2019: A Reporter's Notebook of the Year Gone By

This past year was quite an eventful one, marked by the publication of my fifth book, a move to Puerto Rico and the honor of witnessing the verano boricua here in San Juan this past summer. Below are the articles that came out of this very fruitful time.

Some exciting things are afoot for the new year. As always in my work, I will try to help bring the voices of those on the downside of advantage, too long ignored, to a wider audience and empower the forces of basic human decency & compassion against what kind seem like a grim world and the remorseless, pitiless machines of its malefactors.

To all near and far who I have been lucky enough to cross paths with, I ask you to never, despite everything, lose your capacity to marvel at the beauty of the world and the belief that, in the words of Carlos Fuentes, there must be something beyond slaughter and barbarism to support the existence of mankind and we must all help search for it.

 xxx 

M 

Haiti’s President Vows to Defy Protests and Free ‘Captured’ State for Bloomberg (19 November 2019)

Puerto Rico Senator Among Eight Arrested in Raids by FBI for Bloomberg (6 November 2019)

San Juan Mayor Race Becomes Test of Puerto Rico’s New Politics for Bloomberg (6 November 2019)

Jacmel in all my dreams in Michael Deibert's Blog (28 October 2019)

Puerto Rico Official Says FBI Visited, Requested Information for Bloomberg (28 October 2019)

Puerto Rico Floats $20 Billion Overhaul for Battered Power Grid for Bloomberg (24 October 2019)

Puerto Rico Senator Pushes Anticorruption Bill After Arrests for Bloomberg (16 October 2019)

Gun Battle in Puerto Rico Housing Project Leaves Six Dead for Bloomberg (15 October 2019)

Voter Anger Spreads in Dominican Republic’s Miracle Economy for Bloomberg (9 October 2019)

Puerto Rico Board’s Proposed Pension Cuts Spark Anger for Bloomberg (7 October 2019)

Grijalva to Propose Changes to Puerto Rico Promesa Law for Bloomberg (15 September 2019)

FEMA Officials Charged With Puerto Rico Hurricane Aid Fraud for Bloomberg (10 September 2019)

Puerto Rico Had Three Governors in a Week. No. 4 Is on Deck for Bloomberg (4 August 2019)

Third Puerto Rico Governor Since Friday Steps Up Reluctantly for Bloomberg (7 August 2019)

Battle for Power in Puerto Rico Heads to Island’s Supreme Court for Bloomberg (6 August 2019)

Puerto Rico’s Succession Drama Shifts to Island’s High Court for Bloomberg (5 August  2019)

Puerto Rico Governor’s Office is Occupied, Maybe by a Governor for Bloomberg (2 August  2019)

Puerto Rico Succession Crisis Escalates After Vote Delayed for Bloomberg (1 August 2019)

Puerto Rico Governor Is Running Out of Time to Name Successor for Bloomberg (20 July 2019)

Puerto Rico’s Crisis Could Break Its Two-Party System for Bloomberg (29 July 2019)

Puerto Rican Succession Crisis Escalates as Governor Set to Exit for Bloomberg (29 July 2019)

Wanda Vazquez Says She Doesn’t Want Puerto Rico Governor for Bloomberg (28 July 2019)

Puerto Rico Governor’s Resignation Shakes Bankrupt Island for Bloomberg (25 July 2019)

Puerto Rico Governor Set to Quit After Protests for Bloomberg (23 July 2019)

Rossello Clings to Office as Puerto Ricans Debate Impeachment for Bloomberg (23 July 2019)

Puerto Rico Governor Won’t Run Again, But Many Want Him Out for Bloomberg (22 July  2019)

Thousands Protest Against Puerto Rico Governor After Profane Chats Leaked for Bloomberg (15 July 2019)

Puerto Rico Governor Urged to Resign After Profanity-Laced Chats for Bloomberg (14 July 2019)

Profanity-Laced Texts Ensnare Puerto Rico Governor in Furor for Bloomberg (11 July 2019)

Ex-Puerto Rico Officials Charged in Corruption Probe for Bloomberg (10 July  2019)

Puerto Rico Fiscal Oversight Board Sues Fuel Suppliers for Bloomberg (30 June 2019)

Vitriol Flies in Puerto Rico as FBI Is Said to Probe Treasury for Bloomberg (25 June 2019)

Puerto Rico Governor Ousts Treasurer Amid Reported FBI Probe for Bloomberg (24 June 2019)

Armed Bandits Take Over Valley That Was Long Haiti's Breadbasket for Bloomberg (11 June 2019)

Puerto Rico May Shift Some Aid to Opportunity Zone Projects for Bloomberg (14 May 2019)

FDI resurgence helps Philadelphia to bounce back for fDi Magazine (13 June 2019)

Overseas investors help Évora's elevation for fDi Magazine (13 June 2019)

Mexico president orders IPA shutdown for fDi Magazine ( 24 April 2019)

How will border unrest affect a reborn Tijuana? for fDi Magazine (14 February 2019)

Articles about my work and interviews

Cité Soleil : la paix à l’épreuve des jeux de pouvoir in Le Nouvelliste (2 December 2019)

“Es claro que tenemos a un presidente que ve de forma diferente a las personas que no son blancas," in El Nuevo Día (28 September 2019)

When the Sky Fell Gives Voice to Puerto Ricans Two Years After Hurricane Maria in the Miami New Times (24 September 2019)

When the Sky Fell: Hurricane Maria and the United States in Puerto Rico in Shelf Awareness (18 September 2019)

When the Sky Fell: Hurricane Maria and the United States in Puerto Rico in  Library Journal (6 September 2019)

Michael Deibert, le régime de Michel Martelly et la voyoutocratie de Jovenel Moïse in Le Nation (13 August 2019)

A Leadership Crisis in Puerto Rico on The Takeaway (18 August 2019)

The Political Future of Puerto Rico on The Takeaway (5  August 2019)

How Puerto Rico's Colonial Roots is Influencing the Political Unrest on The Takeaway (22 July  2019)

Political Scandals are Shaking Up Puerto Rico. What Exactly is Happening? on The Takeaway (15 July 2019)

When the Sky Fell: Hurricane Maria and the United States in Puerto Rico in Publishers Weekly (11 July 2019)

Books in 2019: A Personal Selection

Defined by Puerto Rico's summer of revolution, this past year was one of intense work for me, and amidst all the writing I didn't get to read nearly as much as I usually do or what have liked to. That will need to be addressed in the coming year. However, I did get some reading done, and of the books I consumed, the following are the ones that made the biggest impression on me. 

Obras Escogidas 1923-1936 Tomo I by Pedro Albizu Campos

An interesting compilation of articles, speeches, interviews and other literary products connected to the Puerto Rican independence leader, whose legacy remains complex to this day and who, in 1950, led an attempted uprising against the United States presence on the island from a building about 100 feet from where I type these lines.

Cahier d'un retour au pays natal by Aimé Césaire

This book-length poem by the great Martiniquais poet and politician Aimé Césaire, a very influential voice in the development of négritude, was first published in 1939, and remains an evocative work, reminiscent, in some ways, of the best of Walt Whitman though clearly carving out its own plangent voice.

The Rule of the Land: Walking Ireland's Border by Garrett Carr

A compelling travelogue of the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, marked by violence for so many years and which has, for now, largely fallen silent. Carr's writing takes in the rapturous natural beauty of his chosen patch of land but never loses sight of the fact that, as Conrad wrote about another country, darkness was here but yesterday. 

Fado Alexandrino by António Lobo Antunes

A piercing, sometimes seemingly stream-of-conscioisness depiction of the events before, during and after Portugal’s Revolução dos Cravos by the nation’s greatest modern writer, this 1983 novel centers around a reunion of veterans of the country’s colonial war in Mozambique. Himself a veteran of Portugal’s war in Angola, Lobo Antunes writes with great sensitivity of the psychology of the military men at the book’s heart, and the daily small humiliations of living in an ossifying, waning dictatorship and the toll it takes on those forced to exist in such a system.   

Tuntún de pasa y grifería by Luis Palés Matos

A magnificent book of poetry, first published in 1937, by the Guayama poet Luis Palés Matos.

Lenin by Dmitri Volkogonov

A readable and revelatory biography of the Communist fanatic and founder of the Soviet Union by a former Soviet general, this 1994 book conclusively demonstrates that it was Vladimir Lenin who created a template for remorseless state terror, a format that Joseph Stalin would expand on with grim efficiency after Lenin’s death. Arrogant, hypocritical, thin-skinned and cowardly, Lenin was always committed to a genocidal mindset that saw opponents as “harmful insects, swindler fleas [and] wealth bugs” even as he himself lived in relative luxury. At a time when an unhealthy revisionism exists in some quarters of the left regarding communist totalitarian horror, Volkogonov’s book is now more essential than ever.

2018: A Reporter's Notebook of the Year Gone By

As the year draws to a close, I wanted to share some of the articles I have written/been involved with this year. It was a year that was often hard on the soul, when evil seemed ascendant in many places, & the good, righteous & tolerant assailed from all sides. But push on we must, and will.

For me this means continuing to do the kind of journalism I do, despite the economic hurdles it presents, publishing my new book on the history of the United States in Puerto Rico, possibly starting a new one on DR Congo & continuing to help, how I can, Haiti on its path.

For all of us, I think it means trying to create a more gentle, humane and decent world, and to try to amplify the voices of those who for so long have had none in the discussion of their fate.

Peux ce que veux. Allons-y.

Feliz año nuevo.

Love,

MD

A Review of Michael Deibert’s Haiti Will Not Perish: A Recent History in AlterPresse (3 January 2018)

Haïti ne périra pas: une histoire récente de Michael Deibert in Le Nouvelliste (16 January 2018)

Haiti: time to take a second look? for fDi Magazine (13 April 2018)

Haiti's new president embarks on cross-country mission for fDi Magazine (13 April 2018)

On the Ground With Cops Hunting El Salvador’s Gangs for The Daily Beast (30 April 2018)

El Salvador seeks to ride an investment wave for fDi Magazine (14 June 2018)

Portugal's impressive turnaround for fDi Magazine (16 August 2018)

Portugal economy minister shows power of positive adjustment for fDi Magazine (16 August 2018)

Trump Says Puerto Rico Is ‘Unsung Success.’ Actually, Power Still Goes Out and People Aren’t Coming Back for The Daily Beast (12 September 2018)

San Juan’s Iconic La Perla Neighborhood Defies Trump for The Daily Beast (17 September 2018)

Puerto Rico still rebuilding one year after Hurricane Maria: Interview with CCTV's The Heat (20 September 2018)

Mixed signals after victory of Mexico's longtime maverick for fDi Magazine (18 September 2018)

What is forcing thousands of migrants to flee their home countries? for The Guardian (5 December 2018)

The winter of the gilets jaunes for Michael Deibert's Blog (11 December 2018)

DRC elections: 'people aren't just angry - they're outraged': Interview with the BBC (27 December 2018)

Verdade

"I must give the readers not the book they want but the book they don't want."

 - Portuguese author António Lobo Antunes in conversation with Anthony Bourdain.