I had a great time talking about THE GRAY RHINO with Steve Sanders on WGN TV’s Midday Fix June 6, 2017. We covered a range of gray rhinos, from Chicago’s finances to the 2008 financial crisis to climate change to the things we ignore in our personal lives.
Watch by clicking on the image below:
Immigration Reform & Climate Change: Two Hot-Button Issues Intersect cross posted at www.publicagenda.org and the World Policy Blog
In the days following the earthquake that destroyed Port-au-Prince and killed over 200,000 people, the United States granted temporary protected status (TPS) to those undocumented immigrants from Haiti who were living in the United States prior to the date of the quake. It was the right thing to do after such an “act of God.” Yet, it stood in stark contrast to the failure of the United States to use its migration policy to help Haitians in 2008, when the island was struck by a series of natural disasters that were arguably man-made—a series of storms made increasingly more frequent and violent by rising sea levels and temperatures caused by greenhouse gas emissions.
Posted March 19, 2010. For the full article visit the links above.
Video is now available online from the talk I gave October 14th at Fairhaven College, Western Washington University, in Bellingham.
Michele Wucker: “Haiti in the World: Rethinking the Role of the International Community” from Fairhaven College, WWU on Vimeo.
Haiti desperately needs the world’s help. Four devastating storms last year destroyed nearly all of its crops, much of its livestock, and many of the roads that farmers need to get their goods to market. Even before the storms, Haiti only grew 40 percent of the food it needed. After years of coups, violence, mismanagement, and corruption, the challenges facing Haiti are enormous: environmental catastrophe, poverty, hunger, illiteracy, unemployment, and continuing violence. But is the kind of help the world has given so far what Haiti needs most? Many Haitians rightfully feel that international intervention in Haiti doesn’t always benefit Haiti as much as it should; funds are perpetually short, priorities not always well thought out, and the participation of Haitians in the decision process limited. How can the international community do better by Haiti? Can Haiti and the Dominican Republic, which share the island of Hispaniola, put behind them centuries of conflicts and work together to solve mutual problems? What should the priorities be for former President Bill Clinton, recently named UN Special Envoy to Haiti, as a new champion for the Caribbean nation?
If the video’s not showing up in your browser try this link: http://vimeo.com/7354271