Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 30 juin 2020

 Restrictions leave US travelers high and dry

Stacey Lastoe, CNN

(CNN) — In downtown Buffalo, New York, crossing the border into Ontario, Canada, used to be as easy as driving one mile across the Peace Bridge over the Niagara River. But that's now a forbidden route.

In the coronavirus era, New York residents and out-of-state road trippers aren't allowed to cross the border for leisure travel.

US citizens have been shut out of their neighboring country to the north and a slew of nations around the world. The latest travel news affecting Americans: The European Union is considering blocking travelers from areas with severe Covid-19 outbreaks after it opens it borders on July 1.

Since the United States has more confirmed coronavirus cases than anywhere else in the world, with numbers increasing in some states each day, US travelers are unlikely to be allowed in any time soon.

As long as the US-Canada border remains closed, visiting Niagara Falls in Ontario won't be possible for US citizens.

Although potential travel bubbles are being discussed all over the world -- Fiji is the latest in talks to join one with Australia and New Zealand -- the United States has yet to form or join a bubble.

Where does this new world order leave US citizens with a penchant for travel?

Nostalgic for the pre-Covid days when a US passport promised access to much of the world? Anxious of how they'll be perceived -- and received -- by foreign countries when restrictions are eventually loosened?

The future of travel for Americans, and whether they'll be welcome again as tourists, is not clear; in many ways, it's a moot point for as long as travel to certain regions is prohibited.

Are Haitian National Police Tanks Being Used By Gangs?

Haiti’s Prime Minister Joseph Jouthe said the government is looking into allegations that police armored vehicles are being used by gangs.

The accusations were made by local human rights organizations which reported that armored vehicles were used last May by armed bandits at the time of the assassinations and fires in Pont-Rouge and Cité Soleil...

Tic Toc, the new song of Kanis is seducing audiences

Six months after signing with Sony Music France, rapper Kanis released her new song “Tic, Toc” on June 12, 2020. In just 3 days, tic toc was viewed by more than 150,000 people. The artist, who currently lives in France and is courting the country, is getting closer to her goal with the release of this song.

According to the artist, tic toc is all it takes to give pep to your life when it is absorbed by laziness and apathy. 'If you want the money, Evo get down.

In the video shot in Miami, we see Kanis putting herself in the shoes of several characters. At first she is an ordinary girl, sitting on her couch, zapping the televisions, then a famous mannequin posing in front of the cameras and the artist who appears on the screen.

Since settling in France, Kanis dreams of conquering France and Tic toc is only the beginning of a long adventure.

Kanis, her real name Niska Garoute was born in Miami on September 27, 1993 to a Haitian mother. She  grew up in Petion-Ville, Haiti, where she also began her studies before continuing them in the United States, her father’s bad business, Pascal Garoute , obliged. There, specifically in New York, she earned her degree in graphic arts and marketing.

She made her musical debut as a composer at the age of 13 and then as a rapper at the age of 17. She has collaborated with many artists including Izolan, J-Perry, Danola and many of her songs have been a huge success. These include Veve lokal, Riddim Affair and “Dan Bang”.

She changed her stage name to become Kanis on December 1, 2018. A decision she made after she learned that a French rapper had the same name as her, she explained to her fans.

Toto Constant Faces Life Imprisonment in Haiti

Emmanuel Constant, the former head of the death squad, FRAPH, sentenced in 2000 in absentia to a term of hard labor for life, will have to face Haitian justice after leaving the country in 1994. Upon his arrival, the accused was apprehended by agents of the judicial police then kept in police custody.

For its part, the United States Department of Homeland Security issued a note to the effect that it sent Emmanuel Constant back to Haiti. “We are awaiting justice for the victims of the Raboteau massacre and other crimes for which Constant must be held accountable...”.

Ten Years Later, Haiti still struggles to recover from the 7.0 magnitude earthquake of 2010

Although it’s been 10 years, Haitians aren’t still ready to talk about the event because it nerve-wrecked them. The natural disaster left 1.5 million people homeless, claimed 316,000 lives, and injured over 1.5 million. The earthquake had such an extensive outcome because the country wasn’t prepared for this type of natural disaster. During the last 10 years, Haitian authorities have tried to come up with a plan that grows their chances to face a natural disaster. But the quake monitors don’t supervise the earthquake equipment overnight because the building that houses them isn’t earthquake resistant and the authorities don’t afford to pay them for night shifts.

If the ground starts shaking one day, all they can do is run out of the building through its only door. So, it’s understandable why Haiti’s residents are afraid another natural disaster would be worse than the one from 2010. And even for the seismologists it’s scary to watch for earthquakes in a building that wouldn’t stand one, they need to work no matter the conditions because their team is the only one that can offer information.

Before 2010, there were no experts in Haiti to know what to do if a seism larger than 4 magnitude hits. So, they had to consult the global US Geological Survey when the natural disaster emerged. In 2011, the country set up the first network that receives satellite information from seismic stations located around the state and seismometers that deliver them real-time data. This helps them predict a quake occurrence and help the nation get ready for one.

But it doesn’t mean people find it less scary.

The capital and the surrounding areas are overpopulated, and the authorities didn’t put together policies that establish construction standards. In this scenario, another earthquake would have more disastrous consequences than the one from 2010 because now there are more people living in danger-prone areas.

Haitians experienced many challenges, even before the earthquake destroyed their lives. They had weak political governance, limited access to necessary resources and poor infrastructure. After the disaster, other problems added to the existing ones and made it one of the least developed countries that offer residents social, political, and environmental insecurity. Earthquakes aren’t the only natural events that threaten Haitians; hurricanes also hit the coast annually and leave families without a home.

Haiti residents are worried that the country isn’t ready for an event similar to the one from 2010. Every year, hurricanes and tropical storms hit them, so there is small room for progress. The country is on four major fault lines and sits on two tectonic plates. Because the plates move regularly, the possibility for another earthquake to emerge is high. Since 2010, progress was made with the creation of the seismic surveillance network, tsunami evacuation routes, and active-fault and hazard maps. Specialists had also evaluated the various types of soil the country features and identified the most at-risk areas. But Haiti still doesn’t have a national disaster risk management plan or a strategy to reduce seismic vulnerabilities. The authorities don’t teach children in school how to protect themselves from a seismic event especially from a high magnitude one.

So do people have any reason to worry that another earthquake would be more destructive than the one from 2010? Data shows that they have.

Florida bans bar alcohol consumption as coronavirus spikes

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Florida banned alcohol consumption at its bars Friday after its daily confirmed coronavirus cases neared 9,000, a new record that is almost double the previous mark set just two days ago.

The Florida agency that governs bars announced the ban on Twitter just minutes after the Department of Health reported 8,942 new confirmed cases, topping the previous record of 5,500 set Wednesday.

State officials have attributed much of the new outbreak to young adults flocking to bars after they reopened in most of the state about a month ago, with many of them ignoring social distancing restrictions aimed at lowering the virus's spread.

More than 24,000 new cases have been reported since Saturday, more than a fifth of the 111,724 cases confirmed since March 1. The department had not updated its death total, which still stood at 3,327.

The seven-day average for positive tests dropped slightly to 13.4%, down 1 percentage point from Thursday but still triple the rate of 3.8% of June 1.

Florida's record-setting week for newly confirmed coronavirus cases got even worse with almost 9,000 reported Friday, nearly double the just-set mark and five times more than where the state record stood two weeks ago.

More than 24,000 cases have been reported since Saturday, more than a fifth of the 111,724 cases confirmed since March 1. The department had not updated its death total, which still stood at 3,327.

The seven-day average for positive tests dropped slightly to 13.4%, down 1 percentage point from Thursday but still triple the rate of 3.8% of June 1. The seven-day average for hospitalizations is also creeping up, hitting 172 on Thursday, about 70% higher than it was June 1.

Massive Saharan Dust is scheduled to reach the U.S. this week

The densest plume of dust developed off Western Africa and has traveled nearly 5,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean.

According to the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, the plume of dusty air reached the United States last Thursday morning, bringing dust particles to the deep Southern United States.

Frank Marks, director of the Hurricane Resarch Divsion at NOAA's Atlantic Oceanagraphic and Meteorological Laboratory, says that these plumes are frequent in the summer, especially in June and July, and take about 10-12 days to cross the Atlantic.

"The one we had was probably the most intense on record so far, and they've been keeping records of these dust outbreaks probably about 70 years," Marks said of the current dust plume.

This dust is expected to stretch from Florida to the Gulf Coast to as far west as Texas, before turning back eastward.

This is not likely to cause major deterioration in the air quality for the U.S. at large, since the dust is elevated and concentrations are continually and gradually dissipating. Additionally, water vapor present in the South will wash away dust particles.

According to Sonoma Tech Meteorologist Jeff Beamish, Baton Rouge's air quality reached unhealthy levels for sensitive groups late last week.

International channels will broadcast Maestro’s recent show.

The last virtual concert of the Maestro group has attracted many people, including international television channels.

During the confinement, many Haitian groups and artists turned to online concerts to perform and keep in touch with their audience. The Maestro group led by T- Ansyto is on its third such concert.

The last show done by this musical formation was on June 12. With a concert called "Soirée Entre Nous", broadcast on the Facebook page of Loop Haiti. Maestro and his guest artists -Badi Kamall, Danola, Pierre Jean and Dj Tony Mix - won many hearts, including the hearts of those in charge of television channels such as Trace Global and Guyana La 1er.

Indeed, Trace Global, the company that manages Trace TV and Guyana La 1er, owned by France Télévisions, recently signed a contract with the musical group Maestro to have the authorization to broadcast the concert "Soirée Entre Nous" on their platforms.

T- Ansyto, the group’s leading figure, says he feels proud of this achievement. It’s a success for us to get to touch other horizons with our music and show", expressed the son of Ansyto Mercier.

If recently, some Haitian groups have recorded records with their virtual show in terms of audience, Maestro, can boast of being the only group whose show is solicited by media on the international scale at the moment.

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 9 juillet 2020

AMERICAN AIRLINES FLIGHTS AGAIN TO HAITI

When American Airlines resumes service to Haiti on Tuesday, nearly four months after the borders were shut due to the coronavirus, there will be only one daily flight into Port-au-Prince’s Toussaint Louverture International Airport, and the country’s second largest city will not be on the schedule.

The first major commercial airline to land in Cap-Haïtien in 2014 after more than a decade due to a damaged runway, the Miami-based carrier told the Miami Herald that it is canceling service to the city. 

“Canceling the flight to Cap-Haïtien was very painful but a necessary decision given the current economic circumstances as a result of the pandemic,” said Martha Pantin, a spokeswoman with American. “We have had to make difficult decisions that affect many destinations around the world that we serve.”

Passenger on FLL-bound Spirit flight leaves before takeoff after refusing to wear mask

NEW YORK (WSVN) — A tense exchange unfolded prior to takeoff on board a Spirit flight bound for South Florida after a passenger reportedly refused to wear a face mask.

According to the airline, police were called onto the flight at LaGuardia Airport in New York City that was heading to Fort Lauderdale, Friday.

A Spirit spokesperson said the passenger took off his mask and refused to put it back on.

Video posted to social media captured the passenger and an officer arguing.

The airline said he eventually left the plane on his own.

A Spirit spokesperson said they will continue to enforce the use of face coverings on board all flights.

Wages of migrants sent home could drop $142bn in 2020: World Bank

The drop in money that migrant workers send home would mostly be due to a fall in their wages and employment overseas.

Al Jazeera

22 Apr 2020

Global remittances are set to tumble by $142bn in 2020, the sharpest fall in recent history, the World Bank estimates, as the coronavirus crisis chokes off a cash lifeline for hard-pressed households in poorer countries.

The World Bank on Wednesday said that a drop of almost 20 percent in the money migrant workers send home would mostly be due to a fall in their wages and employment overseas.

"Remittances are a vital source of income for developing countries. The ongoing economic recession caused by COVID-19 is taking a severe toll on the ability to send money home and makes it all the more vital that we shorten the time to recovery for advanced economies," said World Bank Group President David Malpass.

In recent years, remittances have become an integral part of the funding for governments in emerging economies, exceeding official aid by a factor of three since the mid-1990s and last year overtaking foreign direct investment flows as the main source of foreign exchange for low- and middle-income countries.

An estimated one billion migrants - about 270 million who work outside their home countries and 760 million internal migrants - each help feed, clothe and shelter up to three people "back home", Dilip Ratha, lead author of the World Bank's new report on the impact of COVID-19 on remittances, told Reuters in an interview.

"You're looking at one-third of humanity."

Yet such workers tend to be more vulnerable during crises.

With a rocketing jobless rate in the United States and with the economies of Russia and the Gulf region reeling from lower oil prices, the flow of such money from the world's largest sources has been hit hard.

The remittance drop so far this year is the largest since the World Bank began recording the data in 1980, said Ratha.

Such flows have increased since a dip in 2016, mainly due to low oil prices, and remittances reached $714bn in 2019. But they look set to shrink to $572bn this year, the World Bank said.

For low- and middle-income nations, which account for the bulk of flows, remittances would fall 19.7 percent to $445bn in 2020 from a record $554bn in 2019.

"The economic crisis induced by the pandemic is going to sharply reduce the income of migrants and their ability to send money back home," Ratha said.

Emerging markets face biggest hit

As well as hurting households that rely on the money, waning flows from abroad also deal a blow to emerging markets where state budgets are already strained from having to spend more on healthcare and stimulus to mitigate reduced economic activity. Many have also seen record outflows of foreign capital since the crisis began.

Hardest hit will be countries such as Tajikistan and Nepal, where remittances account for around 30 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), said Ratha. Other countries that rely on payments include the Philippines, South Sudan, Tonga, and Haiti.

As a bloc, Europe and Central Asia will see the biggest fall in remittances at around 28 percent due to the combined effect of the pandemic and the oil price slump, the World Bank estimated.

Remittances to Central Asia, in particular, would take an added hit from a dip in the exchange rate of Russia's rouble against the dollar, Ratha said.

The World Bank, which along with the International Monetary Fund is providing funds to poorer nations during the crisis, has expressed concern about the temporary closure of some money transfer businesses due to shutdowns in some economies. It urged authorities to recognise them as essential service providers so they can stay open.

One positive is remittances are expected to recover in 2021, swelling more than five percent to $602m, with a slightly faster pickup in flows to developing countries.

"The underlying causes of migration are not going to disappear and may be exacerbated by the COVID-19 crisis," said Michal Rutkowski, the World Bank's global director for social protection and jobs. "These are income differentials between different countries and demographic changes."

Jovenel Moise has granted executive clemency to 415 prisoners including hard core criminals

By Jacqueline Charles 

July 01, 2020

Haitian President Jovenel Moïse has granted executive clemency to 415 prisoners, including at least 15 hardened criminals whom human rights advocates say should not be walking free.

The list of beneficiaries include a convicted felon sentenced to five years for an armed attack in the northern town of Grande-Rivière-du-Nord, a prisoner serving 12 years for rape, and a father awaiting trial on accusations that he hacked his young son to death with a machete in 2018 in the Central Haiti town of Mirebalais and threw the boy’s remains in a latrine.

“If someone hasn’t yet been convicted, they cannot be pardoned,” said Renan Hédouville, the government’s chief ombudsman who runs the Office for the Protection of Citizens. “There is a flagrant irregularity going on in regard to the criminal code in Haiti.”

The presidential pardons were issued by executive order on June 19 and published in the country’s official gazette, Le Moniteur. They came to light this week and caught Hédouville, human rights organizations and the international community by surprise, especially since they were being tied to an ongoing push to release prisoners from Haiti’s overcrowded prisons in the wake of the rapidly spreading COVID-19 pandemic.

Not only were they not consulted on the list, but human rights groups and representatives of the international community said the troubling pardons have nothing to do with their push to release a select group of prisoners — those on prolonged pretrial detention who are elderly, have underlying health problems or accused of committing minor offenses — to slow the spread of the virus in Haiti’s jails.

Several months ago, the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti, known by its French acronym BINUH, along with the U.S. began advising the government on establishing a committee on detention composed of government and justice officials, Hédouville’s office and human rights advocates.

Guidelines were eventually approved by the minister of justice and public security. Based on six eligibility criteria, certain detainees were tapped for release following a special hearing on their case.

In a report to the U.N. Security Council last month, the Haiti office said of those identified, only 750 detainees had been released from the Haitian prison system. The number, the report noted, fell far short of an estimated 5,000 releases that are necessary to allow prisons and detention centers in Haiti to better manage the impact of the coronavirus and avert a humanitarian disaster.

NEW PENAL CODE

A new penal code, issued via presidential decree by Moïse this week, allows convicted felons who have been pardoned to have their civil rights restored, which means they can run for office, said former Port-au-Prince chief prosecutor and senator Jean Renel Senatus.

The election of individuals with criminal backgrounds in Haiti’s last elections, thanks to a loophole in the 2015 electoral law, was a troubling development that was often cited as contributing to the country’s deteriorating human rights environment and increased criminality.

“There are prisoners who are sick and up until now waiting to benefit from early release on humanitarian grounds and they can’t,” Hédouville said. “What has happened here has nothing to down with COVID. It is something that is illegal, irregular.... These people when they walk out of prison can become a danger for the police who arrested them or the judges who sentenced them.”

This of course is not the first time a prisoner release has created scandal. Earlier this year a drug trafficker was released from prison under the guise of the COVID-19 humanitarian parole. When former President Michel Martelly was in office, one pardoned criminal shot someone inside a church days later.

“Someone didn’t play their role, didn’t do their job... because in principle it’s the ministry of justice that gives the list to the president to sign the decree,” Hédouville said. “What’s worse is that we... were not consulted at all; not even once.

“I’ve never met with the justice minister or had one meeting with him since he was sworn in on March 5,” he added. “The human rights organizations that are in the prisons every day, they weren’t consulted so... everything was done without any transparency and they took advantage of the occasion to add names to the list.”

In a press note, Justice Minister Lucmane Délile acknowledged there were “errors” and said it was possible the system was deceived. He also passed the blame on to the prison system and tied the release to the pandemic.

He said his ministry learned “through the press that criminals were released as part of the presidential pardon granted for the purpose of decongesting prisons in the face of the spread of COVID-19.”

Late Wednesday, Eddy Jackson Alexis, a government spokesman, took to Twitter to say that Prime Minister Joseph Jouthe asked the ministry of justice “to temporarily suspend the release of the people affected by the presidential pardon.” The announcement, Alexis said, was made during a cabinet meeting.

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 16 juillet 2020

Joe Biden Names Haitian-American Karen Andre As His Florida Senior Advisor and Senior Advisor to National Faith Outreach

Dozens of Florida hospitals out of available ICU beds, state data shows

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden on Monday announced the members of his senior leadership team in Florida, Haitian-American attorney Karen Andre is among the selected few to serve as Senior Advisor and Senior Advisor to National Faith Outreach to the campaign.

President Donald Trump’s campaign has emphasized the importance of the state as a must-win to retain the White House, but recent polls have consistently shown Biden in the lead in the swing state.

Karen Andre is a highly sought after and respected political consultant who has advised and directed strategy for elected officials, campaigns, and candidates at the federal, state, and local levels. Most recently, she served as Political Director of Organizing Together 2020 in Florida where she helped build a state-wide partnership coalition.

Previously, she served as Senior Advisor for Gillum for Governor during his triumphant primary win as Democratic nominee for governor of Florida in 2018. In 2014, she was appointed by President Barack Obama to serve as White House Liaison to the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Karen is president of People First Strategies utilizing her extensive experience in establishing and maintaining strategic partnerships in the private, philanthropic, and public sectors. She is also an attorney, author, and professional speaker.

In addition to Andre, Biden named Jackie Lee, veteran Orlando-based consultant who has been working for the campaign since October 2019, as his state director. Brandon Thompson will work as the Biden campaigns coordinated director and Florida Democratic Party executive director Juan Peñalosa was named a Biden senior adviser.

“We are thrilled to bring together some of the most talented and experienced minds in Florida Democratic politics to oversee a Florida operation that will reflect the state’s diversity and prioritize the issues Floridians care about,” Biden’s national states director Jenn Ridder said in a statement. “We look forward to competing aggressively in the Sunshine State, and Jackie, Juan, Brandon, and Karen will lead the team that will turn Florida blue and help send Joe Biden to the White House.”

More than four dozen hospitals in Florida reported that their intensive care units (ICUs) have reached full capacity on Tuesday as COVID-19 cases surge in the state and throughout the country.

Hospital ICUs were full at 54 hospitals across 25 of Florida's 67 counties, according to data published on Tuesday morning by the state's Agency for Health Care Administration. More than 300 hospitals were included in the report, but not all had adult ICUs.

Thirty hospitals reported that their ICUs were more than 90% full. Statewide, only 17% of the total 6,010 adult ICU beds were available on Tuesday, down from 20% three days ago, according to the agency's website.

REMEMBER SAVANNAH !

While the nation celebrates Independence Day, let’s remember to celebrate the Haitian soldiers who assisted the United States in their fight for freedom.

On October 9, 1779, a force of more than 500 Haitian soldiers joined American colonists and French troops in an unsuccessful push to drive the British from Savannah in coastal Georgia.

The men were organized into a regiment called Chasseurs-Volontaires de Saint-Domingue. These soldiers were des gens de couleurs libres (free men of color) who voluntarily joined the French colonial forces. Though not well known in the U.S., Haiti's role in the American Revolution is a point of national pride for Haitians. After returning home from the war, Haitian veterans soon led their own rebellion that won Haiti's independence from France in 1804.

On October 8, 2007, a memorial statue was unveiled in Savannah dedicated to the Chasseurs-Volontaires de Saint-Domingue during the Battle of Savannah. The memorial pays tribute to the significant role these soldiers had during the Revolutionary War and recognizes the support they gave to the founding of the United States.

Source : Black Past / Haitian American Historical Society .

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Haitian Voodoo Priest arrested by FBI for buying Trump's hair.

July 7, 2020|HAITI, US POLITICS

Haitian Voodoo priest from New Orleans was arrested this morning by the FBI after paying an impressive $25,000 for a few strands of President Trump’s hair in order to inflict physical harm on him and control him through a voodoo doll.

31-year Old Moses Philossaint, an important religious leader of the Louisiana Voodoo community, was arrested in possession of eight grams of what is believed to be Donald Trump’s hair.

The provenance of the lock of hair is yet to be clarified, and it has been sent to an FBI lab for DNA analysis, but investigators claim they have strong evidence suggesting it’s authentic.

According to FBI spokesman Bobby Miller, the accused paid $25,000 on Craigslist for the hair, which he intended to use to create a type of magical effigy.

“He openly professed to worshippers that he intended to use magic to influence American policy and force the American president to do as he wishes. The method used may be unusual, but the intent makes it a federal crime.”

Mr. Miller insisted that the FBI doesn’t believe in magic or voodoo, but acted to condemn the accused’s criminal intent and qualm rumors before they started.

“We know these dolls are probably powerless. But there are enough rumors already about the President being controlled by the Russians, Freemasons or even Reptilians. We don’t want new ones about him being a voodoo puppet.”  THE GUARDIAN 

Little Haiti Brooklyn leaders share progress, plans, amid affordability challenges

The Haitian Times

By Sam Bojarski

For Aliette Beldor, who owned the former Alouette Beauty Salon on Nostrand Avenue, the creation of the Little Haiti Cultural and Business District brought recognition to Haitian community members like her. 

But while she supports the initiative for this reason, the cost of doing business in the neighborhood continues to increase. 

“All the business owners in this neighborhood suffer because of the rent,” she said. 

It’s been just over two years since New York City council passed a resolution designating a portion of central Brooklyn in Flatbush as Little Haiti. Multiple Haitian-American elected officials and community leaders have supported the initiative, designed to promote a sense of belonging, facilitate economic development and tourism, as well as to preserve and celebrate the numerous Haitian institutions in the area. But plans for Little Haiti have been slow to get off the ground, partly due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Economic trends also continue to threaten the affordability of the neighborhood, for some Haitian residents and business owners. 

District 42 Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte and then-Councilmember Jumaane Williams were key early supporters who led the effort to designate Little Haiti in 2018. Farah Louis, who now represents Council District 45, currently supports Little Haiti BK. 

The Little Haiti district extends roughly from Parkside Avenue to Avenue H, and from East 16th Street to Brooklyn Avenue.

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 30 juillet 2020

 Without Haiti, the United States Would, in Fact, Be a Shithole

And some other things about the country that Donald Trump doesn’t know and doesn’t care to know.

By Amy Wilentz

January 12, 2018

It feels strange to me after so many years of thinking and writing about Haiti, to say nothing of simply being there, to have to rise to the country’s defense against a fool. But that fool is the president of the United States, so let’s start with first things first.

It goes without saying that Donald Trump knows nothing about history. But those who do have heard of the Louisiana Purchase, the incredible deal President Jefferson struck with France to buy the giant piece of land, 828,000 square miles of river and breadbasket, that stretches from what is now the Canadian border down to New Orleans and the delta. Without this territory, the United States would never have become a continental power nor, subsequently, a great global power. Jefferson got it at a bargain-basement price: $250 million, in current dollars, doubling the size of the country for less than 3 cents per acre.

You may ask what this has to do with Haiti (although any president with a competent staff would have this information at his fingertips). Here’s the answer, White House staff: Napoleon wanted to sell this fabulously valuable piece of New World real estate because for more than a decade he had failed to put down the startling slave revolution in the French colony of Haiti, losing two-thirds of French forces there in the process.

The First Consul (that’s Napoleon, Mr. President) could see the writing on the wall. France was pushed to the limit of its military and financial means by the Haitian uprising, and the future emperor (NB: also Napoleon) had lost his taste for further involvement in the Americas. He sold us Louisiana. Then on January 1, 1804, Haiti declared its independence from France, and by extension, from white men like Donald Trump.

So it is the courage and tenacity of the rebellious slaves of Haiti that created the United States as we know it. Score one for the shithole.

Haitian history is full of many other amazing facts, not least that it can claim to have spawned the Americas’ first successful freedom fighters, the Cacos, who waged a sporadic but unstoppable guerilla war against the US Marine Occupation that began in 1915. Along with popular opinion in the US, they finally forced the Americans out in 1934.

Nonetheless, the Marines had done their damage. While improving Haiti’s infrastructure, the occupation opened the country up for “foreign investment,” which meant, essentially, the severe exploitation (including chain gangs) of Haitian labor, the appropriation of lands by US groups, the manipulation (which continues) of Haitian elections, the takeover of the lucrative Haitian sugar industry and of Haitian banks, and a national move away from self-sufficient subsistence agriculture into a cash economy that continues to be responsible for repeated food shortages and economic decline. How to become a shithole: the Americans will help.

Current Issue

I could go on in this vein, but I won’t. I’m pointing a finger at the United States because I’m responding to the US president. France, after Napoleon, also had a hand in Haiti’s decline. Emmanuel Macron, however, has yet to call the country un trou de merde­—and I doubt he ever will.

Finally, I want to write personally about Haiti, the experience of Haiti as a place to visit, to see, be in, live in.

Haiti is what Ronald Reagan was dreaming of when he suggested that shrinking the state would allow the business sector to move in and replace government functions in a market economy. Haiti has a vestigial state. There is no national health care, no social security, no pensions, very little taxation, very few labor regulations, a tiny national coffer. This is the direction in which Reagan pushed us and which Trump and his people continue to move us. There is very little organized sanitation, unemployment is the norm, housing is less than substandard, and electricity is delivered in a capricious and severely limited fashion. Poverty means that people have to live day by day, earning a goud here and a goud there. It means that individual and family plans for the future are nearly impossible to make. Many of the ablest Haitians have immigrated to the United States and Canada, though Trump apparently does not appreciate their many contributions to our economy as doctors, engineers, attorneys, academics, dentists, accountants, etc.

Haitians feel the lack of a state every day and night, but they still rise indomitably to the task of living full lives. It’s rare to see a Haitian hanging around, at least in Port-au-Prince. Everyone is constantly on the move, trying to find work and make a buck. There is poetry being written and music being played. At night, students go out and sit under the light of street lamps to study for tests. Haitians are huge into basketball and ecstatic when one of their players makes it to the NBA, as several have. Haitian literature over the centuries is full of masterpieces. Dany Laferrière, a novelist of Haitian descent, was recently admitted to the elite Académie Française. Alexandre Dumas, author of The Three Musketeers, was Haitian, as was the naturalist John James Audubon.

In the camps set up by Haitians after the earthquake that struck exactly eight years ago today, I sat around with teenage boys eager to play tapes for me of the music they’d recorded. During a tropical storm, I had a camp dinner of sardines and tomatoes cooked outside a tent over a charcoal fire. I’ve watched cockfights in small stadiums, and Vodou ceremonies in the earthquake rubble. I’ve seen the dazzling paintings by Haitian masters on the walls of museums (now crumbled) and churches (also now crumbled). I’ve seen a young boy who lost both his hands and both his forearms in the earthquake learn to use prostheses and also learn to accept the care of his extended family in the countryside. I’ve seen countless examples of Haitian solidarity and community, and of course of the human hunger to learn and grow and better one’s fortunes.

The island itself is physically beautiful, with pure white beaches and majestic mountains, and a capital city and provincial metropolis that are both captivating, each in its own way. Trump might not think so, because in every way, Haiti does not resemble his universe of Trump Tower and Mar-a-Lago. The country is almost entirely lacking in gilt and gold-plate.

But it still shines.

PRESS

Yamiche Alcindor is Haitian-American, and is fluent in Haitian Creole.[7] She is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists. The White House Correspondents’ Association today named PBS NewsHour White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor (@yamichepbs) the recipient of the prestigious Aldo Beckman Award for Overall Excellence in White House Coverage. The award recognizes a correspondent who personifies the journalistic excellence and personal qualities of Aldo Beckman, late Washington bureau chief for the Chicago Tribune and former president of the White House Correspondents’ Association. The WHCA journalism awards are to be presented on August 29, 2020, at the association’s annual dinner at the Washington Hilton.

In times of crisis

Times of crisis — armed conflict, natural disasters, pandemics — can be times of great peril for human rights.

Not only can government intervention and the suspension of regular policies and practices create new injustices, but they can also often make the crisis itself disproportionately worse for some. And some governments use crises as an opportunity to overreach in their actions, using the crisis as justification for human rights violations.

If we don’t act

Right now, governments around the world are implementing vital public health measures that, in some situations, place restrictions on human rights.

However, in some countries, leaders are using COVID-19 as a pretext for repression and increased surveillance. Others are using the crisis to suppress the rights of refugees, and stir up feelings of xenophobia and the mistrust of foreigners amongst their citizens.

We are witnessing dangerous trends to undermine human rights at a time when we need them more than ever.

The truth is that everything we need to do to get through the COVID-19 pandemic — providing life-saving treatment, curtailing its spread, addressing the economic repercussions, ensuring that the needs of marginalized communities are met, and looking ahead to long-term transformative change — is about human rights.

If we don’t demand that human rights continue to be protected during this time, we risk deepening ongoing violations and rolling back the long-standing protections we already have in place.

Our turning point

By its very nature, the right to health is dependent on and influenced by many other rights, such as rights of refugees to seek safe harbour, the right to free and accurate information, and the right to personal security, among others.

We must demand that human rights protections be rigorously defended — and extended — to maintain our safety and allow our communities to thrive in times of crisis.

And, critically, we must ensure human rights protections are respected for everyone, particularly marginalized communities — because we are only as safe as the least safe among us.

Take action today!

Today, Amnesty International is calling on people across the country to take action for human rights around the world in this time of crisis, ensuring all governments take meaningful steps to protect human rights and curtail human rights violations.

By signing our action, you’re sending a message to leaders in Canada and around the world that our collective response during the COVID-19 pandemic must uphold human rights globally — and make sure it’s at the heart of all decision-making processes in times of crisis.

We must protect human rights — because human rights protect us.

US-Government: Is Check No TWO Around ? 

 A new round of stimulus checks could come as soon as next month under CARES II, the second stimulus check package being worked on by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, according to Mnuchin. 

“Our proposal is the exact same provision as last time,” the treasury secretary told reporters on Thursday, according to Fortune. 

FOOTBALL

16-year-old Alex Colin Kpakpé , born to Haitian and Ivorian parents, has just signed his first contract with the prestigious club of the English capital, Chelsea FC. According to Juno7, the versatile defender is one of 14 young athletes to benefit from a contract from their training club.

Chelsea Football Club is an English professional football club based in Fulham, #London. Founded in 1905, the club competes in the Premier League, the top division of English football.