Haiti News Updates on Wednesdays and Fridays (may change to one day a week).
By late 1803, to the universal astonishment of contemporary observers, the armies led by Toussaint and Dessalines had thus broken the chain of colonial slavery at "what had been, in 1789, its strongest link." Renamed Haiti, the new (and utterly devastated) country celebrated its independence in January 1804. Of the three great revolutions that began in the final decades of the eighteenth century -- American, French, and Haitian -- only the third forced the unconditional application of the principle that inspired each one: affirmation of the natural, inalienable rights of all human beings. Only in Haiti was the declaration of of human freedom universally consistent. Only in Haiti was this declaration sustained at all costs, in direct opposition to the social order and economic logic of the day. Only in Haiti were the consequences of this declaration -- the end of slavery, of colonialism, of racial inequality -- upheld in terms that directly embraced the world as a whole. The declaration of Haitian independence thereby dealt the myth of white supremacy a mortal and thus unforgivable blow. (As you might expect, the bicentenary celebration of this independence, in 2004-04, would prove scarcely more welcome than the original achievement itself.) (Damming the Flood, 11)
UPDATE: from Twitter Haiti Release Fond
@haiti_rf #Haiti #UN #Cholera: This coming Friday - August 5th, 2011- A rally in front of the United Nations headquarter in... http://www.facebook.com/...
Aug 4th Tropical Storm Emily idles, Haiti still in its path - AlertNet:
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Emily idled on Thursday just south of Haiti, where hundreds of thousands of people left homeless by last year's devastating earthquake are vulnerable to high winds, torrential rains and dangerous floods and landslides.
Storm Emily
- Emily on path to Haiti
CNN.com Live|LIVE
Emily prompts tropical storm warnings and watches across large portions of the northern Caribbean.
- Haitians told to evacuate but given nowhere to go (again this season) Evacuation urged as Tropical Storm Emily heads for Haiti | RFI:
Haitian officials have urged evacuations with Tropical Storm Emily expected to hit on Wednesday evening. Emily was heading for the island of Hispaniola, which Haiti shares with the Dominican Republic, at 22 kilometres per hour
- Tropical Storm Emily on path toward Haiti - Arizona News from USA Today:
Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami said up to 10 inches of rain could fall in some parts of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, which could cause life-threatening flash floods and mud slides in areas of mountainoust terrain.
Emergency workers, both Haitian and foreign, also sent out text messages to cell phone users, alerting them to the approaching storm and to take precautions such as staying with friends or relatives if that were an option.
Such advisories are not uncommon but few in Haiti have the means to heed them because of the crushing poverty.
“This is not the first time we’ve heard these messages,” said Alexis Boucher, a 29-year-old man who lives in Place Boyer, a public square that became a camp after the earthquake. “We receive these messages and yet we still don’t have anywhere to go.”
A slow-moving storm that triggered mudslides and floods in Haiti killed at least 28 people in June.
- Haiti Braces for Storm, Cholera Surge | The Rundown News Blog | PBS NewsHour
Paul Farmer, co-founder of Partners in Health, talked to Ray Suarez about the problem last week on the NewsHour.
"We feared back in January right after the quake, that there would be some groups that would come in and out, and part of what has been called the crisis caravan, that all came to pass," he said. "They have come in. They're gone."
The epidemic has also spread beyond Haiti's borders to the Dominican Republic, where it has sickened 13,200 and killed 87. This week, the Centers for Disease Control also released a report linking 23 cases of cholera in the United States to the strain from Haiti.
- Appeal to the spontaneous evacuation
- Tropical Storm Emily on path toward Haiti
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- Haiti - Weather : Emily is coming, Haiti in red...
- Tropical Storm Watch issued for Haiti as EMILY blows into the Caribbean
- Tropical Storm Emily : Tracking Map : Weather Underground:
- Haiti - Weather : 12 hours before the first effects of Emily
Evictions Haiti's US Puppet President's Priorities are revealing : Haitians Urged to evacuate but given nowhere to go; Martelly claims to be against evictions but allows (orders) them to continue as storm approaches.
- Rep. Payne to Haiti: “Continued Evictions Must Cease”
I recently received word that Mayor Wilson Jeudy is continuing his aggressive campaign to illegally evict IDPs, now threatening those living at Camp Django in Delmas. Offering the Haitian people $125 USD to leave the camps, protesters of this insulting offer were beaten, and community organizers who attempted to take pictures reportedly had their equipment snatched and pictures erased by MINUSTAH troops. Words cannot fully describe how disappointing it is to hear of such vicious attacks towards the people of Haiti. Members of Congress have previously condemned Mayor Jeudy’s forceful evictions and we will continue to do so until such actions come to a halt.
- Protest Over Evictions in Haiti Blocks Traffic (Miami Herald) Martelly claims he is against evictions so then he admits he is to weak to influence local government officials or is he a liar?
Haitian officials have stepped up forced removals in recent weeks even though President Michel Martelly has said he is opposed to them.
Two weeks ago, the mayor of Port-au-Prince paid families $250 a piece to leave the National Stadium in downtown Port-au-Prince. Some of the families went to a field along Rue Bicentanaire, a major street that runs alongside the bay.
- Final Whistle for 514 Families as Haitian Government Illegally Closes Stadium Camp (Huffington Post)
While private landowners and government agents have been carrying out evictions since shortly after the earthquake, the eviction of Sylvio Cator is of particular significance. The camp is one of six that President Martelly committed to closing in the first 100 days of his administration. Under the Martelly plan, displaced residents are paid a fixed amount to move out of camps into existing structures, most of which are currently uninhabitable due to earthquake damage. While the compensation is meant to pay for repair and reconstruction, the amounts are not based on an evaluation of actual costs, and it is unclear what supervision will ensure that the construction is earthquake-proof. Furthermore, the plan gives property owners money to repair rental units on the condition that they make them available rent-free for 2 or 5 years, depending on the level of repair needed. Without adequate legal protections, however, this is difficult if not impossible to enforce and has the potential of benefiting property owners at the expense of renters displaced by the earthquake.
- Evictions Flickr: Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti's Photostream:
- Forced Evictions Continue under President Martelly by the Center for Economic and Policy Research
- Forced Evictions Continue, Despite Public Opposition from Martelly:
- Excellent podcast and short video
Pou Yon Ayiti Souvren (For a Sovereign Haiti) from Cage Free on Vimeo.
Martelly second Prime Minister Nomination rejected Martelly, very much like US tea baggers threatens that it will take six months to appoint prime minister:
- Senate Rejects Gousse as Prime Minister
The commission determined that there was “controversy” around the final criteria. They found that it was not the Parliament but Prime Minister Gérard Latortue’s de facto government (installed after the 2004 coup against former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide) which “discharged” Gousse from his Justice Ministry in 2005, that is, which certified that he did not engage in corruption or other illegal activities. But as Senator Jean Baptiste Bien-Aimé, a commission member, argued in the session, “the executive branch cannot discharge someone from the executive branch.”
For that reason, the commission effectively kicked the final determination on Gousse’s eligibility back to the full 30-seat Senate for a general vote. ...
But the whole struggle this Tuesday was between those who wanted Gousse to have his moment in the spotlight and those who did not. The Group of 16 had written an open letter to President Martelly asking for him to withdraw the nomination, saying that Gousse was unacceptable for the “repression, arbitrary arrests and killings in the neighborhoods of Port-au-Prince” that were carried out under his auspices in 2004 and 2005. Some 4,000 people died from putsch-related violence during the 2004-2006 coup d’état, according to a study in the British medical journal The Lancet.
- New setback for Haiti's pop star turned president | Reuters:
"But we have to have a prime minister who is able to talk to all sectors and has not been accused of human rights violations," he said.
It was not immediately clear what Martelly might do next to gain the upper hand in his showdown with parliament. He has warned that a rejection of Gousse means it could take another six months to put a new government in place.
Diplomats and donors of international aid to Haiti, much of which has not yet been disbursed since pledges were made after the 2010 earthquake, say the Western Hemisphere's poorest country urgently needs to get a new administration up and running to advance its halting recovery.
- Haiti - Politic : Gousse 16 - 0 the Senate rejected in a vote without surprise the candidacy of Me Bernard Gousse!!
- Conclusion of last report of ECOSOC US, UN pressure Haiti to appoint oppressive, violent prime minister
Cholera
- In Haiti, UN Cholera Means Widespread Death:
The Nepalis are continuing to help the UN cover up their culpability in contaminating Haiti's agricultural breadbasket with cholera by trying to cast doubt on the fact that the UN Nepali soldiers in Mirebalais are the origin of the scourge. An article appearing on a Nepali online news website (ekantipur.com - July 22), reads: "Haiti cholera: Charge on Nepalis ‘circumstantial’ -- Expert says evidence not based on hard science," but the Lougarou is out of the bag. The latest report to affirm the UN imported cholera to Haiti is from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
- WHO tracks evolving cholera picture:
- Haiti’s government says last month there were 1000 new cases of cholera every day | Free Speech Radio News
Reconstruction
- AID FACTS ON HAITI, as of June 2011 | Canada Haiti Action Network: This website page contains four reports Haiti
- News from Haiti on July 24: Reconstruction financing, housing and forced dislocations
President Michel Martelly appealed for the mandate of the commission to be extended by one year beyond its forthcoming termination date of October 20. Last April, IHRC co-chair Max Bellerive appealed to extend the IHRC's mandate by 18 months. This was ignored by Martelly and his advisors at the time.
- Haitians Return to Africa, Bringing Solar Energy - IPS
SEATTLE, U.S., Aug 2, 2011 (IPS) - Jean Ronel Noël, a young Haitian engineer, stood in a centuries-old fort on a small island just off Dakar and looked out at the Atlantic through a portal that once led enslaved Africans to the ships of the Middle Passage.
"Finally we come to 'the door of the voyage of no return'," he wrote in a blog. "My blood wouldn't stop boiling, wave after wave of gooseflesh. I nearly broke down. So it's through that door that my ancestors passed. The Door of Hell! There are two infinite things, Einstein said: the universe and human stupidity."
- Partners in Help | Foreign Affairs:
In 1848, Rudolf Virchow, one of public health's heroes, contended that "medicine is a social science, and politics is nothing other than medicine writ large." It would please me greatly to think that Virchow's point has been taken. Although I'm a physician, these past two years have been an object lesson about the difficulties of scaling up and of moving from caring for individual patients to building health systems in settings of privation and disarray.
- Partners In Health A Live Chat with the Right to Health Care Team
- Homes for Haiti: The Haitian House:
- South Florida Caribbean News
UN Troop in Haiti called MINUSTAH
- An nou pote kole pou dekole MINUSTAH: Bring the Rage to Kick Out MINUSTAH @public_archive
- WikiLeaked Cables Show Why UN Military Occupation of Haiti Must End:
One leaked U.S. document shows how the United States tried to force Haiti to reject $100 million in aid per year – the equivalent of 50 billion reals in Brazil’s economy – because it came from Venezuela. Because Haiti’s president, Préval, understandably refused to do this, the U.S. government turned against him.
As a result, Washington reversed the results of Haiti’s first round presidential election in November 2010, to eliminate Préval’s favored candidate from the second round. This was done through manipulation of the Organization of American States (OAS), and through open threats to cut off post-earthquake aid to the desperately poor country if they did not accept the change of results. All of this is well-documented....
Another leaked document shows how Edmund Mulet, then head of the UN Mission to Stabilize Haiti (MINUSTAH), worried that Aristide might regain his influence, and recommended that criminal charges be filed against him. Mulet has been openly partisan in interfering in Haiti’s politics, and dismissed Haitians who protested the UN mission as “enemies.”
Mulet had an incredibly arrogant posture considering that Haitians were angry about the mission’s bringing cholera to Haiti, which has now infected 380,000 Haitians and killed 5,800. If MINUSTAH were a private entity, it would be facing multi-billion dollar lawsuits and possibly criminal prosecution for its horrific negligence in polluting Haiti’s water supply with this deadly bacteria. Ironically, the $850 million dollar annual cost of MINUSTAH is more than nine times what the UN has raised to fight the cholera epidemic.
Gender issues
- “Until the Day I Die”: Gerta Louisama on Haitian Women Winning their Rights by Bev Bell:
Gerta Louisama
I am a peasant women and the daughter of two peasants. I’ve been a victim of this society which ostracizes women.
My father was a member of Tèt Kole and I chose to follow him and join the organization. I’ve gotten all my knowledge through Tèt Kole. I’m illiterate, but thanks to the organization, after women helped me for three months, I could even spell my name and write a little. Even though I’m getting older, I’ll keep going to school.
Prisons
Martelly
- The President Martelly has a majority in the Lower House
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- Le Matin: Martelly "very hostile to media workers"
Le Matin continued to report the president's demeanor:
Michel Martelly said he was not interested by what is said in the Haitian media. "I do not listen, I do not read not," he said to the cheers of the public who attended the launch ceremony.
Speaking to the press and certain other sectors, in his view, opposing the development of Haiti, the President has clearly extend an invitation to silence [the media].
Michel Martelly is not the first direct attack against freedom of expression. Since taking office, he often made very hostile to media workers.
- New setback for Haiti's pop star turned president | Reuters:
"But we have to have a prime minister who is able to talk to all sectors and has not been accused of human rights violations," he said.
It was not immediately clear what Martelly might do next to gain the upper hand in his showdown with parliament. He has warned that a rejection of Gousse means it could take another six months to put a new government in place.
Diplomats and donors of international aid to Haiti, much of which has not yet been disbursed since pledges were made after the 2010 earthquake, say the Western Hemisphere's poorest country urgently needs to get a new administration up and running to advance its halting recovery.
- @HaitiInfoProj The NGOs and charities working in Haiti kept their heads in the sand saying, "We'll ignore the politics in (cont)
1 hour ago
Reliable Haiti Sources
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Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti:
IJDH Does amazing work in Haiti. I donate to them whenever I can. Please support IJDH's work.
IJDH draws on its founders’ internationally-acclaimed success accompanying Haiti’s poor majority in the fields of law, medicine and social justice activism. We seek the restoration of the rule of law and democracy in the short term, and work for the long-term sustainable change necessary to avert Haiti’s next crisis.
"For friends of Haiti who seek to support a progressive and principled human rights organization that gets its facts right and does not erase history, look no further than the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti."
— Paul Farmer, Co-Founder, Partners in Health
Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti:
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Twitter AP Reporter:
@KatzOnEarth Jonathan M. Katz
Danticat: To make a difference support grassroots women's organizations ... that deal with gender violence including FAVILEK & @IJDH
6 Jul via web Unfavorite Undo Retweet Reply
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The Aristide Foundation for Democracy (AFD) was created in 1996 by former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide (the first democratically elected president of Haiti) with a simple principle in mind: "The promise of democracy can only be fulfilled if all sectors of Haitian society are able to actively participate in the democratic life of the nation."
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Haiti Emergency Relief Foundation (HERF):
Haiti’s grassroots movement – including labor unions, women’s groups, educators and human rights activists, support committees for political prisoners, and agricultural cooperatives – are funneling needed aid to those most hit by the earthquake. They are doing what they can – with the most limited of funds – to make a difference. Please take this chance to lend them your support. All donations to the Haiti Emergency Relief Fund will be forwarded to our partners on the ground to help them rebuild what has been destroyed.
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Partners in Health At its root, our mission is both medical and moral. It is based on solidarity, rather than charity alone. When a person in Peru, or Siberia, or rural Haiti falls ill, PIH uses all of the means at our disposal to make them well—from pressuring drug manufacturers, to lobbying policy makers, to providing medical care and social services. Whatever it takes. Just as we would do if a member of our own family—or we ourselves—were ill. |
Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods(SOIL)
Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods (SOIL) is a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting soil resources, empowering communities and transforming wastes into resources in Haiti. We believe that the path to sustainability is through transformation, of both disempowered people and discarded materials, turning apathy and pollution into valuable resources. |
NEWS ORGANIZATIONS: