Nearly 23,000 Massachusetts residents – legal immigrants who have been in the country for fewer than five years – are scheduled to lose their health insurance before the New Year, and lawmakers are keeping silent about whether they’ll intervene. House Speaker Robert DeLeo has declined repeated requests for comment on the matter, and Sen. Richard Moore, co-chair of the Health Care Financing Committee, also declined comment Tuesday. Read more

Cholera Prevention: A sound-truck spreads the word about dangers of cholera earlier this month. Image courtesy of Let Haiti Live(Port-au-Prince)— No one was surprised to hear that Haiti is confronting an epidemic of cholera, because to date, neither the government nor the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have been successfully executing programs to help the population in Haiti. The cholera epidemic is a clear sign of failure and evidence of the way the United Nations system and NGOs function – or rather don’t function. It was already well known that the Government of Haiti lacks adequate resources and has more interest in holding elections than in the lives of the people, but now we are beginning to see the stark contradiction between the mission statements of the international humanitarian community and their actions. Read more

Martelly campaigns in BostonWe know him best as “Sweet Micky”, a talented musician whose wild stage antics brought an element of shock to Haitian entertainment. In the late 1980s, he started out as any one of a number of notable Haitian talents and went simply by his name, Michel Martelly. Michel’s career began with the success of early releases with fun titles like, “Woule, Woule”, “Anba Rad La”, “The Sweetest” etc. However, real fame and international success came with the creation of a sub-identity “Sweet Micky”. It was the wild and uninhibited Micky that became a household name among Haitians. Sweet Micky’s irreverent style, controversial albums and frequent feuds with rival bands, made Michel Martelly wealthy and famous. Martelly came into the Haitian music industry during turbulent times. In the early 1990s, the Island was in political free-fall after the ouster of the Duvalier regime. The populace had democratically elected a progressive yet controversial former priest, Jean Bertrand Aristide and within a year he was exiled by Haiti’s military. Haiti’s popular music Konpa, was struggling as a new generation preferred the sound of Zouk, which had its origins in Guadeloupe and Martinique. Michel Martelly’s act was one among a new generation of artists that met the challenge of Zouk by using technology to reduce the man-power it took to man live Konpa shows and moved its sound into the new digital format. Read more

PORT-AU-PRINCE — The first portion of U.S. reconstruction money for Haiti is on its way more than seven months after it was promised to help the country rebuild from the Jan. 12 earthquake. Read more

BHR 11-10The date scheduled for the first round of Haiti’s presidential and parliamentary elections, November 28, is racing towards the island. Simultaneously Cholera is racing across the countryside in the Artibonite, the Central Plateau and beyond, and Hurricane Tomas raced up the Caribbean, lashing the South of the country and cutting off all towns below Leogane from the capital. The Provisional Electoral Council maintains that they are doing everything they can to prepare, and that they are moving ahead on schedule. But serious doubts have been raised about the timetable. Even before these crises Haiti had many obstacles to legitimate and credible elections. The voter list has not been updated since 2005, so many people who lost their lives in the earthquake are still on the list, which could facilitate electoral fraud. Many Haitians are not registered to vote, or lost their identification cards in the earthquake. For months long lines have snaked out from the National Identification Offices as people tried to fix their paper work—though the lines continued even after the publication of the voter list, and many Haitians seek identity cards to go to the bank or to deal with the police, not just to vote. Read more

Read more

The organization Discover Roxbury, along with the Haley House Bakery Café will host a speaker series event focused on the history of Haitian people in Roxbury on Wednesday, October 27 at 7 p.m.. The discussion will focus on the rise, growth and culture of Haitian-Americans in the city. Read more

GBIO forum brings candidates together: All four pledged to oppose ballot questions 2 & 3. Photo by Erik JacobsGreater Boston religious leaders this week asked the four candidates for governor to pledge that, once in office, they will create a comprehensive dwelling strategy for Haitian refugees and advocate at the federal level for legal status that will allow these families to work. All four candidates – Gov. Deval Patrick, the Democratic incumbent, Republican challenger Charlie Baker, independent candidate Timothy Cahill, and Green Rainbow Party candidate Jill Stein – said “yes” at a Sunday forum at the Temple Israel of Boston. Read more

Read more