all else fails, blame it on the Mafia. BUT WAIT HE HAS A PLAN, "LETS PUT ALL THE TRASH ON THAT CITY(Pianura, Sardina). This is what they think of your grand idea.


Democracy in action, kick his ass. He has no right to protest.

In the past week, the municipalities surrounding the Pianura garbage dump have
seen next to no government presence. Rioters controlled the area, the crater of
an extinct volcano, until last Wednesday. There were checkpoints and burning
piles of tires, while residents had to deal with young men armed with sticks,
their faces covered. When the dump was closed in 1996, after having been used
for more than 40 years, residents were promised that the site would be converted
into a golf course. The fact that garbage trucks are back, instead of golf
carts, hasn't exactly boosted residents' confidence in their local politicians.
"We did our part. We pay taxes, and we too are Europeans," says Patrizia, a
50-year-old hotel worker, who is thin and smokes. "I'm tired of wasting away,"
she adds. She's talking about the garbage, the hooligans, the politicians, the
stench, the Camorra -- in short, life. Meanwhile, the garbage is spreading -- by
1,100 tons a day in Naples alone. Since the dumps have been filled to capacity,
garbage is no longer being picked up in the suburbs, where it litters the
streets in the form of rotting piles shredded by traffic, dogs and rats. Waste
disposal fees are higher in Naples than elsewhere in Italy. Nevertheless, in the
past few decades regional officials have come up with no better idea than to
fill their craters, basalt caves, quarries and low-lying areas with garbage. In
1994, the region was ordered to clean up all unregulated garbage dumps and
develop a waste disposal program that includes garbage separation and recycling.
Fourteen years and close to €2 billion later, none of the region's three waste
incinerators is operational and the garbage separation rate is one of the lowest
in the country. Closed dumps are being reopened, and yet the region -- with the
exception of Pompeii and the office of Vice President Valiante -- is full of
trash (Speigalonlineinternational)

Take away peoples rights they will destroy the place, now make money hahahahah

Naples'
rubbish crisis could end up costing the region's economy 500 million euros
(740 million dollars) in lost business, thousands of jobs and tar the region's
image for years to come, local officials warned Sunday..."The losses could run
up to 500 million euros because of the tarnished image of the Campania region,
in terms of cancelled bookings in the hotel sector and lost orders for farmers,
both from at home and abroad," the farmers' union Coldiretti agreed, in a
statement on its website Sunday. (France24)

Happy New Year!

Peace on earth, for every child. Injustice reigns, riots run wild.

RIOTS: Kenya

Kenyan police battled thousands of opposition supporters enraged over President Mwai Kibaki's allegedly fraudulent re-election, firing tear gas and live ammunition as the death toll from the violence rose to 103, officers and witnesses said. Several officers said they had orders to shoot to kill, while opposition supporters said they would risk death to protest what they called a stolen election. Demonstrators were beaten back with tear gas and water cannons, and police fired live rounds over their heads in Nairobi's burning slums…Raila Odinga, the fiery opposition leader who came in second according to the official results, compared Kibaki to a military dictator
who "seized power through the barrel of the gun," and called on 1 million people
to gather Thursday in Nairobi's Uhuru Park — where protesters gathered to demand multiparty democracy in the early 1990s. "We are calling for mass action," said Odinga, who had been leading early results and public opinion polls. "We will
inform police of the march. We will march wearing black arm bands because we are
mourning."… Teams of riot police fired shots into the air and tear gas into homes and businesses; in one home, a woman and her four young children ran out, retching…The violence has killed at least 103 people since Saturday across the country, police and witnesses said, although the tally was likely far higher. Three police officers told The Associated Press independently that they had been ordered to shoot to kill to stop the rioters. (Houreld, A.P. 2007) Yahoo news

RIOTS: Pakistan

The assassination late Thursday of Benazir Bhutto, the charismatic opposition
leader and two-time former prime minister of Pakistan who had promised to restore democracy in a country long dominated by military rulers, has unleashed a wave of grief and fury, raising fears that the nuclear-armed nation could be pushed to the brink of civil war. For the second time in less than two months, the world is forced to hold its collective breath as events threaten to spiral out of control, raising anew fears among Western security experts of Pakistan's nuclear weapons falling into the hands of al-Qaida-linked Islamic extremists. After Bhutto's body was entombed Friday next to her father, the late former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, at the family mausoleum in her hometown of Larkana, angry mobs accusing President Pervez Musharraf of complicity in Bhutto's murder have been on a rampage for the past three days, ransacking banks and burning train stations. Rioting and street clashes have killed at least 40 people as of late Sunday afternoon, according to a senior security official. Security forces in Bhutto's home province of Sindh in southern Pakistan were ordered on Friday to shoot violent protesters on sight. Residents of Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, cautiously emerged from their homes Sunday and struggled to find food and fuel amid the blackened buildings, shattered glass and burnt-out vehicles littering the streets. With police and troops patrolling,
Karachi appeared quiet for the first time since Bhutto's assassination (Skeeter
Sanders OpEd News 2007)

On that note, Happy New Year.

"Riots are the voice of the unheard"

"Riots are the voice of the unheard"
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Riots rock
France
"Youths rampage for third night in suburbs north of Paris; violence
spreads to a southern city."

You might not have heard yet, but there has been something brewing in France for some time now. First in 2005 and now in 2007. The newly elected president of France Nicolas Sarkozy, has done little to fix the economic problems of the poor suburb of Sarcelles, but he has charisma they say. NYT

“We have heard promise after promise, but nothing has been done in the suburbs
since the last riots, nothing,” said François Pupponi, the Socialist mayor of
Sarcelles, which has been struck by the violence, in an interview. “The suburbs
are like tinderboxes. You have people in terrible social circumstances, plus all
the rage, plus all the hate, plus all the rumors, and all you need is one spark
to set them on fire.”
On Tuesday, there were the first signs of the violence spreading beyond the Paris region when a dozen cars were set afire in the southern city of Toulouse.
In the wake of the unrest in 2005, the government of then-President Jacques
Chirac (with Nicolas Sarkozy, now the president, as the tough, law-and-order interior minister) announced measures to improve life in the suburbs, including extra money for housing, schools and neighborhood associations, as well as counseling and job training for unemployed youths. None has gone very far."

They are trying to get the attention of someone, I wonder are they listening?


MALAYSIA has racial issues
It's a worry many ethnic Indians share. Making up some 8% of Malaysia's population (Malays make up about 60 percent, ethnic Chinese about 25 percent), Indians are historically underprivileged compared to other ethnic groups and have long felt discriminated against, particularly by a Malays-first affirmative action policy instituted after independence in 1957. "Our community is backward, our schools are dilapidated. We are the last in the line for jobs, scholarships, health benefits," says opposition lawmaker Kulasegaran Murugesan, an ethnic Tamil. Hindraf, modeled after right-wing Hindu nationalist groups in India, is winning support by demanding an increased share of Malaysia's wealth. "For over a decade we have been appealing to the government for help to alleviate our poverty but all our appeals had fell on deaf ears," says Uthayakumar Ponnusamy, Hindraf's legal adviser. "The British brought us here, exploited us for 150 years and left us to the mercy of a Malay Muslim government. They should compensate us now." TIME

BOLIVIA wants a fair constitution
Riots convulsed Bolivia's colonial capital on Sunday after allies of President Evo Morales approved the framework for a new constitution that would permit his indefinite re-election and could radically alter Bolivian politics. NDTV

GEORGIA(The Country Not the State) wants elections.

Saakashvili called early elections to defuse tensions after police dispersed opposition rallies on Nov. 7 with clubs and tear gas, injuring hundreds. The breakdown has raised doubts about the U.S.-allied leader's commitment to democracy and drew strong criticism from the West. El Paso Times





People in Dakar Senegal Just want to sell crafts
The worst riots to hit Senegal in many years erupted after President Abdoulaye Wade's government ordered police last week to move on hawkers in Dakar, where thousands of people earn a living peddling goods on the crowded streets.
After hours of disturbances, Dakar Governor Amadou Sy announced the creation of four new markets to relocate the traders, in a bid to defuse popular anger.
"People are fed up. These are youths who sell things in the street who voted the president in and now he wants to chase them away," said Ouzin Diop, 28, watching from behind the iron railings of the supermarket where he works. Yahoo


THE WORLD IS AWAKING ARE YOU?
at the very least, just pay attention