Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 3 juin 2020

 Africa reacts to George Floyd death

US diplomats in Africa have said they are “profoundly troubled” by the death of George Floyd, in response to outrage from across the continent

According to reporting by the Associated Press, ambassadors and embassies in five different African countries have issued statements following the death of 46-year-old Floyd this week at the hands of Minneapolis police.

Diplomats spoke up as the head of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, condemned the “murder” of Floyd and said his organisation rejects the “continuing discriminatory practices against black citizens of the USA”.

The US ambassador to Congo, Mike Hammer, highlighted a tweet from a local media entrepreneur who addressed him saying, “Dear ambassador, your country is shameful. Proud America, which went through everything from segregation to the election of Barack Obama, still hasn’t conquered the demons of racism. How many black people must be killed by white police officers before authorities react seriously?”

The ambassador’s response, in French, said: “I am profoundly troubled by the tragic death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The Justice Department is conducting a full criminal investigation as a top priority. Security forces around the world should be held accountable. No one is above the law.”

Similar statements were tweeted by the US embassies in Kenya and Uganda, while the embassies in Tanzania and Kenya tweeted a joint statement from the Department of Justice office in Minnesota on the investigation.

Updated at 7.05am EDT

           
FANM

Save The Date For Our June TPS Summit!

Family Action Network Movement (FANM) and Florida Immigrant Coalition (FLIC) would like to cordially invite you to attend our annual TPS Summit on June 19th, 2020, at 11:00 a.m. It will take place virtually via Zoom. 

As you know, 300,000 TPS recipients from Haiti, Honduras, El Salvador, and other nations may face removal early 2021. We are inviting you to lend your voice to our efforts to find a permanent solution that will allow them to stay in the United States and contribute to its social, economic and political fabric, which most have doing for an average of 15 to 30 years. You are also invited to a press conference immediately following the plenary session at 12 p.m. 

If you need further information, do not hesitate to contact FAMN. 

We hope you can join us!

FANM Urged ICE To Halt the Deportation Of Mass Murderer Emmanuel “Toto” Constant And COVID-19 Positive Detainees To Haiti On Tuesday, May 26th 2020.  

The flight manifest for ICE’s Tuesday, May 26th deportation flight from Brownsville, Texas to Haiti includes 78 names, among them notorious former death squad leader and U.S. criminal Emmanuel “Toto” Constant.  Emmanuel “Toto” Constant has been linked to the murders of at least 3,000 people in Haiti. He has not served his full 37 year sentence in the United States and his presence in Haiti now would be highly destabilizing. In addition, at least nine of the 78 scheduled deportees recently tested positive for coronavirus. Their presence risks turning the flight into a vector for coronavirus transmission among the other passengers, crew, and in Haiti itself. Family Action Network Movement (FANM) and other community leaders urged The Trump Administration to put a moratorium on deportations to Haiti and all other nations.

Marleine Bastien, Executive Director of Family Action Network Movement (FANM), stated, “The deportation of Emmanuel “Toto” Constant to Haiti endangers the entire country. Constant is a renowned human rights violator and his return during this time of crisis would cause even more political upheaval and chaos in Haiti. Deporting him and the nine sick detainees sets a dangerous precedent and the repercussions are irreparable.”

Daniella Levine Cava, County Commissioner District 8, stated, “ I am outraged once again. I am outraged and ashamed of the practices of detaining people in inhumane conditions during a pandemic. I am outraged that it was delayed so long at the federal level to offer testing. Release is really what's needed. These are not people who have committed crimes. All of that is shameful. It is shameful to create the risk of disease spread not only to those who are together in detention but also to the employees who then carry it home to their families and loved ones promoting community spread. This is a totally irresponsible lack of action and denial on the part of ICE when it comes to the COVID pandemic for those that are in their custody and that I decry.” 

Marie Paule Woodson, FANM Board Chair, stated, “We have seen how much this pandemic is ravaging the United States, who is one of the greatest nations on Earth. Just think of Haiti, where you don't have a healthcare system that works for the people, where you don't have the infrastructure that is needed, where people are walking on the streets. You cannot find sanitizers in the United States of America. Think about Haiti. What can you find? Now ICE has made the decision to send Emmanuel “Toto” Constant to Haiti. I want people to get this clearly. It’s not that we are saying not to deport a mass murderer. That's not what we are saying. We are saying that this is not the time to send someone who has committed such atrocities. We are saying that the United States has a better prison system where he can stay and not harm anybody else. Second, because of COVID, deporting so many COVID detainees to Haiti would make the matter worse.”  

Brian Concannon, former Executive Director of The Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH), stated, “The US is planning to tomorrow promote injustice in Haiti, once again. Emmanuel Constant has been found responsible for mass murder, rape and grand larceny by three courts in two countries. When Haiti's government was willing and able to prosecute Constant 20 years ago, the US refused to deport him once he threatened to reveal the details of CIA support for his FRAPH death squad. Haiti now has a government that is engaging in the same type of attacks against pro-democracy activists that Constant and FRAPH committed in the 1990s. Sending Constant back to Haiti in the current context is endangering the lives of democracy supporters throughout the country."

Steve Forester, Immigration Policy Coordinator for IJDH, stated, “The United States is disrespecting and endangering Haiti and its people by intending to deport known coronavirus-positive persons. Haitian President Moise should follow the advice of his scientific advisors by halting deportations from the United States during the pandemic, which threatens to devastate an ill-prepared Haiti.” 

Tessa Petit,  Executive Director of Hatian American Community Development Corporation (HACDC), stated, “Haiti is now at the state where it has on average 98-100 new cases per day. Haiti is now facing what the people in the biggest slums of Port-Au-Prince are calling a fever epidemic. People are collapsing while walking up and down the streets. I’ve seen videos of ambulances driving by and picking up dead bodies on the side of the road. This is how bad it is. Any more people who are COVID-19 positive would just make the situation worse.”  

Call President Trump today at 202-456-1111 and demand the President put a moratorium on all deportations to Haiti and other nations during this pandemic.  Please Call your Representatives today as well. 

Family Action Network Movement (FANM) formerly known as Fanm Ayisyen Nan Miyami, Inc)/ Haitian Women of Miami is a private not-for-profit organization dedicated to the social, economic, financial and political empowerment of low to moderate-income families to give them the tools to transform their communities.

In Unity,

Marleine Bastien, MSW, LCSW

Executive Director

Family Action Network Movement (FANM)

How are migrants tested before deportation?

      Jacqueline Charles Monique Madan

      Miami Herald Mai 29^th 2020

The Department of Homeland Security is only testing a sample of the detainees it is removing from the United States and using a 15-minute rapid test to determine if they have the coronavirus.

The response by DHS to a Miami Herald inquiry comes as immigration advocates continue to call for an end to deportations amid surging COVID-19 infections in Latin America and the Caribbean and as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warns about the accuracy of the test being used, called the Abbott ID NOW. 

Earlier this month, the FDA cautioned that early data “suggests potential inaccurate results from using the Abbott ID NOW point-of-care test to diagnose COVID-19. Specifically, the test may return false negative results.”

Made by Abbott Laboratories, the test, promoted by the Trump administration, is said to provide inaccurate results that could have patients falsely believing they are not infected with the coronavirus. 

In response to the FDA’s warning, a spokesperson with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said their health officials were “provided the rapid tests through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.”

Guatemala’s government has confirmed that some returning migrants are still testing positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, since being deported by ICE. All arrive with clean bill of health documents showing they had tested negative for COVID-19.

The infections were detected after the Guatemalan health ministry did a random testing of the arriving detainees, all of whom are supposed to be tested by ICE before deportation under a protocol negotiated by the Guatemalan government with the Trump administration.

In April, Guatemala created a political firestorm when it suspended deportations from the U.S. until the Trump administration agreed to test all of its migrants before returning them. The announcement was made after health officials reported that at least 70 deported Guatemalan migrants tested positive for COVID-19 upon arrival. 

Darcy Ross, of Abbott, defended the test, saying “studies suggest ID NOW performs best in patients tested earlier post symptom onset” and “delivers results in minutes rather than days, [allowing] people with symptoms to take action before they infect others.”

Abbot ID NOW is among nearly 70 rapid tests that have been granted emergency authorization from the FDA to test for COVID-19. But as the U.S. begins to reopen and testing for the virus expands, questions have emerged about the accuracy of such tests.

Dr. Tim Stenzel, director of the FDA’s Office of In Vitro Diagnostics and Radiological Health, warned: “Negative results may need to be confirmed with a high-sensitivity authorized molecular test.”

Immigration activists say the fact that DHS is trying to find a cheaper and faster alternative to testing for migrants in their custody prior to deporting them does not address their criticism that the Trump administration is exporting COVID-19 to vulnerable countries and endangering their populations.

“It shows how little ICE is concerned about spreading COVID-19 to other countries,” said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy counsel with the Washington-based American Immigration Council. 

Ur M. Jaddou, director of DHS Watch, a project of America’s Voice, another immigration advocacy group, added: “It’s all really concerning; first of all the sampling and secondly, the type of testing they are using.”

Since the coronavirus started spreading across the U.S. in March, the U.S. has operated 135 deportation flights into the region, Jake Johnston of the Center for Economic and Policy Research told members of congress Friday.

Scores of migrants have been deported back to their home countries after the Trump administration warned foreign governments that they risk sanctions like visa cancellations if they refuse to accept their nationals. Haiti, Mexico, Guatemala and Jamaica, which received a flight on Thursday, have all reported COVID-19 infections in returning migrants. 

After Guatemala stopped accepting deportees, the Trump administration deployed a team from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to the country to investigate its testing methodology.

After the CDC confirmed there were indeed detainees with the virus, Guatemala negotiated to have all of its nationals tested before they’re deported from the U.S. ICE said it has been testing all Guatemalan migrants since April 26 prior to removing them from the U.S. 

In late April, ICE said it would acquire approximately 2,000 tests a month from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, but warned that given the nationwide shortages, it likely “won’t have enough to test all aliens scheduled for future removals.”

On Tuesday, DHS recited the same national shortage problem, but specified that only a “sample” of detainees are being tested prior to boarding ICE flights.

“Under such a scenario, ICE would test a sample of the population and provide the respective foreign government with results,” an ICE spokesperson said in an email.

ICE confirmed that it removed 30 Haitian nationals from the United States on Tuesday. It tested only 16 detainees, a spokesperson said, and one of them tested positive after being issued a rapid test. The detainee was not deported and instead returned to a detention facility, ICE said. 

But at least eight of the detainees on that ICE Air deportation flight, Haiti’s eighth since February, had recently tested positive for the coronavirus and at least one reported having a fever, difficulty breathing symptoms and pain in his chest and legs. He was among those deported, advocates say.

During a federal court hearing in Miami on Wednesday, a U.S. Department of Justice attorney representing ICE told a federal judge that the agency is not conducting COVID-19 testing on every detainee who gets transferred from one detention center to another. Instead, he said, ICE is only testing people who have symptoms — a protocol that has led the agency to transfer detainees who are asymptomatic while infected with the virus.

“Additionally, in an effort to avoid removing aliens with active COVID-19 cases, on April 26, 2020, ICE began testing some aliens in custody and prior to removal,” the agency said in a statement. “Where DHS/ICE deems detainee testing is warranted/appropriate by specific bilateral agreement, ICE coordinates with foreign governments to prioritize testing of detainees per evolving operational considerations.” 

Immigration advocates say that while the U.S. embassy in Port-au-Prince has shared ICE’s protocol with the Haitian government and Congress, it failed to specify that rapid tests were being used or that only a sample of the Haitians slated for deportation were being tested. 

“It’s inexcusable for ICE to test a small fraction of detainees and then deport, relying on a test the FDA calls unreliable because it gives false negatives,” said Steve Forester, immigration policy coordinator for the Boston-based Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti.

According to the protocol, individuals scheduled for removal to Haiti will be tested by ICE for COVID-19 within 72 hours of their departure from the U.S. Anyone testing positive will be removed from the flight. Prior to the flight’s boarding, a DHS nurse rechecks each individual’s written medical document, which includes the results, to ensure all are negative. A copy of the clean bill of health summary for each detainee is provided to the Haitian ministry of health representative upon the flight’s arrival in Port-au-Prince.

The concerns of immigration activists is bolstered by reports from detainees and their families that even after testing positive for COVID-19, they are not always given a retest to ensure they are negative before being returned to the general population.

They also note that Haiti, which has a limited number of tests and has started to see infections sharply rise, does not endorse rapid testing due to the probability for false negatives. “Our position on rapid testing has not changed,” said Dr. Jean William “Bill” Pape, the co-president of a presidential commission overseeing the COVID-19 response in Haiti. 

Ashish Jha, director of Harvard’s Global Health Institute, said that not testing all detainees is “the biggest problem of all.”

“This is part of a broader problem of having such little testing capacity in our country. Everybody is having to choose between bad choices,” Jha said. “But sampling does not get you out of this. By not testing everyone you are running a major risk in spreading the virus not just to those that are healthy on the plane but to other countries.”

U.S. Congresswoman Frederica Wilson, D-Miami, shared Jha’s concerns. She was unaware, she said, that DHS was using rapid testing, or only testing a handful of detainees being returned to Haiti. 

“Most of our airplanes are grounded because air traffic is not safe. What makes them think the airports are safe for detainees? They are still human beings; why expose them? What is the purpose of this?” Wilson said.

On Friday, Wilson hosted a virtual forum on Haiti, titled: “An Impending Crisis: COVID-19 in Haiti, Ongoing Instability, and the Dangers of Continued U.S. Deportations..” The event featured House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel, activists and planning experts and other lawmakers representing large Haitian-American constituencies. 

The ongoing deportations to Haiti, which is starting to run out of available beds for infected coronavirus patients, led the discussions. As lawmakers expressed support for Wilson’s Haitian Deportation Relief Act, which calls for the suspension of the removals, they, along with the invited speakers, also accused the Trump administration of being inhumane and making an already bad situation in Haiti worse.

“Haiti is facing a crisis right now and the Trump administration’s cruel deportation policy is adding fuel to the fire,” said Engel, D-NY “It’s downright barbaric the Trump administration has been deporting Haitian nationals with coronavirus back to a country we all know is too fragile to handle a serious outbreak.” 

Wilson said Republican senators are her biggest obstacle to getting the legislation passed, so she and other supporters of her bill are asking voters to tell their senators to pass it.

“Why are we moving people around during this virus knowing we have cases of coronavirus in the detention centers, and among staff? What is the point?” Wilson said. “Let everyone shelter in place, treat those who show symptoms, test those who are exposed and leave the people alone. I don’t understand the method behind the madness of deporting people during a pandemic.”

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 23 juin 2020

 Haitian Chinese Student Kristine Guillaume Becomes Harvard Crimson’s First Black Woman Editor

November 29, 2018

A black woman will lead Harvard University’s prestigious student newspaper for the first time since it was founded in 1873.

Haitian-Chinese student, Kristine E. Guillaume, 20, made history as the newly elected president of The Harvard Crimson. Her upcoming post has made headlines since it was announced earlier this month. Guillaume becomes the third black editor and the first black women editor, The New York Times reported, in the paper’s 145-year history.

The Crimson, which is the United State’s oldest daily student paper, has been edited by former US presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, former Microsoft head Steve Ballmer and CNN head Jeff Zucker among others.

Guillaume was appointed to this role after promising to guide the paper, which has struggled with diversity, “toward a more diverse, digital future,” the New York Times reports.

“If my being elected to The Crimson presidency as the first black woman affirms anyone’s sense of belonging at Harvard,” she says, “then that will continue to affirm the work that I’m doing.”

She took to Twitter to share the historic and exciting news with her followers:

Born to a Chinese mother and Haitian father, both immigrants and physicians, Guillaume says that she developed an interest in journalism while growing up in Queens. On Sundays, Guillaume’s father would take her and her younger sister to a diner and ask them to read Times’ columns by David Brooks and Paul Krugman.

“Both of my parents have a strong emphasis on education and knowing what’s going on in the world around us,” says Guillaume, a junior majoring in literature, history and African-American studies.

US: HAITI LACKS FISCAL TRANSPARENCY

SUMMARY HAÏTI REPORT*

Haiti:  As the government was in caretaker status for nine of the 12 months of the review period, there were no budget documents.  Information on debt obligations was publicly available.  In the past, publicly available budget documents did not provide a substantially complete picture of the government’s planned expenditures and revenue streams, including natural resource revenues.  

The budget did not provide sufficient detail for each ministry or agency and did not include allocations to and earnings from state-owned enterprises.  The government maintained off-budget accounts that were not subject to the same oversight and audit as other expenditures.  Its military budget was not subject to civilian oversight.  Haiti’s supreme audit institution partially reviewed the government’s accounts, but it did not make its report publicly available within a reasonable period of time.  

The criteria and procedures by which the national government awards contracts or licenses for natural resource extraction were specified in law and decree.  The government did not appear to follow contracting laws and regulations in practice.  Basic information on natural resource extraction awards was only sporadically publicly available.

Haiti’s fiscal transparency would be improved by:

publishing budget documents within a reasonable period of time, publishing greater detail on revenue sources and types, as well as expenditures by ministry, providing more detail on allocations to and earnings from state-owned enterprises, subjecting its military budget to civilian oversight, ensuring adequate audit and oversight for off-budget accounts, improving the reliability of budget documents by producing and publishing a supplemental budget when actual revenues and expenditures do not correspond to those in the enacted budget, ensuring the supreme audit institution audits the government’s accounts and publishes the resulting audit reports, consistently adhering to laws and regulations for contracting and licensing in natural resource extraction, and routinely publishing basic information on natural resource extraction awards.

Haiti

Portraits of House Speakers who served in Confederacy removed ahead of Juneteenth after Pelosi order

USA TODAY

WASHINGTON – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ordered the removal of four portraits in the U.S. Capitol of former Speakers of the House who served in the Confederacy, a symbolic gesture to honor Juneteenth on Friday as the country continues to protest over systemic racism and police brutality. 

The move comes as Congress debates how to respond to the killings of Black Americans by police and amid ongoing protests over racism and police brutality after the death of George Floyd. His death and the recent deaths of other Black Americans have led to widespread discussions over removing Confederate statues across the country – including in the halls of the Capitol – and renaming military bases named after Confederate military leaders. 

Juneteenth marks the day in 1865 when people in Texas, including 250,000 enslaved people, were told slavery was over, some two years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation.

Pelosi, at her weekly news conference, said she wrote a letter to House Clerk Cheryl Johnson requesting the removal of portraits of the four former House Speakers, who all served in the 1880s, because "there's no room in the hallowed halls of this democracy, this temple of democracy to memorialize people who embody violent bigotry and grotesque racism of the Confederacy."

"You have to see the marks that they had made, how oblivious they were to what our founders had in mind in our country," Pelosi said. "We must lead by example."

She said the removal would be happening on Friday, which would mark the Juneteenth holiday, but instead the large portraits with bright gold frames were carefully taken down Thursday afternoon by workers at the Capitol, just hours after Pelosi sent her letter to Johnson. 

The portraits depict Robert Hunter of Virginia, who served as Speaker from 1839-1841, Howell Cobb of Georgia, who was Speaker from 1849-1851, James Orr of South Carolina, who was Speaker from 1857-1859, and Charles Crisp of Georgia, who was Speaker from 1891-1895. All were Democrats, with Hunter serving in both the Democratic party and now-defunct Whig Party. 

True Story of a Slave

Henrietta Wood was a former slave living in Cincinnati when the woman she worked for suggested a carriage ride across the river to Covington, Kentucky. There, she was abducted and forced into slavery – again.

It was the spring of 1853 and a deputy sheriff named Zebulon Ward conspired with Wood's employer to kidnap and sell her. Wood was ultimately sold to slaveholder Gerard Brandon and taken to Natchez, Mississippi, to work in his cotton fields.

Ten years later, the Emancipation Proclamation, in effect Jan. 1, 1863, declared "all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free."

But this didn’t immediately liberate all slaves, as the Union was still fighting the Civil War (generally considered over on April 9, 1865). As federal troops advanced toward Mississippi, Brandon forced 300 of his slaves – including Wood and her young son, Arthur – to march 400 miles to Robertson County, Texas, where he set up new operations near the Brazos River.

"The reason why people like Brandon went to Texas was because they knew that if they could get to interior Texas where U.S. troops had not yet reached, they could hold out as long as they could," says historian W. Caleb McDaniel, who teaches at Rice University. "So I think Texas became a place where die-hard slavers went to try to wait out the war and see if slavery could survive."

It would be two more years, on June 19, 1865, before troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, and forced slaveholders to free their slaves. This is now known as Juneteenth, recognized by 47 states and Washington, D.C., as either a state holiday or ceremonial holiday. (The 13th Amendment, ratified at the end of 1865, would abolish all slavery.)

That moment in Texas when "die-hard" slaveholders like Brandon had nowhere else to run, that was 155 years ago today.

Wood's journey is recounted in McDaniel's Pulitzer Prize-winning book, "Sweet Taste of Liberty, A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America." How did the author learn about Wood? Newspapers.

Wood gave just two interviews about her ordeal. First was to the Cincinnati Commercial (once a sister paper to the current Cincinnati Enquirer). The second was to the Ripley (Ohio) Bee. 

Early newspapers "are a gold mine for late 19th-century stories," McDaniel said. "I think there are a lot of stories still to be told of people whose experiences were recorded in these papers, but are waiting for investigation."

Federal troops may have freed slaves in Texas, but that didn't mean those men, women and children could easily go back to their homes or reunite with family. They had been marched hundreds of miles from home, with little or no support to get back. And, McDaniel writes, the roads leading out of town were violent and dangerous for the former slaves. Some white planters abducted freed slaves and took them to Cuba or Brazil, where slavery was still legal.

Wood signed a contract to work for Brandon for three more years for $10 a month in Texas and then in Mississippi. She told the Commercial she was never paid. She and Arthur made it back to the Cincinnati area in 1869. In Covington, she began working for an attorney named Harvey Myers, McDaniel writes. And he began working for her, filing a lawsuit against Ward for reparations, $20,000 in lost wages for the time she was enslaved.

Ward was then one of the wealthiest men in the South, making a fortune on convict-leasing schemes. His legal team created delay after delay, McDaniel writes. The case had dragged on for 72 months when reporter Lafcadio Hearn showed up at Wood's door. 

He asked Wood to share her story "before freedom." The next day, April 2, 1876, a nearly 4,000-word story ran in the Commercial with the headline "Story of a Slave."

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 30 juin 2020

 Restrictions leave US travelers high and dry

Stacey Lastoe, CNN

(CNN) — In downtown Buffalo, New York, crossing the border into Ontario, Canada, used to be as easy as driving one mile across the Peace Bridge over the Niagara River. But that's now a forbidden route.

In the coronavirus era, New York residents and out-of-state road trippers aren't allowed to cross the border for leisure travel.

US citizens have been shut out of their neighboring country to the north and a slew of nations around the world. The latest travel news affecting Americans: The European Union is considering blocking travelers from areas with severe Covid-19 outbreaks after it opens it borders on July 1.

Since the United States has more confirmed coronavirus cases than anywhere else in the world, with numbers increasing in some states each day, US travelers are unlikely to be allowed in any time soon.

As long as the US-Canada border remains closed, visiting Niagara Falls in Ontario won't be possible for US citizens.

Although potential travel bubbles are being discussed all over the world -- Fiji is the latest in talks to join one with Australia and New Zealand -- the United States has yet to form or join a bubble.

Where does this new world order leave US citizens with a penchant for travel?

Nostalgic for the pre-Covid days when a US passport promised access to much of the world? Anxious of how they'll be perceived -- and received -- by foreign countries when restrictions are eventually loosened?

The future of travel for Americans, and whether they'll be welcome again as tourists, is not clear; in many ways, it's a moot point for as long as travel to certain regions is prohibited.

Are Haitian National Police Tanks Being Used By Gangs?

Haiti’s Prime Minister Joseph Jouthe said the government is looking into allegations that police armored vehicles are being used by gangs.

The accusations were made by local human rights organizations which reported that armored vehicles were used last May by armed bandits at the time of the assassinations and fires in Pont-Rouge and Cité Soleil...

Tic Toc, the new song of Kanis is seducing audiences

Six months after signing with Sony Music France, rapper Kanis released her new song “Tic, Toc” on June 12, 2020. In just 3 days, tic toc was viewed by more than 150,000 people. The artist, who currently lives in France and is courting the country, is getting closer to her goal with the release of this song.

According to the artist, tic toc is all it takes to give pep to your life when it is absorbed by laziness and apathy. 'If you want the money, Evo get down.

In the video shot in Miami, we see Kanis putting herself in the shoes of several characters. At first she is an ordinary girl, sitting on her couch, zapping the televisions, then a famous mannequin posing in front of the cameras and the artist who appears on the screen.

Since settling in France, Kanis dreams of conquering France and Tic toc is only the beginning of a long adventure.

Kanis, her real name Niska Garoute was born in Miami on September 27, 1993 to a Haitian mother. She  grew up in Petion-Ville, Haiti, where she also began her studies before continuing them in the United States, her father’s bad business, Pascal Garoute , obliged. There, specifically in New York, she earned her degree in graphic arts and marketing.

She made her musical debut as a composer at the age of 13 and then as a rapper at the age of 17. She has collaborated with many artists including Izolan, J-Perry, Danola and many of her songs have been a huge success. These include Veve lokal, Riddim Affair and “Dan Bang”.

She changed her stage name to become Kanis on December 1, 2018. A decision she made after she learned that a French rapper had the same name as her, she explained to her fans.

Toto Constant Faces Life Imprisonment in Haiti

Emmanuel Constant, the former head of the death squad, FRAPH, sentenced in 2000 in absentia to a term of hard labor for life, will have to face Haitian justice after leaving the country in 1994. Upon his arrival, the accused was apprehended by agents of the judicial police then kept in police custody.

For its part, the United States Department of Homeland Security issued a note to the effect that it sent Emmanuel Constant back to Haiti. “We are awaiting justice for the victims of the Raboteau massacre and other crimes for which Constant must be held accountable...”.

Ten Years Later, Haiti still struggles to recover from the 7.0 magnitude earthquake of 2010

Although it’s been 10 years, Haitians aren’t still ready to talk about the event because it nerve-wrecked them. The natural disaster left 1.5 million people homeless, claimed 316,000 lives, and injured over 1.5 million. The earthquake had such an extensive outcome because the country wasn’t prepared for this type of natural disaster. During the last 10 years, Haitian authorities have tried to come up with a plan that grows their chances to face a natural disaster. But the quake monitors don’t supervise the earthquake equipment overnight because the building that houses them isn’t earthquake resistant and the authorities don’t afford to pay them for night shifts.

If the ground starts shaking one day, all they can do is run out of the building through its only door. So, it’s understandable why Haiti’s residents are afraid another natural disaster would be worse than the one from 2010. And even for the seismologists it’s scary to watch for earthquakes in a building that wouldn’t stand one, they need to work no matter the conditions because their team is the only one that can offer information.

Before 2010, there were no experts in Haiti to know what to do if a seism larger than 4 magnitude hits. So, they had to consult the global US Geological Survey when the natural disaster emerged. In 2011, the country set up the first network that receives satellite information from seismic stations located around the state and seismometers that deliver them real-time data. This helps them predict a quake occurrence and help the nation get ready for one.

But it doesn’t mean people find it less scary.

The capital and the surrounding areas are overpopulated, and the authorities didn’t put together policies that establish construction standards. In this scenario, another earthquake would have more disastrous consequences than the one from 2010 because now there are more people living in danger-prone areas.

Haitians experienced many challenges, even before the earthquake destroyed their lives. They had weak political governance, limited access to necessary resources and poor infrastructure. After the disaster, other problems added to the existing ones and made it one of the least developed countries that offer residents social, political, and environmental insecurity. Earthquakes aren’t the only natural events that threaten Haitians; hurricanes also hit the coast annually and leave families without a home.

Haiti residents are worried that the country isn’t ready for an event similar to the one from 2010. Every year, hurricanes and tropical storms hit them, so there is small room for progress. The country is on four major fault lines and sits on two tectonic plates. Because the plates move regularly, the possibility for another earthquake to emerge is high. Since 2010, progress was made with the creation of the seismic surveillance network, tsunami evacuation routes, and active-fault and hazard maps. Specialists had also evaluated the various types of soil the country features and identified the most at-risk areas. But Haiti still doesn’t have a national disaster risk management plan or a strategy to reduce seismic vulnerabilities. The authorities don’t teach children in school how to protect themselves from a seismic event especially from a high magnitude one.

So do people have any reason to worry that another earthquake would be more destructive than the one from 2010? Data shows that they have.

Florida bans bar alcohol consumption as coronavirus spikes

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Florida banned alcohol consumption at its bars Friday after its daily confirmed coronavirus cases neared 9,000, a new record that is almost double the previous mark set just two days ago.

The Florida agency that governs bars announced the ban on Twitter just minutes after the Department of Health reported 8,942 new confirmed cases, topping the previous record of 5,500 set Wednesday.

State officials have attributed much of the new outbreak to young adults flocking to bars after they reopened in most of the state about a month ago, with many of them ignoring social distancing restrictions aimed at lowering the virus's spread.

More than 24,000 new cases have been reported since Saturday, more than a fifth of the 111,724 cases confirmed since March 1. The department had not updated its death total, which still stood at 3,327.

The seven-day average for positive tests dropped slightly to 13.4%, down 1 percentage point from Thursday but still triple the rate of 3.8% of June 1.

Florida's record-setting week for newly confirmed coronavirus cases got even worse with almost 9,000 reported Friday, nearly double the just-set mark and five times more than where the state record stood two weeks ago.

More than 24,000 cases have been reported since Saturday, more than a fifth of the 111,724 cases confirmed since March 1. The department had not updated its death total, which still stood at 3,327.

The seven-day average for positive tests dropped slightly to 13.4%, down 1 percentage point from Thursday but still triple the rate of 3.8% of June 1. The seven-day average for hospitalizations is also creeping up, hitting 172 on Thursday, about 70% higher than it was June 1.

Massive Saharan Dust is scheduled to reach the U.S. this week

The densest plume of dust developed off Western Africa and has traveled nearly 5,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean.

According to the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, the plume of dusty air reached the United States last Thursday morning, bringing dust particles to the deep Southern United States.

Frank Marks, director of the Hurricane Resarch Divsion at NOAA's Atlantic Oceanagraphic and Meteorological Laboratory, says that these plumes are frequent in the summer, especially in June and July, and take about 10-12 days to cross the Atlantic.

"The one we had was probably the most intense on record so far, and they've been keeping records of these dust outbreaks probably about 70 years," Marks said of the current dust plume.

This dust is expected to stretch from Florida to the Gulf Coast to as far west as Texas, before turning back eastward.

This is not likely to cause major deterioration in the air quality for the U.S. at large, since the dust is elevated and concentrations are continually and gradually dissipating. Additionally, water vapor present in the South will wash away dust particles.

According to Sonoma Tech Meteorologist Jeff Beamish, Baton Rouge's air quality reached unhealthy levels for sensitive groups late last week.

International channels will broadcast Maestro’s recent show.

The last virtual concert of the Maestro group has attracted many people, including international television channels.

During the confinement, many Haitian groups and artists turned to online concerts to perform and keep in touch with their audience. The Maestro group led by T- Ansyto is on its third such concert.

The last show done by this musical formation was on June 12. With a concert called "Soirée Entre Nous", broadcast on the Facebook page of Loop Haiti. Maestro and his guest artists -Badi Kamall, Danola, Pierre Jean and Dj Tony Mix - won many hearts, including the hearts of those in charge of television channels such as Trace Global and Guyana La 1er.

Indeed, Trace Global, the company that manages Trace TV and Guyana La 1er, owned by France Télévisions, recently signed a contract with the musical group Maestro to have the authorization to broadcast the concert "Soirée Entre Nous" on their platforms.

T- Ansyto, the group’s leading figure, says he feels proud of this achievement. It’s a success for us to get to touch other horizons with our music and show", expressed the son of Ansyto Mercier.

If recently, some Haitian groups have recorded records with their virtual show in terms of audience, Maestro, can boast of being the only group whose show is solicited by media on the international scale at the moment.

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 9 juillet 2020

AMERICAN AIRLINES FLIGHTS AGAIN TO HAITI

When American Airlines resumes service to Haiti on Tuesday, nearly four months after the borders were shut due to the coronavirus, there will be only one daily flight into Port-au-Prince’s Toussaint Louverture International Airport, and the country’s second largest city will not be on the schedule.

The first major commercial airline to land in Cap-Haïtien in 2014 after more than a decade due to a damaged runway, the Miami-based carrier told the Miami Herald that it is canceling service to the city. 

“Canceling the flight to Cap-Haïtien was very painful but a necessary decision given the current economic circumstances as a result of the pandemic,” said Martha Pantin, a spokeswoman with American. “We have had to make difficult decisions that affect many destinations around the world that we serve.”

Passenger on FLL-bound Spirit flight leaves before takeoff after refusing to wear mask

NEW YORK (WSVN) — A tense exchange unfolded prior to takeoff on board a Spirit flight bound for South Florida after a passenger reportedly refused to wear a face mask.

According to the airline, police were called onto the flight at LaGuardia Airport in New York City that was heading to Fort Lauderdale, Friday.

A Spirit spokesperson said the passenger took off his mask and refused to put it back on.

Video posted to social media captured the passenger and an officer arguing.

The airline said he eventually left the plane on his own.

A Spirit spokesperson said they will continue to enforce the use of face coverings on board all flights.

Wages of migrants sent home could drop $142bn in 2020: World Bank

The drop in money that migrant workers send home would mostly be due to a fall in their wages and employment overseas.

Al Jazeera

22 Apr 2020

Global remittances are set to tumble by $142bn in 2020, the sharpest fall in recent history, the World Bank estimates, as the coronavirus crisis chokes off a cash lifeline for hard-pressed households in poorer countries.

The World Bank on Wednesday said that a drop of almost 20 percent in the money migrant workers send home would mostly be due to a fall in their wages and employment overseas.

"Remittances are a vital source of income for developing countries. The ongoing economic recession caused by COVID-19 is taking a severe toll on the ability to send money home and makes it all the more vital that we shorten the time to recovery for advanced economies," said World Bank Group President David Malpass.

In recent years, remittances have become an integral part of the funding for governments in emerging economies, exceeding official aid by a factor of three since the mid-1990s and last year overtaking foreign direct investment flows as the main source of foreign exchange for low- and middle-income countries.

An estimated one billion migrants - about 270 million who work outside their home countries and 760 million internal migrants - each help feed, clothe and shelter up to three people "back home", Dilip Ratha, lead author of the World Bank's new report on the impact of COVID-19 on remittances, told Reuters in an interview.

"You're looking at one-third of humanity."

Yet such workers tend to be more vulnerable during crises.

With a rocketing jobless rate in the United States and with the economies of Russia and the Gulf region reeling from lower oil prices, the flow of such money from the world's largest sources has been hit hard.

The remittance drop so far this year is the largest since the World Bank began recording the data in 1980, said Ratha.

Such flows have increased since a dip in 2016, mainly due to low oil prices, and remittances reached $714bn in 2019. But they look set to shrink to $572bn this year, the World Bank said.

For low- and middle-income nations, which account for the bulk of flows, remittances would fall 19.7 percent to $445bn in 2020 from a record $554bn in 2019.

"The economic crisis induced by the pandemic is going to sharply reduce the income of migrants and their ability to send money back home," Ratha said.

Emerging markets face biggest hit

As well as hurting households that rely on the money, waning flows from abroad also deal a blow to emerging markets where state budgets are already strained from having to spend more on healthcare and stimulus to mitigate reduced economic activity. Many have also seen record outflows of foreign capital since the crisis began.

Hardest hit will be countries such as Tajikistan and Nepal, where remittances account for around 30 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), said Ratha. Other countries that rely on payments include the Philippines, South Sudan, Tonga, and Haiti.

As a bloc, Europe and Central Asia will see the biggest fall in remittances at around 28 percent due to the combined effect of the pandemic and the oil price slump, the World Bank estimated.

Remittances to Central Asia, in particular, would take an added hit from a dip in the exchange rate of Russia's rouble against the dollar, Ratha said.

The World Bank, which along with the International Monetary Fund is providing funds to poorer nations during the crisis, has expressed concern about the temporary closure of some money transfer businesses due to shutdowns in some economies. It urged authorities to recognise them as essential service providers so they can stay open.

One positive is remittances are expected to recover in 2021, swelling more than five percent to $602m, with a slightly faster pickup in flows to developing countries.

"The underlying causes of migration are not going to disappear and may be exacerbated by the COVID-19 crisis," said Michal Rutkowski, the World Bank's global director for social protection and jobs. "These are income differentials between different countries and demographic changes."

Jovenel Moise has granted executive clemency to 415 prisoners including hard core criminals

By Jacqueline Charles 

July 01, 2020

Haitian President Jovenel Moïse has granted executive clemency to 415 prisoners, including at least 15 hardened criminals whom human rights advocates say should not be walking free.

The list of beneficiaries include a convicted felon sentenced to five years for an armed attack in the northern town of Grande-Rivière-du-Nord, a prisoner serving 12 years for rape, and a father awaiting trial on accusations that he hacked his young son to death with a machete in 2018 in the Central Haiti town of Mirebalais and threw the boy’s remains in a latrine.

“If someone hasn’t yet been convicted, they cannot be pardoned,” said Renan Hédouville, the government’s chief ombudsman who runs the Office for the Protection of Citizens. “There is a flagrant irregularity going on in regard to the criminal code in Haiti.”

The presidential pardons were issued by executive order on June 19 and published in the country’s official gazette, Le Moniteur. They came to light this week and caught Hédouville, human rights organizations and the international community by surprise, especially since they were being tied to an ongoing push to release prisoners from Haiti’s overcrowded prisons in the wake of the rapidly spreading COVID-19 pandemic.

Not only were they not consulted on the list, but human rights groups and representatives of the international community said the troubling pardons have nothing to do with their push to release a select group of prisoners — those on prolonged pretrial detention who are elderly, have underlying health problems or accused of committing minor offenses — to slow the spread of the virus in Haiti’s jails.

Several months ago, the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti, known by its French acronym BINUH, along with the U.S. began advising the government on establishing a committee on detention composed of government and justice officials, Hédouville’s office and human rights advocates.

Guidelines were eventually approved by the minister of justice and public security. Based on six eligibility criteria, certain detainees were tapped for release following a special hearing on their case.

In a report to the U.N. Security Council last month, the Haiti office said of those identified, only 750 detainees had been released from the Haitian prison system. The number, the report noted, fell far short of an estimated 5,000 releases that are necessary to allow prisons and detention centers in Haiti to better manage the impact of the coronavirus and avert a humanitarian disaster.

NEW PENAL CODE

A new penal code, issued via presidential decree by Moïse this week, allows convicted felons who have been pardoned to have their civil rights restored, which means they can run for office, said former Port-au-Prince chief prosecutor and senator Jean Renel Senatus.

The election of individuals with criminal backgrounds in Haiti’s last elections, thanks to a loophole in the 2015 electoral law, was a troubling development that was often cited as contributing to the country’s deteriorating human rights environment and increased criminality.

“There are prisoners who are sick and up until now waiting to benefit from early release on humanitarian grounds and they can’t,” Hédouville said. “What has happened here has nothing to down with COVID. It is something that is illegal, irregular.... These people when they walk out of prison can become a danger for the police who arrested them or the judges who sentenced them.”

This of course is not the first time a prisoner release has created scandal. Earlier this year a drug trafficker was released from prison under the guise of the COVID-19 humanitarian parole. When former President Michel Martelly was in office, one pardoned criminal shot someone inside a church days later.

“Someone didn’t play their role, didn’t do their job... because in principle it’s the ministry of justice that gives the list to the president to sign the decree,” Hédouville said. “What’s worse is that we... were not consulted at all; not even once.

“I’ve never met with the justice minister or had one meeting with him since he was sworn in on March 5,” he added. “The human rights organizations that are in the prisons every day, they weren’t consulted so... everything was done without any transparency and they took advantage of the occasion to add names to the list.”

In a press note, Justice Minister Lucmane Délile acknowledged there were “errors” and said it was possible the system was deceived. He also passed the blame on to the prison system and tied the release to the pandemic.

He said his ministry learned “through the press that criminals were released as part of the presidential pardon granted for the purpose of decongesting prisons in the face of the spread of COVID-19.”

Late Wednesday, Eddy Jackson Alexis, a government spokesman, took to Twitter to say that Prime Minister Joseph Jouthe asked the ministry of justice “to temporarily suspend the release of the people affected by the presidential pardon.” The announcement, Alexis said, was made during a cabinet meeting.