More than 20 killed as boat capsizes
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (CMC) – At least 22 people were killed when a boat capsized in rough waters over the weekend, Haitian officials have confirmed.
They said the incident occurred on Saturday into Sunday when the small boat left Bombardopis for the northern city of Gonaives.
Head of the maritime and navigations service, Eric Prevost, said rescuers were able to save several passengers, but do not know how many people in total were on board the vessel.
The national maritime service is continuing the search for survivors and the recovery of bodies from the shipwreck area.
Haiti will officially become a full member of the African Union next month
Haiti will officially become a member of the African Union at the next summit of the regional organization in June. According to a famous journalist from Benin, it was high time that African states make a strong gesture towards the first black republic.
The news is almost unnoticed. Until then simple "observer", Haiti, the first black republic in history, became, in early February in Addis Ababa, "full member partner" of the African Union.
This decision, the first of its kind for a diaspora country, will be formalized at the next AU summit in June-July in Lilongwe, capital of Malawi.
The African Union is the modern incarnation of the Organization of African Unity (in French OUA), started in 1963, and its vision today is to build “an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven by its own citizens and representing a dynamic force in the global arena.”(Written from multiple sources).
U.S. To Ship Peanuts To Feed Haitian Kids; Aid Groups Say 'This Is Wrong'
Sacks full of peanuts are displayed for sale at a market in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Aid groups say they are dismayed by a planned influx of American-grown peanuts from a U.S. agricultural surplus that they fear could undercut a vital cash crop in the impoverished Caribbean nation.
Dieu Nalio Chery/AP
On paper, sending surplus U.S. peanuts to feed 140,000 malnourished Haitian schoolchildren for a full year sounds like a heroic plan. Instead, it's united 60 aid groups that are urgently calling on the U.S. Department of Agriculture to halt a shipment containing 500 metric tons of peanuts, preventing the legumes from reaching Haiti.
The aid groups call it "crop dumping" and warn that it will deliver an economic blow to struggling Haitian peanut farmers. Critics say it's poor aid policy that will have long-term negative impacts on Haitian communities.
"This is a country where peanut production is a huge source of livelihood for up to a half-million people, especially women, if you include the supply chains that process the peanuts," says Claire Gilbert, spokesperson for Grassroots International, a Boston-based nonprofit that supports food sovereignty.
How the USDA got stuck with a pile of peanuts stretches back to the 2014 Farm Bill, which included incentives encouraging American farmers to plant more. It worked. In 2015, growers harvested 6.2 billion pounds of peanuts, and that number is expected to go up another 20 to 25 percent this year. But all that extra planting has left the USDA holding the bag, with a hefty peanut surplus.
To unload some of the excess, the agency announced a few weeks ago that it would ship 500 metric tons of packaged, dry-roasted peanuts to schoolchildren in Haiti as part of the "Stocks for Food" program, a joint initiative between the Farm Service Agency, Foreign Agricultural Services and Food and Nutrition Services.
A statement issued from the aid group Partners in Health did not mince words about the announcement: "We believe this is wrong."
The well-known aid group has been working on health and nutrition issues in Haiti for more than 30 years, including a partnership with Abbott Laboratories to manufacture and distribute a product called Nourimanba used to treat severely malnourished children.
"We're not talking about big business owners being put at risk by an input of peanuts," says Dr. Louise Ivers, senior health and policy adviser, Partners in Health. "We're talking about small, very poor farmers that are very dependent on a single crop. We really believe the dumping, or donation, whatever your perspective, will have negative consequences."
Bolivia to Be Completely Food Independent in 2020 by Investing in Small Farmers
(UR) Bolivia — How can we go about tackling climate change while promoting a flourishing local economy and ensuring food security, all at the same time? The U.N.-led 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, launched in September 2015, would have you believe we need another 15 years to reach any kind of substantial progress on these issues. But there might be a way to speed things up, and it seems this Andean country has just cracked it.
The Government of Bolivia has just invested $40 million to support small and medium farmers in food production. Deputy Minister of Rural Development and Agriculture, Marisol Solano, stated that over 20 food security projects are already underway across the country, with financial support so far being given to breeding livestock and fish farming, as well as increasing the production of crops like potatoes, tomatoes, wheat, vegetables, coffee, and cocoa.
By enhancing local capacities, Bolivia aims to become entirely self-sufficient by 2020. With an increase of 25 percent in food production reported since 2014, and the aim being to sustain this growth rate for the coming year, it seems the country is not too far off from reaching its ambitious aim.
Reducing or halting imports would not only help improve livelihoods of local farmers and businesses, it would also cut down on emissions, while addressing overarching global issues like unemployment, hunger, and poverty.
Whether Bolivia will achieve complete food sovereigntyin five yearsis uncertain. What is certain, however, is that if all our governments showed as much initiative as Bolivia to build on existing local capabilities, we would be having a very different conversation about world development issues right now.
Miami immigration lawyer Julie Ferguson dies at 49
Miami immigration lawyer Julie Ferguson worked with Haitian and Cuban charities.
She was an immigration attorney in Miami who represented a family against a member of the Pinochet regime.
Ferguson, who spoke five languages, was an expert in the field of asylum law
BY HOWARD COHEN
Julie Ferguson was a young immigration lawyer in Coral Gables when she joined a team of local attorneys and lawyers from Amnesty International to help the family of a Chilean economist murdered by the secret police of then-military leader Augusto Pinochet.
In 1999, the family had sued a Miami businessman they said was responsible for the October 1973 slaying. They looked to Ferguson, then 32. The woman who had dreamed of becoming an immigration attorney since she was a little girl found herself working the first lawsuit in the United States against a member of the Pinochet regime.
Though the court ruled against the family in 2001, Ferguson had made a name for herself in the field of immigration law.
Ferguson died in Washington, D.C., on April 21, after an accident indoors while attending a conference of Invest in the USA (IIUSA), an advocacy event for the EB-5 investor visa program. She was 49.
“Julie was a highly skilled, determined and compassionate immigration lawyer. She cared deeply about her clients and fought for them relentlessly,” fellow immigration attorney Roger Bernstein said in an obituary. “She was a tenacious litigator” who “excelled in the area of asylum law.”
The accident is still under investigation, according to her mother, Marilyn Ferguson.
SHE HAD A CALLING TO HELP PEOPLE IN THE IMMIGRANT COMMUNITY.
Marilyn Ferguson, on daughter Julie Ferguson, a Miami immigration attorney-
“She had a calling to help people in the immigrant community with immigration,” Ferguson said. “The few times she didn’t win cases she was distraught because a child was taken away from the mother and sent back. She had a lot of passion for people. That’s why she was such a wonderful attorney.”
Born in Lake Forest, Illinois, on March 15, 1967, Ferguson earned her bachelor’s in philosophy and economics from the University of Geneva in 1989. She then earned her law degree from American University Washington College of Law.
She spoke five languages — English, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Italian, her mother said, and wrote the handbook, AILA’s Focus on Waivers Under the Immigration and Nationality Act in 2008. “She was a woman of the world,” her mother said.
(Miami Herald May 5th 2016)
FRIENDS OF MUSIC EDUCATION FOR HAITI…
In honor of our founder and Haiti’s most pre-eminent violinist, Romel Joseph, Friends of Music Education for Haiti is proud to present “Chansons Enfantines D’Haiti.” It is a special interactive concert by his daughter, Victoria Joseph, and pianist/close friend of over 25 years, Micheline Denis, in order to keep his legacy of music education for Haiti’s children alive. Over the span of his 30 year teaching career, Romel Joseph created over 150 musical arrangements of Haitian, French, American and religious songs for beginning violin as a unique tool for them to learn musical technique using familiar tunes that they learn in school. This concert series will introduce these musical treasures to you all in hopes of preserving Haitian culture and to honor his incredible contribution to Haiti’s classical music community. Special guests include Raoul Denis, Jr., Welele Noubout, Bladimir Chery, Jael Auguste, and Will Hodgson. Sponsored by FOKAL, The New Victorian School, Fondation Sogebank, and Fondation Odette Roy Fombrun.
Literature-politics: Book Signing in Miami for the autobiography "Michel Martelly" by the former head of State
During this event Martelly will be interviewed by Elizabeth Guérin, a famous radio and Haitian television personality. Following their conversation, a book signing session will take place.
In "Michel Martelly – Autobiography," which costs $50.00 (3,120 Haitian Gourdes), the ex-head of state (who ran the country from May 14th 2011 to February 7th, 2016) deals with his childhood, his adolescence and how he became one of the most influential musicians in Haiti and beyond. He also writes about the road which led to the presidency. He writes about his education, about his formative influences, and the strong convictions which guided him during his mandate.
Haiti - Diaspora: Jean Monestime launches the 16th edition of Haitian Cultural Heritage Month
On Sunday, May 1st, the President of the Miami-Dade County Commission Jean Monestime invited the community to discover the magic of the Haitian culture, the art, the music and the food, by participating in the celebration of the 16th Edition of Haitian Cultural Heritage Month.
"Haitian Cultural Heritage Month is a wonderful opportunity for the residents of every nationality to come and discover the wealth of the Haitian culture," declared Monestime, the first American-Haitian elected as President of the County Commission. "I encourage you all to take part in this celebration of all the contributions that the Haitian community has made in Miami-Dade and the world,” he added. "My Haiti is a land of striking beauty, diversified by its mountains, its valleys, its lakes, its rivers and its plains and contains in itself all the elements for greatness and sustainable wealth. My Haiti is too rich to be poor."
On the itinerary among other things: six exhibits of Haitian art at the Miami International Airport’s South Terminal Gallery, the lobby of Stephen P Clark Center, 111 NW 1st Street; the Cultural Center of Little Haïti, 212-260 WAS NE 59th Street; the Center of Haitian studies, 8260 NE 2nd Avenue; the Museum of Haitian Heritage, 4141 NE 2nd Avenue; and the Sant La Neighborhood Center, 5000 Biscayne Blvd. 110. The art exhibits will take place throughout May.
This year’s celebrations will take place under the theme "Haiti: See It, Live It, Love It” and will include the 4th annual edition of the "Taste of Haiti" showcasing Haitian cuisine at the "MOCA Plaza" of the City of North Miami; the 18th annual edition of the "Compass Festival" in Bayfront Park, and the 5th "Annual Haitian History Bee" at the Stephen P. Clark Center.