Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 5 mai 2015

 Haiti - Economy: investments of the Diaspora in Latin America and in the Caribbean

For the first time, the Association of the American Chambers of Commerce of Latin America and the Caribbean (AACCLA) will hold its annual regional conference, "Business Future of the Americas," in Haiti, from June 15 till 17, 2015. The event will take place at the hotel Marriott of Port-au-Prince. The theme will be "Investments by the Diaspora in Latin America and in the Caribbean." This conference is organized with the support of several Haitian companies: Brana, Digicel, Marriott, Decently, Delta, DHL, Groups Accra, Dagmar, Access Haiti.

This event will offer opportunities to exchange with a network of more than 300 business managers from the United States, the Caribbean, Brazil and several other countries of the region. With world-famous speakers, companies and organizations strategically based at the heart of the Caribbean, this conference will allow Haiti and Latin America to distance themselves from their emergent status in the global economy. "The emphasis put on the Diaspora and its driving role in investments seems to us particularly interesting for Haiti, and we hope that this conference will be a meeting place for our Haitian businessmen from the diaspora, who are the best placed to do business and to work in the region," explained Régine René Labrousse, President of the Steering committee of the conference.

The American Chamber of Commerce in Haiti (AmCham) will give to this annual conference a wider reach by adding to its conference one day to discuss "Doing business in Haiti." The panels which will be held at this event will give an additional insight into the challenges identified in terms of investments and the available solutions. "Business-to-Business Meetings" (B2Bs) will be also planned throughout the day.

The Diaspora has a new Secretary for Haitians Living Abroad

His name is Robert Labrousse and he was installed in his post last Wednesday, April 29th. In his speech, Secretary Labrousse [who replaces Olicier Pieriche] asserted, “I shall be a Secretary of dialogue and openness. We all know that the mission of the MHAVE is to allow Haitians living abroad to maintain the link with their homeland. Roots, attachment, link, connection, all these words bring [us] to the same concept, the unity of Haitians, whether it is from the inside or from the outside!

He replaces Olicier Pieriche who was appointed in January, 2015.

Robert Labrousse is a businessman who occupied the post of external Secretary of State for Overseas Development within the government of Evans Paul. He is a treasurer and founder of the Pink and White Foundation of President Michel Martelly and his wife Sophia St Rémy.

He was a vice-president of the chamber of commerce and industry.

Pieriche had to resign at the request of Prime Minister Evans Paul, after having made a diplomatic passport for the Assistant General Coordinator of the Program of Identification and Documentation of Haitian Immigrants (PIDIH), the ex-deputy of Petit-Goâve Jean Limongi. The latter was arrested at the beginning of April in Florida and charged with drug trafficking.

Deportations: june is getting near

It is the month chosen by the Dominican Republic to deport Haitian citizens living in the Dominican Republic but having no documentation allowing them to stay in the country.

The deportations, however, have already begun, and every week we learn that a new contingent of Haitian-Dominicans has arrived in Haiti.

We are talking about hundreds of thousands of Haitians who are in this situation. While those who were authorized to legalize their papers by obtaining birth certificates and passports from the Haitian government are few, due to the slowness of Haitian authorities to supply them this documentation.

On the Haitian side, no preparations have been made to welcome these fellow countrymen. What are the possibilities for them to find employment in a country already known for its very high unemployment? Will there be enough schools for their children? What about hospitals, when sanitary services are clearly insufficient in the country?

When we are considering that these compatriots don’t even speak French nor Creole, having been born in the Dominican Republic, we easily understand the extent of the problem.

But nothing has been done to welcome them and it is without a doubt that their arrival will increase the number of people living in the capital or other large cities in the country, building a place to live wherever they can, even in ravines along major roads. This will only increase the number of shanty towns.

MOVIE: “Sweet Micky for President”

“That’s how things were happening to us — to the point where if you really look at the movie, it feels like a narrative,” admitted former Fugees rapper Pras Michel, who never expected the experience to become a film. “How it was going down was how it was captured and then we went back and went ‘Wow, this really feels like a movie.’”

Since his days as one-third of Grammy-winning group The Fugees, Michel has been “loving the film aspect” of his career as much as making music. Having produced documentaries like 2007’s Skid Row (where he masqueraded as a homeless person) and a long-awaited project about Somali pirates, these days he’s certainly more filmmaker than Fugee.

“I’m catching the buzz and I’ve got a couple more narrative projects that I’m developing,” said Michel. “We want to make things that are avant-garde (and) interesting but at the same time, get to the core of the issue.”

“Sweet Micky for President” will have its Canadian debut next Wednesday at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in Toronto.

Lessons Nepal can learn from its tragic twin Haiti

Nepal faces a Himalayan task: it must overcome the aftershocks of history just as much as the effects of Saturday’s calamitous earthquake. As with Haiti, also a historically impoverished, poorly governed country hit by a devastating quake, Nepal may find it a struggle to “build back better.” Bill Clinton crafted the memorable slogan after the “goudo goudo” – the onomatopoeic Creole name the Haitians gave the 2010 quake in memory of its frightening rumble. Now, Clinton’s phrase is used wryly, if not in outright jest.

Unsurprisingly, development do-gooders are cautious about suggesting Nepal build back better, even at this point, [a few] days after the quake, when the world feels its pain most acutely.

For, the slow, ineffective – in some cases, even impossible –search for survivors in Nepal’s remote, hardest-hit western regions illustrates the massive fault lines of its entrenched problems: acute poverty, political dysfunction, rampant corruption and a deep fatalism that inhibits planning.

Those infuriatingly inaccessible western districts were the ones that suffered such prolonged government neglect that the violent Maoist insurgency first took root there nearly 20 years ago. And it says a great deal that those areas still remain so cut off from Kathmandu that earthquake relief packages cannot reach them, and there seems to be no way to assess deaths and damage. The Maoists, supposedly the party of the poor, have been elected – and rejected. The monarchy has been swept away. Nothing has changed and nothing works. For Nepal, its worst earthquake in 80 years has been “an acute-on-chronic event”, to quote Harvard doctor and Haiti champion Paul Farmer on the Haitian catastrophe.

The two countries make for a tragic twinning. Until this earthquake, perhaps the only time the words “Haiti” and “Nepal” appeared in one sentence was in reference to the cholera epidemic unwittingly introduced by Nepalese United Nations peacekeepers stationed in Haiti. It seemed an excessively cruel twist to a pathetic story – dirt-poor Haiti, leveled by a devastating earthquake and infected by soldiers from an equally poor faraway land. But now, the two earthquakes – five years apart – may have created discouragingly new parallel lines of protracted woe. The Nepalese quake was 16 times stronger than that in Haiti. More than 200,000 people died in Haiti; what will be the final toll in Nepal?

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 13 mai 2015

 The French President on visit in Haiti during the day of May 12th. 

The French President, François Hollande, was scheduled to begin a five day visit in the Caribbean on Friday. This will take him to Haiti on May 12^th. He was also scheduled to travel to Martinique, Guadeloupe and Cuba.

The French Head of state was accompanied by an important delegation of French businessmen. 

Immediately upon landing, François Hollande, who will also be accompanied with a significant press corps, will be welcomed by Michel Martelly and driven to the National Palace, then to the MUPANAH – National Museum of Pantéon. 

François Hollande will lay a floral wreath in front of the monument dedicated to the precursor of Haiti’s Independence - Toussaint Louverture, whose symbolic remains rest at the base of the Pantheon in Paris. 

François Hollande and the delegation accompanying him are set to fly back in the evening.

New American ambassador in Haiti. He replaces Pamela White who has been in office in Haiti since 2012

Last Wednesday, Barack Obama appointed Peter F. Mulrean as new Ambassador in Haiti. After ratification by the American Senate, he will replace Pamela A. White, who presented her credentials to the Haitian Government on August 3rd, 2012. At this time, no official starting date for Mulrean has been communicated.

Peter F. Mulrean, a career member of the Foreign Service, class of Counselor, is the Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, a position he has held since 2012.  Previously, Mulrean served as Director of Interagency Provincial Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan from 2011 to 2012, Counselor for Refugee and Migration Affairs at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in Geneva from 2008 to 2011, and Regional Director of the Middle East Partnership Initiative at the U.S. Embassy in Tunis, Tunisia from 2004 to 2008.  He also served as Deputy Director of the Office for the Promotion of Human Rights and Democracy at the Department of State from 2002 to 2004, Deputy Political Counselor at the U.S. Mission to the European Union in Brussels, Belgium from 1999 to 2002, and Exchange Diplomat at the European Commission in Brussels from 1998 to 1999.  Prior to joining the Foreign Service, he was an English teacher in Japan and China and served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Morocco. Mulrean received an A.B. from Harvard University.

Judge in Haiti dismisses abuse case against US citizen

By ASSOCIATED PRESS

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — A judge in Haiti has dismissed the case against a U.S. citizen who was accused of abusing residents of an orphanage that he has run for three decades in the Haitian capital.

Michael Geilenfeld, who had been in custody since his Sept. 5 arrest, was released Wednesday after a brief trial before a judge in Port-au-Prince.

Five former residents of the St. Joseph's Home for Boys had accused Geilenfeld of physical and sexual abuse. None of the alleged victims, all adults now, testified at the trial.

Defense lawyer Alain Lemithe said the accusations were vague and unsubstantiated.

"They had nothing against him," Lemithe told The Associated Press on Thursday. "They had no proof whatsoever so he has been released."

Manuel Jeanty, a lawyer for the victims, said neither he nor any of his clients attended the proceeding because they weren't notified in advance that it would be taking place. He said he planned to file an appeal.

"The justice system is not working," Jeanty said.

Geilenfeld, 63, founded the St. Joseph's Home for Boys in 1985. His charity grew to encompass three homes, a guest house for missionaries and a dance troupe that toured the U.S. and Canada to promote the organization.

In February 2013, Geilenfeld and Hearts with Haiti, a North Carolina nonprofit group that raises money for the orphanage, filed a defamation suit against Paul Kendrick, an activist in Maine who had publicized allegations of child sexual and physical abuse at the facility. The suit called the charges "false and heinous" and said they had been investigated and determined to be false.

Geilenfeld said in a deposition filed in the civil case that an email and blog campaign by the activist had cost his organization more than $1.5 million in donations.

He denied ever engaging in a sexual act with anyone under age 18. "I have devoted my life to enriching the lives of children in Haiti, the United States and abroad," he said in the deposition.

Associated Press writers Ben Fox in Miami and David Sharp in Portland, Maine, contributed to this report.

Haitian-Montrealers want more time before deportation moratorium lifted Ottawa lifted the ban on deportations to Haiti last December

Members of Montreal's Haitian community are asking the federal government for more time to apply for permanent resident status.

Ottawa lifted the moratorium on deportations to Haiti and Zimbabwe in December. The moratorium in Haiti was originally put in place because of political violence and conditions in Haiti following the devastating earthquake in 2010.

Now, many Haitians fear they could soon face deportation.

Marjorie Villefranche, director of Montreal's Maison d'Haiti, said the six-month window Ottawa provided isn't long enough. 

"So that's why we are asking them, asking the government to give us three more months," she said.

Federal Immigration Minister Chris Alexander says the country has been generous to Haitians and Zimbabweans for more than a decade.

Alexander says the temporary ban on deportations has been lifted because he believes the uncertainty in those countries has ended.

HAITI CHILDREN - Unicef: Nearly half of Haitian children under 5 suffer malnutrition

EFE | PORT-AU-PRINCE

Nearly one in two Haitian children under 5 suffers from malnutrition, the Unicef office in Port-au-Prince said Tuesday.

In an article signed by the Unicef chief of communication in Haiti, Cornelia Walther, the U.N. Children's Fund says the malnutrition of Haitian minors is due, among other causes, to poverty, disease and poor nutritional practices.

Several stars of National Football League (NFL) were scheduled to travel to Haiti from May 6 to May 11, while on a visit, to gauge business opportunities in Haiti

This visit is held through the initiative of the Jack Brewer Foundation with the support of the Ministry of Tourism and the Creative Industries (MTIC), according to a ministry press release. 

Two American television channels SPIKE TV/NBC led by André Berto will produce reports on the trip, Haitian sports in general, and boxing in particular, explained the press release.

The ministry also informed that other big names such as Clinton Portis, Ramses Barden, Tommi Harris or models of from the Wilhelmina models agency will also make the trip for this EducTour.

For the tourist and sports promotion of Haiti …

The Canadian boxer of Haitian origin, Adonis Stevenson, will be in Haiti during September, to compete for a fight. This project is organized the Group Yvon Michel (GYM), learnt HPN.

GYM would want this event, "to demonstrate the tourist qualities of Haiti," declared Yvon Michel in the Canadian newspaper, “The Press.”

"There is a strong political will over there, but we are starting from behind. In all the history of the country, there has been never an international sporting event broadcasted to the outside," he explained.

The president of GYM underlines that "… When we go on holiday in the Caribbean, we always think of Cuba or of the Dominican Republic. But nobody considers going to Haiti. […].

Through this initiative, the organizers think of using Adonis as inspiration for the Haitians, to show them that one of their own reached the highest summits, reports the newspaper.

Because of this event, Adonis Stevenson will not fight in the Centre Bell on June 27th of this year. The boxer instead wants to concentrate his efforts to prepare for the fight in Haiti, specifies GYM.

For this fight, Stevenson Adonis 37 years (26-1, 21 K-O) could face the 27-year-old South African Thomas Oosthuizen (24-0-2, 14 K-O). The evet would be aired on Showtime and offered à la carte in Quebec.

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 21 mai 2015

 Haiti elections committee gives green light to candidate

BY JACQUELINE CHARLES

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A one-time coup leader who is wanted in the U.S. under sealed indictment is among 1, 515 individuals given the green light by Haiti’s electoral council to run for office in the upcoming legislative elections.

Up for grabs are the entire 118 seats in the lower Chamber of Deputies and 20 of 30 Senate seats.

Among those who will be vying for one of those empty Senate seats is Guy Philippe, a former Haitian police officer who led the 2004 coup that toppled former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Over the years, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents have tried — and failed — on at least three occasions to arrest Philippe, who has been wanted in the United States since 2005. This will be Philippe’s third try at elected office in Haiti.

Meanwhile, 522 people — 466 for Deputy, 76 for Senate —were deemed unqualified to run, according to an analysis of the final list of candidates published Friday by the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP).

Among them is not only First Lady Sophia Martelly, whose name was listed as being “rejected,” but also former minister in charge of parliament relations Ralph Theano and former Senator Rudy Boulos. Like Martelly, they were hoping to run for the Senate.

Also disqualified is popular singer and first-time Deputy Garcia Delva. He was first elected to Haiti’s lower house in 2010, representing the Artibonite region. The CEP did not give a reason for the rejections. In total, 29 percent of those who filed to run for the Senate were rejected while 25 percent of candidates for Deputies were rejected.

One popular singer who did make it is Don Kato, the lead singer of Brothers Posse, a Haitian group banned from the country’s last two national carnivals because of his lyrics criticizing President Michel Martelly.

An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified former minister Ralph Theano as president of the lower chamber. He was former minister in charge of parliament relations.

UNIR chooses Clarens Renoit as its candidate 

During the national congress of the party. which took place last Saturday, May 16th, at the Vincent Gymnasium in Port-au-Prince, members of UNIR, who chose Renois, believe that he represents the ideology of the party which is morality, honesty, reconciliation and the integrity to give a better future to the young people of the country.

Clarens Renois said, in his speech, that he trusts the youth to change the way the country functions, which according to him, doesn’t allow it to be an egalitarian state.

"A State with less waste, less corruption, that is impartial, that is the state for which I am fighting. It is for a Haiti where peace reigns, where there is work for citizens, and a country which does not bend over before foreign countries to defend the rights of the Haitians almost everywhere in the world. It is especially important to reconcile Haitians with Haiti," Those were some of Renois’ comments before members of his party who came from almost anywhere in the country to support their candidate to the highest office of the state.

UN struggles to stem new rise in Haiti cholera cases

United Nations (United States) (AFP) - A deadly cholera epidemic in Haiti that experts say was introduced by UN peacekeepers from Nepal is on the rise, with hundreds of new cases registered weekly, a UN official said Thursday.

Pedro Medrano, the UN coordinator for Haiti's cholera outbreak, said years of work to beat back the disease are in jeopardy as donors turn away from the emergency.

"Unfortunately because of lack of resources and of the rainy season, in the last six months we have moved from a thousand new cases a month to almost a thousand a week, "Medrano told AFP in an interview.

The UN official predicts more than 50,000 new cases this year, up from 28,000 last year, the lowest level since the outbreak began in October 2010.

More than 8,800 people have died from cholera and 736,000 Haitians have been infected since the outbreak that expert studies have shown was brought to the island by Nepalese troops.

Studies traced the bacteria to the sewage system of a peacekeeping base run by the Nepalese that contaminated a river used by many Haitians for drinking water.

This year alone, 113 people have died and there have been 11,721 new cases in Haiti but there are fears that with the start of the rainy season in June, the number of cases will soar.

At the same time, many aid agencies have left Haiti and treatment centers have shut down.

"The risk here is that all the progress we made so far can be lost," said Medrano.

"For the donor community this is not an emergency, and because it is not considered an emergency, the money, the resources we need to deal with the humanitarian crisis are not coming," he said.

Left unchecked, the epidemic could spread to neighboring Dominican Republic or Cuba, he warned.

The United Nations has officially refused to recognize its responsibility for the cholera outbreak despite lawsuits brought by the victims, but it is leading an effort to rid Haiti of the disease.

The United Nations is hoping to vaccinate 300,000 people this year, but it needs $1.9 million for the effort.

About $37 million dollars in total are needed to fight cholera this year.

Martelly tells Hollande Haiti doesn't need France to pay debt

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (sentinel.ht) - President Michel Martelly is under a storm of criticism for unilaterally deciding and telling the France President, Francois Hollande, that Haiti did not need France to return the $21 billion "ransom for independence" but instead needed France's accompaniment in projects.

"The meaning of this trip was not to give a blank check to anyone," said the French President, himself, while in Port-au-Prince on Tuesday.

During official ceremonies in Haiti, at the foot of the statue of Toussaint Louverture, Haitian President Michel Martelly told Francois Hollande that "no haggling, no compensation can rewrite the snagging of history that mark us so deeply today."

At a joint press briefing at the presidential palace, Martelly added that he had "such repairs as beneficial to the Haitian people, we can finally finally open the way for development for Haitians who have never had the same educational opportunity."

When questioned by journalists, the French president said that in two meetings at the Elysee Palace in France, the Haitian president told him that returning the money was not what Haiti needed, Haiti needed accompaniment in health, education and gaining investment. Hollande told journalists, "we are doing what the leaders have asked."

Hollande said he was responding to the wish of Haitian leaders to implement a "Marshall Plan for Education". Hollande announced that through the French Development Agency (similar to USAID), 50 million euros would be invested in Haiti to support the Free and Compulsory Education Program initiated by Martelly during his term.

"This is the most beautiful symbol that we can, we offer together," said the French president. "We cannot change history, we can change the future." Martelly spoke with a spirit of appeasement, supporting the response of aid and thanking the cooperation with the French.

Different actors in Haitian public life said that Martelly cannot decide on his own what Haiti would accept as restitution for the ransom which amounts to $21 billion [US] today. It should also be noted that the Haitian executive cannot make any agreements binding with foreign governments or institutions without the approval of Parliament.

They also raised their voices against a number of other, declared offenses, which took place during Hollande's visit.

Many were offended that France continues to denigrate the Haitian hero of independence and first Head of State, Jean-Jacques Dessalines. In his speech, Hollande named Dessalines last among the four Haitian forefathers and also misspoke his name saying "Jacques Dessalines".

There was also the image of Haitian President Michel Martelly driving Hollande during the first official visit of a French president to Haiti. Many felt this was degrading to the Office of the President of Haiti, at least, a unseemly departure from protocol.

Week of the Haitian culture in Caracas

From Monday, May 18 until Sunday, May 24^th, Haitian Culture Week 2015 will take place in Caracas, Venezuela. The program will consists of 4 conferences by the historian and political analyst Frantz Voltaire, Director of the international Center of documentation and Haitian information Caribbean and Afro-Canadian (CIDIHCA); a photo exhibit " Discover Haiti " and a big concert featuring T-Vice.

Schedule of Events:

Monday, May 18th: conference by Frantz Voltaire "The Haitian revolution or the universality of the freedom.” 2:00 pm at the Santa Maria University

Tuesday, May 19th: Start of the photo exhibit “Discover Haiti" (19 on May 24th). The exhibit’s schedule: will be Tuesday to Friday from 9:00 am till 6:00 pm and Saturday from 9:00 am till 3:30 pm at the Los Palos Grandes Library

Wednesday, May 20th: conference of Frantz Voltaire "Spanish Haiti and the emancipation of America from Bolivar to Marti."10:30 at the Monteavila University.

Thursday, May 21st: conference by Frantz Voltaire "History of the music of Haiti."10:30 am at the UNEARTE University, Sede Sartenejas.

Friday, May 22nd: conference by Frantz Voltaire "The History of literature of Haiti." 7:00 pm to the Bookshop Lugar Común.

Saturday, 23: T-Vice Concert. 5:00 pm to the Concha Acústica del Parque del Este

Sunday, May 24th: closing of the photo exhibit, in the Los Palos Grandes Library..

On May 18th: Flag Celebration!

May 18^th is Flag Day for our blue and red national symbol.  

Haitian of everywhere will pay tribute in the country’s history and its heritage which the flag represents, to remember their patriotic duty of unity to lead the national forward.

The Embassy of Haiti in Washington DC, in association with the various consular missions of Haiti in the United States, planned different sorts of activities to celebrate the Fête du Drapeau!

Michel Martelly comments on the rejection of his wife’s application as a senate candidate

The Haitian Head of State, Michel Martelly, says he hoped that the rejection of his wife’s application as a candidate by the electoral court is not politically motivated. 

The National Electoral Litigation Office (BCEN) rejected the application of Sofia Martelly for the Senate, deducing that she does not hold Haitian citizenship and had not submitted a certificate of discharge as public figure. 

Martelly did not mention those who headed the movement to disqualify his wife, but he suggested that a politically motivated decision could discredit the electoral process. 

Reminding that he had made concessions for training of the CEP that the opposition would find credible, President Martelly underlined that the electoral body should also inspire his trust and confidence. 

Questioned outside a ceremony marking the fourth anniversary of his election, Martelly pointed out that the protesters should present convincing arguments to support the rejection of his wife’s application as a candidate. 

One of Sofia Martelly's lawyers indicated under cover of anonymity to radio Metropolis that a civil petition will be conducted regarding this case. However from an electoral standpoint, there are recourses for an appeal. 

Gregory Mayard Paul, another of the First Lady’s lawyer had also denounced it as a political decision. 

Officials from the presidential party, Tet Kalé (PHTK) regretted the verdict of the electoral Court against Mrs. Martelly. In a press release they noted some of the contradictions in decisions by the BCEN. 

Other allies of the PHTK, including the Peasant political party, regretted the political decision. They believed the electoral judges acted under the "pressure from the street ".

Health: a Canadian citizen becomes the Director of the hospital The Providence of Gonaïves …

The Ministry of Health and the population (Mspp) proceeded, on Wednesday, May 13th, 2015, to the installation of a Canadian national at the post of executive director at the public hospital (The Providence) of Gonaives 171 km north of the capital Port-au-Prince, observed the on-line agency AlterPresse.

The new executive director is Dr. Gaetan Garon, who worked more than about forty years, in health services in Quebec and also, during a decade, in countries of Africa, as the Gabon, Morocco and Benin.

"I like to tell it like it is. We should be honest (with ourselves) and recognize our weaknesses. We have weaknesses in management of all kinds, not only in health, but in all areas in general in Haiti," said the head of the Mspp, Dr. Florence Duperval Guillaume, to justify the presence of a foreign national as the executive direction of the public hospital of Gonaïves.

Haiti - Dominican Republic: Who is right?

Haiti Libre - While the Ambassador of Haiti to the Dominican Republic, Daniel Supplice, declares in the media that "The extension of the expiration deadline of PNRE (National Plan for Regularization of Foreigners) will be at the heart of the next meeting of the Joint Bilateral Commission," the Dominican Chancellor Andres Navarro said this week that the extension of PNRE in favor of people living in the Dominican Republic in an irregular situation was not a topic to be discussed between governments, Dominican and Haitian.

Navarro lamented that the Haitian government has not fulfilled the promise to open on time, three centers for issuing documentation of origin to its nationals so that they can benefit from Dominican provisions.

"For us, the commitment of the Dominican Government was able to include in the Plan, the maximum number of immigrants; and one of the conditions was that they are endowed by their country of origin of the basic documentation," adding that this greatly limited the process.

Remarks that can contradict the Ambassador of Haiti which recently acknowledged the failure of the Program of Identification of Haitian Immigrants 

[...] The authorities had set a goal to identify 200,000 people, only 52,000 undocumented Haitians living in the Dominican Republic are at present included in the program. Of these 52,000 registered, 2,000 have already received their passport and 15,000 their national identity card (CIN) [...]"

Andres Navarro hoped that by June 17 (deadline of PNRE) the necessary efforts would be made on the Haitian side, for people who have not been able to access this plan, complete their documentation and register.

He indicated that after the deadline the Dominican authorities will normally apply the law on migration for all illegal aliens. Moreover, he stressed that the Dominican Republic does not expect a wave of criticism or censure open about deportations, because according to him of the total transparency that his country has shown in this process since the beginning .

It should be noted that the Haitian Government was now working to develop a contingency plan for hosting the Haitians to be repatriated.

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 27 mai 2015

 50^th anniversary celebration of Sosyete Koukouy with a literary weekend at the Little Haiti Cultural Center in Miami

The festivities were for the 50^th anniversary celebration of Sosyete Koukouy, but also for the 25^th Anniversary of Libreri Mapou, and the third anniversary of “Foli Liv”, a full book fair in Little Haiti, already in its third year there.

For the occasion, Bernard Diederich, Edwidge Danticat and Dr. Gérard Férère were all "nominated" and each received a plaque to honor them for their work.

Bernard Diedrich signed fourteen of his last books, Gérard Férère his two books, and Edwidge Danticat, the most prolific writer of the fair, presented no less than twenty books.

Moreover, Edwidge gave the secret of her intense literary production: as soon as you have something which is bothering you, something that you are obsessing about, try to put it in writing. You will be relieved and you will see that in time it is not so difficult. With the simplicity for which she is well-known, this young writer wanted to share her experience with her audience.

How did it all begin for her?

Her childhood in Haiti, in Bel Air. The hasty departure of her father, a shoe salesman in a store in downtown Port-au-Prince, where the owner had chosen to display only shoes in plastic every time he saw a "macoute" on the horizon, in order to prevent the macoute from leaving with his beautiful leather shoes, which would have caused him a certain loss of income. And finally, Edwidge leaves to join her parents in Brooklyn!

Bernard Diederich, very funny as usual with his numerous anecdotes collected during his long life, wanted to set the record straight by saying, for example, that "It was not true. The Duvaliers had not uncorked the champagne on November 22^nd, 1963, for the death of the President John Fizgerald Kennedy. No. It is one of those numerous "stories" invented by dishonest writers to sell their books. And which are so harmful for the country!”

Bernard Diederich was very sought after during the evening, and sold many of his books, even if there was only a short half hour dedicated to this event. The sale of books was to take place rather the next day on Sunday, May 24th.

As for Dr. Gérard Férère he was rather lengthy, exceeding the 20 minutes allowed to present himself and his work.

And for a good reason!

This former soldier of the coast guard, arrested five times, had to present "The Haitian Army after Magloire and the Hitlérisme of Duvalier.”

An important part of the book is dedicated to the Vespers of Jérémie and with a very disturbing realism, the author described, by quoting names, the atrocities committed by Abel Jérôme, Borges Sony, Jacques Fourcand, Gérard Brunache, Pierre Biamby, Saintange Bontemps, Pierre Frédéric, Astrel Benjamin, Max Frédéric, Massillo Thélus, Bos Séraphin, Marcel Myrtil, Franoix Cajoux, Raoul Cédras, Benoit Gely, and a certain Sanette Balmir to quote only some of diligent protagonists who murdered and tortured people who had done nothing to them, among them babies, 10-year-old girls etc, etc. …

One shivers when listening to him to speak and when reading certain passages of the book.

Moreover the author himself couldn’t refrain from becoming teary-eyed when describing these atrocities.

Never again. Never again he exclaimed, asking the room to repeat after him.

His wish, is that after having read this book, never again, never again will a young Haitian say: "I did not know." "No. I did not know that Duvalier had committed such crimes…”

“All this could have been avoided, we are talking about the atrocities that have fallen into oblivion, if only we had transformed Fort Dimanche into a memorial.  This vile place where so many fellow countrymen were tortured until death followed!

We preferred to let them destroy and demolish Fort Dimanche, thinking we were eradicating the atrocities which took place there.

But fortunately there is today the “Duty of Remembrance” constituting largely of descendants of servicemen and non- servicemen who were killed under the Duvalier regime. They produced in 2015 “Mourir Pour Haiti: La Resistance a la Dictature en 1964” which was also available at the book fair last Sunday. 

The event on Sunday took place without any major incidents. There were few in attendance. It seems as if reading among Haitians, as it is everywhere else, is not a chosen activity for young people.

Nevertheless, a more mature audience chose to attend. Sosyete Koukouy, with its magic show for children, and rara band performances created an upbeat atmosphere in the district. Unfortunately the rain started, forcing people to leave a little earlier. But the third edition of "FOLI LIV" took place as planned and many were seen leaving with packages of books under their arms.

Haitian-born fashion designer makes a name for himself in Quebec and works to develop talent in the Caribbean

Helmer Joseph is a haute couture designer in Montréal whose creations blend the boundaries between art and fashion, and have been featured in various exhibitions and museums around the world, including the McCord Museum in Montréal and Musée de la civilisation in Québec City.

He was born in Haiti, where he trained as a tailor at J. B. Damien vocational arts school, and moved to Jamaica for one year to study machine embroidery. At the age of 20, he came to Montréal with his family, and studied fashion design at College Lasalle. He launched his very first collection in Montréal in 1982. In 1983, at the age of 27, he moved to Paris, where he studied fashion and textile design, specializing in a variety of fields with an emphasis on haute couture at Esmod, Francoise Conte, Lesage, and l’école de la chambre syndicale de la couture parisienne. During his twenty years in Paris he took on contract positions at all the major couture and fashion houses, including Dior, Chloe, Thierry Mugler, Louis Vuitton, and many more.

“When I first moved to Paris,” he remarked, “there were 27 couture houses presenting over 152 pieces per season. Now there are only 5 left.”

When he returned to Montréal in 2004, he continued to produce a collection twice a year and to work with his clients from all over the world, including Paris, Boston, Washington, Ottawa, Toronto, Haiti, Senegal, Benin, Martinique, and Ivory Coast. He opened his gallery-boutique on Boulevard St. Laurent in 2009.

In 2010, Helmer presented his patchwork collection, with labor-intensive and hand-stitched patterns, organized as a fundraiser for Haiti relief efforts after the earthquake of January 2010.

He has worked with Québec musicians and performers like Joe Bocan, Marie-Ève Janvier, the opera singer Marie-Josée Lord, writer Kim Thúy, and actress Anne Dorval.

His artistic collaboration with glass artist Jean-Marie Giguère for the Verre Couture fashion show at Espace Verre in the Old Port in 2010, where local glass artists were matched up with local designers to create glass garments, inspired many of Helmer’s collections and accessories. Helmer’s glass dress was then featured in the “50 Years of Glass Art” exhibition in Toledo, before it became part of the collection at the Musée de la civilisation in Québec City. The hand-made glass embroidery took 260 hours to make and features bristle, metal, beads, crystals and 8000 glass tubes.

His other artistic projects include three white gowns carved entirely out of toilet paper (2007-2014), dresses made out of fresh flowers (in collaboration with Westmount Florist), a chocolate dress, and several other designs he presented at the Festival du Mode et Design.

When asked who he would like to collaborate with in the future, Helmer replied, “I would like to collaborate with Robert Lepage. It would be my dream to work with him. And my dreams come true.”

In 2011, Helmer collaborated with Musée McCord for their “90 Treasures, 90 Stories, 90 Years” exhibition, and then again for the 2014-2015 “Love in Fine Fashion” exhibition of wedding dresses, where he contributed his 2008 strapless gown with an embroidered bodice.

“I see the Montréal fashion scene as a kind of medical clinic – every designer has a specialization, and everyone respects each other’s work and specialty in the community. But the press does not understand that because most of them are not trained in fashion, or fashion journalism. They lack the words, the vocabulary to distinguish between the different types of work. They find it all equally impressive, but they lack the expertise of analysis.”

Helmer presents his collections around the world, and is regularly invited to Fashion Weeks in Toronto Ottawa, Haiti, as well as Black Fashion Week in Montréal and abroad. The discontinuation of Montréal Fashion Week has not affected his work or productivity – he continues to produce two collections per year.

Helmer believes that “Montréal is lacking fashion experts who really understand the fashion business and culture. Most people only focus on the commerce of fashion and have no long-term vision. We don’t have someone like the president of the Parisian Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture who comes from a generation of fashion experts. That is why Paris is a laboratory of fashion research and innovation. Montréal has the talent to be the fashion centre of North America, but it lacks organization and orchestration.”

Currently, Helmer is collaborating with the UNESCO on an initiative for Caribbean artists to provide haute couture training and education in order to train local specialists, as part of Michaëlle Jean’s and UNESCO’s Special Envoy to contribute to Haiti’s development. Helmer’s role is organizational in setting up networks and collaborations, and building the curriculum of a three-year training program starting September 2015.

“The one constant element in my life has been a lack of stability. But fashion is my family – I dedicate my life to it. And I like the freedom in my work.”

When asked whether it is hard to balance creative freedom with commercial aspects of the fashion business, he replied, “At the beginning of my career yes, I spend all the time working for others. Now I have the freedom of working for myself, and I like this freedom. My work is my passion.”