Death of historian Michel Hector
Haitian historian Michel Hector, who was also a university professor, died on the evening of Friday, July 5 in his private residence in Nérettes (Petion-Ville). Hector was recently in Cuba for medical treatment. He was 86 years-old.
In a note, the Ministry of Culture says to be "saddened" by the death of the historian Michel Hector.
"[...] He was a generous and rigorous researcher and university professor, extremely loved by his students. A simple man, of a rare humility, sometimes profound but always accessible [...]."
Also reacting on the news of his death, Gary Bodeau, the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies said "A Mapou fell! Teacher Michel Hector left a huge void in the intellectual landscape, an inestimable loss for the university community. His contribution to the knowledge of popular movements is immeasurable. That his soul rests in peace!"
Michel Hector, was a historian and professor at the State University of Haiti. He served as Director of the Center for Sociological and Historical Research, President of the Haitian Society of History and Geography and of the Committee of the Bicentenary of the Independence of Haiti (in 2009).
Michel Hector, wrote several socio-historical works in collaboration with the sociologist, Laennec Hurbon. He is also the author of several books including, "Genesis of the Haitian State" (1804-1859) published by Editions de la Maison des Sciences de l'Homme (Paris, 2009). In 2016, he received the "Jean Price-Mars Medal" for his various works in the field of research in human and social sciences.
Credit: HaitiLibre
The Haitian passport increasingly limited in the world!
In the latest “Henley Passport Index 2019” report released on July 2, 2019, which ranked 106 countries globally based on the freedom of movement of their citizens, Japanese and Singapore passports occupy the top 2 places allowing their citizens to travel to 189 visa-free destinations around the world.
The Haitian passport occupies 95th place out of 106 countries, a decrease of 6 places compared to 2018 (89th) and 10 places compared to 2017 (85th). The Haitian passport allows travel in 2019 to 49 destinations but only in 3 countries without a visa. In the Caribbean: Barbados and Dominica and in South America: Bolivia. The Haitian passport is the most limited in the Caribbean and Latin America.
The French Embassy is recommending caution to French citizens living in Haiti
As a result of a planned two days of anti-government protests scheduled for Saturday July 6 and Sunday July 7 2019, the Embassy of France in Haiti urged French nationals living in the country to exercise caution. The French diplomatic representation in Haiti advises its citizens to avoid traveling during these two days and to build up water and food reserves.
Truthout, June 29, 2019
Washington Meddling in Haiti Neglected by US Press
By Jane Regan, FAIR
Tens of thousands marching in the streets nationwide to denounce government corruption, reports of police and gang violence and murder and a downwardly spiraling economy. Calls for the government to step down.
If this were Venezuela, as recent FAIR analyses pointed out, elite media journalists and commentators would be all over the story. After all, they’ve been endorsing Washington’s blatant and repeated imperialist designs and interventions in that country for over a decade.
But this is not Venezuela. It’s Haiti.
Not that Washington has always opposed regime change in the world’s first black republic. A decade ago, presidents Bush père et fils approved and backed coup d’états twice, in 1991 and 2004, against Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a left-wing populist chosen in the country’s first free elections. As with Iran and Venezuela, those were what The Intercept’s Jeremy Scahill (2/20/19) called “Regime Change We Can Believe In.”
But unlike Aristide, and unlike Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro, President Jovenel Moïse is Washington’s “man in Port-au-Prince.” He was hand-picked by Michael “Sweet Mickey” Martelly, the previous Washington-approved president, and had pledged to follow his “Haiti Is Open for Business” neoliberal policies.
Is that why corporate media are not calling for the replacement of the Haitian government? In any case, they’re doing very little to inform US audiences of the increasingly dire crisis in that country, caused in no small part by the two Aristide-overthrows and a series of harmful US-imposed “free trade” policies starting back in the 1980s.
No matter that tens of thousands are in the streets. Moïse stays.
Even though the 2016 Haitian elections were largely discredited, and only 21 percent of the population even bothered to vote—“the lowest participation rate for a national election in the Western Hemisphere since 1945,” according to a report from the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti—the US government has consistently backed Moïse.
Even though the US State Department warns travelers of “crime, civil unrest and kidnapping”; even though Moïse has been accused by his own government auditors of benefiting from an “embezzlement scheme” in connection with the Venezuelan Petrocaribe program, which financed billions of dollars worth of post-earthquake projects; even though the economy continues to deteriorate, with many public institutions closed for over a week and state employees going unpaid for over a month; even though the UN says the country is experiencing a “humanitarian crisis”; even though violence and lawlessness are on the rise (a recent UN report implies police were present at the “La Saline massacre,” which involved the murder and dismemberment of at least 26 people and two gang rapes in one of the capital’s poor neighborhoods), and even though the massive protests against the Petrocaribe corruption scandal are more than mere demonstrations—they are an “uprising.”
To give them credit, a few corporate media outlets—like the Miami Herald (6/4/19) and NPR (6/11/19)—have done some good stories on the protests and the scandal, as well as on the La Saline massacre.
But most news outlets don’t even run AP stories, and aside from some opinion pieces, reporting has not dug too deep.
Worse, the Miami Herald’s June 19 story on a “fact-finding” delegation from the Organization of American States (OAS) did far more damage than just sticking to the shallows. Reporter Jacqueline Charles acted as an information conveyor belt for empire when she cited an unnamed OAS “official” who was doing more than “find facts.”
The article—headlined “OAS Tells Haiti Opposition to Back Off”—quoted the anonymous official seven times, giving the opposition and protest movement its marching orders. “If you don’t like Moïse, the solution is to beat him at the ballot box,” Charles quoted the official. “We are not going to ask him to resign.”
That’s funny; not long ago, the OAS did ask a president to resign.
On January 19, the body voted to “not recognize” Maduro as president of Venezuela, saying that his election had been faulty, and that it was concerned
about the worsening political, economic, social and humanitarian crisis in Venezuela resulting from the breakdown of democratic order and serious human rights violations.
That laundry list could if anything be applied more easily to Haiti. But the message the OAS sent to Haiti through the Miami Herald was the opposite.
But was that really a message from the OAS? Or was it from the hemisphere’s hegemon?
At least one of the organization’s ambassadors, Sir Ronald Sanders of Antigua, penned a statement over the weekend to denounce the delegation, saying it was not official and lacked a formal mandate from the body. He noted that it represented an increasing “pattern of ignoring established procedures and authority.”
Unsurprisingly, the visitors—who met with the president behind closed doors, and then left without giving any official statement—were led by US Ambassador Carlos Trujillo. Score one for empire?
By the time the letter from the Antiguan ambassador hit a few Haitian media outlets, the Miami Herald’s “scoop”—or more accurately water-carrying—had been translated and circulated throughout the country.
Haitian and foreign readers and viewers would be so much better served if corporate media could follow the advice of its own codes of ethics, like the one from the Society for Professional Journalists which says, “seek the truth and report it,” “do no harm”—and “consider sources’ motives before promising anonymity.”
Jane Regan is a multimedia journalist and scholar who has worked in and on Haiti for almost three decades. She is currently working with a multimedia, multi-language ‘reconstruction watch’ partnership in Haiti called Ayiti Kale Je-Haiti Grassroots Watch-Haiti Veedor. The partners are AlterPresse, Sosyete Animasyon Kominikasyon Sosyal-SAKS, Rezo Fanm Radyo Kominoté Ayisyen-REFRAKA, the network of women community radio journalists, and a group of community radio stations.
Haitian Football Federation President Yves Jean-Bart: “We have shown that we can compete with the best in the area”
Haitian Times - Haitian Football Federation President Yves Jean-Bart spoke Wednesday on the overall performance of The Grenadiers following Tuesday’s 1-0 loss in extra time to Mexico in the Gold Cup semifinal.
“it is not surprising to see Haiti grow in football in the region,” he states, adding later that they have been progressing since 2013 through playing great matches against Spain and Italy and putting on good performances in the 2015 Gold Cup and qualifying for the 2016 Copa America tournament.
President attends the 40th Regular Meeting of Caricom
Haitian Times - President Jovenel Moïse attended the 40th Ordinary Meeting of the Caricom Conference of Heads of State and Government in Saint Lucia Wednesday to discuss preparations for the upcoming UN General Assembly meeting.
Moïse was accompanied by Foreign Minister Bocchit Edmond and met with Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg and United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres.
Joao Gilberto, the father of the Brazilian bossa nova, died
Brazilian singer Joao Gilberto the last survivor of the fathers of the bossa nova, a syncopated rhythm of Brazilian music died in in his home Rio de Janeiro. He was 88 years-old.
With Joao Gilberto, the pianist-composer Tom Jobim and the poet-diplomat Vinicius de Moraes, the nova bossa song “Chega de Saudade” burst onto the airwaves in the summer of 1958. It became an international hit and launched the bossa nova movement.
Bossa nova is a style of Brazilian music, which was developed and popularized in the 1950s and 1960s and is today one of the best-known Brazilian music styles abroad. The phrase bossa nova means literally "new trend" or "new wave".
Gilberto was a giant of bossa nova, and is often credited with helping develop the sound of the genre that brought Brazilian music to the world.
The musician's famous collaboration with the American jazz saxophonist Stan Getz, "Getz/Gilberto," won album of the year at the Grammy Awards in 1965. It's still only one of a few jazz albums to do so, according to Columbia University's Department of Music, which awarded Gilberto an honorary doctorate of music in May 2017.
In the mid-1960s, less than a decade after the movement started, the music was pretty much silenced by a military dictatorship that clamped down an all outside political and cultural influences. Gilberto, who had moved to the United States after recording Getz/Gilberto, remained until 1980. Upon his return to Brazil he was heralded for his contributions and recorded with many of the younger musicians who had been part of the Tropicalia movement that incorporated rock and psychedelia into the subversive music aimed at the dictatorship.
Gilberto continued to perform well into the 21st century and has been recognized by every generation since his debut as a Brazilian musical pioneer.
Credit: Agence France-Presse, CNN and NPR