Haiti - Reconstruction : Construction Monitoring of the new Ministry of Public Works 30/04/2015 10:33:21
Tuesday, in the context of monitoring and coordination of cooperation activities financed by the European Union in Haiti and their implementation, Jean-Jacques Charles, the National Authorising Officer of the European Development Fund (EDF) in Haiti, visited the reconstruction site of the Ministry of Public Works, Transportation and Communications (MTPTC) to assess the progress. Recall that the construction contracts of this Ministry were signed April 15, 2014 and work began July 14, 2014.
This 1,270m2 building financed up to 4.6 million Euros by the European Union, is located to Delmas 33. After the earthmoving phase, the excavation and concreting of foundations, technicians proceed with the assembly of imported steel structure from Italy.
According to Alain Pamphile, technical advisor in infrastructure, following this project for the Office of the National Authorising Officer, the work should be completed in the summer of 2015.
Haiti - Canada : Déjean Victor arrested again 02/05/2015 11:15:42
Following a police operation involving the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) of Toronto, and officers from the Police Service of the City of Montreal, Victor Déjean, 58, Canadian businessman of Haitian origin (residing in Toronto) and his companion Merlande Dont, 42 (living in Montreal), have been arrested on suspicion of conspiring to import drugs from Haiti to Canada. They are also accused of having recruited and used Canadian smugglers (mules), to transport drugs.
The investigation, conducted by the Division of Federal and Airport Surveys (SEFA), led to the arrest of several suspects by the Canada Border Services Agency at Pierre Elliott Trudeau for importing cocaine. Links have been established between smugglers and Déjean Victor and his partner. A total of 4kg of cocaine were seized. Note that the National Police of Haiti (PNH) also contributed to the investigation.
Déjean Victor, well known to the Haitian community in Montreal as the owner of Pavillon Marquette but also Cristina complex, which includes a banquet center and a theater and his companion Merlande, suspected to be his associate, face charges of conspiracy and importation of cocaine. Merlande Dont appeared Friday, May 1 at the courthouse in Montreal.
Recall that Déjean Victor was previously arrested with his brother Abel, 30 December 2009 for the same reasons in Port-au-Prince airport, while the two men were suspected of wanting to enter Canada 2.35 kg of cocaine. They were incarcerated in the prison of Port-au-Prince awaiting judgment.
Following the earthquake of January 2010, the prison was heavily damaged favoring the escape of hundreds of prisoners whose Déjean Victor who managed to return home aboard an aircraft responsible to repatriate Canadian nationals.
At that time the Haitian authorities, overwhelmed by the deadly consequences of the earthquake, had no issued any international arrest warrant and consequently no extradition request against Déjean Victor who had been living freely in Canada.
Five billion people 'have no access to safe surgery'
(BBC) - By Tulip MazumdarGlobal health reporter
The study said a third of all deaths in 2010 were treatable with surgery
Two-thirds of the world's population have no access to safe and affordable surgery, according to a new study in The Lancet - more than double the number in previous estimates.
It means millions of people are dying from treatable conditions such as appendicitis and obstructed labour.
Most live in low and middle-income countries.
The study suggests that 93% of people in sub-Saharan Africa cannot obtain basic surgical care.
Previous estimates have only looked at whether surgery was available.
But this research has also considered whether people can travel to facilities within two hours, whether the procedure will be safe, and whether patients can actually afford the treatment.
One of the study's authors, Andy Leather, director of the King's Centre for Global Health, said the situation was outrageous.
"People are dying and living with disabilities that could be avoided if they had good surgical treatment," he said.
"Also, more and more people are being pushed into poverty trying to access surgical care."
The study suggests a quarter of people who have an operation cannot in fact afford it.
Call for investment
Twenty-five experts spent a year and a half gathering evidence and testimony, from healthcare workers and patients, from more than 100 different countries as part of this report.
They are now calling for a greater focus on, and investment in, surgical care. Surgeons scrub up before performing surgery - but more investment is needed They say a third of all deaths in 2010 (16.9 million) were from conditions which were treatable with surgery.
That was more than the number of deaths from HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined.
The authors suggest the cost to the global economy of doing nothing will be more than $12 trillion between now and 2030.
They are calling for a $420bn global investment.
These are enormous figures and - as is nearly always the case - the greatest need is in the poorest countries.
Numbers of trained surgical specialists per 100,000 people
UK: 35
US: 36
Brazil 35
Japan 17
South Africa: 7
Bangladesh 1.7
Sierra Leone (before Ebola): 0.1
Source: The Lancet study
'Surgery not just for urban elite'
A key challenge is training enough surgeons, anaesthetists and obstetricians.
In higher income countries such as the UK, there are around 35 surgical specialists per 100,000 people, whereas in Bangladesh there are 1.7 per 100,000 population.
Lead author John Meara Kletjian, professor in global surgery at Harvard Medical School, said: "Although the scale-up costs are large, the costs of inaction are higher, and will accumulate progressively with delay."
"There is a pervasive misconception that the costs of providing safe and accessible surgery put it beyond the reach of any but the richest countries," he added.
Experts in the field say surgery is a basic and crucial health need that has been largely ignored by the global health community, with tragic consequences.
"The agenda has been so much focused on individual diseases and, because surgical care is spread across so many diseases, it's been missed off," said Andy Leather said.
"There's a myth there isn't a burden of surgical disease, that it's too costly and it's just for the urban elite."
'People have given up'
London-based consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist, Shane Duffy, has recently returned from a surgical training camp in central Uganda.
Most sufferers lose their babies during child birth and are left with a damaged bladder, or bowels, which can leave them incontinent and rejected by their families.
"Unfortunately a lot of people have given up on the hospitals because they can't find surgeons there," said Dr Duffy.
"People are living in the community with debilitating conditions and they just can't find the skilled people to help them."
Facts on global surgery
313 million operations are carried out worldwide each year.
Just one in 20 operations occur in the poorest countries, where over a third of the world's population lives.
There is a global shortfall of at least 143 million surgical procedures every year.
Some Haitian children work for their keep but sometimes are abused, a panel revealed
Dinkinish O'Connor, Special to The Miami Times | 4/22/2015, 2 p.m.
In Haiti, a 9-year-old girl leaves her poor village to work as a domestic worker for a family in Port-au-Prince, the island’s capital. She will not earn money, but the family will pay for her to go to school. She cooks, cleans and performs whatever domestic responsibilities are required in exchange for a promise of safety and and a better quality of life.
What happens sometimes though is that metal broom sticks become weapons, guardians become rapists and child workers become child slaves.
The “Honoring Victims of Slavery” conference held recently at Broward College explored the survival stories of three women. At 13, Dr. Katariina Rosenblatt was lured into child prostitution while she attended North Miami Beach’s John F. Kennedy Middle School. Evelyn Chumbow is an Alliance to End Slavery & Trafficking (ATEST) survivor advocate whose mother sent her away from her native Cameroon thinking she was going to get a good education. In Maryland, Chumbow’s education-less childhood included metal broom beatings. But the event focused on restavèk and Haitian child slavery survivor and advocate Marie Alina “Tibebe” Cajuste, who talked about head-splitting beatings, a symptom of her restavèk childhood.
Defining restavèk was the conference’s most intense discussion topic. For many of Haiti’s poor communities, a restavèk is a child slave. It is also a socially accepted system of overworking and sometimes raping and maiming children and adolescents. Restavèk is a Haitian Creole word derived from the French phrase, reste avec which means “to stay with.” In Haiti, it is an arrangement where a poor family sends their child to live with a family who will provide food, education and better quality of living in exchange for domestic work.
Cajuste is a restavèk descendent who was conceived when her mother was raped by the son of the family for whom she worked. Cajuste’s mother was forced to leave the house and gave birth to her in the street in front of a brothel where a market woman who was passing by cut the umbilical cord with a Gillette.
“Restavèks. This is real,” wrote Marie-Claire Dorcely, who was a human resources specialist for Miami-Dade County and senior manager of labor relations for Fontainebleau Miami Beach before she became human resources director at one of Haiti’s largest private universities. “Since I moved back to Haiti, I can see these children running errands or carrying water. It’s heartbreaking,” Dorcely said.
BLURRED LINES
Diem Pierre, one of the panelists who works with Haiti Government Institute for Social Welfare and Research, said that Haiti’s anti-slavery laws acknowledge restavèk child domestic servitude as part of their anti-human trafficking initiatives and that the government is creating a committee against human trafficking. Pierre said differentiating restavèk from child work is key to stopping restavèk’s horrors.
“The lines are blurry,” said Pierre through translator Celia Roberts, a Broward College professor. “The word means different things to different people.”
Human rights organizations Beyond Borders and Zanmi Timoun report a pandemic of restavèk children living in inhumane conditions. The Beyond Borders website says the organization has been working to end restavèk since 1993 and estimates 250,000 children living in these conditions. While lives are being saved, there are also accounts of retaliation that include beatings and disappearance.
“A child’s hands were boiled as a form of punishment,” said Cajuste through translator and Beyond Borders grant director Coleen Hedglin.
Hedglin led the conversation regarding Haitian communities that are revolutionizing the island’s slavery stigma by encouraging community discussion and creating community-based protection committees where locals become active members in ending child domestic servitude.
“Haiti is not an easy place to make things happen,” said Free the Slaves Haiti director Smith Maxime regarding the Haitian government’s next steps for eliminating restavèk. “We need a plan; and it’s important for me to see the government take a lead.”
In the meantime, what’s a poor mother to do when she can’t afford to take care of her children? When practiced conscionably, can child domestic work create opportunity?
“My grandmother always had a ti fanmi (a little family member),” wrote Dorcely in a Facebook message. “Usually they are young kids that finished their primary years in the rural town where they are from and their parents are looking for a family in Port-au-Prince where they can stay with them and continue their education. Even if they helped out around the house or had chores, school was a requirement for these teenagers or young adults. We had many young ladies come through and once they reached a certain level of schooling, they were sent to learn a trade. My grandmother’s options were baking, sewing or money to start a little business or, of course, they were married off.”
Haiti: Acra statement on cocaine, heroine found in sugar shipment
Written by Marc Antoine Acra on .
Photo from Foreign Policy Magazine: "Haiti's One Percent"
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (sentinel.ht) - Wealthy Haitian Businessman Marc Antoine Acra released an official statement for his family's 20-year old NABATCO sugar importing company after one of its vessels, the Manzanares, was found with 77 kilos of cocaine and 10 kilos of heroine on Wednesday April 15.
NABATCO Director General Marc M Antoine [file]
Statement from Director General Marc M. Antoine:
Faced with the progression of derogatory rumors, comments and press reports, the company stock Bag and National Trading Co. Ltd., better known as the NABATCO, represented by its Director General M Marc Antoine Acra, wants to review the record of narcotics seized on MANZANARES boat and bring some facts to the public's attention.
NABATCO is in the sugar trade for over twenty years and has maintained more than ten years of excellent professional relationships with Colombian society CJ DE azúcares Y mieles SA itself, sugar exports managed globally and enjoys an excellent reputation in this domain.
The NABATCO wishes to clarify that narcotics were found on April 22, 2015 in the hold of MANZANARES and not inside bags of sugar during unloading, done under the supervision of regular supervisory authorities and BLTs.
The NABATCO cautions that vessels carrying cargoes of sugar does not belong to the NABATCO, it is a Freight American company that is responsible for chartering boats for NABATCO, and payment of the freight is made to that company which itself rule with the owners of these boats.
The NABATCO more precise that transport of boats, are done according to normal procedures. These loads are proceeded under the supervision of Colombian port authorities checked by the narcotics control authorities and the security service before leaving the port of Buenaventura. Neither the Colombian port authority, the shipping agent or "surveyor WSS" has raised any irregularity mention about the sugar cargo.
The NABATCO remains available to the authorities to carry out investigations and come to a quick resolution of this unfortunate situation that has caused serious injury and affects the activities of several of its clients.
Haiti: Three Electoral Councilors threaten resignation, say sources
6 of 9 electoral councilors and DG of the 2015 Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) [file]
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (sentinel.ht) - PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (sentinel.ht) - Three members of the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) would be ready to submit their resignations if discharges for former executives were to be issued outside of the law, according to information learned by The Sentinel. If the resignations were to occur, free and fair elections in 2015 would become virtually impossible.
Along with a number of influential political parties who have already stated they would boycott the contests under those conditions, the first news of electoral councilors on the same wavelength came via Jonas Saintan on Train Matinal on Zenith FM.
This comes as protests at the Supreme Court of Auditors and Administrative Disputes (CSC/CA) have become frequent, two per week, and announcements by “popular” civil society organizations suggest on May 1, efforts will be multiplied.
Rumors suggest that President Michel Martelly would issue a decree to provide discharges to former ministers and most in Haiti are opposed to the notion. In the face of these rumors, the administration has remained silent on whether it would take such a measure, which is maintaining a significant level of doubt in the possibility of elections in 2015.
Ministers and persons who accept positions handling government funds waive their right to participate in elections until their management of those state funds are reviewed and discharged by Parliament. For many of Haiti’s highest positions, President, Senator and Deputy, candidates are required to have achieved a discharge of their duties for having managed government funds.
The process, according to law, for a discharge requires that an audit be performed by the CSC/CA and this report and audit be forwarded to a bicameral committee of the Parliament who will then present its recommendations to both chambers of the legislature, “The People’s House”, for a vote.
A number of ministers, including former prime ministers, aspiring to hold public office will not have obtained discharges by election time due to the dysfunction of the Haitian Parliament.
The electoral council of 2015 is one formed according to Article 289 of the Constitution which means, a number of civil society organizations participated in appointing it nine councolers, rather than in previous years, where councilors came from state institutions, mainly the National Palace.
New tourism ventures are beginning to attract visitors back to this Caribbean nation, which suffered a devastating earthquake in January 2010.
Ile Ara, off the coast of Haiti, is a small island that legend says was a rendezvous point for Christopher Columbus and a local lover. Photo / Courtesy Steve Bennett/UncommonCaribbean.com (via Flickr)
Amid its woes, Haiti offers a striking rugged beauty that is obvious to adventure travellers - rolling hills, steep mountains and rocky terrain that make backpacking or mountain biking just as good a heart pumper as in any mountainous Caribbean island.
But the country also offers a quality often overlooked and even dismissed: a slice of paradise.
This was certainly the offering during a recent weekend jaunt to northern Haiti where I joined a group of curiosity seekers on a boat excursion around the country's picturesque coast.
Haiti's second-largest city, Cap-Haitien, I discovered, is more than just a historical find.
Our day began with a 30-minute bus ride from our hotel, the Mont Joli, at the top of a hill overlooking the historic city, past streets with their faded grandeur, up another mountain, past a village that not even this native realised existed.
We finally arrived at Labadie Beach, driving around the security fence that separates the locals from the weekly cruise passengers who lounge on the private stretch of Labadie that Miami-based Royal Caribbean leases from the Haitian government.
Our tour guide, Mike Trimble of Labadee Charters, guided us aboard his eight-metre fishing boat. Haiti-born Trimble is an American who grew up here.
He launched his excursions with business partner Maxim Laroche last year. Since then, the business has expanded from fishing excursions for cruise passengers to include private tours for the few tourists who do trickle in.
Trimble took us 8km into the Atlantic around Labadie Bay. About 30 minutes later, we arrived at Amiga Island or as the natives call it, Ile Ara, a small uninhabited island that legend says was a rendezvous point for Christopher Columbus and a local lover.
Awed by the trees, shallow green water and white sand encircling the entire island, my travelling companions wasted no time changing into their swimmers and jumping in. The water, which is great for snorkelling, was warm and amazingly not too salty.
Lounging around in the ocean makes you hungry. Lunch was a seafood affair, courtesy of local fishermen who came up to us in their wooden canoes with freshly caught fish, lobster and octopus.
Trimble's mate Pierre Jean-Baptiste, who brought his own special sauce that he prepared the night before, started a fire on the beach and grilled the seafood, using a variety of local peppers.
With our stomachs filled, we climbed back aboard the boat and continued our tour, which soon brought us to Cadras Beach.
The stunning white-sand beach has a natural cove where fresh and salt water meet. From the moment you step into the waist-high turquoise water, the scenery and calmness grab you.
You feel like you're in a gigantic swimming pool until you see the lush tree-lined landscape dotted with private homes accessible only by boat and owned mostly by wealthy Haitians and some French ex-pats.
As we enjoyed the tranquility, Trimble pointed out where British airline mogul Richard Branson stayed during a 2012 visit. Some owners, he said, rent out their bungalows to holiday makers seeking to expand their experience beyond his four-hour boat excursions.
I didn't think much could top Ile Ara, but the detour to Cadras really made the trip as we lounged in the water drinking Prestige beer, the local brew, and sipping coconut water out of the shell, freshly plucked from a tree.
Dining options in Cap-Haitien are limited beyond the hotels. However, no visit is complete without a trip to Lakay restaurant, the "It" place in the city, along the oceanfront boulevard in the Carenage neighbourhood.
Lakay, an open-air restaurant, offers large portions of authentic Haitian dishes such as Creole conch and fried goat as well as hamburgers and pizzas.
Started in 1999 by Philippe "Fito" Zephir and his wife, Anne-Claude, Lakay has its share of high-profile clientele. The day before our visit, Haitian President Michel Martelly lunched there, his visit shutting down the boulevard.
Cyril Bourlon de Rouvre, a French politician and sugar refineries heir, is a frequent guest. In fact, Zephir used to keep a special stock of Veuve Clicquot champagne just for him.
While you shouldn't count on getting Veuve Clicquot, you can count on sipping champagne in a laid-back ambience, with cultural performances on some evenings. There is also a DJ whose repertoire of konpa, reggae and American pop mixes had us dancing through the night.
For years, Cap-Haitien was mostly cut off, accessible only to those willing to fly in on a daily charter service from South Florida, or a smaller aircraft from Port-au-Prince. But a newly renovated international airport with a 2300m runway now allows for large commercial jet service.
American Airlines recently became the first US-based carrier to land here, and now operates daily non-stop service from Miami.
This is the city where Haiti as a nation was born. Visitors should climb either on foot or by horseback to the Citadelle Laferriere, about 45 minutes away in the town of Milot. A massive mountaintop stone fortress that overlooks the city, the Citadelle was built by newly freed Haitians to deter the French.
Two companies - Tour Haiti and Agence Citadelle - currently offer tour packages that include visits to the site. Trimble said he, too, is working on a three-day, two-night package that will include his boat excursions and visits to the Citadelle and San-Souci Palace.
Haiti, once a leader in Caribbean tourism, is now trying to re-enter the scene. Places still aren't equipped to deal with individual travellers, so it is best to go with a tour company that can arrange everything from hotels to tours to a Vodou drumming and ceremony.
Unlike Port-au-Prince, which offers a few name-brand hotels and South Beach-type restaurants, Cap-Haitien remains in an organic stage. The city has fewer than 1000 standard hotel rooms.
One of the newer hotels is Habitation Jouissant, a 13-room boutique hotel and a favourite of the country's president. There is a telescope in every room and on the vine-shaded veranda, enticing guests to take a visual tour of the city.
Furnishings are modern and reminiscent of South Beach in Miami, which isn't an accident. Owner Fred Beliard bought an entire floor of South Beach's Palms hotel before it was renovated by its new owner and had everything shipped to Haiti, right down to the bathroom fixtures.
Like others here, he's excited about the new direct flights from Miami and tourism opportunities. As we all should be.
CHECKLIST Getting there:Air New Zealand has daily flights to Los Angeles. From there, American Airlines offers flights to Miami and on to Cap-Haitien in Haiti. What to do:Labadee Charters offers a range of boat excursions off the coast of Haiti.
- TNS
![6 of 9 electoral councilors and DG of the 2015 Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) [file]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_v45ETzzrShQvtR2BqF8KW6e3AmPMtNC2Umpc3-G-neMaCZxhs7RAfSzd8qq5UazfL4khaE-cpYKZ9lVRtsAev9qtSIF7WlHCT3Dy_rCVoFedUn=s0-d "6 of 9 electoral councilors and DG of the 2015 Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) [file]")
