Image is of the American military during their occupation of Haiti at the beginning of the 20th century, taken from this NYT article from 2022: Invade Haiti, Wall Street Urged. The U.S. Obliged.

In the aftermath of the assassination of Jovenel Moïse in 2021 and his replacement by Western comprador Ariel Henry, the situation in Haiti is the most dire it has been in decades - by some metrics, even worse than the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake (CW: rape, violence including against children). Millions do not have enough food. Outbreaks of disease are rampant. The government - such that it still exists, which is becoming increasingly debatable - has only a minority control over the capital city, with some estimates putting the influence of armed groups at 80%.

America’s search for somebody, anybody, to intervene in Haiti has ended, with Kenya answering the call. President Ruto has announced that he will send 1000 police officers to Haiti. Kenya’s Foreign Minister has tried to sell this intervention as pan-Africanism. Other Caribbean states, like the Bahamas and Antigua and Barbuda, have offered to send police officers too.

I can’t really say it any better than the Black Alliance for Peace’s own statement:

Kenya has offered to deploy a contingent of 1,000 police officers to help train and assist Haitian police, ostensibly to “restore order” in the Caribbean republic. Yet, their proposal is nothing more than military occupation by another name; an occupation of Haiti by an African country is not Pan-Africanism, but Western imperialism in Black face. By agreeing to send troops into Haiti, the Kenyan government is assisting in undermining the sovereignty and self-determination of Haitian people, while serving the neocolonial interests of the United States, the Core Group, and the United Nations.

There is an urgent need for clarity on the issue of occupation in Haiti. As described in a recent statement on Haiti and Colonialism, Haiti is under ongoing occupation. No call for foreign intervention into Haiti from the administration of appointed Prime Minister Ariel Henry can be considered legitimate, because the Henry administration itself is illegitimate. BAP has repeatedly pointed out that Haiti’s crisis is a crisis of imperialism. Haiti’s current unpopular and unelected government is propped up only by Haiti’s de facto imperial rulers: the unseemly confederacy of the Core Group countries and organizations, as well as BINUH (the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti), and a loose alliance of foreign corporations and local elites.

Henry and the UN have made a mockery of sovereignty by mouthing the slogan “Haitian solutions to Haitian problems,” yet finding the only solution in violence through foreign military intervention. After repeated failed attempts to organize an occupying force to protect their interests and impose their will on the Haitian people (including appeals to the multinational organization, the Caribbean Community [CARICOM] for troops), they have now found a willing accomplice in Kenya, an east African country with its own set of internal problems.

Indeed, what’s in it for Kenya? An opportunity to both train and enhance the salaries of local police forces and garner a patina of prestige, or at least bootlicking approval, from the West. And for Haiti? White blows from a Black hand and a further erosion of their sovereignty.

And, by the way, here’s the Black Alliance for Peace’s statement calling for no intervention by ECOWAS in Niger, calling the organization a Western comprador organization similar to CARICOM’s role in Haiti.

Welcome to our friends throughout the Lemmyverse!

Here is the map of the Ukraine conflict, courtesy of Wikipedia.

This week’s first update is here in the comments.

This week’s second update is here in the comments.

This week’s third update might not happen because I’m busy dunking.

Links and Stuff

The bulletins site is down.

Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists

Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict

Add to the above list if you can.

Resources For Understanding The War

Defense Politics Asia’s youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.

Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.

Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.

Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don’t want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it’s just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.

On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists’ side.

Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.

Telegram Channels

Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.

Pro-Russian

https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR’s former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR’s forces. Russian language.

https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.

https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.

https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster’s telegram channel.

https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.

https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.

https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.

https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.

https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a ‘propaganda tax’, if you don’t believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.

https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.

Pro-Ukraine

Almost every Western media outlet.

https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.

https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.

Last week’s discussion post.

  • SeventyTwoTrillion [he/him]@hexbear.netOPMEnglish
    4·
    11 months ago

    is this a reference to Maria Zakharova’s piece on Ukrainian organ harvesting?

    It has been reported in the media that organs of killed soldiers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces were available for sale in one of the biggest shops of the darknet. A heart, liver, kidneys and other body parts with price tags starting at 5,000 euros are on offer.

    Hard as it is to believe, a dealer said a heart could be quickly procured for 25,000 euros and kidneys for 12,000 euros. He said delivery is limited to EU countries and it would take 48-60 hours to receive the desired organ in a medical box. Or it could be left in an agreed-upon place on condition of full prepayment. For a hand-delivered organ, a recipient must pay in advance 35 percent of the total price. It is also necessary to provide a passport copy, links to social media and a photo in a certain place with pre-arranged information. This is far from a complete list of services offered by the butchers.

    There is information to the effect that people involved in the Kosovo Liberation Army may own or at least deal with this shop. One of its leaders is now on trial for trafficking organs of dead Serbian soldiers, civilians and other dissidents during the war in Yugoslavia. The army is still functioning but under a different name and its soldiers may be fighting as mercenaries in Ukraine.

    In June of 2023, a man was detained at the Ukraine-Slovakia border. An employee of a charity organisation, it was discovered that he was involved in trafficking Ukrainian children abroad, in part, for transplants. A court released him on bail set at a suspiciously low 1 million hryvnias despite the grievous nature of his crime, and he disappeared. That said, an astronomical sum of 33 million hryvnias was assigned as collateral to Metropolitan Pavel, the father superior of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra.

    This is conclusive evidence that the Ukrainian state is covering up and encouraging this bloody business. There is information pointing to the involvement of Zelensky’s entourage.

    In Ukraine, organs are traded not only on the darknet but also offline. There is information indicating that in June 2023, representatives of the health ministry of a NATO country agreed with the Ukrainians on the delivery of a refrigerated train car with human organs and body parts that are most often used for transplants – corneas, some bones, connective tissues, hearts and livers.

    To those who say it’s not possible, recall that Ukraine has legalised the posthumous donation and sale of organs abroad. What is strange is that members of Zelensky’s team are not interested in making this information public even though they made the decision themselves. Experts explain that in most cases, Ukrainian businessmen cannot specify the exact origin of the biomaterial scheduled for delivery. They believe a great deal of it comes from black market transplant specialists that illegally remove organs from the dead bodies of soldiers. Then they simply burn unclaimed remains. These conclusions are confirmed by the high death rate and large number of missing Ukrainian soldiers, as well as by the shortage of specialists and reagents for studying corpses on the territory controlled by the Kiev regime. This allows these criminals to cover their tracks and send human organs and body parts to the western regions of Ukraine, where they are prepared to be sent abroad for transplants.