Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 19 novembre 2020

 November 13, 2020, Covid 19 in Florida, the DR, Haiti, Cuba, Porto Rico and Jamaica

These statistics come from the website of the Johns Hopkins University that publishes such statistics periodically for 188 countries and Florida state.

O) The State of Florida, with a population of 21.5 million people, has 870,552  cases (853,107 active) and 17,445 deaths, corresponding to 2.04 % of the cases. 

O) The Dominican Republic, with a population of 11 million people, has 132,554 cases (21,006 active) and 2,280 deaths, corresponding to 1.72% of the cases.

O) Haiti, with a population of 11 million, has 9,168 cases (1285 active) and 232 deaths, corresponding to 2,53 % of the cases.  

     The cases and deaths in Haiti represent 6.9 % and 10.2 % of the Dominican figures respectively for the same global population of 11million.

      It must be stressed that close to half a million Haitians live and work in the DR where thousands of Haitians also attend Dominican universities. 

      I have learned from two reliable Haitian sources recently that many Haitian residents in the DR have elected to return home to avoid infection by the virus. 

      Haiti seems to experience lower rates of infection due perhaps to a smaller touristic influx than the DR!

O) Cuba, with a population of 12 million people, has 7,541 cases (445 active) and 131 deaths, corresponding to 1.74 % of the cases. The lower number of cases in Cuba 

     reflects the fact that Cuba in March put an end to its tourism to protect its population. Cuba reopened its major airports to tourism late last month. It felt obligated to do so to

     to restore the flow of hard currencies (Canadian $, the Euro, as well as Chinese currency) to its economy. 

O) Porto Rico, with a population of 3.2 million people, has 41,119 cases (4,921 active) and 914 deaths, corresponding to  2.22 % of the cases. 

O) Jamaica, with a population 3.2 million has 9,723  cases (4328 active) and 227 deaths, corresponding to 2.33% of the cases.

I have included the state of Florida as the American reference closest to the Caribbean. Haiti, Cuba and the DR are the larger states in the Caribbean. Porto Rico and Jamaica are more representative of  the smaller islands. 

All in all, the Caribbean has 41+ million people. 

This viral monster is only at the beginning of its rampage: it will do more damage in the near future; that damage will also be socioeconomic! 

These states are becoming tragic in the US as well!

MAX BLANCHET

Security Alert: U.S. Embassy Port-au-Prince,

Events: Pronounced increase in kidnappings, including U.S. citizens has led the U.S. Embassy in Port au Prince to temporarily restrict personal travel after dark (5:30pm) to the Tabarre area only.
Actions to take:
· Always ensure your communications equipment is functioning and charged before you travel.
· Always carry your cell phone.
· Always ensure that you have important phone numbers programmed into your phone.
· Travel in groups of at least two people.
· Be aware of your surroundings. If you notice something suspicious, try to retreat to a safe area.
· Do not travel in areas unfamiliar to you and be aware that navigation apps are highly unreliable in Haiti.
· Travel at times when traffic is expected to be lighter, such as early in the morning.  
· Ensure adequate spacing between vehicles to provide options for evading a potentially dangerous situation.
· Patronize shops or restaurants that provide secure, enclosed, and well-lit parking.
· Install window tint/mylar film on personal vehicles.
· If being confronted by armed perpetrators, do not resist. Comply with their instructions and avoid any movement or action that would give them reason to believe you are resisting.
· Always make sure your vehicle is in good driving condition. Check the vehicle fluids and spare tires.
· Avoid travel after dark in Port au Prince.
· Do not attempt to drive through roadblocks.
· If you encounter a roadblock, turn around and get to a safe area.
· Read the full Level Four travel advisory for Haiti at :  https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/haiti-travel-advisory.html
Assistance:

 U.S. Embassy Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Tabarre 41, Route de Tabarre
Emergencies: +509-2229-8000
Non-emergency inquiries: Cette adresse e-mail est protégée contre les robots spammeurs. Vous devez activer le JavaScript pour la visualiser.Website: https://ht.usembassy.gov/· Contact the State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs1-888-407-4747 toll-free from the United States and Canada1-202-501-4444 from other countries

AMERICAN CITIZEN SERVICES

U.S.EMBASSY

Due to covid-19  the US EMBASSY’S SUSPENSION OF ALL ROUTINE VISA SERVICES REMAINS IN PLACE. AT THIS  TIME, ONLY EMERGENCY NON-IMMIGRANT AND A RESTRICTED NUMBER OF IMMIGRANT VISA CASES CAN BE PROCESSED.

PLEASE CONTINUE TO MONITOR VISA WEBSITE FOR UPDATES.

Bit.ly/32sjDYN

Natalie Marika Fouché

OCTOBER 13, 1989 – NOVEMBER 11, 2020

Natalie Marika Fouché, age 31, of Queens Village, NY, passed away peacefully at home on November 11, 2020, after a long battle with Lupus and ensuing complications.

She lived a full thirty-one years. Her passions included movies, reading, travel and writing scripts. She enjoyed an extensive collection of thriller and horror movies.

She had the good fortune to travel through the Caribbean, Europe and Asia. She lived in Gwangju, South Korea, teaching English to young students for a year.

Her career in tennis, from the age of seven through High School, was rewarded with many honors, including the Mayor’s Cup Junior Championship and High School City Doubles Championship, despite her debilitating illness.

She also enjoyed a rewarding career in the field of advertising and media. Towards the end of her life she was instrumental in supporting her mother’s efforts in providing aid and education to the children of Haiti, through the production of writing and film.

She is a graduate of St. Francis Preparatory School in Fresh Meadows and received her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Communications from Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York in 2011.

She is survived by her Mother, Marie; Father, Pierre; Brothers, Patrick and Philip; Sisters-In-Law, Lori and Jenny; and nieces, Hailey, Lindsay, Emily and Eliza.

The mass for Natalie will be held on Saturday at 10:00 am at Incarnation Parish and we STRONGLY encourage everyone to view the service on https://incrcc.org/ due to COVID-19 concerns.

For more details about Natalie’s life please visit: https://tinyurl.com/yxklperd. The family welcomes you to add your memories of Natalie.

We in the Haitian Apostolate share the sorrow of Pierre and Marie Fouché at the death of their beloved thirty-one year old daughter Natalie Our condolences extend also to Patrick and Philippe the two younger brothers of the deceased as well as to their wives and children.

Natalie has been a very gifted young lady who excelled as a teacher, who travelled extensively in an insatiable thirst for knowledge and for people. She visited Europe, Asia and many of the Caribbean islands. She excelled in many fields.

We can appreciate the deep pain of her parents and as we offer our sincere sympathies we pray that the lights that shine from the Risen Lord will dispel the gloom inevitably associated with death. Life on earth is passing. REAL LIFE is BEYOND THE VEIL. The FACE-TO-FACE ENCOUNTER WITH LIFE ITSELF is our real destiny. Death is not extinction, it’s a bounce toward ETERNITY. It’s the crossing of the RED SEA toward the PROMISED LAND.

Our prayers escort Natalie in this crucial JOURNEY and you too Pierre and Marie we pray for you that HOPE will be your SHIELD! Death is a step forward, the “far better thing” in the words of St Paul.

Bishop Sansaricq / National Center of Haitian Apostolate

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 11 novembre 2020

 BARACK OBAMA CONGRATULATES JOE BIDEN

I could not be prouder to congratulate our next President, Joe Biden, and our next First Lady, Jill Biden.

I also couldn’t be prouder to congratulate Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff for Kamala’s groundbreaking election as our next Vice President.

In this election, under circumstances never experienced, Americans turned out in numbers never seen. And once every vote is counted, President-Elect Biden and Vice President-Elect Harris will have won a historic and decisive victory.

We’re fortunate that Joe’s got what it takes to be President and already carries himself that way. Because when he walks into the White House in January, he’ll face a series of extraordinary challenges no incoming President ever has – a raging pandemic, an unequal economy and justice system, a democracy at risk, and a climate in peril.

I know he’ll do the job with the best interests of every American at heart, whether or not he had their vote. So I encourage every American to give him a chance and lend him your support. The election results at every level show that the country remains deeply and bitterly divided. It will be up to not just Joe and Kamala, but each of us, to do our part – to reach out beyond our comfort zone, to listen to others, to lower the temperature and find some common ground from which to move forward, all of us remembering that we are one nation, under God.

Finally, I want to thank everyone who worked, organized, and volunteered for the Biden campaign, every American who got involved in their own way, and everybody who voted for the first time. Your efforts made a difference. Enjoy this moment. Then stay engaged. I know it can be exhausting. But for this democracy to endure, it requires our active citizenship and sustained focus on the issues – not just in an election season, but all the days in between.

Our democracy needs all of us more than ever. And Michelle and I look forward to supporting our next President and First Lady however we can.

Barack Obama

BERNIE SANDERS CONGRATULATIONS

Bernie Sanders: "I want to congratulate all those who worked so hard to make this historic day possible. Now, through our continued grassroots organizing, let us create a government that works for ALL and not the few." https://abcn.ws/3n2llHX

Haiti : Vandal Knocks Down Dessalines Statue In Cap-Haitian

HAITIAN TIMES

A vandal knocked down a statue of Jean-Jacques Dessalines at La Place de Notre-Dame in the city of Cap-Haitian, Thursday Nov. 4th, smashing the historic monument.

Multiple residents said the suspect, Lucien Calixte, suffers from a mental illness. When officials interrogated him, the 40-year-old struggled to answer or give a motive.

Other historic sites and monuments have been vandalized in the Northern Department. The Catholic Church of Milot, which served as the Royal Chapel during King Henry Christophe’s reign, was set on fire last April. 

March For Murdered Student Draws Hundreds Protesting Impunity

HATIAN TIMES

More than 100 classmates of murdered student Evelyne Sincere took to the streets in Port-au-Prince Thursday (Nov. 5) to ask for justice.

Evelyne Sincere, a high school senior, was kidnapped last week. She was dead in a garbage dump Nov. 1. 

Students at Jacques Roumain High School, the school Sincere attended, organized the march. Joined by family and hundreds of other supporters along the way, the protesters walked from Fontamara 43 to the Ministry of Justice, where they asked officials to keep working on the case. 

The students plan to march again next week, according to Panel Magik.

A HAITIAN DOCTOR IS WORKING AROUND THE CLOCK AGAINST CORONAVIRUS

Haitian times

Doctors, nurses and hospital employees across New York City are on the frontlines of the war against the coronavirus pandemic, which has now taken thousands of lives and infected every  borough.

Dr. Tamara Moise, a Haitian-American emergency room doctor who opened the first Black-owned Urgent Care Center in Brooklyn, has been working around the clock to help save lives from the deadly virus.

Dr. Moise splits her time between the emergency room at Brookdale Hospital Medical Center and the Urgent Care she owns on Church Avenue, working tirelessly to help patients that are increasingly showing up more and more sick.

She works about 4-6 shifts in the emergency room each month, averaging about two shifts each week. She then spends the rest of her time helping patients at the Urgent Care, hoping to relieve some of the load felt by emergency rooms across Brooklyn. Her co-owner also works at a hospital and the two split time at the Urgent Care, doing their best to see everyone that comes in. 

At the hospital, Dr. Moise said they’re now seeing less patients due in small part to recent governmental efforts to keep people at home and lower the infection rate. But each of the patients that does decide to come to the emergency room are showing up extremely sick, even “deathly ill” she said. 

“Even though it’s less people, it’s a lot of resources and it’s very, very sick people. I’m in the hood, so it’s sick people. We are not a healthy population. It’s a very tough situation because I’m in Brooklyn, in the Brownsville and East New York Area. We get Haitian patients here and a lot of West Indians. Unfortunately, our community is not the healthiest, sometimes due to a lack of resources and other reasons,” Dr. Moise said.

“The problem is that because we have such high rates of diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, and heart disease, we’re the ones that suffer a lot from this because the coronavirus attacks the people that have those medical problems especially, so it’s tough.”

Dr. Moise’s on-the-ground assessment has been proven true in recent days by dozens of reports from across the country showing that Black communities are being hit particularly hard by coronavirus. 

Data from communities in Milwaukee, Detroit, New Orleans, Chicago and New York released this week shows Black people are bearing the brunt of the virus due to a variety of health conditions endemic to communities of color. During a White House press conference on Tuesday, Dr. Anthony Fauci spoke passionately about how staggering it was to look at the data and see how the virus was disproportionately killing Black people across the country due to longstanding systemic healthcare issues. 

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 8 novembre 2020

 TRUMP ADMINISTRATION WANTS LEGISLATIVE ELECTIONS BY JANUARY; PRESIDENT JOVENEL MOISE WANTS A NEW CONSTITUTION FIRSTBy Jacqueline Charles

October 27, 2020 05:32 PM,

Updated October 27, 2020

If Haitian President Jovenel Moïse thought his good relations with Washington would allow him to achieve what all Haitian presidents have wanted— to delay elections and change the country’s constitution to his liking— the Trump administration begs to differ.

Moïse, in a surprise announcement last Friday, told Haitians that elections would take place only after they have had a chance to vote on a new constitution through a referendum. He did not say when such a vote would happen, or more importantly, who would draft this new constitution.

But a U.S. State Department spokesperson said the U.S. is expecting elections in Haiti no later than January to renew the entire Lower Chamber of Deputies, two-thirds of the 30-member Senate and all local offices, including mayors. The dismissal of Parliament in early January 2020 has left Moïse ruling by decree and the end of mayoral terms this past July, means that he’s now one of just 11 elected officials in the country of 11 million residents. The other elected officials are the remaining 10 senators who are in effect powerless and can’t even garner a quorum to assemble.

“We want to see Haitians afforded the right to elect their representatives and have been very clear and consistent on that point,” a spokesperson with the State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs told the Miami Herald. “We want to see Haitians afforded the right to elect their representatives.... In a democracy, the people’s interests are represented by their elected representatives, yet today in Haiti, the legislative branch of government is not working.”

Earlier this month, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said “Haiti’s legislative elections are now overdue.” While the U.S. wanted them to be held as soon as “technically feasible,” Pompeo pointed out that the Organization of American States wants them to be held by the end of January 2021.

“We support the OAS’ assessment that elections can and should happen by no later than January 2021,” the spokesperson said.

Technically, there are serious doubts that such a deadline can be met. The representatives of other foreign governments in Port-au-Prince have said a number of technical, political and security conditions in Haiti must be met before balloting can take place. This includes voters being assured they can cast their votes without being pressured by illegal armed groups; the completion of the electoral list, and the distribution of new national identification cards that double as electoral cards.

Of approximately 6.8 million Haitians of voting age, just over 2 million have received the controversial new ID card, according to Office of National Identification spokesman Wandi Charles. Several satellite offices have been vandalized and burned, including the call center and the largest card distribution office.

“At the political level, there must also be the broadest possible consensus,” said one foreign diplomat speaking on condition of anonymity.

During his Friday address, Moïse, refusing to name names, said he’s been in talks with members of the divided opposition. Leading opposition figures, however, have said no such talks are taking place, even amid talk that some people are in talks with the president, who may be seeking to shore up his rule by making changes in his administration. Opponents are continuing to demand Moïse’s resignation, while pushing for a transition government in lieu of elections to replace him.

Elections are never easy in Haiti.

If presidents in Haiti are not trying to delay the vote, they are being accused of trying to stack the deck in their favor, while opposition parties also seek their own advantage by boycotting talks and refusing to register with the Provisional Electoral Council. Meanwhile, the holding of legislative elections has often been the death-knell of elected presidents following accusations of electoral fraud.

With political infighting often snarling the process, the U.S. and other major supporters usually respond with stepped up diplomatic missions, visa cancellations and threats to withhold funding for needed projects.

So far, there has been none of that since Moïse’s announcement, as Haiti’s major international supporters disagree over whether conditions in the country would permit free and fair elections.

Whether trying to take advantage of the division or factoring in the United States’s own Nov. 3 election, Moïse, may have overplayed his hand.

His push for a new constitution has received harsh criticism from legal scholars and opposition figures who accuse him of making an illegal move. They argue that any referendum would be “a sham” because it is forbidden by the current amended constitution, which was first passed in 1987 after the fall of the Duvalier dictatorship.

“It will take us straight to dictatorship and to the African pattern in which the local leaders hold a referendum when they want a prohibited third term, as in Guinea or Rwanda,” said Georges Michel, who was involved in the creation of the 1987 constitution, which Moïse has described as “an act of corruption.”

A historian, Michel said the reason for the prohibition against change by referendum goes back to the 1930s, when another Haitian president, Sténio Vincent, replaced the democratic constitution of 1932 by another one via a sham referendum.

“In 1935, Vincent gave himself a five-year extension to his term that was due to expire on May 15, 1936. He left on May 15, 1941 instead,” Michel said. “Jovenel wants us to go 85 years backwards.”

The State Department spokesman said the issue of constitutional reform is up to the Haitian people. Still, there doesn’t appear to be much support for Moïse’s proposal.

“Any change to the constitution should be made in accord with Haiti’s own laws and constitutional processes and in full accord with internationally recognized democratic standards,” the spokesperson said.

U.S. Embassy Haiti on Twitter

Oct 28

Palman ayisyen an dwe re-etabli pi vit ke posib pou #Ayiti retounen sou yon chemen demokratik. Enstitisyon demokratik ayisyèn yo ta dwe detèmine mekanis legal ki apwopriye pou chanjman konstitisyonèl la, ak kontribisyon sosyete sivil la.

Haiti’s Parliament must be restored as soon as possible for Haiti to return to a democratic path. Haitian democratic institutions should determine the proper legal mechanism for constitutional change, with input from civil society.

An Earthquake, an Orphanage, and New Beginnings for Haitian Children in America

After the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, 19 children from one orphanage were flown to the U.S. to be adopted by American families. One would later meet President Trump.

By Catherine Porter and Serge F. Kovaleski

Oct. 19, 2020

Judge Amy Coney Barrett and her seven children, including two adopted from Haiti, met President Trump and the first lady, Melania Trump, at the White House last month. Doug Mills/The New York Times

When a devastating earthquake hit Haiti in 2010, a teenager named John Peter was playing basketball in the yard outside the small orphanage where he lived. He felt the earth bounce below him. He heard screams and watched a mushroom cloud of dust rising over the walls.

Two weeks later, he and 18 other children from the orphanage boarded a charter plane in the middle of the night as part of an American humanitarian effort. They landed in Sanford, Fla., to start new lives, in a new country, with new families.

“I saw the disaster and death all around. Dead moms, holding their dead kids,” John Peter Schlecht, now 23 and known as “JP,” said from St. Cloud, Minn., where he works three jobs. “I got out of there, but all those people were left. They didn’t get the chance I got.”

Since then, the children have headed in all directions. Some are studying in high school or college, or making a living of their own. Others have struggled with problems brought on by the early hardship in their lives, profound culture shock and the inability of their new parents to handle the challenges. Some were institutionalized or sent into foster care.

And in perhaps the most unlikely development, one boy and his older adopted Haitian sister ended up in the Rose Garden last month, introduced to the world by President Trump as two of Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s seven children.

“She opened her home and her heart, and adopted two beautiful children from Haiti,” he said, introducing Judge Barrett as his nominee to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court.

The orphanage, A New Arrival, was typical of many in Haiti. Food was in short supply, and many children weren’t literal orphans — their parents simply couldn’t afford to care for them.

Like most, it was basic, operating out of a four-bedroom house in Petionville, a suburb of Port-au-Prince, and had up to 40 children at a time, the former director, Rock Cayo, said in an interview. They looked forward to a better life with new families.

“That was the dream — to come to America,” said Jennifer Downard, 21, a business student and nursing assistant in Colorado who was adopted by a family in Washington State in 2008. “I was going to drink water, get food on the table, I would not be scared at night.”

Judge Barrett’s son, also named John Peter and then about 3 years old, was on that flight out of Haiti following the earthquake. He and his sister, Vivian, who was adopted from the same orphanage more than five years earlier, form a key part of the Barretts’ family story.

Judge Barrett has talked about their adoptions regularly in public speeches. She was inspired to adopt, she once explained, because “there are so many children in need.”

Just as everything with her nomination, the adoptions have been hard to totally separate from the politics of the moment.

Some critics have noted the irony of a president who has worked to close the United States to disaster refugees and once referred to Haiti with an expletivelauding the Barretts’ adoptions. And an ongoing debate over international adoption has played out as well. Advocates hope the Barretts’ story will encourage other prospective parents to come forward. Detractors have criticized as “white saviorism” the judge’s public accounts of her children’s dire situations before they left Haiti.

A small group of families who adopted children from the same orphanage, some at the very same time, are asking more intimate questions.

“I’d be really interested to hear how the kids are,” said Cara Leadingham, a mother of 11 from Illinois who remembers holding “Little” John Peter during many visits to the orphanage while waiting for the adoption of her daughter to be finalized. Though she doesn’t agree with Judge Barrett’s political positions, nor with the timing of her nomination, she’d love to hear what the past decade has been like for the family.

“There are success stories and equally as many challenging stories,” Ms. Leadingham said.

Inspired to adopt by a couple they met in their marriage preparation course, Judge Barrett has said they chose Haiti because of its overwhelming poverty and proximity to the United States, so “we could go as a family and be involved in Haiti as the children got older.”

She chose a Montana-based international adoption agency, A New Arrival Inc., that added Haiti to the dozen countries it worked with in 2003, when it hired Mr. Cayo to open a new orphanage there.

Neither the Barretts nor the White House would comment for this article. But in speeches, Judge Barrett and her husband, Jesse, have offered bleak glimpses of the orphanage.

While they were visiting Haiti in 2004, a child at the orphanage died, Mr. Barrett said in a speech about his wife at her investiture as a federal circuit judge in 2018. They expected their daughter Vivian to perish too — at 14 months, she “was wearing size 0 to 3-month-old clothing because she was so malnourished,” Judge Barrett said in a public interview at the Notre Dame Club in Washington, D.C., in 2019. Last week, while introducing her daughter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, she remarked that “we were told she would never talk or walk normally.”

“Now, she dead lifts as much as the male athletes in our gym and, I assure you, she has no trouble talking,” she said.

In 2019, Judge Barrett called the orphanage “wonderful” and said the nannies there “loved the children immensely.”

Three adoptees who talked to The New York Times remembered the place with mostly hard feelings.

“If I was to put it in one word, it’s jail,” said Libien Becker, a 20-year-old business and carpentry student at Montana Technological University in Butte, who was adopted by a Montana family after the earthquake.

Teachers came to the orphanage to give classes on basic literacy and math, and often the children played basketball in the courtyard. But they also recalled stretches of hunger and corporal punishment — which although outlawed in Haiti is a common experience for 80 percent of the country’s children, according to Haiti’s 2016-17 national survey.

Mr. Cayo did not respond to the allegations of poor treatment at the orphanage, which has since been transformed into a school for poor children in the area.

Many American parents who adopted from there said they’d been promised the process would take a year or so. But they described painfully waiting years because of Haitian bureaucracy and problems with the American agency, which faced lawsuits from at least two sets of parents. In both cases, the families reached legal agreements without going to trial.

In one case, Patrick Eibs and his wife at the time claimed the agency and its director, Lorraine A. Jones, “misrepresented the legal stages of the adoption proceedings, misrepresented the time the adoptions would take to proceed, misrepresented the defendants’ competence, forced the plaintiffs to pay for expenses in excess and beyond that provided by the parties’ written agreement and charged unreasonable fees for the services provided.”

A New Arrival Inc. was decertified in 2017 by an accreditation agency used by the U.S. State Department. That same year, it ceased operations, according to tax records.

The Barretts confronted their own problems adopting John Peter. During the 2019 interview, Judge Barrett said they’d been in the process when “paperwork things had just gone south.” They got a call from the adoption agency in 2009, delivering the difficult news that it wouldn’t happen, she said.

“Mentally and emotionally, we had closed that door,” she said.

A month later, on Jan. 12, 2010, a 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit Haiti, killing hundreds of thousands of people and destroying large swaths of Port-au-Prince.

Six days later, the U.S. government announced it would lift visa requirements for orphans already in the process of adoption, as part of its disaster-relief efforts. The humanitarian parole program brought about 1,150 children from Haiti to the United States over the next few months — more than were adopted by American families in the previous three years — and was later criticized for insufficiently screening some children and their would-be parents in the rush. But, the government employees who oversaw it and many adopting parents considered it life-saving.

The Barretts got another call from the adoption agency, this one bearing good news: John Peter could become part of the program.

“Will you still take him?” Judge Barrett recalled someone from the agency asking. “We said, ‘Of course.’”

The orphanage had been remarkably untouched by the earthquake. But the children were sleeping in a tent fashioned from bedsheets and blankets in the courtyard, for fear of aftershocks, and their American parents spent sleepless nights worrying about their security.

One of the parents, Jacob Bissaillon, jumped on a plane to the Dominican Republic and drove across the border into Haiti with the orphanage director, Mr. Cayo. Together, they spent a week recreating the dossiers of adopting parents that were buried in the rubble of government buildings — printing documents, photos and receipts to take to the American embassy in hopes of enrolling the children in the new program.

“Every single day, it would change — which kids were allowed to come home,” said Mr. Bissaillon, who was in the process of adopting two children from the orphanage. One day, his daughter was approved, but not his son, he said. The next, it was the reverse.

On Jan. 24, he and Mr. Cayo drove a pickup truck jammed with children to the embassy for the final time — 19 were on the list that day, including Mr. Bissaillon’s two children and the little boy who would join the Barrett family.

They were escorted by military personnel to the airport, loaded onto a military plane, ordered off the plane, and then told to board a charter. Mr. Bissaillon said he didn’t know where the plane was destined until moments before it landed at Orlando Sanford International Airport.

Over the next day, the children were processed and released to their waiting, anxiety-worn parents, many of whom had been in Florida, trying to get their own flights to Haiti.

Jesse Barrett flew to Florida to meet John Peter and take him home to meet his large new family in South Bend, Ind. In her testimony last week, Judge Barrett recalled the boy’s initial reaction.

“Jesse, who brought him home, still describes the shock on JP’s face when he got off the plane in wintertime Chicago,” she said. “Once that shock wore off, JP assumed the happy-go-lucky attitude that is still his signature trait.”

Susan C. Beachy and Harold Isaac contributed research.

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 29 octobre 2020

 Academics, Strategists Track Down Haitian-American Voting Data To Turn Florida Blue

Haitian American Voting Data to turn Florida blue

When Democratic Party presidential nominee Joe Biden visited Little Haiti two weeks ago, he said Haitian-Americans could turn the state Blue. It appears his party has the data to prove it. Data that has informed much of the get-out-the-vote efforts undertaken by Democratic party workers, volunteers, and community advocates to reach Haitian-Americans — in person and virtually. Having the details, proponents of the approach said, better informs efforts to engage the community and, more importantly, shows the growing clout of Haitian-Americans in Florida.

“In official statistics, it’s important to delineate what separates Haitians from other groups they are categorized with, like Jamaicans and Black Americans,” said Santra Denis, president and founder of the South Florida-based organization Avanse Ansanm. “People typically think about the Black community as very monolithic and for Haitian-Americans, there’s a cultural need in terms of how you relate to us, what resonates with us, and what will pull us into this political cycle.”

Official voting statistics do not specify American citizens with Haitian parents or naturalized Haitian-Americans born in other countries. However, academics surfaced the data by cross-referencing official voting data with the population’s ethnicity and background. Democratic strategists then took it further by adding their analysis, based on knowledge of the community, to come up with recommendations to turn Florida Blue.

With the final weeks of the campaign in full swing, the current approach observed is largely based on a report by Herlande Rosemond, voter protection deputy director for the Florida Democratic Party. 

In the report, titled “Florida’s Haitian American Community,” Rosemond said the state’s 300,563 electors of Haitian ancestry are significant and need to be better utilized. She drew a contrast with the Venezuelan population, a group that receives much attention, whose population is less than half the number of Haitian-Americans in the Sunshine State.

“Just possibly, the road to the White House might run through Little Haiti,” the report states. 

“The road to the White House certainly runs through Florida and our campaign is working tirelessly to mobilize and turn out the Haitian-American community for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, especially as Floridians are early voting,” said Karen Andre, senior adviser to Biden’s Florida campaign. “We plan to continue our work to win their support in everything, from our organizing efforts to our paid media program, through Election Day.”

Linking voter data to country of origin

The voter data behind the strategy is based on the work of such academics at the University of Florida — Daniel Smith, chair of the Department of Political Science, and Sharon Austin, a political science professor and director of the African American Studies Program.

Smith has coded about 14 million lines of data that show a person’s national origin in order to locate their birthplace and the precincts in which they voted. The extensive, months-long task entailed working with a team of students to merge voter precinct data with individual voter files from the state, Smith said. 

Also, with Haiti spelled a multitude of different ways in the data and some people listing their country’s hometown as a place of origin, Smith’s team took educated guesses about the country of origin.

“It takes a lot of heft to do an analysis of voter participation by country of origin,” Smith said. “The state could presumably do all this, but they don’t. They will make it publicly available to show the voter breakdown by party, but other than that, they aren’t providing any information.” 

Among the findings in his research is that Haitian political participation in Florida is strong and higher than the statewide average, said Smith. Haitian voter turnout in the 2018 general election was 73 percent, compared to the state’s 64 percent overall. The 2016 levels were similar.

Austin, whose work centers on the Black vote, said the data-driven approach that she and Smith have pursued has made people realize the power of Florida’s Haitian-American voters.

“These numbers allow you to understand that Haitians vote at higher levels, that there is a large Haitian population in Florida, that there are a number of Haitians who have ran for office and won office, and that as a political group, they really have arrived,” Austin said. 

One reason Haitian voter turnout has been so high is the community’s strong sense of cultural identity and this identity is vital to tap into for expanding political representation in official statistics, he said. Smith also emphasized robust field campaigning and door-to-door canvassing as instrumental to maintaining strong enthusiasm for political participation.

Now that the first generation of Haitian immigrants has laid the bedrock, the community should continue to strengthen its political progress moving forward, community advocates say.

“The generation before us spent a lot of time making sure the foundation was where it needed to be so that we can have a strong and vibrant community,” said Denis, of Fort Lauderdale.

Direct, culturally appropriate outreach 

Rosemond’s report also outlines ways the Democratic Party could address shortcomings.

“It is necessary to include the Haitian community as important members of the overall Florida Democratic Party,” Rosemond wrote. “What this means is to address the language and cultural idiosyncrasies of this population, recognizing and utilizing members of that community in the ‘get out to vote’ movement. 

Biden’s campaign has been doing just that. 

In contrast to Trump’s campaign, his team has placed a strong emphasis on reaching out to Florida’s Haitian-American population. In addition to Andre, Karine Jean-Pierre was named as Kamala Harris’ chief of staff. 

The Biden-Harris campaign has launched a six-figure media blitz airing television and radio ads in Haitian Creole. Both Andre and Jean-Pierre have asked for the community’s support, all English, French and Creole, in media interviews, virtual events and community forums.

This week, both Joe Biden and Kamala Harris traveled to Florida with the intent of drumming up support among Caribbean voters.

Rosemond also recommended having a strong field organization that is culturally appropriate, similar to the boots-on-the-ground approach championed by Denis and Smith, for the Biden-Harris team to turn Florida Blue. 

She said the party should reach out to Haitian-Americans in Creole, citing Florida Representative Dotie Joseph’s prior use of language as among the most important factors playing into Haitian-American political participation. Joseph’s 108th House District has electors who speak Spanish, Haitian Creole and English. She has conducted events in each language to reach specific electorates.

Waiting for results

Smith said Biden is taking the right steps to energize Haitian-American voters for two reasons.

“I fully expect stronger support for Biden because of Trump’s disrespect for Haiti, which he has made very clear and obvious,” he said. “I also think that Biden has been able to distance himself from Hillary Clinton, who brought a lot of concern to the Haitian-American community.” 

Another significant component is direct engagement outreach, including knocking on doors and passing out literature, and connecting with Haitian-American millennials in particular.

For National Voter Registration Day on Sept. 22, nonprofit organization Avanse Ansanm partnered with one of the busiest Haitian bakeries in Broward County. Denis, its leader, paid for people’s orders in exchange for her to check their voter status on the spot.

With such activity underway, Denis is optimistic that more politicians like Joseph will be involved in Florida’s political landscape, which could eventually pave the way for greater representation in elected positions. 

Consequently, with greater representation, Haitian-American politicians will continue to advocate for and generate political enthusiasm within their own community. 

“We’re going to start to see a lot more Haitian elected officials as state and city commissioners, superintendents, and as members of Congress,” Denis said. “We’re involved in every aspect of life and we should have political representation as well.”

China offers $1 billion loan to Latin America and the Caribbean for access to its Covid-19 vaccine

Mexico City (CNN) — Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi announced a $1 billion loan to Latin America and the Caribbean for Covid-19 vaccine access during a virtual gathering with his Latin American counterparts on Wednesday, according to a statement released by the Mexican Foreign Affairs Ministry.

"China's Foreign Minister said that the vaccine developed in his country will be a public benefit of universal access, and that his country will designate a loan of $1 billion to support access [to the vaccinehttps://rileyantoinefuneralhome.com/book-of-memories/4203488/Kinney-Ruby/index.php">Ruby Kinney died from COVID-19 on April 22. Flint-Banks says a doctor at the nursing home, which declined to comment for this story, called to tell her the news.

“I didn't have any clue that they even thought she had COVID,” Flint-Banks says. “I just started crying, me and my husband both.”

In Massachusetts, nursing homes were hit hard and early by the coronavirus. Thousands of residents in these facilities have died from COVID-19, and the death rate from the virus in nursing homes is 90 times that of the statewide death rate.

But nursing homes across the state did not bear this burden equally.

Twenty people died from COVID-19 in Kinney’s nursing home. This is higher than the statewide average in facilities with coronavirus outbreaks: 15.5 deaths. State data also shows that nursing homes serving more residents of color had, on average, more COVID-related deaths.

This is partly explained by the fact that these facilities tend to have more residents. But even when you look at the rate of death, the disparity persists.

U.S. reports about 300,000 more deaths during pandemic than in typical year

By Vishwadha Chander

2 MIN READ

(Reuters) - Nearly 300,000 more people have died in the United States in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic than would be expected based on historical trends, with at least two-thirds due to COVID-19, a government report released on Tuesday showed, adding that COVID deaths likely were undercounted.

The report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated that 299,028 more people died between Jan. 26 and Oct. 3 than the average numbers from past years would have indicated.

CDC said that about 216,000 U.S. deaths from the coronavirus had been reported by the middle of this month. “This might underestimate the total impact of the pandemic on mortality,” it said.

“There are many factors that could contribute to an increase in deaths indirectly due to the pandemic, with disruptions to health care being one factor,” study author Lauren Rossen, from CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, told Reuters.

The count could miss deaths indirectly related to the pandemic, caused by disruptions in healthcare access or utilization, and from conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, and respiratory diseases, the report said. But it also could reflect rises in non-COVID-19 related deaths.

The data show disproportionate increases among racial and ethnic groups that have been seen as particularly affected by COVID-19.

The CDC found the largest average percentage increase in deaths compared with previous years occurring among Hispanic people (53.6%), with deaths 32.9% above average among Black people and 36.6% above average for Asians.

A Reuters tally finds about 220,000 coronavirus-related U.S. deaths have been reported.

The CDC found that excess deaths have occurred every week since March 2020 and reached their highest points in the weeks ended April 11 and Aug. 8.

The largest percentage increase in excess deaths from all causes was among adults aged 25–44 years at 26.5%.