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.


  • Awoo [she/her]
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    I don't know. shrug-outta-hecks

    They're gonna do what they think is right regardless of China I suspect. If they think the US is planning to attack them they may move first.

    This is just plans though, this would be the start of build up. We could be looking at somewhere in the region of 5-10 years from now before something actually happens.

    • ImOnADiet@lemmygrad.ml
      ·
      1 year ago

      Maybe a lib brained take but surely they have to make sure China is at bare minimum ok with it right? Like this legitimately does have the potential of starting ww3, if China doesn’t want that to happen they could invade them from behind? idk…

      Could be tied to Russia coming and meeting with them a couple weeks ago?

      • Awoo [she/her]
        ·
        1 year ago

        Maybe Russia gave them information they didn't have before and wouldn't have been able to communicate in any way other than a direct meeting securely.

      • SeventyTwoTrillion [he/him]
        hexagon
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        I don't think there's any way this isn't connected to the Russia-China delegation, the timing is on point, but we might not know for a while, if ever, what was really discussed. It's virtually certain that they discussed the geopolitical situation and felt the need to bring the DPRK into their mutual discussions. Bhadrakumar speculates it has something to do with the Arctic passage given that the DPRK would be an important player in that region but that can't have been the only thing. I mean honestly I wonder if the DPRK government might have a better relationship with Russia right now than China - what is the West gonna do, sanction Russia for trading with them? Been there done that.

        So all this is a big shrug from me. It's not something I'm personally worrying about compared to everything else that's going on.

        • GaveUp [she/her]
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          I think DPRK for a long time has had a much better relationship with Russia

          Russia seems to have shared more military knowledge with DPRK and I don't think they've tried to talk DPRK out of giving up their nukes

    • FakeNewsForDogs [he/him]
      ·
      1 year ago

      Hard to know what to make of all this, but I can't see war in the peninsula being of much benefit to DPRK, ROK, the US, or China, given how destructive it would be. The US only really stands to gain by reasserting it's global dominance after a series of interventions that have called it into question. But I am not sure it needs to show that it can "win" to achieve it's goals. Just that it can fuck things up in your country if you stand up to it's authority. And that much is still apparent. I guess it would be a step closer to provoking war with China, and is less direct than moving on Taiwan. If DPRK were to kick things off, reunification on its terms seems like a pipe dream after all these decades of transforming ROK into a mini-USA. I am not seeing the angle here, so my guess is that this is sort of a "just in case" preparation as things have been heating up around the globe.