Venezuela’s Maduro announces the relaunch of the Petrocaribe program in 2020
Rezo Nodwes
The President of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, announced on Saturday the relaunch of the Petrocaribe project next year.
This South-South aid program provides Venezuelan oil to the Caribbean countries on favorable terms such as lower than market prices and longer payment periods.
In a speech delivered in Havana at the closing ceremony of the 17th Summit of the Bolivian Alliance for the Peoples of America (Alba), the President stated that he had agreed to “relaunch the Petrocaribe project very strongly for the first half of 2020”.
Comforted by the declining protest movement of the self-proclaimed President Juan Guaido, Nicolas Maduro, the former 57-year-old trade unionist, who was in turn deputy, President of the National Assembly, Minister of Foreign Affairs and vice-president of the Bolivarian Republic before becoming the runner-up of Hugo Chavez, described the Petrocaribe program as “fundamental for the energy security of the Caribbean”.
TIME Person of the Year 2019: Teen climate activist Greta Thunberg
The 16-year-old from Sweden has become the youngest figure to ever be named TIME's Person of the Year in the 92-year history of the distinction.
By Scott Stump
Teen climate change activist Greta Thunberg has been named the 2019 TIME Person of the Year, becoming the youngest figure to receive the distinction in its 92-year history.
The 16-year-old from Sweden has become a prominent face in the fight to save the environment from the effects of climate change.
The magazine revealed its choice on Wednesday (December11th), making Thunberg the youngest selection since TIME began naming a Person of the Year in 1927. The Person of the Year title is not necessarily an honor or award, but representative of the influence the person has had on the news within the past year.
Brazil: A blind Haitian woman has just passed her law exams
Nadine Taleis, a 35-year-old Haitian woman, has just completed her law studies and has successfully passed the tests of the OAB which is the Brazilian bar. Blind, the immigrant entered Brazil after experiencing the earthquake of 12 January 2010 in order to escape the difficult conditions of her country.
Three years later, she was living in an infrahuman situation in a gymnasium on the border between Bolivia and Brazil. 1300 people lived in this room which could only contain 200.
According to the descriptions of BBC News Brasil, these people were “piled on mattresses surrounded by waste water, waiting for documents allowing them to travel to other countries after being recruited by businessmen who visited the site...”
But everything changed when a Brazilian worker decided to put his parents in touch with Taleis who wanted to attend college. The Haitian who mastered Creole, French, Spanish and English had no linguistic concerns.
Nadine Taleis quickly adapted to her foster home. In Haiti, she had no parents. His father who was a politician was killed by opponents and her mother, depressed by the situation, also died less than a year later.
To pay for her studies, she used the money provided by her adoptive parents and deprived herself of food for several days. “Nadine says she spent days without food to save money,” says BBC News.
It was only later that the Faculty of Law provided her with a scholarship and a full internship in the institution after learning her story. “It was only then that she told the Brazilian family that she was taking the course - and she stopped starving to cover the monthly costs,” according to the newspaper.
The steps were not easy for Nadine Taleis who, in addition to her disability, had to face racism. During the examinations, she had to find a colleague who was a very good reader. “If you have a comma and the person doesn’t give the right emphasis, you miss the mark,” she says.
Last June, she passed the administration exams, while 77.3% of those who took it failed. Nadine Taleis can now practice law in Brazil. “Her next goals are to work in a tax law office and become naturalized – a Brazilian law granted to foreigners who have resided in the country for at least four years, speaking Portuguese and with no criminal convictions.”
Nadine Taleis would like to prolong her dreams by becoming a judge and diplomat. To achieve, this she will try to obtain Brazilian citizenship. Moreover, she says that she does not intend to return to her country where the socioeconomic crisis has intensified.
Haitian-American Flutist Nathalie Joachim’s “Fanm d’Ayiti” Receives Grammy Nomination
L’UNION Haitian American • Music • Videos
“I am speechless. My album, Fanm d’Ayiti – is a labor of love that was made possible by my incredible creative team, my family and the people of Haiti. Today, it was nominated for a Grammy in the Best World Music Album category, and I am so incredibly proud.”
Nathalie Joachim is a Grammy-nominated flutist, composer, and vocalist. The Brooklyn born Haitian-American artist is hailed for being “a fresh and invigorating cross-cultural voice”. (The Nation). She is the co-founder of the critically acclaimed urban art pop duo, Flutronix, and flutist of the contemporary chamber ensemble Eighth Blackbird. Joachim comfortably navigates everything from classical to indie-rock, all while advocating for social change and cultural awareness. Her authenticity has gained her the reputation of being “powerful and unpretentious.” (The New York Times)
Joachim is a graduate of The Juilliard School and was the first person to successfully complete the conservatory’s MAP, Pre-College, and College Division programs. Upon graduation, she was granted the first-ever Juilliard InterArts Award for independently producing and presenting exceptional interdisciplinary arts performances involving music, dance, theater and technology while pursuing her degree. She continued her graduate degree studies at The New School, where her focus was audio production and sound design.
Ms. Joachim has performed and recorded with an impressive range of today’s most exciting artists and ensembles including Bryce Dessner, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Richard Reed Parry, Miguel Zenón, and the International Contemporary Ensemble. As a composer, Joachim is regularly commissioned to write for instrumental and vocal artists, dance, and interdisciplinary theater, each highlighting her unique electroacoustic style. Upcoming works include Discourse, an evening-length performance, community engagement, and social change initiative commissioned by Carolina Performing Arts; new solo instrumental works for cellist Seth Parker Woods and violinist Yvonne Lam; and larger-scale chamber works for So Percussion, Lorelei Ensemble, the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, and Duo Noire.
Joachim’s current touring project, Fanm d’Ayiti, is an evening-length work for flute, voice, string quartet and electronics that celebrates some of Haiti’s most iconic yet under-recognized female artists, and explores Joachim’s personal Haitian heritage. Commissioned by and developed in-residence through St. Paul Chamber Orchestra’s Liquid Music series, Fanm d’Ayiti was recorded with Chicago-based ensemble Spektral Quartet. The work, released in 2019 on New Amsterdam Records as Joachim’s first featured solo album, received a Grammy nomination for Best World Music Album.
Social : Bahamas will arrest illegal Haitians sheltered in churches - HaitiLibre.com : Haiti news 7/7
Haiti - Social : Bahamas will arrest illegal Haitians sheltered in churches
10/12/2019
Clarence Russell, Director of Immigration in the Bahamas, said "the department has credible intelligence that churches and other dwellings are being used as safe havens for undocumented migrants" and warned places of worship that the authorities would soon go there to arrest all those who do not have the right to be in the country.
Recalling that after the passage of Hurricane Dorian, the Minister of Immigration, Elsworth Johnson, had clearly stated that the churches of the affected islands could not be used as a means of circumventing the law under cover of shelter for refugees illegal or undocumented.
"WWe want to send a stern warning to those persons who are harboring those persons — deliberately I say harboring because harboring of illegals is a criminal offense, punishable by law. If we find, irrespective of where you are harboring them, that you are in fact involved in such a criminal act, you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," assuring "the public to know that don’t think for a minute that the immigration department is unaware of who is here. At the appropriate time, the appropriate action will be taken."
He did not name the churches or the non-designated shelters he was referring to. However after the passage of the Hurricane Dorian many legal and illegal displaced chose to stay in Abaco and found refuge in churches including sixty hosted in the "New Haitian Mission Baptist Church" in Treasure Cay. In addition, refugees in the "AB Apostolic" and the "New International Gospel Mission" in Marsh Harbor have reportedly been warned by the authorities to leave because the churches are not designated post Dorian shelters.
Reacting to the intentions of the Government of the archipelago, Bishop Delton Fernander, President of the Bahamas Christian Council, called on the Government to establish a liaison between the immigration department and the churches of the affected islands and condemned reports of migration operations in the churches as a " desecration of the sanctity..."
Asked if the Ministry will soon be inspecting these places to identify those who are not allowed to be in the country, Russell said, "I daresay that we are no longer just patrolling the streets and doing the ordinary. In other words, we too are intelligence-led [...] it stands to reason that we know who is in our country; whether you have entered legally and/or illegally, we’ve have some idea — hence the success rates that we’ve had of recent in taking undocumented persons into custody https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-29281-haiti-social-340-haitians-deported-from-the-bahamas.html »
While noting that Haitians are the predominant group seeking to enter the archipelago illegally. Russell said the department does not make an ethnic difference in law enforcement adding, "While most of the emphasis in our country is on one group of persons, the immigration department doesn’t have the privilege of just looking at one group of persons. Yes, predominantly there are one particular group of persons who come to our shores illegally."
Note that the IOM in 2015 estimated that 18% of the Bahamas population was composed of migrants living in irregular migration territory, including 20,000 to 50,000 Haitians, a number that has since increased considerably.