Category: In the News

In the News: Hurricane Sandy in Haiti: At least 51 dead and record rainfalls

by Jacqueline Charles and Curtis Morgan, The Miami Herald, Oct. 28, 2012

Haitian Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe peered from the helicopter window and paused, as if needing time to process the ravaged landscape below: washed-out roads, rotting crops, flooded roads and raging rivers flowing with mud. “We have a big job to do,’’ Lamothe said to Sen. Steven Benoit, a member of the opposition party, who was along on a grim damage survey Saturday.

With the death toll rising to at least 51 and an estimated 200,000 homeless as a result of four days of relentless rain from Hurricane Sandy, Lamothe appealed for patience and called for investment in flood-control structures that are largely absent from the countryside. But he also expressed a weary frustration, one shared by many in this poor nation reeling from a string of natural disasters. With each one, he said, Haiti has taken a step backward. “It should not be normal that every time it rains, we have a catastrophe throughout the country,” Lamothe said.

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In the News: International Delegation Challenges UN Officials on Renewal of Haiti Occupation

UN Official Suggests that Troops May Stay Until 2015

by Kim Ives, published in Haiti Liberte, Oct 17, 2012

On October 12, the United Nations Security Council voted unanimously to renew for one more year the foreign military occupation of Haiti known as the UN Mission to Stabilize Haiti, or MINUSTAH, which has been deployed in Haiti since June 1, 2004.

However, the Haitian people, and increasingly people throughout Latin America, are calling for UN troops to immediately leave Haiti and respect Haiti’s sovereignty and right to self-determination. This was the message of an international delegation led by Haitian Senator Moïse Jean-Charles which met for almost two hours with high-ranking UN officials on Oct. 11, the day before the vote.

The 10-member delegation, composed of unionists, activists, and journalists, met with William Gardner, the Senior Political Affairs Officer of UN Department of Peace-Keeping Operations’ Europe and Latin America Division, and three of his Political Affairs Officers, Patrick Hein, Ekaterina Pischalnikova, and Nedialko Kostov.

Sen. Moïse’s delegation included Julio Turra, National Executive Director of the United Trade Union Central of Workers of Brazil (CUT); Pablo Micheli, General Secretary of the Confederation of Workers of Argentina (CTA); Fignolé St. Cyr, General Secretary of the Autonomous Confederation of Haitian Workers (CATH); Jocelyn Lapitre, a leader with the Front against Profit (LKP) in Guadeloupe; Colia Clark of the Guadeloupe-Haiti Campaign Committee; Alan Benjamin of the International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples (ILC); Robert Garoute, of the Progressive Movement for Haiti’s Development (MPDH); Geffrard Jude Joseph, the director of Radio Panou; and Kim Ives, a journalist with Haiti Liberté newspaper.

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In the News: Nobel peace laureate Muhammad Yunus announces financing for ‘social businesses’ in Haiti

Originally posted at The Calgary Herald

Muhammad Yunus – Photo by Michael Wuertenberg
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Nobel peace laureate Mohammad Yunus announced Saturday that his pro-business development group is financing several endeavours through a mix of loans and equity.

The projects that incorporate Yunus’ development philosophy of “social business” include two poultry farms, a bakery and a plantation of jatropha plants that can be used for biodiesel, offering an alternative energy source while creating jobs for 200 farmers.

The amount invested in each will range from $80,000 to $500,000, and feature loans with interest rates ranging from 6-10 per cent.

Such “social businesses” must each have a social mission like a non-governmental organization, but also generate revenues to cover costs like a profit-making business.

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In the News: Controversy over Wyclef’s charity money for Haiti

by Nesta McGregor. Originally posted at BBC.

Wyclef Jean photo by Seher Sikandar for rehes creative
Wyclef Jean is facing an investigation into what happened to money he raised for victims of the Haiti earthquake.

The former Fugees star started a campaign after 230,000 people died in the disaster in 2010.

Two years later though there’s controversy about how those funds were spent.

It’s estimated the 42-year-old rapper, who was born in the country, helped raise millions of pounds for the Yele Haiti charity.

With help from some of his celebrity friends like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, it’s estimated he raised millions of dollars.

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In the News: Signs Point toward Controversial Renewal of MINUSTAH’s Mandate in Haiti

by Kevin Edmonds, NACLA

According to a report released on August 31 by Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon regarding the United Nations Mission for Stabilization in Haiti (MINUSTAH by its French acronym), it appears that the renewal of the highly controversial mission will occur once again without any meaningful debate. Moon’s report effectively acts as a rubber stamp of approval for the occupation, stating that he was “Reaffirming my commitment to continue to focus the activities of the Mission, I recommend that the Security Council extend its mandate of one year, until 15 October 2013.”

MINUSTAH’s reputation and credibility as a stabilizing force has been shattered since the introduction of cholera into the island by the negligence of both the troops and shoddy base infrastructure in October 2010. Up until the deployment of Nepalese troops in the Artibonite Valley that October, Haiti had never experienced a cholera outbreak. According to the latest figures, the cholera epidemic has killed over 7,500 people, infecting another 590,000.

To date, the United Nations has refused to take responsibility for their role in the epidemic, despite “irrefutable molecular evidence” that the Haitian strain was virtually identical to the Nepalese strain. Reports from American medical researchers at the Center for Disease Control, in addition to separate French and Danish teams, have all confirmed that the MINUSTAH base in Mirebalais was the source of the cholera strain.

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In the News: The Directorate General of Taxation (DGI) is “wrong” in the case of André Apaid

by Valery Daudier and Cadet Carl Henry, Le Nouvelliste, published September 7, 2012

The fiscal situation of the industrialist Michel André Apaid has been regularized without the latter paying a dime in taxes, contrary to what had been said by members of the government after the lifting of the travel against him. According to the head of the section for large taxpayers of the Directorate General of Taxes (DGI), Joseph Salime Montinor, Mr. Apaid has a deductible benefit of 15 years for his business. DGI was not aware!

Michel André Apaid whose passport was confiscated Monday (Sept 3) at the Toussaint Louverture airport as he was preparing to fly out of the country was presented to the press on Friday with his council composed of attorneys Gervais Charles, Carlos Hercules and Stanley Gaston. The ban has been lifted, but this was not a favor by authorities to the businessman. He does not owe taxes on the company in question.

“The tax slips were simply canceled by DGI. It was a private company since 2005. So there was never any payment due, contrary to what former Senator Joseph Lambert and spokesman of the Presidency, Lucien Jura, said,” reported Attorney Gervais.

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