Voices of Haiti: Foreign Aid and Cholera

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.

Manigat campaigns in Boston in bid for Haiti’s presidency

On Saturday, October 23rd, Mirlande Manigat visited Boston as part of a tour of the Haitian Diaspora. The Haitian presidential candidate spoke for over an hour and answered several questions from a crowded room of 200 at Centre Belleville in Dorchester. Manigat turned 70 on November 3rd, holds a doctorate from the Sorbonne in France and is the co-founder of political party: RDNP (Rassemblement Des Democrates Nationaux Progressistes). She is currently a professor at Quisqueya University in Haiti.

On the Trail with Michel Martelly: From Sweet Micky to Presidential Contender

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.

UN official: Resettlement program needed in Haiti

BOSTON (AP) — A United Nations refugee official says he hopes that a resettlement system develops soon to aid some Haitians who need protection and relocation. Vincent Cochetel was recently appointed U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees' representative for the U.S. and the Caribbean. Cochetel was in Boston on Thursday, where he told The Associated Press that the Haitian resettlement system could help displaced earthquake victims who have recently become victims of sexual violence.

Some US rebuilding money finally headed to Haiti

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. The U.S. government will transfer $120 million – about one-tenth of the total amount pledged – to the World Bank-run Haiti Reconstruction Fund in the next few days, U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said. ``Having completed the process as outlined in the appropriation, we are now moving aggressively to commit that money to Haiti's reconstruction,'' Crowley said.

Two Haitian-American teens killed on Dorchester street

Two young men of Haitian descent were found shot to death on the same Dorchester street this week. Emmanuel Louissaint, 17, of Brockton was found shot to death outside of 64 Mascot Street on Sunday morning around 1 a.m. He had been shot once in the upper chest. Two days later, on Tuesday morning, police were called to the driveway of 63 Mascot Street— right across the street from the scene of the earlier murder— where they discovered the body of 19 year-old Nervin Charlot. He was also shot, but it is not yet clear if he was murdered in the same incident that claimed the life of Louissaint.

The Last Swing of the Pendulum

Patrick Sylvain“Let us learn together and laugh together and work together and pray together, confident that in the end we will triumph together in the right.” — Jimmy Carter, Inaugural Address, January 20, 1977 All republics that embrace democracy as a form of political governance are constantly faced with a daunting challenge. They must determine how best to appease the desires, and address the needs of the people, within the boundaries of the evolving state so that all groups can be brought into the political sphere. In other words, these states must consistently meet the demands of the citizenry.

Strong voice in Mass, struggles persist in Haiti

The fall brings many things to the Haitian community. A local election in which Mattapan residents, a huge contingent of whom are of Haitian descent, proved themselves to be a force at the polls. Governor Deval Patrick won a second term. He’ll have a chance to fulfill a campaign pledge to develop a comprehensive housing strategy for thousands of displaced Haitians in the commonwealth. Carlos Henriquez, a dedicated community advocate, succeeds the first Haitian-American elected official in the state Marie St. Fleur, to represent the 5th Suffolk district.

Haiti's Flawed Elections: They Told Us So

Voices from across the political spectrum in both Haiti and the United States, joined by human rights groups, and most importantly, Haitian voters—have warned both Haitian and U.S. government that the deeply flawed elections in Haiti currently scheduled for November 28 risk putting the country into turmoil and endangering our investment in reconstruction. But both the U.S. and Haitian Administrations refuse to listen.

Who will be Haiti’s next president?

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.

Boston Haitian Reporter