Pause For A Cause, Video SoulBounce

Lil Wayne Gives The Gift Of Freedom

ChrisAlexander  |  12/21/2010 at 4:00 PM  |  Comments (2)

It's always refreshing to read something positive about someone whose life is consumed by public missteps and gift wrapped in negativity. No, R. Kelly didn't record another gospel album. And before you ask: No, Lil Wayne hasn't been neutered. He did, however, change the life of a supportive fan and her mother. While on vacation in the slammer, Wayne received a series of uplifting letters including drug counseling coupons and spermicide bible verses and words of encouragement from Ronda Austin of Williamstown, New Jersey. Hearing the story of her mother Evelyn Austin's failed knees and outdated, unsafe wheelchair, Wayne and his organization, One Family Foundation, responded with a brand new motorized chair. The gift helped free Evelyn from captivity, as she previously hadn't been outside the house for years following an accident on a ramp at church. This is the latest entry in Offsetting Foolishness With Generosity: A Goon's Handbook. Regardless, positivity is always welcomed, especially from the Inseminator 5000. Handclap for you, Wayne.

2011 Georgetown Review Poetry Manuscript Contest

Submission Guidelines We will consider only original collections of poems written in English. (You may include individual poems that have appeared elsewhere.) Students, colleagues, and close friends of Denise Duhamel (the 2011 judge), and current students and employees of Georgetown College are not eligible. One winning manuscript will be awarded a $1000 prize, publication of the book, and 20 author's copies. Manuscripts should be typewritten, single-spaced, and between 48 and 80 pages long. No more than one poem should appear on a page. A clean and legible manuscript is recommended. Do not send your only copy of the manuscript since manuscripts are not returned. We assume no responsibility for damaged or lost manuscripts. All submissions must be accompanied by a $20 entry fee. Please make your check out to "Georgetown College." Submit two title pages for the collection. The author's name, address, daytime phone number, and email address should appear on the first title page only, along with an acknowledgment listing poems published elsewhere. The author's name should appear nowhere else in the manuscript. The second title page should only include the title of the collection. ALL ENTRIES MUST BE POSTMARKED BY FEBRUARY 1st, 2011. (USPS Priority Mail is preferred.) Please address entries to: Georgetown Review Poetry Manuscript Contest Georgetown College PO Box 227 Georgetown KY 40324

"READING PERIOD: OCT. 1 - DEC. 31, 2010 • WINNER ANNOUNCED APRIL 2011 • PUBLICATION IN SEPTEMBER 2011

The Whitebird Chapbook Series

This chapbook series is named in honor of Joanie Whitebird, founder of Wings Press. As The Texas Observer described her, Joanie was “an old-fashioned fence hater, a wire-cutter, a woman in love with the open road, with open relationships, with open futures fraught with possibilities.” We honor her spirit by using this series to introduce new and innovative poetic voices.

The Whitebird Chapbook Series is an open competition. The entries are given two "blind" readings, resulting in five finalists. The winning manuscript is announced in April and published in September by Wings Press in an edition limited to 500 numbered and signed copies, of which 100 copies are given to the poet. The chapbooks are printed on fine paper and hand-sewn by the publisher.

Submission Rules

1. Submit 20 to 30 pages of poetry, preferably with a thematic orientation rather than a miscellany.
2. Poems may have been published previously in journals, e-zines, etc.
3. Do not include your name on any page other than on a separate title page and your cover letter.
4. Your cover letter should include a short biographical statement, including prior publications.
5. Include a letter-sized SASE for notification.
6. Mss are not returned.
7. Submission fee: $15 (check or money order made out to Wings Press)
8. Submission address:

   "Whitebird Chapbook Series"
   Wings Press
   627 E. Guenther
   San Antonio, TX 78210

21 Poetry Markets

By Deborah Ng

Members of the FWJ community remind me we’ve been spending so much time talking about writing for the web and private clients we’re neglecting other types of freelance writing jobs.  We”ll be exploring some of the less talked about markets in the next week or two. Hopefully you caught yesterday’s post featuring 16 Greeting Card Markets plus tips for pitching those markets. Today we’re going to explore poetry markets, and we’re in for a treat. Our friend and poet John Hewitt of PoeWar is a poet well versed in what it takes to sell a poem.

General Submissions Guidelines for Poetry

One of the nice things about poetry publications is that they are relatively easy to submit your work to. Unlike magazine article queries or book publisher queries, with poetry publications you simply submit your poems. You don’t have to spend a great deal of time convincing the publication to look at your poems. You just send them with a brief cover letter explaining who you are, and that you think your poems would be appropriate for their publication. You cover letter serves mainly to provide a list of the poems you have submitted, so that the editor can easily keep track of your submission.

Before I get to the basic rules of submitting poetry, I want to emphasize that you should always try to find a publication’s submission guidelines. I am only providing general guidelines. The deciding factor for any submission is the publication’s submission guidelines. Submission guidelines are important because in many cases they can prevent you from sending types of poems that the publication does not want. Most publications have a specialty or emphasis. A particular publication may only seek poems in a certain form (such as villanelle) or poems about a narrow range of subjects. Even if the publication in general publishes a wide range of poetry, they may be seeking particular types of poems for an upcoming issue. If you submit poems that the publication does not want, no matter how well they are written, you are wasting their time and yours. Another benefit of reading the submissions guidelines is that they will tell you where to send your submissions and who to address those submissions to.

That said, the general guidelines for submitting poetry are as follows:

Poem Guidelines

• Only include one poem per page.
• Poems should be single spaced. Use a triple space between the title and the first line. Use a double space between stanzas.
• Do not split stanzas across pages.
• Include your name in the upper right-hand corner of each page of poetry. If a poem has multiple pages, add the page number and a short version of the title along with your name on pages after the first page.
• The standard format for poems is left justified for the title and the poem. If your poem relies on a different format, such as using indented lines, format your poem to look exactly the way you want it to appear in the publication.
• Do not make duplicate submissions. Never submit the same poem to multiple publications or at the same time. You should submit a poem to a new publication only after it has been rejected by the previous publisher.
• Unless otherwise specified, limit yourself to three to six poems per submission. The longer your poems, the fewer the number of poems you should submit. If your submission runs over ten pages, it is probably too long.
• Include your name and contact information following standard letter format or using letterhead.
• List the titles of each poem you are submitting.
• Include a single paragraph biography that may include any previous publications and educational background.
• Include a positive sentence or two about the publication. Don’t gush, just show that you know who they are and appreciate what they do.
• Do not include

Cover Letter Guidelines

Include your name and contact information following standard letter format or using letterhead.

· List the titles of each poem you are submitting.

· Include a single paragraph biography that may include any previous publications and educational background.

· Include a positive sentence or two about the publication. Don’t gush, just show that you know who they are and appreciate what they do.

· Do not include

o   A self assessment of your skills

o   Apologies for discussion of your lack of experience

o   Sob stories. I can’t emphasize this enough. Don’t do it! Let your work speak for itself.

Mail submission guidelines

• Use white, standard-sized paper for your submissions.
• Use an envelope that is large enough for your poetry to lay flat rather than be folded.
• Use standard postage.
• Include a self-addressed stamped envelope for return of your poetry. This envelope can be smaller.
• Your email can serve as your cover letter, but should include the same information as a standard cover letter. Don’t use email as an excuse to be casual.
• Use standard file formats such as .txt, .rtf, .doc or .docx for your poems or simply include them in the email.

Email submission guidelines

John Hewitt is the publisher of poewar.com, a web site about writing and poetry. Every September, poewar.com runs 30 poems in 30 days, which includes articles and prompts for poets. His ebook of poetry, Extended Stay, is available for download at poewar.com.

Deb’s note: There are plenty of non paying or $1 per poem literary and web markets. I didn’t include them here.

21 Poetry Markets

1. Agni - Pays $20 – $150. Contact for guidelines.
2. Alaska Quarterly Review - Pays $10 – $50. Contact for guidelines
3. Antigonish Review - Pays $30/page. Please see online guidelines.
4. Antioch Review – Pays $15/page. Online guidelines.
5. Arc – Canada’s National Poetry Magazine – Pays $15/page.
6. Black Warrior Review - Pays up to $75. Contact for full guidelines.
7. Boulevard Magazine – Pays $25 – $250. Online guidelines.
8. Clean Sheets -Pays .03/word (erotica)
9. The Capilano Review – Pays $50 – $200. Online guidelines.
10. Dreams and Nightmares – Pays $10. Online guidelines.
11. Electric Velicipede: Pays $15 for poems under 100 lines. Online guidelines.
12. Grain Literary Magazine - Pays $40 – $70 – See online guidelines for more details.
13. Chatahochee Review - Pays $50.  Online guidelines/
14. Island – Pays $60. Online Guidelines
15. Leading Edge – Pays $10. Snail mail submissions only. Online guidelines.
16. New Myths – $15. per poem. Online guidelines.
17. Orion Society – Pays $100/poem. Contact for guidelines.
18. The Pedestal Magazine – Pays $40. Online guidelines.
19. Ploughshares – Pays  $25 – $250. Online guidelines.
20. Poetry - Pays $150/page. Online guidelines.
21. Three Penny Review – $100/poem. Snail mail submissions only. Online guidelines.

As always, let us know if you successfully sell your poems to any of the markets found here…and don’t forget to check out our regular Monday Writing Markets.

Image via stock xchnge

The break: Blogging Black from the Netherlands and how I became an Afro-European

 

Ground level Ganzenhoef Amsterdam Bijlmer
I am going to take a break, but of course blogger Sibo wil continue to post his views on Afro-Europe. But before I leave I would like to share some of my toughts and experiences about becoming Afro-European and how I started blogging.

A year ago I received an e-mail from someone who wanted to know more about black people in the Netherlands and how I got there.

Of course I have had these question before. I remember a few white Americans stopped me in the city centre of Amsterdam to ask me if I could translate a few English words for them in Dutch. Suddenly they asked me where I came from. “I was born Amsterdam,” I replied. “No, where do you really come from,” they answered. Great people by the way, so I gave them an elevator pitch about the “African-Americans” of Holland.

This post will not be an elevator pitch.

Growing up ignorant in Amsterdam

I grew up almost colourless. Although I knew I was black there was no racism around me that made more aware of it. I was born in Amsterdam before the big Surinamese migration started in 1975, and I lived in a part of Amsterdam which was almost 90 percent white. But luckily my social circle, so to speak , was cultural diverse. I had Dutch, Surinamese, Bi-racial Surinamese, Jewish and Chinese friends.

Moving to the “black” part of Amsterdam, Amsterdam South East (De Bijlmer)

Moving to a black environment was an experience. The place exploded with anti-racism activists, rastas and black culture advocates. Everything was black, including the junkies of course. But it was a tremendous experience. Walking in the Bijlmer in the summer was like walking on a Caribbean Island, black people everywhere.

From an identity point of view the move was gift from God. But since I was born and raised in the Netherlands I actually had to integrate into the black community. Because I also had a uppity Dutch accent, so to speak, this also complicated the challenge to integrate into a society which was a “deep” black Surinamese Caribbean community back then with a lot of black American influences. I was considered "white” of course. But thanks to shooting hoop all winter I managed to get into the pickup basketball games in the summer. And that’s where my black identity journey began. The character in the book “The white boy shuffle” is me.

Becoming “Black” gradually

I also got new friends of course. They introduced me to the black organisation scene, which meant that I got to meet a lot of black artists and black activists and different black people from across Europe. I remember how I got lost when I had to speak to a French black girl, she could hardly speak English and I hardly could speak French.

What I did learn during that period was the way skin colour was perceived. Most of my black friends dated white girls and I dated black girls. The entire racial dimension when past me as a ship in the night, but I would gradually learn the deeper structure of things. I think it’s a part you miss if don’t grow up in a environment where skin colour is like a military rank.

But although my black identity was developing I felt something was missing. It was like watching CNN, but not understanding the background of things. I was missing a deeper understanding of blackness.

My black experience

I knew that my knowledge of blackness wouldn’t come from playing basketball, eating rice and beans, or hanging out with my friends. The difference with my friends was that I had learned nothing at school about colonialism, slavery or even the history of Suriname. I knew it vaguely, but that was it.

Because Suriname lies in South America one of the first books I read was the “Open viens of Latin America” by Eduardo Galeano. I think it’s the book that Venezuelan president Hugo Chaves gave to president Obama. I remember it opened my eyes about the history of Latin American from a left wing point of view. It’s a radical book, but I think a needed a radical view at that time. I read a lot of books about latin American, but later I found it wasn’t exactly “my” history. Although Surinam lies in South America, it’s in fact a Caribbean country. But I am glad I read it, it’s a classic. Although Galeano could have added some more black history in it.

The book which really took me closer to my roots was “Van Priary tot en met De Kom, the history of resistance in Surinam”, by Sandew Hira. Hira is the Surinamese version of Eduardo Galeano. although he didn’t made me wear a dashiki, he did gave me a deeper understanding of the black struggle in Suriname and of Dutch colonialism.

The book that shaped by black identity was “Black Skin, white Masks” of French writer Franz Fanon. I think James Baldwin would have said, that it takes you to the dungeons of your black soul. I started reading the book, closed it and opened it again three month later. Fanon dropped an issue that I never thought of before, one of his famous lines is, a black person wants to be white. But he made me feel at ease by explaining that it was a logical consequence of slavery and colonialism that I could have these feelings. But after finishing his book he didn’t leave me with the feeling that I wanted be white, but he did leave me with the question: why should I be proud to be black if being black meant having a twisted black frustrated mind.

Fanon's book really gave me a Teflon layer so to speak, but as African scholar once said: it didn’t cure Fanon. Did it add to my black identity yes, to my Afro-Dutch identity, no.

Becoming Afro-Dutch?

I don’t have an Afro-Dutch identity, I have a Surinamese-Dutch identity. Saying you’re Dutch to a Surinamese person is sometimes even considered an insult. I think the mayor difference between the French and the British is that the Dutch were more preoccupied with trade then with assimilating slaves into Dutch Culture. Not very a long ago in the Netherlands children from foreign countries could get lessons in their own language and culture during school time. Comfy together, or as they say in Dutch “gezellig bij elkaar” with your own people was the Dutch mantra for integration. Foreign films in Holland are not voiced over as there in France or Germany, but subtitled. But the perception about integration and minorities has changed now.

Being Surinamese-Dutch feels like belonging to a cult group, and to be honest I am comfortable with it.

I am going to take a giant leap forward in time.

Kwakoe festival, the biggest multicultural festival in Amsterdam

Blogging and becoming Afro-European

Fast forward two years ago. Before I started blogging about Afro-Europe I was focused on the Netherlands. Although I had met black people from different countries in Europe and Africa, I had virtually no deep knowledge of their backgrounds. Even on holidays in Europe I was running to see the buildings or other tourist places. A market full of black people in London doesn’t differ much from a market in Amsterdam-South East.

Like most holidays I focused on the beach or on sight seeing. There is hardly time to actually meet black people in their countries. Before you know it, you’re home in the rat race again.

The inspiration for Afro-Europe began after an interview I did with an Afro-German woman. I am not going to say who it is, but if she reads this: thanks for the inspiration and your mind blowing insights. Although I had met French, British and African people, it never came to mind that there were actually black people in Germany, although Germany is the neighbouring country of the Netherlands. What also inspired me was the blog Black Women in Europe.

One of the books I read was the book of Noah Sow, "Deutschland Schwarz Weiss - der alltägliche Rassismus" (Germany Black White - the everday racisme"). The thing I got out this book was the subtle racism I had never seen before. It was as if different lights went on on the same stage. I saw objects I had never noticed before. The little black boy on my cornflakes box who was surrounded by African Elephants and zebras, were thinks I hardly noticed before. To me they were just part of yet an another “Africa” contest campaign. But after reading Sow’s book I realized that there is an implicit racist connection when black kids are portrayed with African animals. Her book made me more aware that I was living in a society with hidden and sometimes even subliminal racist images. I somehow felt as ignorant as the day I moved to Amsterdam-South East. It was strange to get this information out of German book. And yes, these images were floating around me in the Netherlands.

Then I got a mail from Belgium. My name is Sibo and I would like to contribute. It was again strange to find out there was a person from another country who wrote about everything I always wanted to write about, but couldn’t. I was again interested to see new a perspective from a black person from Belgium. But he has something I don’t have, a close connection to Africa.

Identity

To me being Afro-European is not the same as being a Dutch black person. I’d like see as an element of it. I’m different from a black British Caribbean or African person. Growing up black in a class structured society is perhaps different from growing up in the egalitarian Netherlands. Growing up black in a French society where showing your black colours was in conflict with the all-people-are-French ideal is very different from my black experience. And being Afro-German is also different because it’s small community in a big white country with an infamous racial history.

But my Afro-European element what I perhaps share with other Afro-Europeans is that I want to have a piece of the country where I was born and raised in. It’s position I don’t even have to defend. Being black and European means that I also have an Afro-European connection on issues like race, black success and other specific black issues. But there is one issue that I consider very important, I don’t only have connection with Afro-Europe, but also with Africa.

How I became African, again

I don’t know if it sounds familiar, but although I read the ‘positive’ books about Africa I still remained biased. I have the read books about Africa, about the copper masks of the Yorubas and about the monuments of great Zimbabwe, but still it looked as if they were compensations for the daily reality I saw on TV. The images of the machetes in Rwanda, the hunger, the child soldiers and the corrupt leaders. If in Europe one person dies it almost seemed similar to 500 deaths in Africa. As if large scale deaths is a natural thing in Africa. That was ignorant me two years ago when if first started blogging.

Thanks to all those wonderful African blogs I know that “Africa” doesn’t exits and that my lack of interest and knowledge made me stereotype a whole continent. It reminds of the silent Nigerian basketball player who trained in my basketball team. I never asked him anything about Nigeria. If you read this Femi, sorry for being so, “basketball minded”? Or the African woman who asked me the direction, and while were talking I asked her about the “war” in a country in Africa which I had seen on TV. “No that’s not my country, that’s another system,” she replied while shaking her head. If you read this, sorry.

I can honestly say that blogging has changed my perspective on African countries and Africans completely. I have never visited Africa, but the slave fort Elmina where my ancestors left Africa will not be on my visiting list. There is so much more to see then a broken down slave fort, a fort which is just one leave on the tree of Africa.

Has blogging about Afro-Europe changed you?

A lot. I can’t go back blogging on a national level because I have seen, heard and experienced so much of the Afro-European community. I’ve seen people who would outsmart me ten times. I’ve seen successful initiatives that could be copied in other European countries with the same results. And I’ve seen a media landscape which could be a goldmine and powerful network if they would only touch each other.

Two years ago I lived in the dungeon of my own community, today I have new and different perspective. If I was a community consultant I think I would be the one with all the great and successful ideas. I won’t go into personal details, but the blogging has even changed me on a professional level. Blogging Afro-European means reading French, German and Spanish and of course English again, so working on my languages was also a good training.

Is this the end?

No, I think it’s just a break.

Best wishes for 2011!

Erik K.

 

HAITI | NEWS ANALYSIS

Solution for Haiti's election? Depends on who's talking

As Haiti waits for the final vote count in the Nov. 28 presidential election, the way forward remains unclear.

• Fiery protest over presidential elections in Haiti
• Voting in Haiti mired in chaos, confusion

BY JACQUELINE CHARLES

jcharles@MiamiHerald.com

PORT-AU-PRINCE -- In a traumatized nation with a poor history of clean voting, Haiti's recent elections were a disaster waiting to happen.

There was -- and is -- pervasive lack of confidence in the eight members of the electoral council because some perceive them as being hand-picked by President René Préval.

Allegations of massive fraud were rampant even before polling stations opened for the Nov. 28 presidential and legislative elections, whose final results are yet to be released.

And the international community, which paid most of the $29 million tab for the elections, vacillated between paternalistic bullying of Haitian officials and a hands-off partnership.

Now that same international community -- unsure over what should come next as Haiti's electoral commission delays the final vote count while technical experts from the United States and elsewhere sift through tally sheets -- is faced with how to get Haiti back on track.

What everyone wants to avoid is a downward spiral into chaos that will hamper future efforts to help the quake-battered nation recover.

The way forward is not clear, and there are no easy choices. They range from an outright annulment of the vote with an interim government charged with organizing new elections -- in perhaps two years -- to a power-sharing agreement.

Among the ideas that have been suggested:

• Cancellation of this round of elections and Préval's early departure. So far opposed by the international community, this idea was put forth by 12 presidential candidates in a letter-writing campaign with Canadian and U.S. lawmakers launched last week.

• A second round with the presumed top three vote-getters: Former first lady and academic Mirlande Manigat, former government agency head and Préval pick Jude Célestin and musician Michel ``Sweet Micky'' Martelly, whose backers set the streets ablaze after the council said he had been edged out of a runoff spot by Célestin.

Brazil has pushed for this alternative. Questions have been raised about the constitutionality of such a move. Manigat opposes it.

• A new winner-take-all election with all 17 presidential candidates taking part and appointment of a new electoral council. Martelly put forth this idea. Some say it has little chance of winning favor.

• A runoff with Martelly and Manigat, courtesy of Célestin, who would voluntarily withdraw. There would also be a runoff for legislative seats with the likely outcome of Préval's INITE (UNITY) coalition controlling a majority in parliament.

• A second round with Manigat and Célestin, after which the winner would face questions of legitimacy.

• Formation of a coalition government with the opposition.

``We now have an electoral challenge that is acute,'' U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said last week during a visit to Canada. ``The electoral challenge, the instability in the government, the lack of a clear way forward as to who will be assuming leadership responsibilities, requires the international community to act and provide technical assistance, provide support for unraveling the complexities and questions surrounding the election.''

The story of how Haiti and its foreign friends reached this dangerous impasse is a tale of good intentions by outsiders clashing with the harsh realities of a nation with weak institutions, a shattered government and a history of electoral fraud.

``We've had elections since 1987, and with the exception of 1990, all of them quite bad. I don't think we've made much progress,'' said Robert Fatton, a Haiti expert at the University of Virginia.

Even before the November vote, many Haitians doubted whether their country could pull off acceptable elections.

While a gentleman's agreement to postpone the vote might have worked in some other countries, it couldn't in a nation with a history of dictatorship and distrust.

A national survey of 1,275 Haitians taken on behalf of the United States Agency for International Development revealed that while an increasing number of Haitians planned to vote, respondents were equally split on whether the elections would be fair or not.

In fact, the survey showed that 39 percent of respondents interviewed between Aug. 18 and Sept. 2 believed the electoral council was corrupt. Overall confidence in the council had fallen to 56 percent in June of 2010 from a high of 78 percent the previous June.

Weeks before the vote, Colin Granderson, head of the joint Organization of American States-Caribbean Community observer mission, remarked that the main obstacle to good elections had nothing to do with the technical expertise or know-how of the council.

It had to do with ``the total lack of trust in the impartiality of the [council].''

Préval told The Miami Herald earlier this year that twice he had changed the council on the recommendation of various groups and opposition leaders. Each time, he said, the opposition complained about the new appointees.

Haiti watchers say Préval should have recognized that it was in his own interest and that of the country's to completely replace the council.

Others criticize the international community, especially the United States, for wavering on how to handle the election. The United States, for example, went from wanting to stack the council with technical experts to changing its mind days later, without explanation. Adding to the challenge: The entire United Nations electoral brain trust died in the cataclysmic earthquake.

Failure to change the electoral council, said Mark Schneider of the International Crisis Group, a Washington think tank, ``simply fed the view that the electoral process was never going to produce a fair result.''

``Now what may be the only way to get any agreed-upon next step is for a high level internationally respected panel to review or carry out a verification process and make recommendations for a way forward,'' Schneider said.

Yvon Neptune, one of the few presidential candidates not calling for a cancellation of the vote, said the provisional electoral council is not solely to blame for the mess.

``What we are seeing now in the electoral process is a reflection of Haitian society. You take all of the sectors that are involved in the electoral process, directly or indirectly, and there is a question of credibility,'' he said. ``We are a product of our history. It has been a history of turmoil. It has been a history of corruption.''

Since doing away with dictatorship 24 years ago, Haiti has struggled to build democracy and institutions up against inequities in wealth distribution, a lack of rule of law, overthrown governments -- and now a feeling of despair after the January earthquake.

A deadly cholera outbreak and largely invisible reconstruction effort have contributed to the general atmosphere of gloom and disappointment.

Meanwhile, the international community has wavered between wanting to allow Haitians to chart their own course and getting more involved in the details.

``However unpopular Préval may be, he represents continuity, which is the single most important thing the international community values,'' Fatton said. ``In other words bad elections will be tolerated in the name of continuity. The problem though is that continuity is not necessarily what Haitians want.''

Some argue that a political agreement is needed now -- not later.

With opposition to Préval far from monolithic, he remains the key actor in Haitian politics.

Still, some in the international community have given up on the man once viewed as Haiti's ``indispensable'' politician. ``Eighty percent of the Haitians voted against him,'' said one foreign diplomat, since his candidate, Célestin, got only 22 percent of the vote.

That reality along with the accusations of fraud by INITE, and the fear of violence in the coming days, has diplomats wondering about what will become of Préval. Will he, like most of his predecessors, exit into exile -- or will he become Haiti's elder statesman?

Eduardo Gamarra, a Florida International University professor and political analyst, said the most important thing over the longer term will be getting a credible government in place.

``But that credible government will have to come from among the three [top vote-getters]. The question is who among them is best able to help Haiti on that path -- a singer with no real record of administrating, a former first lady who is dignified but has no real record or a man who has run a government construction company with extraordinary ties to the old Haitian establishment and all that means?''

 

_____________________________

American gets nearly 20 years for sexually abusing Haitian boys

See show times »

Douglas Perlitz could face up to 20 years in prison when he is sentenced Tuesday in New Haven, Connecticut.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NEW: Several of the victims spoke about the abuse
• Douglas Perlitz began a charitable school in Cap-Haitien
• He was believed to be a great humanitarian
• Perlitz admitted to engaging in sexual conduct with eight minors

RELATED TOPICS

• Haiti
• Child Abuse
• U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

(CNN) -- An American school founder who young Haitian men once hailed as a savior was sentenced Tuesday to nearly 20 years in prison for sexually abusing them.

Douglas Perlitz, 40, was sentenced in federal court in New Haven, Connecticut, to 19 years and 7 months behind bars for abusing the Haitian men when they were boys under his care, said Bruce Foucart, special agent in charge of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Office of Homeland Security Investigations in Boston.

"We're very pleased with the sentence," he said. "He was brought to justice and I hope it sends a strong message to people who are doing that or who are even thinking about doing that."

Judge Janet Bond Arterton imposed the sentence, which includes 10 years of supervised release.

Perlitz arrived in the northern Haitian city of Cap-Haitien in 1997. There, he opened a charitable school called the Project Pierre Toussaint (PPT). He got homeless boys off the streets and gave them shelter, food and education.

"When I met Mr. Douglas, he appeared to us like Jesus Christ himself come to rescue us," said Francilien Jean-Charles, who was only 12 when he was plucked by Perlitz and brought to the school.

Over the years, PPT grew into a 10-acre compound with dorms, classrooms and a soccer field.

Perlitz frequently flew back to Fairfield, Connecticut, to raise money. According to court documents, from 2002 to 2008, donors gave more than $2 million to help care for the kids. Perlitz's alma mater, Fairfield University, awarded him an honorary degree in 2002 for helping homeless boys in Haiti.

But Perlitz was hardly the man he appeared to be.

"I thanked God when I met Douglas," said Jean-Charles. "But when things started to turn bad, I realized it would have been better if I never came to PPT."

Perlitz wore a watch that lit up and at night, he used it to seek out the boys, they said. Fredlin Legrand said he woke up to see Perlitz next to him.

"He gave me a pill that made me fall asleep and when I woke up, I found my pants covered in sperm," Legrand told CNN.

Jean-Charles and a dozen other boys told CNN they were routinely raped by Perlitz for years. But they were afraid to speak out against the man who had been such a boon for the city.

Finally, in 2007, some of the boys approached their teachers and other adults. No one believed what they were hearing.

Brian Russell, a donor for the school, said Perlitz was a miracle maker, not a pedophile.

"There was no way that this man could have committed these things that people were accusing him of. It seemed utterly out of the realm of possibility," Russell said. "There was too much goodness. The heart was too big."

The boys grew desperate. They painted graffiti on the outer walls of the school, most of which has been painted over. But one plea for help still exists: "Welcome, Haitian National Police."

The police never came, but journalist Cyrus Sibert noticed the writing on the wall.

"I told the boys, I will go to the end with you," Sibert said. "Are you ready?"

But even after Sibert aired his interviews with the boys, Haitian authorities and American donors still did not believe the accusations.

It was only after an American volunteer at the school relayed accusations of older boys raping younger ones that red flags went up. Russell said the volunteer demanded from the headmaster that something be done immediately.

His response was: "Well, that's really hard because Douglas has been doing this for the last 10 years."

Russell felt broken, betrayed.

"I felt like all the money I had donated, the time that I had given, something that we had worked so hard for was gone."

In September 2009, U.S. ICE agents picked up the case and arrested Perlitz. He denied the accusations, but in August, Perlitz pleaded guilty to one count of traveling with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct. He also admitted to engaging in sexual conduct with eight minors.

The defense requested a delay in sentencing, contending Haiti's January earthquake, cholera outbreak and election-related street violence made it impossible to thoroughly review the prosecution's claims against Perlitz. The court denied the request.

In addition, the defense maintained that Perlitz himself was a victim of sexual abuse. According to a defense memorandum, while he was at Fairfield University, "a priest began a relationship with Doug that ... ultimately took on a dark aspect, both physically and spiritually, that had a significant and long-lasting impact on him."

The prosecution quickly responded, saying: "Perlitz's sexual abuse of minors, abuse which lasted for a decade or more, shows him to be nothing more than a wolf in sheep's clothing -- an American man who traveled to Haiti purporting to care for homeless children when in reality he preyed upon the desperation of these children so that he could sexually abuse them."

Some of the boys, now young men, were in court Tuesday for the sentencing. They faced the man who abused them for years and spoke about their experience, bringing a sense of reality to the courtroom, said Foucart. They testified about how afraid of Perlitz they were and how he threatened to throw them out of the school and back on the streets if they spoke up.

Paul Kendrick, an advocate for victims of abuse familiar with the case, was in court. He said Perlitz apologized to his victims at one point during the proceeding.

"The judge, I thought, gave a very strong sentence and a very strong message," said Kendrick. "American citizens will be held accountable for their actions with minors no matter where they are in the world."

Watch Anderson Cooper 360° weeknights 10pm ET. For the latest from AC360° click here.

_____________________________

Man gets nearly 20 years in Haiti sex abuse case

By DAVE COLLINS
The Associated Press
Tuesday, December 21, 2010; 7:49 PM 

NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- A Colorado man was sentenced to nearly 20 years in prison Tuesday for sexually abusing children for more than a decade at a school he founded in Haiti, including some who faced him in the courtroom and testified that he threatened to put them back on the streets if they did not submit to his advances.

Judge Janet Bond Arterton called Douglas Perlitz a serial rapist and molester as she imposed the sentence in New Haven federal court. She said she believed he would commit the same crimes again if he were in a similar position.

Perlitz, 40, apologized to his victims while speaking in Creole before the sentence was handed down. He said he knew his crimes were horrible but pleaded for leniency nevertheless, asking the judge to consider the good work he did in the impoverished Caribbean nation.

"I began losing my head. ... I was using you," Perlitz said while facing the six young men who testified earlier. "I mistreated you because you were afraid. Perhaps you were confused. Perhaps you thought, 'How could this man, Douglas, who's protecting me, be touching me like this?'

"I wasn't thinking about you or your feelings or how my actions would affect you," he added. "I'm asking for forgiveness."

More than 100 people filled the courtroom including the victims, two Haitian police officers and Perlitz's family and supporters.

Perlitz admitted in August that he engaged in illicit sexual conduct with eight children who attended the Project Pierre Toussaint School for homeless children in Cap-Haitien. Prosecutors said Perlitz gave the children money, food, clothing and electronics and threatened to take everything away and expel them from the program if they told anyone.

Arterton said she believed there were at least 16 victims, based on testimony that authorities recorded on video by others who attended the school. Some of the six young Haitian men said in court that dozens of other boys were abused by Perlitz.

Now a resident of Eagle, Colo., Perlitz founded the school in 1997 when he lived in Fairfield County, Conn. Authorities said he began abusing the children, some as young as 11, in 1998 before the school was built. The abuse scandal led to the collapse of the school and its fundraising arm, the Haiti Fund, forcing the children back into homelessness on the streets, prosecutors said.

In court documents, Perlitz said one factor in the crimes was his "dark and abusive relationship" with a priest - whom authorities have not named - he met while attending Fairfield University.

The six young men were flown to Connecticut and detailed the abuse they suffered.

"He always told me, `Don't tell anybody about it. If you tell anybody about it, I will put you out on the street,'" one victim said through a Creole interpreter. He said Perlitz first abused him in 1998 and once sodomized him after plying him with rum.

Another victim said Perlitz started abusing him on his 14th birthday in 2004. He said he struggled with feelings of shame and thought about suicide, especially when he read the Bible.

"I am here today to tell the truth. Because of the truth, I can find justice," he said. "He hurt us a lot."

Perlitz was arrested last year and pleaded guilty to travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct, a crime that carries up to 30 years in prison.

Prosecutors had asked the judge for a prison sentence of nearly 20 years, saying Perlitz preyed on some of the world's most vulnerable: Haitian street children with little or no family support or education.

"The damage and the harm he has done is just so extraordinary in this case," Assistant U.S. Attorney Krishna Patel told the judge. "He should be punished for the fact that he did this to the world's most defenseless children. He is a danger to our children. He's a danger to the world's children."

Perlitz's lawyers asked for a sentence of about eight years, saying that Perlitz also helped many children.

William Dow III, one of Perlitz's lawyers, drew jeers from some in the courtroom when he said Perlitz "lifted up" many poor children and treated them well. Dow quickly added that Perlitz "committed crimes. There's no question about it."

Dow urged Arterton to not sentence Perlitz as the "monster" that prosecutors portrayed him as.

"It's a tragedy on a whole bunch of levels," Dow said. "This is a significantly flawed man who has made good."

Perlitz's lawyers also wrote in court documents that he had "confusion and shame about his sexuality, and struggles with his identity; an ongoing, complicated and exploitive relationship with an influential priest; and increasing isolation and pressure while in Haiti."

Arterton also said Perlitz would have to serve 10 years supervised release after prison, register as a sex offender, receive sex offender treatment and not have any unsupervised contact with minors.

Perlitz said he would like to continue helping people.

"They say a convicted sex offender has no future, but I would like to try to prove people wrong," he said.

>via: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/21/AR20101221036...

_____________________________

Haiti buckling under pressure

SACRIFICE

THE CHILD SEX SLAVES OF BURMA

Each year thousands of young girls are recruited from rural Burmese villages to work in the sex industry in neighboring Thailand.

Held for years in debt bondage in illegal Thai brothels, they suffer extreme abuse by pimps, clients, and the police.

The trafficking of Burmese girls has soared in recent years as a direct result of political repression in Burma. Human rights abuses, war and ethnic discrimination has displaced hundreds of thousands of families, leaving families with no means of livelihood. An offer of employment in Thailand is a rare chance for many families to escape extreme poverty.

Ellen Bruno, a filmmaker and international relief worker who has spent much of the last 20 years in southeast Asia, recently released her latest film SACRIFICE -The Story of Child Prostitutes in Burma, about the lives of these girls.

In the film she examines the social, cultural, and economic forces at work in the trafficking of Burmese girls into prostitution in Thailand. It is the story of the valuation and sale of human beings, and the efforts of teenage girls to survive a personal crisis born of economic and political repression.

For the complete film please visit http://www.brunofilms.com

 

INTERVIEW WITH ELLEN BRUNO

Mel James from Safe World, talks to Ellen about her work..

Ellen, when you started out your career, you worked as an international relief worker. How did the transition into films happen?

I spent 25 years working as a relief worker in Thailand.

I worked in the refugee camps as a case worker and when I returned to the US – to New York City, I started working as a case worker for asylum seekers.

I wanted to raise awareness and capture the stories of people, from mothers to other mothers…for people to see the real stories and learn how they can make a difference; the steps they can take.

Why Burma?

I spent 8 or 9 years in Cambodia, and during that time I visited a friend in the camps in Burma.·

Whilst there, I saw human trafficking first-hand, and realized that the young girls had so little awareness of what was to happen to them. I wanted to raise awareness and show people the steps they could take to affect change.

So much of the world seemed not to recognize or be aware of the widespread human rights violations across Burma, from the numbers exiled to political unrest.

The world watches popular news reports and forgets about the violations that are still taking place. They see political prisoners being released and do not think of the possibility of being manipulated to view things as being more positive than they are. It’s such a small token.

When you decided to cover human trafficking in Burma, how did you meet the girls featured in your films?

Some nights we just walked the streets.

I played the dumb tourist entering brothels with massage signs outside.

I would ask for a normal massage and when these girls attempted to give a massage I asked them about their situation.

We started to make connections with the girls. Many opened up, and we them met with us outside of the brothels when they had an hour free, to share their story.

"I played the dumb tourist entering brothels with massage signs outside"

I learned from them and by visiting the Burmese's villages. Many of the girls would be from large farming families in extreme poverty, and when strangers offer to take your oldest – maybe your 10 year old daughter, to work in a noodle shop, if you’re that father, you want to believe that they will work in a noodle shop.

Did the girls have any knowledge of how to get out of their situation or to keep themselves safe?

They were so innocent

The rates of HIV are high. The Burmese girls know little about their own sexual health. They have little awareness of how to be safe. They are told by their “owners” not to say anything to clients. They are scared of their owners’ reactions if they do.

Some of the Thai girls we met had some awareness of sexual health and of their own bodies. The Burmese girls were so innocent. They knew so little of their own bodies.

Some of the girls try to buy their way out but this is not easy or often successful.

What did you learn about the attitudes towards these girls?

There is no protection for these girls.

So many people said, “Why do you care about Burma? The girls just aren’t important.”

No one cares about the girls from Burma. The girls are seen of no value.

What do you hope your documentaries will achieve?

I hope it changes people’s attitudes

I hope it changes people’s attitudes and raises awareness through making connections. Making connections through real stories. To make people aware and take simple steps in the right direction. To strengthen resolve and make accumulative energy.

Where do you see your work heading in the future?

If people can understand, they can make changes.

I never wanted to make films but I keep coming back to Burma, like I’m meant to do this work right now, and without getting into the politics.

That gets missed sometimes. I try to show life not politics. If people can understand, they can make changes.

I keep my mother in mind (when I make films) who’s a small town lady.

I try to make it so people can understand the stories, talk from one mother to another.

I really hope my web site and films link to resources that help people take simple steps for change, whether it’s thinking “I can write a letter” or “I can donate $25 to that charity”.

~

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT 'SACRIFICE

"Sacrifice counterpoints forthright tales of four young prostitutes with mesmerizing images: a woman standing in a door frame awaiting her fate juxtaposed with farmers cultivating the fields. The images make a poignant plea for survival, both of the exiled women and the tormented land." — Andrea Alsberg, Sundance Film Festival

"Sacrifice offers a view of the terrible odds faced by women born into poverty where the only commodity for sale are their bodies. These are complicated stories that get beneath tabloid headlines to capture, with great visual invention, the dignity and damaged nobility of young Burmese victims. The lives of these women are revealed to be the stuff of fairy tale… the magic goes bad and the witch, the ogre, and the monster win the day in this chilling view of sexual exploitation…one we have never seen before." — B. Ruby Rich, San Francisco Bay Guardian

"Compelling interviews and beautiful photography create a complex portrait of economic conditions in Burma, and the impact this has on families, rural villages and the young women themselves." — San Francisco International Film Festival

" Unflinching in its account of abuse and corruption, SACRIFICE derives much of its power from the testimonies of four girls, who speak directly to viewers with a painful directness beyond their young years. Bruno demonstrates an exceptional knack for conveying the complex facts and emotional upheaval of globally relevant true stories. In the sobering yet poetic Sacrifice, Bruno presents the terribly moving first-person accounts of four young girls from Burma who were virtually kidnapped from their homes and forced into a life of prostitution in Thailand. As with all her films. Bruno approaches difficult issues with the intent of uncovering hard truths and giving voice to people who are too often marginalized or misrepresented by mainstream media." — Steven Jenkins, FILM/TAPE WORLD

"Sacrifice illuminates a difficult subject of major social consequence with integrity and objective attachment. Told with delicate simplicity, Sacrifice paints a picture of an unfamiliar reality that is, by turns, unbelievably ugly and startlingly beautiful. The heartbreakingly eloquent words of the girls leads viewer into a society whose more are almost completely alien to our own." — Laurence Vittes, The Hollywood Reporter

~

LINKS

Bruno Films

MORE ARTICLES

The Shame of Burma

Monday, December 20, 2010 In depression and mental illness, My Sister's Keeper

Self Definition and

the Slaying of Superwoman

By Jo Nubian

[Editor's note: This post is apart of our My Sister's Keeper Project to promote mental health and emotional wellness among Black women.]

“If I didn’t define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people’s fantasies for me and eaten alive.” ~ Audre Lorde

T and I have been the best of friends since sixth grade. She used to sneak her mother’s fashion fair makeup to school and give me fushia lips and golden shimmery eyes. I love her. I got to rub her belly a few days ago. It’s big and full; she’s seven months into a pregnancy that she’s waited a long time for. T will be an excellent mother. My own mother commented that she has “raised enough of other folks babies” to make that a reality. She’s beautiful, and strong, and depressed. We talked about the difficult relationship that she has had with her yet born son’s father. She feels like a failure because she has given him so many chances, and he continues to disappoint her, but she can’t seem to let him go. T is afraid, as she should be, of raising a child alone. She also feels less than excited about the baby’s arrival, and feels guilt about that too. I’ve been at that point, where the construct of Black womanhood comes crashing down, and one sits in the rubble of a lifetime of teachings wondering if any of those teachings hold truth.

My day came after the premature birth of my daughter and her lengthy hospital stay. I wanted to be this perfect mother and wife, and so I somehow managed to do everything with little help and little regard for myself. I had finally begun my graduate studies, bought a home, cooked, cleaned, diapered, worked full time, and performed my “wifely duties”. I had become my mother, the super woman, and I wanted to die. Since dying wasn’t an option, I settled for therapy. I chose a therapist that was an older Black woman, because I needed to speak freely to a woman who had probably been where I was, and who wouldn’t tell me how what I was experiencing was life- so I shouldn’t complain (as this is what I was constantly being fed by my mother, aunties, cousins, and some friends). I wrote a list of things I wanted to discuss with her. I was prepared for it all, except when during my first session I relented that I felt like a slave. The tears came, a heap of them, and I couldn’t look my therapist in the face. I was ashamed. Ashamed that I had come from such a wonderful stock of women, who had survived slavery and share cropping and all the atrocities that existed within those systems, and I could barely pull myself out of bed. They were midwives, church mothers, community organizers, womanists before womanism was defined…superwomen, and here I was complaining because I had no time to read and write.

I spoke of my grandmother, who bore eleven children, hauled meals to the fields, tended her personal gardens and livestock, made beds and cakes for church bake sales- probably all while pregnant. I once asked my mother, who was somewhere in the middle of all those babies, how she knew when my grandmother was pregnant. She told me, well sometimes she would lay across her bed with a cold towel on her forehead. I don’t think I spoke for two whole days after that conversation. I just didn’t have the words to explain my feelings as a woman in that moment, and I felt sad for her and for me. My mother had traveled in my grandmothers footsteps, somewhat. She only had three children, but scraped and struggled nonetheless. I assumed it was my turn to be superwoman, but I didn’t want to be, and it made me want to hide. My therapist told me that she was proud of me as she handed me more tissue. She said that what we often don’t realize about our matriarchs as we construct these superhero stereotypes is that many of them were depressed, even suicidal. They felt those same feelings of hopelessness that I was feeling. She said that I felt like a slave, because, well, I was allowing myself to be treated as one, and that I deserved and needed to 1) define my own womanhood, 2) make time in my life to do the things that bring me joy and peace, and 3) thrive. Those words connected me with my ancestral mothers and gave me power. Peace to that woman and all women who allow a sacred space for full humanity- absent of the myth and lore that destroys us.

My time with T and my reflections on my own life somehow made me think of Lauryn Hill. I remember when her MTV Unplugged album and video were released. It seemed that everyone hated it. There sat Lauryn, acoustic guitar, baseball cap, raspy voice, broken heart. She was so transparent and full of truth and beauty, as she literally sang her heart out. I cried with her, I understood. Many people didn’t understand, they refused to. How could a woman who had been the pinnacle of young Black womanhood sit there so broken, so confused, so different than the image that had been constructed for her? I saw Lauryn in that moment, and even today, as brave and Nzinga warrior-like. It takes courage to be bare. More courage to sit naked and challenge the system that erroneously creates a standard that you will never measure up to. People’s discomfort with her was not at all about Lauryn, but more about what they themselves were hiding from- what they refused to admit about themselves and their fellow hu(e)mans. Hill’s I Get Out became my anthem. On most days it says everything I want to but am not audacious enough to say.

I won’t support your lie no more
I won’t even try no more
If I have to die, oh Lord
That’s how I choose to live
I won’t be compromised no more
I can’t be victimised no more
I just don’t sympathize no more
Cuz now I understand

Black women are taught and expected to be strong, regardless. There is no space for T’s heartbreak and doubt. There is no space for me to be a mother and a wife who wants her life to be more than those things. There is no space for Lauryn to leave a successful music career to raise her babies and define her own ideas of success. There are no spaces for regular Black women without an attached guilt- just spaces for superwomen- whomever they are. I told T to take her time, that she could love her man for as long as her heart told her to- without judgment from me, much in the same way that my therapist told me that I could write this post instead of folding this waiting laundry- guilt free. I also told her that it was okay to be afraid, and to even feel unsure and sad about her baby’s birth. The best advice we can give each other as human beings on this earth is to say that we can be whatever and whomever we need to be in our weakest and strongest moments. Black women in particular need to carve out spaces where simply being is enough, for our selves and for our sisters. Somehow these musings are my contribution to Mental Health Awareness Month. Our lack of the ability to define ourselves leads to the shadowy places where mental illnesses like depression sit, waiting. Also, this Alice Walker quote , I have certainly been reading a lot of her lately, seems to fit, “Yes, Mother. I can see you are flawed. You have not hidden it. That is your greatest gift to me.” Let us actively choose who we are and who we will become with freedom and acceptance. It may not end world wars, but it may end some internal ones. Ase.

Jo Nubian is a freelance writer whose writing focuses on human rights, especially issues of race and gender. She is currently based in Houston, Texas where she is completing her masters of arts in literature and writing for various journals, magazines, and other publications. Her thesis work discusses the theme of womanism in the life and works of Zora Neale Hurston.

 

That snow outside is

what global warming looks like

Unusually cold winters may make you think scientists have got it all wrong. But the data reveal a chilling truth

• Comments (1286)

• 
• • George Monbiot
  • guardian.co.uk, Monday 20 December 2010 20.30 GMT

A zebra stands in its snow-covered pen at Whipsnade Zoo, north of London on December 20, 2010 Photograph: Max Nash/AFP/Getty Images

There were two silent calls, followed by a message left on my voicemail. She had a soft, gentle voice and a mid-Wales accent. "You are a liar, Mr Monbiot. You and James Hansen and all your lying colleagues. I'm going to make you pay back the money my son gave to your causes. It's minus 18C and my pipes have frozen. You liar. Is this your global warming?" She's not going to like the answer, and nor are you. It may be yes.

There is now strong evidence to suggest that the unusually cold winters of the last two years in the UK are the result of heating elsewhere. With the help of the severe weather analyst John Mason and the Climate Science Rapid Response Team, I've been through as much of the scientific literature as I can lay hands on (see my website for the references). Here's what seems to be happening.

The global temperature maps published by Nasa present a striking picture. Last month's shows a deep blue splodge over Iceland, Spitsbergen, Scandanavia and the UK, and another over the western US and eastern Pacific. Temperatures in these regions were between 0.5C and 4C colder than the November average from 1951 and 1980. But on either side of these cool blue pools are raging fires of orange, red and maroon: the temperatures in western Greenland, northern Canada and Siberia were between 2C and 10C higher than usual. Nasa's Arctic oscillations map for 3-10 December shows that parts of Baffin Island and central Greenland were 15C warmer than the average for 2002-9. There was a similar pattern last winter. These anomalies appear to be connected.

The weather we get in UK winters, for example, is strongly linked to the contrasting pressure between the Icelandic low and the Azores high. When there's a big pressure difference the winds come in from the south-west, bringing mild damp weather from the Atlantic. When there's a smaller gradient, air is often able to flow down from the Arctic. High pressure in the icy north last winter, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, blocked the usual pattern and "allowed cold air from the Arctic to penetrate all the way into Europe, eastern China, and Washington DC". Nasa reports that the same thing is happening this winter.

Sea ice in the Arctic has two main effects on the weather. Because it's white, it bounces back heat from the sun, preventing it from entering the sea. It also creates a barrier between the water and the atmosphere, reducing the amount of heat that escapes from the sea into the air. In the autumns of 2009 and 2010 the coverage of Arctic sea ice was much lower than the long-term average: the second smallest, last month, of any recorded November. The open sea, being darker, absorbed more heat from the sun in the warmer, light months. As it remained clear for longer than usual it also bled more heat into the Arctic atmosphere. This caused higher air pressures, reducing the gradient between the Iceland low and the Azores high.

So why wasn't this predicted by climate scientists? Actually it was, and we missed it. Obsessed by possible changes to ocean circulation (the Gulf Stream grinding to a halt), we overlooked the effects on atmospheric circulation. A link between summer sea ice in the Arctic and winter temperatures in the northern hemisphere was first proposed in 1914. Close mapping of the relationship dates back to 1990, and has been strengthened by detailed modelling since 2006.

Will this become the pattern? It's not yet clear. Vladimir Petoukhov of the Potsdam Institute says that the effects of shrinking sea ice "could triple the probability of cold winter extremes in Europe and northern Asia". James Hansen of Nasa counters that seven of the last 10 European winters were warmer than average. There are plenty of other variables: we can't predict the depth of British winters solely by the extent of sea ice.

I can already hear the howls of execration: now you're claiming that this cooling is the result of warming! Well, yes, it could be. A global warming trend doesn't mean that every region becomes warmer every month. That's what averages are for: they put local events in context. The denial of man-made climate change mutated first into a denial of science in general and then into a denial of basic arithmetic. If it's snowing in Britain, a thousand websites and quite a few newspapers tell us, the planet can't be warming.

According to Nasa's datasets, the world has just experienced the warmest January to November period since the global record began, 131 years ago; 2010 looks likely to be either the hottest or the equal hottest year. This November was the warmest on record.

Sod all that, my correspondents insist: just look out of the window. No explanation of the numbers, no description of the North Atlantic oscillation or the Arctic dipole, no reminder of current temperatures in other parts of the world, can compete with the observation that there's a foot of snow outside. We are simple, earthy creatures, governed by our senses. What we see and taste and feel overrides analysis. The cold has reason in a deathly grip.