Haitian films slated to show at Miami Film Festival
BY THE HAITIAN TIMES MAR. 07, 2022
“Parsley” is set in the midst of the 1937 massacre that took place on the Haitian-Dominican border. Photo Credit: Timothy K Fitzgerald/Visit Films
MIAMI — Several Haitian movies are slated for screenings during the 39th annual Miami Film Festival that kicked off last Friday showcasing dozens of films, viewable both in-person and virtually.
“Parsley,” directed by Dominican director José María Cabral, explores the relationship between a Haitian woman and her Dominican husband in the midst of the 1937 massacre called “El Corte,” or “the cutting,” when thousands of Haitians along the border were slaughtered by Dominican dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina.
“I just wanted to have a human story where people could identify in a way and see how decisions made by a dictatorship really affected communities, affected families, affected human beings independently of where they are from,” saidCabral in an interview with The Miami Herald.
“Parsley” is showing on the evening of Mar. 7 and will be available to stream online the following day.
On Mar. 8, the festival will feature “Madame Pipi,” a documentary by director Rachelle Salnave that looks at the lives of Haitian women bathroom attendants in Miami’s nightclubs.
“Freda,” a film by Jessica Généus that garnered Oscar nomination buzz last year, will show in-person on Mar. 12. Généus will participate in a Q&A following the showing.
Looking at the life of a university student in the midst of a political tumult, Freda has garnered praise from Francis Ford Coppola and is Haiti’s official selection for the upcoming Academy Awards.
ARRIVAL OF HAITIAN BOATS TO SOUTH FLORIDA
Recent arrivals of hundreds of Haitians in the Keys is a sign of new trafficking routes
BY JACQUELINE CHARLES AND DAVID GOODHUE UPDATED MARCH 11, 2022 3:50 PM
The arrival of nearly 700 Haitians in a string of dramatic migrant landings near an exclusive wealthy enclave in the Upper Florida Keys over the past four months suggests that those behind the rise in Haitian boat migration are getting bolder, and using new trafficking routes, incouding the northern coast of Cuba, to get to the United States.
The arrival of nearly 700 Haitians in a string of dramatic migrant landings near an exclusive wealthy enclave in the Upper Florida Keys over the past four months suggests that those behind the rise in Haitian boat migration are getting bolder, and using new trafficking routes to get to the United States. While smugglers are still ferrying desperate Haitians in overloaded, battered sailboats from Haiti, the clandestine voyages have become much better organized and sophisticated, U.S. and Haitian authorities say. The boats are now bigger and even engine-powered as opposed to sail, and smugglers are employing GPS technology and other methods to evade detection by the U.S. Coast Guard. “They are taking the routes that will lead them to Key West and elsewhere via areas with less surveillance by the U.S. Coast Guard,” said Eric Prévost Junior, the director general of Haiti’s Maritime and Navigation Service. “That’s the tendency; they are changing routes from time to time, because there are routes they take that always lead to interception by the U.S. Coast Guard.”
Since November, four overloaded boats crammed with Haitians fleeing desperate conditions in Haiti have ended up near the ultra exclusive Ocean Reef Club in North Key Largo, located at the end of a remote two-lane highway that was made famous by drug traffickers in the 1970s and ‘80s. The most recent landing involved 356 Haitians, whose battered wooden freighter stopped just 200 yards from the shoreline of the resort Sunday after running aground. As the boat tilted on its side, 158 migrants jumped into the ocean and swam to the shore, their rush to freedom captured on video. Another 198 who remained aboard the boat were later transferred to a U.S. Coast Guard cutter for repatriation to Haiti.
Two days earlier, another overloaded sailboat, this one jam-packed with 123 Haitians, was stopped by the U.S. Coast Guard about 10 miles off Anguilla Cay, a Bahamian island just north of Cuba. U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Benjamin Golightly of District 7, which oversees Florida and Puerto Rico, would not say whether Haitian migrants trying to illegally enter the U.S. by sea are taking new routes, citing not wanting to disclose Coast Guard “patrol patterns.” But anecdotal evidence and interviews with those monitoring the recent uptick suggests that boats are using the coastlines and territorial waters of Cuba to reach the Keys, which are located just 90 miles north of the communist island. Last fall, after several Haitians arrived in the eastern and central provinces of Cuba, the country’s foreign ministry confirmed the arrival of an unspecified number of Haitians via boat in a bid to reach the U.S. By the end of last year, Cuba had repatriated 1,362 Haitians, according to the International Office for Migration, the U.N. agency tasked with receiving returning migrants. But even as some boats carrying Haitians are interdicted by the Cubans, there are also reports of them being helped in their journey.
This week, after a group of Haitian migrants were picked up in Cabo Rojo, a town in the southwest corner of Puerto Rico, a local newspaper reported that the migrants had reportedly left from the quake-ravaged city of Jérémie along the southwest peninsula of Haiti. The waters of the Caribbean reportedly took them toward Cuba where another boat found them and gave them food and gas, and redirected them to Puerto Rico. Golightly declined to provide specifics on how Cuba handles Haitian boats passing through its waters, other than to say each case is unique. “We make every attempt to work with our partners, both nationally and internationally to stop them at the point of origin,” he said, adding that the U.S. Coast Guard is always on regular patrols throughout the straits of Florida, the Bahamas and the Windward and Mona passages and areas north of Cuba. Still, in November when the first of the boatloads arrived, some of the 63 Haitians said they had been at sea for three weeks. “Our focus remains on trying to safely stop those voyages or working with anyone who is in a position to potentially safely stop those voyages to where we don’t have vessels capsizing and potentially hundreds of people lost at sea,” Golightly said.
FLEEING GANG VIOLENCE
Haitian émigré Jean-Pierre, who arrived in the U.S. five years ago, said his wife and three young children, ages 9, 6, and 4, were among the 123 people the Coast Guard stopped off Anguilla Cay last week. They were packed on the deck of the wooden vessel, which a U.S. Coast Guard aircraft filmed bobbing up and down in the high seas. “When I see that video, I cried,” said Jean-Pierre, who did not want to give his full name, nor that of his wife, fearing for his family’s safety.
He spoke to the Miami Herald after confirming with Bahamian authorities that his family was in custody. He said Bahamian authorities would not let him speak to his wife and were planning to send them back to Haiti. “They spent five days at sea, and now they’re going to go back,” he said. “Psychologically, they’re affected. We don’t know if there’s anything we can do.” Over the past five months, the U.S. Coast Guard has interdicted 1,152 Haitians trying to reach Florida and the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico. The surge comes after years of negligible sea migration by Haitians, who over the last decade had chosen the dangerous jungles of South America and tenuous land borders of Central America to try to reach the U.S. But all that changed after last July’s assassination of the country’s president, Jovenel Moïse, and the deadly magnitude 7.2 earthquake that followed five weeks later in the country’s southern peninsula. Both helped fueled an increase in migration, along with an escalation in gang-related violence and kidnappings. Combined with deepening political and economic crises, Haitians are being pushed to take unimaginable risks, a study by IOM found.
National Center of Haitian Apostolate
TALK SHOW OF THE HEALTH SYSTEM OF HAITI WITH HAITIAN DOCTORS AND HAITIAN NURSE FROM 5 COUNTRIES
The staff of Radio Telé Solidarité continues to do everything that depends on them to have a close relationship with the young people and professionals of the Haitian community of the diaspora and Haiti. Sr. Annecie Audate FMA, one the of religious stars of the Congregation of Salesian Sisters in the Eternal City and General Director of VIDES International despite her multiple obligations, has agreed to conduct a program for us once a month on Radio Telé Solidarité. The staff of Radio Telé Solidarité is very grateful to Sr. Audate. Allow me to paraphrase Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) who wrote: "Gratitude is the memory of the heart".
For this talk show we had: Argentina: Dr. Egzer Prophete, Dr. Mackendy Oge and Dr. Jehu Joseph, Brazil: Dr. Louis Hercule Jr. Thymogene, United States: Dr. Gabrielle Bien Aimé, Mrs. Jeannette Jean Pierre RC and Mr. Kevin Borgella, Haiti: Dr. Ralph Papouche Desmard and Dominican Republic Dr. Gerome Claff Kelly and Sr. Annecie Audate FMA directed this program.
In the first part of the program the panelists introduced themselves and after Sr. Annecie made a presentation on the International Day of the Sick inaugurated by Blessed Pope John Paul II almost 3o years ago. Each patient is a unique person with their weaknesses and limitations. Compassion towards the sick has motivated several members of the Christian Community to found several hospitals to welcome the sick. Sr. Annecie focused on the war in Ukraine and the cases of abortions that are happening around the world, these innocent people who are sometimes murdered after 6 months in their mother's womb because they cannot speak or defend themselves. Sr. Annecie took the opportunity to ask this question to the panelists: What are the challenges of Haiti's health system?
Dr. Gehu Joseph who studied medicine in the Dominican Republic and who practices his profession in Argentina was the first to intervene. He insisted a lot on security and education to improve the health system of Haiti. I mentioned that doctors have no back up or support in Haiti What is the salary of a doctor in Haiti? Factory workers in North America can earn better wages than many doctors in Haiti.
Dr. Gabrielle Bien Aimé focused on social inequalities in Haiti, especially in terms of health care. The peasants of the most remote places in Haiti do not have access to health care. She insisted a lot on the health care given in the public hospitals of Haiti where the patients are obliged to buy gloves, bandages for their care. Do the doctors of Haiti still have the best medical equipment to take care of the patients of Haiti? How can we structure Haiti's health system?
Several of them spoke about the problem of insecurity that the doctors of Haiti face in the exercise of their profession at the time when I write this text there are at least 3 Haitian doctors who are knocked in their Clinic and the kidnappers always ask for big money for their release. They went on to reminisce with sadness despite their great love for their homeland Haiti they are not yet ready to return. Even in the Dominican Republic, Haitian doctors are more numerous than those of Haiti
Sr. Annecie encouraged the doctors to return, she let them know that the Republic of Port-au-Prince (Port aux Crimes) is not Haiti and they will be welcomed by the people of Haiti if they are ready to practice their profession in the provinces of Haiti. She mentioned the name of her aunt Marie Abdon (Donne) Audate who is 93 years old and who practiced the profession of Midwife for nearly 70 years in her hometown of Carice in the North East Department of Haiti. Aunt Donne is among the famous people of Carice and she thanked the Lord who allowed her during her career as a Wise Woman to save the babies and her mother. To listen to this show click on the link: https://youtu.be/LsbI_s6vu9U
Brother Tob
Rally in Front of the Dania Beach Border Patrol Station to Stop The Deportation of Haitians
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Family Action Network Movement
Dania Beach Border Patrol Station
1800 NE 7th AVE, Dania Beach, FL 33004
Family Action Network Movement (FANM) Rallies in Front of the Dania Beach Border Patrol Station Against All Haitian Refugees Expulsions
WHAT: Family Action Network Movement (FANM), Community Leaders, Stakeholders, Immigration Advocates, and impacted community members Strongly Urge the Biden Administration to Stop All Deportations!
WHO: Family Action Network Movement (FANM), Community Leaders/Stakeholder, Immigration Advocates and impacted community members
WHEN: Saturday, March 12, 2022
TIME: 4:00 PM ET
WHERE: Dania Beach Border Patrol Station, 1800 NW 7th AVE Dania Beach, FL 33004
MIAMI, FL---- On March 6, 2022, a group of 300 Haitian refugees, including women and children were detained by U.S. authorities after arriving ashore in Key Largo. This follows the arrival of two previous large groups traveling from Haiti to the United States this past week – 179 people were detained on Sunday, February 27 , stopped just off of the Bahamian island of Andros, and 123 people were detained on Friday, March 4th. The arrival of these refugees does not come as a surprise, given the ongoing turmoil in Haiti, amidst widespread insecurity, kidnapping, state sponsored killings, gender based violence and other atrocious acts against activists, journalists, workers compounded by natural disasters and challenges stemming from the COVID 19 pandemic. Family Action Network Movement (FANM) joins elected officials, community, faith, and business leaders to urge the Biden Administration to release all of the refugees including women and children in their own recognizance and not deport them to Haiti where their lives might be in danger.
Family Action Network Movement (FANM) is a private not-for-profit organization dedicated to the social, economic, financial and political empowerment of low to moderate-income families.
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