Michelle Chen is a contributing editor at In These Times and an editor at CultureStrike. She is also a co-producer of Asia Pacific Forum on Pacifica’s WBAI. Her work has appeared on Alternet, Colorlines.com, Ms., and The Nation, Newsday, The Progressive, Salon.com, and her old zine, cain.
The plight of the Halappanavars indirectly highlights the narrowness of a “Catholic” law in an increasingly borderless world. The question now is whether the global valence of a woman’s death can inspire a national reckoning.
We now know the destination of around 40,000 tons of the spill waste: it’s headed for the families that have been getting dumped on for years.
For women in crisis-wracked Haiti, and the dedicated professionals trying to serve them, the priority is meeting today’s needs and catching up on yesterday’s. Tomorrow is too far away.
