Guelmana Rochelin
"Sweet Micky" banned from participation in Jacmel carnival parade
After Gonaïves, Jacmel City Council decided in turn, in a note dated January 29, not to allow the participation of the group "Sweet Micky" at the carnival carnival of Jacmel 2018 which will be held next weekend around the theme "K-naval chanjman : jakmèl tout moun ladan l".In this note bearing the signature of Mayor Marky Kessa and the two deputy mayors Benissoit Jean Pierre and Lourdie Cesar, it is stated that this decision was taken after consultation with the sectors of civil society, including university, religious, women's organizations, teachers, academics, human rights and the Association of Southeast Mayors (AMASE).The note explains that the Carnival must not be "[...] a moment of debauchery, violence, revenge, incitement to debauchery, even less offense to morality [...]"However, the note mentions that the former President Michel Martelly and his family are welcome as festival-goers at the Carnival of Jacmel.By: ICIHAITI | January 30, 2018
What A Haitian Entrepreneur And Haitian-American Nurse Can Teach Us About Identity
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“I am a woman first. And then a strong Haitian woman.”
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“I’m very comfortable with my femininity and my assertiveness. In Haitian culture, women are the center of the household; providers and caretakers. Just because I can cook at home doesn’t mean I can’t run a multimillion dollar business. Feminism, to me, is the freedom to be a complex, multidimensional individual without living my life in silos."
Guelmana RochelinGuelmana Rochelin, Founder & CEO of Mana S.A.
Johaida Jean-FranoisJohaida Jean-Franois, Labor & Delivery RN at Boston Medical Center
From government officials to late night comedy hosts, there has been a lot of conversation around Haiti. But, hearing from those who know it best may offer other narratives on Haiti and on identity. Meet Guelmana Rochelin and Johaida Jean-Franois. One is a Haitian immigrant who returned home to build a company, Mana S.A., in Port-Au-Prince. Another is a first-generation Haitian-American who deftly weaves her values into the work she does as a Labor and Delivery Registered Nurse at Boston Medical Center.A Tale of Two LivesGuelmana tells a story of growing up in an idyllic community in Côteaux, Haiti. “…Tranquil, warm, and family-oriented…My great-grandmother lived with us and the entire extended family all lived a stone’s throw from one another.” Even after her family immigrated to the United States and put down roots in Philadelphia, her passion and love for Haiti never abated. In fact, she was so certain of her future, upon becoming a naturalized citizen, she told her parents, “You guys are taking something from me. I can never be President of any country now.” Luckily, she had other ideas of how to impact Haiti. After attending Villanova University and Harvard Business School, she worked at Goldman Sachs and co-founded a healthcare company with her sister, Affinity Healthcare Solutions. But the lure of Haiti always beckoned. Eventually, on a visit back to Haiti, she realized it was time to return and began to build a venture that would provide economic opportunity to the Haitian community, Mana S.A. The idea came from Guelmana’s realization that the small purchasing power of most Haitians made it hard for many to buy a box of cereal. She also observed some very enterprising merchants buy a box of cereal and then sell individual servings of cereal on the side of the road. And with that, Mana S.A. was born. Guelmana imported machines from around the world, built her own production line, created the cornflakes at the facility, and began to make individual servings of cornflakes. And as we learned on Conan O’Brien, many find the cornflakes pretty tasty. Guelmana’s hope is that by providing employees a living wage – one that enables them to not only feed their family, but also invest in their children's education, she will help lay the foundation of Haiti’s future.Johaida’s story begins in Everett, Massachusetts with deep roots firmly entrenched in Haiti. Her mother worked in the telecommunications industry in Haiti and upon immigrating to the U.S., transitioned into healthcare. As the matriarch of the family, her mother served as a spiritual pillar, as well as a constant source of inspiration. According to Johaida, “I have never seen her struggles, but I have always seen the result of her struggles. And they were always good.” Growing up, Johaida was reminded in ways glaring and subtle that she was different. Sometimes it was the bottle of Malta in her lunch as opposed to her fellow students’ Capri juice pouches. Or the incredulous remark when a person with long hair and light skin was discovered to be of Haitian descent. She channeled her frustration and anger in those experiences towards her education. Johaida graduated from Rivier University, successfully passed the NCLEX-RN, her nursing boards, upon first attempt, and following her mother’s footsteps, entered the healthcare industry. She wanted a community focused on the care of others, not dissimilar to the community her mother experienced in Haiti. Johaida chose to work at Boston Medical Center because as the largest safety net hospital in New England, BMC serves a very diverse population. According to their website, 57% of patients are from under-served populations and 32% of patients do not speak English as a primary language. Despite the numerous languages heard throughout the halls of BMC, as Johaida says, she speaks a universal language: comfort in holding a patient’s hand, care in rubbing a patient’s back, and safety in reassuring eye contact.
Being Haitian, Being a WomanI am always curious to see how women live their multifaceted identities. And it was not surprising to see that Johaida and Guelmana had differing views on how to live their complex identities.For Johaida, she emphatically said, “I am a woman first. And then a strong Haitian woman.” Much of our conversation centered around her work caring for so many new women and newborns. Being surrounded by such diverse women going through a common experience drives her strong gender identity.Guelmana’s answer was more complicated. “I’m very comfortable with my femininity and my assertiveness. In Haitian culture, women are the center of the household; providers and caretakers. Just because I can cook at home doesn’t mean I can’t run a multimillion dollar business. Feminism, to me, is the freedom to be a complex, multidimensional individual without living my life in silos."Both emphasize the importance of choices and the refusal to be categorized and put into a box. And despite their different professional paths, both live lives infused with passion, surrounded by community, and guided by family. Johaida and Guelmana approach their multifaceted identities differently, but one common aspect of their narratives holds true – they have a lot of pride in the strength and resilience of the first black republic, Haiti.By: Peggy Yu for Forbes.com | February 1, 2018
Alumna brings Robbinsville High’s Nemesis Robotics Team to Haiti
Robbinsville High School’s FIRST Robotics Team 2590 Nemesis went global.Sponsoring a fun and exciting engineering experience in Haiti over the holidays, Nemesis shared it love of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) with the House of Hope Orphanage, thanks to one of its own.Nemesis alumna Jolia Thadal, currently studying at the Rochester Institute of Technology, joined the New York Society of Cosmetic Chemists on a mission trip she co-organized to the House of Hope. The orphanage cares for more than 70 orphaned and abandoned children while also operating a K-13th grade school program where all expenses are covered by public donations.On behalf of Nemesis, Thadal hosted an engineering camp modeled after Discovery Day, a camp held annually at Robbinsville High School where children learn about the engineering design cycle through open-ended challenges. Nemesis, the technology sponsor of the trip, supplied the resources and training needed to engage 43 children from both the orphanage and surrounding areas. Through the camp, entitled “Discover Engineering: Let’s Build and Be Creative,” Haitian children were exposed to basic engineering principles in a fun and collaborative environment. Utilizing their creativity and problem solving skills, the campers worked in small teams to address engineering challenges.The children treasured their experiences, as well as the T-shirts, hats and goody bags that Nemesis provided.By: Likhitha Patlolla | February 1, 2018
PSU Enactus team develops hydroponics system for Haitian orphanage
PITTSBURG, Kan. — A group of Pittsburg State University students is trying to leave its mark in the world by developing a hydroponics system for an orphanage in Haiti."Overall, in one word, it has been amazing," said Dodge Mattingly, a freshman from Bluff City, Kansas. "Getting to work with different kinds of people on the same project with one goal — I've had a lot of fun."The group, 20 to 25 students, makes up the university's team for Enactus, a community of student, academic and business leaders committed to using the power of entrepreneurial action to create a better world. Enactus students at PSU, who come from majors across the campus, apply business concepts to develop community outreach projects.Enactus has long been associated in Pittsburg with Krimson Kultuur, the fair-trade store it opened in 2013. The store, now only in an online format, sells the work of local artists and artisans in developing countries.Last year, Enactus set its sights on someplace different: Haiti, an impoverished country that in recent years has struggled with the aftermath of a deadly earthquake and subsequent cholera outbreak. The students' initial idea was to find a way to encourage business among the Haitians and bring back some items they could sell at Krimson Kultuur."Based upon success with other projects, they decided that if the local citizens were taught business skills, they could open their own businesses and create income for their families," said their adviser, Suzanne Hurt.Three students traveled to Haiti in April 2017 with a partner organization. But after a short time there, and after visiting an orphanage filled with children who had lost their parents in the 2010 earthquake, they discovered the locals didn't need business — they needed food.
Enactus member Emily Vue, a Pittsburg State University senior in international business and international studies, was the project manager for the hydroponics system she and her fellow students built for an orphanage in Haiti. She said she made many young friends on a recent trip to the country. COURTESY | PITTSBURG STATE UNIVERSITY "We came up with hydroponics as an answer," said Emily Vue, a senior from Gravette, Arkansas, who is majoring in international business and international studies. "Building (a hydroponics system) would mean the orphanages could grow their own fresh vegetables and then sell the extra."Developing the systemMattingly, a mathematics and physics major, served as the project's chief engineer and designer. He researched existing hydroponics systems and tried to morph design aspects from each of them into one that would serve the Haitian orphanage.The system for the orphanage, he said, needed to be lightweight and inexpensive. Because of an unreliable power network in Haiti, the system also needed to be independent of an electric pump system, he said.He and the team settled on a nutrient film technique system that would be tailored specifically for use at the orphanage.
"It allows the water to be in a continuous loop and flow, and it will allow the roots of the plants to be covered at the bottom by a thin film of water," he said. "We decided that was the best system for what would be easiest for us to make."
Once the design was in place, the team created a list of needed materials and emailed it to Haiti so partners there could gather what was necessary. Five team members traveled to Haiti during their winter break to build the system at the orphanage.For Mattingly, the trip marked his first flight on an airplane and his first time out of the United States."It was a really unique, really special experience," he said. "I was really impacted by the kids at the orphanage. They imprint on your heart."Vue said it was all hands on deck, and the local Haitians were invested in the project.
"Not only did I gain a valuable experience (as the project manager), but I also feel like I received more than I gave in going to Haiti and meeting the children there," she said. "We were just a bunch of college students with an idea, and everyone there believed in us, and we were able to get it done." The team left the orphanage director with a complete manual for the system. Several of the students plan to return to Haiti sometime this spring to make sure the system is working properly and, hopefully, to find that the seeds they planted are growing."It's hard to capture in one sentence the passion and sacrifice made by a group of college students from a small town in Kansas," Hurt said in a statement from the university. In fact, I'm unsure if their accomplishments can be described in words. As said by one student, it's knowing that one more person, one more child has a full stomach when they go to bed that makes the effort worthwhile.By: Emily Younker | January 30, 2018
Architectural Digest Raises Money to Build Homes in Haiti
According to editor in chief Amy Astley, charity initiatives are a big part of Architectural Digest's future.
IT TAKES A SHELTER TITLE TO RAISE MONEY FOR A VILLAGE: Architectural Digest is partnering with San Francisco-based nonprofit start-up New Story to build a 100-home village in Haiti. On Monday, the Condé Nast shelter title hosted a breakfast at The Guild, the new restaurant/home goods store from interior design duo Roman & Williams in New York’s Lower Manhattan, to promote the initiative.“I believe in the power of art and design and beauty, and certainly in the importance of home. But I just felt like we have to stand for something else,” said Architectural Digest editor in chief Amy Astley. “I want the idea of design making a difference — not just in the lives of the lucky people whose homes we photograph — to become part of the DNA of AD.”The initiative, which launched in December, is set to coincide with the theme of the February issue: “Design Making a Difference,” and, as Astley made sure to tell the crowd, will be featured on all of AD’s platforms, which include social media, online and print. Over yogurt decorated with citrus segments and croissants served on ceramics in muted colors, New Story cofounder Brett Hagler pitched what was repeatedly referred to as “the design community” on the opportunity to make the world a better place and build a house for a Haitian family — for just $6,500 a pop. “Some of you might see me up here and think ‘what a good little boy, starting a charity. He must have always been like this.’ Quite the opposite, actually,” Hagler, who was named to Forbes list of 30 under 30 in 2016, when he was 22, said. “That could not be further from the case. I actually lived a pretty self-consuming lifestyle, before this, chasing after what I call the three Gs. And that didn’t include gratitude and generosity.”But pursuing “girls, gold and glory,” Hagler said, did not prove fulfilling. So he decided to create a charity. Gina Sanders, venture partner, Advance Venture Partners, and adviser to Y Combinator, became involved with the organization after meeting Hagler during a visit to Y Combinator, the start-up accelerator located in Mountain View, Calif.“When Amy came to AD, it just clicked that this would be a wonderful partnership,” she said.An attendee interrupted Sanders to say that the pitch was working. “I’m doing one house, I may do more. I’m so excited,” the passing attendee exclaimed. Another said she had already funded half a house, and planned to fund the other half shortly.According to Astley, who jumped over to AD from Teen Vogue nearly two years ago, funding goodwill projects is part of her vision for Architectural Digest’s future.“Showing that design can make a difference in the world, and how important home is — that’s ultimately what it’s all about,” Astley said. “And trying to humanize us, too.”By: Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke | January 29, 2018
The Lambi Fund of Haiti to offer programs to improve family livelihoods and create income-generating opportunities for smallholder farmers in Kavayon, Manich and Okay, Haiti
Washington, D.C. - The Lambi Fund of Haiti, located in Washington D.C. and Port au Prince, Haiti, will launch 9 various projects with smallholder farmers in Kavayon, Manich and Okay to improve family livelihoods and create income-generating opportunities in the southwest corridor of Haiti.The project is funded by a $ 139,321 grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation of Battle Creek, Michigan."We are thankful for the partnership with the W. K. Kellogg Foundation that will result in enhancing potential for livelihood and working out of poverty for families in farming communities working together to change the course of their lives. We welcome the Foundation's approach to focus on the corridor maximizing opportunities for that region of the South of Haiti." said Marie Marthe Saint Cyr, Executive Director of the Lambi Fund of Haiti.Efforts will focus on assisting local organizations with agricultural infrastructure, capacity building, ox-plowing services, agricultural transformation that contribute to improve food security and farming efforts.Projects will vary in all three areas and a total of 7 partner organizations in Haiti will benefit. These partner organizations vetted by the Lambi Fund's board will receive much needed aid to strengthen their livelihoods. The projects will include community fund for KOFEKA woman organization, ODRO mill transformation for rice, UPLADEP storage of grain, animal husbandry (goat), oxen and ox-plow, and 120,000 seedlings for planting addressing concerns with the environment.These projects will provide much needed aid to these organizations that were devastated by Hurricane Matthew in 2016 and continue to face uncertain weather patterns due to climate change.About the Lambi Fund of HaitiFounded jointly in 1994 by Haitians and Americans, the Lambi Fund of Haiti is a unique grassroots organization whose mission is to assist the popular, democratic movements in Haiti. Its goal is to help strengthen civil society in Haiti as a necessary foundation for democracy and development.The Lambi Fund has developed a bottom-up approach to development. The approach engages communities in a democratic process whereby communities themselves decide what is most important to their own development. In addition to financial and technical support, Lambi provides workshops on leadership, community organizing, democratic principles and gender equity. Lambi programs have impacted over 2 million Haitians, which is 20% of Haiti's entire population and has planted over 2 million trees since 2006. For more information, visit www.lambifund.org.About the W.K. Kellogg FoundationThe W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF), founded in 1930 as an independent, private foundation by breakfast cereal pioneer Will Keith Kellogg, is among the largest philanthropic foundations in the United States. Guided by the belief that all children should have an equal opportunity to thrive, WKKF works with communities to create conditions for vulnerable children so they can realize their full potential in school, work and life.The Kellogg Foundation is based in Battle Creek, Michigan, and works throughout the United States and internationally, as well as with sovereign tribes. Special emphasis is paid to priority places where there are high concentrations of poverty and where children face significant barriers to success. WKKF priority places in the U.S. are in Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico and New Orleans; and internationally are in Mexico and Haiti. For more information, visit www.wkkf.org.By" The Lambi Fund of Haiti | January 30, 2018
The ‘Conan In Haiti’ Special Wasn’t About Trump
During Saturday night’s Conan In Haiti special, Conan O’Brien encountered a crowd of Haitians who were uneasy with the presence of someone they perceived to be an American journalist after President Trump (allegedly?) called Haiti a shithole (or a shithouse, as some contend). In order to win over the group, O’Brien told them, “[the] reason I’ve come to Haiti is because I and a lot of Americans are angry at what President Trump said, so I wanted to come here and show positive, great beautiful things about Haiti.” But while Trump’s words were inextricably linked to O’Brien and his crew’s journey, and while his name certainly came up often when the late night host interacted with Haitian citizens, the special wasn’t really about Trump.To get technical, Trump’s remarks aren’t necessarily what sparked O’Brien’s exploratory trip. CNN anchor Anderson Cooper’s stirring words in response to Trump and in favor of Haiti helped to inspire O’Brien to seek an understanding of the country beyond a crude label and glimpses of the worst parts of it on the news. That’s a big part of O’Brien’s Conan Without Borders specials: to listen and learn about places that, despite technology’s awesome reach, remain walled off from many of us. That, and to make people laugh while transcending language and cultural barriers, two things that, as O’Brien demonstrated in the Conan In Haiti special, go hand in hand.To accomplish their mission before another round of Trump gaffes somehow made people forget about the “shithole” remark, the Conan team went into overdrive. Thankfully, they had a lot of help. Conan producer and writer Mike Sweeney tells Uproxx that a collection of journalists, celebrities, and prominent Haitians reached out to the show as soon as the special was announced. “Thanks to the outpouring of suggestions and assistance,” Sweeney says, “we were able to figure out where to visit in and around Port-au-Prince on only three days’ notice.”Unfortunately, the tight schedule led to some limitations for the nimble production of just nine on-the-ground crew members (including O’Brien). “There are many beautiful sites in northern and southern Haiti we were dying to visit, but we couldn’t pull it off on such a tight schedule,” said Sweeney, who did note that they got to make one 90-minute trip to a beach.Unsurprisingly, some on the right took issue with the special (sight-unseen) as well as O’Brien’s remarks and social media posts, saying they all fed into the idea that Haiti is a flawless and majestic locale. But portraying Haiti in that wholly positive light was never the goal, according to Sweeney.“Our intent was always to try and present a balanced picture of Haiti, both the bad and the good, but primarily, through Conan’s one-on-one interactions, shine a light on the amazing strength, warmth, and wit of the Haitian people.”
TBS
Whether critics will be silenced after seeing the special is unknown. Trump supporters will be uncomfortable watching as Haitian citizens roast Trump, but they should push past that and still listen to the impassioned history lesson delivered by one man (a moment that aired twice in the special, including at the very end) and the proud elementary school-age girl with a strong opinion on US-Haitian relations. Most importantly, they (and all viewers) should open their eyes to the diverse picture Conan painted with this special because there is clearly a complexity to the place that supersedes any one-word assessment, good or bad.Hope, joy, pride, and passion were all on display in O’Brien’s interactions with the Haitian people as he goofed off, danced, and got caught in the act of learning while touring a school for the poor, riding in the back of a tap-tap (the colorful vehicles used as cabs), learning about Haiti’s culinary culture, and, most importantly, talking to people.While there were plenty of positives covered in the special, O’Brien didn’t exactly ignore Haiti’s challenges. He explained that while the purpose of the trip “was to highlight the positive attributes of Haiti and its people […] It’s impossible to ignore Haiti’s ongoing crises,” before listing off statistics and showing images that make it clear that many Haitians struggle to live healthy and happy lives. That’s the Haiti many of us are familiar with, which means, in the absence of contrast, it becomes the only Haiti that exists. And that’s why it was so important that O’Brien pivoted from that brief exploration of Haiti’s troubles to a segment highlighting a group of expatriate women who returned to Haiti to grow businesses and the economy.There is hope in the story of that group — D.O.T. Haiti — and a connection to the idea of a better Haiti than the “shithole” narrative allows for; a narrative that assumes Haitians are sitting in rubble while dreaming about America’s gold-covered streets. People aren’t supposed to want to return to Haiti and they aren’t supposed to think about the future or ways that they can secure it with their own two hands. And yet, as the Conan In Haiti special demonstrated, they have and they do.The Conan In Haiti special also stands as a reminder of a fact that’s too easy to forget: Trump may be president, but he is not solely responsible for defining these times. Ultimately, it comes down to how we respond to him. Do we nod approvingly without investigation? Do we throw our hands up and turn away from the debate when we’re outraged by his actions or his remarks? Or, do we embrace that third option where we examine his words and actions and also reexamine our own preconceived notions, opening ourselves up to new ideas in the process? Conan In Haiti wasn’t about Trump, it was about looking at Haiti with fresh eyes and an open mind.By: JASON TABRYS | UPROXX | January 29, 2018
Five Reasons why Haiti should invest in Resilient Cities
Over the past 15 years, Haiti has experienced a rapid urbanization and the number of urban dwellers has doubled from 3 million to 6 million people. Haiti is now the third most urbanized country in Latin America and the Caribbean, after Trinidad and Tobago, and Mexico. Each year more than 133,000 Haitians move to cities.What does this mean for the future of urban dwellers? And how best can cities respond to growing demands for services, jobs, and accessibility? These are some of the questions the Haitian government and the representatives of many other countries and cities will be asking during the World Urban Forum in Kuala Lumpur next month.For Anabela Abreu, World Bank Country Director for Haiti, “Effective policies and investments are key to build sustainable cities with the participation of citizens and local communities; future cities where economic opportunities go hand in hand with population growth.”Many residents of Port-au-Prince struggle to find a place to live with affordable rent and running water, and many spend hours in traffic as they commute to their work place every day. Responding to our twitter poll on @WBCaribbean, our audience identified resilient infrastructure and access to services as the two most pressing priorities in building resilient cities in Haiti.Despite the challenges of rapid urbanization, extreme poverty levels have declined in Haiti and coverage of some services in cities has improved. Major cities are now all connected to the main road network, and access to micro credits has improved.
"The report aims at promoting a debate on the future of Haitian cities and identifies priority areas for action that can generate better services and opportunities for Haitians."
Here are five challenges and opportunities to build resilient cities in Haiti, highlighted in a new report, “Haitian Cities: Action for today with an eye on tomorrow”:
- Sixty-four percent of Haitians live in cities and the number of urban dwellers could surge from 6 million to 11 million people by 2050: Such rapid urbanization comes with growing demands for infrastructure, services and jobs, but most importantly it also brings economic opportunities. This is particularly striking in the streets of Port-au-Prince, which is bustling with people, small street vendors, telecom shops and colorful tap-taps – painted vans used as public transports. To seize these opportunities, the report calls for more resilient urban planning to close the gap in infrastructure, services and to prepare for future urban growth.
- Access to basic services has improved, particularly in urban areas, but more needs to be done to respond to fast growing needs: While residents in the capital of Port-au-Prince or the second largest city of Cap Haitian have better access to schools, health services and electricity, two thirds of urban residents lack improved sanitation and the collection rate of solid waste is very low. Strengthening municipal financing will allow local governments to make the right investments and engage citizens in decision making.
- Accessibility and affordable transport is key to access economic opportunities: 60 % of households are not using motorized transport. Tap Taps are the most widely used form of public transport, yet some of the most vulnerable can spend up to 73 percent of their total income in Tap Tap fares just by riding in these collective vans twice a day during the week. Investing in roads and improving efficiency and affordability of public transport, as well as strengthening urban land management, will be key to reducing the time people spend sitting in traffic and in improving the accessibility to jobs and markets.
- Costly natural disasters have undermined the benefits of the urbanization process: More than 96 percent of Haitians are at risk of two or more natural hazards. High concentrations of construction are found in seismic areas, and half are built in flood prone areas. Following the 2010 earthquake, Haiti developed disaster risk management information and planning tools, such as multi-hazard risk assessments, the mapping of seismic zones and exposed assets. A first open data platform - Haitidata.org - was also launched to better allocate public resources in post-disaster situations.
- A stronger system of municipal finance is needed to close the infrastructure and service gap and accommodate the growing urban population: Only 0.6 percent of GDP is currently spent by communes (municipalities). As cities expand in size and population, the challenge is to finance sustainable and inclusive urban development growth.
Haiti’s Complex Humanity
For a number of complicated reasons, I chose Haiti to begin what’s planned to be a round of near-global travel. Like most white North Americans, my travels to the Caribbean have focused primarily around vacations; maybe I’ve been a little more adventuresome than most, but it’s still a perverse and inaccurate way of seeing the lives of others. My goals, for a book I’m researching, are to see how people in other countries raise food; how they market and process it; what they eat and why; and how they cook. I’ll look at policy and the regulations that shape growing and eating also. This is in an attempt to help find, define, showcase, and popularize the alternative agricultural methods (broadly known as agroecology, though there’s more to it than that) that are equally productive, but less extractive and exploitative — and therefore more sustainable — than many of the industrial methods that dominate agriculture in the United States and elsewhere.
I wanted to start with someplace both different and nearby. Haiti, which has intrigued me since I read Graham Greene’s The Comedians in the late ’60s, seemed a good candidate. Plus, I had the offer of a guide, in the person of Steve Brescia, who runs Groundswell International, which supports the development of agroecology among family farmers — “peasants” is really the better word — in several locations around the world, including here.
At this point, it’s impossible not to refer to our president, who undoubtedly has never set foot in Haiti. It’s easy to call a poor place a shithole, if you’re arrogant, ignorant, and lack empathy. It’s another to try to understand why Haiti is so poor. (I’m not sure whether the best one-word answer is “racism,” “slavery,” “colonialism,” “neoliberalism,” or “globalization,” but they have all played important roles and, except for outright slavery, continue to, as the developed world uses Haiti and similar nations as captive markets.) To visit is to appreciate what a stunning display of humans’ ability to adapt to the challenging circumstances — the poverty has been compounded by earthquakes, hurricanes, even choleraAfter the devastating 2010 earthquake, U.N. “relief” forces brought cholera to Haiti, sickening hundreds of thousands and killing about 10,000. — you can see here. At least, that was one of my major takeaways.
We spent 72 hours in Haiti, much of it in cars. There were highlights, to be sure, but I want to be clear that although I saw farming on steep hillsides, organizations of peasants and their families, generally a side of the country that most Americans don’t, the truth is that I saw some noteworthy things in a few villages. Steve has been to Haiti dozens of times; he started visiting in 1992, and has gone pretty much annually since. Along with his friend and colleague Cantave Jean-Baptiste,A fascinating man around my age, who grew up in a peasant family from this region, and whose brother, Chavannes, was one of the founding members of La Via Campesina, perhaps the most important peasant organization in the world. More on that another time. he has supported good work there for much of that time, and still learns with each visit. For me to pretend that I saw more than one-tenth of one percent of anything significant would be arrogant.
Straight from the airport, we met with Ricot Jean-Pierre, the program director of PAPDA (Haitian Platform to Advocate Alternative Development), a collection of groups working to organize peasants and workers and focusing on better development models. After a stop on the way out of town for a lunch of overcooked goat meat, fried plantains, and Prestige, the local beer, we began the five- (or was it six?) hour drive to the areas near Hinche (with a quarter of a million inhabitants) and the town of St. Raphaël, around which are dozens of villages.
This is the heart of the region where Cantave — who’s an organizer, agronomist, educator, and founder of PDL (Partenariat pour le Développement Local) — works closely with a number of local farmer groups organizing around women’s and children’s health, and human rights, as well as both farming techniques (and therefore income) and self-government.
Haiti is not only the poorest country in the hemisphere, it’s also the second-oldest republic (formed in 1804, mostly by former slaves), with a history clouded by colonialism, cruel dictatorship,The infamous “Papa Doc” Duvalier. I reread The Comedians (fun piece) on the flight home and couldn’t help but think of Trumpie when I read Papa Doc’s attempt to damn and discredit Greene by describing him as “a cretin, a stool pigeon, sadistic, unbalanced, perverted, a perfect ignoramus, lying to his heart’s content , the shame of proud and noble England, a spy, a drug addict, and a torturer.” and of course, natural disaster. Like many countries, it’s seeing an abandonment of the countryside, as both soil and people have moved downhill. The soil washed to the sea as a result of deforestation, and the people to Port-au-Prince in search of work and (I’m guessing) infrastructure. Supporting, establishing, and reestablishing sustainable farming in those hills forms a great part of the work of both Cantave’s and Steve’s organizations.
The drive was hair-raising and eye-opening from the get-go. Port-au-Prince’s “public” transportation system comprises hundreds of hacked, small pickups (“tap-taps”), brightly painted, often with religious slogans, and capable of carrying 20 or more people at what would appear to be great risk; as well as thousands of motorcyclists (mostly, if not all ,young men) who will pick up anyone who flags them down. Combine that with narrow and badly maintained streets (maybe “unmaintained” is more accurate); a fair amount of barely regulated private-car and truck traffic; tens of thousands of pedestrians;Maybe hundreds of thousands; Port-au-Prince, with 2.5 million people, is only a little less populated than Chicago. few sidewalks; and many roadside piles of rubble, lumber, sugar cane, tires, crates of sugary beverages, vendors of almost everything, 4-year-old kids — you name it. The scene is just short of chaotic, at least to the sheltered New Yorker.
As the newly arrived guest, I rode shotgun. In my opinion, that’s the scariest seat, and the last time I remember being so jumpy was on the national highway headed south from Saigon toward the Mekong Delta; that was 1997.But then I was traveling with Jean-Georges Vongerichten and the late (and missed) Kerry Simon. I got to sit in the back. Less frightening. We sped along on the national highway, large stretches of which are unpaved.
A few things I saw on that drive:
• Some 6-year-old kids walking down the “highway” with five-gallon plastic water drums on their heads. Running water isn’t common in the countryside, so people carry water, wash clothes (and themselves, and cars, and whatever) in streams. (There’s also little electricity, and no national grid.)“So where do you charge your phone?” — which most, or at least many, people seem to have, I asked someone. “In every village, there are a couple of people who have a generator or a solar-powered battery, and you pay them a few gourdes” — the local currency — “to charge your phone.” Of course, there are also women of all ages carrying huge piles of a variety of things on their heads, including 50-pound bags of rice.
• A settlement of 300,000 people (according to Carla, our translator) 30 minutes outside of Port-au-Prince, with no roads, no plumbing, no electricity, no services of any kind. People were resettled in tents after the 2010 earthquake, and then created makeshift houses with available materials.
• People riding burros with saddles made of dried sugar-cane leaves. Not uncommon. Oxcarts, too. A striking sight was a funeral procession led by an oxcart with two yoked oxen, the coffin in the back, decorated with cane leaves and draped with white muslin.
• A huge supermarket with almost no fresh ingredients and almost nothing from Haiti.
• Zero white people. We were the people from another planet. In fact, the only two white people I saw from arrival at the airport until departure were Steve and Carla.
Once at Cantave’s place — a nascent training center for farmers and organizers a few kilometers outside St. Raphaël — I felt settled into a place of beauty and energy, a different world; people in general were energetic, engaging, and talkative. I can speak French (badly), but it’s not as helpful as it might be here, because so much of Haitian Creole is different. I imagine part of that was rebellion, the development of a code language different from that of the oppressor. Part of it, too, is simply time and distance; my impression is that the French influence here is far less important than the African or the American.
Most of the rest of my waking hours were spent visiting farmers and their families and a couple of farmer-run enterprises, including a newly functioning sugar mill (sugar cane remains an important crop, but there aren’t enough processing facilities for small farmers), and a peanut-butter “factory” — basically a small-scale but powerful grinder in a 60-square-foot concrete building.
The St. Raphaël daily outdoor market was, like the supermarket, notable for its lack of local food; almost all shelf-stable staples come from the United States and, not surprisingly, thanks to (American) subsidies, are cheaper than healthier, domestically produced food. It’s impossible not to wonder how to get over this. Farmers’ organizations seem, unquestionably, to be making a difference: Peasants I met grew much of their own food, and relied upon it — they understand, in the most important ways, what’s healthy. But they also grow surplus, and it’s difficult for them to sell it — there’s no real market for it, and therefore imported foods continue to dominate. There’s an opportunity here, and some people are talking about a special daily or weekly market for local produce only.
Down the road a bit was the meat market, which comprised a few dozen people selling live goats and chickens. It was not uncommon to see people walking to market with chickens under their arms or carried in sacks, or goats on a leash or tied to the back of a cycle. I loved this, both for its spectacle and as a reminder that good meat — all the meat raised here is “free-range” and “organic” — shouldn’t be taken for granted.
I had four notable meals. Dinner that first night at Cantave’s was, oddly enough, a near replica of lunch, only five times better: beautifully seasoned, pan-roasted goat meat, tender and mildly spicy; fried plantains, crisp-tender and salty; thin, fried slices of breadfruit — big chips, essentially; pikliz, a kind of barely cooked, spicy slaw; cucumbers, lettuce, and tomatoes. And more Prestige, too.
Lunches, prepared (mostly) by women of the village organizations that we visited, were cooked in huge pots over open wood fires: sorghum, mayi moulen (which means, literally, “milled corn,” but that doesn’t mean much to non-Creole speakers, and it is, essentially, polenta); root vegetables (sweet potato, yam, cassava, plantain, and more); 10 or 15 kinds of greens, most unidentifiable by me, I was told what they were, but none of the words mean what we think they mean, which is to say, the word translated as spinach is not what you think of as spinach. pounded together while cooking to make a kind of beaten sauce; okra with chilies and a little bit of goat (sensational); black beans, some mashed and strained, also to become saucy; and a red bean I’d never seen before.
I have to say that my favorite meal was the first breakfast: The table was adorned with a cooked goat’s head, next to which was a stew called ragout tonbe — fallen ragout — so named because it’s made from the offal that falls out of the goat after the first butchering cut is made. (Meat from the head and feet are involved, too.) All of that is stewed with leeks, bitter-orange juice, parsley, garlic, thyme, chilies, black pepper, salt, tomato, and oil. I didn’t see it get made, though I wish I had, because it reminded me of nothing so much as bouillabaisse, I guess because the seasonings were similar and the intestines virtually indistinguishable from squid. It was all served with boiled roots and cassava bread.
I left Port-au-Prince a little over a week ago, and have since been to Brazil (quickly), home, and am writing this from London. The contrasts are staggering, and will not become less so.
After leaving Haiti, I couldn’t help but compare the “shithole” comment to Greene, who noted that the poor are not the source of the world’s troubles: “Wars are made by politicians, by capitalists, by intellectuals, by bureaucrats, by Wall Street bosses or Communist bosses — they are none of them made by the poor.”
Haiti book CONCACAF's final ticket to France 2018
- Haiti qualify for FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup France 2018
- Sheryl Jeudy scores winning goal in first half
- Haiti will participate in the U-20 Women's World Cup for the first time
Haiti booked the final ticket from the CONCACAF region to qualify for the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup France 2018 with a 1-0 victory over Canada in the match for third place at the CONCACAF Women’s U-20 Championship in Couva, Trinidad and Tobago.Sherly Jeudy scored the game's only goal in the 18th minute when she broke through Canada's backline and latched on to the end of a superb through ball by captain Nerilia Mondesir before putting her laces through a fierce shot that ended up in the top corner.Canada went in to the match as the favourites as they had defeated Haiti 4-0 in the group stage earlier in the tournament. However, Haiti put pressure on the Canadian defence which eventually led to Jeudy's stunning strike, which was Haiti's first ever goal against Canada in the history of the competition.Canada were forced to take the initiative in the second half as they went in search of an equaliser, but Haiti goalkeeper Kerly Theus and Co stayed focussed and disciplined throughout the contest and kept Jordyn Huitema and the Canadian attack at bay.By: FIFA | 28 Jan 2018
NAACP files lawsuit over Trump's Haiti immigration policy, citing disparaging remark
The NAACP has sued the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, citing President Donald Trump's disparaging comments about immigrants and their home countries as evidence of racial discrimination influencing his administration's decision to end protections for roughly 60,000 Haitians.In a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Maryland federal court, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund said Homeland Security officials failed to follow the normal decision-making process when considering whether to renew the temporary protected status granted to Haitian immigrants since a devastating earthquake struck the Caribbean country in 2010.Instead of reviewing facts about conditions in Haiti since the earthquake, including an ongoing cholera outbreak and destruction from Hurricane Matthew in 2016, Homeland Security officials sought to bolster stereotypes about blacks and immigrants committing crimes and receiving public assistance, according to the lawsuit.The temporary protected status allowing Haitians to legally live and work in the U.S. after the 2010 earthquake had been renewed repeatedly, to the chagrin of critics who said the humanitarian measure never intended to allow immigrants to establish roots in this country.The Trump administration announced in November that Haitians with the protected status would have until July 2019 to get their affairs in order and return home.The lawsuit cites a 2017 report from The Associated Press detailing U.S. immigration officials' attempts to find data on Haitians with protected status committing crimes or receiving public assistance. It also quotes separate reports that Trump said thousands of Haitians who came to the U.S. in 2017 "all have AIDS," and that he used vulgar language to question why the country needed more immigrants from Haiti or from African countries instead of from countries like Norway.Trump's comments on immigration from his presidential campaign, including statements about "bad hombres" he would expel from the country, also were cited by the lawsuit, along with reports that former Homeland Security Acting Secretary Elaine Duke was being pressured by administration officials to rescind temporary protected status for immigrants from Honduras.The lawsuit, filed on behalf of the NAACP and its members with protected status, names Duke and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielson as defendants.
Homeland Security spokeswoman Katie Waldman said in an email Thursday the agency does not comment on pending litigation.By: Jennifer Kay | Chicago Tribune | January 25, 2018
Conan O’Brien Receives Rough Reception In Haiti, Because Of Donald Trump
“Make sure Trump knows that you guys are the ones who have bullied us, and have caused us to be in the state that we’re in.”
https://youtu.be/Go4QrE_0MHU
Conan O’Brien did not receive the warmest of welcomes during his recent trip to Haiti.
Angry locals berated the late-night talk show host and his camera crew while they were filming for the upcoming “Conan Without Borders” episode in the Caribbean country’s capital of Port-au-Prince.
“We’re being told through our interpreter that when Americans come here they only shoot the bad things, which obviously is not what we want to,” said O’Brien, in a preview clip shared online late Wednesday. O’Brien decided to visit Haiti after President Donald Trump reportedly called the country a “shithole.”
O’Brien explained to locals via a translator that the “reason I have come to Haiti is because I and a lot of Americans are angry at what President Trump said, so I wanted to come here and show positive, great beautiful things about Haiti.”
But one woman was not having it:
“Make sure Trump knows that you guys are the ones who have bullied us, and have caused us to be in the state that we’re in,” she added.
All was not lost. O’Brien ended up charming his audience with a speech in Creole ― and then further bonded with locals, and the woman, with a Trump-themed joke.
Check out the clip above. “Conan In Haiti” airs Jan. 27.
Why go to Haiti – spotlighting the positives sides of the Republic
AN ELDERLY GENTLEMAN sits in the shade in Port-au-Prince, the capital city of Haiti. (Photo by Kennth Neely)
In the hills of Haiti, about 40 minutes from the capital of Port-au-Prince, under the lavender bougainvillea and the fiery orange flamboyant trees, something even more beautiful happens behind the gate of the Maison Georges Anglade.The house, in the Thomassin community, is a sanctuary for Haiti writers.So it is a place where poets, novelists, and essayists come to complete their projects and engage in the practice of free expression. It is a place that takes care of the writer. A small fee is charged and the writer gets food and lodging. For those who don’t want to reside here, writers can come to use the library or the computer lab, where they sit in the shade of the bougainvillea and write.
ONE OF THE COMMON ROOMS at PEN Haiti. (Photo by Germaine Watkins)
It is a creative space. During the day, it is a space that welcomes all types of writers. There are those who are educated, those who live in tent cities, from those who believe they were born to write. It is also a space that provides workshops to students, local residents, pushing the realization that all can develop the capacity to be a writer. Most nights there are readings and music.PEN Haiti began in 2002 and is part of PEN International, a global organization that promotes freedom of expression as a way to advance human rights. The house was acquired in 2012 and named for a Haitian scholar and ethnographer.
A LOCAL RESIDENT RESTS during the heat of the day on a wall at the beach in Jacmel, a sun-splashed town in south Haiti known for its artists’ communities and music festivals. (Photo by Kenneth Neely)
Since the residence has opened, more than 400 young writers have come through. Some have had the opportunity to work and engage with such famous author poet-playwright Franck Etienne, and poet-novelist Lyonel Trouillot, both whom write in French and Haitian Creole, and with Emmelie Prophète, writer and diplomat, who represents a broadening and outreach to women writers in Haiti.PEN Haiti is an important space. In Haiti, only about 60 percent of the population can read or write and only about 20 percent progress to school beyond the eighth grade.“To fight against those kinds of statistics, the work we do encourages literacy,” said Evans Momparnousse, a director of PEN Haiti, who spoke through an interpreter and recently gave American visitors a tour of home. “We see what we do as a way to use writing as a way to preserve our culture, but also because it values freedom of speech and expression. We believe that supporting writers helps to bolster freedom of speech.”
EVANS MOMPARNOUSSE, a director of PEN Haiti. The organization advocates for literature and arts to help advance human rights. (Photo by Germaine Watkins)
To expand its mission, PEN Haiti is now providing yearly reading and writing seminars in rural areas, such as Jacmel, Gonaives, and Saint-Marc. “We want to reach the young people,” said Momparnousee, “giving them a way to use their voices to debate political, social, and economic issues in Haiti.”One way to do this, said PEN Haiti, is to encourage writing in Creole, the language that is a mix of African, French, and the indigenous tongue of the native people of Haiti. It is spoken by 7 million people and is the language of the everyday man and woman in Haiti. Though French is the formal language in Haiti, many Haitians speak another language–English, Spanish and more–as way to engage visitors, but “we support writing in the local tongue; to give value to it,” said Momparnousee. “Using it to create novels and poems is a way to preserve the language, too.”
WADSON DESIR, a Haitian who works to improve health, education and other outcomes in his community of Boutilliers. (Photo by Germaine Watkins)
In fact, PEN Haiti has instituted what it calls Creole Academy to promote the writing and sharing of culture among the people who use the local language, advocating its use as kind of confrontation with French, the language inherited from the colonial power and spoken by the elite minority. It’s a way, said Momparnousse, to tell the local people that their language and culture matters.The poet and writer Shelo Francois was recently at PEN Haiti in Thomassin on a three-week artist-in-residence to finish a book of poems that address environmental justice and cultural identification.He said he’s been a writer since he was born. One of his influences and favorite writers is the noted Haitian author Jacques Roumain, who wrote of peasant life and culture and was friends with American poet Langston Hughes.
ERVIN DYER, PHD, interviews Wadson Desir, a Haitian who works to improve health, education and other outcomes in his community of Boutilliers. (Photo by Germaine Watkins)
But growing up in Port-au-Prince, Francois was deeply influenced by urban culture and the diaspora arts that penetrated city life. He was drawn to slam and spoken-word poetry and rap music from France. He would perform in school and a teacher told him he had a potential to be a writer.He studied and earned a license in clinical psychology, but the love of writing and being creative never left his soul. Today, in addition to writing, he makes a living holding writing workshops in Kenscoff, a small city in the hills about 40 miles from Port-au- Prince.Francois said PEN Haiti is an important project because it provides writers with connections, a network of support, a peaceful environment to write, and a creative space to be inspired.
CHILDREN on their way from school in Milot, the town that sits at the bottom of the mountain that holds the Citadelle Laferriere, the grand fortress built in the early 1800s. (Photo by Kenneth Neely)
“It’s also important for its outreach and nurturing of young writing,” he said, filling a hole left by the government, which too often ignores writers until they find acclaim.Young writers today, said Francois, see writing as form of protest, a way to push for equality, embrace the intellectual canon, and to highlight social and cultural issues such as influence of voodoo on society.“We are grateful,” he said, “that a place like PEN Haiti opens the doors to help make this happen.”
A LOCAL MUSICIAN stopped by PEN Haiti to practice and share his music in an outdoor garden at the building. (Photo by Germaine Watkins)
Haiti urbanisation rises but not wealth: World Bank
PORT-AU-PRINCE: Urbanisation is on the rise in Haiti, the third most urbanised country in Latin America and the Caribbean, but economic growth is still lagging behind, the World Bank said Tuesday (Jan 23), warning of the increased threat of natural disasters on cities growing unabated.More than six million people, or 64 per cent of the population, now live in cities in the poorest country in the Americas, compared to just a third of residents in 1996, the global financial institution said in a report.But, unlike the global trend, economic growth has not accompanied urbanisation in Haiti. GDP per capita dropped from US$757 in 1996 to US$727 in 2013."There's been a process of very rapid urbanisation, at an average pace of 5 per cent per year, that has not been coupled with adequate infrastructure investments to handle this urban growth," World Bank's Director for Social, Urban and Resilience Global Practice Sameh Wahba told AFP.Basic services are also severely lacking. Coupled with the lack of infrastructure, this undermines productivity and livability, the report noted.Poor funding means more than a third of urban residents lack access to clean drinking water, while two thirds lack improved sanitation. An estimated 8 per cent defecate openly.And most urban residents struggle more than their rural counterparts to find jobs."Rather than benefitting from high densities, cities in Haiti today are overcrowded places with wide gaps in infrastructure and services," the report said."Resilient urban growth is hindered by these gaps and by increased exposure to natural disasters, and by ineffective land use planning."The dysfunction and cost of the transportation system means that about three quarters of urban dwellers do not take motorised transport on a daily basis, opting either not to travel or to walk everywhere."Improvements in the connectivity system are required to increase resilience and promote economic growth and job creation," the report says.Wahba noted that in the capital Port-au-Prince, pedestrians have access to an average of just 12 per cent of jobs in the city, which "reduces their chances of increasing income."And the urban growth also makes the country more vulnerable to natural disasters.Eight years after a devastating earthquake killed more than 200,000 people and caused damage worth an estimated 117 per cent of GDP, chaotic construction is still pervasive, despite a construction code.Almost all of Haiti's land area is considered "medium" or "high" earthquake risk, and the World Bank estimates 58 per cent of built-up areas face a risk of flooding.The World Bank recommended serious investment in basic services to provide "resilient" urban planning and better prepare for urban growth. It also called for improved transportation and better municipal financing.By: Channel NewsAsia | January 24, 2018
Trump's Haitian Work Visa Ban Could Cripple Mar-a-Lago
The Trump administration’s decision to exclude Haitians from receiving temporary agricultural and seasonal visas in the U.S. could work against the interests of the Trump Organization.An announcement from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Thursday noted that citizens of Haiti, as well as Belize and Samoa, will be prohibited from applying for the temporary H-2A and H-2B visas. But that could cause staffing problems for Mar-a-Lago, which Trump has dubbed the ‘Winter White House.’The resort reportedly employs more Haitians than nearly any other nationality. (Romania is the only other one that comes close, according to The New Yorker.) Mar-a-Lago applied for and received 70 H-2B visas for its recent 2017-2018 season.The DHS action comes just days after Trump made a series of comments that brought condemnation to the Oval Office. Speaking of Haiti, El Salvador, and African nations, Trump reportedly asked, “Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?,” during a meeting.Trump has denied saying anything derogatory about Haitians and denied using the word “shithole.” That prompted Sen. Dick Durbin to publicly assert that the president did indeed use the word.By: CHRIS MORRIS January 18, 2018
Donald Trump Sold an Apartment to a Brutal Haitian Dictator?
He sold the Trump Tower apartment to Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier through a Panamanian shell corporation in 1983.
CLAIM
Donald Trump sold a Trump Tower apartment to the brutal and corrupt former Haitian leader Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier.
RATING
TRUEORIGIN
On 7 February 1986, facing a domestic populist revolt and international pressure to step down, embattled President of Haiti Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, fled his country for exile in France onboard a United States Air Force jet. A New York Times obituary from 4 October 2014 described his rule over Haiti as one of “bloody brutality”, widespread corruption, and lavish excess:
When he fled Haiti, American officials said he held $200 million to $500 million in foreign bank accounts and had a reputation for giving family members million-dollar vacations at luxury resorts, as millions of Haitians lived in squalor and scrounged for food.
Once he fled, a new government in Haiti attempted recover these assets, which they believed the Duvalier regime had looted from the government and people of Haiti. A 14 July 1986 story in New York Magazine first reported that one of the assets the government of Haiti was trying to seize was an apartment in Trump Tower purchased in August 1983 through a shell corporation:
Investigators working for the new government of Haiti have uncovered what they believe is almost $5 million worth of New York real estate owned by interests linked to the family of deposed president Jean-Claude Duvalier.
These assets consist of five Manhattan apartments, including a fifty-fourth-floor Trump Tower condominium bought in August 1983 for $1.65 million. This is the first reported instance of Duvalier assets being discovered in the United States.
The apartment in question, 54K, was purchased by “Lasa Trade and Finance” and — at the time of the 1986 article — was occupied by a friend of the Duvaliers named Jean “Johnny” Sambour.
Serendipitously, thanks to a combination of late telephone bills and several checks issued to Sambour by the Treasury of Haiti, a United States law firm hired by the Government of Haiti was able to ascertain that, indeed, the apartment was owned by the Duvaliers.
Recounting his experience hunting down the assets of the Duvaliers in a 2009 New Yorker profile, prolific corporate intelligence investigator Jules Kroll (who had been hired by the U.S. law firm retained by the Haitian government) said that Duvalier’s looting from the Haitian treasury was far from subtle:
Baby Doc, Kroll said, was “not the sharpest nail in the box.” He had looted the Haitian treasury by writing big checks. “Apartment in Trump Tower?” Kroll made a show of laborious penmanship. “ ‘Trump . . . Tower.’ Even we could figure that one out.”
In March 1987, President Ronald Reagan signed an executive order freezing any U.S.-based Duvalier assets, which included — according to the New York Times — Trump Tower apartment 54K.
The tale of Duvalier’s ownership of a Trump Tower apartment gained renewed interest in January 2018, thanks to a BuzzFeed News investigation of possible money laundering by the Trump Organization, combined with Trump’s alleged derogatory comments about Haiti.
That BuzzFeed report investigated every U.S. sale of a Trump Organization or Trump-branded property since 1980 to see how many fit the U.S. Government’s criteria for possible money laundering, finding that a full 21 percent could fit that bill:
Trump condo sales that match Treasury’s characteristics of possible money laundering totaled $1.5 billion, BuzzFeed News calculated. They accounted for 21% of the 6,400 Trump condos sold in the US. Those figures include condos that Trump developed as well as condos that others developed in his name under licensing deals that pay Trump a fee or a percentage of sales. […]
The property records analyzed by BuzzFeed News would not by themselves reveal money laundering – only warning signs.
That story does mention the Duvalier incident, reporting that Trump himself signed the deed of sale for Apartment 54K in 1983, but notes that there is no evidence that the Trump Organization, or Trump personally, participated in any untoward money laundering scheme in this case.
However, as Donald Trump did sell an apartment in Trump Tower to Duvalier through a Panamanian shell corporation in 1983, we rank the claim as true.
Without Haiti, the United States Would, in Fact, Be a Shithole - And some other things about the country that Donald Trump doesn’t know and doesn’t care to know.
It feels strange to me after so many years of thinking and writing about Haiti, to say nothing of simply being there, to have to rise to the country’s defense against a fool. But that fool is the president of the United States, so let’s start with first things first.It goes without saying that Donald Trump knows nothing about history. But those who do have heard of the Louisiana Purchase, the incredible deal President Jefferson struck with France to buy the giant piece of land, 828,000 square miles of river and breadbasket, that stretches from what is now the Canadian border down to New Orleans and the delta. Without this territory, the United States would never have become a continental power nor, subsequently, a great global power. Jefferson got it at a bargain-basement price: $250 million, in current dollars, doubling the size of the country for less than 3 cents per acre.You may ask what this has to do with Haiti (although any president with a competent staff would have this information at his fingertips). Here’s the answer, White House staff: Napoleon wanted to sell this fabulously valuable piece of New World real estate because for more than a decade he had failed to put down the startling slave revolution in the French colony of Haiti, losing two-thirds of French forces there in the process.The First Consul (that’s Napoleon, Mr. President) could see the writing on the wall. France was pushed to the limit of its military and financial means by the Haitian uprising, and the future emperor (NB: also Napoleon) had lost his taste for further involvement in the Americas. He sold us Louisiana. Then on January 1, 1804, Haiti declared its independence from France, and by extension, from white men like Donald Trump.So it is the courage and tenacity of the rebellious slaves of Haiti that created the United States as we know it. Score one for the shithole.Haitian history is full of many other amazing facts, not least that it can claim to have spawned the Americas’ first successful freedom fighters, the Cacos, who waged a sporadic but unstoppable guerilla war against the US Marine Occupation that began in 1915. Along with popular opinion in the US, they finally forced the Americans out in 1934.Nonetheless, the Marines had done their damage. While improving Haiti’s infrastructure, the occupation opened the country up for “foreign investment,” which meant, essentially, the severe exploitation (including chain gangs) of Haitian labor, the appropriation of lands by US groups, the manipulation (which continues) of Haitian elections, the takeover of the lucrative Haitian sugar industry and of Haitian banks, and a national move away from self-sufficient subsistence agriculture into a cash economy that continues to be responsible for repeated food shortages and economic decline. How to become a shithole: the Americans will help.I could go on in this vein, but I won’t. I’m pointing a finger at the United States because I’m responding to the US president. France, after Napoleon, also had a hand in Haiti’s decline. Emmanuel Macron, however, has yet to call the country un trou de merde—and I doubt he ever will.Finally, I want to write personally about Haiti, the experience of Haiti as a place to visit, to see, be in, live in.Haiti is what Ronald Reagan was dreaming of when he suggested that shrinking the state would allow the business sector to move in and replace government functions in a market economy. Haiti has a vestigial state. There is no national health care, no social security, no pensions, very little taxation, very few labor regulations, a tiny national coffer. This is the direction in which Reagan pushed us and which Trump and his people continue to move us. There is very little organized sanitation, unemployment is the norm, housing is less than substandard, and electricity is delivered in a capricious and severely limited fashion. Poverty means that people have to live day by day, earning a goud here and a goud there. It means that individual and family plans for the future are nearly impossible to make. Many of the ablest Haitians have immigrated to the United States and Canada, though Trump apparently does not appreciate their many contributions to our economy as doctors, engineers, attorneys, academics, dentists, accountants, etc.Haitians feel the lack of a state every day and night, but they still rise indomitably to the task of living full lives. It’s rare to see a Haitian hanging around, at least in Port-au-Prince. Everyone is constantly on the move, trying to find work and make a buck. There is poetry being written and music being played. At night, students go out and sit under the light of street lamps to study for tests. Haitians are huge into basketball and ecstatic when one of their players makes it to the NBA, as several have. Haitian literature over the centuries is full of masterpieces. Dany Laferrière, a novelist of Haitian descent, was recently admitted to the elite Académie Française. Alexandre Dumas, author of The Three Musketeers, was Haitian, as was the naturalist John James Audubon.In the camps set up by Haitians after the earthquake that struck exactly eight years ago today, I sat around with teenage boys eager to play tapes for me of the music they’d recorded. During a tropical storm, I had a camp dinner of sardines and tomatoes cooked outside a tent over a charcoal fire. I’ve watched cockfights in small stadiums, and Vodou ceremonies in the earthquake rubble. I’ve seen the dazzling paintings by Haitian masters on the walls of museums (now crumbled) and churches (also now crumbled). I’ve seen a young boy who lost both his hands and both his forearms in the earthquake learn to use prostheses and also learn to accept the care of his extended family in the countryside. I’ve seen countless examples of Haitian solidarity and community, and of course of the human hunger to learn and grow and better one’s fortunes.The island itself is physically beautiful, with pure white beaches and majestic mountains, and a capital city and provincial metropolis that are both captivating, each in its own way. Trump might not think so, because in every way, Haiti does not resemble his universe of Trump Tower and Mar-a-Lago. The country is almost entirely lacking in gilt and gold-plate.But it still shines.By: Amy Wilentz | The Nation | JANUARY 12, 2018
DAYS AFTER 'SHITHOLE' CONTROVERSY, TRUMP ADMINISTRATION BANS HAITI FROM APPLYING FOR LOW-SKILLED WORK VISA
Following reports that President Donald Trump referred to several countries, including Haiti, as "shitholes" (reports the president partially denied), on Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has now barred people from the Caribbean country from applying for low-skilled working visas.DHS said in a regulatory filing that it was removing Haiti from a list of more than 80 countries whose citizens can be granted H-2A and H-2B visas, given to seasonal workers in agriculture and other industries.It justified the decision by citing the “high levels of fraud and abuse” from Haitians on the program, and “a high rate of overstaying the terms” of their visas.
Approximately 40 percent of Haitians overstayed on a variety of non-immigrant U.S. visas, including H-2As and H-2Bs, in the 2016 fiscal year, according to a DHS report.Just a few dozen Haitians entered the United States on the visas each year since they were given permission to do so in 2012 by the Obama administration, according to DHS data.Sixty-five Haitians entered the United States on H-2A visas, given for agricultural work, in the 2016 fiscal year, and 54 Haitians were granted H-2A visas by the State Department between March and November 2017. The number of Haitians entering in 2016 on H-2B visas, which are for non-agricultural seasonal work, was more than zero but too low to report, according to DHS.Belize and Samoa were also removed from the lists, for risks stemming from human trafficking and not taking back nationals ordered removed from the United States, respectively.Supporters of the visas say they gave Haitians a rare opportunity to work legally in the United States, contribute to the U.S. economy and help fund the recovery of Haiti after a major earthquake in 2010, which killed more than 200,000 people.The announcement was made less than a week after President Donald Trump reportedly asked lawmakers “why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?”—referring to El Salvador, Haiti and several African nations.The controversial comment came during a heated discussion on the future of immigration policy between Republican and Democrat lawmakers in the Oval Office, where Trump questioned why the U.S. would continue to take in immigrants from poor countries. The president also reportedly wondered why the U.S. didn't have more immigrants from predominantly white and economically stable countries like Norway.However, though Democratic Senator Dick Durbin said Trump used the slur, Republican lawmakers, including Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, said they could not recall the word being used. Trump defended his harsh language, but later denied using the language reported. He defended and his relationship with Haiti in an interview with Reuters on Wednesday.“I love the people. There’s a tremendous warmth. And they’re very hard-working people,” he said.By: CHRISTINA ZHAO AND REUTERS | 1/18/18
Haiti's Michael Brun Responds to Trump's 'Shithole' Comments: Exclusive
Today's United States is a land rife with cultural divide, but Haitian DJ/producer Michael Brun comes bearing a message of love and unity.Hailing from Port-au-Prince, the 25-year-old knows the prevalent narrative of his homeland. Haiti is often seen as a poverty-stricken, disaster-prone afterthought, but it has always been much more. As a musician, Brun has worked tirelessly to share the beautiful resilience and importance of his culture while giving back to his country through charitable initiatives.Following reports that President Donald Trump referred to Haiti as a "shithole" in a White House meeting last week, Brun was understandably upset but tried to channel his frustration into inspiration to share the truth about his homeland.Provided exclusively to Billboard Dance, read Brun's thoughtful and powerful response to Trump's comments below.I grew up hearing that Haiti was a shithole my whole life. The narrative of Haiti didn't change last week, it's a narrative that has been forced upon our country for decades, by outsiders, by the media, by the world at large and by a bigoted president. Negativity reinforces negativity, and to impressionable youth who don’t know their true worth, these words became reality.But instead of feeling pity or remorse, myself and a new generation of Haitians saw it as a call to action. A call to reconnect with the principles in which our country was founded, principles based in unity, bravery and respect. A call to elevate our standards in education and cultural preservation, and to create a new paradigm for our nation and our youth. A call to take the narrative of our country into our own hands.We will determine how people perceive our country. A country that served as The Mother of the Americas, who’s people liberated themselves from colonial rule in 1804 and aided both the United States and the rest of the Caribbean in their battles for freedom.A narrative of failure is not Haiti's national anthem, it is 'La Dessalinienne', an anthem retelling the Haitian Revolution and the mantra that unity and strength of mind can overcome insurmountable odds. These are the stories that must be heard by the youth of Haiti. The stories of perseverance, ambition and responsibility for one’s country.Today a new generation of artists, empowered by technology, is taking control of the languages of hip-hop and electronic music, infusing them with Haitian culture and traditional rhythms, and speaking to millions of people in Haiti and around the globe. We are writing our own Haitian anthems. These are the voices that will be heard by the next generation of Haitians and these sounds will define Haiti to the rest of the world in the years to come.By: Kat Bein | 1/17/2018
Haiti Has Been Mistreated By Politicians Like Donald Trump for Centuries
In this op-ed, writer Fabienne Josaphat explains the history of Haiti, and how it has been mistreated by politicians long before President Donald Trump's recent remarks.President Donald Trump’s ignorance of Haitian contributions and history continues to mislead the American people. On January 11, the President of the United States met with officials on immigration and allegedly said, regarding Haitians and Africans, “Why do we want all these people from shithole countries coming here?” The Washington Post first reported the news.These statements made on the eve of the anniversary of the January 12, 2010 earthquake that killed up to 300,000 Haitians. As a Haitian immigrant living in South Florida — where, in 2015, an estimated 127,189 people of Haitian ancestry lived in Miami-Dade County alone — I could feel the indignation broiling beneath my people’s skin. Locally, councilman Alix Desulme, who represents District 4 in the City of North Miami, called the alleged comments “divisive and racist,” and demanded an apology.“Sadly, we have a president who continues to show America how great we can become through his destructive selfishness,” the councilman said. The mayor of North Miami himself, Dr. Smith Joseph, chimed in with his own statement, saying, “Our nation should not tolerate this overt racism from a president who is sworn to protect us.” Haitian-American Congresswoman Mia Love, a Republican from the state of Utah, said, “The President must apologize to both the American people and the nations he so wantonly maligned.”Instead, what came hours after the news of the reported comments broke, was a tweet from the president in which he denied making the comments, calling Haiti “poor and troubled.” He claimed to have wonderful relationships with Haitians, but failed to acknowledge a single one by name. None of this, again, is surprising.Fox News host Tucker Carlson affirmed that the president was merely voicing what his base was already thinking, casually asking, “Why can’t you say that?” on air. Many Trump supporters disagree with the notion that Trump is a racist, despite his allegedly saying “We should have more people from Norway” after his “sh*thole” comment was made.Describing a person’s country as a “sh*thole” shows an absence of critical thinking, and is a display of ignorance. It echoes an existing sentiment of xenophobia in this country from Trump voters, most of them white, now referred to as “the forgotten men and women.” They are being misled by a man who knows nothing about the Haitian people and their history. Yes, the U.S. should respect the Haitian people simply because of their humanity. But Haiti also deserves respect because it spent its entire existence as a nation contributing to the enrichment and greatness of superpowers like America.Historically, Haiti has always offered its best to the world and is proud of its accomplishments. It was the first to lead a successful slave-led rebellion to topple French slave owners, claiming its freedom in 1804. Without Haiti, there would be no Louisiana Purchase, a treaty that earned the United States the entire Louisiana territory and more than doubled the country’s size. New Orleans’ vibrant culture would not be the same without the influence of integrated Haitians. In Illinois, what would later become the city of Chicago was founded by a Haitian-born pioneer named Jean-Baptiste Point du Sable. In addition to liberating slaves in other countries, Haitians helped America fight its Revolutionary War, and when World War II drove countries to form urgent alliances, Haitian pilots joined the Tuskeegee Airmen as part of the U.S. Army Air Force.Our decision in 1804 to live free or to die was heroic, but the U.S. did not officially recognize this independence until 1862. France put the nation in the humiliating position of having to pay reparations at an annual rate for the slaves they lost, so Haiti was forced to borrow money to repay their oppressors, and borrowed from banks in France and the U.S.. Several initiatives have been launched to cancel Haiti’s debt, but pressure to repay debtors initiated further borrowing, keeping Haiti in constant crushing debt.The U.S. profited off Haiti during the American occupation of Haiti from 1915 to 1934, suppressing riots and killing rebels. Initially led by then-President Woodrow Wilson, the U.S. military imposed racist soldiers onto the Haitian people, introducing a new strain of cruelty that led to the decapitation and dehumanization of insurgents.The dictatorship of François “Papa Doc” Duvalier, which lasted in Haiti from 1957 to 1971, was able to endure because of American complicity. Specifically, as Duvalier murdered and brutally oppressed Haitians, the U.S. looked the other way because Duvalier was effective at staving off communism, which the U.S. saw as a threat. When that regime was toppled when Duvalier’s son was overthrown in 1986, the nation was completely impoverished, its funds depleted to line the pockets of tyrants like the Duvaliers. In addition, because of its debts to the U.S., Haiti has been by default constantly subjected to American intervention.Despite our contributions to America, Trump’s language doesn’t necessarily come as a surprise to Haitians, as we too often face this type of disregard from so many in power. Yet, during his presidential campaign, Trump made sure to draw attention to Hillary Clinton’s actions regarding Haiti to discredit the Democratic candidate. In 2009, when she was Secretary of State, Clinton suppressed Haitian minimum wage, at the behest of manufacturers, then after the 2010 earthquake, Bill Clinton became head of the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission. He enlisted the Clinton Foundation to build shelters, a relief effort considered to be a disaster, called out even by the likes of Oxfam.With more than one million people displaced after the 2010 earthquake, the U.S. poured aid money into Haiti, but years later, investigations have found that very little money actually reached Haitian citizens. Haitians still lack shelter that was promised by the American Red Cross after the humanitarian organization raised almost half a billion dollars from helpful donors. The Clinton Foundation, again, is also implicated in failing in their recovery efforts to aid Haiti with reconstruction projects after the earthquake despite raising more than $30 million.Then, Haiti suffered a devastating cholera outbreak that started at a United Nations peacekeeping camp, and as of November 2017, the Trump administration has refused to assign unspent UN peacekeeping money to help combat the epidemic. Instead, his administration chose to end Temporary Protective Status for 60,000 Haitians sheltered in America as a result of the earthquake.This sent a clear message to Haiti and its diaspora, and now, his comments about them speak volumes. In Trump’s world, there is no room for black and brown people to thrive. Yet, he shows an acceptance of white nationalists, identifying as “very fine people” some of the those protesting to keep Confederate monuments after the deadly Charlottesville rallies.He does not know the history of Haiti, and he doesn’t comprehend the significance of Haiti’s contributions, because he doesn’t care to. His wealth and privilege have allowed him to erase others to the point of invisibility.But Haitians exist as a reminder that the damages of racism and oppression cannot sway self-determination. We are not going anywhere. In fact, Haitians continue to thrive despite adversity. Our ancestry and culture empower and enable us to bounce back and carry on. If the whip of slavery did not break us, the words of an inveterate racist will not kill us. Haitians sacrifice for others even when others don’t sacrifice for them. I see this as the definition of love: the continuous devotion to others with no expectation of reciprocity.As a Haitian immigrant, I am tired of always asking for apologies, so I’m not personally interested in one from Trump. I’m interested in active and constructive repairs to our dignity in the American media, demonstrating an intent to rebrand and respect Haiti, rather than baiting audiences into buying into images of poverty and misery, because one narrative does not define us. Apologies, to me, are futile unless they are backed up by action and determination for change. Until then, we are planting our feet in the ground and waiting for the next insult to fly.By: Fabienne Josaphat for TeenVogue.com | January 16, 2018