cúisle mo chroí

A great article in the Daily News today that highlights the experiences of a couple of the Haitian members of Brother High Kanaval.

As Wilgainson Toussaint played horn for Brother High Full Tempo at Klub 45 above Connolly’s Pub in Times Square last week, he did so with a heavy heart.

The 18-piece Haitian rara band was one of more than a dozen groups that played a special benefit Wednesday night to raise funds for earthquake-ravaged Haiti.

Toussaint, 34, an unemployed livery cabdriver from Brooklyn, lost two cousins, three uncles, two aunts, countless friends and Milan Jeune - the mother of his 8-year-old son, Mike - all of whom lived in Port-au-Prince.

“I love my music, but my heart is torn when I think about my son being alone and losing family members,” he said after the band had played a rousing instrumental.

Read more here.

I had the pleasure of joining the organization Irish American Writers & Artist almost immediately upon relocating to Brooklyn. IAWA is a unique organization in the city which is not only highlighting Irish American artists, writers, actors and so forth, but one that is “committed both to bringing together the Irish American creative community in new self-awareness and to being a force for inter-ethnic and interracial solidarity, understanding and active cooperation.” From the IAWA mission statement:

In the long tradition of Irish resistance to oppression and struggle for liberty, IAW&A supports free speech, the rights of immigrants, the equality and dignity of all—regardless of race, gender, religion or sexual orientation—and the process of peaceful, positive social change in the U.S., Ireland and around the world. While avoiding party affiliation and endorsing no candidates for public office, IAW&A is outspoken in defense of artistic freedom, human rights and social justice.

My friend, author Michael Patrick MacDonald, invited me to join the first IAWA planning session for a fundraiser for Haiti following the devastating earthquake on 12 January, and we held “Relief for Haiti: Island People Supporting Island People” last Wednesday, February 24th at Connolly’s Bar.

We were able to bring together an incredible lineup–with musicians like Black 47, Moya Brennan and Ashley Davis, and authors like TJ English, Gary Shteyngart and Colum McCann. One of the highlights of the event was Haitian American band Brother High Kanaval (pictured above). In what turned out to be an amazing simple twist of fate, I was able to contribute to the success of the evening in my role as finance officer by facilitating a targeted, fast-track grant to Concern from the Irish government (by way of Irish Consul General Niall Burgess) in the amount of $50,000. All of the proceeds from the night–an overwhelming $107,500+–went to Concern Worldwide’s humanitarian efforts in Haiti.

What a tremendous night, what a success! I can’t wait for what comes next.

I watched the documentary film “The Cove” last night, which has apparently been nominated for an Academy Award this year. It has been a while since I’ve watched any sort of documentary film about animals, and it was particularly interesting to watch now that I would no longer describe myself as an animal rights activist.

Ric O’Barry’s story is heartbreaking. Many will remember O’Barry from the television show Flipper–he is a former dolphin trainer who was responsible for capturing and training the dolphins that were used to play Flipper. As O’Barry describes in the film, he spent 10 years working with dolphins (and is credited for popularizing their as entertainment and so forth) until the first Flipper dolphin, Cathy, died in his arms (a death he labels as suicide from depression). O’Barry did an about-face overnight and has since dedicated his life to freeing dolphins in captivity. The Cove tells the story of the annual dolphin hunt and slaughter in Taiji, Japan, where over 23,000 dolphins are killed each year.

The film is very engaging and well done, and I would definitely recommend watching it. I abhor zoos and aquariums like Sea World, and it is incredible to think about what intelligent creatures dolphins are. I have to add that it was also kind of cool to see a cameo of Hayden Panettiere engaging in some direct action in Taiji. I knew she had a thing for dolphins but that’s as far as my knowledge of her goes.

I do wish, however, that the film had more of a focus on the industry that fuels the annual dolphin slaughters. Why such a focus on the supply side? It doesn’t make much sense, particularly if the goal of the film is to expose the act as a means towards shutting it down.

As important as it is to know and see what the manner in which the dolphins are killed, I thought that the focus shouldn’t have been so heavily on the Japanese community in Taiji. Obviously, that is where the slaughter takes place, but it was odd that there was such an emphasis on the market for dolphin meat, but no real emphasis on the dolphin trade. The film did not even mention which countries import the most dolphins, for example, nor how much money dolphin shows or swimming with dolphin programs generate each year. The Japanese government and the International Whaling Commission were depicted as the enemies in the film…yet where was Sea World, for example, in all of this? As someone with an environmental background, I couldn’t help but think that the perspective/narrow focus of the film fits right in with what I feel to be the limited effectiveness of the mainstream environmental movement in the United States.

Apparently some of those involved in the film offered to subsidize the fisherman, saying that if they were to pay them the same amount of money that they would bring in from the annual hunt, would they agree to forgo it? Their answer was no, because dolphin hunting was part of their culture. In response, the filmmakers went to Tokyo and asked people on the street if eating dolphins was part of Japanese culture, and the response they received was a resounding “No!” Does anyone else see the problem inherent in this?!

And finally–I don’t know about you, but I’ve long since grown weary of listening to Paul Watson talk about anything. I leave you with an excerpt from Conquest by Andrea Smith, in which she writes about the Sea Shepherd Society and the Makah whaling controversy:

The Coalition for Human Dignity documents how animal and environmental rights groups, such as the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS) and the Progressive Animal Welfare Society, collaborated with far-right Republican legislator Jack Metcalf to oppose the Makah. Metcalf has openly spoken at the meetings of overtly racist and anti-Semitic organizations and has called for the abrogation of Indian treaty rights. These groups, instead of developing strategies to negotiate their differences with the Makah that respected Native sovereignty, advocated for the US to abrogate its 1855 treaty with the Makah that guarantees their right to whale hunt. What these “environmentalists” did not consider is that if they had been successful in legitimizing the abrogation of one treaty, it would have the effect of delegitimizing all treaties. They would be destroying the efforts of Native peoples across the country who are opposing corporate control through the use of treaties.

This is heartbreaking:

Police ‘forced’ man to identify mutilated body of murdered nephew, court told

Police effectively forced the uncle of a teenage murder victim to identify the badly mutilated body against his will, the High Court has heard.
Alan Steele also claimed officers did not care because they wrongly believed his dead nephew, David McIlwaine, was a member of the Loyalist Volunteer Force.

Mr Steele made the allegations as part of his negligence case against the Chief Constable for psychological injuries he says were inflicted by the identification process.

His 18-year-old nephew was stabbed to death along with Andrew Robb (19) in February 2000. Their bodies were dumped by a road near Tandragee, Co Armagh.

The double killing came weeks after alleged Ulster Volunteer Force leader Richard Jameson was shot dead in nearby Portadown.
Giving evidence in his claim for damages, Mr Steele said a police sergeant had asked him to identify Mr McIlwaine because his parents could not be contacted.

It was stressed in court how Mr McIlwaine had no paramilitary or criminal connections.
Mr Steele, who told of suffering post-traumatic stress disorder, said he was still hoping the victim’s father Paul would arrive by the time he got to the mortuary.

He claimed a senior detective approached him and repeated a warning about how the parents would find out if he did not go through with the process.

“I said to him this was wrong; I shouldn’t be doing this, Paul should be doing this.

“I felt that I was stealing from Paul,” Mr Steele told the court.

“I asked him to wait for Paul. He just walked away from me.

“I was crying, I was shaking.”

Questioned by his barrister, Ronnie Bentley QC, Mr Steele alleged he was not told about the injuries inflicted on the victims.

Clearly emotional in the witness box, he recalled: “He was stabbed about the head. The head was covered in blood.
“They had cut off part of his face and I could see into his skull.
“Because he had lost so much blood it was like a skeleton.”

During cross-examination by David Ringland QC, for the Chief Constable, he denied being “obsessed” by a search for justice since the murder.

But Mr Ringland pointed to expert medical opinion which he said suggested “bitterness and seething anger” connected to Mr Steele’s belief in a police cover-up.

Mr Ringland insisted that the senior detective’s evidence would be that at the stage of identifying the bodies no paramilitary connection had been established.

Pressing further, the barrister claimed that Mr Steele had in fact volunteered to identify the teen’s body.

Mr Ringland, who also insisted the injuries were made clear to Mr Steele in advance, added: “What you have said is that you were really forced to go to the morgue.

“I have to put it to you that quite the opposite situation prevailed when you were approached.”

According to a senior mortuary technician sheets of paper were also covering the most severely part of the victims face, Mr Ringland added.

But Mr Steele insisted: “That’s an absolute lie.”

The hearing was adjourned until tomorrow.

Here is the list of courses from our dinner on Tuesday night at Momfuku Ko. We did the best we could trying to reconstruct the menu from memory later that evening:

buttered biscuit with black pepper and miring glaze. chicarone with
togarashi. lobster and turnip cake over black garlic puree with meyer
lemon. deep fried curried lamb with curry mustard cream.

long island fluke with spiced buttermilk, poppy seeds, and chives

spanish mackerel with radish sprout, mustard oil, rice ball cracker

oxtail and amaro consomme with daikon tortellini with caramelized
onion/braised oxtail. with torn basil, micro cilantro and bean
sprouts

smoked soft boiled egg with caviar, fingerling potato chips, onion
soubise, some kind of vinegar, and chervil

hand torn pasta with snail chicken and sausage, pecorino romano,
crispy chicken skin, and black truffles

almond crusted skate with cerignola olives, fried baby cauliflower,
and foamed almond milk

shaved frozen fois gras with pine nut brittle, lychee, and reisling gelee

duck breast with crispy skin and pomegranate glaze, mustard greens,
sous vide then deep fried duck leg, ginger/honey braised turnip with
pumpernickel powder and country pate.

spiced white wine sorbet with asian pear and elderberry syrup

ricotta curd and goat cheese cheesecake, dried cranberries, pumpkin
seed brittle., and winter squash sorbet

The (fantastic) organization Reprieve today announced the release of a UN report (click that link to download the full report) into secret detention that exposes UK collusion in secret detention and torture. The investigation found, among other things, that the UK knew of the US’ rendition practices in 2002 but continued to hand them suspects with no process until well into 2004, and the UK knowingly received info from prisoners held in US ghost detention centers.

Surely the fact that the British government has never been held to account for its actions (torture, political assassinations, sectarian murders, collusion with loyalist paramilitaries and shoot-to-kill come to mind) in the North of Ireland gives rise to situations like this. An excerpt from the Reprieve release:

Worryingly, the report indicates that the UK intelligence services lack the oversight that would prevent crimes like complicity in torture from recurring in the future. It recommends that:

“To ensure accountability in intelligence co-operation, truly independent intelligence review and oversight mechanisms should be established… such mechanisms should have access to any information, including sensitive information…”

The report warns of the dangers of intelligence services keeping secrets from the bodies that are charged with policing them.

Clive Stafford Smith, Reprieve Director commented:

“Sadly, our government has teamed up with unscrupulous, Mafia-like regimes that are in the habit of disappearing people, using information extracted by violence, keeping secrets and protecting their thugs and cronies. It is shameful that it takes a UN report to reveal these shoddy practices to the British people. The victims are still waiting for an apology. ”

You’d almost think he was talking about the recent conflict in the North, wouldn’t you? Governments like the UK and the US will continue to get away with this until we work together to break the culture of impunity that allows this to continue to happen.

I had the pleasure of attending a discussion with graphic journalist Joe Sacco last night at the Brooklyn Public Library. It was both my first visit to the library and the first time I’ve heard Sacco talk about his work.

Footnotes in Gaza chronicles Sacco’s quest to uncover the truth about what happened during two incidents in Khan Younis and Rafah in November 1956, when a large number of Palestinians were killed by Israeli soldiers. He was compelled to delve further into what was obviously a significant event that has since been relegated to a “footnote” in the history books, but surely helped to “plant seeds of anger and grief that lead to present-day events.”

Competing truths, how the past lives on in peoples’ memories, the importance of remembering the past and the impact it has on the present and future–it was impossible not to think of the current efforts to develop a truth recovery process in the North of Ireland–and in particular the work that I am trying to do with Relatives for Justice. The following excerpt is taken from the introduction and was read at last night’s event:

As someone in Gaza told me, “events are continuous.” Palestinians never seem to have the luxury of digesting one tragedy before the next one is upon them. When I was in Gaza, younger people often viewed my research into the events of 1956 with bemusement. What good would tending to history do them when they were under attack and their homes were being demolished now? But the past and the present cannot be so easily disentangled; they are part of a remorseless continuum, a historical blur. Perhaps it is worth our while to freeze that churning forward movement and examine one or two events that were not only a disaster for the people who lived them but might also be instructive for those who want to understand why and how–as El-Rantisi said–hatred was “planted” in hearts.

Finally! We got hacked, causing all of our sites to go down and up and down again…and resulting in a lot of headaches. In any event, it’s a new year: goodbye Bluehost (you suck), hello new posts!

From Relatives for Justice:

Speaking in response to the DUP’s motion concerning the re-definition of a victim of the conflict Relatives for Justice Chairperson Clara Reilly issued the following statement;

‘Jeffrey Donaldson, and the DUP, are pandering to a very small constituency of people bereaved that are not representative of the broader community of those affected by the conflict who, unfortunately, have refused to move forward with the rest of us.

‘Essentially this is an anti-agreement group - ironically created and exploited by the DUP during its opposition to the agreement.

‘Jeffrey Donaldson knows full well that this motion is doomed to failure in that both the SDLP and Sinn Fein will reject it on the basis that it is selective and somewhat hypocritical given that the British army and the RUC were also perpetrators of violence.

‘The reality is that this is more about looking over the shoulder and assuaging this constituency that the DUP can out Allister Jim Allister.

‘He needs to stop manipulating people’s grief, hurt and pain for short-term political gain and show real leadership and not the failed agendas of the past.

‘Jeffrey Donaldson should know better. He is creating a false expectation for many of these families that will effectively add to their trauma. He needs to be more responsible and show mature political leadership.

Jeffrey Donaldson, and the DUP, need to stop refighting the conflict through victims. We all deserve better.

‘Indeed he has a moral duty not to mislead bereaved families.

‘As Junior Minister, and on a daily basis, he supported and implemented the current legislation defining victims and survivors that is inclusive and which has widespread community support. This was a positive contribution.

‘In terms of the motion it will only further divide those affected by the conflict from all backgrounds at a time when we are collectively trying to address the legacy of the past in a constructive, positive and inclusive way.’ ENDS