Articles by Beverly Bell
We found 25 results.
Time Banks: A Tool for Restorative Justice and Community Strength
Beverly Bell – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Mar 2015
Timebanking is mutual credit, where whenever somebody provides a service to a member in a timebank, they get credit, which they can redeem for that same amount of time to get something they need from someone else in the network. It’s fluid and flexible. Timebanking doesn’t have to involve a direct exchange between two people, and it doesn’t have to happen in the same span of time.
→ read full articleSolidarity Economies: A Guerrilla War against Capitalism
Beverly Bell and Jessica Hsu – Toward Freedom,
9 Jun 2014
[As Eduardo] Galeano, the Uruguayan writer, said: “Utopia lies at the horizon. When I draw nearer by two steps, it retreats two steps. If I proceed ten steps forward, it swiftly slips ten steps ahead. No matter how far I go, I can never reach it. What, then, is the purpose of utopia? It is to cause us to advance.”
→ read full articleFarmers and Consumers v. Monsanto: David Meet Goliath
Tory Field and Beverly Bell – Toward Freedom,
22 Apr 2013
Monsanto has filed more than 140 lawsuits against 400 farmers and 56 small businesses for alleged violations of contract or GMO patents. One such case is currently under consideration in the Supreme Court. “Farmers have been sued after their field was contaminated by pollen or seed from someone else’s genetically engineered crop [or] when genetically engineered seed from a previous year’s crop has sprouted,”
→ read full articleChávez, Internationalism, and Socialism
Beverly Bell – Pambazuka News,
15 Apr 2013
Economist Camille Chalmers is a leader in Latin American social movements and executive secretary of the Platform for Alternative Development in Haiti (PAPDA) and was interviewed by Beverly Bell. He shares his views on Chávez’s vision of a revolutionary Latin America that sought internationalist solidarity with Haiti, Africa and Asia among other issues.
→ read full articleA Tale of Two NGOs: In Haiti, Disaster Aid or Aid Disaster?
Beverly Bell – Toward Freedom,
18 Mar 2013
Three years after the deadly earthquake in Haiti, what has become of the commitments made on Red Cross billboards, the promises from telethon hosts, the moving declarations of Presidents Obama and Clinton? What has happened to the nearly $10 billion that was pledged to assist survivors and to rebuild, most of which was entrusted to the large non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that Professor Mark Schuller terms “non-profiteers”?
→ read full articleBirthing Justice: Women Creating Economic and Social Alternatives
Beverly Bell and Other Worlds – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Apr 2012
From Idla Martines de Souza organizing with the Landless Workers Movement in Brazil, to Emem Okon building peace in middle of a resource war in Nigeria, to Juana Ferrer and Via Campesina turning towards food sovereignty to end gender violence, each of these women have important wisdom and vision to share with us all. Birthing Justice is dedicated to women everywhere who are creating a more just and humane world, especially those doing so in the face of physical and structural violence, and most especially those in Haiti and Honduras.
→ read full articleHaiti: From Displacement Camps to Community
Alexis Erkert and Beverly Bell – Toward Freedom,
9 Jan 2012
As 2012 begins, a growing movement of displaced people and their allies in Haiti is actively claiming the right to housing, which is recognized by both the Haitian constitution and international treaties to which Haiti is signatory. Haitians displaced by the earthquake two years ago face many crises, but perhaps none worse than ongoing homelessness: 520,000 people still living in displacement camps.
→ read full articleMonsanto in Haiti
Beverly Bell – Common Dreams,
4 Jul 2011
Last spring, in violation of Haitian law, the Minister of Agriculture gave the agribusiness giant Monsanto permission to “donate” 505 tons of seeds to Haiti. The first shipment of 60 tons, reportedly of maize and vegetable seeds, arrived in May 2010. Some of the seeds were coated with a chemical (Thiram) so toxic that the EPA forbids its sale to home gardeners in the U.S.. Monsanto announced its $4 million gift was “to support the reconstruction effort” in Haiti.
→ read full articleThe People Must Be Agents of Change: The Lambi Fund of Haiti
Beverly Bell - Truthout,
27 Dec 2010
The idea of development is to provide everyone with the means to work, to meet their needs and to let them enjoy their human rights so they can be full citizens. But for development to occur, the system must change. And the people must be agents of that change. If Haiti and our communities were organized, development activities would come just from the initiative of the community members themselves. But because of how the country works, because there’s no government action, there must be some organizations like ours to help people implement community development programs.
→ read full article“Miami Rice”: The Business of Disaster in Haiti
Beverly Bell and Tory Field – Common Dreams,
13 Dec 2010
What is at stake in Haiti? What interests underlie the grab for power in the country? One answer is the large amount of aid and development dollars that are circulating. Among those benefiting handsomely from the disaster aid are U.S. corporations who have accessed U.S. government contracts. Below is the tale of one U.S. corporation and its subsidiaries, who have received contracts which involve both a conflict of interest and harm to one of Haiti’s largest and most vulnerable social sectors, small farmers.
→ read full articleHaiti: Refugee Camps May Model Future Society
Elizabeth Senatus and Beverly Bell – Toward Freedom,
8 Nov 2010
While it should never be the case that a high percentage of the Haitian population remains living in refugee camps ten months after the earthquake, still camp residents have managed to create in a few of those camps a small-scale model of the type of future society that many would like to see. Their camps have achieved democratic participation by community members, autonomy from foreign authority, a focus on meeting the needs of all, dignified living conditions, respect for rights, creativity, and a commitment to gender equity.
→ read full articleCitizen Protests, Government Repression Mount in Haiti
Beverly Bell – Common Dreams,
25 Oct 2010
Activists interviewed say their call for MINUSTAH’s departure is based on the force’s violence, its ineffectiveness in accomplishing its mission, the waste of money, and the undemocratic and colonial nature of the operation in a sovereign nation. The actions have been convened by a coalition including a media network, human rights and housing rights groups, and committees from various camps. Asked what she and others in Haiti’s social movement want, Jetty Jenet said, “We’re calling out for help to make the authorities hear us. We’re all dying.” For nine months, Jetty has had no income and has lived with her children under a plastic tarp in Cité Soleil. “But we’re people, too.”
→ read full articleAn Alternative Environmental Future for Haiti
Aldrin Calixte and Beverly Bell – Toward Freedom,
4 Oct 2010
Haiti is famous around the world primarily for its problems, one being advanced ecological destruction. However, as with its other problems, citizens – with international friends and the occasional help of the government – are working to turn this around and create a healthy environment.
→ read full articleHaiti: Don’t Give Us Food, Help Us Produce
Beverly Bell and Jonas Deronzil – Toward Freedom,
27 Sep 2010
Since foreign rice has invaded Haiti, we plant our rice but we can’t sell it. The foreigners have all the possibilities: they have water, they have machinery, they have easy access to fertilizer and other inputs. They can grow their rice in quantity. The peasants, poor devils, we spend a lot to grow it, but we can’t sell it. Sometimes we have to go to the loan sharks just to get enough money to survive.
→ read full article(French) Des Paysans Haïtiens Prêts à Brûler des Semences Hybrides de Monsanto
Beverly Bell – Centre Tricontinental,
5 Jul 2010
« Un nouveau tremblement de terre » : c’est comme cela que Chavannes Jean-Baptiste, agriculteur et leader du Mouvement Paysan Papaye (Mouvman Peyizan Papay- MPP), a accueilli la nouvelle selon laquelle Monsanto va donner 60 000 sacs (soit 475 tonnes) de semences hybrides de maïs et de légumes dont certaines sont traitées avec des pesticides fortement toxiques. Le MPP s’est engagé à brûler les semences de Monsanto et a appelé à une marche de protestation contre la présence des multinationales à Haïti le 4 juin 2010, pour la journée mondiale de l’environnement.
→ read full articleDisaster Aid or Aid Disaster? Haitians’ Thoughts on Foreign Assistance
Beverly Bell and Laura Wagner – Truthout,
28 Jun 2010
The international community (here referring to nations and international organizations) has pledged or given $9.9 billion in relief and reconstruction aid to Haiti, since the earthquake on January 12, 2010. Citizens and non-profit agencies of foreign countries have provided billions more. The aid is many times the size of Haiti’s annual budget, which was $1.97 billion for the 2009-10 fiscal year.
→ read full articleGroups Around the US Joined Haitian Farmers in Protesting “Donation” of Monsanto Seeds
Beverly Bell - Truthout,
14 Jun 2010
“We’re for seeds that have never been touched by multinationals. In our advocacy, we say that seeds are the patrimony of humanity. No one can control them,” said Doudou Pierre, national coordinating committee member of the National Haitian Network for Food Sovereignty and Food Security (RENHASSA), in a recent interview. “We reject Monsanto and their GMOs. GMOs would be the extermination of our people.”
→ read full articleEnvironment and Food in Haiti: Two Crises, One Solution
Beverly Bell – Toward Freedom,
31 May 2010
In this interview, Chavannes Jean-Baptiste discusses the role that agriculture can play in Haiti in addressing both the environmental and food crises. Jean-Baptiste is the Executive Director of the Peasant Movement of Papay (MPP by its Creole acronym) and the spokesperson for the National Peasant Movement of the Congress of Papay (MPNKP). Until this year, he also sat on the international coordinating committee of Vía Campesina, a confederation of organizations of peasant, family, indigenous, and landless farmers from more than sixty countries.
→ read full articleHaitian Farmers Commit to Burning Monsanto Hybrid Seeds
Beverly Bell – Toward Freedom,
24 May 2010
“A new earthquake” is what peasant farmer leader Chavannes Jean-Baptiste of the Peasant Movement of Papay (MPP) called the news that Monsanto will be donating 60,000 seed sacks (475 tons) of hybrid corn seeds and vegetable seeds, some of them treated with highly toxic pesticides. The MPP has committed to burning Monsanto’s seeds, and has called for a march to protest the corporation’s presence in Haiti on June 4, for World Environment Day.
→ read full articleForeign-Led Commission Now Governs Haiti
Beverly Bell - Truthout,
17 May 2010
The majority of members on the CIRH [Interim Commission for the Reconstruction of Haiti] are foreign. The criterion for becoming a foreign voting member is that the institution has contributed at least $100 million during two consecutive years, or has cancelled at least $200 million in debt. Others who have given less may share a seat. The Organization of American States and non-governmental organizations working in Haiti do not have a vote. The CIRH is headed by U.N. Special Envoy Bill Clinton and Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive. The only accountability or oversight measure is veto power by Préval.
→ read full articleSOCIAL FAULT LINES: THE DISASTER OF POVERTY IN HAITI
Beverly Bell – Toward Freedom,
12 Apr 2010
Laura Wagner, a U.S. anthropologist who survived – barely – Haiti’s earthquake in January, writes, “Social scientists who study catastrophes say there are no natural disasters. In every calamity, it is inevitably the poor who suffer more, die more, and will continue to suffer and die after the cameras turn their gaze elsewhere. Do not be deceived by claims that everyone was affected equally — fault lines are social as well as geological.”
→ read full articleHEALING BODY AND HEART, CUBAN STYLE
Beverly Bell and Tory Field – YES! Magazine,
12 Apr 2010
Cuban doctors and artists–on the ground in Haiti even before the earthquake–are helping survivors heal.
→ read full articleSOLIDARITY AS ECONOMIC SYSTEM
Beverly Bell – Yes! Magazine,
28 Mar 2010
In Haiti, sharing communities are proving more shock-proof in the wake of disaster than market-based economies.“If it weren’t for solidarity, Haiti wouldn’t be alive today,” is an expression commonly heard here since the earthquake of January 12. Haiti’s history is based on sharing and cooperation—expressed with gifts and solidarity toward those surviving on the margins. […]
→ read full articleHAITI: WHERE SOLIDARITY MEANS SURVIVAL
Beverly Bell – Toward Freedom,
26 Mar 2010
Perhaps more than anything today, Haiti needs a new macro-economy, one based above all on meeting the needs of its citizens. Post-earthquake economic restructuring could include equitable distribution of resources, high levels of employment with fair compensation, local production, and provision of social services. In the meantime, what saved many during the earthquake, and what is […]
→ read full articleGRASSROOTS POWER AND NON-MARKET ECONOMIES
Beverly Bell,
14 Sep 2009
An Interview Multinational Monitor: You write in a recent report that there are historically unparalleled levels of people’s mobilization. What do you mean by that? Beverly Bell: There are primarily two factors behind the current spike in people’s mobilization. One is the level of crisis that people around the world are facing, economically and environmentally. […]
→ read full article