Haiti talk.

First up some sad news, looks like the only decent news channel has gone HD only which means no more SD France 24 or France van cat as its known on pain of death. Wiki reckons its up in the high 800s now along with all the Asian networks so will have a look. If not it looks like I'm going to have to default to the terrible Russia Toady or TFTWorld.

Feature Presentation. Haiti:

We attended a talk on the Cacti of Haiti on Wednesday in the welcoming dank basement of Keston Community centre, its been hot as hell here, so it being in the cool is the one benefit of the heat. Our guest speaker was Paul Hoxey who undertook the trip along with some people from the Gibraltar Botanic Gardens (which  I've been to).

Something of an unknown quotient, Haiti is the perpetually disaster prone, french half of Hispaniola along with the Dominican Republic its Spanish counterpart and Cuba, they are some of the oldest and largest bits of the Caribbean.

Thanks to many problems such as natural disasters and poverty / aid cycle, Haiti can be thought of as an African nation in the heart of the Caribbean.

Most of the trees have been cut down for charcoal production leaving the cacti behind in big stands across the island.  Thanks to aid most people live on a subsistence level, leaving Haiti as a gibocracy if you will not growing stuff if you give it for free.  There is litter and pigs roaming free in the major cities and yet it can be stunning with plenty of beaches.  The upside to this is its poorly explored with only Charles Plumier visiting in 1700's and Ekman in the 1920's contributing a lot to their flora. 

Its a stunning talk with a focus on cacti, there's a new Cereus that Plumier found and has only been described now, along with a few Melocacti and Pilosocereus.  There is some ruined forts that were built to fight the french and the spot where Columbus landed in 1492.  It has great potential, stunning beaches and the people seem resourceful, its just a shame that its held back by aid culture and handouts.