Coalition of Boston Haitian groups plan memorial event at RCC

Jan. 12 memorial event at RCC rescheduled to Jan. 16

UPDATE: Due to the snow emergency in Boston, this event has been rescheduled to Sunday, Jan. 16 at 4 p.m.

A coalition of Haitian-American organizations from across eastern Massachusetts have joined forces to plan a memorial event to mark the one year anniversary of the Jan. 12 earthquake. The event will be held from 4-9 p.m. at Roxbury Community College. The event will include a one-hour memorial service, displays by NGOs working in Haiti and mental health counselors.

Governor finds one-month lifeline for legal immigrant health plan

STATE HOUSE, BOSTON, DEC. 29, 2010…..Although the Patrick administration had warned that a health coverage program that serves about 22,000 legal immigrants would run out of money by the end of December, Gov. Deval Patrick now says funding exists to keep the program alive through January.

Over the next month, the administration intends to “build legislative support” to fund the program for at least another five months, according to a spokesman for the Patrick administration’s budget office.

Mass. police to join immigration checks program

BOSTON—The Massachusetts State Police will participate in a federal program that automatically checks the immigration status of those who are arrested, the state's top state public safety official announced Friday.

In a statement, Public Safety Secretary Mary Beth Heffernan said the state will formally join a program called Secure Communities after months of deliberating by state officials.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement program allows arrestees' fingerprint information to be checked against FBI criminal history records and biometrics-based immigration records kept by the Department of Homeland Security. But the program has drawn fire from some Massachusetts-based immigrant advocacy groups who say it discourages legal and illegal immigrants from cooperating with police.

Haiti election results could be delayed for weeks

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) _ The Organization of American States has asked Haitian President Rene Preval to delay announcing election results until an international panel of experts can review the vote, officials said Saturday.

Final results from the Nov. 28 first round _ showing which of the top three quarreling candidates would go on to a January runoff - were expected Monday.

Holding off an announcement would postpone conflicts between supporters, which resulted in riots and deadly clashes this month. But the panel of up to five electoral, legal and information-technology experts has not even been formed, and waiting for its review could drag into the new year.

Study: Haiti Cholera traced to South Asian origin

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Scientists reported Thursday the strongest evidence yet that a cholera outbreak that has killed more than 2,000 people in Haiti can be traced to South Asia. The analysis fits with, but does not prove, the controversial idea that the disease came from U.N. troops dispatched from that region.

Celebrate the Season with Haitian flavors

Marie Ruth Auguste: Let's talk turkey... and Soup Joumou! Marie Ruth Auguste: Let's talk turkey... and Soup Joumou!As the saying goes, ‘Tis the season to cook, eat and be merry!

That’s exactly what my husband and I decided to do last weekend after two previous weeks of long hours at work and “sleep only” hours at home. It’s his favorite holiday of the season and after plans of going back “home” to Boston went “bust”, we decided to drive up to northern California to visit a childhood friend and her family (shout out to, “Lolo Bug”.)

As we’re accustomed to doing most of the time during the holidays, we spent a lot of our time on the drive to Palo Alto, talking and reminiscing about the days growing up as kids and all of the “house hopping” we would do on Thanksgiving Day. We naturally started talking about who made the best turkey; I would say it was me and he would say it was his sister, (we all know it was me, but I’ve got to give his sister credit, her turkey was always really spicy)!

Voices of Haiti: Revolution in Post-Quake Haiti

“If this happened in my district, they would have been rioting already.”
Congressman Bobby Rush (Chicago, IL), nine days after the earthquake

It has been eleven months now since the earthquake destroyed much of Port-au-Prince. We’ve heard the statistics repeated into infinity: more than 1.5 million people are still homeless, living under tarps and bed sheets. Add to this a six-year foreign military occupation that most recently has been accused of bringing a deadly cholera epidemic to the country, and widespread awareness that although hundreds of millions were donated to help earthquake survivors practically nothing has changed in the concrete living conditions of said survivors, and it is truly impressive how patient and peaceful Haitians have been.

Cholera, fraudulent elections, and de facto occupation

Patrick SylvainOn January 19th, when Haitian president René Préval was asked by Juliana Ruhfus of Al Jazeera who was in charge of Haiti, he sarcastically replied, “the President of this country, if I remember correctly, his name is René Préval, and he is standing in front of you.”

Voices of Haiti: In Pursuit of the Undemocratic

Down with Selection, Long Live Election: A sign at a Dec. 5 protest in Port-au-Prince. Photo by Bri Kouri Nowel Gaye“Have you chosen me a good government, Blan?”-sarcastic question posed by a Haitian voter to a foreign election monitor at a polling station in Port-Au-Prince.

While $26 million was spent on Haiti’s November 28 elections, a great deal more is at stake for international business. Over $9 billion in reconstruction contracts will be up for grabs, and the government selected could possibly have influence on the foreign dominated Haiti Interim Reconstruction Committee (HIRC), which is tasked with determining the path of Haiti’s development.

Editorial: CEP must open books, revisit election results

BHR 12-10 front pageOn Tuesday night, the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) announced the preliminary results from the November 28 elections in Haiti. President Rene Preval’s party Inite (Unity) won the majority of seats in parliament. Of the presidential candidates, former first lady Mirlande Manigat placed first – with 31.37% of the vote while Jude Celestin, the Inite party candidate came in second with 22.48%.

So, we are set for a runoff between Manigat and Celestin scheduled for January 16th. But wait, not so fast. Famed musician Michel Martelly received 21.84% of the vote – a very close third, roughly 6000 votes behind. Martelly is appealing the results and many of his supporters have taken to the streets to protest what they’ve dubbed “The Selection”.

Reports of massive demonstrations, fraught by opportunistic violence, are pouring in. Some people are passionately protesting for their right to fair elections – while others are reportedly burning the headquarters of the Inite party and even the homes of rural politicians. The chaos many predicted and feared would come of an ill-run and possible fraudulent election seems to be coming to pass in the hours after the CEP announcement.

Boston Haitian Reporter

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