Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 6 septembre 2017

 NOAA's IRMA, Headed for the Caribbean including Puerto Rico, the DR, Haiti, Cuba, the neighboring islands, and probably Florida and the US East Coast...

It’s looking more likely that Hurricane Irma will affect the U.S. coast — potentially making a direct landfall — starting Friday. The powerful storm strengthened slightly overnight, and as of Monday morning was a powerful Category 3 storm with maximum sustained winds of 120 mph. As it tracks west toward the Caribbean, hurricane warnings have been issued for portions of the Leeward Islands and hurricane watches are in place for Puerto Rico.

Additional advisories will probably be issued later Monday as the forecasted track of Irma becomes more clear.

Irma has entered into a favorable environment for strengthening, with warm sea surface temperatures and favorable upper-level winds allowing the storm to intensify even more over the next 24 hours. As of 11 a.m. Monday, the National Hurricane Center predicted the storm will pass just north of the island of St. John on Wednesday morning as a Category 4 with winds over 130 mph.

Late Sunday afternoon, Hurricane Hunters began regular flights into Irma, providing extremely valuable data that has improved forecasts. The immediate track of Irma through the middle of the week is not much of a question at this point; an area of high pressure is firmly in place over the central Atlantic, preventing Irma from recurving and escaping out to sea. That high won’t move much over the next several days, steering Irma due west into the Leeward Islands by midweek.

Overnight, both the American and European models started to show more consistency in a forecasted track for Irma that increases the chances of impacts on the U.S. coast. Irma will probably continue to be suppressed by the strong Atlantic high pressure beyond Wednesday, keeping the storm at major hurricane status and on a trajectory that places the storm in close proximity to Florida by next weekend.

Miss Haiti 2017

Cassandra Chéry was crowned as the winner of the Miss Haiti 2017 pageant at Marriott hotel in Port au Prince last Saturday.

Chéry, 21, was born in Port-au-Prince. She is a model and student in communication. She succeeds Raquel Pelissier, Miss Haiti 2016.

The Miss Haiti contest is the national beauty pageant of Haiti. It is responsible for selecting the country's representatives to the Miss World, Miss International, Miss Globe, MTQI, International Coffee Queen, Panamerican Queen of the Sugar cane pageants (among others).

257 NGOs (NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION) have been prohibited from operating in Haiti

Published 2017-09-01 ¦ Le Nouvelliste

The Moïse-Lafontant administration wants to regulate NGOs (NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION) and international agencies according to its priorities and the needs for the Haitian people.

The announcement was made by the Secretary of the Planning and External Cooperation (MPCE), Aviol Fleurant, last Friday. He reminded that President Jovenel Moïse, considers it essential to take the country away from a status of continually receiving assistance, and instead move it towards development.

To NGOs, Aviol Fleurant set two requirements. First, he indicated that these institutions have to finance what the Haitian people need and not what they consider necessary. Second, the assistance they provide must be within the framework of some leadership from the Haitian government," he explained.

In a nutshell, Aviol Fleurant stressed that the public aid in development has to pass though governmental channels, or the government will reject it. "These requirements are justified based on the trust that the Haitian people have placed in this administration… and this government’s ongoing battle to fight corruption," he said.

At the moment, only 370 NGOs are complying with the requirements of the Haitian government, reported the Secretary. These NGOs regularly submit reports about their work. On the other hand, he denounced other NGOs that haven’t published reports in more than 10 years and continue to work and to benefit from exemption of customs duties. Consequently, by virtue of the decree of September 14^th, 1989, the government is revoking the authorization of 257 NGOs to function. A press release stating their names will be published in the media and in the official newspaper “The Monitor.”

Fleurant wants to reassure international partners. “We do not want chase away in NGOs,” he says. However, he indicated that this administration intends to redefine a partnership with these NGOs and international development agencies.

The government of the United States hands over the keys of the police station of Terrier Rouge to the National Police Force of Haiti

For her first public appearance in Haiti, the account manager of the U.S. Embassy in Haiti, Robin Diallo, underlined the important role of the National police in Haiti.  She asserted the commitment of the United States to support the growth and the development of this institution.

By participating in the inauguration of the police station of Terrier Rouge in the department of the Northeast, together with the Managing Director of the Haitian National Police Force (PNH), Michel-Angel Gédéon, the Mayor of Terriere Rouge, Marie Evena Daniel Pompilus, and in the presence of local authorities and of the representatives of the international community, Diallo greeted the leadership and the efforts of the PNH to insure the safety of the Haitian population by asserting: "The National police force of Haiti has the trust of its leaders, their commanders, the international community and, especially, the citizens whom it serves and protects.”

She added, ”The United States remains firm in its commitment to support the men and  women of this institution, while they build a stable platform for a more prosperous Haiti.”

The building of the police station launched in September, 2016, was financed by the government of the United States through of the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL). The U.S. Embassy handed over the keys of this building to PNH. This will allow it to maintain the law and order in the region and to strengthen the relations of the PNH with the local community which it is called to serve.

The United States has supported efforts for safety in Haiti for twenty years and completed other infrastructure projects to build police stations and prisons throughout the country, including Port-de-Paix, Cabaret, Cayes and Petit-Goâve.

Haitians abroad give their country $2 billion a year. Now the government wants more.

BY JACQUELINE CHARLES

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In 1765, colonists living in America and Canada were expected to pay into the treasury of the British monarch, sparking the famous no-taxation-without-representation rallying cry and, ultimately, the American Revolution.

Now 250-odd years later, Haitians from Miami to Montreal are embroiled in their own tax revolt. The Haitian government is seeking to levy a universal tax on all its citizens, on and off the island.

And even though it’s a small amount — 10,000 gourdes or $159annually, depending on the exchange rate — the reaction has been no less vehement. For some 2 million Haitians living abroad, who already contribute $2 billion a year in remittances, essentially doubling the country’s annual budget, the insult is clear.

“We need to retaliate,” said Dr. Lesly Kernisant, a New York gynecologist, whose emailed French post entitled “Diaspora: Enough is Enough” in response to the proposal went viral. “We’re not retaliating against our people, but Haitian leaders because they don’t seem to get it.”

Anger erupted last week after the new tax was leaked on social media. It is among several new revenue schemes — fee hikes for property ownership, passports and traffic infractions, and marketing $285 million in bonds to the diaspora, among others — that Haitian President Jovenel Moïse and Prime Minister Jack Guy Lafontant are proposing in their ambitious $2.2 billion draft budget. The budget also includes a 74 percent boost in salaries, cars, staff and travel per diem for members of parliament.

After the fee was dubbed by critics as a “diaspora tax,” its defenders — from the head of the Haitian IRS to the minister of finance to one of the country’s best-known comedians and government supporter, Tonton Bicha — took to the airwaves and social media. They denounced as untrue rumors that Haitians living abroad would be forced to pay as soon as they arrive at the airport in much the same way visitors must now pay a $10 tourist tax.

Paying taxes, presidential spokesman Lucien Jura said in a Facebook video post, is the price of citizenship.

“Haitians living abroad, what you should know is that Haiti is your country” he said in the message directed at the diaspora. “You can enter [Haiti] as freely as you wish. But if you come from abroad and you come to do a transaction in your country, which is Haiti, purchasing a house, purchasing a car, purchasing land, that means you are someone who has some means. Since you aren’t working in Haiti and there is no real way to evaluate your revenue ...the government has fixed [an amount] for you and generally any foreigner who has come to do a transaction in the country.”

The explanation, however, has done little to satisfy people like Kernisant who is threatening to organize a diaspora-wide boycott of Haiti — “No airlines and money transfers. ...We essentially will paralyze the country” — to teach the government a lesson, if it insists on enforcing the tax.

“I understand you need the tax,” he said. “But if I have to pay taxes, I should at least be able to contribute to the political structure of Haiti. ...Taxation without representation will no longer be acceptable.”

It’s not the money, Haitians say. There is universal agreement that Haiti, which already collects one of the highest taxes on airline tickets in the Caribbean region at $88.90, can use the cash. It’s still reeling from last year’s strike by Category 4 Hurricane Matthew along its southern peninsula and struggling to rebuild from the 2010 earthquake amid a 50 percent drop in foreign aid.

But the lack of accountability and transparency about how the country’s leaders will use the money is unacceptable, they say.

19-Year-Old Haitian-Japanese Tennis Player Pulls an Upset and Defeats U.S. Open Champion

Tennis can be a thrilling sport in and of itself, so when an upset happens… it’s peak excitement! People love rooting for the underdog in general, so upsets are popular in any competition.

Meet Naomi Osaka. Osaka is a 19-year-old 6th seed (No. 45) Haitian-Japanese tennis player. Recently, Osaka’s life changed in a moment after she pulled a huge upset and defeated reigning U.S. Open champion Angelique Kerber. And this happened in the first round with Osaka as a wild card.

Not only did she win, but she blew Kerber out of the water: 6-3, 6-1. Game, set, match! No one saw this coming. Nevertheless, Osaka lost this past Saturday in the U.S. Open’s third round to Kaia Kanepi.

Osaka was born in Osaka, Japan’s second city, to a Haitian father and Japanese mother. When Naomi was three, her family moved to New York to be close to her dad’s family. Naomi currently lives and trains predominantly in Florida with her father, though she also spends some time in Japan with coaches from the Japanese Tennis Association.

When she began to develop into a top-rate tennis player a few years ago, her father, Leonard Francois, chose the Japanese Tennis Association over the United States Tennis Association because of Naomi’s dual passport. She’s played under the Japanese flag ever since and is one of the country’s most highly touted rising stars but she barely speaks the language.

Osaka made her breakthrough on the WTA Tour two years ago when she qualified as a 406th-ranked 16-year-old for the Bank of the West Classic in Stanford, California, and beat former U.S. Open champion Samantha Stosur in the first round. At the 2016 Australian Open, the now current ranked No. 127 Osaka came through qualification to reach the main draw. In the second round, she defeated the No. 18 seed.

Unsurprisingly, Osaka really looks up to Serena Williams. And Williams is out here giving her props. “I have seen her play. She’s really young and really aggressive. She’s a really good, talented player. Very dangerous,” Williams said of Osaka, who recorded a 125 mph serve at the 2016 U.S. Open, which is something only eight other women have done. Osaka is winning all around!

Given her young age, Osaka is definitely someone to watch!

Source: USA Today, www.curlynikki.com & www.lunionsuite.com

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 13 septembre 2017

 Miguel County Sheriff's Office)

Abuse charges filed after 2 girls found dead on Colorado farm

HAITIANS INVOLVED

Five adults are behind bars after authorities found the bodies of two children in what they are calling a shocking case of child abuse.

The girls were between the ages of 5 and 10 and they were found dead Friday on a farm in rural southwestern Colorado. Investigators say they believe the girls were killed at least two weeks ago.

“In my 37 years as Sheriff, I have never seen anything as cruel and heartless as this,” San Miguel County Sheriff Bill Masters said.

A tip led deputies to the farm in Norwood, population 500. The town is about 35 miles west of the ski resort town of Telluride.

 “This is a small, tight-knit community and understandably this kind of crime has sent shockwaves through it,” Susan Lilly, a spokeswoman for Masters, told Fox News.

Nashika Bramble surrendered to cops Saturday.

Authorities arrested the other four adults Friday. They were identified as Frederick Blair, 23, of Norwood, Madani Ceus, 37, of Haiti, Ika Edne, 53, of Jamaica and Nathan Yah, 50, of Haiti.

Lilly wouldn’t say if Ceus, Edne or Yah were in the country illegaly. She said they recently moved to the area, according to The Associated Press.

Bramble and the others have been charged with felony child abuse causing death.

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Authorities weren’t saying how the girls were killed.

San Miguel County coroner Emil Sante told Fox News on Sunday that autopsy results are pending.

He said believes the girls were related and that they were related to one of the accused.

Sante said the bodies of the two girls were badly decomposed.

New US Charge d’Affaires meets President Moïse

Chargé d’Affaires Robin Diallo pays a courtesy call on President Jovenel Moise to discuss the broad range of U.S. – Haiti partnerships. The occasion gave the United States to confirm to Haiti that we stand by Haiti as Hurricane Irma approaches.

Lawmakers will ask Trump to extend TPS to Caribbean nations

WASHINGTON 

A bipartisan group of lawmakers, including Miami Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, are urging President Donald Trump to allow people in the United States but from Caribbean countries hit by Hurricane Irma to stay here for a temporary period.

Ros-Lehtinen, along with New York Democrat Eliot Engel and California Democrat Barbara Lee are circulating a letter to colleagues in Congress over the weekend asking them to support extending what’s known as Temporary Protected States to affected countries, including the Dominican Republic and Antigua and Barbuda.

On Monday, they will send the letter to Trump.

“While Congress and the Administration work to provide relief for those affected by devastation from Irma in our own country, we must also support our friends in the Caribbean,” the draft letter, obtained by Miami Herald, said. “As the storm moves away from the first-impacted islands, the casualty toll is slowly rising as deaths have been reported in Barbuda and Saint Martin. The economies of the affected areas have been completely destroyed and will take years to rebuild.”

Haiti: Hurricane Irma destroys a hundred houses

Express.fr with AFP

The eye of the hurricane skirted the Haitian coast last Friday. At least two people were hurt but there were no reported deaths, according to preliminary report estimates.

Its arrival was dreaded by the authorities and the population.

Nevertheless, the category 5 hurricane that decreased to a category 4, still brought strong floods, and destroyed about a hundred houses. 

Irma caused a storm surge in the northeast of the island, where strong winds peeled off roofs, according to the disaster and emergency services. It also caused two people to be injured after a coconut tree fell on their home in a locality near Cap-Haïtien.

Waters levels rose of 30 centimeters in the municipality of Ouanaminthe, on the border with the Dominican Republic.

"The considerable deforestation" could have provoked landslides, explained Emile Martin to L’Express. Martin is in charge of emergencies for Care France. “Fortunately nothing of this kind was recorded. For once Haiti was fortunate!”

Barbuda declared uninhabitable after the passage of Hurricane Irma

The island underwent tremendous devastation with 95 percent of its homes destroyed or damaged. 

Certain houses were totally demolished with destroyed roofs. The island is currently under water, and its public utilities have also been compromised.

Prime Minister Gaston Browne toured the island following Hurricane Irma and saw firsthand the damage the island experienced.

During an interview on Facebook Live, Browne declared that the island is practically uninhabitable because there is no water, electricity, or telecommunications. 

He said that it would cost more than 150 million Euros to rebuild the island, and that the process will take years.

He declared that after having estimated the damage, the 1,800 people living on the island could be welcomed by relatives in Antigua, or for those who couldn’t, the government should rent private buildings. Sixty percent of the island’s residents are homeless, he revealed.

Browne praised the hurricane preparations in Antigua, which resulted in minimal damage. He said he wanted to cry when he saw the destruction in Barbuda. After noticing how much Antigua had been spared, he never thought there would be such a contrast.

"It was terrifying,” he said.

Browne’s visit of the island revealed a destroyed cellular tower. He reported that an emergency radio and a satellite radio were also destroyed during the storm.

The U.S. could learn a lot from Cuba about preparing for hurricanes

How can a small island in the Caribbean, with few resources, undertake the challenge of protecting its population from extreme weather conditions better than some of the richest countries?

Cuba is the largest and most populated island in the Caribbean yet it consistently experiences the lowest death tolls during hurricane season. According to the United Nations, it's not because Cubans are lucky but because they're prepared. According to Oxfam, from 1996-2002, only 16 people were killed by the six hurricanes that struck Cuba.

Cuba has a world-class meteorological institute, with 15 provincial offices. They share data with US scientists and project storm tracks. Around 72 hours before a storm’s predicted landfall, national media issue alerts while civil protection committees check evacuation plans and shelters. Hurricane awareness is taught in schools and there are practice drills for the public before each hurricane season.

State run television and the civil defense authority broadcast to the population with information and instructions about what measures to take. Each residential block has a person assigned to take a census on who is being evacuated to which shelter, with special attention paid to the elderly, and pregnant women, and as efforts are organized locally, compliance is increased.

Gail Reed is the editor-in-chief of Medic Review, a peer review publication that evaluates health and medicine in Latin America, the Caribbean and other developing countries. She is also a journalist who has lived more than thirty years in Cuba. She provided an overview of Cuba’s successful strategy for hurricane preparation.

"Hurricanes warn you several days in advance", explained Reed.  “The Cuban government gives seven days of warning during which communities have multiple opportunities to get ready for the worst.”

Above all, Reed explained, "Cuba puts an enormous accent on the education of the population "to guarantee the safety of communities and families, in particular the most vulnerable.

"A taxi driver can tell you that it is a category 5 hurricane, and he will give you a complete conference on what to do to get ready," she explained.

The journalist also found that today Cuba speaks less of evacuation but concentrates rather on "protection," which includes the strengthening of a "local school" capable of welcoming the local communities and their pets.

She said that contrary to the populations of Texas and Louisiana affected by Hurricane Harvey, who have to ask for a federal help, the Cubans, in spite of their inferior economic resources, do not feel abandoned "come what may", nor subjected to excessive market prices for essential goods, as what people experienced in Texas recently.

The "low losses in lives and property" in Cuba, underlined Reed, are generally significantly less than what we saw in important disasters such as Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Harvey. And the reason is this level of preparation, said Reed.

According to Reed, the Cuban approach for a prevention policy demonstrates a thoughtful vision of the pure power of nature and the impact of climate change. The U.S. philosophy of help in case of disaster, on the other hand, is more of a reflection afterward which does not recognize human weaknesses.

Reed recalled how, in 2005, Cuba, which underwent more than half a century of U.S. economic blockade, offered to send 1,500 medical professionals from the “Henry Reeves” Brigade to help the population of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. However, former president George W. Bush quickly rejected the offer.

Information from Wikepedia contributed to this report

Irma mostly spared Haiti. But for struggling farmers, the damages are devastating

BY JACQUELINE CHARLES

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SAINT-LOUIS-DU-NORD, HAITI 

The morning after Hurricane Irma skirted Haiti’s northern coast, Artis Esperance walked his farm land and tried to salvage what the menacing Category 5 storm — and thieves — hadn’t already claimed.

For the second time in 11 months, Mother Nature had dealt a crippling blow to Haiti. Last year, it was the slow-moving and powerful Hurricane Matthew, which made landfall on Haiti’s southern tip. It wiped out farms and livestock in the southwest and Grand’Anse and here in the northwest with its 145-mph winds and heavy rains.

Now, a record-breaking Irma, en route to the Turks and Caicos and Bahamas before turning toward Florida, had blown away what little produce he and other farmers in the region had managed to grow.

“This storm didn’t even leave one tree with food on it for us to eat,” said an exasperated Esperance, 41, holding a rusty machete in one hand and an overripe breadfruit in the other, not far from one of his farms. “This has taken food out of the mouths of my children.”

Though Haiti was spared a direct hit from Irma and the fallout is nowhere near the magnitude of Matthew’s 546 dead and $2.8 billion in washed-out roads, collapsed bridges and destroyed crops, the frustration and fears for some in its path are no less.

“We didn’t have people who died, but homes and farms were destroyed,” Esperance said. “Just because you don’t see a lot of damages, it doesn’t mean that we haven’t been left deeper in misery.”

The northwest, which was already one of the poorest regions of the poverty-stricken country along with the northeast, was overlooked after Matthew, with attention focused more on the harder-hit Grand’Anse and southwest regions. Northwest farmers, left to fend for themselves, struggled to rebuild, replanting banana, avocado and yam crops to make ends meet.

Then came the worst storm ever recorded in the Atlantic. Irma flooded northern villages from as far west as Môle-Saint-Nicolas to as far east as Ounaminthe on the Haiti-Dominican Republic border. In between, it ripped off roofs, damaged roads and cut off connections between major cities and farming communities.

“If this hurricane had come with a lot of rain, a good amount of people here would be dead,” said Neckson Joseph, 21, a motorcycle taxi driver. “There wasn’t a lot of rain, but there was this strong wind. We had this kitchen outside, covered with aluminum. It didn’t even leave a beam standing.”

Joseph was among scores of storm survivors standing near the banks of a swollen Rivière des Barres in Saint-Louis-du-Nord, a coastal village east of Port-de-Paix, the capital of the northwest. The rising river connects the northwest to the north. Seven communities in the northeast still remained flooded days after Irma’s passage.

Joseph said Irma had felled banana trees, thrown breadfruit and avocados to the ground and swallowed homes along the coast. It also left the coastal villages of Anse-à-Foleur and Côte-de-Fer, and Borgne in the mountains, inundated and cut off from Saint-Louis-du-Nord and Port-de-Paix. The storm also washed out the parts of the road that leads to Jean-Rabel and Môle-Saint-Nicolas in the far west.

“If you really want to see what this storm did, just go walk through the rural outskirts,” Joseph said pointing to the rural inlands on the other side of the Rivière des Barres.

But much closer than that, just west of the Riviere des Barres in Trois Rivières at the entrance of Port-de-Paix, entire banana fields lay in ruin, barely matured plantains strewn on the ground.

“We don’t have any farm,” Camelia Ambroz, 70, said as she and her husband, Charite Almeus, 78, tried to salvage what they could as they walked through soggy, fallen banana branches. “It took everything.”

The couple, who work the land for someone else, said the crops were new, planted shortly after Matthew destroyed the last crop, and had only needed two more months to mature.

 “When you’re poor and you don’t have anything,” Almeus said, “this is what allows you to live. But what can you do? It’s God’s work and you have to accept it.”

Fritz Jean, an economist who was appointed as prime minister last year but forced to step down after parliament refused to ratify his governance plan for the country, said the vicious cycle of disaster upon disaster in Haiti is making Haitians poorer — and not just farmers.

In the case of farmers, it is leading to “uncertainty in regard to the agricultural production cycle,” he said. “The peasant knows less and less when to sow [and] less and less land becomes available.”

On Friday, when Irma’s red alert — Haiti’s highest level of threat — was finally lifted and a contingent of U.N. Brazilian peacekeepers, making the 200-mile trek from Port-au-Prince, rolled into the northwest, the non-profit group Action Against Hunger warned that a fair amount of the population living in the five regions affected by Irma will feel the impact.

The damages will be extremely difficult for vulnerable, small-scaled farmers in the northwest, the group said.

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 20 septembre 2017

 News > Latin America

Haitians Protest Against Next Year's Budget

TELE SUR

Protesters argue the new budget will hurt the country's most disadvantaged. 

Thousands of people have gathered in the streets of Haiti's capital  Port-au-Prince to protest against a controversial budget bill that will affect the most vulnerable people of the island.

The protest erupted Monday and continued on till Tuesday.

The police violently clashed with the protesters, using tear gas and rubber bullets to stop them from reaching the national palace as planned, reported Vant Bef Info.

Various organizations argue that the new budget favors the elite at the expense of the country's most disadvantaged.

After Monday's protest, the organizations pushed for further demonstrations in a bid to pressure the administration to modify the bill.

The bill on the 2017-2018 budget, introduced by the recently-election administration of Moise Lafontant, was passed in the lower chamber on Saturday with 78 votes in favor, five abstentions and eight against.

It was passed in Senate two days earlier, with 18 votes in favor, two abstentions and one vote against, according to Alter Presse.

The house of representatives only modified one of the controversial articles, Article 17, which implemented higher taxes on Haitian citizens living abroad.

The bill comes as the island recovers from Hurricane Irma which hit the island on Sept. 7, killing one person and leaving 17 injured. About 8,000 houses have been affected and 6,500 people remain in temporary shelters out of the 12,000 people evacuated

According to the 2017 Climate Change Vulnerability Index, Haiti is the third-most vulnerable country in the world.

Despite the devastating effects of Hurricane Matthew last year, the government only allocated about 0.5 percent of this year’s budget to the Ministry of the Environment — despite promising to support local communities and sustainable agriculture.

Caribbean under hurricane watch again. Tropical Storm Maria following Irma’s track.

BY JENNY STALETOVICH

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Tropical Storm Maria formed in the Atlantic Saturday, threatening to pound islands already hit hard by Irma with another hurricane early next week.

In an update at 5 a.m. Sunday, a hurricane watch was issued for Dominica. The storm was 460 miles from the Lesser Antiles, moving west-northwest at 15 mph with sustained winds of 65 mph.

National Hurricane Center forecasters said Maria will likely bring dangerous wind, storm surge and heavy rain to parts of the Lesser Antilles and could reach the Leeward Islands as a hurricane early next week. Maria could become a major hurricane by Tuesday night, reach Puerto Rico Wednesday night and the Dominican Republic on Thursday night.

On Saturday night, hurricane watches were issued for Antigua, Barbuda, St. Kitts, Nevis, Montserrat, Guadeloupe, Saba and St. Eustatius, St. Martin and Anguilla. Tropical storm watches were issued for other islands in the chain.

The forecasters warned rainfall accumulation in the Leeward Islands through Tuesday night could “cause life-threatening flash floods and mudslides.”

The Coast Guard captain of the Port of San Juan warned that sustained gale force winds greater than 39 miles per hour may arrive within 72 hours, and advised pleasure craft “to seek safe harbor.”

It’s not yet clear what impact Florida and the U.S. might face from the storm. Model projections so far out can often be hundreds of miles off. But an early run of the European model — which reliably tracked Irma — takes the storm toward Florida.

The system became much better organized throughout Saturday, forecasters said, as it moved over warm tropical waters and encountered light wind shear. Air around the storm is also very moist. Those conditions shouldn’t change in the coming days, they said, likely allowing Maria to continue to pick up steam.

Following is the list of the NGOs forbidden in Haiti

On September 1^st of this year, the Ministry of Planning and External Cooperation gave a press conference regarding numerous NGOs’ violation of the decree of September 14^th, 1989 governing the establishment and the functioning of Non-Government Organizations in Haiti. During his speech, Aviol Fleurant, Secretary of the MPCE announced the upcoming publication of a list of 257 NGOs which had not complied with the government’s requirements. This has now been accomplished.

“NGOs have to integrate their activities around the programs and the projects of the government," said a lively Aviol Fleurant. "The same goes for international agencies generally, which contribute and develop a dynamic partnership with Haiti. You finance what the Haitian people need and not what you consider necessary. And what is financed must be done with governmental leadership," added Fleurant, whose office was recently subjected to protests against the 2017-2018 budget.

Aviol Fleurant does recognize the importance of NGOs. However, he specifies the need for regulations in part to prevent the duplications of activities in regions which cause a "difficulty to commit to sustainable development."

In a nutshell, "Public aid in development has to go through governmental channels, or we shall refuse it," threatened Fleurant.

Phanord Cabé: a young star shines brightly in the Haitian digital sky

Port-au-Prince, Friday, September 2^nd, 2016 www.rezonodwes.com

 He is only 23 years old, but, Phanord Cabé, born in Port-au-Prince on February 14^th, 1993, is already someone who has shown his ability in the Haitian technological world, and who thinks that young people would make better use of their time taking advantage of multitudes of opportunities offered by Internet.

Fascinated by the World Wide Web, Phanord, is a young computer and mobile phone technician. He is also an expert on social media, dynamic, hard-working, and he never backs away from long working hours. Currently, he is using his talents with the information technology team of TV Radio Caribbean managed by Patrick Moussignac.

As an expert on social media, he has already helped several personalities improve their image on the Web, and enabled them to have their profile or page on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

Phanord Cabé has undoubtedly found the secret to drawing Internet users to his accounts, because with only 231 tweets he was able to get 150,000 followers. This is phenomenal for a young man who is neither an artist nor a politician, except for the fact that he jumped without hesitation into the world of social media with the development of 40404. That number is an SMS port into the Twittersphere. It allows people to have a way to tweet without Wi-Fi service.

Phanord Cabé is also eyeing a political career. However, it will have to wait until he is 35 years old when the young prodigy intends to make a run for the parliament.

Fabrice Tardieu’s Designer Shoes - a Secret gem in Little River

A recent conversation with his mother jogged a childhood memory for Miami shoe designer Fabrice Tardieu. In their native Port-au-Prince, Tardieu’s family owned a shoe factory, and as a boy he once asked his mom to stitch a leather toe trim onto his canvas shoes.

“I was 8 years old,” Tardieu said from his by-appointment-only showroom in Little River. “Today, the No. 1-selling shoe at Lanvin Paris looks so much like what I was envisioning at age 8.

“I had an understanding at a young age of things that could be really cool. I had it in me, but I didn’t know I had it in me — it just came later.”

Why sneakerheads love him

He began his self-named shoe and apparel brand from his apartment three years ago, putting his life savings on the line to embark on a dream of designing luxury leisure wear. Dwyane Wade and Gabrielle Union are fans of Tardieu’s couture sneakers, as is a Middle Eastern royal who last year bought 22 pairs — all size 10.5 — during a stay in Miami.

Tardieu got his professional start in fashion studying in France and working for Giorgio Armani before launching the Bogosse shirt label with his brother Patrick. Tardieu decided to walk away from that collaboration to rediscover his creativity, he said.

“I went from Ferrari to Uber,” he said of his pivot toward a risky new challenge.

Caribbean under hurricane watch again. Tropical Storm Maria following Irma’s track.

BY JENNY STALETOVICH

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Tropical Storm Maria formed in the Atlantic Saturday, threatening to pound islands already hit hard by Irma with another hurricane early next week. 

In an update at 5 a.m. Sunday, a hurricane watch was issued for Dominica. The storm was 460 miles from the Lesser Antiles, moving west-northwest at 15 mph with sustained winds of 65 mph.

National Hurricane Center forecasters said Maria will likely bring dangerous wind, storm surge and heavy rain to parts of the Lesser Antilles and could reach the Leeward Islands as a hurricane early next week. Maria could become a major hurricane by Tuesday night, reach Puerto Rico Wednesday night and the Dominican Republic on Thursday night.

On Saturday night, hurricane watches were issued for Antigua, Barbuda, St. Kitts, Nevis, Montserrat, Guadeloupe, Saba and St. Eustatius, St. Martin and Anguilla. Tropical storm watches were issued for other islands in the chain.

The forecasters warned rainfall accumulation in the Leeward Islands through Tuesday night could “cause life-threatening flash floods and mudslides.”

The Coast Guard captain of the Port of San Juan warned that sustained gale force winds greater than 39 miles per hour may arrive within 72 hours, and advised pleasure craft “to seek safe harbor.”

It’s not yet clear what impact Florida and the U.S. might face from the storm. Model projections so far out can often be hundreds of miles off. But an early run of the European model — which reliably tracked Irma — takes the storm toward Florida.

The system became much better organized throughout Saturday, forecasters said, as it moved over warm tropical waters and encountered light wind shear. Air around the storm is also very moist. Those conditions shouldn’t change in the coming days, they said, likely allowing Maria to continue to pick up steam.

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 27 septembre 2017

 The Embassy of Haiti Hosts Congressional Dinner to Address the Renewal of TPS for Haitians

In the framework of the Haitian government’s efforts to encourage the U.S. government to renew the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) granted to Haitians following the January 2010 earthquake, a status which is slated to expire on January 22, 2018, the Embassy of Haiti in Washington, D.C. hosted members of Congress for a working dinner on the evening of Tuesday, September 12. In addition to the elected officials, the dinner brought together representatives of civil society organizations engaged in the movement to renew TPS for Haitians.

According to Ambassador Paul Altidor, this initiative, both by the profile of the guests and the depth of the conversations, reflects the Haitian government’s desire to create a synergy between the various forces advocating for the renewal of TPS. The members of Congress in attendance expressed their willingness to provide their full support to the TPS dossier. Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey, a member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, declared that Haitians in general are exemplary citizens, and he is therefore ready to provide his unwavering support to the TPS renewal movement.

                  According to some of Haiti’s most prominent and veteran advocates in the U.S. Congress, among them representatives Eddie Bernice Johnson and Alcee Hastings, defending the Haitian cause in the United States has never been easy. For this reason, in addition to their own political support, the elected officials expressed the need for a strong engagement of the Haitian Diaspora in the TPS matter.

The members of Congress also pointed out that in the context of the upcoming 2018 legislative and local elections in the United States, the Haitian Diaspora must put their weight in the balance, even those who are not directly affected by TPS. Congressman Sanford Bishop, Representative of Georgia’s 2nd District, stated that Haitians are an undeniable force in some states and districts, and must use this as an asset for the TPS renewal campaign. Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, Representative of Texas’s 18th District and member of the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security, asserted that the business community, academia, churches, healthcare workers, and airport workers must make their voices heard to mobilize support for the renewal of TPS.

During the dinner, participants also discussed the idea that TPS holders must express themselves and tell their personal stories in order to sensitize ordinary American citizens who are not familiar with the issue, so they know that TPS recipients are their neighbors, classmates, co-workers, fellow churchgoers, and healthcare providers. The representatives of the civil society organizations advocating for TPS renewal, among them the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC), the Haitian Lawyers Association (HLA), and the Open Society Foundations, all affirmed the merits of such a strategy.

The members of Congress reiterated their willingness to put all their political weight in the balance to help the Haitian government obtain an extension of TPS for 18 months. For instance, Congresswoman Yvette Clarke, Representative of New York’s 9th District, informed the group that she plans to reach out to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and other entities within Congress to enlist their support.

This working dinner held at the Embassy of Haiti was the first of a series of such activities to be hosted at the Embassy with key stakeholders as the TPS renewal movement intensifies. It was also the first major meeting between the various actors advocating for the renewal of TPS since the announcement by the Embassy of the creation of a TPS Taskforce and the setting up of a hotline to provide legal guidance to TPS beneficiaries. TPS, which was granted to Haitians following the earthquake of January 12, 2010, expires on January 22, 2018. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security must announce its decision on the renewal of TPS for Haitians at the end of November 2017.

New York Congresswoman Says Push to Defend Temporary Protected Status Underway

U.S. Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-Brooklyn) says that she and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer are putting pressure on President Donald Trump to come up with a solution for recipients of the Temporary Protected Status program, which benefits people from countries experiencing humanitarian crises.

TPS, which is run by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, provides sanctuary and work authorization to foreign nationals fleeing disaster or violence at home. Amid the push to protect the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program for undocumented youth brought to the United States in their early childhood, congressional Democrats have been looking toformulate a strategyto get Trump to extend TPS.

On Monday, acting Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Dukeannouncedthat Sudanese recipients will have to leave the U.S. by November 2, 2018 on the grounds that “conditions in Sudan no longer support its designation.” She said that extending Sudan’s TPS status for another year will allow “for an orderly transition.” But sheextendedSouth Sudan’s designation until May 2, 2019 due to the fact that the “ongoing armed conflict and extraordinary temporary conditions” that brought about the 2016 TPS pre-designation have continued.

Both countries’ TPS statuses were set to expire on November 2.

Clarke, the first congresswoman of Caribbean descent, told the Observer at “Moment of Truth: Where America Stands on Immigration,” a forum in Manhattan earlier this week, that she had a conversation with Schumer and that he understands TPS “intimately” because many of his constituents are currently protected under TPS.

Big change in the process for U.S. visas

In a document transferred to U.S. embassies around the world, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson announced that from now on, visitors who need a visa to enter the United States will have to declare what they plan to do during their stay in the United States, which may not exceed three months.

During these three months, the recipients of a tourist visa can only do what they declared during their interview to obtain their visa. They cannot marry American citizens, go to school, or work, if they don’t want to be considered as individuals who came to United States with the intention to lie, or deceive immigration officials. 

If fraud is discovered, they would be liable to deportation.

And that's not all!

Somebody who comes to the United States as a tourist, falls in love and gets married within 90 days, and proceeds to asks for a green card will have their application turned down, according to Diane Rish, Deputy Director of Governmental Relations for the American Immigration Lawyers Association. "This is a significant change of policy."

These measures are within the framework of Donald Trump's strategy to significantly reduce the flow of illegal and legal immigrants in the United States. These new rules do not however apply to the citizens of 38 countries - including Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Japan - which do not need visas to return in the USA.

Haitian President backs Paris climate accord, calls on UN to honour commitments on tackling cholera

UN News Centre - 21 September 2017 – Addressing the United Nations General Assembly today, Jovenel Moise, President of Haiti, expressed deep commitment to the environmental targets in the global goals on sustainable development and said his island nation is seeking to build its resilience against the natural disasters and extreme weather events that consistently beleaguer its people and other countries in the Caribbean.

“My Government is committed to theParis Agreementon climate change,” Mr. Moise told delegations gathered for the Assembly’s annual general debate, adding that he wished to see those countries most responsible for greenhouse gas production contribute the resources necessary for implementing that accord.

In the Caribbean, recent back-to-back extreme weather events had drawn attention to the ways in which climate affects Haiti. “Such weather phenomena are due to the impact of humans on the environment,” he stressed, and noted that in January 2018, when Haiti assumed the presidency of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), it would organize a regional conference aimed at establishing an inter-State commission that would devise a strategy for addressing climate issues, such as the availability of climate insurance.

More broadly, he said Haiti has taken steps to consolidate democracy and the rule of law, having made significant efforts to promote development and political stability. Noting that corruption has “infected” and eroded Haiti’s economy, and compromised its political situation, he said it is time that official development assistance (ODA) and domestic resources upheld the interests of the Haitian nation. In the meantime, Haiti’s new leaders are waging an unwavering struggle against corruption.

Addressing two phenomena stemming from the UN presence in Haiti – heinous sexual abuse and exploitation by peacekeepers and other personnel, and the cholera epidemic – he said the Organization is morally obliged to provide the recourses to ensure that cholera left the country.

Improving Haiti’s health system, including by eradicating cholera, is a Government priority for his Despite some progress, the number of cholera victims stood at 10,000 people and continued to grow. Further, there were tens of thousands of cholera orphans. The United Nations must live by and give tangible form to its noble ideals, including the announced ‘new approach’ to dealing with cholera, he stressed, by shouldering all its responsibilities to remedy the situation, which had caused grave harm to the Haitian people.

President Moïse is assaulted with rocks – The police has to evacuate the head of state

While attending an improvised pro-governmental rally on the road to the Airport, President Jovenel Moïse got caught at an intersection near the Airport, where unidentified people threw stones at him, according to witnesses.

The rocks were aimed at the president’s procession. This provoked deep tensions in the area, in spite of a strong police presence.

Returning from New York after his participation in the 72^nd General Assembly of the United Nations, the Head of State walked from the Toussaint Louverture International Airport at the head of a crowd of sympathizers of the Haitian Party Tèt Kale (Phtk). He was quickly evacuated from the tense environment.

Passers-by, small shopkeepers, and students who were heading home were also victims, following an intervention by the police.

Upon his arrival, the president was accompanied by several members of his government, in particular Aviol Fleurant, Secretary of Planning and External Cooperation.

A crowd of sympathizers of the Head of State came to welcome him, some of whom wore shirts with his picture.

There were also several individuals in military fatigues, claiming to be members of the Armed Forces of Haiti, who came to support Moïses. The Haitian Armed Forces of Haiti has been defunct for more than 20 years. In a later press release, the Ministry of Defense expressed regret for this display.   

Protest against President Jovenel Moïse last Wednesday night in Brooklyn, and on Thursday in front of the United Nations headquarters in Manhattan

Brooklyn, September 21^st 2017-(AHP) - Everything had apparently started well at l'Eglise Chrétienne Croisade Evangélique of Pastor Nicholas, who is presumed to be close to President Jovenel Moïse.

Moïse was able, on apparently friendly territory, to attack his opponents and to praise the 2017-2018 budget rejected by almost all of the sectors of the country. This budget, he said, is going to boost the economy of the country, by attacking those whom he tried to present as corrupt.

As a result, he promised to intensify the fight against corruption under the applauses of a hand-selected public, which already supported his cause. He also praised the fact that today, in Haiti, there are 16 points where passports are delivered, compared to only one previously, he said.

Jovenel Moïse praised his good relationship with the parliament, a parliament which voted for "forty laws" in 7 months, but which also voted with blindfolds for the text of the financial law which penalizes the poorest, according to numerous sectors, and which puts him, the president, in an extremely complicated situation.

But, barely out of the partisanship atmosphere of Pastor Nicholas’s church, the Head of State fell in a bees’ nest with about a hundred people who waited for him, shouting of "Down with Jovenel!” “Cancel your budget, assassin.” “Return our $1.50.”

They also made it known that “President Moïses is going to pay dearly for his arrogance and his refusal to compromise."

Several protestors denounced the complicity which exists between Moïse and former Senator Edwin Zenny who called to assassinate members of five families from the private business sector, among whom are the Vorbes and Rouzier, whom he holds responsible for financing protests throughout the country.

Another protest took place on Thursday, September 21st in front of the United Nations where Jovenel Moïse made a speech, stating that he planned to restore Haiti’s army, and that the United Nations had to compensate Haiti for having introduced cholera into the country.