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Ex-Dictator Of Haiti May Be Pardoned

WTLC-AM — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 18:28:48 +0000

DAVOS, Switzerland– Haiti’s president suggested Thursday that he might pardon former dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier, saying reconciliation for his nation is more important than making the man known as “Baby Doc” pay for his bloody rule.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Michel Martelly pledged to respect the independence of the judge expected to rule within days whether Duvalier should face trial on corruption and human rights violations. Duvalier was driven into exile in 1986 and returned to Haiti a year ago.

But Martelly suggested he has little appetite for a trial that could be explosive for the Caribbean nation, recovering from decades of political turmoil and a devastating earthquake two years ago.

“My way of thinking is to create a situation where we rally everyone together and create peace and pardon people, to not forget about the past – because we need to learn from it – but to mainly think about the future,” he said, adding: “You cannot forget those who suffered in that time, but I do believe that we need that reconciliation in Haiti.”

Duvalier assumed power in 1971 at age 19 following the death of his notorious father, Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier. The two presided over a dark period in which their private militia of thugs in sunglasses, known as the Tonton Macoute, tortured and killed opponents. The younger Duvalier has been accused of stealing millions of dollars from public funds; he denies the accusations.

Martelly said any decision on a possible pardon would come only with “a consensus among all leaders, all political parties.”

Martelly also pledged to build a new Haitian security force to maintain order without the U.N. peacekeepers – about 11,000 foreign military and police officers have patrolled Haiti since 2004. They have recently come under fire for allegations of sexual abuse and suspicion of being the source of a cholera outbreak that has killed nearly 7,000 people and sickened a half-million.

The president refused to blame the United Nations for the problems, saying individual troops should be held accountable for their own misdeeds. But he said he will replace the peacekeepers with a Haitian security force that will create jobs for 3,000-5,000 Haitian youths and help Haiti become self-sustaining.

Martelly said he’ll need foreign cooperation to fund and train the security force, but pledged to have it at least partially in place by the end of his term in 2016. He has run into opposition from donor countries that criticized earlier pledges to build a new Haitian army – disbanded in disgrace in 1995 – and he acknowledged Thursday that a new army wasn’t realistic.

He refused to put a time frame on an exit for the peacekeepers.

“We are working with them to establish a calendar where they can retreat,” he said. “I don’t want to force the peacekeeping nations to feel like I’m pushing them out.”

The Haitian president spoke on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum, an annual gathering of global power brokers at the Swiss ski resort of Davos, where he came to meet with potential investors.

Martelly, a popular musician sworn in as president in May, said he has already provided new homes to thousands of earthquake refugees, sent nearly 1 million more children to free schools and made progress on rebuilding the airport and the ports. Investment, he said, is booming.

His main priority, he said, is to create jobs so Haiti can support itself without being dependent on foreign aid.

“The Haiti that has been waiting for help and not moving no longer exists,” he said. “Enough handouts; we need hands up. Enough aid; we need trade.”

Part of that mission will involve helping Haitians to take over the earthquake reconstruction work, which has been dominated by foreigners working for non-governmental organizations.

“When I came in, Haiti was not governed by Haitians anymore. Probably mostly by NGOs. And that has done what to Haiti? It has weakened our institutions,” he said. “We need to focus on the plan that Haiti has today. We have a plan. When we want to go somewhere we are going to have them accompany us. … We need to organize and better use that aid.

A key part of that will be drawing home well-educated Haitians who have abandoned their country amid corruption and lack of opportunity. This week the foreign affairs minister in Paris appealed to Haitians abroad to return.

“The diaspora will be put back to work. We need them,” Martelly said.

But he said he wouldn’t be offering them specific incentives: “It’s not we have anything to offer. They need to have something to offer too. They need to come back and understand that Haiti is their country. By going away…” He broke off and sighed.

“Don’t they always come back?”

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Haitians Endure Harsh Journeys To Brazil In Search Of Labor

WTLC-AM — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 16:46:37 +0000

With Brazil’s booming economy and availability of jobs — combined with the recent Haitian earthquake and poverty — many Haitians are making the long trek to Brazil in search of jobs.

The Haitian migrants endure journeys of thousands of miles with small amounts of money in search of opportunities for work that are not available in their homeland.

The New York Times reports:

Gambling everything, thousands of Haitians have made their way across the Americas to reach small towns in the Brazilian Amazon over the past year in a desperate search for work, including a surge of hundreds arriving in recent days amid fears that Brazil’s government could slow the influx before it overwhelms the authorities here.

Their improbable journeys — from the rubble of their island homes to remote outposts here in the Amazon — say as much about the dire economic conditions that persist in Haiti two years after the earthquake as it does about the rising economic profile of Brazil, which is fast becoming a magnet not only for poor foreign laborers but also for growing numbers of educated professionals from Europe, the United States and Latin America.

Haitian President Cancels Charity Event

WTLC-AM — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 13:59:40 +0000

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Haiti pop star-turned-president Michel Martelly will not be singing tonight at a concert that aimed to raise money for schools.

Presidential adviser Damian Merlo says the Friday night concert was canceled because of the holiday season and the complexity of organizing such an event.

Martelly had said he would take the stage as his alter ego, “Sweet Micky”. He also had urged officials from the United Nations and the neighboring Dominican Republic to buy tickets to help raise $10 million for the country’s education program.

Merlo said the administration still plans to do a concert next year.

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Rebuilding Haiti With Hospitality, Good Food And Great Music

WTLC-AM — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 20:25:45 +0000

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Ron Duprat, a robust celebrity chef decked out in skull-and-crossbones Crocs and a navy blue apron, pauses from his mango-slicing duties at the Karibe Hotel to introduce what he says is a simple recipe for his impoverished country, still battered nearly two years after a devastating earthquake.

What the country needs right now, he declares, is a culinary school, a place to train chefs who can work at a future restaurant showcasing Haitian staples such as rice, beans and goat.

“I hope to give hope to some of the chefs that have no hope,” Duprat, 42, said, laying down his steel knife next to neon-orange slices of the tropical fruit. “We all say we want to build Haiti better and stronger but no one talks about the hospitality part.”

On its face, such a project might seem counterintuitive in Haiti, a nation where high food prices and chronic shortages keep large parts of the population hungry. But Duprat, a Haitian-American professional who starred on the sixth season of Bravo TV’s Emmy-nominated show “Top Chef: Las Vegas,” says it is just this kind of creative endeavor that can help to transform his flattened country into a nation of hope and progress.

He’s not alone. The chef is just one of several entrepreneurs and survivors of the devastating January 2010 earthquake promoting ideas that strive to elevate Haiti’s goals beyond the basic needs of food and shelter, which they acknowledge must also still be addressed.

Their ideas include establishing a conservatory that introduces Mozart and Tchaikovsky to children, a center that issues loans for socially conscious businesses, and an insurance program that grants small loans to families suffering hardships as a result of natural disaster or who have fallen ill with cholera. The disease emerged the year of the quake, sickening nearly 500,000 and killing more than 6,500, according to Haiti’s Health Ministry.

Antoine Romel Joseph is another Haitian American with ambitious plans for post-quake Haiti. After surviving 18 hours under earthquake rubble, the Juilliard-trained, nearly blind violinist was inspired to introduce classical music to young Haitians. His goal: a modern performing arts center.

But the tough reality of Haiti intervened, and Joseph, 52, realized he needed to first show potential donors that the country’s children need Mozart.

So this week he organized two concerts, one to introduce school children to musical instruments, and the other to perform the music of George Handel and Franz Schubert through a series of solos that will culminate with a piano quintet.

In order for the events to take place, however, he had to find transportation for visiting musicians as well as for a cello and a double bass. He tried for three weeks, but found that most car rental companies in the country didn’t have vans available.

He finally secured a vehicle, but the children’s program began two hours late due to Port-au-Prince’s impenetrable traffic.

“Everything is difficult here,” Joseph said. “The challenge is to overcome it. … You have to have nerves and determination. And patience.”

Joseph concedes that classical music is not as much a priority for Haiti’s hardpressed citizens as food, health and shelter, but he insists that it has an emotional and intellectual value that can actually help children become smarter.

Non-Haitians are trying to lend a hand.

Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel laureate who pioneered the concept of microcredit loans for the poor, has chosen Port-au-Prince as the home for a new branch of his Germany-based Grameen Creative Lab, which issued an $80,000 loan to a new vocational and computer-training school.

The center is Yunus’ latest “social business,” a startup that hews to his vision of alleviating widespread ills by using profits to expand the business. The Creative Lab plans to fund eight other projects through next year with grants from $20,000 to $100,000 each, said Claudine Francois, the lab’s representative in Haiti.

Among those proposals is a plant that will extract oil from Jatropha seeds and convert it into a biodiesel fuel for generators – a must here because the government can only provide sporadic electricity. The fuel will also serve as an alternative energy source to imported gas, which sells in Haiti for $5 a gallon.

“We are very excited to get this going,” Francois said.

In Miami, Florida, a group of former students who raced sailboats at the University of Miami established a nonprofit known as Sails for Sustenance, which aims to help Haiti’s coastal fishermen by giving them real sails to replace the rice sacks and charcoal bags many typically use.

Incorporated in 2007, the group has collected about 365 sails worth from about $200 to $400 each, from Cape Cod, Rochester, New York, and other places. Sails for Sustenance suspended its work when the quake hit but started back up in August of last year, said Michael Carcaise, president and co-founder. This past week, the group planned to send 63 sails.

“It allows the fishermen to move a little faster,” said Carcaise, 28.

For his program, Duprat envisions not only the culinary school and restaurant but also a bakery and a garden for harvesting herbs. The cost? $50 million.

The program would train female prisoners in an effort to keep them out of trouble after they are released, said Duprat, who has already thought of a possible slogan: “From prison to kitchen.”

Duprat and others pitched their ideas earlier this month at an international forum of investors at the Karibe Hotel, where he volunteered as a guest chef.

Like Joseph, the chef acknowledges that concepts such as culinary schools and musical schools might not sit so well in a country where more than 500,000 people haven’t even been able to find decent housing two years after the quake.

But he believes both needs can be met at the same time.

“I think we are ready for hospitality,” he said. “If we are going to rebuild Haiti better and stronger, we need hospitality.”

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Cholera In Haiti: Vaccine Plan Readied; Group Sues UN

WTLC-AM — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 17:21:11 +0000

Nov 9, 2011 – Two medical aid groups in cholera-stricken Haiti are planning a pilot campaign to administer a cholera vaccine to about 1% of the population, but some public health experts are questioning whether the effort is the most cost-effective way to fight the disease, according to press reports.

Meanwhile, a Boston-based human-rights group is suing the United Nations on behalf of the families of the more than 5,000 Haitians who have died of the disease, according to an Associated Press (AP) report. The cholera epidemic, which began in the fall of 2010, is believed to have been started by waste from a camp housing UN soldiers from Nepal.

Cholera has killed more than 6,500 Haitians and sickened nearly 500,000 since the epidemic began in October 2010, according to Haitian Health Ministry numbers cited by the AP.

The vaccination drive is being planned by Partners in Health, based in Boston, and the Gheskio Center, a nonprofit organization in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, that has historically focused on AIDS. The effort is expected to cost $870,000, which has not yet been secured, but it has the support of Haiti’s newly elected leaders, President Michel Martelly and Prime Minister Dr. Garry Conille, the AP reported.

Wikileaks Exposes How America Still Hates Haiti

WTLC-AM — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 21:16:57 +0000

An op-ed appearing on TheGrio today talks about Wikileaks documents and how they reveal that the U.S. has held back Haiti both financially and politically throughout time.

The writer, Mycheal Denzel Smith, claims that instead of looking out for the Haitian people and helping to build their interests both structurally and economically, the U.S. has just looked out for itself.

He writes that the U.S. is in complete fear of Haiti becoming a socialist country like Cuba or Venenzuela. Therefore, they have prevented the country from establishing any progressive economic goals.

Here’s an excerpt from the article:

Again and again, the U.S. has used its influence as the world superpower to exploit Haiti’s political uncertainty and ensure a safe haven for its global corporations to operate in ways that bypass American laws regarding labor and fairness. And because we see only the bottom line in personal pocket books, the American public turns blind eye towards these global injustices.

A New Tune? Singer Michel Martelly Sworn In As Haiti Pres.

WTLC-AM — Mon, 16 May 2011 15:02:13 +0000

HAITI– Former singer Michel Martelly was sworn in Saturday as Haiti’s new president, promising change in a impoverished country still recovering from last year’s devastating earthquake.

“Haiti has been sleeping,” Martelly said. “Today she will wake up, stand up.”

Musician Reportedly Elected President Of Haiti

WTLC-AM — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 21:12:37 +0000

HAITI-Michel Martelly is the new president of Haiti according to Reuters. Reuters reports that Martelly won Haiti’s Presidential election according to official preliminary results.

Martelly is also know as “Sweet Micky,” after his Kompa band. He is friends with former Haitian President, President René Préval Martelly was supporter of the 1991 coup that ousted President Jean Bertrand Aristide and of the now disbanded Haitian military group FAd’H.

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Haitians Reach Out To Japan In Time Of Tragedy

WTLC-AM — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 18:34:18 +0000

Despite the fact that Haiti is still in turmoil more than a year after the tragic earthquake that happened this year, the thoughts and prayers of many Haitians are with the people of Japan.

Huffpo journalist, Bryn Mooser reports:

When news of the Japan disaster was coming in we were at practice with our little league team made up entirely of displaced children. The kids stopped playing to hear the news. They immediately understood the pain that Japan is now facing and all wanted to help but felt like they had nothing to give. They wanted their little brothers and sisters in Japan to know that they are standing side by side and sending them strength. This is their message.

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Jean-Bertrand Aristide Returning To Haiti In Days

WTLC-AM — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 17:57:22 +0000

JOHANNESBURG — Ousted ex-Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide will return within days to his homeland ending seven years in exile, a South African official said Friday. The former slum priest remains hugely popular and his return could disrupt elections this month in his earthquake-ravaged country.

In Haiti, an official with Aristide’s party confirmed that his “return is imminent,” but declined to say how or when he’s coming back.

“It’s an important event for the people in Haiti because they have waited so long for this,” said Maryse Narcisse, the head of Lavalas’ executive council. “He will not be traveling incognito. People will know he is coming.”

The party was barred from taking part in the vote, and thousands of his supporters vowed last month to disturb the election if he was not allowed to come back. The U.S. has warned his presence “would prove to be an unfortunate distraction to the people of Haiti.”

On Friday, State Department spokesman Mark Toner told The Associated Press “this is a matter for the Government of Haiti.”

“The U.S. remains focused on helping ensure a peaceful and democratic transition of power in Haiti, and that the second round of elections, scheduled for March 20, accurately reflect the will of the Haitian people,” he said.

A South African Foreign Ministry official told the AP that Aristide would return in the coming days. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to make the official announcement.

Aristide’s push to come back from exile follows the stunning return of former dictator Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier in January. Aristide has said he wants to help reconstruct the country that was shattered in last year’s massive quake.

Aristide emerged as a leading voice for Haiti’s poor and helped lead a popular revolt that forced an end to the Duvalier family’s 29-year dictatorship. He became the troubled country’s first democratically elected president, despite opposition from the army and Haiti’s elite.

During his exile, Aristide has said many times that he wants to return home as a private citizen and work as an educator.

After Duvalier’s return, it emerged that Haitian officials had ignored Aristide’s request for a passport, preventing his return. That passport, a diplomatic one, was delivered last month in the last days of the administration of President Rene Preval, Aristide’s one-time protege.

Duvalier now faces an investigation into allegations of corruption and human rights abuses dating to the dictatorship era.

It is not clear whether charges could be brought against Aristide, whose party was accused of killing opponents and getting rich off drug money in the final year of his government.

It would be the second return from exile for Aristide, who is both loved and reviled. He first was ousted by a military coup in 1991. U.S. President Bill Clinton returned him to power in 1994 following a U.S. military intervention that forced out the military regime. Then, tens of thousands of his supporters gathered around the National Palace to watch U.S. Marines fly him in on a helicopter.

Aristide later fled Haiti again on Feb. 29, 2004, leaving before dawn on a U.S. plane as rebels approached the capital. He accused American diplomats of having kidnapped him – charges Washington denied.

In South Africa, Aristide has lived a quiet life with his wife Mildred and two daughters in a government-guarded mansion in the capital, Pretoria. Along with chauffeured Mercedes Benz limousines, it all was paid for by South African taxpayers.

Aristide was offered a position as researcher at the human sciences faculty while his wife studied at the same university’s Center for African Renaissance Studies. Neither drew a salary.

Aristide, who speaks several languages, studied Zulu and wrote a comparative study of Haitian Creole and Zulu called Umoya Wamagama, or The Spirit of the Word.