Hi. Today we are talking about Haiti. We'll be looking with three experts about the unique manifestations of fragility in the country. They will be discussing all of the different structural challenges the country faces and some possible solutions for the way forward. Joining me today is George Foreo, a senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Welcome, George. Pleasure to be here. I've read some of your recent work and you've done an amazing job at going down into the very detailed contextual specifics of insecurity and instability. I guess I would just ask you to start today by describing your diagnosis for the problems and where we find ourselves in this very troubling time for the country. Thank you, Andrew. Haiti is a country that faces profound governance problems. Now, that sounds like a simplistic idea, but as a practical matter for the last two presidencies of Haiti since 2011, in effect, we've had two national leaders who really did not provide much national governance. And in fact, during those years, we saw at one point at the end of the previous president's term, no elected successor. And then more recently, with the late president, General Moise, a parliament that was not reelected, in effect, since 2019.  And that has an impact on the ability of people to see government deliver, not even talking about democratic governance, but simply deliver something. And it also has side effects on issues of economy in terms of jobs. The pandemic, the COVID, did not certainly help in that regard. And then more recently, we, in fact, have really not in the last six months, particularly over the last year or so, a wave of sort of disintegration out in the streets, in effect. So a wave of violence, the most notable one being probably sort of industrial scale, kidnapping. But that's really in some ways just a symptom of a broader problem. I know you've thought a lot about the political process and what it would take to bring a political settlement to Haiti. Can you tell us more about the sort of preconditions that you've spoken about and what would be necessary for a way forward for the government? So the irony of the Haitian crisis, in effect, is that there's been a fairly active civil society movement. So this is not a society that is completely disintegrated. Governance isn't being delivered, but civil society remains quite active. Now it has diverse views. So the challenge, in effect, now has been in the last six to nine months, has been to come up with a consensus among these differing views that civil society sort of represents. That's not been easy. I think to some degree international mediators or other actors could perhaps at least encourage a greater push in that direction. So this consensus really needs to be established fairly quickly in order for the political process to move forward in a positive way. That really is a precondition to any notion of trying to address violence. Because otherwise, if you do it in the reverse, you end up with sort of an artificial structure that only cannot sustain any efforts, any progress that is made in the security arena. Could you tell us more about the various constituencies beyond civil society and the existing political actors? More details about how they break down within civil society, within the political constituencies. So you have what is often rather exaggerated, described as elites, and I think this is not a particularly helpful notion. You do have an active small portion of society, particularly in the urban areas, that lives sort of half in Haiti politically, culturally, and financially, and half elsewhere in effect, their ability to move back and forth in and out of Haiti. I don't think that's particularly a bad thing. The problem, however, is that that constituency itself is not particularly united at times. It represents different political views and ambitions. You also then have at the other extreme a large portion, particularly in the rural areas, but also in urban slums in effect, really no other way to describe it, a constituency of individuals who have yet to benefit from any sense of governance, let alone economic development over the last two or three decades. And that constituency is not being addressed properly. It is growing in size, and it is in some ways one of the sources for the violence. They have nothing else to in some ways look at and do, and therefore they ultimately fall into the trap, if you will, of a cycle of violence, and that's easy to sustain under present circumstances. You then have a third constituency in some ways, which is a educated sort of merchant class, small merchants, that constituency in some ways is the one that provides, if you will, a heartbeat in some ways of Haiti, but is the one that pays the price for all of the deficiencies, both of governance and violence. So I understand what you're saying about this precondition of a political settlement that is inclusive and lasting, and before we can ever make any real security gains. I understand you have a lot of thoughts about how we approach the security situation, both now as you work towards a political settlement, but then thereafter. And I'm very interested in this conceptual precondition that you talk about with the term gangs and how we think of criminal gangs versus militia in some other context, could you please tell me more about that? Yes, so I think when we talk about gang violence in some ways, it's a term that doesn't really describe the sheer scope of what we're talking about in the case of Haiti now. They're not just gangs, if you will, neighborhood gangs. There's a competing set of coalitions of gangs, the result of which is that large parts of the capital city, metropolitan area, is in fact under the control of these gangs. Now this is not a united group, as I said, this is a series of competing feasts if you will, competing for whatever they can extract out of the local community. There's violence out in the rural areas, plus there's violence also out in the larger cities outside of the capital, particularly in the north.  It is also one that is tied very closely to Haiti's sort of open drug trafficking sort of market, if you will, particularly coming in from the rest of the Caribbean and the northern part of South America, that usually moves either to the Dominican Republic, to the Bahamas, or frankly directly to the United States. And there's also arms trafficking. And here the United States has a particularly kind of tricky issue here because most of the weapons that are made into the hands of Haitians are somehow legally, illegally coming from the United States. So a combination of all of that therefore leads me to conclude that the concept of simply saying gang violence and kidnapping is not enough. We need to think of this in much broadly. It implies a number of other tools, policy tools and policy instruments that a regular law enforcement approach would absolutely not address effectively. You've touched on something that you know way better than myself. This idea of the role of international assistance and international actors as part of the problem specifically, lots of discussions around this. But we all know about the various incidents there, the cholera issues and other issues. What are your thoughts on this as far as whether or not the international assistance has been in fact a driver of instability? Yeah, I actually tend to be careful about the analysis of the international community. I think as a general statement it's fair to say that it hasn't delivered what international actors thought would happen in Haiti. There's no doubt about that and one should not have any second thoughts about it. Haitians are frustrated. And I think it could lead to the argument obviously that international actors not alone their assistance ultimately becomes the driving force of a lot of the instability because they in effect drive the projects, they drive the outcomes, they're responsible for it, but somehow at the end of the day they're no longer around. I'll give you an example of something that could be done differently even though maybe controversial. The UN had a peacekeeping operation after 2004 until 2017. In some ways it did provide some degree of stability. The violence came down dramatically including gang violence which is not a new development. But there was no leave behind if you will. After all of these years of effort and funding and training there was nothing really behind that was memorable that dealt not only with security issues but also with governance corruption. There was an example of that even though it's a controversial one which is the outcomes of the peace process in Guatemala. Ultimately over a period of ten years did generate a commission if you will that had sort of a connection to the United Nations system that dealt with corruption. It has fallen under hard times but at least it was an indication of a commitment by the international community as well as by local political actors that corruption was an issue impunity was unacceptable and they put together at least a process that at least could attack the problem. The irony in the case of Guatemala is probably almost too successful and local politicians shut it down in effect. In the case of Haiti it could be done in the context of a more regional initiative. People often forget that Haiti is a member of the Caribbean community. Doesn't benefit from it very much. But Karakam for all of its flaws is made up primarily of countries that abide by democratic standards and the rule of law. It has in fact an interest in limiting issues of corruption throughout the region and could probably be potentially a partner if you will for Haiti and other actors on this issue of corruption impunity. But that to me is a more positive aspect of what the international community can do. But all these efforts by the United States is included to have a mechanism by which something gets left behind and is sustainable by Haitians themselves. Not some artificial mechanism that ultimately falls apart the day international actors leave the country. What do you think the best effort forward to this long-term plan would be in the immediate, short, medium and long term? So four sort of phases. Well in some ways the broader part of the answer is that the United States now has in place the Global Fragility Act of which Haiti in fact is potentially one of the beneficiaries. The major virtue of the Global Fragility Act is its time span. It's not so much the dollar issue which is important. It's the fact that it has at least a ten year time frame. And that I think would be a key issue in any solution if you will to Haiti's crisis which is not something that gets put together and has sort of a timeline of 24 months or where this level of success is based on an outcome as to how quickly the United States gets out of the environment. Instead it has a ten year timeline. And I think that to me would be the point of departure now. It is not dependent on individual congressional appropriations if you will or particular political differences. It obviously has to be a commitment on the part of the Haitian authorities. So it's a two way street. But once that is in place I think there are a lot of interesting possibilities both in the law enforcement area, the Haitian National Police does need support or broadly in the area of corruption and impunity as I mentioned just a moment ago. A third area is in some ways a major reconstruction project. As I said better than what happened after the 2010 earthquake. But there are ways of doing that. And I think if the Global Fragility Act provides a broad framework that all these sort of various pieces can be sort of attached to if you will and provides a strategy rather than sort of haphazardly trying to do different things at different times. How do you think we best go about bringing in that humanitarian relief that is so needed alongside these longer term development thinking towards the long term? So both paying attention to the short term most immediate needs but not letting that distract you for the longer term. This is where I would return actually to the earlier part of our conversation which is unless there is in fact a political consensus, a political compact that somehow is able to have a timeline attached to it and therefore a set of responsibilities of what it tries to achieve or a period of nine months or whatever it is, 18 months perhaps leading to elections. That framework, that consensus is what you attach to the kind of assistance you're talking about because then you have actors in society that have an incentive in effect to participate in the process and they know where this is going and they know that there's commitments behind it. So it's in some ways, humanitarian assistance in this case if you're only limited to preventing deaths and further violence you in fact have a kind of an open ended scheme where nothing is going to change dramatically in fact it's going to get worse. So the political consensus becomes important because that's the structure that only is able to manage and direct and provide in effect credibility to any form of assistance including humanitarian assistance that is delivered from the outside. Short of that you in effect have a continuation of what we see in other countries a further disintegration of society and governance disappearing altogether and in fact a completely chaotic situation where humanitarian assistance is basically designed to prevent more deaths or further movements of people but that's not a sustainable solution. Absolutely. Thank you so much for being with us today. My pleasure.


Good afternoon. Thank you so much for being here. Today is a happy day celebrating something great that our members did and we love to see that. I'm going to let them speak more and the mayor is going to speak on their behalf but I just want to say one thing which is that this in so many ways is everything the FDNY is about. This was the ultimate teamwork. Some of these members who were literally hanging off of a building together had just worked together that day and they weren't even in the same firehouse together. They were aided by EMS who delivered hydroxycobalamine to save lives to victims that they rescued out of those apartments aided by the dispatchers who gave them the correct information aided by years of training and teamwork. So something that incredible has a really strong base behind it which is teamwork and togetherness which is really the culture of the FDNY. So very happy to celebrate you guys today. Very happy to celebrate that culture for a man who needs no introduction who supported us through everything who has worn a uniform himself. The mayor of the city of New York Eric Adams. Thank you. Thank you commissioner. And you know I've learned so much over the last few months on about just the level of training dedication commitment and just everyday danger of putting out fires. You know sometimes you make something look so easy that people believe that is a simple task. I remember being in the Bronx with the commissioner walking through the Bronx fire just right in the beginning of my role as mayor and seeing the walls and the level of thick smoke and firefighters having to crawl around on the floor to find people who are inside hearing the stories about you know open the door and you can have a real blast of fire that comes through and you have to immediately think to get out watching what happened when you run out of oxygen and you still have to find your way out and navigate it through the smoke of didn't losing you know members and some of your colleagues of this this job is just a job that you know you have to really give it your all and even after a fire when you look at the rates of just heart conditions and other conditions that go with the role of being a firefighter and you know you just can't say thank you enough to take the job there's a lot of pride in a job a lot of tradition that comes with being a firefighter on just a level of commitment that just is probably you know the layers of just commitment and tradition and you know the camaraderie of having to live among each other all the time and you know it's probably some of the most challenging part is is eating some of the food some of folks cook but you know they make it through that but we want to say thank you today november 5th we saw what bravely looks like a firefighter correntine and i know i'm probably butchering your name you know but firefighter klogoski firefighter nor den child and firefighter harsh dangled dangled from a rope 20 stories above ground and rescued two of their fellow new yorkers from a smoke filled apartment and anyone who saw that video that went viral saw just how dangerous it was they saved four lives four fighters put their four firefighters put their own lives in danger by doing so they were willing to hang off the side of a burning building and that is not the movies that's real that is not something that you could say cut and go to a new script you have to get it right the first time and they were not alone dozens of new yorkers were rescued from the blaze at 429 east 52nd street by members of fdn wise best our emt's paramedics our fire alarm dispatches and our fire marshals as the commissioner stated uh it was just a combination of just team work that's well organized to execute a plan uh we had members from latter company 16 latter company two latter company 35 engine company eight and rescue company one all whom uh raced to the scene and played a critical role of the video spoke volumes of what that level of bravery is about and it struck me as how uh precision how precise the teamwork was uh the four heroes were supported by their fdny brothers and sisters on the floors below above and on the ground and that sums up what new york city is about it doesn't matter who you are your ethnicity with block you live on when it's time to respond to a level of support for each other we just do it we just get it right all the time when things get tough uh we're here for each other and we will continue to be the symbol of what this city represents and especially the spirit of new york city's bravest and honor of their courage their impeccable training discipline and their service it is my honor to present our proclamations to each of them and to show our support for what they have done we also want to honor the courage commitment and selflessness service we have proclamation for the heroes from latter 16 to engine eight latter 35 rescue company one who rushed to the scene and save a dozen of lives our ems members who provided immediate medical care and whose access were critical to patient survival our dispatchers who handle calls from panic residents and provided life-saving information and for our fire marshals even while the fire was going on they started their investigations to ensure that we could come to a quick analysis of the fire the quick discovery that fire was caused by lithium ion battery help calm fears something that we are continuing to see over and over again we want to thank them so based on and from 8.8 million new yorkers we want to say thank you and this proclamation is just a symbol how thankful we are for the service you provide us every day firefighter bell von quaren tang from latter 16 arthur pedagore ski latter 16 engine 55 firefighter adam nordin's child latter two firefighter darin harsh from rescue company one let the council persons meet and then we do a join that one bigger picture so another friend of the fdny city council majority leader and local council member keith powers you thanks thank you thank you you know it's not every day you come to a firehouse and you see your best friend's names up there because i went to high school at yelston who probably some of you guys know um we can slap for that i don't know if he deserves it but we can slap for that um i just want to say thank you to these guys and having known some of the guys in this house as well thank you to all the work you guys do on behalf of my district and on behalf of the city what we saw uh just a week or so ago on 52nd street was a heroic effort and having represented in talking to a lot of the constituents who live in that building who are obviously scared and you know we're very scared at that very moment um i think there is a great sense of relief and a great sense of gratitude for the work that you guys did to so quickly get there and to put that fire out and to help those folks out in need um but this is obviously a day to say thank you to the people that were so directly responsible for the fire and putting out the fire responsible for fire putting out the fire on 52nd street but it's also a reminder to say thank you to fdny for what they do every single day so give you guys a big round of applause these guys are these guys are heroes every single day they're running in when we're running out and this is a reminder and we want to say a big thank you to you for what you guys have done but a very big thank you to the best fire department in the entire world for doing what you guys do every single day thank you chief of department jack Hodgins good afternoon i can't describe the how much pride i felt the day that i saw these rescues being executed i went to the scene i was up in yonkers at a funeral and i heard what was going on i responded down to the scene everything had already been done lives have been saved and i just talked with the members and you know it there was a lot of teamwork here and the training that goes into performing this evolution is not can't be understated there is a lot of training every monday in every firehouse across the city that rope as we saw is called the lifesaving rope and it's only to be used for one purpose and that's to save lives and every monday it comes out out into the firehouse and the members drill with it and train for that one day that may be something like last last saturday happened it happens very rarely but when it does happen the members need to be trained dedicated and brave let's face it you know it's you have to be brave to be a firefighter but that's another level of bravery i went up to the 20th floor and looked out that window and i can't say enough for what what these firefighters did came out on a rope and picked up those people who had no way out their exit was blocked by fire while they were performing that the other firefighters were making their way up to the 20th floor and they were slightly delayed because the elevators were not working so after working 20 walking up 20 flights of stairs they had to then you know get ready to fight this fire and they did and as was stated there were two people removed via rope and one person was able to be removed through the inside of the building because of the efforts of the engine company that went in and put that fire out which was a very intense fire and it was teamwork that day it was a teamwork of the whole department our dispatchers receive many calls what we call it numerous calls and i could imagine how many lights were lighting up in the office that day as many occupants of the building felt like they were trapped the dispatchers provide uh lifesaving information to those occupants and letting them know in that type of building stay in your apartment that's the safest place for you they were also on the phone with the trapped occupants and trying to keep tell them to remain calm and ensuring that letting them know that we were on our way and that we were going to you know rescue them so i can't imagine that was very stressful and they did that all in a calm manner and at the same time relayed all this information to the units that were responding to the fire so our members got there and they executed this lifesaving rope rescue two times and removed two occupants an unbelievable job and i'm just so proud of that but when those occupants were removed they needed medical care so they were taken down to our awaiting EMTs and paramedics who already knew that they would be receiving these victims and they immediately administered lifesaving care and it's probably due to those efforts there that these people are still alive today so and then right after that so now that was a success you know for that was a great fight upon an operation i can't thank you enough for executing that that operation and then all fire marshals went in and did what they do they they were able to determine the cause of the fire as we said which was e-bikes or micro mobility devices which we hear about quite often these days so i'm just here i'm very proud and i just want to let everybody know you did a great job that day it was great job all around body entire fire department so thank you thank you thank you chief and finally to cap us off these four guys which says a lot about them what i think would rather be on that 21st floor than speaking at this press conference but firefighter darin harsh has volunteered to speak briefly about what they did that day and we thank him for that darin yeah good morning on behalf of all the members staying behind me mayor we'd like to thank you for today's honor what you saw that happened on that day was 100 teamwork it's the dedication to training that that promise that we are going to work always as a team to get that job accomplished i know a lot of people saw the roof rope rescue but what you didn't see was everything else the chief just stated from the dispatchers to the members operating a lot of teamwork and coordination communication happened on that floor above to get this evolution accomplished you know you don't get to see that and also for the members that were operating on the fire floor under some really tough conditions they made it tenable for us to be on rope and they made it tenable for the occupancy actually still remain at the window even though conditions were bad so it really is a true team effort and just want to thank everybody so that is a wrap thank you so much to the members of the fdny truly from the mayor and myself you inspire us every day it's so incredible thank you and thank you mr mayor for making this happen we're going to take some pictures now


Kim Kardashian says every CMOS movies are great. All right, I can buy that but are they really I mean really I never thought I'd be talking about the Kardashians on my channel What is CMOS now? There are actually Thousands of different varietals of CMOS and unless you're some kind of expert or have like a you know lab at your disposal They're not very easy to identify But you don't need to worry about all that because there are only two varietals of CMOS You need to worry about genus Gracilaria which composes about 80% of the CMOS market and chondrus Christmas otherwise known as Irish CMOS the problem is there's lots of confusion out there on the market with lots of brands Calling themselves Irish CMOS when they really aren't I mean There's even a varietal called Jamaican purple CMOS or Jamaican Irish CMOS, but it ain't Irish It's a Gracilaria Chondrus Christmas is called Irish CMOS because it was widely used as a food source during the Irish potato famine Chondrus Christmas just keeps making me think of that big speech in Shakespeare's Henry the fifth And Crispin Crispin shall now go by from this day to the ending of the world So you're clear CMOS is just another type of algae under the umbrella of seaweed But really at the end of the day there isn't much difference in the benefits between the two main types of CMOS How do you actually use CMOS? I bet a lot of people hear CMOS out there and think oh, it's probably kind of gross and icky. Oh slimy and salty Well if you want to try and eat it straight from the sea Yeah, but if you wanted as part of your diet There's a much better way to do it most often CMOS is boiled down into a gel But you can also find it in powdered flake or pill form However, be sure to read the fine print on your dehydrated products as there is a higher possibility You might just be purchasing an inferior or fake product CMOS nutrients One of the biggest selling points of CMOS is that it has a huge number of trace minerals that the body has a hard time finding From other sources Irish CMOS in particular is touted as having as many as 92 of the 102 minerals the body requires to keep rocking and just one teaspoon of Irish CMOS powder Can give you as much magnesium as 50 grams of raw spinach CMOS is also rich in vitamins like a b12 e and c plus contains omega 3 fatty acids and more It even has twice the potassium of an average banana. Wow, so this is some pretty well rounded stuff I guess that's why it helped the Irish get through the potato famine. What is the deal with Kereginan one thing that Irish CMOS has that Gracilaria doesn't is Kereginan In fact Irish CMOS is often called Keregin by the Irish possibly because it's named after Keregan head in County Donegal, which is one of the areas where challenges Christmas can be found Now Kereginan has gotten a bit of a bad rap because it has been known to cause inflammation Which can lead to things like irritable bowel syndrome and arthritis But the thing to really note here is that in its natural form Irish CMOS doesn't really cause these problems It's only when Kereginan is in a processed form on the plus side Kereginan has been used since the 1800s as a thickening agent for popular foods like ice cream milk cottage cheese pudding and even baby formula CMOS health benefits I'm just gonna throw this out there, so we're all clear CMOS hasn't had a lot of research done on it yet But science is often very slow to catch up to all the anecdotal evidence We have on things like CMOS and luckily we got lots of anecdotal evidence. So you know what? Let's do this immune system benefits Irish CMOS has been used to treat a variety of respiratory problems like sore throat chest coughs bronchitis pneumonia and flu There's even a cough syrup called Irish moss all your crafty iris keeping all the good CMOS for yourselves I see out his CMOS hoarders as it's an expectorant Antiviral and antibacterial CMOS certainly has the qualities that are good for helping with colds and coughs Early studies also indicate that CMOS is great for your immune system There's even one study showing how CMOS can stop the growth of S enterotitis The nasty bacteria that causes salmonella in humans digestive benefits a 2015 study showed that CMOS works as a probiotic Providing better overall health for your stomach, but it doesn't stop there as a demulcent It's also helpful for soothing your digestive tract CMOS's gelatinous consistency is also helpful for a large number of problems like gastritis leaky gut dyspepsia nausea heartburn and indigestion It's mineral and fiber content are also helpful for constipation Diarrhea and generally keeping things moving along your GI tract so your bowel movements are nice and easy Though at the same time it may get things moving so well that it may make you feel like well You're gonna crap your pants. There really isn't a good way to say it without evoking some kind of gross imagery Sorry had to be done thyroid benefits CMOS is rich and iodine and iodine comes from Australia as everybody knows no wait That's the princess bride because Iocaine comes from Australia as everyone knows and Australia is entirely people with cryptos and Several iodine related thyroid hormones help regulate your metabolism Encourage bone and brain development from pregnancy to infancy and also helps with many other important bodily functions as well The gelling properties of CMOS are especially good for things like skin care lotions and creams CMOS is also apparently great for a variety of skin conditions like sunburn eczema dermatitis and psoriasis But the best way to use it for this purpose is apparently by taking an iris CMOS bath Just add a generous heaping of iris CMOS gel to your bath water with maybe a few drops of your favorite essential oils And of course some sudsy bubbles and rubber duck The rubber duck is not optional energy and weight loss benefits The fiber and mineral content of CMOS are both helpful for curbing your appetite This is thanks to the substance called fucosanthin. Why can't they just come up with easy names? Well studies have shown that fucoxy Yeah, that's what I'm calling it is a natural fat burner to help you keep slim and healthy In addition to this CMOS's properties are supposedly great at improving your energy levels and can even help to promote muscle growth Especially if you're wanting to look like a super duper Marvel movie stud Other health benefits CMOS is also believed to help with things like helping you sleep better balancing blood sugar Reducing problems with foggy brain. I definitely know how that goes Promoting fertility and it can even help with diseases like Alzheimer's and Dementia And current research is saying that CMOS can also help lower bad cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart disease side effects Okay, okay, this all-powerful super food has to have some kind of downside, right? Well, yeah, but it's not as bad as you think while there is a risk of iodine toxicity It's really rather rare and pretty hard to do Basically to reach the recommended upper intake level for iodine you'd have to consume about 286 grams or two-thirds of a pound of raw CMOS in one day Is it weird that I kind of want to try it now, but seriously don't that'd be poisoning yourself and in a really weird way and Other than iodine poisoning the only other minor risk is getting heavy metal poisoning as some seaweeds have been known to Absorb and store heavy metals in high amounts. That said if you buy a proper powder or prepare it correctly It's not gonna have the heavy metals in it anymore. Anyways, have you already tried CMOS? I already have it. I think it works pretty good Let me know in the comments what you think if you do like this video Please go ahead and hit the like button share it with your friends every little bit helps the YouTube algorithm and my little channel Thank you If you want to learn some more great benefits of herbs then watch either one of these great videos right here Please be kind take care of each other and go enjoy some CMOS for yourself Kim Kardashian says