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The Republic of Haiti was born from a rebellion of slaves. The brutal plundering of the Spaniards and the diseases depopulated the island, the first land in which Colombo arrived, from its native inhabitants, the Amerindians Taino. African slaves were then brought to the Caribbean to work on the spanish plantations, later french when the two powers divided the island. Exploitation in the french plantations was so cruel that one third of the slaves died in two or three years.

It had to be a very important day for about thirty million Chinese homosexuals who, every day, hide themselves in the country. Today in Beijing it should have been the first gay beauty contest in China and the winner would then represent the country at the Oslo world competition. None of the eight men participants, however, won the Mr. Gay title. Because the regime does not tolerate homosexuality and blocked everything.

It does not seem to stop the clash between Muslims and Christians in Malaysia, where, until now, have been attacked nine places of worship. The clashes have gone on for four days, when the most radical Muslims have revolted after the December 31st ruling of the Constitutional Court, which allow also the Christian minority to indicate their god with the name of Allah

Fear has become normal and this is a great success of terrorism. And often in the West of the mania for security, fear becomes also hysterical. These days in the U.S. media talk about the man that in Newark airport has committed the horrendous crime of passing a barrier to give a kiss to his fiancee.  He managed to do so because the guard was absent, and so panic exploded: someone had breached security.

The Palestinian issue is a subject where the truth often disappears buried by mountains of ideology. The Western media, Italians in particular, have long had a strongly pro-Israel stance that in practice hides all the news regarding the difficulties and sufferings of the Palestinians. The Islamic media, and some western political areas, do the opposite and blame everything on Israel.

Imagine for a moment that after the attack on Berlusconi, the Italian Government has ordered the army to carpet-bomb Cesano Boscone, the village where Massimo Tartaglia, the aggressor, lived. An idea so absurd, mad, which seems just ludicrous to say that. The town of the aggressor in fact has nothing to do with him, has no guilt for his actions. Yet this is the way in which countries reason, when deciding bombings and wars.

The regime may fall? In Iran broken out again the protests in the streets, that never really stopped since the election  in June, won by Ahmadinejad with many suspicions of fraud. These days the opposition took advantage of Shiite religious festival of Ashura, which commemorates the death of the grandson of Muhammad, Husayn ibn Ali, killed in 680 AD by the troops of the Caliph Yazid. In the current political climate the Iranian religious feast has a special meaning.

He was among the first subscribers of Charter 08 (a petition against the Chinese Communist Party that was calling for the establishment of a democratic system in China) and now Liu Xiaobo was sentenced to 11 years in prison for "incitement to subvert the powers of state." A sentence that shows how there is no freedom of expression under control of the Chinese Communist Party.

In Europe, where in recent elections the right won almost everywhere and where, often, Europeans seems to forget their past, today came the news that during the night was stolen the famous sign post at the entrance of the Auschwitz camp, which says "Arbeit Macht Frei" (work makes you free). It is an act of vandalism like many others, but it has a strong symbolic connotation, because in just over a month we will celebrate the International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The Chileans will have a new president only in January, after the second ballot where will compete Sebastian Pinera and Eduardo Frei. No final winner in the first round of voting, yesterday, when no candidate reached 50 percent of the vote. All postponed to 17th January when the challenge will be among the billionaire conservative candidate (regarded as the favorite) and former president of the Chilean left party.