HAITI-DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: Media Unites to Fight Stereotypes

"With help from Plan International," journalist Elizabeth Eames Roebling writes in an article for Inter Press Service News Agency (IPS) "six Dominican journalists who run espacinsular.org as volunteers recently organised a three-day meeting of Haitian and Dominican journalists. Their website carries news articles from both Haitian and Dominican news sources translated respectively into Spanish and French in order to promote better cross-cultural understanding.

"The Nov. 14-16 meeting drew 50 representatives from newspapers, radio and television -- 25 Haitians and 25 Dominicans. All agreed to work towards better understanding between the two nations, draw the attention of their respective governments to the needs of the border region, and focus on specific human rights violations rather than allowing individual aggressions to escalate into disputes between their two nations.

"A group of eight media representatives was selected to form an ongoing network, the 'Dominican-Haitian Binational Press Network.' "

"Barack Obama's rise to power in the United States has exposed cracks in Brazil's self-image as a racially integrated society, with many seeing the Latin American giant years away from electing a Black president," Ana Nicolaci da Costa writes in an article for Reuters.

"With only a few Blacks in top government posts, deep-rooted, veiled racism in a country that is among the world's most racially mixed has prevented the emergence of a serious Black presidential candidate."

By Karen Juanita Carrillo

With Barack Obama's election to serve as the 44th president of the United States, celebrations broke out in Harlem, Fort Green, Brooklyn and in various predominately Black neighborhoods across the United States.

But the celebrations that took place beyond U.S. borders may have been even grander. The excitement Afro Latino activists felt can be seen in the emails they sent, in which they spoke about what an Obama presidency means for their communities and their nations:

"Right now, we are celebrating this triumph in all of the African descendant communities of Colombia and I want to congratulate all of you up there for all of the work you did to create this electoral win," said an exultant Jose Luis Rengifo Balanta, who works with an activist organization in Colombia: "Today, for the first time in history, we have a president who embodies all of the dreams of all of the Black people in the world."

The selection is made:  Obama for President.

(Karen Juanita Carrillo photo)

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Afro-Bolivians push for political recognition

"For most Americans," Annie Murphy writes in the San Francisco Chronicle article "Afro-Bolivians push for political recognition," "Bolivia conjures up images of Andean Indians tending to their vast herds of llamas. In a nation where the majority of its 9 million inhabitants are Aymara or Quechua Indians, Black activists say they are a forgotten minority.

"Afro-Bolivians don't exist on any census survey. During the last official census in 2001, Bolivians had only six choices regarding race: white, mestizo, Aymara, Quechua, Guarani (the three leading indigenous groups), or other. As a result, estimates of the Black population range wildly between 6,000 and 158,000 people. A 1997 poll financed by the Inter-American Development Bank estimated the population at 20,000.

"Evo Morales, Bolivia's first indigenous president, 'talks about us, visits our villages sometimes. But we're still not recognized by the state,' said Marfa Inofuentes, president of the Afro-Bolivian Cultural Movement in La Paz. 'How are we supposed to organize and take advantage of our rights, if we don't even know our number.' "

Police prepare for unrest

"Police departments in cities across the country are beefing up their ranks for Election Day, preparing for possible civil unrest and riots after the historic presidential contest," Alexander Bolton writes in The Hill.

"Public safety officials said in interviews with The Hill that the election, which will end with either the nation's first Black president or its first female vice president, demanded a stronger police presence.

"Some worry that if Barack Obama loses and there is suspicion of foul play in the election, violence could ensue in cities with large Black populations. Others based the need for enhanced patrols on past riots in urban areas (following professional sports events) and also on Internet rumors.

"Democratic strategists and advocates for Black voters say they understand officers wanting to keep the peace, but caution that excessive police presence could intimidate voters."