Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 28 juin 2017

 Ex-Haitian coup leader Guy Philippe gets nine years in US prison

Wednesday, June 21, 2017

MIAMI, United States (AFP) — A former Haitian coup leader and elected senator was sentenced to nine years in a US federal prison Wednesday after pleading guilty to conspiring to launder drug money.

Guy Philippe, a 49-year-old former senior police officer convicted of taking bribes from drug traffickers, had entered his guilty plea in April in exchange for a reduced sentence.

He had evaded law enforcement for nearly a decade and was arrested in Haiti on January 5, just days before he was to be sworn in as a senator -- which would have given him immunity from prosecution.

Philippe was elected to the Haitian parliament in November. He had close ties to the country's President Jovenel Moise.

In 2004, he helped lead an armed rebellion against then-president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was forced to flee the country.

The US drug charges had been hanging over him since 2005.

In his guilty plea, Philippe admitted he had abused his position as a high-ranking police officer to protect narcotics shipments headed to the United States between 1999 and 2003.

Philippe gave some of the bribe money to other Haitian police and security personnel to ensure their cooperation, the US Justice Department said.

His cut was used to buy a house in Florida, for his use and that of his family while in the US.

In one instance, Philippe was said to have wired $376,000 in drug proceeds to his joint bank account in Miami from banks in Haiti and Ecuador using the names of others.

He also admitted to organising $70,000 in drug money to be deposited into his account in amounts under the $10,000 level that triggers US reporting requirements.

Haiti’s Growth in 2017 year is worse than in 2016

According to preliminary estimates by the Directorate of Economic Statistics of the Ministry of Finance, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 1.4% in 2016, a growth rate well below the target of 3.6% that the authorities had set at the beginning of the fiscal year (October 2015 to September 2016). Marked by social and political turbulence (movements of strikes, street demonstrations especially in the first half), the year 2016 was rather difficult for economic agents.

The agricultural sector that had plagued the Haitian economy in 2015 was largely responsible for GDP growth in 2016. According to preliminary estimates based on partial and provisional data provided by the Ministry of Agriculture, the alue added at constant prices of the sectors: forestry, livestock and fisheries, increased from 3,131 million gourdes in 2015 to 3,226 million gourdes in 2016, an increase of 3.0%, against a fall of 5.4% the previous year.

Among the other industries that contributed to GDP growth in 2016 include the 1.5% increase in manufacturing, which was led by the food industries (4.0%) and the Papermaking and printing (3.9%), which benefited in particular of electoral activities. Unlike previous years, the Building and Public Works sector has virtually stagnated at + 0.2%...

From a global demand perspective, growth was driven by a 1.2% increase in consumption and 1.1% in total investment. Consumption was supported in part by the 7% increase in diaspora remittances and the 12% increase in the public administration payroll. Given that public investment has fallen, the overall increase in private investment can be attributed to the private sector (2.2% increase in foreign direct investment and a 17% increase in loans granted to the private sector by the financial system). The slight increase of 0.7% in exports was mainly due to the exchange rate.

The year 2016 was also marked by a sharp depreciation of the gourde against the US dollar, from 51.8 gourdes per US dollar in September 2015 to 65.2 gourdes in September 2016, a drop of almost 26%. This depreciation of the Haitian currency impacted inflation, which, contrary to the forecast of 6.2% at the beginning of the year, reached 12.5% year-on-year at the end of the fiscal year (September 2016) [14.2% in November 2016].

In terms of prospects, it should be noted that the fiscal year 2017 is badly started because of the major natural hazards that hit the country in early October. Gains obtenained particularly in the crop of spring 2016, was almost canceled by the passage of Hurricane Matthew in at least 4 of the 10 departments of the country (Great South). This natural disaster has severely decapitated farmers, pastoralists and fishermen. If adequate actions are not taken with a view to appropriate recapitalization, this situation risks undermining the expected 2.2% performance of the Haitian economy in 2017.

Forecasts that the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) revised downward sharply for 2017 to 1% instead of the 2.2% set as target by the Government of Haiti.

The recycling of soaps helps unmarried mothers in Cite Soleil

Reducing the volume of waste, allowing vulnerable women to find decent work, and reducing the risks of diseases: the recycling of soap pieces left by guests at luxury hotels, is having inestimable socioeconomic impact in Haiti.

After four months in Southeast Asia, where she discovered this concept, Laure Bottinelli founded the Anacoana Company with two partners in January, 2016. It is the first and only recycler of soap in Haiti.

The enterprise has attracted 25 hotels in Port-au-Prince and Jacmel, a weekend destination for foreigners living in the capital.

"We are always enthusiastic to participate in national productions. There is also an educational component related to hygiene, with the cholera crisis we have here," said Maï Cardozo Stefanson, who is in charge at Montana, a famous hotel in the capital.

"In Haiti, there is never any waste: the poverty is such that everything is reused in one way or another. Usually, the staff would retrieve the soap for its personal use," she said. "Today, they collect the worn pieces and give them to Laure. In return, they receive clean soap that has been reconditioned.”

When retrieved from hotel rooms, the soap is totally disinfected, then grated and melted to be reconditioned: a task completed by three employees of the company.

"I did not return to Haiti to create another NGO," insists Laure Bottinelli, the 28-year-old business manager." To be a legal corporation, you must have women who are under contract".

"Some do not know how to read or write but it was clearly explained to them what  employment is all about, that there were rules to be respected but that they also had rights which protected them," them, she explained.

Priority is given to unmarried mothers

In a country where the informal is the standard, she also likes specifying that her compagisteredregistered with commercial and fiscal authorities.

Only Haitian organic products are used to perfume the soap, and the packaging is biodegradable. The small company aims to be responsible and social, by giving priority to unmarried mothers who need employment.

"This work, it is the Good Lord who brought it to us. My small business was not enough to pay for the school of my children, the food, the rent," tells Magoiana Frémond, while carefully packing a coffee-scented soap.

"Anacaona helps the country and helps me a lot: my children are in school, they eat every day. Before, I rented a place. Now I have started building myself a house," praised this mother of five.

A part of the production is distributed in schools in Jacmel, but the company has booked orders, in particular from the French cosmetics chain Yves Rocher.

The small company thus manages simultaneously its commercial development and its social action to contribute to the reduction of waterborne diseases in Haiti.

Due to a lack of access to safe drinking water, the diarrheic diseases are one of the first causes of infant mortality in the country, according to the World Health Organization.

The epidemic of cholera, which has raged since 2010, caused the death of about 10,000 people. In addition, 72 % of the inhabitants have no toilet in their homes.

Anacaona works in particular with teachers from partnering schools to educate students about sanitation rules.

In Cite Solei, which makes up the largest slum in the Caribbean, the company also employs community agents.

These "hygiene ambassadors" circulated around this neighborhood where they themselves live, knocking on rusty steel sheet steels which act as front doors to evaluate the sanitary knowledge of the residents and remind them of the essential rules.

"Now, every time people meet me in the neighborhood, they think again about the advice that we had given them," said Judeline Joseph, who is 25. "Sometimes, they do not have the means to buy treated water but, also, some forget simply to take the precautions that really are useful."

With little money to combat cholera in Haiti, U.N. names new fundraising chief

BY JACQUELINE CHARLES

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A former top State Department official and head of the United Nations’ World Food Program has been tapped to develop a comprehensive fundraising strategy to finance the U.N.’s plan to clean up cholera in Haiti — a disease introduced there by U.N. peacekeepers.

Josette Sheeran’s appointment as a high-level envoy for Haiti was announced Tuesday by U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres. The announcement comes two days before a planned U.N. Security Council visit to the country on Thursday so members can see firsthand how the 13-year U.N. Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) is continuing its withdrawal of peacekeeping battalions and foreign police units ahead of the mission’s permanent closure in October.

Named as one of the world’s most powerful women by Forbes magazine when she was head of the World Food Program from 2007 to 2012, Sheeran is the third senior U.N. official chosen to help the world body raise funds to rid Haiti of the epidemic. But her role will be much broader than cholera fundraising, said U.N. officials who likened it to that of former President Bill Clinton, who was appointed U.N. special envoy for Haiti in 2009. As Guterres’ special envoy, Sheeran will support national efforts to reach Haiti’s 2030 sustainable development goals, as well as guide the approach to eliminate cholera in Haiti.

Scientific studies have traced the introduction of cholera in Haiti to Nepalese soldiers stationed near a river in the rural town of Mirebalais in the Central Plateau region after the devastating Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake. Since October of that year, more than 800,000 Haitians have been sickened by cholera and more than 9,000 killed, according to the country’s health ministry.

“She has accepted with a salary of $1 per year,” Guterres said, “to be fully engaged in fundraising for a program that indeed until now has received very little support from the point of view of the people and from the point of view of the U.N.”

Sheeran steps into the role as humanitarian agencies in Haiti such as the World Health Organization/Pan American Health Organization face serious funding shortages that threaten to reverse progress made on controlling the water-borne disease. The U.N. has been struggling to raise $400 million to fight it.

Last week, U.N. Deputy-General Secretary Amina J. Mohammed, while presenting Guterres’ latest fundraising push and report on cholera, told member states that only $2.7 million had been raised, and now only $183,000 was left. The bulk of that money was raised by Sheeran’s predecessor, Dr. David Nabarro, a British physician with more than 30 years of public health experience who previously had raised $3.5 billion for the Ebola fight.

Despite Nabarro’s success with Ebola, he ran into resistance on cholera, as the United States and other member states refused to contribute to the trust fund. Pedro Medrano Rojas, the retired Chilean diplomat who had the job before Nabarro, also left his 18-month tenure in 2015 disappointed by the international community’s failure to “acknowledge the fact that we have in Haiti the largest epidemic in the Western Hemisphere.”

In February, Guterres wrote to nations asking if they intended to make voluntary cholera contributions and received a lukewarm response. Now, he’s asking countries to turn over $40.5 million to the cholera fund, money that will be left over when the mission in Haiti ends.

So far, that plan has garnered little interest. The U.S. said it supports the idea in principle but “is not in a position to contribute in this way.”

The U.N. has struggled to raise money for Haiti, not just for cholera but also for other humanitarian efforts including last year’s Hurricane Matthew response and recovery. While some observers blame the lengthy list of crises around the globe for the reluctance to pay for cholera cleanup, others blame Haiti fatigue.

Sheeran has experience in attracting world attention to burgeoning problems. In 2008, as food prices dramatically increased, Sheeran warned of a worldwide food crisis and heavily lobbied the United States and other governments for additional aid.

She currently heads the nonprofit Asia Society, and will remain in that job as she champions Haiti. Sheeran previously served in several high-level U.N. roles and as vice chair of the World Economic Forum. Prior to her 2007 appointment as the head of the World Food Program, Sheeran served as undersecretary for economic, energy and agricultural affairs at the State Department during the George W. Bush administration, and as deputy U.S. trade representative in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 5 juillet 2017

 To save lives, Haiti should focus 

PORT-AU-PRINCE                  

 When Canada unveiled a new hospital in Haiti’s Artibonite Valley nearly three years ago, its ambassador described the $30 million facility as “Canada`s commitment to improving access to quality maternal, neonatal and child health care.”

But La Providence Hospital in Gonaïves would almost immediately begin to flounder. A little more than a year after its ribbon was cut, the beds lay empty first because gangs made retaining hospital staff members difficult and then due to a countrywide hospital strike.

Today, La Providence is open. But a new World Bank study released Tuesday is questioning the effectiveness and goals of that hospital and a slew of others in Haiti, where the priority, the lead author says, should be on primary and preventive healthcare and not hospitals. The study calls for Haiti’s government and donors to better coordinate health financing. It says the country, which currently devotes less than 5 percent of its budget to health, has to spend more and run a more efficient health system.

“We have a lot of hospitals that do not necessarily provide care at the level they are supposed to,” said the study’s lead author, Eleonora Cavagnero, a health economist for Haiti at the World Bank, who also advocates for a moratorium on new hospital construction. “A lot of the things that Haitians suffer from could be treated at the primary health care levels in a more cost-effective way.”

While the study found that Haiti has significantly more hospitals than many countries including Burundi and Tanzania, it spends less on healthcare per capita than its closest neighbors. The Dominican Republic spends $180, Cuba $781 and the Latin American and Caribbean region, $336 dollars. Haiti spends just $13.

What that means is that the poorest Haitian mothers are still far less likely to deliver in a health facility, and maternal and infant mortality rates are still four or five times higher many countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Despite these and other pressing health care needs, Haiti has seen a sharp drop in government health expenditures in the last two decades with a consequent increase in donor-dependency, the report says.

“Donor financing is itself decreasing and thus, the government urgently needs to plan for increasing domestic funding for health to avoid a spike in out-of-pocket expenditures,” the report says. It urges the country to remain focused on the poorest people, who frequently bypass the public health system due to lack of trust and cost, relying instead on consultations from traditional healers or medication from unregulated providers.

"While Haitians can now expect to live longer, access to basic health services is still lacking," the report says.

Video: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article158264744.html

A healthcare crisis in Haiti festers as doctors, medical workers strike

A perfect storm of striking medical residents, missing doctors and a lack of money has virtually paralyzed an already weak healthcare system in Haiti, and no one seems to be in a hurry to fix it, critics say. Jacqueline Charles, C.M. Guerrero Cette adresse e-mail est protégée contre les robots spammeurs. Vous devez activer le JavaScript pour la visualiser.

Since 2004, public spending on health in Haiti has fallen from 16.6 percent of the country's approximately $2 billion budget to 4.4 percent of the latest $1.8 billion budget submitted by Haitian Prime Minister Jack Guy Lafontant, a physician, and approved this month by Haiti’s Parliament. Most of the healthcare money pays for administrative costs, rather than medical facilities.

Only 32 percent of health facilities in Haiti provide essential medicines, and only 31 percent possess basic medical equipment, the report notes. The best run facilities are not government owned, but those operated by non-governmental or charitable organizations, the study found.

“For example, 87 percent of the operational budget at the University Hospital of the State of Haiti is allocated towards staff payroll, which is high based on international benchmarks,” the report says. “In public facilities, administrative staff represent nearly half of the workforce, which is also high in comparison to other low-income countries.”

Shortly after taking officer earlier this year, Haiti President Jovenel Moïse toured several hospitals in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area. Moïse reached some of the same conclusions as the World Bank report.

"Most of these hospitals attest to a serious human resource problem," Moïse said. Even if equipment is available, it often doesn't have technicians to operate it, and some hospitals "have been completed, but political instability has prevented them from functioning normally."

And while he’s promised to tackle the problems, another promise he made — creating a specialty hospital just for police officers — could exacerbate the situation unless the hospital is part of a network, Cavagnero said.

The Haitian government and its development partners like Canada and the United States, she says, “should spend more on primary healthcare by shifting resources away from hospitals.”

Haiti’s succession of natural disasters and political instability also have not helped. After last year’s Hurricane Matthew, the post-catastrophe response took the form of construction or rehabilitation of hospitals. This was done, the report says, “without planning for how running costs will be borne after the initial emergency has passed.”

It was the same in the aftermath of the country’s 2010 earthquake, when France and the United States agreed to finance an $84.2 million University Hospital of the State of Haiti. The construction of the 534-bed facility is now 18 months behind, projected to be completed in June 2018.

The estimated cost to run the hospital — between $12 million and $15 million a year — is far more than Haiti spends in operational costs, minus salaries, on its entire system. That amount, Cavagnero says, is $8 million.

Dr. Ronald LaRoche, who operates a network of private hospitals around the country and is a primary care advocate, said Haiti’s healthcare crisis is going to get “worse when considering the shrinking of international assistance, the lack of income coming from the government side, the inflation rate, the increase of the population and the emergence of new hazards like cholera and Zika, and the reappearance of old ones like tuberculosis.”

The solution, he said, is universal health coverage where those who can pay received an insurance card, and those who cannot are covered by the government or donors.

“This system will prevent the financing of inefficient healthcare facilities like the general hospital, which is always on strike and lacks the most basic items to save lives although everybody receives a salary every month,” LaRoche said.

But the study isn’t optimistic that even a change in the healthcare system such as that could improve health in Haiti where more than half of the population lives on less than $1.90 a day and the unemployment rate is more than 30 percent.

FOLLOW JACQUELINE CHARLES ON TWITTER: @JACQUIECHARLES

AMONG THE STUDY’S FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS:

▪ Haiti’s Ministry of Public Health and Population allocates 90 percent of its operating budget to personnel costs, leaving little room for other operational costs. At the strike-prone University Hospital of the State of Haiti, 87 percent of the operational budget is allocated for staff payroll.

▪ After Haiti’s 2010 earthquake, aid increased significantly. But it remains volatile and government spending dropped significantly.

▪ The country should set up a licensing policy for hospitals to help determine whether hospitals can be built or expanded.

.

▪ In public facilities, administrative staff represent nearly half of the workforce, which is also high in comparison to other low-income countries. Decentralization of human resources would make health facilities more accountable, limit absenteeism and raise productivity.

▪ Hospitals managed by non-government organizations (NGOs) are more efficient than public hospitals. Private, for-profit hospitals are the lowest-performing, and they also spend more than facilities managed by the health ministry and NGOs.

▪ Haiti doesn’t tax cigarettes but should consider imposing one, along with raising taxes on alcohol. to raise funding for health.

SOURCE: WORLD BANK

Haiti’s Sunrise Airways Adds Airbus

Haiti-based Sunrise Airways has added a major new addition to its expanding fleet: a new Airbus A320.

The 150-seat aircraft features 12 seats in first class and 138 in economy.

“The type of expansion we are pursuing throughout the Caribbean and into North and South America demands that we continually invest in modern jet aircraft offering the very best in comfort and reliability,” said Philippe Bayard, President of Sunrise Airways. “Our new A320, with seating in both first class and economy, continues our mission to elevate Caribbean aviation to new heights, while also paving the way for us to serve new and existing international markets at a high level.”

Sunrise Airways’ newest Airbus A320 currently operates from the carrier’s hub in Port-au-Prince to three destinations in Cuba – Havana, Camaguey, and Santiago de Cuba – with additional expansion throughout the Caribbean, as well as North and South America, planned for 2017 pending government approval.

Haitians will not be able to enter Chile without a visa!

On Wednesday, June 28^th, 2017, in a letter sent to the Chilean Chamber of Deputies, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Heraldo Benjamín Muñoz Valenzuela, informed that the government has decided to now require an entry visa from any Haitian who wants to visit Chile as a tourist.

This measure, which was suggested by Members of Parliament, would aim at containing the stream of Haitians who are settling down in Chile without documents. This situation is beginning to create hostilities in certain communities and is making these migrants vulnerable since they do not have access to all the advantages and benefits reserved for the legal residents and citizens.

According to the Secretary, this move is to protect the rights of migrants and to manage and bring order to the settling of foreigners while establishing a regulated migration.

The Secretary also revealed that Haitian authorities have been kept abreast of the discussions on this matter, and they have asserted that they understand the Chilean government’s initiative and intend to cooperate and to establish similar measures from their end.

Both parties are working on the possibility of setting up a Bilateral Commission on migratory and consular issues, in order to reach an agreement on the trafficking of human beings and the illicit traffic of migrants. (rezonodwes.com)

Caribbean migrants risk danger and discrimination for a new life in Chile

Santiago - Many Haitians and Dominicans are moving south for jobs and opportunities – and some are receiving a less than sympathetic welcome after a 3,000km trek. 

More than 50,000 Haitians and 15,000 Dominicans are part of an economic story quickly moving up the political agenda. 

Piotr Kozak in Santiago

Last modified on Friday 30 June 2017 

Digna Batista was promised she would be heading to paradise when she paid people smugglers to take her from the Dominican Republic to Chile. Instead, she found herself walking across a desert minefield to encounter a less than sympathetic welcome in a society that is struggling to accommodate a growing number of migrants from the Caribbean.

Discrimination, labour abuse and outdated immigration policies have made adjustment difficult for many among the more than 50,000 Haitians and 15,000 Dominicans who are part of an economic migration story that is quickly moving up the political agenda before a presidential election later this year.

Batista borrowed more than $2,500 to pay coyotes (the people smugglers) for the journey across the Andes and the Atacama desert in the hope of finding a better life.

Leaving her three-year-old son behind, she first flew to Ecuador, where she continued by bus – at one point crushed with 17 others in the luggage hold – on the 3,000km overland route through Peru to the Chilean border. Once there, she and the others were told to head towards a distant light.

“We walked all night. Finally, in the morning, we got to a road, stopped a passing taxi and asked the driver to take us to the nearest hostel. He told us we’d just walked through a minefield,” she recalled.

The dangers are all too real. More than 90,000 mines were laid by the Chilean military in the 1970s – a time of dictatorship and paranoia about Peru. Although the army subsequently promised to decommission them all by 2012, progress has been slow and about 40,000 are still in place. Warning signs are either inadequate, misplaced or ignored by desperate migrants. Last year, a 24-year-old Dominican, Daniel Sosa, lost his left foot when he stepped on a mine trying to enter the country illicitly to find work after being denied a visa.

A string of such incidents – some of them fatal – have caused growing diplomatic concern that Chile’s border policies are driving people to risk illegal crossings. The Dominican Republic consul in Arica, Nina Consuegra, said Chile’s PDI border police are now stopping and denying entry to anyone who is either black or Venezuelan if they fail to show pre-paid hotel vouchers and return tickets.

But even those who arrive legally face prejudice.

Until the 1990s, Chile had only a small black population, so the recent arrival of a black migrants has caused a stir.

History suggests this ought not to be the case. A 2014 genetic study found that one in two Chileans had ancestors among the thousands of African slaves brought to the country between the 16th and 19th centuries. But Chile’s elite have long preferred to emphasise their country’s European roots and the newcomers are now the subject of a growing debate.

“[The migrants] are often very badly discriminated against,” says sociologist María Emilia Tijoux. “Some are really suffering. And it’s not just a legal problem, it’s because there’s a part of Chilean society that’s so damned racist.”

Batista says she has experienced kindness and hostility.

She now works as a maid in uptown Santiago while trying to legalise her residency so that one day she can bring her son Brayan to live with her.

Many Haitians find low-paid niches in the labour market where Chileans are reluctant to work, particularly construction, domestic service and agriculture.

Lacking full legal rights, some are exploited, said Haitian community leader Widner Darcelin, who said migrants sometimes work for months without being paid.

Earlier this month, a homeless Haitian migrant named Joseph Polycart died of hypothermia after he was twice turned away from a local hospital on a freezing night.

But there are also positive stories. N’kulama Saint Louis arrived in Santiago with his wife Patricia and two-year-old son N’kulahi in 2010, following Haiti’s devastating earthquake. Today N’kulama works as a street-sweeper, and studies sociology at the Catholic University by night. “We got a lot of support from our Chilean friends,” he said, “but the government doesn’t have a comprehensive immigration policy and that’s a huge problem.”

The current system is widely criticised as outdated. One notorious immigration law – a holdover of the Pinochet dictatorship – intrinsically views all migrants as potential subversives, said Jean Claude Pierre-Paul, a Haitian social worker.

And the situation could get worse. The centre-right candidate in the election, former president and billionaire businessman Sebastian Piñera, is following the example of Trump in the United States and Argentina’s Mauricio Macri by proposing tighter border controls and the expulsion of all irregular migrants – an estimated 150,000 people.

Given Chile’s enormous 5,000km frontier, there is no suggestion of a border wall, but tighter regulations alone could drive more migrants to attempt risky illegal crossings of mountains, deserts and minefields.

“Visas don’t control migration – migrants will just turn to people smugglers to enter the country,” said Rodrigo Sandoval, head of the ministry of the interior’s immigration department.

Sandoval said Chile needs a new immigration law that helps to attract more outsiders to offset the country’s aging population and labour shortages.

His proposals have prompted a rightwing backlash on social media, where xenophobes describe him as a traitor who is allowing Chile to be “invaded.”

Cooler heads urge self-reflection. In the Independencia neighbourhood, social worker Patricia Loredo, who helps run the Sin Fronteras migrants rights collective, believes Chileans need to be much better informed and educated about their heritage.

“Most Chileans don’t have a clear idea of their cultural identity,” she said, “but this is clearly a mixed-race society.”

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 13 juillet 2017

 Campaign to raise awareness and change public opinion regarding tourism (MAG HAITI)

It is under the theme "Zafè touris zafè tout moun" that a campaign will take place to raise awareness and change the public’s attitude regarding tourism.

According to information available on the site of the Ministry of Tourism, this campaign, which was first launched, on Friday, June 30^th, 2017, will extend over from June 30^th till September 30^th, 2017.

"Reinforcing in the Haitian people a sense of pride for their rich history and their cultural heritage, and to encourage the development of a positive outlook and responses from the owners, the operators and employees of tourism and at every level of the population." These at the main objectives of this campaign.

“Zafè touris zafè tout moun” is a campaign which is going to focus on the concepts of Welcome-Respect and Responsibility. "We launched this awareness campaign to involve the Haitian population in the cause of tourism," declared Secretary Columbe Emilie Menos at the official opening of the campaign held at the ministry.

Source: Radio Metropole Haiti

The oldest mammal in the world finds itself in Haiti, with 78 million years of existence

The University of Illinois and the University of Puerto Rico completely sequenced the mitochondrial genome of the Solenodons Hispaniola, filling the last major branch of placentary mammals on the tree of life.

The study, published in Mitochondrial DNA, confirmed that the venomous mammal diverged from all other living mammals 78 million years ago, well before an asteroid swept away all dinosaurs.

"It is just impressive, that it survived for such a long time," declared the first co-author Adam Brandt, a post-doctoral researcher in Illinois. "It survived the asteroid; it survived human colonization, and the rats and mice human brought with them, which decimated the closest relatives of the Solenodons,"

The study also takes into account recent results that show the Dominican Republic contains genetically different populations in the North and the South which should be preserved as different subspecies. The study revealed that the population in the South has not much diversity, while the population of the northeast is more diversified.

Scientists have different hypotheses about the way the solenodons came to live on the island of Hispaniola. Some geologists think that the island was a part of a volcanic arch connected to Mexico 75 million years ago and that over time the arch moved eastward. Another possibility is that they floated on a piece of wood to the island.

What they do know is that because its closest ancestors disappeared a long time ago, the SOLENODON of today is the only vestige of a very old group of mammals. While the solenodon is venomous and looks like a "huge rat with Freddy Krueger's claws," according to Roca, It evolved in the absence of carnivores. Today, it is threatened by cats and dogs introduced by man, as well as the loss of its housing environment.

The Dominican Republic made this study possible by supporting the collection of samples. The authors include: Yashira M. Afanador-Hernández; Liz A. Paulin; William J. Murphy; Adrell Núñez; Aleksey Komissarov; Jessica R. Brandt; Pavel Dobrynin; J. David Hernández-Martich; Roberto María; Stephen J. O Brien; Luis E. Rodríguez; and Juan C. Martínez-Cruzado.

Haiti among the 50 best soccer teams in the world

By Milo Milfort

Inactive for three months, the male Haitian soccer selection placed 49^th in the last world ranking by FIFA published on July 6^th, 2017. With 667 points behind Algeria, the country went up 15 places and collected 113 points when compared to its ranking from last July.

Violent winds in Gonaïves cause one fatality and significant damages

A person was killed on Wednesday evening in Gonaïves when a tree branch fell while was her car. Sixty houses were flooded and fifteen others were severely damaged.

It was near 5 o'clock in the afternoon. The wind very blew hard on the city of Gonaïves, creating an atmosphere of total panic. According to local officials a tropical wave passed through and caused violent wind gusts and pouring rain. Roofs of houses and trees were not able to resist the power of the wind. The rains which accompanied the winds caused the flooding in several houses.

The damage report was still preliminary according to Faustin Joseph, technical departmental coordinator of civil protection. The most affected zones are: Assipha, Seprenn, Man's wood, Pont-Gaudin, Pont-Quenêpe and the Plain of Gonaïves.

Joseph used this opportunity to draw the population’s attention to the hurricane season. He warned of possible damages during this period. Joseph repeated that the population’s vigilance is necessary. They must always be tuned to the radio in order to be informed on weather conditions. People living on the banks of gullies have to be alert and ready to evacuate. Houses must be strengthened in their openings (doors, windows) without forgetting roofs.

The City of Independence is considered vulnerable to flooding. From the beginning of the hurricane season, up to now, authorities have not taken any concrete precautionary measure to reassure the population. Joseph, often mentioned a lack of financial means. In the face of this situation, the population hasn’t stopped expressing its concern. It’s demanding that the appropriate authorities assume their responsibility during this time by taking measures to limit damages in case of possible natural disasters.

Haiti could stem cholera epidemic by end 2018: health officials

By Makini Brice | PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI

Haiti could stem its seven-year-long cholera epidemic by the end of 2018 as the number of reported cases has dropped sharply, government and United Nations officials said.

The health ministry said Haiti has had about 7,400 suspected new cholera cases since the start of the year, compared with almost 20,200 at the same point last year.

"We have never seen so few cases," Donald Francois, head of the health ministry's national cholera program told Reuters in an interview. "With the cases we've seen we think we can eliminate cholera by the end of 2018."

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There were more than 18,600 cases in the first six months of 2015 and some 7,451 in the same period in 2014, according to health ministry figures.

An estimated 9,300 people have died and more than 800,000 have fallen ill from cholera since U.N. peacekeepers accidentally introduced the disease in 2010 when they dumped infected sewage into a river outside of Port-au-Prince.

A program to provide residents with water purification tablets and efforts to find the source of new outbreaks has likely led to the decline in cases, said Marc Vincent, the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) representative for Haiti.

A cholera vaccination drive in November targeting more than 800,000 people also probably boosted immunity, Vincent said.

Still, with funds to combat cholera slow to trickle in and Haiti needing vast improvements to its water and sanitation systems, the country remains vulnerable to new outbreaks.

About 40 percent of Haiti's population are without daily access to clean water and less than one in four residents has regular use of a toilet, according to Pan-American Health Organization and World Bank figures.

"The number of reported cases can certainly decline dramatically and even fall to zero. Most likely, though, there will continue to be a low-level number of cases, maybe seasonally, maybe year-round," said Ronald Waldman, a global health professor at George Washington University.

Waldman said Haiti could expect periodic spikes of cholera during natural disasters such as hurricanes.

Former U.N. secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon apologized in December for the handling of the outbreak and announced a $400-million trust fund to fight cholera and to rebuild communities struck by the illness.

But countries have been slow to contribute to the fund. So far, seven countries have given $2.67 million, nearly all of which has been spent, according to the United Nations.

Haiti could stem its seven-year-long cholera epidemic by the end of 2018 as the number of reported cases has dropped sharply, government and United Nations officials said.

The health ministry said Haiti has had about 7,400 suspected new cholera cases since the start of the year, compared with almost 20,200 at the same point last year.

"We have never seen so few cases," Donald Francois, head of the health ministry's national cholera program told Reuters in an interview. "With the cases we've seen we think we can eliminate cholera by the end of 2018."

There were more than 18,600 cases in the first six months of 2015 and some 7,451 in the same period in 2014, according to health ministry figures.

An estimated 9,300 people have died and more than 800,000 have fallen ill from cholera since U.N. peacekeepers accidentally introduced the disease in 2010 when they dumped infected sewage into a river outside of Port-au-Prince.

A program to provide residents with water purification tablets and efforts to find the source of new outbreaks has likely led to the decline in cases, said Marc Vincent, the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) representative for Haiti.

A cholera vaccination drive in November targeting more than 800,000 people also probably boosted immunity, Vincent said.

Still, with funds to combat cholera slow to trickle in and Haiti needing vast improvements to its water and sanitation systems, the country remains vulnerable to new outbreaks.

About 40 percent of Haiti's population are without daily access to clean water and less than one in four residents has regular use of a toilet, according to Pan-American Health Organization and World Bank figures.

"The number of reported cases can certainly decline dramatically and even fall to zero. Most likely, though, there will continue to be a low-level number of cases, maybe seasonally, maybe year-round," said Ronald Waldman, a global health professor at George Washington University.

Waldman said Haiti could expect periodic spikes of cholera during natural disasters such as hurricanes.

Former U.N. secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon apologized in December for the handling of the outbreak and announced a $400-million trust fund to fight cholera and to rebuild communities struck by the illness.

But countries have been slow to contribute to the fund. So far, seven countries have given $2.67 million, nearly all of which has been spent, according to the United Nations.

(Reporting by Makini Brice; Editing by Grant McCool)

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 23 juillet 2017

 Top Trump official warns special immigration status may end soon for a million people

BY FRANCO ORDOÑEZ

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WASHINGTON

President Donald Trump's top immigration official warned Hispanic members of Congress Wednesday that over a million people living in the United States under a special protected status could soon be placed in line for deportation.

Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly told members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus that the fate of deferred action program known as DACA — Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals — will likely be determined by the courts, perhaps as soon as September, and that attorneys he’s consulted do not think the program is legally sustainable. Kelly also would not commit to extending temporary protected status, or TPS, for nationals from Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and four other countries, but indicated that TPS for Haitians will likely end.

“I have never left a meeting so emotionally affected than from what I just heard inside,” said U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., who estimated that millions of people could be deported. “And I’m positive that my colleagues heard the same thing that I heard.”

Kelly spent more than an hour in an emotional Capitol Hill meeting discussing DACA, TPS and other Trump administration concerns with the Democrats. It was a dramatic shift in tone for Kelly who in previous meetings has cast himself as someone who protected the program. Trump and Republican leaders have also repeatedly stated that the 800,000 immigrants currently protected by the DACA program shouldn’t be concerned.

"Marleine Bastien, a leading figure in the Haitian community in Miami on TPS, accused the Trump administration of searching for any excuse to end protected status for Haitians.

'They are using the wrong argument on purpose because anybody who isn't blind can see that Haiti has yet to recover,”' said Bastien, executive director of Haitian Women in Miami. We believe [the decision] is wrong.” #SaveTPS

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national

Man arrested in 2004 sexual assault of Florida woman

By Associated Press July 10

BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. — Police in Florida say they arrested a man as he was about to flee the country to avoid charges that he sexually assaulted a mentally disabled woman.

Boynton Beach police say Pascal Estime was arrested Saturday at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport as he waited to board a plane to Haiti.

They say the 55-year-old Estime sexually assaulted the then 20-year-old woman in 2004, impregnating her. The woman has an IQ of about 50. She had an abortion and the fetus was kept as evidence.

Police were unable to find Estime until last year, when he was located in Orlando. DNA tests finished last week showed he was the father.

Pascal was being held without bail Monday. Jail records do not show if he has an attorney.

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

HAÏTI / CANADA

The project of the fire station disappears smokes (Le Nouveliste)

The 2.6 million dollar project for Quebec to rebuild the fire station in Port-au-Prince was declared dead recently by Quebec Mayor, Régis Labeaume. The announcement was made due to the Haitian Government’s failure to respect certain commitments to make the land available with a clear deed and an adequate survey, explained David O'Brien, spokesman for the City of Quebec.

Canada’s Bureau of World Affairs informed, at the beginning of July, that the project was no longer part of its plans, revealed the spokesman when questioned by members of the media from Quebec.

Mayor Régis Lebeaume was not able to hide his disappointment regarding the administrative pitfalls that caused about a year and-a-half of delays in the execution of the project that was to be funded by his city. Construction, he specified, had to start in January, 2016. The start of the project postponed to June, 2017 still did not become a reality, lamented the mayor.

"That disappoints me because it shows that it is extremely disorganized. When I looked at the file, I was discouraged. I wondered if they were going to come out of it someday. They have everything on a silver platter, but they are not even capable of having the deed for this property," complained Lebeaume.

Nevertheless, a fire station is expected to be built at that site, even without funding from the City of Quebec. Following a Council of Ministers’ meeting, on June 30th of this year, Haitian authorities agreed to reserve a part of the city center for the construction of two public buildings. One of the two state-approved spaces "is reserved for the construction of a building for the fire department of Port-au-Prince," according to a press release of the General Secretary of the Council of Ministers. The other project is an extension of the Hospital of the State university of Haiti now in full reconstruction.

Haiti to reform army after 20 years without

• 11 July 2017
  • From the sectionLatin America & Caribbean

HaH Haitian government has launched a campaign to re-establish its army, dissolved more than 20 years ago.

It wants to recruit about 500 men and women to help deal with natural disasters and to patrol borders.

The recruitment drive follows the announcement by the United Nations mission that it would be leaving Haiti in October.

But critics say the island's small budget should be spent on the national police force of about 15,000 officers.

A Ministry of Defence statement said the recruitment drive is open to both men and women between the ages of 18 and 25, who have passed their secondary education exams.

The UN Security Council agreed in April to withdraw their security forces, the blue helmets, and leave only a small police presence to support the Haitian police.

The UN departure has sparked a debate over whether Haiti should or should not form a new army.

Many politicians support the idea arguing it would provide jobs for young people.

But the government's critics say a military force could quickly become politicised, becoming a weapon in the hands of whoever is the president or prime minister.

For much of Haiti's history, the army has been used to crack down on political dissent by a series of authoritarian presidents.

During the 29-year family dynasty founded by Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier in the 1950s, the army was pushed aside and replaced by the Tonton Macoutes, a feared private militia famed for its savagery.

But when Duvalier's son, Jean Claude, was ousted and fled to France in 1986, the army high command - notorious for its repressive tactics and packed with Duvalier appointees - remained in place.

mission played a big role in helping the country to overcome the devastation caused by the 2010 earthquake

After Haiti's first democratically-elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was ousted in a 1991 military coup, soldiers and paramilitary forces committed countless atrocities and are estimated to have killed about 4,000 people over the next three years.

Haiti's leaders argue the new army would have different kinds of military duties, providing help after natural disasters and fighting smuggling.

Many international donors have been unenthusiastic, after having poured billions of dollars into developing the Haitian National Police which now has about 15,000 trained members.

A Haitian model makes the headlines of a big fashion magazine (Loop)

His thin body, his svelte physique and his unstoppable elegance make him one of the most fashionable models in Italy. While only 18 years old, he is the center of the fashion world in Italy. He modeled the clothes of the latest collection of Dolce and Gabbana earlier this month.

One of the most requested young top models, is already a celebrity on Instagram. "The New Princes" ( I Nuovi Principi): is the name Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana decided to give their new collection introduced in Milan for the Autumn and winter season of 2018.

Several Milaneses (Rafferty Law, Sistine and Sofia Stallone, Jaden Smith, Presley Gerber, Firebrand Lee, Cameron Dallas, Juanpa Zurita, Lucky Blue Smith, Stefanie Giesinger, Austin Butler, Avan Jogia, Cheney Chen, Pelayo Diaz, Lala Rudge, Tinie Tempah, Pyper America Smith, Sergio Carvajal) and star models including the young Haitian Luka Sabbat, walked the runway at Milan’s Fashion Week at the beginning of May.

This collection wanted to salute the generation born with a Smartphone in their hand. In addition to participating in Fashion Week in Milan, Luka hit the headlines of the fashion magazine GQ Italy, the most important monthly male magazine in the world.

Former Haiti government official shoots himself in the head in Miami-area hotel

BY JACQUELINE CHARLES

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Klaus Eberwein, a former Haitian government official, was found dead Tuesday in a South Dade motel room in what the Miami-Dade medical examiner’s office is ruling a suicide.

“He shot himself in the head,” said Veronica Lamar, Miami-Dade medical examiner records supervisor. She listed his time of death at 12:19 p.m.

The address where Eberwein’s body was discovered according to police, 14501 S. Dixie Hwy., is a Quality Inn.

A supporter of former Haitian President Michel Martelly, Eberwein served as director general of the government’s economic development agency, Fonds d’assistance économique et social, better known as FAES. He held the position from May 2012 until February 2015 when he was replaced. He was also a partner in a popular pizza restaurant in Haiti, Muncheez, and has a pizza — the Klaus Special — named after him.

“It’s really shocking,” said Muncheez’s owner Gilbert Bailly. “We grew up together; he was like family.”

Bailly said he last spoke to Eberwein, 50, two weeks ago and he was in good spirits. They were working on opening a Muncheez restaurant in Sunrise, he said.

But it appears that Eberwein had fallen on hard times. An Uber spokesperson confirmed that he worked as a driver for awhile in South Florida.

During and after his government tenure, Eberwein faced allegations of fraud and corruption on how the agency he headed administered funds. Among the issues was FAES’ oversight of shoddy construction of several schools built after Haiti’s devastating Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake.

Eberwein was scheduled to appear Tuesday before the Haitian Senate’s Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, the head of the commission, Sen. Evalière Beauplan confirmed. The commission is investigating the management of PetroCaribe funds, the money Haiti receives from Venezuela’s discounted oil program.