50 Cent Bait Ja Rule Trashes Billboard After Left off 50 Greatest Rappers List

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The content originally appeared on: Urban Islandz

Ja Rule says there is no 50 Greatest Rappers Of All Time list, whether dead or alive, without him being on it. 50 Cent, who has made Ja a regular target on social media, will likely have a field day with this.

The rapper reacted to Billboard’s 50 Greatest Rappers of All Time list released earlier this week which left him off. Many fans of the rapper felt that the snub was disrespectful. In a series of tweets, the rapper addressed the snub as he called out Billboard for seemingly ignoring his extensive and impactful career.

“There ain’t 50 rappers dead, alive or waiting to be born better than me,” he wrote on Twitter. “@billboard congrats to everyone on the list well deserved but check my resume… #ICONN #Vibes.”

The rapper also added some self-validation in his reaction adding in another tweet, “Throw me to the wolves I’ll come back leading the pack… #ICONN #Vibes.”

Ja Rule is an iconic rapper whose electrifying performances still sell out shows despite being in the game for more than 20 years now. He is also well-known around the world, and he shared a photo on Instagram to remind Billboard and others.

“I’m what they call a POLARIZING figure… You can love me or hate me but you will respect me… Men lie Women lie numbers don’t!!!”

Ja Rule is among a handful of rappers with notable contributions to the culture who were left off of the list. Among them are Foxy Brown and a few others. Some rappers were also placed in positions fans disagreed with. For example, Kanye West was not named in the top 5, and Ice Cube, who was listed as No. 18, also disagreed with the publication.

“I don’t f— with Billboard or the editor…Billboard ain’t hip-hop. So, their opinion don’t matter. So, who gives a f—?” he said to TMZ.

Others also called out Billboard for not listing Busta Rhymes, DMX, E40, Jeezy, and a score of other rappers higher up on the list.

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Mexico welcomes Cuban president amid hard times

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The content originally appeared on: Caribbean News Service
FILE – Cuban President Miguel Diaz Canel, right, and Mexico’s President Andr?s Manuel L?pez Obrador speak after signing bilateral agreements at Revolution Palace in Havana, Cuba, May 8, 2022. D?az-Canel will be awarded Mexico’s highest medal when he visits the southern Mexican city of Campeche on Feb. 11, 2023, according to the Mexican government’s official gazette. (Yamil Lage/Pool Photo via AP, File)

Cuban President Miguel D?az-Canel acknowledged Saturday that the island faces “tremendously difficult challenges,” as he arrived for a visit in Mexico.

The Cuban leader blamed the problems on the “blows of nature” and US economic sanctions.

“I once again thank our brother nation for its solidarity with the Cuban people, who have faced tremendously difficult challenges in the last few years and months, due to a combination of the blows of nature and the effects of the toughened blockade,” D?az-Canel said at a welcoming ceremony in the Gulf coast city of Campeche.

D?az-Canel mentioned plans to export crushed stone ballast to Mexico for a train project and said the two countries “will analyse new goals in areas of common interest.” He also mentioned the Cuban doctors that have been sent to Mexico, and said he would visit some of them during his visit.

In 2021, Cuba’s autocratic government faced historic protests amid a severe economic crisis, shortages and blackouts. According to nongovernmental groups, about 1,300 people were arrested following the protests. About 700 sentences have been handed down related to the protests, with some ranging up to 30 years in prison for sedition.

And in 2022, a deadly fire destroyed at least half of a large oil storage facility in western Cuba and further weakened the island’s already fragile electricity system. Mexico sent firefighting assistance during that blaze.

Mexican President Andr?s Manuel L?pez Obrador called D?az-Canel an “distinguished and admired guest” and is expected to award the Cuban leader with the “Order of the Aztec Eagle,” Mexico’s highest medal, later Saturday.

The award — the country’s highest honour for foreigners and decided mainly by the president — has previously been given to leaders ranging from Fidel Castro to the Shah of Iran.

L?pez Obrador has praised Cuba for sending doctors to Mexico, some of whom serve in dangerous or remote areas. But those doctors, and the salaries they are paid, have raised controversy in Mexico. Some said the jobs should go to Mexican doctors, while other suspected that much of their salaries would go to the Cuban government.

As president, L?pez Obrador has gone out of his way to buy as much as he can from Cuba. But his purchase of everything from Cuban crushed stone ballast to the Abdala coronavirus vaccine have raised eyebrows.

Mexico bought 9 million doses of the Cuban-made Abdala vaccine in September 2022, with the doses arriving at year’s end, when Mexico’s vaccination efforts had already tailed off.

L?pez Obrador’s administration is using the Cuban vaccine as a booster, even though it was designed for coronavirus variants circulating in 2020 or 2021, not current variants. Few Mexicans have shown up to get the Cuban booster shots.

In the rush to build his pet project, a tourist train that will run in a rough loop around the Yucatan peninsula, L?pez Obrador has said he will import boatloads of crushed stone ballast from Cuba at great cost.

The ballast is needed to stabilise the ties of the train tracks. Local stone in the Yucatan is not the right kind, and much has been shipped to Yucatan ports from Mexico’s own Gulf coast.

L?pez Obrador has long been a fan of Cuba, and frequently plays Cuban “nueva trova” music at his daily news briefings.

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UN human rights chief calls on international powers to help Haiti

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Black Immigrant Daily News

The content originally appeared on: Caribbean News Service
At a press conference in the capital Port-au-Prince on Friday, UN human rights commissioner Volker Turk pressed the international community to take action [Odelyn Joseph/AP Photo]

The United Nations human rights chief has urged the international community to consider deploying a specialised armed force to Haiti, warning that violent gangs are creating a “living nightmare” for thousands of people.

The appeal from UN Human Rights Commissioner Volker Turk on Friday came at the end of a two-day visit to Haiti at the request of its government, which has found itself unable to control the gangs killing, raping and pillaging in a growing number of neighbourhoods. Violence has spiked in the impoverished country since the July 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise.

“It is time for the international community to help the Haitian authorities regain full control so this suffering can be stopped,” Turk said.

He added that since multiple crises around the world are competing for attention, he feared “the situation in Haiti is not receiving the urgent spotlight that it deserves”.

Hours later, at an Organization of American States (OAS) meeting in Washington, DC, the United States government said it was continuing to discuss with international partners the possibility of sending a multinational force composed primarily of police.

Francisco Mora, the US ambassador to the OAS, said his country was still working with others to build a framework to provide security and stability for Haiti, adding that Washington would also soon implement new sanctions and visa restrictions.

Mora spoke after Haiti’s foreign minister, Jean Victor G?n?us, requested a specialised international force “be allowed to stand with us”.

“There is a deepening crisis in the country that cries out for humanitarian aid,” he said.

The plea came as the UN Integrated Office in Haiti released a 24-page report on what it described as mass incidents of murder, gang rapes and sniper attacks in Cite Soleil, Haiti’s biggest slum, located in the capital of Port-au-Prince.

“The findings of this report are horrifying,” Turk said. “It paints a picture of how people are being harassed and terrorised by criminal gangs for months without the state being able to stop it.”

The report said that from last July 8 to December 31, at least 263 people were killed and at least 57 women and girls were raped in just one neighbourhood in Cite Soleil known as Brooklyn. That area became ground zero for intense fighting between warring gangs.

During that time, the report said residents lived in “an almost permanent climate of terror due to the use of snipers that killed, at random, any person who passed in their field of vision”.

Officials added that snipers would stand on schools and other buildings during broad daylight to attack innocent residents, with an average of six people killed or wounded every week. Among the targets were at least 17 women and several children, the youngest just eight years old.

Gang members also entered houses at random in rival territory, killing at least 95 people, including six children, one of whom was two years old, the report said. People who tried to flee the violence were killed at makeshift checkpoints.

“It is important to emphasise … that this violence and these abuses are not committed randomly but are motivated by the interest of political actors in controlling territories,” the report said.

Officials noted that three men were killed by one gang leader because they had been talking about the possibility of foreign military intervention, which Prime Minister Ariel Henry urgently requested in October to no avail. His request was issued amid a fuel terminal siege that shuttered gas stations and crippled life in Haiti.

The UN report blamed the violence on at least eight gangs, including Haiti’s largest, the G9 Family and Allies, a gang federation led by former police officer Jimmy Cherizier. It has been accused of blocking access to food and water in part by damaging public water mains and threatening to kill water truck drivers if they went to certain neighbourhoods.

As a result, the first cholera deaths in nearly three years were recorded in October 2022 in the Brooklyn neighbourhood, officials said.

In a recent interview with The Associated Press, Cherizier denied the accusations, saying he was simply carrying out a “social fight”.

The report said warring gangs were using weapons, including assault rifles illegally smuggled into Haiti, and even relying on motorboats to attack rivals. The wave of violence has displaced tens of thousands of Haitians who remain homeless after their homes were bulldozed or set on fire, the report said.

The UN office urged local officials to hold elections, provide more training and equipment to a severely understaffed police department and arrest those responsible for “gross human rights abuses”.

It also once again called on the international community to urgently consider the deployment of foreign troops.

“The issues are vast and overwhelming,” Turk said. “They need the international community’s attention.”

SOURCE: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

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Statement by Sir Ronald Sanders at Special Meeting of the Permanent Council on Haiti

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The content originally appeared on: Caribbean News Service

Statement by Sir Ronald Sanders, Ambassador of Antigua and Barbuda at Special Meeting of the Permanent Council on Haiti — 10 February, 2023

Mr. Chairman

The Antigua and Barbuda delegation has been pleased participate with other colleagues in drafting and negotiating the text of the Resolution that is now before this Permanent Council.

The situation in Haiti is grave.

The activities of more than 200 gangs and their control of large parts of Haiti, including more than 60 per cent of the Capital; their utter contempt for the rule of law; and what amounts to their reign of terror cannot be tolerated by any of our member states.

Action must be taken urgently to address the situation.

My delegation deeply regrets that the United Nations Security Council has failed to respond to the security and humanitarian crises that now engulf Haiti and the Haitian people.

At the same time, we are also concerned that the authorities in Haiti – and other parties – have not been able to achieve the unity of purpose and common cause that Haiti urgently needs.

While my delegation welcomes the Accord, which was signed on December 21st, 2022, by representatives of the Haitian governments and some representatives of the private sector, political parties and civil society, for an “Inclusive Transition and Transparent Elections”, we are troubled that the process is not inclusionary enough.

We are troubled by reports of collaboration between some politicians and members of the private sector with some of the criminal gangs.

If, indeed, these reports are true, they do not bode well for a swift end to the rule of crime and terror that now overwhelms the country, especially its law enforcement agencies.

We are also worried that Haiti no longer has an elected legislature and that its judiciary is dysfunctional.

That there is no oversight or accountability by the those who form the government is unhelpful to the building of national confidence and national consensus.

This situation cannot continue.

For without national confidence and strong national support for the institution of government, it will be extremely difficult – if not impossible – to challenge and overcome the criminal gangs, and their collaborators, who now hold the entire country hostage.

And, we caution Haitian leaders, from all sectors, that the world expects them, acting together, to create the blue print for Haiti’s future.

Friendly governments can help, but Haitians must do the necessary and constructive work.

Mr. Chairman

This Resolution before our member states commands the support of Antigua and Barbuda because of the concern it strongly shows for the plight of the Haitian people, and the readiness of member states – each within their own capacity – to act urgently in providing assistance to efforts of the Haitian authorities to restore order and security.

The Resolution acknowledges that not all of our states have the same capacity, but within the means of each of us, we are prepared to help.

In this regard, my delegation places on record its appreciation to the Governments of Canada and the United States of America, which are giving logistical and other support to Haiti’s law enforcement efforts.

We would remind other states, that are permanent observers of this Organization, that they, too, have an obligation, born of their historical role in Haiti, to be generous in their help.

Mr. Chairman, under the provisions of this Resolution, this Permanent Council will not sit on its hands.

We will establish a Working Group which, with the assistance of the General Secretariat, will convene a Security, Humanitarian, Electoral, and Democracy Assistance Dialogue with the participation of the Government of Haiti and the High-Level Transition Council that was recently established in Haiti.

The purpose will be to gather information, on the priority assistance that is required, so that each of our member states and permanent observer countries, could determine how best each can help to enable, and ensure, inclusive participation of Haitian stakeholders in arrangements for free, fair and credible elections and democratic transition in Haiti.

Mr. Chairman,

Five million people in Haiti currently experience food insecurity; reported kidnappings soared to more than 1,200 last year, more than double the number in 2021; and there were 2,200 homicides in 2022, a dramatic increase over 2021.

We cannot ignore this appalling situation.

The Haitian people must know that the eyes of the world are upon Haiti, and that the international community is anxious to see democracy established and nurtured in their country for their collective benefit.

That is why, this Resolution by the Permanent Council of the OAS is vitally important.

It is imperative, Mr. Chairman, that the people of Haiti, who have suffered much under self-enriching dictatorships, and from historical conditions of external exploitation, should not feel alone or abandoned.

They must not feel alone or abandoned.

To the extent that each of our countries has the resources and capacity to help, so must we act… and act urgently.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman

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