Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 5 septembre 2022

 Haitian prosecutor’s office investigates officials accused of corruption

Port-au-Prince, Aug 30 (Prensa Latina) The capital’s government commissioner, Jacques Lafontaine, announced today that the files of former officials suspected of corruption indicated in a government report are being investigated.

These are the cases of Magreth Fortune and Serge Merger, former directors of the State Lotteries, as well as the former head of the Industrial Development Fund, Edgard Judy.

These officials were mentioned in a report submitted last week by the Unit for the Fight Against Corruption (ULCC), according to which the state was charged 500 million gourds (just over $4 million) for acts of embezzlement, illegal acquisitions, mismanagement of public property. ) was damaged. Abuse of authority and other offenses in cases such as the police, local councils, educational centers and even judicial institutions.

In Fortune’s case, ULCC indicated that a concession contract under his management generated losses equivalent to 269 million gourds (about $2 million), in addition to the embezzlement of 40 million 940 thousand gourds allegedly in association with his brother. (about $350,000) did. ,

The agency also found irregularities in the administration of Leon Charles, the former Director General of Police, who left 18 million gourds (over 153 thousand dollars) short of payments to soldiers who had already retired or laid off in three months.

However, Lafontaine indicated that the file in Charles’ case is on hold “because there is not enough material to process it,” he assured at a press conference on Tuesday.

The prosecutor also said that the prosecution of former deputies who did not declare their assets would be done before the reform court.

According to the ULCC investigation, 50 of 44 deputies of the legislature “deliberately” chose not to declare their assets, which according to the entity is a serious offense.

jcm/ane

The World’s 50 Most Beautiful Countries (You Won’t Believe Where The U.S. Ranked)

Laura Begley Bloom06:00am EST

Who doesn’t look at travel photos on Instagram and fantasize about visiting the most beautiful country in the world? But what defines beauty? A new study from the website money.co.uk aims to rank the 50 most beautiful countries in the world by analyzing the amount of natural wonders in each location, from coral reefs and tropical rainforests to volcanoes, glaciers and more. 

“While beauty is ultimately subjective, it’s clear that these countries have a lot to offer visitors, whether you prefer adventuring in the mountains or relaxing by the coast,” says Sal Haqqi, personal finance editor at money.co.uk. 

Coming in at the top of the list as the most beautiful place on earth is Indonesia, which has a natural beauty score of 7.77 out of 10. Indonesia is home to more than 17,000 islands. “And just off the shores of these islands, you’ll find over 31,000 square miles of coral reef, teeming with life, much of which can be explored from the popular province of Bali,” says Haqqi. 

A view of Raja Ampat island in Indonesia, which was named the world's most beautiful place.

getty

Some of the other natural attractions that helped propel Indonesia to the top of the list include Komodo National Park (a UNESCO World Heritage Site), Sumatra (which is covered with tropical forests) and Kalimantan (home to an orangutan reserve).

Second on the list of the world’s most beautiful places: New Zealand, which has a natural beauty score of 7.27 out of 10 and is known for its mountain peaks, rolling hills and a number of glaciers and active volcanoes. It’s no surprise that so many movies—including The Lord of the Rings—have been filmed here.

Next up is Colombia, which scores 7.16 out of 10 on the natural beauty scale. Like Indonesia and New Zealand, Colombia has a long coastline. It also has varied landscapes, from the Amazon to the Andes. 

Despite its long Pacific and Atlantic coastlines, as well as its myriad natural attractions and national parks ranging from the Grand Canyon to Yellowstone, the United States didn’t make it into the top 10. With a score of 6.04 out of 10, the country ranks number 12. Countries besting the U.S. range from Mexico (at number 5) to France (at number 8). 

Read on for the list of the 50 most beautiful countries in the world. How many have you visited?

National Center of Haitian Apostolate

TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (Sept 4, 2022)

Wisdom 9, 13-18b; Ps 90; Phil 9-10, 12-17; Luke 14, 25-33

https://youtu.be/kDRu12cpJZU

Msgr. Pierre André Pierre

We are being reminded today that if we want to be Jesus’ disciples, we will need to be radically detached from all our possessions. He must have the First Place in our lives. The disciple of Jesus needs to know from the start that he is called to a great mission. He cannot be half-hearted, a joker or a liar. He is called to carry a Cross. Yet, no need to be frightened!

For, fullness of life and joy are Jesus’ promise to his followers. Nothing can be preferable to his offer. Two short stories or parables provide brighter colors to the teaching:

a)     A man who builds a tower should not start his work unless he possesses all the money needed to complete the job. Hence, when receiving communion, we commit ourselves to follow Jesus all the Way. Communion is a lie when we hypocritically persist walking in our sinful ways.

b)    A king cannot go to war against an enemy who possesses an army twice as large as his own. From the first day we must possess God’s Grace, the needed power to defeat the enemy.

Likewise, we should not accept baptism or communion when we are not determined to give up sin in all its forms. Too many Christians are half-way Christians. Our Church history is replete with martyrs who preferred to die rather than deny their faith. We are challenged to imitate them.

Jesus calls us to be born again, to reject sin even when it requires costly sacrifices. We are called to be heroes, to participate in the birth of a new mankind. That task is not easy. Our Church history shines with model men and women who have consented to great sacrifices for the sake of the Kingdom. Peace of mind on earth and Heavenly glory are the rewards reserved for the faithful disciple. You too, strive to be, right now, a genuine, courageous yet joyful witness of Jesus!

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 24 aout 2022

 Two Haitian Americans seek seats on Broward County Commission

BY ASHLEY MIZNAZI AUG. 18, 2022

The Haitian Times

A Haitian American could hold a seat on the Broward County Commission for the first time after Tuesday’s election.  Two Haitian American candidates — Guithele Ruiz-Nicolas and Aude Sicard — are among those running for seats 8 and 9 on the redistricted commission comprising nine members. 

Broward is Florida’s 7th largest county with a population of 1.94 million, including a large contingent of Haitians. The exact figures are not available, but they are among the 228,000 people of Haitian ancestry that the Migration Policy Institutereports live in South Florida.

In the County Commission race, all the candidates are Democrats. Early voting ends Sunday, Aug. 21, and Election Day is Tuesday, Aug. 23. 

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How U.S. gun laws and South Florida ports help fuel Haiti’s escalating gang violence

By Jacqueline Charles and Jay Weaver  |

 Updated August 16, 2022 7:39 PM

When the cargo ship “Miss Lilie” left Miami one recent afternoon and pulled into port along Haiti’s northwest coast, it had all the markings of a legitimate government operation. 

Men in canoes waited until nighttime to unload the freight and stash it on a nearby island. Armed anti-drug trafficking officers showed up at the wharf and claimed they were sent to take the cargo, while vehicles with official state and police plates waited to transport the load along a perilous, gang-controlled road. 

But the cargo was far from legal. It contained 120,000 high-power rounds — a deadly cache outlawed under U.S. law. And that’s not all. The rounds were bound for senior political officials in Port-au-Prince, according to two police reports obtained by the Miami Herald.

Haiti does not manufacture ammunition or weapons, and its poorly equipped security forces are subject to U.S. arms restrictions in place since the late 1990s. Yet the volatile nation, which is being terrorized by kidnapping gangs and other politically connected criminals, is awash in hundreds of thousands of firearms and ammunition — with the vast majority of the illegal weapons coming from South Florida.

“Today the trafficking of guns, the trafficking of ammunition and kidnapping appear to have supplanted drug trafficking,” said Gédéon Jean, a lawyer who runs the Center for Analysis and Research in Human Rights in Port-au-Prince, which monitors kidnappings. “The money that used to be made in Haiti in the trafficking of cocaine is now being made in these other types of trafficking.”

Among the Haiti-bound weapons that were recently seized in South Florida: military-grade .50 caliber assault rifles that use bullets “the size of a Tabasco bottle,” according to a senior Haitian police official with knowledge of the seizure.

Still, stopping the flow is nearly impossible, say experts, who cite Haiti’s deeply rooted drug trade, smuggling networks, systemic corruption and lucrative black-market firearms profits — along with the United States’ lax gun laws. 

“The United States is the biggest gun store in the Western Hemisphere — by volume, by manufacturing, by culture,” said Carlos A. Canino, a former Special Agent in Charge of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives field offices in Miami and Los Angeles.

Smuggling operations out of South Florida and seizures at regional ports have spiked — along with the caliber of weapons.

“It’s disturbing the amount [of firearms] and increase in firepower we are seeing being sent down there,” said Anthony Salisbury, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations office in Miami.

While HSI has seized weapons going to Haiti before and investigated a number of cases involving the Caribbean region along with certain countries in Latin America, Salisbury said federal agents are “seeing an uptick.”

“There’s definitely an increase in the flow of weapons in both numbers and types of the firepower” to Haiti, he said, adding that “there is an increase in activity and seizures.”

Half of all weapons-exports investigations in Caribbean

The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security, which collaborates with other federal agencies including HSI, says that since 2020 about half of all firearms-export investigations have been concentrated in the Caribbean region — a top smuggling destination fueled by the demand of drug traffickers and huge black-market markups on U.S.-made guns. The other 50% are scattered throughout other parts of the world. 

The most popular firearms for illegal exports from the U.S. are pistols: the Taurus Model G2C, the Micro Draco 5.5, which can fire rifle rounds, and 9mm Glocks. Body armor and ammunition are also popular black-market exports.

Commerce-BIS and the State Department, along with other federal agencies, are responsible for enforcing two main laws: International Traffic in Arms Regulations and the Export Administration Regulations. Commerce-BIS regulates “commercial grade” firearms up to .50-caliber that are semi-automatic and other types such as lever action, bolt action or revolvers; Commerce also controls higher-caliber rifles that are for big-game hunting, but they are not typical of the smuggling trade. The State Department regulates “military grade” firearms that are fully automatic.

But the rampant sale of firearms in Florida and other states makes enforcing those federal export laws difficult, according to experts and former law enforcement officials.

In Florida, buyers of weapons at federally licensed firearms stores must go through a criminal background check and fill out a form saying they are the actual purchasers. (Background checks and other paperwork are not required at private gun shows.) But “straw” buyers with no criminal history can easily pass a background check and declare that they are the actual purchasers. While making multiple purchases, they claim on a federal form that they are buying the weapons for themselves when in fact they are amassing them for shipment or sale to someone else in the U.S. or abroad. 

However, there’s a loophole in Florida law for anyone buying ammunition. Although the law prohibits anyone who can’t buy or possess a firearm from purchasing ammunition, licensed vendors aren’t required to run background checks on buyers of bullets to make sure they’re allowed to do so. In addition, the buyers don’t have to fill out a federal form declaring they’re purchasing the ammunition, so there’s no way to trace the transaction.

A black market for weapons

There are several ways in which traffickers hide and ship firearms and ammunition. Federal agents have seen instances in which traffickers have tried to hide both “in massive amounts of goods,” like consignment shipments of used clothing and donations of toys.

The weapons, which are sold for hundreds of dollars each in the U.S. market, are then resold for thousands of dollars each in the Caribbean.

“There are huge markups on the black market,” a Commerce-BIS enforcement official said. 

For example, because of their name-brand popularity, 9mm Glock pistols can sell for $400 to $500 each at a federally licensed firearms store or private gun show in South Florida, but can be resold for $2,000 to $5,000 in St. Thomas, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and then fetch as much as $10,000 in Jamaica, Trinidad or Haiti. 

In Haiti, where police have seized hundreds of weapons in recent months, automatic rifles like AK47s, the Israeli-made Galil and military-grade rifles also fetch high prices. The latter is already in the hands of some gangs, according to an individual who has knowledge of gang armaments.

Almost 200 percent spike in kidnappings 

Gangs have been part of the Haitian landscape for more than 20 years. But a year after the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, gang violence has soared and the interim government led by Ariel Henry, a neurosurgeon, seems unable to stem the tide or the country’s free fall.

Between January and July 1 of this year, there have been 1,207 homicides and 787 kidnappings, according to statistics provided to the United Nations by the Haiti National Police and other sources. The kidnappings represent an increase of 193.7%, while killings represent an increase of about 27.5% compared to the similar period last year. 

The escalation, blamed mainly on violent gangs, has made tackling the illegal flow of weapons to the country “an urgent problem,” according to several Haiti experts.

Haiti observers and federal authorities say stopping the escalating cycle of violence in the Caribbean nation is only possible if the U.S. government steps up efforts to block the exports of illegal weapons through U.S. ports.

“If you can really squeeze this flow, it would make a huge impact on so many different issues in Haiti, on so many problems,” said William O’Neill, a security expert and international human rights lawyer who was involved in helping rebuild the country’s fledgling police force when he worked for the U.N.

READ MORE: They lack guns, bullets and body armor. How are Haiti’s cops confronting gangs?

Earlier this year, Homeland Security opened a permanent office at the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince. Salisbury, who heads HSI’s office in Miami, said as a result of the expanded presence, there’s going to be “an increased effort to stop the flow of weapons to Haiti,” which could lead to more arrests and prosecutions in South Florida.

Despite their limitations, Haitian police have stepped up efforts to go after armed gangs using lethal force — and to crack down on the illegal trafficking of arms and ammunition. 

Police have seized 250 guns as of July, with the overwhelming numbers being pistols. Last year, they seized a total of 401 firearms.

The bulk of the illegal weapons, while not always destined for gangs, do eventually find their way into their hands. Once estimated at less than 100 just a few years ago, gangs now number up to 200, with over “3,000” soldiers, according to some international observers.

They are not only carrying out attacks in mostly poor, working-class neighborhoods of Port-au-Prince, but they also sow other kinds of chaos in crisis-wracked Haiti.

In June, armed members of a gang known as “5 Seconds,” employing drones and heavy artillery, took over the Palace of Justice in downtown Port-au-Prince, where the country’s main courthouse is located, and destroyed evidence and files on multiple massacres committed since 2018. A month later, suspected members of the 400 Mawozo gang set fire to a courthouse in the Croix-des-Bouquets region east of the capital. 

The head of the National Human Rights Defense Network said gangs are responsible for at least 17 documented massacres and armed attacks over the past five years, including two this year.

The vicious cycle of gangs, trafficking, kidnapping

Previously, a few dozen armed groups were used by politicians to help get them into office or to keep them there. Now, the number of gangs has escalated as the political and economic elite turn to them to do their bidding while young people seek them out for jobs.

It’s all part of a vicious cycle, said Jean, the human rights lawyer in Port-au-Prince..

To afford firearms and ammunition, gangs need cash, he said. To acquire the cash, they kidnap, demanding tens of thousands of dollars in ransom payments that are later used to purchase guns and bullets from highly connected individuals with the ability to pay off customs officials, police officers and sometimes government authorities.

Jean, however, cautions that those behind the emerging criminal enterprise are not the gangs per se.

“They are being used,” he said, accusing Haiti’s traffickers, politicians and elite of provoking the deadly clashes so they can reap the financial benefits. “For the guns to sell, for the bullets to sell, they always have to create conflict, to make the gangs fight so that they would unload their bullets.” 

Jean said two recent seizures at the ports in Port-de-Paix and in Port-au-Prince have shown that the individuals involved in the illegal gun trafficking in Haiti “are people in sectors that you would have never thought of.”

In July, the Port-de-Paix smuggling case implicating “Miss Lilie” led to the arrests of an acting state prosecutor, Michelet Virgile, and the secretary general of the Federation of Bars of Haiti, Robinson Pierre-Louis. Haiti National Police accused them of using their authority to get two weapons-smuggling suspects, the Lilie boat captain and an associate, released from jail.

Pierre-Louis, who was an adviser in the justice ministry, is accused of calling Virgile, and demanding that the prosecutor release the boat’s owner, Jonas Georges, who is from Miami, and the associate, Fritz Jean Relus, accused of transporting some of the ammunition and firearms to the home of an accused trafficker. They were released without the Haiti National Police’s approval, but their whereabouts are unknown.

Less than two weeks later in July, scandal struck again. This time, it involved shipping containers that came in the name of the Episcopal Church from Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale into Port-au-Prince.

The arrival of the containers coincided with ongoing gang warfare in Cité Soleil. As police approached the port, about a mile away from the fighting, the “5 Seconds” gang traveling in a boat fired on the cops to stop the search of the illicit shipment.

Eventually, police officers made it inside the port. The containers, marked as “Donated goods,” held 22 firearms, including 19 assault rifles, 140 magazine cartridges of different calibers, nearly 15,000 rounds of ammunition and $50,000 in counterfeit dollar bills. The Episcopal Church, which has had 105 containers arrive in its name between October of last year and June, according to shipping records, has denied any wrongdoing in both a statement put out by a spokesman and its lawyer.

“The criminals are operating with impunity and with money to spend for arms,” said Canino, who retired from ATF in 2020 after 30 years. “Sit down and do the math. How many freighters are coming in? How many freighters are going out? Whether you’re talking about the Miami River, Port of Miami or Port Everglades, that’s a lot of freighters and they’re not going to be easy to stop.”

Canino said straw buyers with clean records can pass the scrutiny of criminal background checks on multiple gun purchases at federally licensed firearms stores and then resell the weapons on the black market to criminals here or overseas. Moreover, thanks to the internet, buyers can go to any private gun show in Florida and buy weapons without going through a criminal background check.

“Now you buy high-capacity semi-automatic weapons, you can buy military grade rifles — something that will take down an airplane, a helicopter and armored personnel carrier. Add the internet to it,” Canino said. “In the old days, you had to buy it from a federally licensed firearms store, but with the use of technology, you have more access to more people. You can hit all the gun shows in Florida.”

Canino also said that no matter how many federal resources and agencies are thrown at the problem, the stream of weapons will continue to flow, despite higher numbers of seizures in South Florida.

“Even if this is a priority, no matter what you do you can’t stop it all,” Canino said. “It’s impossible.”

This story was originally published  August 16, 2022 5:44 PM.

The Assumption of Hope- From Fr. Rick

            sam. 20 août 2022)              

To: Archbishop Thomas Wenski <Cette adresse e-mail est protégée contre les robots spammeurs. Vous devez activer le JavaScript pour la visualiser.;

Subject: The Assumption of Hope- From Fr. Rick

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"The poor will have hope, and the evil one will be made to shut his mouth."

(Job 5:16)

Dear family and friends,

I know that news of Haiti is rare.

It is probably just as well, or you would be even more saturated by bad news than you already are.

In recent years, many people live with a heaviness from pandemics, public shootings, global warming, wars, nuclear arms proliferation, hostile nationalism, fragile world economies, and other threats to existence.

It is not easy to imagine a hopeful future.

This also generates anxiety about what the future holds for our children and grandchildren. They deserve a better world than the one we are giving them.

The situation in Haiti unravels at a cruel and unrelenting pace.

In just the last few weeks we witnessed widespread gang wars, a massacre in Cite Soliel, the burning of the Cathedral, the burning of the Judicial Court, the closing of a major bank, the kidnapping of four of our staff, thousands more internal refugees.

Civilization and it's symbols- community, cohesion, transcendence, justice, economy-

are being wiped out.

As priest and physician, our work puts me daily into direct encounter with the physical, emotional, and spiritual wounds of those torn to shreds by tragedy.

I am often asked if my faith in God has suffered from witnessing so much suffering.

I used to answer that I have more trouble believing in people than in God.

People are without any doubt the cause of most of the horrors we have seen.

But I hesitate to say that now, even with things much worse.

God's belief in the human family has been sorely tested from the time of Adam,

but God's belief in us stands firm.

We believe in God. God believes in us.

It is still the magnificent equation.

In the Scriptures and tradition, there is the persistent idea that a handful of good people can save the world.

There is also the  persistent idea that you won't know who they are.

They are humble, reverent, hardworking, good and anonymous.

In Jewish mysticism the number is thirty six.

Maybe you remember hat Abraham, trying to save Sodom and Gomorrah, bartered it down to five.

When I make in my focus to look around for those five people, I noticed that every time I am ready to condemn the human race, someone else wonderful shows up.

Many of them are total strangers, most of them are without titles or diplomas or roles. They are just phenomenal people who show up at the just right time, with just the right word, to generously help in any way they can.

Tom Powers comes to mind right away.

You can't possibly know of him.

He was one of the millions of decent and hard working people

who have graced our planet, with an ordinary and steady way of living out a quiet heroism.

He was a mailman, and with his hands and feet he delivered news, bad or good, which he did not author.

In so doing, he marched his gruff goodness through many a neighborhood and over many a year, delivering envelopes and packages. He also delivered, with a quick Irish wit and to anyone who would listen, a word of encouragement or piece of advice which he did author.

When he was advancing in years, and was "under the knife" too many times to remove a newest cancer, he said to his well studied priest son,

"Did you know you can go to heaven in pieces?"

This is great theology.

Deeper than the his cancer, deeper even than his physical body, he achieved the sureness about love and its Author, that enabled him to laugh at the downside of ascending to God.

Tom was not victorious over cancer, but like Job, he did shut its mouth.

Cancer could not speak to him of emptiness, cynicism, or despair.

Within the last fortnight, and for a second time, our orphanage for special needs children was raided by armed bandits, and four young female staff were kidnapped.

Kenson, the director, said to me the night we released the four kidnapped staff,

"I don't know for how much longer I can take this.

Every time this happens I die a little."

Tom's testimony is about the soul becoming radiant as the body fades.

Kenson's is about the very fading of the soul.

Tom's comment shows soul vibrancy,

Kenson's comment shows the soul becoming sick.

How can we not get sick, if we open our hearts to a wounded and sick world?

To fierce dynamics that lay heavy burdens, destroy and tear down?

Hope is the best guarantee for the health of soul.

Hope takes the hit in soul sickness.

Yet there are some dynamics that work against the healing of hope.

One is, we can get used to bad news, addicted to bad news, and eventually prefer bad news.

Sounds strange, but the same giddy feeling that can make a deadly blizzard become the joy of  snow day,

or can make a movie about a horrendous murder become satisfying entertainment,

can suddenly flip us into having a continual preference for a world that is always full of imminent danger.

Snow days and horror movies do have their place in life.

They help us face the fear of chaotic forces, which we cannot control, from a safe distance.

They are evolutionary "try-outs" for when real tragedy hits.

But we can dangerously become addicted to bad headlines, become internet ambulance chasers, filling ourselves with more and more of what is terrible, for a strange satisfaction that gives us- at the expense of hope.

Heightened fear of what is dangerous and terrifying releases actual chemicals in our body, causing the energy rush of adrenaline and the satisfying high of "morphine like" endorphins, by which our bodies prepare us for injury from a grave danger. These drugs can become addictive.

Media outlets understand the chemical power of the shocking news grab.

Another danger to the healing of hope is when there is an absence of hope in the spirit of the times. At this moment in our history, hope is not "in the air," lifting us upwards in wholesome optimism.

By contrast, there are times when a whole family, a whole country, a whole world, is so high on hope you would have to be totally dour not be swept up by it.

I remember the time of folk music proliferation and "hootenannies" when airways and parks were filled with sung poetry, lyrical determinations to create peace and end war.

I remember "We are the World", a world wide chant against hunger in Africa and Ethiopia, and against apathy to human suffering anywhere in the world.

We are not in such a time, and so we need to create our own hope, and to seek out other hopeful people.

Rather that getting swept up, we need to be the protagonists of hope.

This is why it is very valuable, when thinking about the human race, to start noticing how many humble, genuinely good people there are in every direction, holding the world together.

When hope is not in the air, you find it underground, deeply rooted.

Like a treasure.

You don't just grab it in the air.

You need to dig.

You need to work for it.

In the same way that vast networks of roots enable trees in a forest to communicate with each other, warn each other, to nourish each other, we need to meet each other through the treasures of our rootedness.

When walking though the burned Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption after the fire, with the charred sacred artifacts crunching under my boots, I wondered how would we ever celebrate the feast day on August 15.

Yet, the hundreds of people still coming for daily mass in the shadow of the burned cathedral, and under the heavy fire of war size weapons, show how deeply they are rooted in hope.

The priests of the Cathedral, who will not abandon their people, show how deeply they are rooted in hope.

Their witness makes it so very evident that while bandits and fires can destroy a building, the cannot destroy faith, or meaning, or worship. They cannot destroy hope.

The Cathedral feast can and will be celebrated, even without a Cathedral, because of the depth of its roots.

The feast of the Assumption of Mary proclaims the high dignity of the human body, equally destined for heaven with the soul, in the fullness of time.

On the streets just blocks away, those killed by bandits are set on fire and burned.

This burning speaks of total loathing and disdain of the human being.

A total contrast to the resounding proclamation of the meaning of Assumption.

To come back to Kenson, who dies a little with every attack on our children and staff, you have to also know that he enters the arena of engagement even with his wounds, into the jaws of the lions even if diminished, to liberate our four friends from human bondage.

His fading hope gets revitalized by his heroic sacrifice.

This is a final element of hope we must understand.

An instruction from the Book of Wisdom reveals to us that night of the Passover was made known before hand to give the courage and strength needed to survive that violent night.

We are also told that the "children of the good" were paving the way of the coming deliverance, by their quiet good works and sacrifices.

The teaching is that from the deepest roots of our hope, in spite of our wounds, when we keep doing what is right and just without counting the cost, hope flourishes within and paves the way for goodness.

When we do this, the evil which threatens our very hope, and would lead us to cynical mindsets and self destructive behavior, must shut its mouth.

It is totally within our power, at every moment, to think the good thought, to say the good word, to do the good deed.

This is how to keep our soul healthy, our hope rooted, and how to pave the way for the next "passover deliverance", which will come at the proper time.

We stand on this promise.

The deplorable violence can't make any of us stop our work.

It can only make us do it a different way.

At least for now.

"Consult not your fears but your hopes and dreams." (Pope John XXIII)

Thank you as always for your support for our work in Haiti, which enables hope to take action.

May God bless you and your families,

May God bless us all.

Fr Richard Frechette CP DO

Port au Prince

August 15, 2022

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 18 aout 2022

 Gangs gain the upper hand in war with Haitian police

Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) — The rounds bounced off the armored vehicle, as police carried a limp civilian to the sidewalk -- another victim of the brutal, daily shootings that plague the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince and the surrounding area. Here, inside the gang-held territory of Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti's SWAT team has driven into a gunfight that has already torn up a civilian bus.

"Can you see where it came from?" the SWAT members breathlessly asked each other inside the armored vehicle. It provides only a tiny sliver of a window onto the streets outside, which at one moment appear deserted, the next teeming with civilians trying to flee to safety.

In the past 72 hours, police have killed a leader of the 400 Mawozo gang and rescued six hostages from them, they say. But the gang - one of dozens terrorizing the capital - have not been dislodged from these streets.

"Can you see that red sign 'SMS'? That's them," said a SWAT officer, indicating the gunmen's position. Like his team, he did not want to be named, citing their safety. He pointed down the road towards a small shack, as dozens of people flooded from a side-alley into the street.

"Get away," he said to the crowd, over the armored car's loudspeaker. "You're too exposed. It's dangerous."

The officer ordered the vehicle to move into a new position. "When we get to the spot, open up on anything that moves," he said. Heavy gunfire between police and gang members followed. 

It is a common scene of injury, gunfire and panic in one of the dozens of neighborhoods controlled by gangs as Port-au-Prince appears to descend into a full-blown war between police and increasingly well-equipped and organized criminal groups.

And this is a familiar routine: Police probe into gang areas to show their reach, and gangs respond with intense volleys of bullets.

In the area of Cité Soleil, ten days of violence in July left more than 470 people dead, injured or missing, according to the UN, after the G9 gang tried to expand its reach in the area, taking territory from rival gangs.

Social media video from inside the area shows gangs using a bulldozer covered with steel plates to act as armor demolishing homes, presumably those of rivals. Other houses had been burned, with other video showing dozens of locals fleeing the area on foot at night, during the peak of the fighting.

Civilians who fled Cité Soleil found little respite, with dozens receiving food handouts from the World Food Programme and sheltering in the open air of the Hugo Chavez recreational park.

Flies blanket the rain-sodden concrete floor of the sporting amphitheater stage, where children as young as four months struggle to sleep, exposed to the elements. One has bruises from a fall, another a painful and ugly rash, but they are alive.

Here, Natalie Aristel angrily shows us her new, unpalatable home. 

"Here's where I sleep in a puddle," she said, pointing at the water. "They burned my house and shot my husband seven times," she says, referring to gang members.

"I can't even afford to go see him [in hospital]. In this park, even if they brought some food, there's never enough for everyone. The kids are dying."

Others are missing. "I have four kids, but my first is missing and I can't find him," another woman said. "We've been totally abandoned by the state and have to pay to even use a toilet," another added.

A young boy added: "My mother and father have died. My aunt saved me. I want to go to school but it was torn down."

Locals speak of a perfect storm of calamities -- and warn the country increasingly feels on the verge of societal collapse.

People in this neighborhood built a wall on a public road last month to keep out gangs who were kidnapping residents for ransoms. 

What remains of the country's emergency interim government, created last year after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, is beginning to crumble and steeped in accusations of inactivity. His successor, Prime Minister Ariel Henry, has pledged to combat insecurity and hold new elections, but so far shown little progress toward either goal.

Meanwhile, analysts calculate inflation in the country at 30%. Gas is scarce and the subject of angry queues at stations. The UN has warned gang violence may put the youngest children in areas of active fighting at risk of imminent starvation, as their parents cannot access food or go to work.

One Haitian security forces source speaking to CNN estimated that gangs control or influence three quarters of the city.

Frantz Elbe, Director General of the Haitian National Police, rejects the assertion. "It is not a general problem in the metropolitan area," he told CNN, declining to give a percentage.

Yet it is indisputable that vital parts of the national infrastructure are now entirely in criminal hands. The city's vital port -- Haiti's main -- is controlled by gangs, who dominate the road outside. So is the main highway to the country's south, which means the fragile part of the country that was hit by an earthquake last year has been effectively cut off from the capital. Gangs are also expanding their control in the city's east, where Croix-des-Bouquets lies, and in the north, around Cité Soleil, observers said.

Kidnappings are rampant and indiscriminate -- one of few thriving industries in Haiti. Seventeen American and Canadian missionaries were kidnapped last year after visiting an orphanage in Croix-des-Bouquets, and only released after a ransom was paid to the 400 Mawozo gang.

Police, often outgunned, are doing what they can, Elbe tells CNN.

"The gangs are changing the way they fight. It used to be with knives, and now it is with big weapons. The police need to be well-equipped. With the little we have, we will do what we can to fight the gang members," he said.

The challenge they face is exposed by a brief checkpoint set up in Croix-des-Bouquets, where a truck has been dragged across a main road by the gangs, and torched.

Police bring in an armored military bulldozer to push the wreckage to the roadside, which is already littered with other truck carcasses. The bulldozer operator, asked if he works under fire, replies: "Often." 

SWAT police set up a perimeter, scanning nearby rooftops. Locals and the vehicles they travel in are stopped and checked. One man says the situation is "bad, very bad," before another gives him a stern glance.

He suddenly changes tone: "We know nothing."

Fear is the currency of this war, though it is unclear if he fears speaking to the press, or the police, or what the gang may learn he said later.

To flee this fear, however, requires enduring more. A short boat journey from the mainland is the island of La Gonave, a hub for human traffickers. 

The lackadaisical tempo and blue water of one tiny inlet on La Gonave belies its poverty. Heat, trash, hunger and the business of leaving dominate this world.

One, a smuggler who introduced himself as Johnny, calmly explained how his business works.

The journey is often one-way for the boat, so each endeavor requires the boat to be bought outright, at a cost of about US $10,000, he says. To cover that cost, Johnny needs at least two hundred customers, who will huddle in its disheveled hull.

Shreds of netting appear to plug any gaps between in the hull, and loose wooden planks will make up the boat's interior. Johnny shows where the pump and motors will eventually go.

"If we die, we die. If we make it, we make it," he said.

He added he hoped to pack his boat with 250 passengers, as he considered it in "good" condition.

The ultimate destination is the United States, with Cuba and the Turks and Caicos islands sometimes accidental stops along the way.

And it is from these three places that the International Organization for Migration has reported surging numbers of forced repatriations of Haitians in the first seven months of this year, with 20,016 so far, compared to 19,629 for all of 2021.

…

National Center of Haitian Apostolate

TWENTIETH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (Aug. 14, 2022)

Jer. 38, 4-6. 8-10; Heb. 12, 1-4; Lk. 12, 49-54 

https://youtu.be/EhXufsAIZ_s

Msgr. Pierre André Pierre

Jesus, the Prince of peace, constantly calls his followers to reconciliation, forgiveness, and the victory of peace. Today surprisingly we hear him saying that He came to bring division. Is there a contradiction?

Jesus is not contradicting himself. He is simply warning us that many people will violently reject the truth of His Gospel. The call to repentance will be welcomed by some but will infuriate those rooted in evil ways. Jesus went on to compare His message to a cleansing fire that purifies sinners and produces newness in individual hearts and in society at large. Yet it will be a disturbing message to the wicked.

This message will have the good effect of raising us from sleep. Some of us tend to be tepid and cowardly. The Gospel of Jesus is something that demands determined and courageous disciples quite capable to stand in front of opposition and suffering. The true believer will not allow himself to be surprised or discouraged by the hostility unleashed by the “enemies of the Cross.”

The example of Prophet Jeremiah in the 1^st reading illustrates the theme. He was thrown into a muddy pit by his enemies but ultimately rescued. In the 2^nd reading, Saint Paul asks us to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus who endured tremendous sufferings in the hands of sinners but ultimately rose from the dead.

The lesson for all of us is this: As his disciples of Jesus, we must expect to endure hardships without ever “growing weary and losing heart.” We have to run with perseverance the race we have started, with our eyes fixed on our goal, Jesus.

US to issue ID to migrants awaiting deportation proceedings

August 6, 2022 / 11:37 AM

By CBS Miami Team

MIAMI - U.S. immigration authorities are planning to issue photo ID cards to immigrants in deportation proceedings in a bid to slash paper use and help people stay up-to-date on required meetings and court hearings, officials said.

The proposal from Immigration and Customs Enforcement is still being developed as a pilot program, and it was not immediately clear how many the agency would issue. The cards would not be an official form of federal identification, and would state they are to be used by the Department of Homeland Security. 

The idea is for immigrants to be able to access information about their cases online by using a card rather than paper documents that are cumbersome and can fade over time, officials said. They said ICE officers could also run checks on the cards in the field. 

"Moving to a secure card will save the agency millions, free up resources, and ensure information is quickly accessible to DHS officials while reducing the agency's FOIA backlog," an ICE spokesperson said in a statement, referring to unfulfilled public requests for agency documents. Homeland Security gets more Freedom of Information Act requests than any other federal agency, according to government data, and many of those involve immigration records. 

The proposal has sparked a flurry of questions about what the card might be used for and how secure it would be. Some fear the program could lead to tracking of immigrants awaiting their day in immigration court, while others suggest the cards could advertised by migrant smugglers to try to induce others to make the dangerous trip north. 

The Biden administration is seeking $10 million for the so-called ICE Secure Docket Card in a budget proposal for the next fiscal year. It was not immediately clear if the money would cover the pilot or a broader program or when it would begin. 

The administration has faced pressure as the number of migrants seeking to enter the country on the southwest border has increased. Border Patrol agents stopped migrants more than 1.1 million times from January to June, up nearly one-third from the same period of an already-high 2021. 

Many migrants are turned away under COVID-19-related restrictions. But many are allowed in and either are detained while their cases churn through the immigration courts or are released and required to check in periodically with ICE officers until a judge rules on their cases. 

Those most likely to be released in the United States are from countries where expulsion under the public health order is complicated due to costs, logistics or strained diplomatic relations, including Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua. 

At shelters, bus stations and airports along the U.S.-Mexico border, migrants carefully guard their papers in plastic folders. These are often the only documents they have to get past airport checkpoints to their final destinations in the United States. The often dog-eared papers can be critical to getting around. 

An immigration case can take years and the system can be confusing, especially for immigrants who know little English and may need to work with an array of government agencies, including ICE and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which issues work permits and green cards. U.S. immigration courts are overseen by the Justice Department. 

Gregory Z. Chen, senior director of government relations at the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said migrants have mistakenly gone to ICE offices instead of court for scheduled hearings that they then missed as a result. He said so long as immigrants' privacy is protected, the card could be helpful. 

"If ICE is going to be using this new technology to enable non citizens to check in with ICE, or to report information about their location and address, and then to receive information about their case - where their court hearings might be, what the requirements might be for them to comply with the law - that would be a welcome approach," Chen said. 

It was not clear whether Homeland Security's Transportation Security Administration would accept the cards for airport travel or whether private businesses would consider it valid. 

The United States doesn't have a national photo identification card. Residents instead use a range of cards to prove identification, including driver's licenses, state ID cards and consular ID cards. What constitutes a valid ID is often determined by the entity seeking to verify a person's identity. 

Talia Inlender, deputy director of the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at University of California, Los Angeles' law school, said she was skeptical that using a card to access electronic documents would simplify the process for immigrants, especially those navigating the system without a lawyer, and questioned whether the card has technology that could be used to increase government surveillance of migrants. 

But having an ID could be useful, especially for migrants who need to travel within the U.S., Inlender said. 

"Many people are fleeing persecution and torture in their countries. They're not showing up with government paperwork," Inlender said. "Having a form of identification to be able to move throughout daily life has the potential to be a helpful thing." 

That has some Republican lawmakers concerned that the cards could induce more migrants to come to the U.S. or seek to access benefits they're not eligible for. A group of 16 lawmakers sent a letter last week to ICE raising questions about the plan. 

"The Administration is now reportedly planning yet another reckless policy that will further exacerbate this ongoing crisis," the letter said.

The CBS Miami team is a group of experienced journalists who bring you the content on CBSMiami.com.

First published on August 6, 2022 / 11:37 AM

© 2022 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 10 aout 2022

More and more Haitians are becoming truck drivers in the USA

Par Jolette Joseph 

 Truck driving is a trending profession among Haitian immigrants in the United States. While some see it as a pathway to financial freedom, others express concerns over truck drivers’ working conditions

When Tharlie moved to the USA in 2017, she dreamt of becoming a fashion designer. But now, the 32-year-old is a full-time heavy-haul driver, sharing advice on social media for those looking to embrace the profession. “I wanted to have money after my divorce,” she said.

She had to take a $3,000 six-week course required to obtain the mandatory Commercial driver’s license for maneuvering trucks. In Florida, the training cost varies between $1,600- $8,000, depending on the school. After acquiring her license, she was hired by a company where she spent four additional weeks of training.

As a single mother, Tharlie faces constant criticism from her family for choosing this line of work. She sometimes spends a month on the road transporting goods, supplies, and food across state lines. And this lifestyle ended up contributing to her divorce, she said.

Most truck drivers spend an average of three weeks away from their families due to the high demands of truck drivers. According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), truck drivers killed on the job accounted for more than one in seven workplace fatalities in the US, with a fatality rate of 26.8 per 100,000 workers, compared with the rate for all US workers of 3.5 deaths for every 100,000 workers. The lack of exercise, poor diet, and sleeping conditions have severe implications for the health of truck drivers.

“It’s a stressful job where I can see the danger from behind the wheel, explains Tharlie. In the beginning, I worked five or six hours a day. Now I work eleven hours. I have carried goods in almost every US state.” 

Her initial salary was $450 per week, but now she makes $1,000 weekly. Some drivers work for 80 cents per mile instead. But Tharlie prefers teaming up with another driver.

“With experience, drivers earn from $1,800 to $2,000 per week, and with this money, they can rent or buy trucks to work as owner-operators,” she explains.

That is the option Colby, 34, has chosen. He got into the business eight years ago after a friend told him how lucrative it was. Truck driving was, for him, the fastest way to pay off his student loans and launch his own business later. At first, his family disagreed with his choice. But now, he has the full support of his wife. 

After five years, Colby, who has a degree in business, has become an owner-operator. He still has monthly payments for the loan he got to buy the truck. A used truck ranges from $40,000 to $50,000, and a new one costs about $200,000.   

“If you have a mentor, it will not take much time to become an owner-operator. I did not know I could be an owner-operator after less than that length of time,” he said.

His profits vary between $15,000 to $20,000 of gross revenue. The amount depends on the volume of goods carried per week and their value. The revenue generated is based on a percentage drawn from the merchandise itself. By Colby’s estimates, an owner-operator will earn between $2,000 and $10,000 per week after all due payments such as loans for the truck, insurance, taxes, fuel, and other costs. He now sees the truck industry as his career. 

I work eleven hours. I have carried goods in almost every US state.

Tharlie Noel

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports that the median annual wage for heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers was $48,310 per year or $23.23 per hour in May 2021. But the trucking industry has become difficult. Many manufacturing operations that used to provide trucking companies with goods and supplies are closed due to rising fuel prices and inflation. Tharlie highlights how difficult it is for anyone who leases a truck and works independently to keep up.

“In the past, when drivers rented a truck, they filled it up for $500 per week. Now it costs $2,000 per week,” she adds. 

A job with high risks

Truck driving is considered one of the most dangerous jobs in America. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine estimates that truck and bus-related crashes are responsible for approximately 4,000 casualties in the US every year. An estimated 10 to 20 percent of these crashes might have involved fatigued drivers.

The trucking industry is also notorious for its poor working conditions. As a result, it is facing a truck driver shortage – attributed to low pay and high turnover rates, where approximately 300,000 truck drivers leave the profession every year. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic has amplified this shortage, causing the closure or limited operations of training and apprenticeship programs. According to the American Trucking Association, the industry reached a historic shortage of about 80,000  truck drivers, underlining that while all sectors in the industry struggle with finding enough drivers, the driver shortage is most acute in the longer-haul (i.e., non-local) for-hire truckload market.

A shifting industry

At the same time, the industry is poised to undergo some significant changes. For starters, there is the issue of electric trucks. Colby says he knows that electric trucks are being experimented with but is convinced that not all trucks can be replaced. If that’s the case, he plans to buy an electric truck to continue to work in this industry. Tharlie believes it will take a long time before automation happens. And she might be right.

Though most companies are currently testing automated trucking, it may be some time before autonomous trucks take over the highways entirely, according to Martin Daum, Chairman of the Board of Management at Daimler Truck.            

Data from the United States Census Bureau shows that most young truckers under age 35 are women, Hispanic, and more educated than their peers aged 55 and older. The trucking industry includes hundreds of thousands of carriers and 3.36 million truck drivers employed in 2020, transporting goods locally or over long distances between cities. The sector is diverse and different segments come up with other operational characteristics. 

Despite concerns regarding the automation of the trucking industry and the shortage of truck drivers, employment of heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers is expected to rise by 6 percent from 2020 to 2030, about as fast as the average for all occupations. Florida, where many Haitians live and adopt this profession, occupied third place in fatal injuries. Florida is among the States with the highest employment level in Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers occupying third place here too, with about 88,980 truckers, where nine of every thousand jobs in the state belongs to truckers.

Opinion | As Haiti sinks into pandemonium, the international community is silent

Editorial Board

Washington Post

Saturday, August 6, 2022

As Haiti sinks ever-deeper into pandemonium, with much of the capital seized by gunfire and gang warfare, it has received recent deliveries from the United States of two commodities that can only contribute to its meltdown: weapons and deportees. Those exports — one smuggled, the other overt — are the latest symptom of the world’s callous disregard and moral myopia regarding the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country. Haiti has no functional government, no democracy, no peace, no hope. And the international community’s response is silence.

Last month, in the midst of a spasm of gun violence that left hundreds dead, injured or missing in the capital city of Port-au-Prince, Haitian customs officials seized shipping containers that it said held 18 “weapons of war,” plus handguns and 15,000 rounds of ammunition. According to Reuters, the items were sent from the United States to the Episcopal Church of Haiti. The church denied any knowledge of the container, whose contents were described on a cargo document as “Donated Goods, School Supplies, Dry Food Items.”

Days later, a deportation flight from Louisiana arrived in Port-au-Prince — the 120th such aircraft to arrive in Haiti just this year. Few Haitian deportees are given the chance to apply for asylum in the United States. Since the Biden administration took office, it has sent at least 26,000 Haitian migrants to their home country, where life has been upended since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse last summer. According to advocacy groups, about a fifth of the deportees have been children; hundreds were infants under the age of 2.

The United States is not alone in its heedlessness. The Organization of American States, whose stated mission is to prevent conflicts and promote stability, has done little in Haiti beyond issue tepid statements of concern. The U.N. Security Council recently extended operations of the U.N. Integrated Office in Haiti by one year, a measure that went unnoticed by most Haitians, and for good reason: It has been utterly ineffectual.

The U.N. World Food Program has been routing food deliveries to the country by sea, the better to avoid its trucks being plundered by gangs. Jean-Martin Bauer, the WFP’s Haiti director, acknowledged the gang violence means “people are not able to work, people are not able to sell their produce.” Food prices have soared by more than 50 percent over the past year, a devastating toll in a country where the WFP estimates nearly half the population of 11 million needs immediate food assistance.

Little surprise that since last October, the U.S. Coast Guard has interdicted more than 6,100 Haitians trying to reach the United States by sea, a huge increase from recent years.

It is high time for a reassessment of the convenient piety, voiced by diplomats, advocates and activists, that Haiti should be left to find a “Haitian-led solution.” The truth is that a “Haitian-led solution” is a chimera, and without muscular international intervention, the country’s suffering will deepen. To ignore that reality is to be complicit in the world’s disregard for Haiti’s anguish.

National Center of Haitian Apostolate

NINETEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (August 7^th, 2022)

Wisdom 18, 6-9; Ps. 33; Heb 11, 1-2 + 8-19; Luke 12, 32-48

https://youtu.be/tFPsrGSFt4E

Msgr. Pierre André Pierre

All the Bible readings for today in the liturgy of the church emphasize the importance of Faith and Hope before fear.

Many people in the world live in fear: they are afraid of illness, they are afraid of losing their loved ones, they are afraid of war and death, they are afraid of taking to the streets, they are afraid of today and of tomorrow. Jesus gives us assurance: "Do not be afraid!" Do not lose hope! Have faith! Even when we go through bad times, we should never lose our faith and our hope. We should always be alert to capture the presence of Jesus in the midst we

In the first reading, the book of Wisdom 18,6-9, invites us to trust in God's promises. When God's people had to go through trials and difficulties, they always remembered the night of the first Passover. When God freed the children of Israelites from slavery in Egypt, they remained steadfast in prayer while the angel of extermination struck the children of their oppressors. Their faith and hope saved them from destruction. The God who made this wonder will never be released again.

The Second Reading, from the letter to the Hebrews (11,1-2. 8-19), calls Abraham "Father of all believers," and "Father of the Faith." Abraham became a pilgrim in faith because he trusted God, he believed in God's promises. His faith never wavered, even when he was asked to sacrifice his only son. At the last minute, Isaac was saved. Abraham is our model. Like him, even when we don't see where God is leading us, we must continue to walk with him in life. The author of the Letter to the Hebrews defines Faith as "the evidence of things not seen".

The text of the Gospel (Luke 12,32-48) reinforces this same teaching. "Blessed is this servant that the Master will find alert on his return. "Always prepare yourselves, for you do not know when the Master will come." The Gospel asks us to prepare ourselves for the Lord’s coming. Our faith should be so firm, that we should always trust in Jesus, and be willing to meet him at any time.

The lesson we learn is that we must remain firm in Faith and Hope, regardless of the tribulations we encounter in life. Faith in God and Hope in his promise of victory must act as a driving force in our efforts, to always be honest, and just, to always act with a good heart of mercy. Unshakable in prayer, let us always walk tirelessly in serving those in need.

WAKE UP. GET READY TO MEET THE MASTER. HE HAS NO TIME TO COME