While the extent of Hurricane Sandy’s damage in the U.S. and the Caribbean is still being assessed, what’s already clear is that across the map the recovery process will be long and require massive financial and human investments by both governments and non-governmental groups alike. Lessons learned from the earthquake recovery in Haiti, particularly regarding the importance of international solidarity and recovery based on the needs of those most directly impacted, are critical for us all to heed. Though Sandy did not even directly hit Haiti, at least 52 Haitians lost their lives in the storm. Haitian activist Patrick Elie told Democracy Now on October 29, given the vulnerability of Haiti’s environment, “roads have been destroyed. Whole villages have, for all intent and purposes, disappeared.”

A variety of links to articles/interviews/speeches on current issues that may be of interest.

A variety of links to articles/interviews on current topics that may be of interest.

Somehow, I doubt we’re going to hear Glenn Beck or John Hagee speculate about this today.

“As any student of aid and development should know,” Nathan Hodge writes in the prologue to his book Armed Humanitarians, “efforts to aid the developing world have often done more harm than good.”

Patrick G. Eddington is a rarity in Washington these days: an intelligence officer with a conscience. His book, Long Strange Journey, is a riveting account of how he became a whistle-blower at the CIA and exposed how his own agency and the Department of Defense for years covered up the truth about “Gulf War Syndrome” – the exposure of U.S. troops in Iraq to chemical weapons used by Saddam Hussein during the First Gulf War. It also provided a detailed account of what it means to be an imagery analyst in the US intelligence community and how imagery is (and should be) used on battlefields to assist US soldiers and commanders.

Why, if the U.S. prevented Duvalier from returning in 2006, they were either unable or chose not to prevent his return this time?

This week, there have been several days of protests in Haiti against the presence of UN troops in the country. The immediate catalyst has been the widespread belief among Haitians that UN troops are responsible for the outbreak of cholera in Haiti – a belief for which there is considerable evidence, which the UN has encouraged by its refusal to support an investigation into the causes of the cholera outbreak, ignoring calls from Haitian officials and international public health experts for such an investigation. Why are there UN troops in Haiti? What is the timetable for their withdrawal?

Haitian women, aided by women’s rights organizations, are banding together to protect themselves and all women in post-earthquake Hatii from sexual assault, rape and other forms of gender-based violence.

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner just announced support for a full cancellation of Haiti’s debt, and the IMF will join him, ending Haiti’s crippling economic burden which hampered development long before last month’s earthquake.