Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 20 août 2015

 RD-HAITI: It’s official! Repatriations began!

Since Thursday, August 13th, agents of the Dominican immigration have been in the streets throughout the country, verifying the immigration status of foreigners, in search of all the immigrants (of any nationality) whose status in not in order.

As a result, dozens of illegal immigrants were immediately taken to the Welcome Center (Transit) of Haïna.

These foreigners are not registered on the PNRH, the National Plan to Regulate Foreigners. Thus they are not authorized to stay on Dominican territory.

On Friday morning, some of our fellow countrymen who were released, as they were registered on the PNRE, underlined that they were treated well at the time of their arrest. They also praised the quality of the Welcome Center.

Others who were arrested, approximately 20 illegal Haitians who had not managed to qualify for the PNRE after having completed the identification forms according to International Conventions, were sent back to Haiti aboard a minibus in two groups of 10.  They were handed over to Haitian authorities in Elias Piña and Dajabon.

Until now the immigrants, whose status was checked in the center of Haina, are all Haitians. They were arrested on the base of Mirador Sur, on the Avenue Jose Contreras and at km 8 and 9 of Carretera Sanchez.

It should be recalled that before the beginning of these repatriations, the Ministry of Dominican Defense trained for several months 2,000 soldiers, who learned among other things: Haitian Creole, human rights, migratory intervention, and the use of technology for biometric checks. In addition, they conducted five simulation exercises along the Dominican-Haiti border.

March of Haitians in NY to denounce the decision of the Dominican Republic

The coalition to defend human rights in the Dominican Republic, accompanied by more than about fifteen organizations, organized a peaceful march on  August 14^th in New York to denounce publicly the decision of the Dominican Republic to deport Dominicans of Haitian origin in Haiti, learnt HPN.

"We do not want to remain indifferent. We want to take to the street and to denounce publicly the injustice of the Dominican Republic by denationalizing Dominicans of Haitian origin while violating international standards and norms on the subject," said one of the initiators of the movement, Lesly Thomas to HPN.

The march was scheduled to leave Brooklyn, Eastern Parkway at 9 am in the morning and take Flatbush Avenue toward the Brooklyn Bridge. It was scheduled to end in front of City Hall.

"We mobilized the majority of the Haitian churches in New York, and the media of the Haitian community. We have supporters who cover the social media and certain celebrities support the movement, such as Emmeline Michel and Wyclef Jean," said Thomas.

"The march is not only [for] Haitians, but also it is to defend human rights, because those concerned are Dominicans of Haitian origin," specified Thomas who wants to draw the attention of the international media and American president Barak Obama concerning this inequitable treatment of Dominicans of Haitian origin.

USA-HAITI: Kenneth Merten was scheduled to officially begin on Monday, August 17th.

The former ambassador of the United States in Haiti, Kenneth H. Merten, will officially take office on Monday, August 17th as special coordinator for Haiti to the State Department.

He succeeds Thomas Adam.

Merten, according to a press release from the U. S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince, served as special coordinator for Haiti and as assistant-secretary to the Office of Business in charge of the Western Hemisphere since the middle of August, 2015. He was an ambassador twice previously. Most recently an ambassador of the United States in the Republic of Croatia from 2012 till 2015, and ambassador of the United States in Haiti from 2009 till 2012. He was also executive secretary to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and prior to that to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Haitian media did not hesitate to underline that it was Kenneth Merten who had come to the aid of President Michel Martelly when the Senate tried to dismiss him from his post due to his foreign nationality. During a ceremony at the national Palace, Kenneth Merten had declared that President Martelly does not have U. S. citizenship. Consequently, he was accused by the opposition parties of supporting the administration in office.

Here's What went wrong with Haiti's Elections by David Kroeker Maus

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, August 10, 2015 (AMG) — The official results from [last week’s] first round of legislative elections won’t be announced for 10 days, but as polls closed last night, the numbers were coming in nevertheless: 54 voting centers (5% of the total) forced to close because of violence and intimidation; at least 5 people killed, and 137 arrested for election-day violence or disruption.

The long-awaited elections, the country’s first in over four years, had been greeted with enthusiasm and energy from the candidates and political parties: 128 different parties registered to participate in the election, and during the last two months, every available surface – from telephone poles to broken-down cars left on the roadside – was plastered with campaign posters.

But the response from the general public was a shrug: even before reports of violence at voting centers discouraged would-be voters from turning up, most analysts were predicting very low turnout.

The sheer scale of the election — all the positions that should have been contested during the last four years are now being contested in the same year — combined with the staggering number of political parties fielding candidates, meant that this election was always going to be a logistical challenge.

To these logistical impediments were added a number of political hurdles, some of which arose during the course of the campaign, but many of which have much deeper roots. All these combined to create a strange mix of apathy and instability that cast a pall over elections that were supposed to return Haiti to democratic normalcy.

Here’s what went wrong.

Official laxity and denial: Throughout the day, as reports of irregularities and attacks on polling stations multiplied, various officials, from the President on down, continued to insist that everything was under control. Indeed, the head of the Provisional Electoral Council (known by its French acronym CEP) triumphantly declared that the skeptics who questioned the CEP’s ability to organize a free and fair election had been proved wrong.

This naïveté, or else outright denial, in the face of apparent instability also characterized the Haitian authorities’ response to pre-election day violence. Even when several candidates were attacked in the weeks leading up to the election, the CEP and police insisted that the violence was unrelated to the campaign.

This attitude of denial appears to have influenced security planning for the election, as guards at voting centers were either unprepared to handle attacks by partisans or totally absent. Some eyewitnesses reported that police didn’t arrive at a voting center that was ransacked in Cité Soleil until one hour later, whilst another report indicated that three officers had been present when the tension started, but failed to intervene.

Party Observers: One measure meant to increase transparency of the voting process was allowing political parties to send representatives to the voting centers to observe both the actual vote and the counting afterward. In theory, having representatives of every side should reduce the potential for irregularities that favor one particular party. But in practice, allowing all 128 parties to send a representative to all 1,508 voting centers was logistically impossible.

One the eve of the election, as party observers waited up to 12 hours to get their credentials, the CEP decided at the eleventh hour to allow only five observers per voting center, but without a clear formula for how those spots would be distributed amongst the parties. This led to mass confusion on Election Day, as observers from different parties at some of the larger voting centers fought, pushed and shoved one another out of the way, trying to make their way in. In at least a few of the voting centers, the vandalism of ballot boxes was perpetrated by disgruntled party observers who’d been denied access.

Late opening: Although all voting centers were officially scheduled to open at 6am, actual opening times varied widely across the country. A crowd-sourced map of election incidents showed reports that some voting centers didn’t open until 11am.

The official ballots for the election, which were imported by UNDP from Dubai, didn’t arrive in Port-au-Prince until just over a week before the election, and some polling places still hadn’t received their ballots by Sunday morning.

There also seemed to have been a bit of carelessness in the printing of the ballots.

“Indelible ink:”

The CEP’s assurances that the ink used to mark who had already voted was ‘indelible’ proved not to be universally true shortly after the first voters left their polling places. While some voters were indeed left with ink stains on their fingers, many were able to easily wash it off with nothing but water, raising questions about whether some voters would be able to vote multiple times.

Foreign intervention in previous election: Although not immediately apparent, the intervention of the ‘international community’ (specifically the US and Canada) during the country’s last election cycle in 2010-11 had a profound effect on this one.

After results from the first round of presidential voting in 2010 showed Michel Martelly in third place, his supporters took to the streets to protest the outcome, demanding that their candidate be included in the second-round run-off. The Organization of American States (OAS) obliged and intervened, declaring the first-round results null and void, and replacing Jude Célestin, who had come in second, with Martelly on the second-round ballot.

This blatant foreign intervention had at least two effects: It drastically reduced Haitian voters’ confidence in the efficacy of their votes, contributing to a general lack of trust in elections, and thus widespread apathy (if not antipathy) toward this particular election. Secondly, it legitimized the role of partisan instigators in determining election results.

Having managed to cancel out 5% of the votes before they were even tabulated, rowdy partisans have already made their mark on this election, and, following the example of 2010, may strike again when official results are announced next week.

Illogical voting registration: Another recurring problem on Sunday was voters showing up to polling places and being turned away when their names were not found on the lists. This can be attributed, at least in part, to the haphazard and illogical way in which registered voters were assigned a polling place. For example, Daniel, a resident of Delmas — a neighborhood in Port-au-Prince that lies east of the city center — was assigned to a voting center in Carrefour, a city west of Port-au-Prince. Yves, who was registered to vote in the southern city of Jacmel, was assigned to a voting center in the rural hinterland.

Many of those who knew before Election Day that they had been registered in faraway voting centers chose to stay home. But others, assuming they could vote at the center nearest their home, showed up only to be disappointed.

Accessibility: For the minority of Haitians who still trusted the integrity of the elections and wanted to vote, an additional obstacle was put in place: the government announced that no public transport would be allowed on Election Day. Although this ban wasn’t strictly enforced — I saw several ‘tap-taps’ (pickup trucks converted into buses) on the roads of Port-au-Prince yesterday — it certainly acted as a deterrent, thus discouraging those would-be voters who had been assigned to vote at polling places far from their home.

Some of these problems can be addressed before Haiti’s presidential elections on October 25; many cannot. After what they saw yesterday, Haitian voters will require a lot of convincing.

$36 million [US] spent on Haiti's elections how?

Written by Staff Writer on 10 August 2015.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (sentinel.ht) - Where did $36 million [US] spent on legislative elections in Haiti go? There are countries in Africa, of the same population size as Haiti, which spend $8 million on good elections.

Rwanda, with a population of 11.7 million, organizes good elections where results are returned within 24 hours. Their 2013 legislative elections cost $8 million [US].

With the technology available in 2015, it takes Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council weeks to publish results for poorly held and contested elections.

CEP President Pierre Louis Opont could not give turnout figures during a press conference that followed the closure of all polling centers throughout the territory. Opont hadn't even a ballpark to give journalists which posed questions mainly about the election administrator revoked for trying to "manipulate the process", according to him.

A scandal during the process may give some clues about the spending decisions of the Haitian electoral council. When local publishing houses offered quotes of $4 million [US] to print election ballots, the CEP president instead opted for a $10 million [US] printer in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Reliable and secure tourist taxis …

Last Thursday, at a press conference, the Ministry of the Tourism and the Creative Industries (MTIC) launched a project of support for the tourist taxi drivers of the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince. The aim is to establish a reliable and secure transport service for visitors from the hotels of Pétion-Ville and the City center.

For that purpose, six new tourist taxis were present to the representatives of two associations of tour guides: the Association of Independent Drivers for the Development of the Tourism (ACIDT), and the Association of Tour Guides of Haiti (ACGH).

"The MTIC gave itself the task of supporting the drivers of these associations by enabling them to have the proper training, as well as a fleet of cars adapted to provide optimal tourist transport to the tourists who choose  Haiti …" declared, Maryse Noel, Chief Executive Officer of the Ministry.

It should be noted that the drivers of the ACIDT and the ACGH have received a two-month training to offer a service that is adequate to the visitors during their stay.

For her part, Johanne Barthelemy, the Assistant Coordinator of the department of Promotion, Travel and Events of the MTIC, explained that in agreement with the drivers, a price list of fares and the address and phone number of these associations, will from now on be on-line on the Ministry’s promotional site.

These exclusive taxis which can transport a maximum of three passengers will be at the service of the customers in four Pétion-Ville Hotels and in two hotels based at the heart of the Haitian capital.

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 26 août 2015

 Launch of Carifesta

The Gardens of the MUPANAH were the showcase last Thursday evening, at an official welcome reception organized by the Ministry of Culture in honor of the main delegations already in Haiti to participate in the 12th edition of the CARIFESTA. The cocktail took place in the presence of the Prime Minister Evans Paul, in the presence of Minister of Culture Ditney Johanne Rateau and of Minister of Tourism Stéphanie Balmir Villedrouin. The director of the Mupanah, Michèle Frish, was the host of the evening which ended in the middle of the night.

Then the next day, August 21^st, it was "CARIFESTA XII. “Let the party begin" proclaimed President Michel Martelly at the kiosk Occide Jeanty, to officially open the XII edition of this cultural festival. The president addressed in English the guests coming from the Caribbean “who had believed in Haiti and accepted its application to organize the festival.”

The day before, the Prime Minister, Evans Paul, also thanked the guests who helped Haiti organize this big cultural party.

Friday afternoon began with an artistic parade in the streets of Port-au-Prince; a parade rich in the colors of the various Caribbean nations. As for the kiosk Occide Jeanty, many saw it for the first time in the magnificence of the renovation. The kiosk was the final destination of the parade.

This ceremony was a display of the arts and colors. As for Haitian culture, it was represented by greatly renowned Haitian artists: Mikaben, J-Perry, Renette Désir, and Rutschelle Guillaum. They interpreted the hymn of the festival, a composition by Junior Hantz Mercier and Mikaben who surpassed themselves.

A show of sound, light, artistic parade and folk dances made up the opening of the ten days of festivities, with artists coming from various nations of the Caribbean community,

A parade of nations followed. It included delegations carrying their respective flag, as well as taptaps decorated in the colors of 22 nations and symbolically representing a Caribbean known for its diversity.

Unfortunately the rain came along and ended the evening prematurely, just as icons of Haitian music had taken the stage of the kiosk Occide Jeanty: Emeline Michel, Edy François and James Germain to name a few. All of whom had come to participation in the concert. The rain also forced the cancellation of a performance by the group “Taboo Combo.”

But in spite of the rain, as well as technical difficulties, the beauty of the show created immense enthusiasm and the Caribbean started to dance even in the rain!

US senator and presidential candidate Rand Paul trades suits for scrubs on Haiti mission to fight cataract

Presidential candidate and ophthalmologist visits western hemisphere’s poorest country to restore vision to hundreds as he acknowledges political struggles.

Mathieux Saint Fleur has been virtually blind for two decades. In less than 24 hours, he will see again. As the 75-year-old Haitian patient lies on an operating table, a US eye surgeon turned politician reassures him, in broken Creole that the surgery is almost over.

“People need to be encouraged it’s not much longer,” said Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul, an ophthalmologist by training, without taking his eyes off Saint Fleur.

As many of Paul’s competitors courted voters in Iowa and New Hampshire over the last week, Kentucky’s fiery junior senator joined a team of eye surgeons on a four-day mission to Haiti, giving vision to nearly 200 who would not have been blind if they lived in the US. Here in the poorest nation in the western hemisphere, “curable blindness” from common ailments such as cataracts is the norm.

But despite the humanitarian focus of the visit, Paul’s precarious place in the 2016 presidential contest was never quite forgotten.

Paul acknowledged his recent struggle during an interview at a Cap-Haitien hotel, where razor wire protects the outer walls and raw sewage flows into the nearby ocean.

“It’s sort of like a schoolyard. Once you got ’em down, everybody piles on,” Paul said of the 2016 contest. “And I’ve been under a dog pile for a couple of weeks.”

There may be cause for optimism, however, in the form of Gary Heavin, a cigar-chomping billionaire Republican donor who was at Paul’s side in Haiti for much of the week, having arrived with the senator and some of the other doctors on his private jet.

At the eye center, at least, it was easy to find evidence that Paul’s privately funded mission made a difference. The trip was organised by the University of Utah’s Moran Eye Center, which regularly leads trips designed to train local doctors and address “curable blindness” in poor areas around the world.

Cataract surgeries often take no longer than 20 minutes, allowing teams of volunteer surgeons to perform dozens in a single day. The Haiti group completed 109 surgeries in the three days Paul was on hand and expected to finish nearly 200 by the time the full group left the country on Saturday.

On Tuesday morning, the day after his surgery, Saint Fleur sat in a room crowded with patients quietly waiting for the bandages to come off. He was speechless for a few moments after the white gauze was peeled away. Then he began to smile.

“I see! I see!” he said, joy spreading across his face. With shaking hands, he began reaching out for nearby medical staff, hugging anyone he could and affectionately touching their faces.

“I love you,” he told a nurse. “Yesterday I couldn’t see!”

Saint Fleur then spoke directly to Paul: “If it’s for money, I could not do this. I have no money,” he said through an interpreter. “God sent you to me.”

Cholera, climate change fuel Haiti's humanitarian crisis: UN

Port-au-Prince (AFP) - Climate change, cholera and the return of thousands of emigrants from the neighboring Dominican Republican are fueling a humanitarian crisis in Haiti, the UN warned.

The impoverished Caribbean nation is facing a deluge of problems, pushing an already vulnerable population closer to the edge, said Enzo di Taranto, who heads Haiti's UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Among these pressures is a new cholera outbreak. Cases are up 300 percent in the first months of 2015 compared to the same period last year, di Taranto said in an interview with AFP.

Haiti -- the poorest country in the Americas -- is already suffering from chronic instability and struggling to recover from a devastating 2010 earthquake that killed more than 250,000 people and crippled the nation's infrastructure.

A cholera outbreak after the quake was blamed on UN peacekeepers' poor hygiene.

According to UN data, nearly 20,000 people have been affected and 170 killed by the disease since the beginning of the year.

More than 8,800 Haitians have died of cholera since it appeared in October 2010 and, even today, cases recorded in Haiti surpass the total number of people with the disease elsewhere in the world.

Out of an estimated population of 10 million, around three million Haitians still are drinking dirty water, OCHA said.

Beyond the increase in cholera, the humanitarian situation in the country is worsening because of a "convergence of several factors," di Taranto said.

"The devaluation of the gourde (Haitian currency), which means an increase in the price of baseline products like medicine, food and water; the drought which has hit many regions in the country; and also the repatriation of Haitians from the Dominican Republic," are all contributing, he said.

- Families with nothing -

In June, the neighboring Dominican Republic introduced a tough new immigration policy, prompting 60,000 Haitians to leave the country.

Many ended up back in Haiti, straining an already vulnerable system.

The uncontrolled flow is exerting a "demographic pressure on the already very weak health system in Haiti and on the supply of food and water," di Taranto said.

He said the problems are especially bad in the southeastern community of Anse-a-Pitres.

Many families who returned from the Dominican Republic are living hand-to-mouth in shanties.

The effects of climate change are also encroaching. The summer drought previously confined to country's north has crept into the south.

"In the Cayes region and the Macaya natural park, water sources are dry," di Taranto said. "It's a problem that's spreading."

Haiti, which has lost 98 percent of its forest cover, has seen worsening agricultural conditions and topsoil erosion.

Because of this, the warm air current from "El Nino" is affecting Haiti more than other countries in the region.

"We need to launch public rural development programs which let us confront these climatological dynamics that we can't control," di Taranto said.

To address the immediate humanitarian emergency, OCHA estimates it will need around $25 million in the next four to six months.

But five years after the devastating earthquake that killed more than 250,000 people, international aid for Haiti is diminishing.

It's a situation that directly threatens help for more than 60,000 victims of the quake who are still living in camps.

To access a broader pool of potential donors, the United Nations is planning an online crowdfunding campaign and also using celebrities to draw attention to the cause.

The last such visit was from the singer Beyonce in May.

State Department Cautiously Criticizes Dominican Deportations

A mild rebuke from the Obama administration isn’t doing it for many activists.

Roque Planas

Reporter, Latino Voices, The Huffington Post

The State Department on Friday gently scolded the Dominican Republic for its resumption of deportations, urging the country's government to avoid deporting people to Haiti if they had once held a claim to Dominican citizenship.

The statement was a notable departure for the Obama administration, which has otherwise remained largely silent in recent months as the Dominican government’s widely criticized immigration regularization process wound to a close.

“We recognize the prerogative of the Dominican Republic to remove individuals from its territory who are present without authorization,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner wrote in the statement. “At the same time, we urge the Dominican Republic to avoid mass deportations and to conduct any deportations in a transparent manner that fully respects the human rights of deportees.”

But for many human rights groups that have long protested the Dominican government’s actions, the State Department's remarks didn’t go far enough.

Francesca Menes, a co-coordinator of the #Rights4AllInDR campaign, says her U.S. coalition of Dominican and Haitian expat groups aims to pressure the U.S. government into taking more direct action to curb deportations in the Dominican Republic.

“Our expectation was that there was going to be some kind of intervening to hold the Dominican government accountable, rather than releasing some statement,” Menes told The WorldPost. "The Dominican Republic is so close to us and we’re just watching from afar.”

In this photo taken on Jan. 29, 2011, a Haitian woman gathers her belongings while shouting that she was only working and not doing anything wrong, after being detained by Dominican specialized military border officers in Jimani, Dominican Republic.

Menes said she was disappointed that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hasn't spoken about the issue, given the Clinton family’s close ties to Haiti. She noted that former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, who is competing with Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination, recently met with Haitian and Dominican immigrants in Florida to discuss the crisis.

Clinton “has a national platform that she could use to speak up and she hasn’t,” Menes said. “[O’Malley] just taking that initiative meant a lot to us, as opposed to Hillary, who also came down here, but chose to only meet with the Cuban community.”

The Clinton campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Wade McMullen, an attorney with RFK Human Rights, said that deportations in the Dominican Republic are carried out much more rapidly than in the United States and with little opportunity to appeal the decision.

“Some of the people who have been deported have reported that there’s no process at all,” McMullen told The WorldPost. “They just get picked up, put on a bus and sent to the border. It’s extremely quick... We’re really concerned that this process doesn’t comply with the Dominican government’s international human rights obligations.”

The Dominican Republic resumed deportations last week, according to local reports, after largely suspending them for a year and a half to give people a chance to comply with the new immigration normalization plan. Thousands of undocumented Haitians began leaving the Dominican Republic voluntarily when the June 17 deadline passed. Settlement camps have sprung up across the border in Haiti to receive the migrating Haitians, according to NPR.

A series of legal changes since 2004 have eliminated the concept of birthright citizenship in the Dominican Republic. The newer standard was enshrined in the country’s 2010 constitution, and a 2013 Constitutional Court ruling applied the standard retroactively, leaving thousands of people who'd once qualified for citizenship effectively stateless -- including an estimated 60,000 children.

Facing an onslaught of international criticism over the court’s ruling, the Dominican government implemented a plan to normalize the status of undocumented Haitians and to restore citizenship to Dominican-born people with undocumented parents who had previously qualified for citizenship.

But human rights groups largely panned the plan. Some 56,000 people who previously held passports, national IDs or other documentation identifying them as Dominican nationals had their citizenship restored under the plan. However, fewer than 9,000 people who were born in the country but lacked such documents, or else had difficulty obtaining them, applied to register as foreigners with an expedited pathway to citizenship before a February deadline. June 17 was the last day for undocumented immigrants, including people left stateless by the new policies, to register with the Dominican government as foreigners with the possibility of obtaining a provisional visa.

Human rights groups have repeatedly criticized the Dominican government’s new immigration and citizenship system, warning that the policies could lead to the deportations of thousands of Dominican-born people made stateless through the process. The vast majority of the estimated 200,000 stateless people in the Dominican Republic are of Haitian descent and black, fueling suspicions that racism played some role in creating the policies.

Dominican officials aren't likely to be very receptive to the foreign criticism. President Danilo Medina has defended the country's immigration and citizenship scheme as an issue of sovereignty, saying in speeches that he won’t bow to the interests of international nongovernmental organizations. Medina administration officials have pointed out that the United States routinely deports Haitians and other foreign nationals over the protests of U.S. immigrant rights advocates.

CARIFESTA

The following is the scheduled program of nine remaining days of this celebration of Caribbean Culture

These nine days will take place simultaneously in 5 planned cities: Jacmel, Port-au-Prince, Cayes, Gonaïves and in Cap-Haïtien.

CARIFESTA XII, official programming

Inauguration of the exhibit "Shared Memories"

On Saturday morning, First Lady Sophia Martelly, Honorary President of the Museum of the Haitian National Pantheon (MUPANAH), Dithny Joan Raton, Minister of Culture and Michèle G. Frisch, the Chief Executive Officer of the MUPANAH, inaugurated the exhibitb"Shared Memories" in the presence of the members of the official delegation of CARICOM led by its General Secretary, Irwin Larocque, accompanied by his assistant, Dr. Douglas Slater.

Conceived within the framework of the Festival of the Arts of the Caribbean (CARIFESTA XII Haïti 2015), this exhibit tells of the exceptional story of Haiti in the Caribbean context. A story marked by the revolutionary fights that led to the collapse of the slave colonial system in Haiti and the other islands of the Caribbean.

This exhibits also opens on the Creole identity, as an intercultural factor stemming from striking episodes of the history of humanity, as the conquests, the colonization, the atrocities of slavery, the resistances as well as the revolts.

To visit in the MUPANAH from August 23rd until October 22nd, 2015.

Grand Market is awaiting for you!

Last Saturday afternoon, the official inauguration of "Grand Market" took place.

Grand Market consists more than 100 exhibitors of small business craftsmen and women; more than 25 working restaurants serving throughout the day; a fashion stage, and a music stage for artistic representations every evening starting at 6:00 am p.m. Let us call recall that the Grand Market occupies the following streets: Magny, Saint Honoré, Magloire Ambroise, Capois and Legitime.

Ambassador Pamela White says Good bye …

After three years of service in Haiti, Ambassador Pamela White is leaving. In her last speech, she was eager to underline that she arrived "enthusiastic" and that she was leaving with the same feeling.

For her, the Haitian politicians are intelligent and passionate about their country. The main problem, she stressed, is that they blame each other and are unable to get along about common projects for their country.

Pamela White was also eager to speak about the corruption: "It is at every level," she said, adding, "There is a price to pay for anything here." During her interview with the newspaper Le Nouveliste, the American ambassador spoke for a long time about this plague. She said she had spoken about it not only with President Michel Martelly, but also with Minister of Justice Pierre Richard Casimthe ir. Even when she sees a street protest, Pamela White cannot refrain from wondering: "Who paid this time to make people take to the streets".

And then the ambassadress spoke about the ULCC, the Unity to Fight Against Corruption, financed largely by the United States. She said she was sorry about the departure of Colonel Atouriste, who was at the head of the institution. "He was not even given the opportunity to take to the courts cases of corruption that the ULCC had discovered.”

She was also questioned about the country’s national police force, the PNH which, according to White, had made a lot of progress, and become much more professional, thanks to 100 million dollars spent by the United States to equip the force. Drug trafficking had also decreased a lot, said the ambassador. The DEA was very satisfied with the work made by the BLTS, the Brigade to Fight Against Narcotics, which in 2015 was able to intercept more illegal drugs than it had during the previous 5 years

During the meeting, Pamela White was very open. It was as if she confided to “Le Nouveliste.” But for several years American ambassadors upon their departure have behaved this way.

It's as if they wanted to unload all that they had on their conscience by sharing everything that they had liked, and everything that hadn’t worked. In short, Pamela White is not different from those who preceded her in this office, which is so critical in Haiti.

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 1 septembre 2015

 As Florida Preps for Storm That Was Erika, Caribbean Tallies Damage

Only remnants of the tropical storm that used to be Erika barreled toward Florida on Sunday night, but the state was still preparing for what the National Weather Service described as strong winds and heavy rain, and the governor was still urging vigilance.

Erika began weakening Saturday after it killed at least 20 people in the Caribbean last week and caused Florida Gov. Rick Scott to issue a state of emergency Friday. Flood watches were in effect from southern Georgia to Miami, The Weather Channel reported, and rip currents were expected all the way to the Carolinas.

In the Caribbean, hard-hit countries were still tallying the damage.

In Dominica, where nearly 13 inches of rain fell in as many hours, according to The Weather Channel, Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit recounted Erika's "monumental" destruction in an emotional televised address: Bridges had been washed away, he said. Highways and roads were destroyed. At least 20 people were dead, and more were missing.

"This is a period of national tragedy," he said, adding that the storm had damaged "nearly every community" on the island.

"We have, in essence, to rebuild Dominica," he said.

In Puerto Rico, 200,000 people lost power and million of dollars in crops were destroyed. In Haiti, mudslides blocked roads, a prison was evacuated and rain appeared to have caused firey truck crash killed four people and injured 11 others.

NBC Miami: Erika Dissipates Over Hispanola; Remnants to Affect South Florida

In the Pacific, meanwhile, Hurricane Ignacio was churning toward Hawaii. The storm — once a Category 4 system — had begun weakening by late Sunday morning, a trend that was expected to continue in the coming days, The Weather Channel reported.

Tropical storm watches were in effect for the islands of Maui, Molokai, Lanai and Kahoolawe, according to the National Weather Service, and the storm's center is expected to pass by the state to the north on Monday and Tuesday, according to The Weather Channel.

Erika is a particularly wet storm, and was expected to dump up to 8 inches (20 centimeters) of rain across the drought-stricken region.

Given how weak the storm is and how dry Puerto Rico and parts of Florida have been, "it could be a net benefit, this thing," said MIT meteorology professor Kerry Emanuel.

The center of Erika was located about 25 miles (45 kilometers) southeast of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and was moving west at about 21 mph (33 kph), the Hurricane Center said. The storm's maximum sustained winds dropped slightly to 45 mph (75 kph).

The storm previously slid to the south of Puerto Rico, knocking out power to more than 200,000 people and causing more than $16 million in damage to crops including plantains, bananas and coffee, but causing no major damage or injuries.

Dominica, meanwhile, was struggling in the aftermath. Assistant Police Superintendent Claude Weekes said authorities still haven't been able to access many areas in the mountainous island because of impassable roads and bridges. "The aftermath is loads of damage," he said. "It really has been devastating."

An elderly blind man and two children were killed when a mudslide engulfed their home in the southeast of Dominica. Another man was found dead in the capital following a mudslide at his home.

People on the island told of narrowly escaping being engulfed by water as Erika downed trees and power lines while unleashing heavy floods that swept cars down streets and ripped scaffolding off some buildings.

"I was preparing to go to work when all of a sudden I heard this loud noise and saw the place flooded with water," said Shanie James, a 30-year-old mother who works at a bakery. "We had to run for survival."

Mudslides destroyed dozens of homes across Dominica, including that of 46-year-old security guard Peter Julian, who had joined friends after leaving work.

"When I returned, I saw that my house that I have lived in for over 20 years was gone," he said. "I am blessed to be alive. God was not ready for me ... I have lost everything and now have to start all over again."

Meanwhile in the Pacific, Ignacio strengthened into a hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 90 mph (150 kph). It was centered about 785 miles (1,260 kilometers) east-southeast of Hilo, Hawaii, and was moving northwest near 8 mph (13 kph).

Also in the Pacific, Jimena turned into a Category 2 hurricane with maximum sustained winds near 105 mph (165 kph). It was centered about 1,135 miles (1,825 kilometers) southwest of the southern tip of Mexico's Baja California peninsula. It does not pose a threat to land.

Erika death toll: 20 deaths in Dominica

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) -- Tropical Storm Erika began to lose steam Friday as it dumped rain over Haiti and the Dominican Republic, but it left behind a trail of destruction that included at least twenty people killed on the small eastern Caribbean island of Dominica, authorities said.

Heavy winds from the storm toppled trees and power lines in the Dominican Republic as it began to cut across neighboring Haiti.

Erika's heavy rains set off floods and mudslides in Dominica that are now blamed for at least a dozen deaths, the government said. At least two dozen people remained missing and authorities warned the death toll could rise.

"There are additional bodies recovered but it is an ongoing operation," Police Chief Daniel Carbon said, declining to provide specifics. "It will take us a couple of days to recover as many bodies as we can. So the count will increase."

CARIFESTA showcase continues in Haiti

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (CMC) - Secretary General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Irwin LaRoque, toured the exhibition booths Grand Market at the Caribbean Festival of the Arts (CARIFESTA), last week, as the French speaking Caribbean nation pulled out all the stops for the event.

The 12th edition of CARIFESTA opened on Friday, August 21^st with LaRoque saying it was a historic occasion for Haiti and the region.

He added that he was pleased to see that the Caribbean Community (CARICOM)“ responded to the call to celebrate in Haiti as it hosts CARIFESTA for the first time.

LaRocque reiterated the CARICOM heads of government, ministers of culture and the artistic community’s commitment to the implementation of a new and improved CARIFESTA, stating that everyone should do their best to ensure that each edition of the festival is in line with the region’s mission and brings us closer to the goal of presenting a “world-renowned mega festival of Caribbean cultural and artistic excellence that brings economic benefits, unites the region and excites all peoples”.

The nine day festival continued with fashion shows and performances from groups representing the member states.

CARIFESTA is the region’s roving multi-disciplinary mega event that showcases the cultural expressions of artists in more than 30 countries in the region.

It was established in 1972 by regional government leaders to celebrate the arts, foster a vision of Caribbean unity and to positively advance Caribbean culture regionally and internationally.

Haiti snubs Dominican Republic´s “owners”

Santo Domingo.- Dominican Republic´s biggest truckers union (Fenatrado) – dubbed the country´s “owners” for their often violent strikes with apparent impunity- complained recently that Haiti´s government has exacerbated their walkout now in its fourth week, by failing to show up for previously agreed meetings.

Fenatrado president Blas Peralta said a scheduled meeting on Monday was rescheduled for Tuesday and then suspended “for no apparent reason,” and there hasn’t been any communication with the Haitians since.

He said after more than three weeks since the flow of trucks has been halted, senior Haitian government officials agreed to meet to solve the deadlock and resume the haul of freight, interrupted when several truckers were victims of attacks.

"For Monday, we agreed a meeting with Haitian authorities, without explanation we were left waiting. Then we met on Tuesday and Thursday we told we would get a response. But it is Saturday and we still haven’t heard from them," Peralta said.

“There are sectors who want chaos both in this country and in Haiti. We believed that we would by now have a solution to this problem on Wednesday and wasn’t resolved. A commission was convened in Jimani (west), they were there that day to reach an agreement and the next day the Haitian government would sign it, but we´re still waiting."

The construction project for the Ministry of the Public works is moving forward quickly!

The three-story building that will shelter the Ministry of the Public Works, Transportation and Communications, financed by the European Union with 4,168,413 euros, is moving forward quickly and is two months away from completion.

Charles Jean Jacques, the national regulator of the European Development Fund (FED), accompanied by foreign and Haitian technicians working on the site, visited the construction site situated on Delmas 33 to ask about the state of progress of the infrastructure. This visit is the second by the regulator following the last one April http: // www.haitilibre.com/article-13725-haiti-reconstruction-suivi-du-chantier-du-nou-nouveau-ministere-des-travaux-publics.html

Together with Édouard Excellent, Coordinator and Emmanuel Fexile, Technical Adviser, the National Regulator explored the three-story building and received explanations and answers to his questions. During his visit, he explained the advantages of completing the project on time according to schedule.

Engineer Vincenzo Candido, Project Manager of the firm R.I.S.P.A on this construction site, said, "The next stages are: the electrification, the plumbing, the installation of ceramic tiles and the air conditioning. The installation of doors and windows and the completion of the roof will come then." Objectives, he believes, can be reached according to schedule.

Mrs. Martine Desruisseaux, the architect for the project, is also confident but careful, asserting "There is reason to hope that everything will take place as expected."

Let us remember that this project, which started in July, 2014 should be finished by the end of October, 2015 (in spite of a 3 month delay).

LES MISERABLES ACTOR KYLE JEAN BAPTISTE DIES AT 21

Broadway actor Kyle Jean-Baptiste has died after falling off his mother’s fire escape. He was 21.

Jean-Baptiste made Broadway history as the understudy for “Les Miserables” character Jean Valjean. When Jean-Baptiste stepped into the role, he became both the youngest actor to do so and the first African-American actor to play Valjean on Broadway. When he was not filling in as Valjean, the actor played the roles of Constable and Courfeyrac in the musical.

The company of “Les Mis” released the following statement on Jean-Baptiste’s death: “The entire ‘Les Miserables’ family is shocked and devastated by the sudden and tragic loss of Kyle, a remarkable young talent and tremendous person who made magic — and history — in his Broadway debut. We send our deepest condolences to his family and ask that you respect their privacy in this unimaginably difficult time.”

Broadway veteran Kristin Chenoweth tweeted her condolences, sending her “love and hugs to his family” and the “Les Mis” cast.

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 9 septembre 2015

 The construction project for the Royal Decameron Hotel is progressing nicely

An official visit of the building site of the Royal Decameron - Indigo Beach Resort and Spa, the first all-inclusive hotel in Haiti, took place on Monday, August 31^st in Montrouis on the Arcadins Coast.

According to information available on the site of the Ministry of Communication, Minister of Tourism and Creative Industries, Madam Stéphanie Balmir Villedrouin, led this important delegation consisting, among others, of the President of Decameron, Leonardo Gonzalez, Secretary of State of fiscal reform, Ronald Décembre and the Managing director of Haitian Customs, Victor H. Saint-Louis to the sites of the first all-inclusive Haitian hotel- a product of an agreement between the hotel group Decameron and the owners of the Indigo Club.

Royal Decameron Indigo Beach Resort and Spa will add 400 rooms of European standard to the Haitian hotel market. This large-scale tourist complex on the beach will also include 3 restaurants and 2 outside swimming pools, in which more than 800 customers can be accommodated. It will also include 2 gyms, a spa, a marina and aquatic attractions.

"All the suppliers who are going to furnish the Royal Decameron Hotel - Indigo Beach Resort and Spa will come from outof Haitian companies. The hotel is also going to generate 420 new local jobs," announced the executive team of the chain.

Decameron, subsidiary of the Colombian group Terranum and the main hotel administrator of Latin America, finalized in March, 2015 the terms of an agreement of operation of the Indigo Club of Haiti (formerly Club Med).

Completion of construction of this hotel is planned for next November.

KENNETH MERTEN TOOK OFFICE ON AUGUST 17TH AS SPECIAL COORDINATOR FOR HAITI AT THE U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT

Kenneth Merten's missions abroad include the embassy of the United States in Paris, the Mission of the United States to the European Union in Brussels, the embassy of the United States in Bonn during the period of the Germanunification, and three appointments to the embassy of the United States in Port-au-Prince, in Haiti. His work experience in Washington includes two missions at the center of Operations of the State Department which addresses international crises, ensure that top state employees of the State Department are kept informed about the latest events, and supports the daily duties and the travels of the Secretary of State. He also worked at the Office of Economic and Commercial Business, and at the office in charge of questions related to Cuba, as well as for the special councilors (advisers) on Haiti from 1993 till 1994.

Kenneth Merten holds a Bachelor's degree from Miami University in Ohio, and a Master's degree in public administration from American University in Washington, DC. Studies at the University of Aix-Marseille in France and at Karl Franzens Universität in Austria complete his academic curriculum. He presented a conference before an audience of more than 10,000 at the University of Miami in May, 2010 and also received an honorary doctorate of them. In July, 2012, Ambassador Merten was decorated by Haitian president Michel Martelly with the Big Cross of Honor and Merit, the fourth foreign diplomat to received this award in the 200 years of Haitian independence.

Ambassador Merten was born in Saint Louis, Missouri and considers Hudson, Ohio, as being his home town. He is married to Susan Greenman Merten and has two children.

NEW AMBASSADOR OF BRAZIL IN HAITI

On Friday, the President of the Republic of Haiti, Michel Martelly, received the letter of credentials of the new Ambassador of Brazil to Haiti, Fernando de Mello Vidal.

The new Ambassador renewed the commitment of his country to stand by President Martelly in his efforts to improve the living conditions of the Haitian people.

For his part, the Head of State reassured him of his commitment to work to strengthen the bonds of friendship and cooperation between Haiti and Brazil.

Afterward the new Ambassador of the Federative Republic of Brazil in Haiti offered a floral arrangement to the Museum of the Haitian National Pantheon (MUPANAH) in honor of the Fathers of the Nation. Then, Mrs. Michèle Frisch, the Director of the Museum, invited the new Brazilian diplomat to visit the rooms of permanent and temporary exhibits at the museum.

At the end of his visit, Ambassador Fernando Vidal expressed his satisfaction to have been able to learn about Haiti’s rich history, a country so similar to his.

OPERATION FREE SMILE

What you need to do:

Friends, listen. Operation Smile is an organization that does free operations for people with split lips or cleft pallets. They were here in 2008.

This year once again, with the support of the Public Health Ministry, Operation Smile is coming to operate on patients on the ship USNS Comfort.

. Call toll free (4891-2597) or send a text to (509-3915-3477).

. You will need to go to the Grace Hospital in Lamentin 54 Carrefour, Port-au-Prince.

. After you first make an appointment, you will come for a consultation on eitherthe first day, Friday, September 11 or on the second day, Tuesday, September 22^nd.

. Share this message.

4891-2597 / Call the office of Operation Free Smile.

Dominican Republic: UN experts warn against deportations, racial profiling of people of Haitian descent

July 28, 2015 – United Nations human rights experts today called on the Government of the Dominican Republic to take steps to prevent arbitrary deportations and to adopt measures to address allegations of racial profiling during deportations of people of Haitian descent.

“No one should be deported when there are legal and valid reasons to stay,” human rights expert Mireille Fanon Mendes-France, who currently heads the UN Working Group of Experts of People of African Descent, said in a news release.

“Migrants are entitled to protection and Dominicans of Haitian descent have the right to reside safely in the territory, as well as children born in the Dominican Republic who are legally registered,” she stated.

Some 19,000 people have reportedly left Dominican Republic for Haiti since June 21 due to fear and amidst concerns that there will be violations when deportations officially start in August.

“The Dominican Republic cannot violate international norms or those of the inter-American system of human rights protection, and especially not violate its own Constitution,” the expert emphasized.

According to the expert panel, the difficulties in obtaining necessary documents to register for the naturalization and regularization process, the lack of information on the deportation plan, and the deportations “have instilled fear, resulting in a situation whereby people of Haitian descent without documents are also leaving to avoid abrupt deportations.”

The Working Group today reiterated its call on the Dominican authorities to put in place effective and transparent legislation and other measures to successfully fight the discrimination and social exclusion faced mostly by Haitian migrants and people of Haitian descent in the country.

“The Dominican Republic does not recognize the existence of a structural problem of racism and xenophobia, but it must address these issues as a matter of priority so the country can live free from tension and fear,” Ms. Mendes-France added.

The Working Groups are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name of the Council's independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world.

Special Procedures' experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any government or organization and serve in their individual capacity.

Kerry’s aid sought in Dominican Republic citizenship crisis

Seven US senators, including the pair from Massachusetts, urged Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday to intercede in the citizenship crisis in the Dominican Republic, expressing concern that thousands of Dominican-born people of Haitian descent still are not recognized as citizens.

In a letter to Kerry, Senators Edward J. Markey, Elizabeth Warren and five other Democrats said the Dominican government proposed a “fair solution” by creating a path to citizenship after a 2013 court ruling stripped birthright citizenship from the children of unauthorized immigrants, mainly from neighboring Haiti. But, the letter said, less than a third of the 210,000 Dominicans eligible for that citizenship applied for it.

Critics of the citizenship program have said the requirements are so cumbersome that many cannot gather the hospital records and other documents needed to apply.

“In this context, we respectfully ask that you work with the Dominican government to ensure that the process is timely, efficient, and inclusive of everyone who was born in the country,” the senators wrote in the letter, adding that it was crucial that undocumented citizens “are provided a solution that guarantees their right to live in the only country they have known since their birth.”

Last month Kerry said through a spokeswoman that he was monitoring the situation and had stressed the importance of upholding human rights for all involved.

The senators also expressed concern for some 36,000 people of Haitian descent who have voluntarily left the Dominican Republic in recent months, an exodus they said has “overwhelmed” authorities in Haiti, one of the hemisphere’s poorest nations.

Dominican officials have said that they will not deport anyone who is entitled to Dominican citizenship, but they say the government also must properly screen applicants before granting them citizenship.

Ambassador Jose Tomas Perez said in a statement that his government was determined to act transparently and was looking “forward to a substantive dialogue with members of Congress and the State Department on this important matter.’’

He said the Dominican Republic is committed to working with the international community “to implement a regularization program and immigration policies that aim to give a regular status to everyone in the Dominican Republic.’’

The ambassador added “our government is implementing the same immigration rules that exist in any society governed by the rule of law, while recognizing each individual’s human rights.’’

The issue has drawn international attention, including in Massachusetts where immigrants from Haiti and the Dominican Republic are some of the largest groups of foreign-born residents in the state.

Also signing the letter were senators Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Bill Nelson of Florida, Benjamin Cardin of Maryland, Christopher Coons of Delaware, and Sherrod Brown of Ohio.

Maria Sacchetti can be reached at Cette adresse e-mail est protégée contre les robots spammeurs. Vous devez activer le JavaScript pour la visualiser..