It's not as if things were all good in Haiti before two major hurricanes blew through, leveling houses and taking lives. Celebrities and good samaritans everywhere are pitching in to help out the hurricane-and-poverty stricken country, where food and water is still scarce and mud covers pretty much everything.

As journalists charge Gov. Rick Perry and the federal government with restricting access to the areas damaged the most by Hurricane Ike, reports have come in that Galveston might not be ready for habitation for months and shelters in Houston are having trouble feeding everyone in a timely fashion (one shelter fielded 10,000 requests for food and water just yesterday). But as hectic and tragic as things are in the Texas Coast, there is a severe humanitarian crisis in Haiti and Cuba, both of which Ike tore through before it made it's way to the U.S. Over the weekend, Matt Damon and Wyclef Jean lent their money and time in Haiti, where 500 people have died. They hope to raise $100 million dollars. “I wish there was a word in the dictionary,” Jean told the New York Times. “No human should be living like this.”

TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE IS ROLLING IN HIS GRAVE Maude Paulin, an ex-middle school teacher from South Florida, was just sentenced to more than 7 years in prison for enslaving a Haitian girl in her home for years. Paulin beat the girl, deprived her of schooling, and forced her to work 15 hours a day from the time she brought then-14-year-old Simone Celestin to the U.S. from a Haitian orphanage in 1999 until she escaped in 2005. It is estimated that there are at least 17,500 Haitian children, known as "restaveks," brought to the U.S. each year and forced into involuntary servitude. "I love Simone with all my heart," Paulin told Senior U.S. District Judge Jose A. Gonzalez Jr. at a sentencing hearing. "I regret it. I blame myself." [AP]

In Haiti, where in Port-au-Prince alone there have been 36 kidnappings in March, crime is running rampant. And here comes the unofficial Prince of Haiti to steer his people in the right direction. Wyclef recently taped a radio ad imploring the people of his native country to "reject these evil practices."

"If you love Wyclef that means you love Haiti," he said in Creole in a short ad run by local stations in the nation.

"So you should not be raping women, kidnapping people and children. There can be no excuse for doing so."

Many Hatians are so hungry their only sustenance is mud. The desperation there is certainly not going to be appeased by a PSA, but if just one rabid Wyclef fan/would-be kidnapper/rapist hears the PSA and changes his tune, I guess it was worth it. [BBC]

In Haiti, where 80 percent of the population lives on less than $2 a day, the poorest have resorted to eating cookies made out of mud, salt, and vegetable shortening because a daily bowl of rice is too expensive. A 16-year-old nursing mother interviewed by the Associated Press says that she eats the mud cookies several times a day, even though they make her stomach hurt. Her only other option is to go without food.

A reporter sampling a cookie found that it had a smooth consistency and sucked all the moisture out of the mouth as soon as it touched the tongue. For hours, an unpleasant taste of dirt lingered. Assessments of the health effects are mixed. Dirt can contain deadly parasites or toxins, but can also strengthen the immunity of fetuses in the womb to certain diseases, said Gerald N. Callahan, an immunology professor at Colorado State University who has studied geophagy, the scientific name for dirt-eating.

Haitian doctors say depending on the cookies for sustenance risks malnutrition.

"Trust me, if I see someone eating those cookies, I will discourage it," said Dr. Gabriel Thimothee, executive director of Haiti's health ministry.

Marie Noel, 40, sells the cookies in a market to provide for her seven children. Her family also eats them.

"I'm hoping one day I'll have enough food to eat, so I can stop eating these," she said. "I know it's not good for me."

The cookies sell for 5 cents a piece, while two cups of rice sell for 60 cents, up 50 percent from a year ago. Due to the world-wide price hikes and the damage to crops as a result of the 2007 hurricane season, the U.N. has declared a state of emergency in Haiti and other Caribbean countries.

• Keyshia Cole covers Vibe, her breasts. [C&D]

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• Looking for someone to blame for the AIDS epidemic in the U.S.? According to a group of scientists, Haiti's a good place to start. [Reuters]

If attending a hip hop summit motivated the NYPD to follow Alicia Keys, then Danny Glover better check his phone for taps. The very political actor is accepting $18 million dollars from Venezuela, led by the Bush-hating Hugo Chavez, for a movie about Toussaint Louverture and the Haitian revolution.

Toussaint Louverture is a towering figure in the region's history. A freed slave of African descent, he led thousands of slaves in successful campaigns against British, Spanish and French troops before being betrayed, captured and exiled. He died in 1803, just before his followers succeeded in establishing the island's independence. William Wordsworth wrote a sonnet about him.

Glover said he wanted to educate the US about the story. "It's been essentially wiped out of our historic memory, it's been wiped clean."

The actor is chairman of the TransAfrica Forum, an advocacy group for African Americans and other members of Africa's diaspora, and a vocal critic of the Bush administration. Along with the singer Harry Belafonte, Glover is the best known celebrity supporter of Mr Chávez, whom he considers "remarkable". He is a regular visitor to Venezuela.

Chavez hopes the movie will drive home a negative message about imperialism and Western oppression. That's all well and good, Chavez, but is there nothing more practical the country of Venezuela could use $18 million for?

Anyway, I'm kind of surprised that there haven't been more movies about Louverture and the slave uprising in Haiti, considering its historical importance. But beyond being informative and entertaining, I'm not sure what this story will do to affect public opinion. If our slave history isn't enough to drive those messages home, why would Haiti's?

[Guardian]