Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 30 juillet 2020

 Without Haiti, the United States Would, in Fact, Be a Shithole

And some other things about the country that Donald Trump doesn’t know and doesn’t care to know.

By Amy Wilentz

January 12, 2018

It feels strange to me after so many years of thinking and writing about Haiti, to say nothing of simply being there, to have to rise to the country’s defense against a fool. But that fool is the president of the United States, so let’s start with first things first.

It goes without saying that Donald Trump knows nothing about history. But those who do have heard of the Louisiana Purchase, the incredible deal President Jefferson struck with France to buy the giant piece of land, 828,000 square miles of river and breadbasket, that stretches from what is now the Canadian border down to New Orleans and the delta. Without this territory, the United States would never have become a continental power nor, subsequently, a great global power. Jefferson got it at a bargain-basement price: $250 million, in current dollars, doubling the size of the country for less than 3 cents per acre.

You may ask what this has to do with Haiti (although any president with a competent staff would have this information at his fingertips). Here’s the answer, White House staff: Napoleon wanted to sell this fabulously valuable piece of New World real estate because for more than a decade he had failed to put down the startling slave revolution in the French colony of Haiti, losing two-thirds of French forces there in the process.

The First Consul (that’s Napoleon, Mr. President) could see the writing on the wall. France was pushed to the limit of its military and financial means by the Haitian uprising, and the future emperor (NB: also Napoleon) had lost his taste for further involvement in the Americas. He sold us Louisiana. Then on January 1, 1804, Haiti declared its independence from France, and by extension, from white men like Donald Trump.

So it is the courage and tenacity of the rebellious slaves of Haiti that created the United States as we know it. Score one for the shithole.

Haitian history is full of many other amazing facts, not least that it can claim to have spawned the Americas’ first successful freedom fighters, the Cacos, who waged a sporadic but unstoppable guerilla war against the US Marine Occupation that began in 1915. Along with popular opinion in the US, they finally forced the Americans out in 1934.

Nonetheless, the Marines had done their damage. While improving Haiti’s infrastructure, the occupation opened the country up for “foreign investment,” which meant, essentially, the severe exploitation (including chain gangs) of Haitian labor, the appropriation of lands by US groups, the manipulation (which continues) of Haitian elections, the takeover of the lucrative Haitian sugar industry and of Haitian banks, and a national move away from self-sufficient subsistence agriculture into a cash economy that continues to be responsible for repeated food shortages and economic decline. How to become a shithole: the Americans will help.

Current Issue

I could go on in this vein, but I won’t. I’m pointing a finger at the United States because I’m responding to the US president. France, after Napoleon, also had a hand in Haiti’s decline. Emmanuel Macron, however, has yet to call the country un trou de merde­—and I doubt he ever will.

Finally, I want to write personally about Haiti, the experience of Haiti as a place to visit, to see, be in, live in.

Haiti is what Ronald Reagan was dreaming of when he suggested that shrinking the state would allow the business sector to move in and replace government functions in a market economy. Haiti has a vestigial state. There is no national health care, no social security, no pensions, very little taxation, very few labor regulations, a tiny national coffer. This is the direction in which Reagan pushed us and which Trump and his people continue to move us. There is very little organized sanitation, unemployment is the norm, housing is less than substandard, and electricity is delivered in a capricious and severely limited fashion. Poverty means that people have to live day by day, earning a goud here and a goud there. It means that individual and family plans for the future are nearly impossible to make. Many of the ablest Haitians have immigrated to the United States and Canada, though Trump apparently does not appreciate their many contributions to our economy as doctors, engineers, attorneys, academics, dentists, accountants, etc.

Haitians feel the lack of a state every day and night, but they still rise indomitably to the task of living full lives. It’s rare to see a Haitian hanging around, at least in Port-au-Prince. Everyone is constantly on the move, trying to find work and make a buck. There is poetry being written and music being played. At night, students go out and sit under the light of street lamps to study for tests. Haitians are huge into basketball and ecstatic when one of their players makes it to the NBA, as several have. Haitian literature over the centuries is full of masterpieces. Dany Laferrière, a novelist of Haitian descent, was recently admitted to the elite Académie Française. Alexandre Dumas, author of The Three Musketeers, was Haitian, as was the naturalist John James Audubon.

In the camps set up by Haitians after the earthquake that struck exactly eight years ago today, I sat around with teenage boys eager to play tapes for me of the music they’d recorded. During a tropical storm, I had a camp dinner of sardines and tomatoes cooked outside a tent over a charcoal fire. I’ve watched cockfights in small stadiums, and Vodou ceremonies in the earthquake rubble. I’ve seen the dazzling paintings by Haitian masters on the walls of museums (now crumbled) and churches (also now crumbled). I’ve seen a young boy who lost both his hands and both his forearms in the earthquake learn to use prostheses and also learn to accept the care of his extended family in the countryside. I’ve seen countless examples of Haitian solidarity and community, and of course of the human hunger to learn and grow and better one’s fortunes.

The island itself is physically beautiful, with pure white beaches and majestic mountains, and a capital city and provincial metropolis that are both captivating, each in its own way. Trump might not think so, because in every way, Haiti does not resemble his universe of Trump Tower and Mar-a-Lago. The country is almost entirely lacking in gilt and gold-plate.

But it still shines.

PRESS

Yamiche Alcindor is Haitian-American, and is fluent in Haitian Creole.[7] She is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists. The White House Correspondents’ Association today named PBS NewsHour White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor (@yamichepbs) the recipient of the prestigious Aldo Beckman Award for Overall Excellence in White House Coverage. The award recognizes a correspondent who personifies the journalistic excellence and personal qualities of Aldo Beckman, late Washington bureau chief for the Chicago Tribune and former president of the White House Correspondents’ Association. The WHCA journalism awards are to be presented on August 29, 2020, at the association’s annual dinner at the Washington Hilton.

In times of crisis

Times of crisis — armed conflict, natural disasters, pandemics — can be times of great peril for human rights.

Not only can government intervention and the suspension of regular policies and practices create new injustices, but they can also often make the crisis itself disproportionately worse for some. And some governments use crises as an opportunity to overreach in their actions, using the crisis as justification for human rights violations.

If we don’t act

Right now, governments around the world are implementing vital public health measures that, in some situations, place restrictions on human rights.

However, in some countries, leaders are using COVID-19 as a pretext for repression and increased surveillance. Others are using the crisis to suppress the rights of refugees, and stir up feelings of xenophobia and the mistrust of foreigners amongst their citizens.

We are witnessing dangerous trends to undermine human rights at a time when we need them more than ever.

The truth is that everything we need to do to get through the COVID-19 pandemic — providing life-saving treatment, curtailing its spread, addressing the economic repercussions, ensuring that the needs of marginalized communities are met, and looking ahead to long-term transformative change — is about human rights.

If we don’t demand that human rights continue to be protected during this time, we risk deepening ongoing violations and rolling back the long-standing protections we already have in place.

Our turning point

By its very nature, the right to health is dependent on and influenced by many other rights, such as rights of refugees to seek safe harbour, the right to free and accurate information, and the right to personal security, among others.

We must demand that human rights protections be rigorously defended — and extended — to maintain our safety and allow our communities to thrive in times of crisis.

And, critically, we must ensure human rights protections are respected for everyone, particularly marginalized communities — because we are only as safe as the least safe among us.

Take action today!

Today, Amnesty International is calling on people across the country to take action for human rights around the world in this time of crisis, ensuring all governments take meaningful steps to protect human rights and curtail human rights violations.

By signing our action, you’re sending a message to leaders in Canada and around the world that our collective response during the COVID-19 pandemic must uphold human rights globally — and make sure it’s at the heart of all decision-making processes in times of crisis.

We must protect human rights — because human rights protect us.

US-Government: Is Check No TWO Around ? 

 A new round of stimulus checks could come as soon as next month under CARES II, the second stimulus check package being worked on by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, according to Mnuchin. 

“Our proposal is the exact same provision as last time,” the treasury secretary told reporters on Thursday, according to Fortune. 

FOOTBALL

16-year-old Alex Colin Kpakpé , born to Haitian and Ivorian parents, has just signed his first contract with the prestigious club of the English capital, Chelsea FC. According to Juno7, the versatile defender is one of 14 young athletes to benefit from a contract from their training club.

Chelsea Football Club is an English professional football club based in Fulham, #London. Founded in 1905, the club competes in the Premier League, the top division of English football.

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 29 avril 2024

 
U.S. Restarts Deportation Flights to Haiti

The Biden administration had paused deportations of Haitian migrants in recent months as their home country was wracked by violence.

April 18, 2024

Immigration officials sent dozens of Haitians back to their home country on Thursday, according to three government officials, in the first deportation flight conducted by the United States government in months to the country, which has been gripped by widespread violence.

Deportation flights are generally viewed as a way to deter migrants from crossing the southern border without authorization. The United States has been concerned about migration from Haiti after a gang takeover of its capital, Port-au-Prince, this year led to the planned resignation of the prime minister, Ariel Henry.

The deportation flight, the first since January, comes as the Biden administration continues to turn toward tougher measures at the southern border as a way to bring down the number of migrants entering the country without authorization. President Biden has faced intense scrutiny from Republicans about the border, and immigration has become a key issue in the election campaign.

In recent months, however, migrants are crossing the border at lower rates than before.

Still, the deportation flight on Thursday caught many immigrant advocacy groups by surprise. The U.S. government itself advises Americans not to visit Haiti, citing “kidnapping, crime, civil unrest, and poor health care infrastructure,” and has previously told family members of American officials in Haiti to leave.

“This is not only morally wrong and in violation of U.S. and international law, it is simply bad foreign policy,” said Guerline Jozef, the head of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, an advocacy group in San Diego.

The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that it had “conducted a repatriation flight of around 50 Haitian nationals to Haiti.”

Associated Press

The United States Welcomes Establishment of Haiti’s Transitional Presidential Council

U.S. Department of State

Statement by Matthew Miller, Spokesperson

April 12, 2024

The United States welcomes today’s establishment of a Transitional Presidential Council (TPC) in Haiti. The result of months of discussion among diverse Haitian stakeholders, this Council helps pave the way for free and fair elections and the expedited deployment of a Multinational Security Support mission. We applaud Haitians for their commitment to move forward in a spirit of reconciliation and national dialogue. We remain committed to working with CARICOM and international partners to support the TPC’s mission to work for and improve the lives of all Haitians.

The security situation in Haiti remains untenable due to the violence caused by gangs that claim to represent the Haitian people but thrive on violence and misery. Gangs have shut down key infrastructure and economic sites that are lifelines for fuel, humanitarian aid, and other vital supplies, and continue to strip Haitians of their rights to food, education, and healthcare. The United States is surging support for the Haitian security forces to bolster their capabilities as they fight to defend their country.

We commend Haitian leaders for making tough compromises to move toward democratic governance via free and fair elections. Much work lies ahead, and the United States remains committed to supporting the people of Haiti.

National Center of Haitian Apostolate

FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER – YEAR B - April 21, 2024 

Acts 4, 8-12; Psalm 118; 1 John 3, 1-2; John 10, 11-18. 

Msgr. Pierre André Pierre

The fourth Sunday of Easter is traditionally called “Good Shepherd Sunday.” The entire Church dedicates this day to prayers for vocations. It is The World Day of Prayer for Vocations to the priesthood. In this time of joy for the resurrection, the Church reminds us that we all have a model in Christ. Jesus describes himself as the good shepherd who knows his sheep by name, gives his life for them, and holds fast to them so that they do not perish. They are like a treasure to Him. His authority over them comes from the Father. That of a shepherd is a mission of service to lead us, the sheep, to the owner of the flock: our Father God.

In the first reading, Peter, chosen shepherd by Christ to strengthen his brothers, filled with the Holy Spirit, testifies and speaks of Jesus, the good shepherd, who gives his life for his sheep. “Christ, whom you killed, rose again.” The stone they rejected has become the cornerstone of the building of faith. God’s plan moves forward. There is no salvation outside of Jesus Christ. There is no other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved."

The reference to shepherds, lambs, and sheep may sound strange nowadays. But in biblical times, they were very familiar. Sheep provided meat, milk, cheese, and wool. They were also used in the liturgy of the Temple. However, these precious animals cannot find their way to food and water and are helpless when attacked by predatory animals such as wolves. Therefore, sheep are known as animals that desperately need good shepherds in order to survive.

This is also our case when it comes to spiritual nourishment, words of wisdom, strength of character, and virtues. When it comes to God's grace, we desperately need Shepherds. Jesus is the Head Shepherd who guides us and nourishes us. He gave his life for us and granted eternal life to those who follow him. 

The second reading invites us to contemplate the image of our relationship with God in Christ. We have to live that relationship with confidence since those of us who are baptized are forever beloved children of God. Christ gave us an example in his life. If we are all brothers and sisters, we must be shepherds of each other, helping each other to live our faith authentically.

The Lord calls also shepherds to care for his people. The Church needs priests who act in the name of Jesus and with his same power; to guide the sheep along the path of eternal life through preaching, pastoral care, and the Sacraments, mainly the Eucharist and the forgiveness of sin: “Do this in memory of me.” The Sunday of the Good Shepherd reminds us that we must pray continually so that many young people may receive the call to the Priestly ministry and exercise it with humility, prayer, and zeal.

Jeffrey Sommers and Patrick Bellegarde-Smith | Haiti’s disorder is the result of elite malfeasance and US meddling

Social disorder. Prisons emptied of violent criminals by gangs looking to rebuild their ranks. Schools, hospitals, and pharmacies targeted for looting and frequently burned. Corpses left rotting in the streets for fear of succumbing to the same...

jamaica-gleaner.com

Amitabh Sharma

Opinion Editor

Editor - Arts and Education

The Gleaner Co. (Media) Ltd.

 Social disorder. Prisons emptied of violent criminals by gangs looking to rebuild their ranks. Schools, hospitals, and pharmacies targeted for looting and frequently burned. Corpses left rotting in the streets for fear of succumbing to the same fate by attempts to remove them. The capital’s port was captured and ransacked, with famine threatening. Meanwhile, on Haiti’s northern coast, cruise ships still disgorge foreign tourists to the protected (with no shortage of irony) “Columbus Cove Beach.”

There’s no sugarcoating it — the collapse of order in Haiti and the activities by gangs in recent months to capitalize on the situation is bad.

Just as with the Middle East, we hear the refrain that Haiti “has always been like this.” Except it hasn’t. Haiti’s history has been both storied and challenged. Reasonably educated persons often juxtapose Haiti to the comparatively thriving Dominican Republic (DR), the neighboring country with which Haiti shares an island. The comparison hints at a defect of the former relative to its better-off neighbor. Yet a long view of Haiti reveals its current poverty relative to the neighboring DR has been anything but constant — it only emerged in the past four decades.

No doubt a wide gap has opened up between the economic performance of Haiti and the DR. The latter’s per-capita GDP last year was roughly 700 percent larger than Haiti’s. But going back to 1960, the year where quality data on GDP for the two countries became available, Haiti’s per-capita GDP was (inflation-adjusted) $1,716, 25 percent more than the DR’s, then at $1,374.

Indeed, Haiti’s per-capita GDP in 1960 was even a hefty 67 percent larger than today’s rich South Korea, and far from the poorest country in the Americas. This was no one-off performance. The trend, which predated 1960, differed little up to 1980; the DR was then posting per-capita numbers 29 percent greater than Haiti’s, which still placed them in the same ballpark.

Rather than Haiti “always” being this way, it was 1981 that marked the start of its rapid decline. The DR maintained and even slightly accelerated its steady economic growth that had until then been at rough parity with neighboring Haiti. By contrast, Haiti’s precipitously dropped.

Why? One reason was the 1970s oil shock, which increased the price of black gold by tenfold that decade. Needing to recycle cash from windfall sales of oil deposited with them, banks extended loans to all comers. Haiti’s dictator, Jean-Claude (“Baby Doc”) Duvalier, gorged himself on loans, while investing too little of this cash to develop Haiti’s economy.

Meanwhile, the United States ended its inflation in 1980 with Federal Reserve chair Paul Volcker’s monetary shock. This cured America’s inflation problem, but massively drove up the repayment costs of those 1970s loans around the world that had to be paid back in the now-inflated dollar.

Duvalier then made a series of lazy and disastrous bets for Haiti’s economy. He went hat in hand collecting foreign aid as cheap foreign credit evaporated, but this tranche of cash did little for Haiti’s economy. Next, he slashed taxes on export earnings and invited foreign companies to employ Haiti’s cheap labor for assembly factories. The model earned plaudits from the United States — but it did not provide much benefit to Haiti, as nearly all inputs came from abroad, tax receipts from the foreign investment were negligible, and wages were kept at subsistence levels.

Then, fearing a new swine flu, in 1986 the US Agency for International Development (USAID) in 1986 instructed Duvalier to slaughter Haiti’s chief source of protein: pigs. A small, hearty variety, Haiti’s pigs were perfectly suited to low-input peasant production. USAID tried replacing them with a large US variety requiring housing conditions many peasants might envy; these new pigs died. Absent their traditional source of protein, desperate Haitian peasants turned to felling trees to sell for charcoal, thus producing the now tragically familiar images of Haiti’s deforestation.

Political upheaval followed as Haitians worked to end their twenty-eight-year-old dictatorship. The United States sought to guide this process, forcibly at points, demanding a veto power over policy in Haiti.

In 1995, US president Bill Clinton instructed Haiti to drop its tariff on US rice (subsidized and chiefly grown in Arkansas) from 50 percent to 3 percent. Haiti’s rice production subsequently collapsed. Two decades later, Clinton apologized to Haiti for advancing this disastrous policy.

This coup de grâce to Haitian agriculture led peasants in the hundreds of thousands to decamp from the countryside to Port-au-Prince. Impoverished and desperate, peasants built housing from cinder blocks in the capital. When Haiti’s big 2010 earthquake hit, these cinder-block dwellings were destroyed. Official estimates put deaths at over two hundred thousand and injuries at three hundred thousand, with another 1.3 million displaced and widespread disease following the collapse of infrastructure, from which Haiti has yet to recover.

The above is to say that it indeed has not “always been this way” in Haiti, which once economically rivaled the now-successful DR. Yet it would be too easy to blame all Haiti’s misfortunes the past half century solely on the United States — Haitian elites have made their share of errors. 

On March 25, James B. Foley, the US ambassador to Haiti from 2003 to 2007, published an op-ed in the Washington Post asserting “Haiti’s dysfunction is a permanent condition” and calling for yet another military intervention. If there has been any “permanent condition” in Haiti, it has been foreign interventions, and not the despair currently being experienced in the country.

The Caribbean nations, particularly those that are members of the Commonwealth, are fiercely independent in their foreign policies vis-à-vis the United States, as many of their politicians are major intellectual figures. Their stance on Haiti comes from a position of concern; they acknowledge a shared history of resistance to imperialism. Yet today, one still cannot discount the observation made in February 1907 by Dantès Bellegarde, arguably Haiti’s best-known diplomat and one of its most influential intellectuals of the twentieth century: “The US is too close and God is too far.”

https://jacobin.com/2024/04/haiti-disorder-poverty-us-intervention?fbclid=IwAR31T2169D3-p2YPMPEe5kl-bSVBZzASX39EgfXhANPub842p3DdWbPDdkQ_aem_AbFZO3pEdITIrIH2i3ksYkQZ35ngNPiVIL47u8lYVxEUmLU72pKSElSoyxkxJSIrkG6Lt8XfBexNcA5DSWSxjdXw

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 4 avril 2024

 ACTIONAID NEWSLETTER

Haiti’s triple crisis and its impact on women and girls

The ongoing gang violence in Haiti is having a devastating impact on women and girls as food insecurity reaches alarming levels. The UN estimates that over 4 million people are suffering from acute hunger, with 1.4 million facing emergency levels of hunger and requiring urgent assistance to survive. 

Angeline Annesteus, Country Director of ActionAid in Haiti, said: 

Amid the dire situation, ActionAid Haiti has seen women and girls further pushed to the brink of survival both in rural and peri-urban communities where we work. Women and girls are particularly affected by the increase in food insecurity. We have received reports of people skipping meals, selling their possessions for food, and facing heightened risks of exploitation just to put food on the table. 

Everywhere you go, there are desperate mothers who have nothing to feed their children. This cannot be our future. The world needs to act now to stop the violence and provide urgent humanitarian assistance.

Over the past two months, an escalation in violence has disrupted daily economic activity and led to gross violations of basic human rights, resulting in the displacement of thousands of families. Shortages of economic empowerment activities due to the tight control of the gangs on markets is worsening the plight of women, especially those who are heads of households, like Sara, who lives in the Grand’Anse region of Haiti. She shared with us: 

Gang violence has left us destitute. Because of the blockade of the roads that cut Port-au-Prince off from the southern regions, I am no longer able to buy products in Grand’Anse to sell in Port-au-Prince. My small business collapsed, and now I must use other coping mechanisms, like harvesting unripe crops, to survive. 

Lovena, also a mother of two, shared: 

Our lives are miserable. With the increase in food prices and the loss of my gardens due to drought, I often find myself with only a piece of bread and water to eat, and sometimes nothing at all in a day. The lack of access to food has severely affected the condition of my children, who suffer from malnutrition. 

The impacts of food insecurity

Of the 4 million people grappling with acute food insecurity, women and girls make up over half of this vulnerable population, underscoring the disproportionate impact of the crisis on their wellbeing and livelihoods.  

The food crisis not only deepens existing gender disparities but also amplifies the vulnerability of women and girls, compelling them to resort to detrimental coping strategies while heightening their exposure to various forms of violence, abuse, and exploitation. This dire situation urgently needs comprehensive interventions that address both immediate food insecurity and the underlying socio-economic factors perpetuating gender inequality. 

Scaling up to scale out of this crisis

In addition to this ongoing work on the ground, ActionAid is calling for an urgent cessation of all violence to pave the way for a return to the rule of law. We are also pressuring the international community to continue to increase humanitarian assistance to meet the basic needs of food, clean water, sanitation, and women’s hygiene. 

Sara Almer, Humanitarian Director at ActionAid International, said: 

“Haiti’s people are caught in a web of despair – juggling between trying to survive gang violence and providing food and other basic needs for their families. The country is faced with acute malnutrition that is estimated to affect nearly 277,000 children under the age of 5 between December 2023 and November 2024. 

With immediate action and scaling up of desperately needed humanitarian assistance to enable organizations on the ground scaling up their work we can help alleviate this suffering and also support the vital work of women’s and young people’s organizations on the frontline of the crisis in addressing the root causes of poverty and inequality.” 

Haiti's Transitional Council Signals Its Creation Is Nearly Complete

Associated PressPORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti —

Members of a transitional presidential council who will be responsible for selecting a new prime minister issued their first official statement on Wednesday, pledging to restore "public and democratic order" in Haiti. 

The statement, although signed by eight members of what is supposed to be a nine-member council, is still considered a sign that a contentious and drawn-out nomination process is ending and that the council might soon assume its official duties. 

"We are determined to alleviate the suffering of the Haitian people, trapped for too long between bad governance, multifaceted violence and disregard for their perspectives and needs," they said. 

The members noted that as soon as the council is officially installed, it will help "put Haiti back on the path of democratic legitimacy, stability and dignity." 

The statement was issued nearly a month after gangs began targeting key government infrastructures across Port-au-Prince. They burned police stations, shot at the main international airport, which remains closed, and stormed Haiti's two biggest prisons, releasing more than 4,000 inmates. 

Scores of people have been killed, and 17,000 have been left homeless. 

The violence, which has subsided somewhat, has recently been focused on downtown Port-au-Prince. 

The council members pledged to "execute a clear action plan aimed at restoring public and democratic order through the restoration of the security of the lives and property of the population, the relief of poverty and the achievement of free elections as well as the reforms necessary to the progress of the nation." 

The members said they have developed the criteria and mechanisms to choose a council president, a new prime minister and a ministerial cabinet. 

Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who remains locked out of Haiti, has said he will resign once the council is formally established. 

"We are at a crucial turning point that calls us to unity. It is imperative that the entire nation comes together to overcome this crisis for the well-being of all and a future better for our country," the council members said. 

Those who signed the statement were Fritz Alphonse Jean, with the Montana Accord group; Leslie Voltaire with Fanmi Lavalas; Louis Gerald Gilles with the December 21 Agreement political group, which is allied with Henry; Laurent Saint-Cyr with the private sector; Edgard Leblanc Fils with the January 30 political group; Emmanuel Vertilaire with the Pitit Desalin party; Augustin Smith with the EDE/RED political party; and Frinel Joseph as one of two nonvoting observers. 

Smith recently replaced former nominee Dominique Dupuy, a UNESCO ambassador, who announced Sunday that she was resigning following political attacks and death threats.

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 22 mars 2024

 Archbishop: Crisis in Haiti is ‘complicated’ and ‘very delicate’

John Lavenburg Mar 14, 2024

NEW YORK – In response to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis deploying hundreds of additional officers and soldiers to the state’s southern coast to protect against Haitian migrants, Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami says “Haitians are not an ‘invasive species,’ and shouldn’t be treated as such.”

The archbishop also pushed back on the idea that an influx of Haitian migrants is imminent.

“Actually, in the last year the United States admitted some 100,000 Haitians, Nicaraguans, Venezuelans, and Cubans under a special program that gave them work permits for two years if they had a sponsor who also paid for their ticket, so the ‘feared’ influx has begun long ago,” Wenski told Crux March 13.

DeSantis announced his decision in a March 13 statement, citing the circumstances in Haiti.

“Given the circumstances in Haiti, I have directed the Division of Emergency Management, the Florida State Guard, and the state law enforcement agencies to deploy over 250 additional officers and soldiers and over a dozen air and sea craft to the southern coast of Florida to protect our state,” DeSantis said.

“No state has done more to supplement the (under-resourced) U.S. Coast Guard’s interdiction efforts; we cannot have illegal aliens coming to Florida,” the governor continued.

The tumultuous situation in the Caribbean nation has boiled over in recent weeks. At present, gangs control 80 percent of the nation’s capital, Port-au-Prince, as they demand new political leadership and voice in the future. As a result, the city’s airport is closed.

Amid the turmoil, Prime Minister Ariel Henry announced on March 12 that he would resign from his post once a transitional presidential council is created. It’s a move that Wenski said is important from the standpoint that Henry has very little legitimacy among the Haitian people. On the other hand, with the control the gangs have, there’s also great uncertainty with what happens next.

“In one way you could almost say good riddance. However, in another way, the situation has become much more complicated and basically some of the leaders of the gangs are basically posturing to turn themselves into politicians, which is not unheard of in other countries,” Wenski told Crux. “The question now is how do they get out of this the best solution?”

Wenski, who has had a close relationship to Haiti – both the church and people – for decades, said that before Haitian Bishop Pierre-André Dumas of Anse-à-Veau and Miragoâne was severely burned in a Feb. 18 explosion he was very vocal that Henry should resign, and told Henry as much when they met. Dumas is now in stable condition, recovering at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami.

Henry was appointed to his post in 2021 by then-president Jovenel Moïse, who was assassinated days later. Following the assassination Henry was never formally sworn into his role, and still has never officially been installed. Henry assumed the post anyway, promising to restore order and hold presidential elections.

Almost three years later, there is less order and no elections have been held.

Monsignor Pierre-André Pierre, the director of the National Center of the Haitian Apostolate in the United States, told Crux that the international community, particularly the United States, must help Haiti work towards peace and stability. He noted also, that even with the resignation of the prime minister there is still violence and instability, and “the whole situation has not changed.”

“In such a difficult time no one should be left by himself, and it is important that we count on the international community,” Pierre said. “It’s important that in times of crisis that we see involvement of the nations, the United States of America because there is a long history connecting the two countries.”

“The connection is so that it gives us some relief to know that the country is not alone. The proximity, that kind of connection, to show love, is something very, very important to the Haitian community,” Pierre continued. “To bring solidarity, to show love, and to show support, to take the people out of isolation and to give that kind of relief.”

On March 11, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken announced the United States would provide $100 million to finance the deployment of a multinational force to Haiti to try and stop the nation’s crisis, and another $33 million to provide humanitarian aid and to help move along a political transition. However, some Haitian leaders rejected the political transition plan on March 13.

Wenski noted, however, that many people in Haiti, including a prominent gang leader, have spoken out about how they are not going to let the United States – or any other country – decide who their next leader is going to be, which makes the situation “very delicate.” Henry, for example, was backed by the United States, as well as other notable countries like Canada and France.

“That’s the big question,” Wenski said of how the international community should be involved. “Because usually foreign interventions end up causing more harm than good in the past.”

Beyond government assistance, there’s another kind of international assistance that Pierre said is vital. That is, people showing their support through both prayers, and continuing the financial support that many of them already provide to family members and others back home. He said it all helps the Haitian people persevere, as they hope for peace.

“They want peace. It is the security they are looking for. It is ultimately a state of law that they want to have, that they want to build, taking charge of the country itself,” Pierre said. “What we need is a normalcy, to see the country, to see the people being at peace and the violence to be gone.”

Follow John Lavenburg on Twitter: @johnlavenburg

United States Will Provide an Additional $25 Million to Address Humanitarian Crisis in Haiti

 March 15, 2024

On Over the past weeks, violence by organized criminal groups has escalated dramatically and worsened what is already a dire humanitarian situation in Haiti. At least 362,000 people are displaced, and 5.5 million people are in need of immediate humanitarian assistance as the most basic necessities including food, health care, water, and hygiene, are increasingly difficult to access.

 To help address these urgent needs, the United States, through USAID, intends to provide an additional $25 million in humanitarian assistance for Haiti. This builds on the $33 million for humanitarian assistance Secretary of State Blinken announced earlier this week. Our funding will support efforts by our United Nations and NGO partners to provide immediate food assistance, essential relief supplies, relocation support, psycho-social support, emergency health care, safe drinking water, and protection services for the most vulnerable, including women and girls, among other vital assistance.

 Humanitarian workers must be able to safely provide assistance for the most vulnerable. While the violence has forced some pauses of humanitarian operations, aid organizations are working tirelessly to reach the most vulnerable in Haiti. Our humanitarian partners have extensive experience working in challenging environments and have demonstrated their commitment to stay and deliver life-saving assistance with impartiality, neutrality, and independence, while protecting their staff and facilities. We require our partners to have robust safeguards and risk-mitigation systems in place, so that humanitarian aid reaches those who need it most. I am grateful for their efforts, and for the brave staff at the U.S. Embassy and Mission – many of whom are Haitian – who are immersed in these challenges daily.

 The United States is the single largest humanitarian donor to Haiti. The new funding announced this week will build on the $146 million that the United States, through USAID, has already provided since October 2022, which will reach more than 1.5 million people with life-saving assistance. The international community must stand with Haiti in this moment. At present, the humanitarian response in Haiti is less than seven percent funded, based on UN estimates. We call other donors to join us in scaling up humanitarian assistance.

 The untenable violence serves only to delay the democratic process while upending the lives of millions. We urge all actors in Haiti to stop the violence and make the necessary concessions to allow for transparent, inclusive, and credible elections, unimpeded delivery of aid, and the restoration of democracy. Standing up the UN-authorized Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission is crucial not only to support the Haitian people, but also to maintain stability in the region.

 We continue to stand with the people of Haiti, and remain committed to the country’s long-term stability.

National Center of Haitian Apostolate

FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT (March 17, 2024)

Jeremiah 31, 31-34; Psalm 51; Hebrews 5, 7-9; John 12, 20-33

Msgr. Pierre André Pierre

Welcome, brothers,

Today, we celebrate the fifth Sunday of Lent. Soon our Lenten Journey will reach its climax in the events of the Death and Resurrection of our Lord. Today, the Word of God wants to plant hope in our lives. The seed of hope is Jesus Christ, planted to produce the fruits of salvation. The seed is also our own life, to be planted to produce fruits of salvation for ourselves, our brothers and sisters, and our world.

In the First Reading (the prophet Jeremiah) God promised to seal a new covenant with his people. In the Old Testament, obedience to the Law of Moses guaranteed Salvation. The new covenant would be more than just outward signs. It will be written on the hearts of the people. God Himself would dwell with His people and invite them into communion with Him. The new covenant will offer true forgiveness of sin and, therefore, will reunite humanity’s broken relationship with God. In the new covenant, we can personally know God.

How was the New Covenant established? In the Second reading, the Letter to the Hebrews explains that Christ established the New Covenant through His obedient suffering. He shed His blood for us on the cross and won salvation for us. Christ not only died to take away the sins of the world, but He rose again to overcome sin and its consequence of death. Because Jesus died, we can be forgiven of sin, have our relationship with God restored, and have His Law written on our hearts. In the New Covenant God dwells among us and offers us communion with Himself. Ultimately, the new covenant leads us to eternal salvation.

In today's Gospel Jesus speaks to his Apostles about the “Hour” of the New Covenant. Now that the Gentiles want to see him, he recognizes that the Time has come for him to die, like a seed planted in the ground so that new life can begin. This requires of Him complete obedience to the will of the Father until death. Jesus compares the fruitfulness of his death to the grain of wheat, which must die in order to bear fruit. Hence, Jesus’ death will bring forth the Church as its fruit. Christ becomes the model to follow. Lent teaches us precisely that to embrace the New Covenant we must do the Father’s will and agree to die to sin, however painful that may seem. What is required for salvation is Faith in Jesus and the spiritual transformation of the inner self.

Jesus lifted up on the Cross, will also be lifted to heaven, experiencing death as the Hour of Glory. He will share His victory with all who accept to die to sin and embrace the New Covenant. Lent opens our eyes to the Mystery of Christ and our calling! it is a road that leads us to the being lifted up.

Each of us is a grain of wheat that has to be buried to bear fruit. As we identify ourselves with Jesus Christ, he calls us to do what he did to ourselves.

DANIELLA LEVINE CAVA

MAYOR
MIAMI-DADE COUNTY

March 12, 2024

The Honorable Joseph R. Biden President of the United States The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Washington, DC 20500

Dear President Biden,

The ongoing political, security, and humanitarian crisis in Haiti has profound implications for Miami -Dade County due to our significant Haitian community and close proximity to the island.
In light of this, I am writing on behalf of Miami-Dade County to formally request multiagency community briefings. We believe that increased coordination among federal agencies, Miami-Dade County, and community leaders will allow us to better meet the challenges that will continue to arise.

We propose a multiagency, in-person meeting as soon as possible with local and community leaders to discuss pressing issues related to the crisis unfolding in Haiti, including international airport closures, food and potable drinking water shortages, and the recently announced U.S. Southern Command plan to mobilize support for the Haitian National Police. Miami-Dade County’s Emergency Management Department has also been closely monitoring the situation with regular briefings through Operation Vigilant Sentry.

Your consideration of our request is greatly appreciated as the Haitian community in Miami-Dade County is a foundational part of our rich social and cultural fabric. We look forward to engaging in a productive dialogue that will contribute to a more comprehensive and effective response to the crisis since the greater Miami area is home to the largest concentration of Haitian immigrants in the United States.

Thank you for your leadership and your attention to this matter. Should you require any additional information or clarification, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Sincerely,
Daniella Levine Cava

CC:
Anthony Blinken, Secretary, United States Department of State
Alejandro Mayorkas, Secretary, United States Department of Homeland Security Miami-Dade County Board of County Commissioners

DHS NEEDS TO REDESIGNATE HAITI FOR TPS

Washington, DC 20037

Dear President Biden, Secretary Blinken, and Secretary Mayorkas:

Extend and redesignate Haiti for TPS

The existing TPS designation for Haiti is set to expire on August 4, 2024. All the conditions leading to the Biden administration’s original TPS redesignations on December 5, 2022, and August 3, 2021, in addition to the deteriorating crisis described herein, exhibit temporary and extraordinary conditions that make a safe return to Haiti impossible. The undersigned organizations request that the Biden administration consider redesignating Haiti for TPS as soon as possible.

Redesignation will allow protection against removal and eligibility for work authorization to all eligible Haitians currently in the United States. The current TPS recipients from Haiti in the United States, many of whom have been here for decades and have children who are U.S. citizens, have also become essential to our economy and our morale as a country.

Moreover, TPS promotes recovery, development, and regional stability by preserving and increasing the flow of remittances to Haiti and directly into the pockets of people who can use the money for food, healthcare, housing, education, and other basic needs that will help decrease the flow of migration. Remittances capture over 60 percent of foreign inflows, make up a substantial share of Haiti’s GDP, and serve as a lifeline for most Haitians.^[1]

Indefinitely halt deportations to Haiti, release detained Haitians, and support administrative closure of removal cases

Although the Haitian government has been unable to receive and reintegrate its citizens safely, the U.S. Coast Guard has deported 131 Haitians interdicted at sea since October 2023, including 65 individuals on March 12.^[2] In addition, monthly deportation flights continue. There have been 253 deportation and expulsion flights to Haiti since September 19, 2021. Most of these estimated 26,000 individuals removed to Haiti were blocked from seeking asylum and other protection by Title 42 policies. These removals severely undermine the administration's promise to build a fairer and more inclusive

immigration and asylum system for all and contribute to the destabilization of Haiti.

Haitian Bridge Alliance

[add other organizations]

Cc:

The Honorable Kamala D. Harris, Vice President of the United States

Attorney General Garland, Department of Justice

Advisor Jake Sullivan, National Security Council

We ask the Biden administration to halt all removal flights and maritime removals to the already-overburdened country.

[1] Haiti’s Turnaround and its Impact on Remittances, The Dialogue, Leadership for the Americas (November 15, 2022), https://www.thedialogue.org/blogs/2022/11/haitis-turnaround-and-its-impact-on-remittances/.

[2] U.S. Coast Guard News, Press release, Coast Guard Repatriates 65 Migrants to Haiti (March 12, 2024),  https://www.news.uscg.mil/Press-Releases/Article/3704408/coast-guard-repatriates-65-migrants-to-haiti/.