Earthquake in Northern Haiti
An earthquake with 5.9 strength shook Haiti last evening.
The whole country felt it and buildings collapsed in northern Haiti
where as many as ten people may have died.
It was triggered on the Septantrional Fault Line that runs from
Eastern Cuba, along Haiti's Northern Coast, and into the Cibao in
the Dominican Republic.
Engineer Claude Preptit, a well-known Haitian expert on the subject,
gave a thorough update on Pi Lwen Pi Fon of Haitian Radio Vision 2000 with Taylor Rigaud,
as to what happened yesterday.
The earthquake that destroyed Cap-Haïtien in 1842 originated in that fault line.
It is important to explain that the Caribbean Plate is permanently stressed by the North American plate and the South American Plate!
Preptit stressed the shocking inability of the Haitian State to research such events, plan for them,
and institute the measures to educate the population re such seismic realities, and to impose anti-seismic
construction norms to strengthen buildings throughout Haiti.
It is as if the state learned nothing from the Earthquake of 2010 that physically destroyed a large part of Port-au-Prince,
and killed and maimed 300,000 people there!
U.S. Embassy Statement following the Earthquake
in Northern Haiti
The United States expresses its condolences and support to all of those in Haiti affected by the earthquake that struck the Artibonite, North and Northwest Departments on October 6. We continue to closely monitor the situation. The United States and Haiti are strategic partners and friends, and we stand ready to assist in the relief effort if requested.
St. Boniface Haiti Foundation Inaugurates
Infectious Disease and Emergency Care Center
Supported by USAID/ASHA Grant
Fond-des-Blancs, October 04, 2018 – U.S. Ambassador to Haiti Michele Sison joined the Haitian Ministry of Health, the St. Boniface Haiti Foundation, and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to inaugurate the new Center for Infectious Disease and Emergency Care (CIDEC) in the southwestern peninsula of Haiti.
The center is a state-of-the-art 33-bed treatment facility that includes isolation wards to treat patients and protect the public from contagious diseases like cholera and tuberculosis. Since opening in March, the emergency wing has treated nearly 5,000 patients. The infectious disease wing has already successfully treated a case of diphtheria, a highly contagious and serious bacterial infection.
The construction of CIDEC was supported by a $500,000 from USAID’s Office of American Schools and Hospitals Abroad (ASHA). ASHA provides assistance to schools, libraries, and medical centers; and most recently funded the construction of the new surgical ward at St. Boniface. This ward is the only fully functioning surgical center on Haiti’s southern peninsula that provides care to all patients regardless of their ability to pay.
“Today’s inauguration highlights the partnership between the American people and the people of Haiti,” said Ambassador Sison. “This Center for Infectious Disease and Emergency Care will enable the amazing doctors, nurses, and technicians here to respond to public health emergencies and tackle the problem of tuberculosis in the region.”
Additional recipients of USAID/ASHA grants include St. Luke Foundation; Catholic Relief Services for equipment at Hospital St. Francois de Sales; Albert Schweitzer Hospital; and the International Child Care’s training center and inpatient childcare unit. Since 1979, ASHA grants have provided over $21 million to projects in Haiti.
The U.S Government, through USAID Haiti, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has had a longstanding partnership with St. Boniface Hospital. With USAID support, St. Boniface built the first program in Haiti to provide clinical and rehabilitative care to persons with spinal cord injuries. USAID Haiti also supported a training program for Haitian engineering technicians to fix and maintain life-saving biomedical equipment. Furthermore, in coordination with CDC and PEPFAR, USAID supported a maternal and child survival program. Separately, CDC and PEPFAR have provided technical and financial support since 2012, to St. Boniface through the Catholic Medical Mission Board (CMMB), to expand HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis services.
Haitians, immigration lawyers welcome ruling blocking Trump from ending TPS - for now
BY JACQUELINE CHARLES AND BRENDA MEDINA
The Miami Herald
Advocates for hundreds of thousands of Haitian and Central American immigrants facing deportation from the United States said a California federal judge’s decision to temporarily block Trump administration plans to send them back home offers new hope — but also increased uncertainty.
U.S. District Judge Edward Chen on Wednesday granted a preliminary injunction stopping the administration and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from terminating Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, for immigrants from Haiti, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Sudan. The ruling affects over 300,000 people who, under the TPS program, have been allowed to live and work legally in the U.S. for decades after war or major natural disasters in their own countries.
“I’m happy to hear that there is still a possibility that the TPS could be extended. It gives us TPS holders hope,” Elva Castillo, 71, who immigrated from Nicaragua to Miami 21 years ago, said Thursday. “But it is important that we keep up the fight.”
Chen granted the injunction as part of a California lawsuit filed by lawyers on behalf of TPS recipients from the four countries who have U.S.-born children. Lawyers with the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) and a private law firm sought the temporary injunction, arguing that the administration’s decision to end the program was motivated by racism and would adversely affect the immigrant families.
Some 19 states and 34 cities and counties filed friend-of-the-court briefs supporting the preliminary injunction, said Emi MacLean, co-legal director of NDLON.
“This is an extraordinary decision. It is the first time in the history of the TPS statute, a statute from 1990, that there has been a court-ordered halt for any TPS termination,” MacLean said Thursday, during a conference call held by the National TPS Alliance. “It is hugely important in terms of what is says about the Trump administration’s decision-making policies in the arena of immigration.”
She warned, however, that the decision is “preliminary and something we will need to continue to defend in the courts, in the streets and in Washington.”
As part of their arguments, MacLean and others cited the potential separation of families as well as President Donald Trump’s alleged reference in January to Haiti, El Salvador and some African nations as “s—hole countries.”
In the ruling, the judge said that “TPS beneficiaries and their children indisputably will suffer irreparable harm and great hardship.”
The ruling extends only for the duration of the California lawsuit. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for Oct. 26. The government has said it will appeal the ruling. The Associated Press reported that Justice Department spokesman Devin O’Malley said the ruling “usurps the role of the executive branch.”
“The Justice Department completely rejects the notion that the White House or the Department of Homeland Security did anything improper. We will continue to fight for the integrity of our immigration laws and our national security,” O’Malley’s statement said, according to the AP report.
The judge had previously turned down a U.S. Justice Department request for dismissal of the lawsuit. He wrote in his ruling that the government “has failed to establish any real harm were the status quo (which has been in existence for as long as two decades) is maintained during the pendency of this litigation.”
Chen also said that evidence shows that the decision by acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke to change the criteria applied by prior administrations in deciding whether to continue or end TPS “may have been done in order to implement and justify a pre-ordained result desired by the White House.”
Congresswoman Frederica Wilson, D-Miami, whose district includes a large concentration of Haitian-Americans, said she wasn’t surprised that the judge found “direct evidence of animus” in the Trump administration’s decision to end TPS.
“From the start of his administration, President Trump has made it more than clear, with his Muslim ban and more recently the inhumane treatment of migrant children, that people with brown skin are unwelcome here,” Wilson said. “It is incumbent upon us to do everything in our power to undo these racist acts.”
In Miami, Marleine Bastien, whose Family Action Network is a plaintiff in a suit filed in the Eastern District of New York on behalf of several South Florida Haitians enrolled in TPS, called the decision “sensible.” She said the news will bring hope to those in the program. TPS for Haiti is scheduled to end on July 22.
“I commend Judge Chen for his courage and thank him for the sigh of relief he brought to hundreds of thousands of families, including their American-born children, from the specter of family separation that loomed over them,” Bastien said. “Make no mistake, the Trump administration’s decision to terminate TPS was based on racism and xenophobia.
“Our hope is that this decision will hold to allow us to continue our efforts toward a permanent solution for those 300,000 deserving families,” she said.
Miami immigration attorney Ira Kurzban, who is among the lawyers representing FANM and others, said he hopes the California ruling will have “a positive impact on our case, as it raises similar but not identical issues.”
The group most immediately impacted are Sudanese, whose protection was set to end Nov. 2, followed by Nicaraguans, who were set to lose TPS in January.
Ouanaminthe 7 people among whom 2 judges taken by a river in flood
At least 7 people died due flooding caused by the Canarie River, on Thursday evening, in the municipality of Ouanaminthe.
The situation was the result of pouring rains in Department of the Northeast. The tragedy created a panic within the population.
Among the victims were county court judges from of Port-au-Prince - Goldie and Ostwalde Joseph, who were overtaken by water as they tried to cross the cresting river.
2 Haitian-Quebecois received the highest distinction of Quebec in 2018
Rezo Nodwes
Established in 1984, the National Order of Quebec aims at highlighting the contribution of Quebecois toward the growth and evolution of Quebec.
The highest distinction granted by the government of Quebec was awarded this year to thirty-four personalities. Among them were two Quebecois of Haitian origin - Patrick Paultre, a specialist in earthquake-resistant engineering and Wilson Sanon, the founder of the Association of sickle-cell anemia of Quebec. This year, both of these individuals were honored as knights by the National Order of Quebec.
Wilson Sanon had four children, two of whom suffer from sickle-cell anemia – the most widely-spread genetic disease in the world. Sickle-cell anemia is nearly incurable, and affects the blood. After the death of his son Nicky, he saw it necessary to create the Association of Sickle-Cell Anemia of Quebec.
He has chaired over this body since its inception in 1999, and hasn’t stopped spreading its reach, by surrounding it with a team of volunteers and partners including the Foundation of the Medical Specialists Federation of Quebec, Héma-Québec, Novartis Oncology, Operation Enfant Soleil, www.passeportsante.net, and the Pfizer Corporation.
Patrick Paultre, on the other hand, has worked to insure greater structural and mechanical safety of buildings and other constructions. In 2001, this Quebecois of Haitian origin launched the Center of Inter-University Major Seismic Infrastructures of Quebec, which he managed in its early stages.
In 2006, he established another international organization: The Center of Inter-university Research of Structures Under Extreme Loads.
After the earthquake which destroyed Haiti, his native country, in 2010, he worked to upgrade the building codes for earthquake-resistant constructions, and provide the necessary training for civil engineers and architects.
Melania Trump Responds to Criticisms of "Colonial" Hat
by Katie Kilkenny
The Hollywood Reporter
Speaking to press in Egypt while finishing up her solo, four-country African tour on Saturday, the First Lady addressed the controversial white pith helmet she had worn while embarking on a safari in Nairobi National Park in Kenya. The hat piqued some observers, who noted that the helmet is frequently associated with European colonizers of Africa and India.
"You know what, we just completed an amazing trip. We went to Ghana, we went to Malawi, Kenya, here we are in Egypt. I want to talk about my trip and now what about what I wear," Trump told reporters. "It's very important what we do, what I'm doing with U.S. aid, and what I do with my initiatives, and I wish people would focus on what I do, not what I wear."
Her wish was not heeded on Saturday, when critics compared her menswear-inspired look to the outfit worn by Michael Jackson in the "Smooth Criminal" music video, the titular character in the Carmen Sandiego computer games and villains from the Indiana Jones films.
However, others noted that the menswear look was a pointed political statement in a country that has been ranked worst for women's rights out of all Arab nations. "For me this a fascinating fashion statement for a country with a very poor record on women’s rights. In the politics of fashion realm, she’s sending a message: Women are equal," CNN reporter Kate Bennett tweeted.
Just one day earlier, however, the white pith helmet attracted criticism from experts and Twitter alike, with St. Lawrence University historian and African Studies coordinator Matt Carotenuto comparing the look to "[showing] up on an Alabama cotton farm in a confederate uniform" in an interview with CNN.
Al Jazeera English journalist Hamza Mohamed, meanwhile, tweeted, "Melania Trump went on a safari in Kenya wearing a pith helmet - a symbol of European colonial rule across Africa."
It's hardly the first time the First Lady's clothing choice sparked widespread debate: Perhaps most notably, a Zara jacket emblazoned with the phrase "I really don't care, do u?" enraged many when Trump accompanied her husband on a trip to visit an immigrant children's detention center in Texas in June.