Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 23 août 2017

 Solar eclipse in Haiti on August 21^st, 2017

On Friday the Civil Protection held a press conference at the Prime Minister’s residence regarding the solar eclipse announced for Monday, August 21st, 2017.

"At the level of the Government, measures were taken to help the population," asserted Prime Minister Jack Guy Lafontant. He specified "The forbidden is attractive.  Never allow yourself to be tempted to look at the sun. Sunglasses cannot protect your eyes against the intensity of the infrared and ultraviolet rays during the eclipse." He added that Monday, August 21^st, 2017 was not a day off, but caution was necessary and that it was better to follow it on TNH which has assured the broadcast of the eclipse.

The Direction of Civil Protection announced that its staff will go door to door to sensitize the population and local governments will also mobilize their teams.

The National Aerospace Agency of the United States (NASA) specified that this solar eclipse can be seen by approximately 300 million people. The continents of North and South America according to their geographical positions, should be able to see the total or partial eclipse, which will last between 2 and 3 o'clock p.m. The total eclipse will last about 2 minutes and 40 seconds.

In Haiti the eclipse will not be total, but at 75 %. It will begin at 1:59 am p.m. and will reach its peak at 3:25 p.m. to end at 4:40 am p.m.

Construction will soon begin on Jérémie's International Airport

Last Thursday at the Toussaint Louverture International Airpot, Colonel Irving Méhu, Managing director of the National Airport Authority (ANN), announced the future reconstruction of the building that will house the fire department currenty in deplorable condition, and the renovation of the Diplomatic Lounge. In addition, the beginning of the building for Jérémie's International Airport is also slated to begin soon.

In order to solve the parking problem at Jeremie’s airport, especially during holidays, Irving Méhu confirmed having received instructions from Head of State to proceed with the enlargement of the parking. He indicated that legal and administrative initiatives must be undertaken to purchase the ground in front of the airport, to make this project a reality.

DISASTERS: Haiti: 6 women drowned and 18 other survived in a shipwreck at the Island of La Tortue.

The dead bodies of six women were found by local government workers confirmed the local mayor Josemane Lubin.

The accident was recorded when there were violent blows of wind, associated with a thunderstorm, which surprised the sailors of several vessels for about fifteen minutes.

The rescue by some people from the island, as well as by some other sailboats allowed 18 people to be saved. However, several others are still reported missing.

Some of the shipwrecked people were immediately transported to the hospital. The rescue operations continue, with the aim of finding other bodies or survivors, said Lubin.

The La Tortue City Hall has been unable to supply information on the exact number of people who were aboard this sailboat that was on its way to Port-de-Paix.

Interviewed by AlterPresse, Gabriel Santiague, who lives on the Island of La Tortue lamented over the poor conditions of sea transport, through which people in the area travel. Which could be on the basis of these repeated wrecks.

The Maritime and Navigation Service of Haiti (Semanah) cannot really manage the country’s ports, meanwhile boat trips don’t always take place in good weather conditions.

"No life jackets for the passengers. Boat captains do not consult weather reports, to inquire about weather conditions, let’s not forget the overloading of sailboats that serve the population in the area."

A Reception Party held in the Peace Garden Museum to Welcome Ballet Bacoulou of Haiti

Li Ruohong, President of China World Peace Foundation exchanges gifts with Ralph LATORTUE, Permanent Representative of Commercial Development Bureau of Haiti to P.R China

On August 14, a reception party was held in the Peace Garden for Ballet Bacoulou of Haiti in order to promote the friendly relationship between China and Haiti. The event was co-organized by Commercial Development Bureau of Haiti to P.R China and China World Peace Foundation, and was supported by Belt and Road official website of china.com.cn, Beijing International Peace Culture Foundation and Beijing Peace Garden Museum.

Among those who participated in the reception were: Mr. Wang Xiangyang, Permanent Representative of P.R China to Haiti, Mr. Zhao Huimin, Director of Foreign Office of Beijing Municipality, Mr. Li Ruohong, President of China World Peace Foundation and Beijing International Peace Culture Foundation, Mr. Lu Qingsheng, Chairman of China-Africa Development Fund, Mr. Liu Fenghai, Director of Liaoning liaison office in Beijing, Mr. Zheng Jianping, Director of Shanghai liaison office in Beijing, Ms. Xie Yuhua, Secretary-General of Gansu Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Li Wusheng, Chairman of Orient Landscape, Mrs. Yvrose Green, Artistic Director and Director of Cultural Department of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Haiti, Mr. Ralph LATORTUE, Permanent Representative of Commercial Development Bureau of Haiti to P.R China, Mr. Jean JEAN-PIERRE, Music Director of the Traditional Orchestra of Haiti and Mr. Peniel Guerrier, choreographer of Ballet Bacoulou of Haiti. 

Li Ruohong said although Haiti has yet established diplomatic ties with P.R China, the hearts of two peoples are getting closer as the exchange of culture, economy and trade deepens between the two sides, and the gifts exchanged serve as a catalyst of our enhanced amity. During his speech, Li said the Belt and Road Initiative does not only apply to the 65 countries and regions along the route, it is also applicable for the whole world. Not long ago, China World Peace Foundation and UNESCO jointly carried out a cultural project entitled an interactive cultural atlas along the Silk Roads, and released Peace Garden Declaration in recognition of this endeavor. The program encompasses nine sectors, namely, Science, Technology and Know-how, Pharmacology and Medicine, Costumes and Clothing, Religion and Spirituality, Mythology and Fantasy, Languages and Literature, Arts and Music, Rituals and Celebrations, Food and Gastronomy etc. It is believed that the project will deliver a pragmatic cooperation to promote people-to-people connectivity. 

Peniel Guerrier told journalists that it is hoped that the authentic dancing and singing performance brought for Chinese audience will elevate bilateral relationship and bring the hearts of two peoples ever closer.

Guests had an even deeper feeling of the charisma of Haiti and the red-hot hospitality from Ispaniola Island by dancing together with the troupe at the end of the show. 

Wu Peihe, Director of Public Affairs Department of China World Peace Foundation told reporters that he was deeply impressed by the instrument and melody from Ballet Bacoulou. He hoped that more musical exchanges can be seen between the two sides and that more outstanding masterpieces featured by both cultures can be created, so that a bridge of music can be built to connect China with Haiti. 

As an international NGO, China World Peace Foundation integrates resources from governments, businesses, academics and finances in an effort to boost friendly exchanges with governmental and non-governmental bodies. Committed in promoting reciprocal cooperation in international talents, technologies, information, capital and resources, China World Peace Foundation plays a major role in connecting people’s heart through various cultural events. 

Beijing International Peace Culture Foundation
版权所有 © 2017 bj-ipcf.org
京ICP备13037090号-1

Fearing Trump deportation, Haitians head to Canada and risk dividing their families

Jacqueline Charles

The Miami Herald

MONTREAL, CANADA

Beads of sweat trickled down her forehead as Carole Wembert dragged one bulky black-and-red suitcase and toted two other bags, the load weighing heavy on both her mind and body as she approached the border crossing.

After 15 years in the United States, the Haitian immigrant had quit her job at Walmart in Fort Lauderdale. She packed up her four children, flew 1,200 miles to New York City, took a bus for seven hours and then a taxi before finally reaching the heavily forested spot on the U.S.-Canada border that has become a word-of-mouth entry point to a new life for immigrants.

The future in Canada was uncertain, but she was pretty sure what faced her in the U.S.: deportation.

“The president doesn’t want the immigrants to stay,” Wembert said.

He was repeating the widely-held belief among some immigrant groups that President Donald Trump is closing the door to immigrants. Haitians in particular are worried because nearly 60,000 — including Wembert — have been living in the U.S. under Temporary Protected Status (TPS), the special humanitarian relief given to Haiti since its devastating 2010 earthquake left more than 300,000 dead.

The Trump administration has been increasingly signaling that it may end the status for Haitians in January. That’s fueling an unprecedented exodus of mostly Haitian migrants from the United States across a dirt and gravel-covered ditch in upstate New York to Canada.

As the illegal flow of Haitian migrants continues into Canada’s French-speaking Quebec province, many families like Wembert’s — with U.S.-born children — could face a painful dilemma, say immigration experts: What to do with their children if they are deported to Haiti.

To win an asylum claim in Canada, migrants will have to convince an independent immigration and refugee board that they would be at risk of persecution or even death if they returned to their homeland. Failure to prove it means deportation.

Despite being allowed to enter Canada, many Haitian immigrants aren’t granted asylum. “The success rate for last year, 2016, was 50 percent so you’re facing a very real risk of being refused,” said Richard Goldman, an immigration attorney with the Committee to Aid Refugees in Montreal. “It’s not an easy case to make especially if you’ve been living in the States for many years.”

Dany Laferrière, appointed Officer of the Order of Montreal

Dany Laferrière, the illustrious French-speaking writer, heavyweight of Haitian literature and academician, received a badge of the Order of Montreal from its major last week, before the celebration of the city’s 375 year anniversary.

 Denis Coderre took advantage of the celebration to honor seventeen individuals with the Order of Montreal, formerly called Academy of Great Montrealers, created in 1988 by the Montreal Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce.

"I received honors in past but never during a historic such as today," declared the Haitian author.

The medal of the Order of Montreal pays tribute to people who have "contributed in a remarkable way to the development and to the brilliance of the metropolis." Along with Dany Laferrière (native of Petit-Goâve, Haiti), two other symbolic personalities were also honored at the medal ceremony. They were Yannick Nézet-Séguin who leads an orchestra and of visual artist Françoise Sullivan.

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 30 août 2017

 The longest cave of the Caribbean is in Haiti

In addition to its soft sand, natural beaches, stunning landscapes, and its renowned cuisine, Haiti possesses about ten caves which attract tourists and add to the island’s charm. However, the very few are aware that the world’s first Black Republic also has the longest natural cave in the region.

Cave Marie-Jeanne is the longest natural excavation in the Caribbean. On the three levels that have been explored up to now, it includes 56 recorded chambers. It is also a real labyrinth of 4 kilometers of galleries staged on five levels.

Walls, ceilings and floors in this cave are covered with spéléothèmes (concrete limestones in caves) of every types and size, which are unique to tropical caves. Some researchers believe that the formation of this subterranean structure goes back up about 60 million years.

Situated in Port-à-Piment, a small municipality in the South of Haiti, Cave Marie Jeanne is the longest natural excavation in the Caribbean. To reach its entrance, which situated at 120 meter in altitude, one needs to climb the small hill that leads to it for about ten minutes. The entrance is bushy, hidden behind trees and stalks which seem to protect a treasure. This adds to the natural charm of the place and creates a steep contrast to what is discovered by penetrating inside.

Court Dismisses Remaining Lawsuit Against U.N. on Haiti Cholera

By RICK GLADSTONE

New York Times, AUG. 24, 2017

The last remaining class-action lawsuit against the United Nations over the cholera epidemic in Haiti was thrown out Thursday by a federal judge, who upheld the organization’s assertion of diplomatic immunity.

In an order filed in Federal District Court in Brooklyn, Judge Sandra L. Townes said the lawsuit, which accused the United Nations of responsibility because the cholera was introduced into Haiti by infected United Nations peacekeepers from Nepal seven years ago, had been dismissed for “lack of subject-matter jurisdiction.”

A little more than a year ago, a federal appeals court in New York dismissed the only other class-action lawsuit seeking redress for Haitians from the United Nations over the cholera epidemic. That ruling also held that the United Nations could not be sued in United States courts.

The dismissal of the Brooklyn case appeared to dash any hope by Haitian victims of the epidemic for financial compensation from the United Nations in an American court judgment.

Nearly a million Haitians have been sickened and roughly 10,000 have died from cholera since 2010. An award of damages against the United Nations could have run into many billions of dollars.

U.N. Apologizes for Role in Haiti’s 2010 Cholera Outbreak DEC. 1, 2016

The lead lawyer for the Haitians, James F. Haggerty, expressed disappointment over the dismissal but said it was “certainly likely” he would appeal.

“We firmly believe the U.S. legal system eventually bends toward justice,” Mr. Haggerty said.

Officials from the United Nations did not comment on the dismissal. But they had previously expressed confidence that the immunity argument would prevail.

Under the 1946 Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations, the organization is entitled to “immunity from every form of legal process” except when it has “expressly waived its immunity.”

Mr. Haggerty argued unsuccessfully that the United Nations previously had acknowledged liability for negligence by its peacekeeping operations, which he said amounted to a waiver of immunity in the cholera disaster.

Sunrise Airways will connect Florida to Haiti starting in October

Starting in October, the Haitian company Sunrise Airways will launch its direct flights to Orlando (MCO) and Miami (MIA).

The new service offered 3 times a week, marks the first flights of the carrier towards the United States and the first service without stopover connecting Orlando and Haiti. It is scheduled to begin on October 17^th, 2017, subject to the approval of the government.

Sunrise Airways will launch an Airbus A320 on its new flight Orlando-Port-au-Prince. The plane will offer two classes of services: business and coach, with a maximum of 150 passengers.

"For us, as an airline company, and more importantly still for the large Haitian community living in the Orlando region, these new flights are an enormous development," declared Philippe Bayard, President of Sunrise Airways. "As an airline company based in Haiti, Sunrise is particularly proud to be the first one to bring the convenience of the service without a layover between Port-au-Prince and Orlando in the Central Florida market."

A bust of Toussaint Louverture was unveiled on Wednesday, August 23^rd in Montreal

A Moment of pride occurred recently for the Haitian community of Montreal. The unveiling of the bust of Toussaints Louverture reminded everyone of the strength of the Haitian people.

This legacy in the city of Montreal symbolizes the contribution of the Haitian community for 65 years in the building of this big city. The Haitian community raised enough funds for the production of the bust. The association of taxi drivers of Montreal alone contributed a check for $ 1,000. While the base was offered by the City of Montreal, the Haitian community offered the rest. The sculptor of the piece was Dominique Dennery.

A bust of Emperor Dessalines was offered to the city of Gatineau by the Haitian Community in 2015.  Dominique Dennery also designed it.  She made a strong comeback, two years later, with the bust of Toussaints Louverture.

The graduation of a new class of Haitian soldiers in Ecuador

The Minister of Defense, Ambassador Hervé Denis, accompanied with his managing director, Colonel Louis Marcelin Daniel, visited Ecuador during the week of August 15^th, 2017, to attend the graduation of Haitian soldiers. These servicemen were trained at a training school for soldiers in Ecuador. It constitutes the 5^th class of graduating Haitian soldiers since 2012, within the framework of establishing a new national defense force for the country.

At the end of the ceremony, a working meeting took place between the Minister of Defense and his Ecuadorian Counterpart, Mister Miguel Cavajal as well as the members of the Ecuadorian army. During the meeting, Mister Denis made a presentation about the vision of the Haitian government for the new defense force as well as initiatives underway for his creation.

This meeting also was an opportunity for both parties to review the results obtained within the framework of the Agreement of Cooperation signed on September 21^st, 2012, and to define new domains of cooperation. Both Secretaries expressed their satisfaction for the positive results and shared the interest of their respective government to pursue and strengthen this cooperation.

For that reason, Ecuador promised its support for the instructors' training, which will take care of the formation of soldiers on-the-spot in Haiti. Also, specialized programs will be offered for the Haitian officers who join the medical profession, engineering, agronomy and other domains considered useful to allow the new defense force to participate fully in the efforts of national development.

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 6 septembre 2017

 NOAA's IRMA, Headed for the Caribbean including Puerto Rico, the DR, Haiti, Cuba, the neighboring islands, and probably Florida and the US East Coast...

It’s looking more likely that Hurricane Irma will affect the U.S. coast — potentially making a direct landfall — starting Friday. The powerful storm strengthened slightly overnight, and as of Monday morning was a powerful Category 3 storm with maximum sustained winds of 120 mph. As it tracks west toward the Caribbean, hurricane warnings have been issued for portions of the Leeward Islands and hurricane watches are in place for Puerto Rico.

Additional advisories will probably be issued later Monday as the forecasted track of Irma becomes more clear.

Irma has entered into a favorable environment for strengthening, with warm sea surface temperatures and favorable upper-level winds allowing the storm to intensify even more over the next 24 hours. As of 11 a.m. Monday, the National Hurricane Center predicted the storm will pass just north of the island of St. John on Wednesday morning as a Category 4 with winds over 130 mph.

Late Sunday afternoon, Hurricane Hunters began regular flights into Irma, providing extremely valuable data that has improved forecasts. The immediate track of Irma through the middle of the week is not much of a question at this point; an area of high pressure is firmly in place over the central Atlantic, preventing Irma from recurving and escaping out to sea. That high won’t move much over the next several days, steering Irma due west into the Leeward Islands by midweek.

Overnight, both the American and European models started to show more consistency in a forecasted track for Irma that increases the chances of impacts on the U.S. coast. Irma will probably continue to be suppressed by the strong Atlantic high pressure beyond Wednesday, keeping the storm at major hurricane status and on a trajectory that places the storm in close proximity to Florida by next weekend.

Miss Haiti 2017

Cassandra Chéry was crowned as the winner of the Miss Haiti 2017 pageant at Marriott hotel in Port au Prince last Saturday.

Chéry, 21, was born in Port-au-Prince. She is a model and student in communication. She succeeds Raquel Pelissier, Miss Haiti 2016.

The Miss Haiti contest is the national beauty pageant of Haiti. It is responsible for selecting the country's representatives to the Miss World, Miss International, Miss Globe, MTQI, International Coffee Queen, Panamerican Queen of the Sugar cane pageants (among others).

257 NGOs (NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION) have been prohibited from operating in Haiti

Published 2017-09-01 ¦ Le Nouvelliste

The Moïse-Lafontant administration wants to regulate NGOs (NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION) and international agencies according to its priorities and the needs for the Haitian people.

The announcement was made by the Secretary of the Planning and External Cooperation (MPCE), Aviol Fleurant, last Friday. He reminded that President Jovenel Moïse, considers it essential to take the country away from a status of continually receiving assistance, and instead move it towards development.

To NGOs, Aviol Fleurant set two requirements. First, he indicated that these institutions have to finance what the Haitian people need and not what they consider necessary. Second, the assistance they provide must be within the framework of some leadership from the Haitian government," he explained.

In a nutshell, Aviol Fleurant stressed that the public aid in development has to pass though governmental channels, or the government will reject it. "These requirements are justified based on the trust that the Haitian people have placed in this administration… and this government’s ongoing battle to fight corruption," he said.

At the moment, only 370 NGOs are complying with the requirements of the Haitian government, reported the Secretary. These NGOs regularly submit reports about their work. On the other hand, he denounced other NGOs that haven’t published reports in more than 10 years and continue to work and to benefit from exemption of customs duties. Consequently, by virtue of the decree of September 14^th, 1989, the government is revoking the authorization of 257 NGOs to function. A press release stating their names will be published in the media and in the official newspaper “The Monitor.”

Fleurant wants to reassure international partners. “We do not want chase away in NGOs,” he says. However, he indicated that this administration intends to redefine a partnership with these NGOs and international development agencies.

The government of the United States hands over the keys of the police station of Terrier Rouge to the National Police Force of Haiti

For her first public appearance in Haiti, the account manager of the U.S. Embassy in Haiti, Robin Diallo, underlined the important role of the National police in Haiti.  She asserted the commitment of the United States to support the growth and the development of this institution.

By participating in the inauguration of the police station of Terrier Rouge in the department of the Northeast, together with the Managing Director of the Haitian National Police Force (PNH), Michel-Angel Gédéon, the Mayor of Terriere Rouge, Marie Evena Daniel Pompilus, and in the presence of local authorities and of the representatives of the international community, Diallo greeted the leadership and the efforts of the PNH to insure the safety of the Haitian population by asserting: "The National police force of Haiti has the trust of its leaders, their commanders, the international community and, especially, the citizens whom it serves and protects.”

She added, ”The United States remains firm in its commitment to support the men and  women of this institution, while they build a stable platform for a more prosperous Haiti.”

The building of the police station launched in September, 2016, was financed by the government of the United States through of the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL). The U.S. Embassy handed over the keys of this building to PNH. This will allow it to maintain the law and order in the region and to strengthen the relations of the PNH with the local community which it is called to serve.

The United States has supported efforts for safety in Haiti for twenty years and completed other infrastructure projects to build police stations and prisons throughout the country, including Port-de-Paix, Cabaret, Cayes and Petit-Goâve.

Haitians abroad give their country $2 billion a year. Now the government wants more.

BY JACQUELINE CHARLES

Cette adresse e-mail est protégée contre les robots spammeurs. Vous devez activer le JavaScript pour la visualiser.

In 1765, colonists living in America and Canada were expected to pay into the treasury of the British monarch, sparking the famous no-taxation-without-representation rallying cry and, ultimately, the American Revolution.

Now 250-odd years later, Haitians from Miami to Montreal are embroiled in their own tax revolt. The Haitian government is seeking to levy a universal tax on all its citizens, on and off the island.

And even though it’s a small amount — 10,000 gourdes or $159annually, depending on the exchange rate — the reaction has been no less vehement. For some 2 million Haitians living abroad, who already contribute $2 billion a year in remittances, essentially doubling the country’s annual budget, the insult is clear.

“We need to retaliate,” said Dr. Lesly Kernisant, a New York gynecologist, whose emailed French post entitled “Diaspora: Enough is Enough” in response to the proposal went viral. “We’re not retaliating against our people, but Haitian leaders because they don’t seem to get it.”

Anger erupted last week after the new tax was leaked on social media. It is among several new revenue schemes — fee hikes for property ownership, passports and traffic infractions, and marketing $285 million in bonds to the diaspora, among others — that Haitian President Jovenel Moïse and Prime Minister Jack Guy Lafontant are proposing in their ambitious $2.2 billion draft budget. The budget also includes a 74 percent boost in salaries, cars, staff and travel per diem for members of parliament.

After the fee was dubbed by critics as a “diaspora tax,” its defenders — from the head of the Haitian IRS to the minister of finance to one of the country’s best-known comedians and government supporter, Tonton Bicha — took to the airwaves and social media. They denounced as untrue rumors that Haitians living abroad would be forced to pay as soon as they arrive at the airport in much the same way visitors must now pay a $10 tourist tax.

Paying taxes, presidential spokesman Lucien Jura said in a Facebook video post, is the price of citizenship.

“Haitians living abroad, what you should know is that Haiti is your country” he said in the message directed at the diaspora. “You can enter [Haiti] as freely as you wish. But if you come from abroad and you come to do a transaction in your country, which is Haiti, purchasing a house, purchasing a car, purchasing land, that means you are someone who has some means. Since you aren’t working in Haiti and there is no real way to evaluate your revenue ...the government has fixed [an amount] for you and generally any foreigner who has come to do a transaction in the country.”

The explanation, however, has done little to satisfy people like Kernisant who is threatening to organize a diaspora-wide boycott of Haiti — “No airlines and money transfers. ...We essentially will paralyze the country” — to teach the government a lesson, if it insists on enforcing the tax.

“I understand you need the tax,” he said. “But if I have to pay taxes, I should at least be able to contribute to the political structure of Haiti. ...Taxation without representation will no longer be acceptable.”

It’s not the money, Haitians say. There is universal agreement that Haiti, which already collects one of the highest taxes on airline tickets in the Caribbean region at $88.90, can use the cash. It’s still reeling from last year’s strike by Category 4 Hurricane Matthew along its southern peninsula and struggling to rebuild from the 2010 earthquake amid a 50 percent drop in foreign aid.

But the lack of accountability and transparency about how the country’s leaders will use the money is unacceptable, they say.

19-Year-Old Haitian-Japanese Tennis Player Pulls an Upset and Defeats U.S. Open Champion

Tennis can be a thrilling sport in and of itself, so when an upset happens… it’s peak excitement! People love rooting for the underdog in general, so upsets are popular in any competition.

Meet Naomi Osaka. Osaka is a 19-year-old 6th seed (No. 45) Haitian-Japanese tennis player. Recently, Osaka’s life changed in a moment after she pulled a huge upset and defeated reigning U.S. Open champion Angelique Kerber. And this happened in the first round with Osaka as a wild card.

Not only did she win, but she blew Kerber out of the water: 6-3, 6-1. Game, set, match! No one saw this coming. Nevertheless, Osaka lost this past Saturday in the U.S. Open’s third round to Kaia Kanepi.

Osaka was born in Osaka, Japan’s second city, to a Haitian father and Japanese mother. When Naomi was three, her family moved to New York to be close to her dad’s family. Naomi currently lives and trains predominantly in Florida with her father, though she also spends some time in Japan with coaches from the Japanese Tennis Association.

When she began to develop into a top-rate tennis player a few years ago, her father, Leonard Francois, chose the Japanese Tennis Association over the United States Tennis Association because of Naomi’s dual passport. She’s played under the Japanese flag ever since and is one of the country’s most highly touted rising stars but she barely speaks the language.

Osaka made her breakthrough on the WTA Tour two years ago when she qualified as a 406th-ranked 16-year-old for the Bank of the West Classic in Stanford, California, and beat former U.S. Open champion Samantha Stosur in the first round. At the 2016 Australian Open, the now current ranked No. 127 Osaka came through qualification to reach the main draw. In the second round, she defeated the No. 18 seed.

Unsurprisingly, Osaka really looks up to Serena Williams. And Williams is out here giving her props. “I have seen her play. She’s really young and really aggressive. She’s a really good, talented player. Very dangerous,” Williams said of Osaka, who recorded a 125 mph serve at the 2016 U.S. Open, which is something only eight other women have done. Osaka is winning all around!

Given her young age, Osaka is definitely someone to watch!

Source: USA Today, www.curlynikki.com & www.lunionsuite.com

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 13 septembre 2017

 Miguel County Sheriff's Office)

Abuse charges filed after 2 girls found dead on Colorado farm

HAITIANS INVOLVED

Five adults are behind bars after authorities found the bodies of two children in what they are calling a shocking case of child abuse.

The girls were between the ages of 5 and 10 and they were found dead Friday on a farm in rural southwestern Colorado. Investigators say they believe the girls were killed at least two weeks ago.

“In my 37 years as Sheriff, I have never seen anything as cruel and heartless as this,” San Miguel County Sheriff Bill Masters said.

A tip led deputies to the farm in Norwood, population 500. The town is about 35 miles west of the ski resort town of Telluride.

 “This is a small, tight-knit community and understandably this kind of crime has sent shockwaves through it,” Susan Lilly, a spokeswoman for Masters, told Fox News.

Nashika Bramble surrendered to cops Saturday.

Authorities arrested the other four adults Friday. They were identified as Frederick Blair, 23, of Norwood, Madani Ceus, 37, of Haiti, Ika Edne, 53, of Jamaica and Nathan Yah, 50, of Haiti.

Lilly wouldn’t say if Ceus, Edne or Yah were in the country illegaly. She said they recently moved to the area, according to The Associated Press.

Bramble and the others have been charged with felony child abuse causing death.

Twitter Ads info and privacy

Authorities weren’t saying how the girls were killed.

San Miguel County coroner Emil Sante told Fox News on Sunday that autopsy results are pending.

He said believes the girls were related and that they were related to one of the accused.

Sante said the bodies of the two girls were badly decomposed.

New US Charge d’Affaires meets President Moïse

Chargé d’Affaires Robin Diallo pays a courtesy call on President Jovenel Moise to discuss the broad range of U.S. – Haiti partnerships. The occasion gave the United States to confirm to Haiti that we stand by Haiti as Hurricane Irma approaches.

Lawmakers will ask Trump to extend TPS to Caribbean nations

WASHINGTON 

A bipartisan group of lawmakers, including Miami Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, are urging President Donald Trump to allow people in the United States but from Caribbean countries hit by Hurricane Irma to stay here for a temporary period.

Ros-Lehtinen, along with New York Democrat Eliot Engel and California Democrat Barbara Lee are circulating a letter to colleagues in Congress over the weekend asking them to support extending what’s known as Temporary Protected States to affected countries, including the Dominican Republic and Antigua and Barbuda.

On Monday, they will send the letter to Trump.

“While Congress and the Administration work to provide relief for those affected by devastation from Irma in our own country, we must also support our friends in the Caribbean,” the draft letter, obtained by Miami Herald, said. “As the storm moves away from the first-impacted islands, the casualty toll is slowly rising as deaths have been reported in Barbuda and Saint Martin. The economies of the affected areas have been completely destroyed and will take years to rebuild.”

Haiti: Hurricane Irma destroys a hundred houses

Express.fr with AFP

The eye of the hurricane skirted the Haitian coast last Friday. At least two people were hurt but there were no reported deaths, according to preliminary report estimates.

Its arrival was dreaded by the authorities and the population.

Nevertheless, the category 5 hurricane that decreased to a category 4, still brought strong floods, and destroyed about a hundred houses. 

Irma caused a storm surge in the northeast of the island, where strong winds peeled off roofs, according to the disaster and emergency services. It also caused two people to be injured after a coconut tree fell on their home in a locality near Cap-Haïtien.

Waters levels rose of 30 centimeters in the municipality of Ouanaminthe, on the border with the Dominican Republic.

"The considerable deforestation" could have provoked landslides, explained Emile Martin to L’Express. Martin is in charge of emergencies for Care France. “Fortunately nothing of this kind was recorded. For once Haiti was fortunate!”

Barbuda declared uninhabitable after the passage of Hurricane Irma

The island underwent tremendous devastation with 95 percent of its homes destroyed or damaged. 

Certain houses were totally demolished with destroyed roofs. The island is currently under water, and its public utilities have also been compromised.

Prime Minister Gaston Browne toured the island following Hurricane Irma and saw firsthand the damage the island experienced.

During an interview on Facebook Live, Browne declared that the island is practically uninhabitable because there is no water, electricity, or telecommunications. 

He said that it would cost more than 150 million Euros to rebuild the island, and that the process will take years.

He declared that after having estimated the damage, the 1,800 people living on the island could be welcomed by relatives in Antigua, or for those who couldn’t, the government should rent private buildings. Sixty percent of the island’s residents are homeless, he revealed.

Browne praised the hurricane preparations in Antigua, which resulted in minimal damage. He said he wanted to cry when he saw the destruction in Barbuda. After noticing how much Antigua had been spared, he never thought there would be such a contrast.

"It was terrifying,” he said.

Browne’s visit of the island revealed a destroyed cellular tower. He reported that an emergency radio and a satellite radio were also destroyed during the storm.

The U.S. could learn a lot from Cuba about preparing for hurricanes

How can a small island in the Caribbean, with few resources, undertake the challenge of protecting its population from extreme weather conditions better than some of the richest countries?

Cuba is the largest and most populated island in the Caribbean yet it consistently experiences the lowest death tolls during hurricane season. According to the United Nations, it's not because Cubans are lucky but because they're prepared. According to Oxfam, from 1996-2002, only 16 people were killed by the six hurricanes that struck Cuba.

Cuba has a world-class meteorological institute, with 15 provincial offices. They share data with US scientists and project storm tracks. Around 72 hours before a storm’s predicted landfall, national media issue alerts while civil protection committees check evacuation plans and shelters. Hurricane awareness is taught in schools and there are practice drills for the public before each hurricane season.

State run television and the civil defense authority broadcast to the population with information and instructions about what measures to take. Each residential block has a person assigned to take a census on who is being evacuated to which shelter, with special attention paid to the elderly, and pregnant women, and as efforts are organized locally, compliance is increased.

Gail Reed is the editor-in-chief of Medic Review, a peer review publication that evaluates health and medicine in Latin America, the Caribbean and other developing countries. She is also a journalist who has lived more than thirty years in Cuba. She provided an overview of Cuba’s successful strategy for hurricane preparation.

"Hurricanes warn you several days in advance", explained Reed.  “The Cuban government gives seven days of warning during which communities have multiple opportunities to get ready for the worst.”

Above all, Reed explained, "Cuba puts an enormous accent on the education of the population "to guarantee the safety of communities and families, in particular the most vulnerable.

"A taxi driver can tell you that it is a category 5 hurricane, and he will give you a complete conference on what to do to get ready," she explained.

The journalist also found that today Cuba speaks less of evacuation but concentrates rather on "protection," which includes the strengthening of a "local school" capable of welcoming the local communities and their pets.

She said that contrary to the populations of Texas and Louisiana affected by Hurricane Harvey, who have to ask for a federal help, the Cubans, in spite of their inferior economic resources, do not feel abandoned "come what may", nor subjected to excessive market prices for essential goods, as what people experienced in Texas recently.

The "low losses in lives and property" in Cuba, underlined Reed, are generally significantly less than what we saw in important disasters such as Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Harvey. And the reason is this level of preparation, said Reed.

According to Reed, the Cuban approach for a prevention policy demonstrates a thoughtful vision of the pure power of nature and the impact of climate change. The U.S. philosophy of help in case of disaster, on the other hand, is more of a reflection afterward which does not recognize human weaknesses.

Reed recalled how, in 2005, Cuba, which underwent more than half a century of U.S. economic blockade, offered to send 1,500 medical professionals from the “Henry Reeves” Brigade to help the population of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. However, former president George W. Bush quickly rejected the offer.

Information from Wikepedia contributed to this report

Irma mostly spared Haiti. But for struggling farmers, the damages are devastating

BY JACQUELINE CHARLES

Cette adresse e-mail est protégée contre les robots spammeurs. Vous devez activer le JavaScript pour la visualiser.

SAINT-LOUIS-DU-NORD, HAITI 

The morning after Hurricane Irma skirted Haiti’s northern coast, Artis Esperance walked his farm land and tried to salvage what the menacing Category 5 storm — and thieves — hadn’t already claimed.

For the second time in 11 months, Mother Nature had dealt a crippling blow to Haiti. Last year, it was the slow-moving and powerful Hurricane Matthew, which made landfall on Haiti’s southern tip. It wiped out farms and livestock in the southwest and Grand’Anse and here in the northwest with its 145-mph winds and heavy rains.

Now, a record-breaking Irma, en route to the Turks and Caicos and Bahamas before turning toward Florida, had blown away what little produce he and other farmers in the region had managed to grow.

“This storm didn’t even leave one tree with food on it for us to eat,” said an exasperated Esperance, 41, holding a rusty machete in one hand and an overripe breadfruit in the other, not far from one of his farms. “This has taken food out of the mouths of my children.”

Though Haiti was spared a direct hit from Irma and the fallout is nowhere near the magnitude of Matthew’s 546 dead and $2.8 billion in washed-out roads, collapsed bridges and destroyed crops, the frustration and fears for some in its path are no less.

“We didn’t have people who died, but homes and farms were destroyed,” Esperance said. “Just because you don’t see a lot of damages, it doesn’t mean that we haven’t been left deeper in misery.”

The northwest, which was already one of the poorest regions of the poverty-stricken country along with the northeast, was overlooked after Matthew, with attention focused more on the harder-hit Grand’Anse and southwest regions. Northwest farmers, left to fend for themselves, struggled to rebuild, replanting banana, avocado and yam crops to make ends meet.

Then came the worst storm ever recorded in the Atlantic. Irma flooded northern villages from as far west as Môle-Saint-Nicolas to as far east as Ounaminthe on the Haiti-Dominican Republic border. In between, it ripped off roofs, damaged roads and cut off connections between major cities and farming communities.

“If this hurricane had come with a lot of rain, a good amount of people here would be dead,” said Neckson Joseph, 21, a motorcycle taxi driver. “There wasn’t a lot of rain, but there was this strong wind. We had this kitchen outside, covered with aluminum. It didn’t even leave a beam standing.”

Joseph was among scores of storm survivors standing near the banks of a swollen Rivière des Barres in Saint-Louis-du-Nord, a coastal village east of Port-de-Paix, the capital of the northwest. The rising river connects the northwest to the north. Seven communities in the northeast still remained flooded days after Irma’s passage.

Joseph said Irma had felled banana trees, thrown breadfruit and avocados to the ground and swallowed homes along the coast. It also left the coastal villages of Anse-à-Foleur and Côte-de-Fer, and Borgne in the mountains, inundated and cut off from Saint-Louis-du-Nord and Port-de-Paix. The storm also washed out the parts of the road that leads to Jean-Rabel and Môle-Saint-Nicolas in the far west.

“If you really want to see what this storm did, just go walk through the rural outskirts,” Joseph said pointing to the rural inlands on the other side of the Rivière des Barres.

But much closer than that, just west of the Riviere des Barres in Trois Rivières at the entrance of Port-de-Paix, entire banana fields lay in ruin, barely matured plantains strewn on the ground.

“We don’t have any farm,” Camelia Ambroz, 70, said as she and her husband, Charite Almeus, 78, tried to salvage what they could as they walked through soggy, fallen banana branches. “It took everything.”

The couple, who work the land for someone else, said the crops were new, planted shortly after Matthew destroyed the last crop, and had only needed two more months to mature.

 “When you’re poor and you don’t have anything,” Almeus said, “this is what allows you to live. But what can you do? It’s God’s work and you have to accept it.”

Fritz Jean, an economist who was appointed as prime minister last year but forced to step down after parliament refused to ratify his governance plan for the country, said the vicious cycle of disaster upon disaster in Haiti is making Haitians poorer — and not just farmers.

In the case of farmers, it is leading to “uncertainty in regard to the agricultural production cycle,” he said. “The peasant knows less and less when to sow [and] less and less land becomes available.”

On Friday, when Irma’s red alert — Haiti’s highest level of threat — was finally lifted and a contingent of U.N. Brazilian peacekeepers, making the 200-mile trek from Port-au-Prince, rolled into the northwest, the non-profit group Action Against Hunger warned that a fair amount of the population living in the five regions affected by Irma will feel the impact.

The damages will be extremely difficult for vulnerable, small-scaled farmers in the northwest, the group said.