Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 21 janvier 2020

 Bernard Diederich passes at the age of 94

Respected and wellknown New Zealand author, journalist, and historian Bernard Diederich passed away Tuesday, Jan. 14 at the age of 94 in Port-au-Prince. Diederich is considered to be an authority on Haitian history and journalism. Politician and filmmaker Arnold Antonin states he did extraordinary work as a historian in Haiti, and his work is essential to understanding the country.”

University Hospital in Haiti Earns Global Accreditation for Medical Education Programs

University Hospital in Mirebalais, Haiti, received formal accreditation from an international oversight group this week, affirming that the hospital’s medical education and residency programs meet the highest global standards—and causing Dr. Paul Farmer to reach for a seat.

“There’s a Haitian expression—news that demands a chair,” said Farmer, Partners In Health co-founder and chief strategist. “Usually it’s bad news, but this is truly exceptional. I have no way to express my gratitude and admiration to the Zanmi Lasante team. They have been tireless.”

PIH was founded in Haiti more than 30 years ago and is known in Haiti as Zanmi Lasante. The team opened University Hospital in Mirebalais in 2013, in collaboration with Haiti’s Ministry of Health. The 300-bed teaching hospital is home to residency programs in internal and family medicine, pediatrics, surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, neurology, nurse anesthetists, and emergency medicine.

ACGME-I, the international arm of the U.S.-based Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, notified PIH of the institution’s accreditation this week, after a multi-year process and extensive analysis by its International Review Committee. University Hospital joins internationally accredited facilities in just seven other countries and is the second such facility in the Western Hemisphere, along with the University of Panama.

Dr. Sterman Toussaint, director of medical education at University Hospital for Zanmi Lasante, emphasized that distinction.

“This is a big achievement,” he said. “Most of the time, institutions in high-and middle-income countries get access to accreditation—not institutions in low-income countries like Haiti. This is a reflection of the commitment of PIH and Zanmi Lasante to education.”

Toussaint noted that the accreditation application was due in September, during the height of recent political unrest in Haiti that essentially shut down the country.

“Despite all of that, we have been able to meet the standards,” he said. “PIH is committed to meeting the standards that everyone is meeting around the world.”

Dr. Edward Hundert, dean for medical education at Harvard Medical School and an advisor to PIH, praised the milestone.

“This achievement of the internationally recognized highest standard for the educational programs at University Hospital, represents a truly wonderful validation of the years of hard work to build these programs, and of the outstanding quality of training that they represent,” he said. “This is exciting news not just for the hospital and the people who made it happen, but ultimately for all of the patients who will be cared for by the clinicians who train in these now ACGME-I accredited programs.”

Port-au-Prince to host 2020 national carnival

With the theme, Ann pote kole pou Ayiti dekole (Let’s work together for Haiti to emerge), the national carnival is scheduled for Feb. 23 - 25, 2020. Jean Michel Lapin, Minister of Culture and Communication officially announced the festivities and wished everyone a great carnival.

One Entrepreneur’s Quest to Beautify Florida’s Little Haiti

(haitiantimes.com)

On a Saturday morning around 10a.m. last month, Alain McGuffie found himself on the corner of Northeast Third Ave and NE 58th Terrace in Little Haiti in Miami, Florida, picking up trash with the City of Miami’s Solid Waste Department. They’ve been there for at least an hour, throwing out big black garbage bags, debris and random pieces of abandoned furniture. But this partnership isn’t an organic one; it is part of a promise the city made with McGuffie, a Haitian entrepreneur, to essentially begin paying extra attention to the area and dispose of the garbage that often populates the streets of Little Haiti, home to thousands of Haitian and Caribbean immigrants.

The corner they’re cleaning is identical to several streets in Little Haiti, and it’s a daily eyesore that McGuffie noticed the moment he stepped foot in Miami.

“I always come to Little Haiti but we always drive through the main streets, where we see the cultural center and the church, but I never drive through the inner city and see what is going on,” says McGuffie, owner of Wish In A Bottle, a business that brings resources like backpacks filled with school supplies to Haitian children. “Recently, I said let me take a ride before I move here and see what I am about to get myself into. That’s when I started noticing piles of garbage on every street that I turned.”

He saw what is always on the streets: large garbage bags tied up, or ripped with its strewn rotting contents on the streets, dirty mattresses and broken furniture decorating the curbs or patches of unkempt grass.

Dismayed at the state of a beloved neighborhood filled with vibrant culture and community, he brought his complaint to anyone who would listen. The residents in the area told him people often come from outside of Little Haiti, even from one or two neighborhoods away, to drop off garbage on the street, believing that the large trash bags will be picked up there quicker than where they live. But when he spoke to Commissioner Keon Hardemon, who oversees Little Haiti, he gave a different theory. He told McGuffie on the phone, and later repeated this at a commission meeting, that the trash is put there by residents, those he believes, don’t value their own neighborhood, and opt to throw their trash anywhere on the curbs, rather than the designated pickup zones.

“The people there feel like they are being neglected, so I said, why are you making it easy for them?” McGuffie said. “It brings down the property value when the area is dirty. If the place is well taken care of, then developers will pay top dollar for it.”

Many of the people there are hurting and unsure of the future as talks of developmental projects start and restart. But can Little Haiti residents count on their local officials to clean the area at the very least? It seems to be moving in that direction. Two days after McGuffie’s speech at the commission meeting, the Twitter account for Miami Solid Waste posted a photo of a small group in Little Haiti picking up trash with McGuffie that Saturday morning. “Small groups can make a big impact,” the tweet reads. “Thanks to our volunteers for helping us #KeepMiamiBeautiful. Join us next month for our next cleanup.”

As for, McGuffie, he doesn’t plan on waiting for officials to maintain cleanliness in his neck of the woods.

“The main thing that I am going to do is keep monitoring it, making sure they continue to clean the place,” said McGuffie. “I notice people here don’t want to come talk to the commissioners, so I want to bring other people to these meetings to raise their voice and be heard.”

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JANUARY 12, 2020 06:00 AM 

Haiti Earthquake: A Decade of Aftershocks

On Jan. 12, 2010, Haiti was struck by a massive earthquake. The disaster claimed 316,000 lives, left 1.5 million homeless and another 1.5 million injured. As the anniversary approaches, the Miami Herald, in partnership with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, will look at questions around aid and rebuilding over the past decade in the series Haiti Earthquake: A Decade of Aftershocks. We invite our readers to share with us how the Haiti earthquake impacted their lives. Your comments may be used in future stories.

PORT-AU-PRINCE

Ten years ago, when Haiti was hit by its worst natural disaster in more than a century, the country didn’t have its own earthquake surveillance network.

It does now. The problem is, the 10 foreign-trained quake monitors who work there can’t stay in the building that houses the unit overnight because it is not earthquake resistant, and even if it were, there isn’t enough money to pay anyone to spend the night.

When the ground shakes again, they’ll have to run out of the facility’s only exit.

“Am I scared? Well, that’s the job. I have to do it,” said Claude Prépetit, 68, Haiti’s foremost earthquake expert and as close as the country gets to having an in-country seismologist. “The conditions are not ideal ... but we have to do it. We have an entire nation that’s waiting on us to give them information.”

of Haiti’s Bureau of Mines and Energy, and supervises the small seismic monitoring team inside the one-story structure in the city of Delmas. The city is part of the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area that was decimated by the catastrophic magnitude 7 earthquake on Jan. 12, 2010.

Before the quake, Haiti had to consult the global U.S. Geological Survey for information on earthquakes larger than magnitude 4. Since Prépetit set up the network in 2011, Haiti now receives information broadcast via satellite from solar-powered seismic stations dotted around the country, and via internet from a network of seismometers that record tremors in real time. The seismic team analyzes the data and issues bulletins on quake occurrences and the potential for future earthquakes.

PROGRESS, BUT...

The 2010 quake caused more than 100,000 structures to crumble and created enough rubble to fill five football stadiums. At the time, Haiti had no quake-resistant building codes or in-depth understanding of its vulnerability. There are four major fault lines and many secondary ones crossing the country, which sits on two tectonic plates. As the plates slowly move past one another over time, stress builds up. The Léogâne fault that caused the 2010 quake was previously unknown.

Since the devastation, there has been progress, though. There is Prépetit’s seismic surveillance network, as well as active-fault and hazard maps, tsunami evacuation routes in the northern region and the first class of students soon to graduate with a master’s degree in geoscience from the State University of Haiti in Port-au-Prince. There is also considerably more knowledge about how the country’s various soil types, when combined with the effect of an earthquake, can liquefy and cause the ground to behave like quicksand in certain regions.

But for every bit of progress, there is plenty that has not been done to prevent a repeat of the cataclysmic disaster that claimed more than 300,000 lives and left 1.5 million people injured and another 1.5 million homeless.

“We do not have a national disaster risk management plan. We do not have a national plan to reduce the seismic vulnerabilities,” Prépetit said. “There is not a plan that says it is mandatory that they do awareness in all the schools and teach them what to do before, during and after. All of these are weaknesses that we have, which means that the next earthquake, if it’s of a high magnitude, well, the damages will be considerable.”

At best, the progress has been halting, he said, pointing out that $9 million worth of earthquake-related studies approved by the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission, co-chaired by former U.S. President Bill Clinton, has been collecting dust in drawers because there is no money or political will to confront the looming problem.

Nowhere is this more profound than inside Prépetit’s Seismology Technical Unit, where they recorded 301 tremors in 2019.

‘IT’S NOT NORMAL’

When a Miami Herald team visited in mid-November, Prépetit was the only one at work. The unit’s employees and staffers assigned to the mining bureau were home due to a countrywide lockdown, prompted by an ongoing political crisis. At the same time, the seismic station in Hinche was broken. There was no fuel for the generator, so the equipment was operating on a backup battery.

Weeks earlier, the United Nations Development Program had to cut a check for $7,500 because there was no money to pay for the satellite connection after the bill came due on Oct. 31.

“It’s not normal for a country that’s functioning, that’s doing seismic surveillance,” Prépetit said. “There should be a minimum budget. It should get a minimum of attention.”

Sophia Ulysse, who works with Prépetit in the seismic unit, said she and the other monitors do try to track quake activity from home, but “sometimes we try to connect and we can’t,” she said. “What is ideal is to have around-the-clock surveillance.”

Because the building that houses the seismic unit is not quake resistant, Ulysse said, “if an earthquake were to happen and the building isn’t able to resist, then all of the efforts we have made since Jan. 12, 2010, risks collapsing in a matter of seconds.“

Reginald DesRoches, the dean of engineering and incoming provost at Rice University in Houston, who traveled to Haiti to help after the quake, said there is no question that Prépetit and his team need adequate funding and support.

But that’s not their only challenge, said DesRoches, who is of Haitian descent and counts among his PhD students at Rice a young Haitian man who plans to return to Haiti to teach and work in seismic-resistant design.

“The biggest challenge that Haiti faces is the lack of an infrastructure and framework to enforce earthquake-resistant design standards,” he said. ”It is meaningless to have a [building] code if you have no way to enforce it. Over 90 percent of the buildings in Haiti are informal or non-engineered homes. ... It is very difficult to enforce proper construction practices.”

Prépetit agrees.

“It’s a rare engineer or person who builds differently, who uses [quake-resistant] construction techniques” in Haiti, he said. “The state doesn’t have the authority to say, ’No. I don’t agree.’ Things are being done the same way they were being done before January 12.”

While municipalities are responsible for issuing construction permits, they have neither the authority, capabilities, staff nor financial resources to enforce them or apply any of the recommendations from the various studies, Prépetit said.

After the 2010 disaster, the Haitian government estimated that more than 208,000 buildings were damaged, 105,000 were destroyed and 44 public buildings had collapsed, including the National Palace, the Parliament and the Supreme Court.

Since then, Haiti has had four presidents and seven prime ministers. Prépetit has had contact with them all, he said, as well as the various interior ministers whose job it is to oversee the government’s management of disaster risks.

None of them, he said, has really tried to focus on helping Haiti become earthquake-ready — or as ready as the small nation can be.

“I’ve never seen any will manifested from them to say that they consider this to be an emergency and it should be given the proper budget,” he said. ”It is the institutions that are concerned. They each have tried to do a little something. That’s why we have the progress that we have today.

“It’s like you have a band, there are several musicians, everyone is playing his own part but there is no maestro,” he said. “We don’t know where we are going.”

‘WE HAVE NO MEANS’

The Bureau of Mines and Energy, which oversees geology, mining and energy as well as earthquake surveillance, has an annual budget of just 60,000,000 gourdes — or $617,852. The amount represents just 0.04 percent of the country’s national budget, and 86 percent of it goes into salaries, Prépetit said.

“It’s 14 percent [left over] for us to function; to purchase vehicles, to purchase fuel, to purchase water, to purchase paper, ink cartridges,” Prépetit said. “We have no means.”

Money is also needed for the internet, and to replace the solar panels and batteries that are often stolen from the seismic stations around the country.

“What we do here is a Haitian effort,” he said. ‘We have a lot of will. We have the stations, we have donations, we’ve tried to install the system, but we don’t have a budget or program to really attack the problem.”

In recent years, some foreign donors have tried to provide funds to help support Prépetit’s work and help strengthen Haiti’s response structures. But the government also has to do its part, donors say.

“It remains critical to advocate for dedicated national budgetary allocations for both prevention and response capacities, and to ensure that risk awareness is mainstreamed throughout national planning processes,” said Stephanie Ziebell, the United Nations Development Program’s deputy resident representative. “This includes ensuring that those responsible for essential monitoring and analysis have the appropriate tools and facilities to enable their work.”

‘PEOPLE GOT ON THEIR KNEES’

A tall, lean man, Prépetit considers it his duty to do what he can, even with all of the challenges. Twice he could have died on Jan. 12. First, the building at the Université GOC Haiti where he taught a construction course collapsed. Luckily for him, he said, the course had been canceled that semester.

His office at the bureau of mines, which he left before the quake struck, also buckled.

“I am conscious of the fact that I am living in a country that is very vulnerable,” he said. “I know that if we have an earthquake in a country that is very vulnerable, a lot of my fellow countrymen will die. And I believe that it is through education that we have to reduce vulnerability.”

While the death estimates from the 2010 quake toll have varied — the U.N. cites 220,000; the Haitian government, 316,000 — one thing is clear: Many people died not just because of poor construction but because of ignorance.

“The earth shook and people got on their knees. They thought it was God shaking the earth. They did not understand what was happening,” Prépetit said. “There were people who were in the streets, the ground was shaking and they ran inside a house. The houses fell on them.”

Prépetit said he does have a plan for an earthquake-resistant facility to work out of. He also has a spot, an empty space in the yard of the current facility. But again, there is no money.

“A seismic surveillance system needs to operate around the clock. There should be dormitories so that even if the office closes at 4 p.m., there are personnel who remain on site throughout the night to monitor because earthquakes don’t have schedules,” he said.

Haiti was reminded of this in October 2018 when a relatively moderate 5.9 temblor struck the northwest city of Port-de-Paix and its surrounding towns. Seventeen people died, hundreds more were injured, and schools and homes collapsed. Studies have shown that the region is due to experience a major magnitude 7 or stronger quake.

“We are not yet ready,” Prépetit said. “All of the towns that were close to the epicenter were affected by a very moderate earthquake. ... If what we anticipate were to happen, the devastation would be more considerable than what happened in Port-au-Prince in 2010.”

And should another quake strike Port-au-Prince while he’s at work? Well, there is the evacuation plan. But the plan, he concedes, depends on the magnitude and where it catches him at the moment.

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 29 janvier 2020

 WYCLEF JEAN RAISES $25M TO FINANCE MUSIC PUBLISHING SERVICES In AFRICA And DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

By Tommy Williams

"The generous charitable initiatives established by three-time Grammy Award winner Wyclef Jean, in his native Haiti and other developing countries in Africa, are a significant part of his legacy. Jean hopes to see these regions continue to thrive and, more recently, has turned his attention to the fast-growing music genre of #Afrobeats, which has had a burst of commercial success globally, in 2018 and 2019. I spoke with Wyclef Jean about his newest venture Carnival World Music Group, which has just raised an impressive $25M in capital funding. The group seeks to democratize the global music marketplace for songwriters and producers in developing regions, whilst contributing to further empower dynamic women-owned businesses in the music industry.

Wyclef Jean Connects With His African Heritage

Jean, 50, is a #Haitian native who migrated to the US at the age of 9. He was always aware of his African heritage, calling Haitians “the Nigerians of the #Caribbean” and Jean, in his own words, is “almost 100% #Nigerian”, confirmed by a DNA ancestry test. His music has always been influenced by his Haitian and #African roots and, in 2004, Jean made his first trip to Africa to perform with music legend Fela Kuti’s son Femi Kuti. Jean had released a song titled “Diallo” in memory of Amadou Diallo, a 23-year-old Guinean immigrant who was shot 19 times by four New York City policemen in 1999. The song did not get much play in the US.

Kobe Bryant's Daughter Gianna, 13, Dead Alongside Father in Calabasas Helicopter Crash

The NBA legend and his daughter were both onboard the private helicopter

Kobe Bryant and daughter Gianna ALLEN BEREZOVSKY/GETTY

Kobe Bryant’s daughter Gianna also died in the Calabasas helicopter crash that killed her father.

Bryant’s 13-year-old daughter, nicknamed Gigi, was also onboard the private helicopter when it went down on Sunday, reps for the former basketball player told TMZ Sports. The outlet said that Bryant’s wife, Vanessa Bryant — with whom he shares all four children — was not onboard.

Emergency personnel responded but none of the nine people onboard survived, a spokesperson for the LA county sheriff’s office said during a press conference.

Sources told ESPN that the helicopter was headed to a travel basketball game for Gianna, and that the other passengers were another player and their parent.

Bryant is survived by Vanessa, 37, and their daughters Natalia, 17, Bianka, 3, and Capri, 7 months.

Spokespersons for LA county sheriff’s office and LAPD did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

Singer Yama Laurent, winner of La Voix 2018, soon in Haiti

Winner of the La Voix au Québec competition in 2018, Yama Laurent does not intend to savor alone the success and experience she gained after her victory. Two years later, she launched the “Miss Côte des Arcadins” contest, which recruited girls aged 17 to 27 living nearby. On site, a team is working hard. The champion will be present for the final scheduled for the end of the year.

JAZZ FESTIVAL IN PORT AU-PRINCE

Defying the crisis, international jazz made Port-au-Prince vibrate

The light rain did not prevent spectators from dancing in front of the stage, where Saturday night Canadian Dawn Taylor Watson sang. This proved that the international jazz festival of Port-au-Prince was a breath of fresh air prized in Haiti, in the midst of a socio-political crisis.

Pap Jazz, as it is regulars call it, has gained its place on the international scene at a time when the world capitals of the musical genre are shivering under negative temperatures. But this 14th edition was the most complex to implement.

"We changed the programming schedule 15 times. It was very, very complicated but we never thought for a second that we were not doing this festival, never a second," says Milena Sandler, director of the Haiti Jazz Foundation, organizer of the festival.

Inauguration of the MIDAS installation at the Directorate of Immigration and Emigration (DIE) in the official border point in Malpasse

22^nd January 2020

 On Wednesday 22^nd January 2020 the installation of the Migration Information and Data Analysis System (MIDAS) was inaugurated at the office of the Directorate of Immigration and Emigration (DIE) in Malpasse. Various personalities participated in this event, including the Director of the Ministry of Interior and Territorial Collectivities, the Director of the DIE, the United States Ambassador in Haiti, the Director of the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), the Chief of Mission of the International Organization for Migration, and the Director of the Anti-Corruption Unit. This inauguration is a very important date as the use of MIDAS marks a significant step forward in border management in Haiti.

 Developed in 2009 by IOM, the MIDAS system collects, process, store and analyses traveler information in real time. People entering and leaving Haiti are now controlled more efficiently through this new computerized system, thus contributing to increased border security. MIDAS facilitates crossing of travelers through the automatic capture of biometric information, as well as the work of DIE officers. According to information shared by the DIE, from 1st to 31st December 2019, 22,551 persons have already been registered. 

 As indicated by the Director of the DIE, Mr. Joseph Cianciulli, "the DIE no longer only produces passports, it now has full control over migration control".  For his part, the Chief of Mission of IOM Haiti, Mr. Giuseppe Loprete, stressed that "IOM's support in the installation of MIDAS at the Malpasse border point is only the beginning. As of this year, the Ouanaminthe and Belladère border points will also have MIDAS, and then potentially the international airports of Cap Haïtien and Port-au-Prince, in order to have an interconnected national migration control system". 

 The Ambassador of the United States remarked, “The inauguration of Haiti’s first MIDAS installation here in Malpasse represents an important step in modernizing the cross-border travel between Haiti and the Dominican Republic.  [It is] an excellent example of cooperation among the Haitian government, the United States government, and IOM.”

 The MIDAS system has been operational in Malpasse since 28 November 2019 thanks to funding from the US State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM).

U.N. is committed to addressing its peacekeepers’ sexual abuse of women in Haiti | Opinion

BY CATHERINE POLLARD AND JEAN-PIERRE LACROIX

JANUARY 21, 2020 05:18 PM 

 A recent report on the children fathered by U.N. peacekeepers in Haiti is deeply disturbing.

So let us be clear: Sexual exploitation and abuse by U.N. personnel is unacceptable, and we are fully committed to the secretary-general’s zero-tolerance policy. It harms victims and tarnishes the reputation of thousands of our personnel who serve with honor and distinction. It undermines the trust necessary between our personnel and the millions of people we have pledged to protect and serve.

We will do everything possible to prevent sexual exploitation and abuse, address cases when they do occur and support victims and their families — including children fathered by U.N. personnel — and ensure that paternity issues are addressed comprehensively.

The United Nations has a unique responsibility to set a global standard for preventing and responding to sexual exploitation and abuse by those with power and addressing its impact effectively and humanely. The secretary-general has put the rights and dignity of victims at the forefront of efforts to prevent sexual exploitation and abuse and respond to it should they occur.

In countries where U.N. personnel are deployed, our teams train them, raise awareness with communities and receive and respond to complaints. Teams on the ground receive reports, and community networks help victims know where to go to seek help. More people are coming forward as a result, and we are better able to respond.

Our partners on the ground provide medical, psycho-social, protection and legal support, in addition to livelihood opportunities. For example, victims have been referred to partner associations in the Central African Republic for health and livelihood support and for medical services in South Sudan. International humanitarian partners provide crucial services in many field locations.

We have established a trust fund that directly helps victims and others at risk make a living. In Haiti, for example, the United Nations and its partners enable children born of sexual exploitation and abuse go to school and help their mothers gain employment, including by opening their own businesses.

We have also established a special coordinator on improving the U.N. response to sexual exploitation and abuse by U.N. personnel, created a voluntary compact with 103 member states on our mutual commitment to prevent this scourge. By joining a Circle of Leadership, 87 heads of state and government have demonstrated their commitment at the highest political level to stand with us against this scourge.

But the United Nations cannot do it alone. We need the full cooperation of our member states to produce real results for victims. They must ensure that the uniformed personnel they contribute are selected and trained in a way that embed an understanding of zero tolerance for sexual exploitation and abuse. They must act quickly on credible allegations and put the required legislation and processes in place so perpetrators can be held to account and victims receive effective remedies. For the sake of the victims and communities, and to promote greater transparency, the United Nations needs to be informed about the results of their actions. Our contractors must also demonstrate that they have mechanisms in place to ensure their employees are trained and that they receive reports and discipline offenders.

We encourage all who become aware of cases of sexual exploitation and abuse to refer victims and witnesses to U.N. offices and their partners on the ground for assistance and follow-up. It is our duty to hear them.

All of us have a joint commitment to the victims and all those who believe in the U.N. Charter to honor its values. We cannot let them down.

Catherine Pollard is U.N. undersecretary-general for management strategy, policy and compliance. Jean-Pierre Lacroix is undersecretary-general for peace operations.

U.S. demands firm date for next round of elections in Haiti | Miami Herald

BY JACQUELINE CHARLES AND

NORA GÁMEZ TORRES

JANUARY 23, 2020 05:03 PM 

Secretary Pompeo discusses need for elections in Haiti

el Nuevo Herald / Miami Herald reporter Nora Gámez Torres asks U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo about the situation in Haiti where President Jovenel Moïse is ruling the country by decree. BY EMILY MICHOT

Haiti must set a firm date for the next round of elections, U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo says.

“That is the most important thing,” Pompeo said in an exclusive interview Thursday with the Miami Herald. “We need to have the elections. That is important.”

The Trump administration’s position comes as Haiti President Jovenel Moïse seeks to use his recently obtained power to rule by executive order to reform the country’s constitution, a controversial move that some fear could delay the holding of elections and plunge Haiti deeper into already protracted political crisis.

Moïse first called for constitutional reform during the Jan. 12 commemoration of Haiti’s 2010 earthquake. He soon followed up with a statement from his office. The statement said he was working on delivering a unity government that would be empowered to pass a budget, pass laws enabling elections and equally, would “propose constitutional changes to address flaws in the 1987 text, which have contributed to a decades-long cycle of political crises.”

He also said that political parties and international partners, in discussions, all agree “on the need to amend the 1987 constitution to enable our government to function.”

But some see the push for constitutional reform as a stalling tactic, and said the president will need to choose.

Pompeo, meanwhile, is adamant. He said the administration believes that “within the Haitian government, they have the capacity and the capability and the lawful right to do that.”

Pompeo said he raised the elections matter with Haitian Foreign Minister Bocchit Edmond on the sidelines of a round-table discussion this week in Jamaica with a select group of Caribbean ministers. “We urge them to set a timetable; set a firm date for those elections,” Pompeo said.

Moïse’s statement did not say how he planned to change the constitution. Some close to him have suggested by referendum, while others have said through a political agreement. Both avenues pose problems, even among those who support constitutional changes.

The constitution, itself, outlines when and how it can be modified and that window closed last year when the president of the Lower Chamber of Deputies, Gary Bodeau, and the presidential palace, failed to approve recommendations by a legislative special commission in charge of constitutional reform that had spent two years working on proposed amendments. Proposed amendments to the constitution would have had to be done at the close of the last regular session of the legislative year, which was Sept. 9.

“A constitutional reform should be part of a global political agreement where all political and civil society actors agree on a road map containing key objectives leading to elections. It can’t be a separate project,” said Jerry Tardieu, the ex-lawmaker who chaired the special constitutional reform commission.

“Changing the constitution requires a large consensus among Haiti’s political and civil society forces. We are far from there,” he added. “He can’t even find a consensus to form a government let a lone touch the constitution.”

Haiti has been without a legal government since the lower chamber fired Prime Minister Jean Henry Céant in March. Attempts by Moïse to ratify two other choices were blocked in the Senate where he controlled a majority, but a small group of opposition lawmakers used various tactics to block the hearings.

Some question whether Haiti can hold elections in the current security and political environment. Though the protests that paralyzed the country last year have dissipated and life has returned somewhat to normal, the issues that triggered the economic and political crises remain, observers stress.

The country is seeing a worrying resurgence in kidnappings with Haiti police registering 15 since the beginning of this year. There is also a rise in gang-related insecurity. On Wednesday, residents and merchants not too far from the Parliament building, along with government workers assigned there, were forced to flee amid a gang-on-gang shootout.

Parliamentary and local elections in Haiti were due in October. The country’s failure to hold them meant that Parliament became dysfunctional on Jan. 13, ushering in Moïse’s one-man rule.

He announced the end of Parliament in an early morning post on Twitter, saying that the legislative terms of the entire 119-member Lower Chamber of Deputies had expired along with that of two-thirds — 19 out of 29 — of the Senate. The tweet ended speculation about whether 10 or 19 senators would be dismissed, but triggered a new controversy.

Six of the 19 senators are contesting their dismissal and are accusing the president of violating the constitution and the 2015 electoral law under which they ran. Their six-year mandate, they argue, began in January 2016 and runs until the second Monday of January 2022.

The group has filed a grievance with the provisional elections body, and sent a letter address to nine international parliamentarian associations, pleading for help. Representatives of the public relations firm Mercury, which represents Moïse, did not respond to the Herald’s request for comment on the criteria used by the president to dismiss the senators, or their accusations against him.

In the letter, the ex-senators, which include the only elected female and a supporter of Moïse, accuse the president of trying to be a dictator. They note that on Jan. 14, they were blocked by Haitian police from accessing their offices at the Parliament.

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 5 février 2020

 Haiti TPS Extended To January 2021

On Nov. 1, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that it would extend the validity of documentation of certain foreign nationals under Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designations. The notice, which is scheduled to be published in the Nov. 4 Federal Register, will apply to TPS beneficiaries from El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, and Sudan. TPS-related documentation, including Employment Authorization Documents (EAD), Forms I-797, and Forms I-94, will be automatically extended by this notice until Jan. 4, 2021. TPS designations for these countries were previously set to expire in January and March of 2020.

Haiti moving toward no longer subsidizing diesel and kerosene

On Wednesday, Jan. 29, in an interview with Le Nouvelliste, Jean-Michel Lapin, Interim Prime Minister, stated that “The State can’t continue to subsidize diesel and kerosene.” Lapin stressed the State can no longer afford to spend two billion gourdes each month to support petroleum products.

Haitian Police and judicial authorities determined to retrieve weapons of war

An important meeting took place on Jan. 29, between police officials, members of the judiciary and members of the National Commission for Disarmament Demobilization and Reintegration. According to Radio Metropole, the National Commission has a long list of individuals who purchased weapons of war from trafficker Aby Larco. As a result, Haitian authorities are preparing a judicial offensive against them in order to retrieve these weapons.

Haitian First lady in Belize

First Lady, Martine MOISE, was in Belize, last Monday, January 27, 2020, to participate, at the Radison Fort George Hotel and Marina, in a forum around the theme: Adolescents and Youth engaged for change and a sustainable future (Youth and youth committed to change and a sustainable future).

6 Haitian Politicians Making Moves For The Diaspora In Florida

By Farah Louis

Haitian Times

Florida is home to the largest population of Haitians outside of the small island nation. Take a look below at some of the leading Haitian American politicians in Florida working for the Haitian Diaspora in Florida

Al Jacquet, a Haitian-American attorney and emerging leader from Broward County Florida is making strides in office after being elected commissioner in March 2012. Jacquet was appointed to vice president of the Planning and Zoning Board before his election in 2009 and served as a legislative aide in the Florida House of Representatives, handling complex and challenging legislation. Jacquet has a passion for city planning and organizational management and speaks four languages.

Michael A. Etienne, a young progressive lawyer from North Miami Florida was elected in May 2011 as the North Miami City Clerk. After graduating from law school in Florida A&M University, Etienne won his first trial at the early age of 23. He later went on to join the public defender’s office and served as a legislative aide in Florida’s House of Representatives until his race for City Clerk n 2011.

Philippe Bien-Aime, a North Miami councilman from District 3, won his City Council seat in May 2013. Bien-Aime a Haitian immigrant from Port-au-Prince, was a salesman who worked in the automobile industry for 20 years. Bien-Aime was a novice to politics before his first run for office. Bien-Aime has also been a devoted community leader throughout South Florida lobbying on immigration issues.

Residents of North Miami replaced suspended Mayor Lucie Tondreau, with newly-elected Mayor Smith Joseph in November 2014. Mayor Joseph, 52, is a political newcomer and former physician who practiced in North Miami, and ran for the leading seat during a runoff election. Joseph said to the Miami Herald, “There is no one more in touch with the city of North Miami than Dr. Smith Joseph.”

Democratic incumbent Daphne Campbell, 57, represents the Florida House of Representatives in the 108th District, which includes Miami, North Miami and northern Miami-Dade, since 2011. Campbell is from Cap-Haiten, Haiti where she attended nursing school and later became a registered nurse. Campbell and her husband moved to Florida where they founded a group home and a chain of nursing homes for the elderly.

Victoria Pierre Siplin, 40, a political guru since the earlier ages of her life, had her first taste of politics when she began working with the first African-American senator in Florida, Arnett E. Girardeau, and Senator Carrie P. Meek. Siplin was elected as the Commissioner of Orange County District 6 in November 2014.

Farah Louis

Community Relations Director for NYC Council Member Jumaane D. Williams, Freelance TV & Radio Producer, Haitian Times Reporter and Activist for Women's Rights.

Fears of coronavirus keep Chinese visitors confined to airplane on tarmac in Haiti

BY JACQUELINE CHARLES

The 2019 Novel Coronavirus has sickened hundreds of people and killed more than two dozen people. Coronavirus is part of a family of viruses that ranges in severity. Learn more about the virus here. BY META VIERS

The drama over where flights from China can now land hit Haiti Friday when a private plane ferrying Chinese passengers landed on the tarmac in Port-au-Prince after being denied the right to land in the Bahamas and the neighboring Dominican Republic.

Ernst Renaud, the director of operations at the Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince, told the Miami Herald the flight had originated in Dubai with a final destination of the Bahamas. The Bahamas, however, denied the passengers entry over fears of the coronavirus outbreak, which continues to spread and has been declared a global health emergency by the World Health Organization.

The flight then turned around and went to the Dominican Republic where it refueled and then flew to Port-au-Prince. Wilson Lamour, an assistant to Renaud, said airport officials were unaware of the flight and it did not have permission to land. Once in Haiti, everyone was kept on the airplane due to the health risk.

“They are not being allowed to disembark for all of the reasons that you are aware of, the possibility of transmission of the coronavirus,” Renaud later said.

Lamour said the flight had a three-member crew and 11 passengers, including Chinese nationals. The pilots had run out of time and were being allowed to rest on the aircraft with the passengers.

Eddy Jackson Alexis, a government spokesman, said France and Portugal both agreed to accept the aircraft and its passengers. The pilots, he said, chose Portugal and were expected to depart Haiti at 2 a.m. Saturday.

“All measures are being taken to ensure that they do not physically come in contact with the Haitian territory,” said Alexis, who added that police officers were guarding the plane and making sure its doors remained shut.

URGENT: WHO DECREES INTERNATIONAL EMERGENCY ON CORONAVIRUS

The Director General of the World Health Organization, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said on Thursday, January 30, 2020, that the outbreak of the new coronavirus 2019-nCoV is an international public health emergency (PHEIC). In China, more than 7,700 cases have been confirmed and 170 people have died. There are 82 additional confirmed cases in 18 countries.

Dr. Tedros, acting on the advice of an emergency committee of experts chaired by Professor Didier Houssin, called on the world community “to provide support to low- and middle-income countries to respond to this event, as well as to facilitate access to diagnostics, potential vaccines and therapies.”

Haitian President Says He Wants to Reform Constitution

By The Associated Press

Jan. 17, 2020

HAVANA — Haitian President Jovenel Moïse says he wants to use his new power to rule by executive order to reform the constitution and make his country easier to govern. 

In a statement Friday, Moïse said he was negotiating with opposition leaders to form what he called “a unity government” that would propose a constitutional reform that would go to a national referendum this year. 

The constitutional reform would be aimed to strengthening Haiti's presidency and executive branch, although the statement doesn't not specify how it would do that. 

Haiti's 1987 constitution is seen by many observers as excessively dividing power between the executive and legislature in a way that fuels the country's political instability and frequent deadlock. 

Last year, for example, the country was unable to hold parliamentary elections because the parliament did not approve the budget necessary to hold the vote. As a result, the legislature was dissolved when members' terms ran out at the start of 2020, and Moïse began to rule by executive order. 

Haiti has been roiled by street protests and economic stagnation for much of Moïse's nearly three years in office as opposition leaders demand his departure, saying he has mismanaged the economy and failed to take on corruption. 

“We have a window of opportunity," Moïse said. "I want to take it to fix what has been broken in the Haitian system for far too long and finally allow us to move forward.”

Opposition leader Andre Michel said he favored a constitutional reform but only after Moïse was pushed out of office. 

“'We need a new constitution,” he said. “It will be put together by the transitional government, not Jovenel Moïse.”

Other opposition leaders did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment. 

_____

Correspondent Evens Sanon in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, contributed to this report.

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 12 février 2020

University Hospital in Haiti Earns Global Accreditation as Teaching Institution

Partners in Health

University Hospital in Mirebalais, Haiti, received accreditation from an international oversight group, affirming that the hospital meets the highest global standards as a teaching institution—and causing Dr. Paul Farmer to reach for a seat.  

“There’s a Haitian expression—news that demands a chair,” said Farmer, Partners In Health co-founder and chief strategist. “Usually it’s bad news, but this is truly exceptional. I have no way to express my gratitude and admiration to the Zanmi Lasante team. They have been tireless.”

PIH was founded in Haiti more than 30 years ago and is known in Haiti as Zanmi Lasante. The team opened University Hospital in Mirebalais in 2013, in collaboration with Haiti’s Ministry of Health. The 300-bed teaching hospital is home to residency programs in internal and family medicine, pediatrics, surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, neurology, nurse anesthetists, and emergency medicine. 

ACGME-I, the international arm of the U.S.-based Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, notified PIH of the institution’s accreditation this week, after a multi-year process and extensive analysis. University Hospital joins internationally accredited facilities in just seven other countries and is the first such facility in the Western Hemisphere, and the first in a low-income country.

Dr. Sterman Toussaint, director of medical education at University Hospital for Zanmi Lasante, emphasized that distinction.

“This is a big achievement,” he said. “Most of the time, institutions in high - and middle-income countries get access to accreditation - not institutions in low-income countries like Haiti. This is a reflection of the commitment of PIH and Zanmi Lasante to education.”

Toussaint noted that the accreditation application was due in September, during the height of recent political unrest in Haiti that essentially shut down the country. 

“Despite all of that, we have been able to meet the standards,” he said. “PIH is committed to meeting the standards that everyone is meeting around the world.”

Dr. Edward Hundert, dean for medical education at Harvard Medical School and an advisor to PIH, praised the milestone. 

“This achievement, of the internationally recognized highest standard for the educational programs at University Hospital, represents a truly wonderful validation of the years of hard work to build these programs, and of the outstanding quality of training that they represent,” he said. “This is exciting news not just for the hospital and the people who made it happen, but ultimately for all of the patients who will be cared for by the clinicians who train in these now ACGME-I accredited programs.”

Undocumented immigrant driver’s license bill gets approval from Massachusetts transportation committee

By Michael P. Norton of State House News Service

The Transportation Committee has given a favorable recommendation to legislation that would enable undocumented immigrants to access standard driver’s licenses in Massachusetts.

Barber told the News Service the bill has been reported favorably to the Senate. The committee said it recommended a redrafted version of a bill (S 2061) filed by Senator Brendan Crighton with Barber’s bill attached. Barber said she was “thrilled” about the vote and said she did not believe the bill had previously received a favorable vote in committee. 

“Folks have been amazing to work with,” Barber said, citing efforts by a coalition to advance the bill and the support of law enforcement for the legislation. Last year, Senate President Karen Spilka, speaking to the bill’s merits, said, “I believe that for public safety reasons, even just if you look at it alone, we should pass it … There’s like 14 other states that have done this and the sky hasn’t fallen.”

US EMBASSY OFFICE OF PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Haiti-DR Private Sector Meeting on Border Security and Control

Joint Statement

On February 5, 2020, representatives of private sector organizations and government officials from Haiti and the Dominican Republic met at the CODEVI industrial park along the border to further discussions on developing a more secure and prosperous border for both nations.  This was the third such meeting convened by the U. S. government in the past eight months, and included the participation of both U.S. Ambassadors and staff and State Department officials.  Representatives from both countries’ Customs agencies, the Haitian National Police, and CESFRONT also actively participated in the meeting.  The discussion focused on best practices for the private sector to increase transparency and to formalize cross-border trade, and on improving coordination between customs and security officials from both countries.  This initiative is part of broader efforts to increase formal trade and security along the Dominican Republic-Haiti border.  The group committed to continue efforts to transform the shared border into an engine for economic prosperity for the region.

(End of text)

HAÏTIAN PRESIDENT LAYS OUT TERMS FOR DEAL WITH OPPOSITION 

Michael Weissenstein

Published: February 7, 2020, 9:45 pm
Updated: February 7, 2020, 11:13 pm

PORT-AU-PRINCE – President Jovenel Moise said Friday that he is optimistic that negotiations with a coalition of his political opponents will succeed in forging a power-sharing deal to end months of deadlock that have left Haiti without a functioning government.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Moise laid out his bargaining position in the talks that began last week in the mission of the papal envoy to Haiti with political opponents and some civil society groups. He said he would accept an opposition prime minister and a shortened term in office, but only after adoption of a constitutional reform strengthening the presidency.

Moise said his efforts to improve living conditions for Haiti's 11 million people had been thwarted during his first three years in office by the constitutional requirement that the National Assembly must approve virtually all significant presidential actions.

He said he would serve only a single term in office so he would not personally benefit from the powers of a stronger presidency. 

“It makes me optimistic to see my brothers and sisters from the political opposition, civil society and religious groups," he said. “I think we're at a crossroads.”

Moise is a former banana farmer who won 56% of the vote against three opponents in the 2016 election. He made some progress on rural infrastructure projects during his first two years in office. Then the end of subsidized Venezuelan oil aid to Haiti fueled chaos in the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation.

Without the help, the economy shrank, and investigations found questionable spending of hundreds of millions of dollars over the years in aid from the Petrocaribe program run by Venezuela. Protests began over the Petrocaribe misspending and protests snowballed until Moise's opponents waged a near-total lockdown of Haiti's capital for three months last fall.

Protests were accompanied by a constant blocking of Moise's agenda in the National Assembly. A small group of opposition legislators blocked Moise proposals with tactics ranging from filibusters to throwing furniture inside the Senate chamber or calling supporters to block governing party senators access to the building.

The country was unable to organize legislative elections and the National Assembly shut down last month, leaving Moise without a constitutionally recognized government. He says the constitution allows him to rule by decree with legislative approval but he is choosing not to in order to forge national unity.

Observers say developed nations that provide Haiti with most of its state budget are ihighly reluctant to keep funding a government that could be accused of moving toward dictatorship.

Haiti's 1987 constitution was drafted after the end of three decades of dictatorship and aims in part to prevent the emergence of another strongman by sharply limiting presidential powers.

“The 1987 constitution took all the power out of the president's hands. The president has zero power and the people demand everything from the president of the republic,” Moise told AP in the foyer of his home in the hills above Port-au-Prince.

Moise said he wants a new constitution to stipulate that presidential proposals automatically pass if the National Assembly does not vote them up or down within 60 days.

He also wants all political terms to last five years. Senate terms currently range from two to six years, depending on a variety of factors, leading to constant churn and campaigning in a country where widespread insecurity and corruption make elections difficult to organize.

Convening a constitutional assembly to rewrite the charter would almost certainly take most of Moise's remaining two years in office.

Most of the political opposition has demanded that Moise significantly cut his time in office, with some demanding his immediate resignation and others asking for him to hand over power early next year.

He said negotiations would succeed “if there's good will on the part of the people involved to find a way forward with a realistic calendar."

“You can't say you're going to carry out these reforms in two months,” he said.

A coalition of relatively moderate opponents and civil society groups were unable to reach a deal with Moise's representatives last week at the papal nunciature. Another group of hard-line opponents did not participate.

Moise said he thinks he can reach a deal with enough opponents to move the country forward.

"'We need to all get together and forge a deal, even if that deal isn't accepted by everyone,” he said. “You'll have radicals, extremists who won't sign, who won't accept it, but that won't kill the republic.

“I’m not hung up on finishing my term. I’m hung up on making reforms,” he said.

Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Haitian president lays out terms for deal with opposition
https://www.local10.com/news/world/2020/02/08/haitian-president-lays-out-terms-for-deal-with-opposition/

Coronavirus leads to travel bans by Caribbean nations

Jacqueline Charles

The Miami Herald

As the U.S. continues to enforce strict travel restrictions on travelers from China over the coronavirus outbreak, an increasing number of Caribbean nations are also doing the same, while taking steps to screen arriving passengers at their ports of entry.

In recent days, Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Jamaica, Dominica, and Trinidad and Tobago have all announced China-related travel bans, even though there are no direct commercial flights between mainland China and their nations.

The Dominican Republic and Haiti, which share the island of Hispaniola, have not made any official announcements about travel restrictions, but over the weekend both countries prevented Chinese visitors on a private jet from getting off the plane. Authorities in the eastern Caribbean island of St. Lucia also prevented Miami-based Carnival Corporation’s AIDA cruise ship AIDAPerla from docking at its port of Castries after it was reported that 14 passengers were being treated for upper respiratory issues.

The ship’s 4,384 passengers were also denied the right to dock in St. John’s, the capital of Antigua and Barbuda, but were later received with no problem by authorities in St. Maarten and Martinique, AIDA Cruises said in a statement.

So far, there have been no confirmed cases of coronavirus in the Caribbean or Latin America, and all of the suspicious cases have been ruled out, said Marcos Espinal, director of the department of communicable diseases and environmental determinants of health with the Pan American Health Organization.

As of Tuesday the coronavirus had killed at least 427 people and infected more than 20,000 globally.

Espinal said health ministers representing the 15-member Caribbean Community, known as CARICOM, held an emergency meeting Monday along with representatives of PAHO — the World Health Organization’s regional office for the Americas — and the Caribbean Public Health Agency to discuss the outbreak and preventive measures being taken.

“Every day we have daily conferences,” Espinal said of his staff. “We have offices in Jamaica, Barbados, Haiti, where we have deployed international staff advising the countries. … We are making preparations for these countries to be able to test for this virus.”

While he acknowledged that some health systems in the region are weaker than others, many are already testing for influenza, which kills more people than the coronavirus.

“We should not create a panic,” Espinal said. “We have to make sure that people get the proper information.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the flu has already killed 10,000 people just across the U.S. so far this season, while sickening 19 million people and causing 180,000 hospitalizations.

The coronavirus has had far less of an impact.