August 11, 2007
Cap Haitien is Haiti’s second largest city. It lies on the northern coastline and mountains rise sharply not even a kilometre inland in the city center. To the south and east, a large flat agricultural plain stretches all the way to the border with the Dominican Republic, about 60 km away.
Mole St-Nicholas, Haiti—August 9, 2007
This village sits on the northwest tip of Haiti in one of the poorest rural areas in the country. It is an historical gem that many Haitians are anxious to preserve and protect, if only they had the resources to do so. Those with the resources—the United Nations-sponsored foreign occupation forces—do not show the slightest inclination to help Haiti preserve its precious historical heritage. They prefer to spend money here on guns and barbed wire.
Mayors appeal for help to avert humanitarian disaster in Haiti
By Roger Annis
Port de Paix, Haiti—August 8, 2007
“We are one hour of heavy rainfall away from a humanitarian catastrophe here in Port de Paix,” said one of this city’s deputy mayors, Eluscane Elusme to members of a human rights factfinding delegation organized by the U.S.-based Fondayson Mapou and Haiti Priorities Project. The delegation is spending four days touring northern Haiti.
On Monday, we began travelling to Pòdepè. That morning, we'd attended a funeral for Father Ednea Devaloin, and we piled up into an SUV; seven of us delegates, plus our luggage. It was a tight squeeze, and not without some complaining. We hit the road around ten or ten thirty, and five hours later, we were leaving Gonaives. It was around that time that we saw one of the (very few) road signs that announced that Port-de-Paix (Pòdepè, en kreyòl; the street signs are all in French) was 150km ahead of us.
I hadn't met my traveling companion, Roger, until a day before we were set to fly here. For me, this is my fourth trip to Haiti, and to some extent, I've been able to convey to Roger some logistical facts.
Cap Haitien
Friday, August 10
Hello reader,
Day two August 6, 2007
This morning, prior to leaving the city for the countryside, we went to Haiti's cathedral to pay our respects at the funderal mass of a respected Catholic father who recently passed away. Father Ednea Devaloin was a colleague of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a proponent of the liberation theology movement in the CAtholic Church. Several thousand people attended the service.
DAY ONE IN HAITI Sunday, August 5, 2007
Port au Prince! We flew in this afternoon from Miami on one of the several daily flights of American Airlines. A full flight, and I’m guessing that many of the Haitian passengers were arriving for summer visits from the U.S. and Canada.
Port au Prince is on the coast and it lies on a plain surrounded by impressive mountains. We got a good view of much of the Haitian coastline as we flew in.
This exceptional article by Canadian writer Chris Scott appears in the August 2007 Briarpatch magazine. It provides an eyewitness look at the post-coup justice system in Haiti. Canada is deeply involved in the financing and training of Haitian judicial institutions. It also helps finance a very partisan human rights organization, the National Coalition for Haitian Rights (NCHR).
Briarpatch is published monthly in Regina, Saskatchewan.
Below is a link to an article I wrote for the July 2006 issue of Briarpatch magazine. The article describes the regime that came into power following the violent overthrow of Haiti’s government on February 29, 2004 and elections in early 2006 when the Haitian people began the long process of retaking control of their government and society.
http://briarpatchmagazine.com/news/?p=299
