Elders find haven at Sant Belvi

Transcription

BOSTON HAITIAN REPORTER
Vol. 10, Issue 10
NOVEMBER 2011
FREE
Elders find haven at Sant Belvi
Senior citizens have found a fun, healthy sanctuary in Dorchester thanks to Sant-Belvi, an adult day health program that specializes in working with people
of Haitian descent. Above, Mr. and Mrs. Jean and Philomene St. Cyr enjoy their time at the center. The couple have been married for 55 years. Story, page 5.
Boston hosts Haiti Movie Awards on Nov. 20
By Manolia Charlotin
Editor
On November 20, Boston will host the first
annual Haiti Movie Awards. This celebration is
organized by the Motion Picture Association of
Haiti (MPAH), which is run by movie enthusiast,
Hans Patrick Domercant. Boston-based MPAH
works to help further develop and bring structure to the burgeoning Haitian movie industry.
More recently, the movie industry has been
slow to recover after the Jan. 2010 earthquake.
According to MPAH, very few movies have been
produced in the last two years and morale has
been generally low. Domercant hopes to change
that with this year’s Haiti Movie Awards.
“We wanted to give a boost to the industry.
Many producers were discouraged after the
earthquake and we want to help change that,”
said Domercant. “This is also an opportunity
to honor the pioneers and we are very excited
about that.”
Continued on page 13
Right: Hans Patrick Domercant (left) promotes
the Haiti Movie Awards with Hollywood actor
Benz Antoine.
Ile-a-Vache school a labor of love
Volunteers from Greater Boston help
keep a small school thriving on Ile-aVache, a small island off the coast of
southern Haiti. Page 9
Left: A student at L’Ecole du Village in Ile-a-Vache, Haiti reads
a book. The school survives thanks to the volunteerism and
fundraising of Greater Boston people, including Jean-Patrick
Lucien and Anne Anninger.
hip-hop, jazz infused album
for sax man omicil - Pg. 11
Page 2 Boston Haitian ReporteR
November 2011
BostonHaitian.com
Martelly links to old regime prompt scrutiny
By TRENTON DANIEL
Associated Press
Back from exile, former strongman Jean-Claude
“Baby Doc’’ Duvalier lives in a villa in the hills above
Haiti’s capital. His son serves as a consultant to the
country’s new president, Michel Martelly, while
others with links to Duvalier’s hated and feared
regime work for the administration.
Duvalier himself is rumored to be ill and appears
too frail to return to power. But for many Haitians
who remember the ex-dictator’s brutal rule, the rise
of his loyalists to the new president’s inner circle triggers suspicions about where Martelly’s loyalties lie.
Such developments might be shrugged off in
many countries, but not in Haiti, where much of
the political establishment for the past 15 years
has consisted of people associated with the mass
uprising that forced “Baby Doc’’ to flee the country
for France in 1986.
Now, a former minister and ambassador under the
regime is serving as a close adviser to Martelly. And
at least five high-ranking members of the administration, including the new prime minister, are the
children of senior dictatorship officials.
Sen. Moise Jean-Charles said he and others who
lived through those years are uneasy that Duvalierists are aligned with a president with no previous
political experience and a history of supporting
right-wing causes.
“They’ve been nostalgic for 25 years,’’ Jean-Charles
said of Duvalier’s supporters. “And now, they’re back
in the country and back in power.’’
Martelly’s powers will be at least partly held in
check because his opponents control both houses
of parliament.
Nonetheless, Jean-Charles, an ex-mayor under
former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, has taken
his concerns to radio stations and the senate floor.
Human rights advocates have echoed similar warnings, especially after a raucous protest staged by
Duvalier supporters last month disrupted a news
conference calling for the ex-dictator’s prosecution.
“There’s a lot of worry,’’ said Haitian economist
and sociologist Camille Chalmers. “The political
circle is made up of Duvalierists.’’
Martelly spokesman Lucien Jura told The Associated Press that the appointments were based
on individual qualifications rather than political
affiliation.
“As President Martelly said before, he’s not excluding,’’ Jura said. “If the citizen is competent, honest
and has good will ... regardless of the political sector
he’s in, he’s welcome.’’
The new government includes a few veterans from
Aristide’s government, including Mario Dupuy, a
communications adviser who was chief spokesman
during Aristide’s second term.
Martelly met with Aristide and Duvalier last
month in an effort to reconcile differences between
the former leaders and their followers. The day
before he met with Prosper Avril, an army colonel
who overthrew a transitional government in 1988
and resigned two years later amid protests.
“It’s time for us again to be one nation, stand behind one project,’’ Martelly told the AP outside the
plush home where Duvalier is staying.
While running for office, Martelly pitched himself
as a populist even if he later imposed taxes on remittances and phone calls from abroad to help pay
for the free schooling of 772,000 children. He’s also
pledged to build housing and create jobs for some
of the half million people still homeless nearly two
years after an earthquake devastated the country.
While Martelly hasn’t publicly voiced any support
for Duvalier, he’s addressed some of the top priorities of Duvalier’s relatively small political base since
taking office in May.
Last month, he proposed to restore the country’s
disbanded army in addition to award back pay to
former soldiers dismissed by Aristide in 1995. Duvalier relied heavily on the military to crack down
on internal dissent.
The proposed force will patrol Haiti’s porous borders and provide relief during natural catastrophes
as well as revive an intelligence unit that the CIA
created after Duvalier’s ouster to combat cocaine trafficking. That unit, the National Information Service,
will assume a new role of fighting terrorism threats,
mafia networks and “extremist’’ organizations.
Critics say it would be better to improve the police
force, which is more likely to remain independent.
Martelly said he has seen little reform in the police
department.
“He can’t control the police so he’s trying to create
his own force,’’ Jean-Charles said.
Adding to the worries, Martelly hasn’t pressed for
the prosecution of Duvalier, who has been accused of
looting the treasury and torturing and killing political opponents during his 15-year rule. Martelly has
said it’s up to the judiciary to handle Duvalier’s case.
What’s sparked the most concern has been the
personnel picks of the musician-turned-president.
In his first months in office, Martelly turned to
people such as Daniel Supplice, an adviser who
served as an ambassador and a former minister
of social affairs under Duvalier. Supplice hasn’t
been directly tied to the abuses associated with the
Duvalier regime.
Martelly’s also tapped the children of Duvalier
officials including Prime Minister Garry Conille, a
former chief of staff to Bill Clinton in the ex-president’s role as U.N. special envoy to Haiti. Conille’s
father, Serge, was a minister of sports and youth
for the dictatorship.
Conille declined to discuss his father and the family ties to Duvalier when asked by an AP reporter,
responding, ``I would expect a much more intelligent
question from somebody like you.’’
Other picks with Duvalier links include Martelly’s
senior advisers Thierry and Gregory Mayard-Paul,
whose father Constantin Mayard-Paul was a lawyer for Claude Raymond, a feared army lieutenant
general under “Baby Doc.’’
Raymond’s son, Claude Jr., recently joined the
administration as deputy director general for immigration. Josefa R. Gauthier, whose father Adrien
was a diplomat under “Baby Doc’s’’ regime, is the
director general for the government’s Fund for
Economic and Social Assistance.
The most prominent tie is Francois Nicolas “Nico,’’
Duvalier’s 28-year-old son, who is a consultant to
Martelly.
To be sure, Haiti’s political ranks have been a
revolving door since both Duvaliers exiled thousands of professionals and shrank the talent pool
from which governments draw qualified workers.
Even Aristide, who helped lead the movement to
oust the dictatorship, had a few Duvalierists in his
administration.
But Martelly has hired more officials from the
former regime than his last two predecessors.
The resurgent Duvalier movement made an assertive public appearance during last month’s news
conference organized by Amnesty International to
discuss the stalled criminal investigation into the
ex-dictator.
As a representative of the human rights group
tried to speak, Duvalier supporters yelled into the
microphones of journalists and shouted him down.
“You’re trying to create a civil war in this country,’’ Reynold Georges, a lawyer for Duvalier, told
an Amnesty representative at the news conference.
“If he needs to be tried, he will be tried.’’ (AP)
UN orders slight reduction in peacekeeping force
By EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press
The U.N. Security Council has voted unanimously
to reduce the number of U.N. peacekeeping troops
and police in Haiti and bring the force closer to its
level before the January 2010 earthquake devastated
the impoverished Caribbean nation.
“The overall security situation, while fragile, has
improved,’’ the council’s resolution said, while extending the U.N. force’s mandate for another year.
Council members backed a recommendation by
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to reduce the mission’s current authorized military strength of 8,940
to 7,340 troops, and its international police force
from 4,391 to 4,241 officers.
The U.N. force had an authorized strength of 6,940
troops and 2,211 police before the quake devastated
Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, and surrounding areas, killing an estimated 230,000 to 300,000 people
and destroying more than 100,000 buildings.
In extending the mandate of the U.N. force until
Oct. 15, 2012, the council said it was playing a “critical
role .... in ensuring stability and security in Haiti.’’
While Haiti has made considerable strides since
the quake, the Security Council said criminal gangs
remain a threat to the country’s stability.
“Trends since the earthquake reveal an increase
in all major categories of crime, including murder,
rape and kidnapping in Port-au-Prince’’ and the
western province, whose capital, Jacmel, was also
ravaged by the quake, the council said. It said sexual
and gender-based violence also remains a serious
concern in poor districts of Port-au-Prince, camps
for internally displaced people and remote areas of
the country.
The U.N. force has helped keep order in Haiti
since 2004, when political violence engulfed the
country. Haitian President Michel Martelly asked
for a renewal of the U.N. mission’s mandate, which
remains unpopular among some Haitians.
Last month, protesters calling for the withdrawal
of U.N. peacekeepers clashed with police outside
the earthquake-damaged Haitian National Palace
in Port-au-Prince.
Protesters said they were angry over the alleged
sexual assault of an 18-year-old Haitian man by
U.N. peacekeepers from Uruguay in the southwestern town of Port-Salut in July. They also expressed
anger over a cholera outbreak likely introduced by a
battalion from Nepal. The outbreak has killed more
than 6,200 people since it surfaced in October 2010,
according to the Health Ministry. (AP)
Martelly returns following surgery in US
PORT-AU-PRINCE— Haitian President Michel
Martelly is back in Haiti after doctors in Miami
performed surgery on his left shoulder.
The 50-year-old leader said the operation was to
relieve pain in the shoulder that he had bothered
him for more than five years because of his previous
career as a musician.
Before he was elected president early this year,
Martelly spent more than 20 years playing keyboard
and singing under the stage name “Sweet Micky.’’
“Every time I lifted the left arm I had pain,’’ he
told reporters at the airport’s diplomatic lounge, his
arm in a sling. “I’ve come back strong and healthy.’’
He added that he also sometimes feels pain in
his right shoulder, which may require surgery in
the future.
Martelly left last week for the United States, saying he was going for medical treatment but without
specifying the problem.
His departure coincided with anger over the jailing
of a lawmaker who had been openly critical of the
president. Police locked up legislator Arnel Belizaire
for a night because they said he had escaped from
the national prison on the chaotic day of the earthquake that shattered the capital on Jan. 12, 2010.
The detention of Belizaire, rare for a government
official because investigators need to formally submit
a request to lift immunity, sparked outrage among
members of both houses in Parliament. The Chamber
of Deputies called for the removal of two Cabinet
ministers and another official who they believed
followed Martelly’s orders to lock up Belizaire.
Martelly and Belizaire had lashed out at each other
on the grounds of the National Palace.
Martelly hadn’t commented on the arrest until
his appearanceat the international airport, when
he denied having any influence on the police action.
“Close or far away, the presidency doesn’t have
anything to do with the’’ matter, he said.
Martelly said he has asked his prime minister,
Garry Conille, to set up a commission to examine
what led to the arrest and to prevent something
similar from happening again. (AP)
Ex-telecom exec gets
15 yrs in bribe case
MIAMI _The former president of a Miami telecommunications company has been sentenced to a
record 15-year prison term in a Haitian bribery case.
Prosecutors say the sentence on 52-year-old Joel
Esquenazi was the longest ever under the Foreign
Corrupt Practices Act. Another former executive
at Terra Telecommunications Corp. received an
eight-year sentence.
The two were convicted in August of money
laundering, wire fraud and conspiracy to violate
the anti-corruption law.
Court records show they paid $890,000 into shell
companies used to bribe Haitian officials. The goal
was for Terra to gain advantage over competitors for
business with Haiti’s state-owned communications
company. The scheme ran from November 2001 to
March 2005. Four other people have been convicted
and sent to prison. Five others are charged in a
separate indictment. (AP)
Visit bostonhaitian.com for daily news updates
BostonHaitian.com
November 2011
Boston Haitian Reporter
Page 3
Pressley tops at-large ticket, with Arroyo a strong second
By Mike Deehan
Special to the Reporter
By 9:45 p.m. on Nov.8, the city’s political conventional
wisdom had been upended: Ayanna S. Pressley, widely
considered before the voting as the most vulnerable
at-large councillor, based on her fourth place finish
in 2009, easily vaulted to the top of the at-large ticket
with a 2,041-vote margin over second-place finisher
Felix G. Arroyo.
And Michael F. Flaherty, a former president of
the City Council who was viewed by most as having
a lock on reclaiming a seat based on his high name
recognition and an expected high turnout in South
Boston, finished out of the running in fifth place, 922
votes behind incumbent Council President Stephen
J. Murphy.
After the polls had closed and the final results had
trickled in, hundreds of supporters filled the Dorchester Avenue sidewalk outside of Pressley’s campaign
headquarters in Peabody Square where their candidate stood atop a chair to address the crowd, which
included Gov. Deval Patrick and a multitude of local
elected officials.
“Anybody who doubts that you have all the power
you need to make all the change you want, come and
look at the outcome of this election,” Patrick said.
“Our whole city is reflected on this sidewalk,” said
Pressley, adding “I cannot believe what we accomplished tonight as a city.”
Several supporters saw that accomplishment as a
victory over politics-as-usual in Boston. “It’s a new day
in Boston,” said veteran campaign aide Jim Spencer,
who worked on former City Councillor At-Large Sam
Yoon’s mayoral campaign in 2009.
Pressley, who took first place with 37,506 votes, said
she had 500 supporters on the streets on Tuesday,
pulling voters for her. She had heavy support from
fellow City Councillor At-Large John Connolly and
the political operation of Mayor Thomas Menino, as
well as a barrage of news articles and opinion pieces
highlighting the assumption of her vulnerability.
Pressley, who gathered 37,506 votes, said she had
500 supporters on the streets on Tuesday pulling
voters for her. She had heavy backing from fellow
City Councillor At-Large John Connolly and from
the political operation of Mayor Thomas Menino and
other elected officials across the city.
In the end, voters kept the at-large team in place,
rejecting the challenges of three other candidates.
Arroyo, the second Latino to serve on the council and
like Pressley, finishing up his first term, gained 35,465
votes; Connolly, who topped the ticket in 2009, slid
into third place, with 32,803 votes; and Murphy earned
26,712 votes in edging out Flaherty.
“I’m just happy to be reelected. If I couldn’t top the
ticket, I would want it to be Ayanna,” said Connolly
who raised $10,000 for Pressley, appeared with her
at over 30 events, and spent thousands of dollars on
direct mail and letters to voters.
The sixth and seventh place finishers were far behind, with Will Dorcena, a Hyde Park activist, picking
Ayanna Pressley celebrates with her backers on Dorchester Avenue at Ashmont on Tuesday night.
Photo by Mike Deehan
up 8,736 votes, or 5 percent. Sean Ryan, a Jamaica
Plain activist who has run for City Council in the past,
received 7,373 votes, or 4.21 percent.
Competition for the four at-large seats had been
fierce throughout the year. Flaherty’s entrance in
the spring set off a scrum largely focused on the four
incumbents and the popular South Bostonian who had
run against Mayor Menino in a losing effort in 2009.
The incumbents often appeared to campaign – and
were frequently endorsed – as a slate, though the occasional crack showed as they each jostled for votes.
Each sought to focus on a particular issue – Murphy on
finances; Connolly on education; Pressley on poverty
and violence; Arroyo on youth jobs – while Flaherty
criticized them, arguing they did not stand up to the
mayor enough.
During the Pressley campaign’s sidewalk celebration
Tuesday night, Erika Butler, a volunteer who described
herself as a close friend of the councillor, carried out
a large portrait of Pressley’s mother, Sandra, who
died in July. “We wanted her to be here,” Butler said.
When Pressley arrived later in the evening to address
the crowd and her mother’s image was held aloft and
alongside her, she described the death of her mother
over the summer as “the heartbreak of my life.”
“You all know I’ve been devastated, but I have
been undeterred and no less determined because she
didn’t die, I just absorbed
her,” Pressley said. “And
everything in me that is
good is because of her,
and I’m bolder and more
fierce and more fearless
than ever before.”
Rev. Gregory Groover
Mass lawmakers join push
for humanitarian parole
By Manolia Charlotin
Editor
This week, the Massachusetts Black and Latino Legislative Caucus
sent a letter to the Department of Homeland
Security urging Secretary Janet Napolitano
to create a Haitian Family Reunification Parole
Program. The lawmakers join Governor Deval
Patrick and most of
the Mass. congressional
delegation in this call
for humanitarian parole
for Haitians who have
already been approved
to come to the US.
“As representatives
of the state containing
the third largest population of Haitians and
Haitian Americans, we
are deeply concerned
about the precarious
status of many Haitian
children, elders and
families as they wait
in Haiti to be reunited
with their families in
the United States,” the
caucus wrote. “As you know, for
many, the conditions in
Rep. Linda Forry
Haiti since the devastating earthquake of 2010
remain unstable and
even dangerous. Establishing a Haitian Family
Reunification Parole Program (HFRPP), modeled
after the Cuban Family Reunification Parole
Program, would alleviate
this crisis by simply allowing Haitians already
approved for visas to wait
for them in the United
States with their families
rather than in Haiti.”
Rep. Linda Forry, the
state’s sole Haitian-
American elected official, drafted the letter
and garnered support
from her colleagues in
the caucus.
“Many of my colleagues
have substantial Haitian
populations in their
districts and have consistently advocated for
Haitians.”
Forry says that members of the Black and Latino Legislative Caucus,
in particular, represent
some of the key districts
with sizable Haitian
populations. “Many of them understand both personally
and as representatives
of large immigrant communities the importance
of initiatives like this
in the everyday lives
of immigrant families. That is why I felt it was
critical to reach out to
my colleagues in the
State Legislature, and
I am proud that every
member of the Caucus
has now signed on in
support of this letter.”
of the Charles St. AME Church called the win a
“comeback” for Pressley after her mother’s passing,
describing her campaign as “extraordinary. [She] has
a future in Boston. There are thousands of people, as
represented by the polls tonight that believe in her,
that believe in great things for her future,” he said.
Prior to entering elected office, she served as an aide
to U.S. Senator John Kerry.
After settling into Peabody Square’s Carruth building and launching her political career, with a resume
that included time spent as an aide to US Sen. John
Kerry, Pressley won her first two-year stint on the
13-member panel in 2009, coming in fourth among the
eight candidates on the at-large ballot. During her first
term, Pressley has been one of only two women on the
council, and its only woman of color. With former city
employee Frank Baker set to replace retiring District
3 Councillor Maureen Feeney, Pressley will be the only
woman on the council, come January.
As to Flaherty’s future, Jamaica Plain Patch reported
that he had not ruled out a recount on Tuesday night.
But he also appeared to be somewhat accepting of the
results. “What can I say other than it just wasn’t in
the cards,” he said, according to the website.
News editor Gintautas Dumcius contributed to this
report.
MARk the DAteS!
Boston Water and Sewer Is
Coming to Your Neighborhood
A Boston Water and Sewer Commission
Community Services Department
representative will be in your
neighborhood at the places, dates,
and times listed here.
DorCheSter
Uphams Corner
Municipal Building
500 Columbia Road
Fridays, 10 AM–12 PM
November 18
December 9
FIelDS CorNer
Our representative will be available to:
Kit Clark Senior Center
Accept payments. (Check or money order
1500 Dorchester Avenue
Mondays, 10 AM–1 PM
only–no cash, please.)
November 21
Process discount forms for senior citizens
December 12
and disabled people.
Resolve billing or service complaints.
Review water consumption data for your property.
MattapaN
Arrange payment plans for delinquent accounts.
Mattapan Public Library
Need more information? Call the Community
1350 Blue Hill Avenue
Fridays, 10 AM–12 PM
Services Department at 617-989-7000.
November 4
December 2
980 Harrison Avenue • Boston, MA 02119 • www.bwsc.org
November 2011
BostonHaitian.com
New cholera campaign faces tough questions
By Trenton Daniel
Associated Press
Haiti’s two most prominent health care organizations are preparing
a new assault on the
country’s deadly cholera
epidemic: the dispatch
of hundreds of workers to remote villages
and gritty alleys in the
capital to administer a
vaccine against the raging disease.But the pilot
project, which has not yet
secured the $870,000 it is
estimated to cost, has set
off a debate among some
public health experts
who question the wisdom
of a program that will inoculate only 1 percent of
the population and could
deplete the world’s stock
of available cholera vaccine, potentially putting
people at risk in other
vulnerable places.
Experts also wonder
whether it will even be
possible to successfully
administer a vaccine
that must be given in two
dosages two weeks apart.
They contend the money
is best spent cleaning up
the waterways that have
allowed cholera to flourish in Haiti.
“Everybody thinks it’s
going to do some good,’’
said Richard Garfield, a
professor of public health
and nursing at Columbia University. ``But
it’s hard to specify how
much good and benefit
will come out of that ...
There are bigger-bangfor-the-buck activities
out there.’’
Partners in Health,
based in Boston, Massachusetts, and the
Gheskio Center, a health
nonprofit that has historically focused on AIDS,
are joining in the vaccine
campaign, hoping it will
save lives.
Partners in Health
co-founder, Dr. Paul
Farmer, became an early
advocate of the vaccine.
A Harvard professor and
special U.N. envoy, his
opinion carries weight
in Haiti, where he has
been working to improve
public health for more
than 20 years. He’s adamant that the vaccina-
tions should be done for
Haiti’s poor regardless
of the cost.
“It’s been a joke to
focus on how much it
costs,’’ Farmer said by
telephone. “The Haitian
cholera epidemic is the
largest in the world.’’
Doctors Without Borders estimates it would
cost up to $40 million
to inoculate the entire
country and points out
that the immunity from
the vaccine begins to
wear off within three
years.
“Money spent on vaccines should not come
at the expense of money
spent on permanent
water and sanitation
measures,’’ Dr. David
Olson, a medical adviser
for Doctors Without Borders, wrote in an October
press release.
The proposal for a vaccine campaign in Haiti
surfaced soon after the
disease emerged in October 2010, when U.N.
peacekeepers from Nepal apparently triggered
the contagion through an
inadequate sanitation
system installed near the
country’s largest river,
the Artibonite, according
to several studies.
The studies were cited
as evidence in a claim by
the Boston-based Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, which
argues that the world
body is responsible for
the epidemic and should
compensate more than
5,000 cholera victims.
Cholera, spread by
water and contact with
other people who have
the disease, has sickened nearly 500,000
and killed more than
6,500, according to Haiti’s Health Ministry. The
disease causes rapid
dehydration that can kill
someone within hours
but is easily treatable.
In the first weeks of the
outbreak, assistance
poured into the country
from Doctors Without
Borders, Oxfam, Partners in Health, as well
as many smaller groups.
Following the outbreak, public health
experts discussed the
possibility of introducing
an oral vaccine but the
administration of former
President Rene Preval
didn’t want it unless the
entire country of 10 million could be treated. The
more pressing need was
to combat a mortality
rate that went as high
as 5 percent. Dehydrated
Haitians were dropping
dead in the streets and
hills as health workers
scrambled to hydrate
survivors in makeshift
treatment centers.
At the time, there
was only one vaccine
available — Dukoral,
which is manufactured
by the Dutch biopharmaceutical company
Crucell N.V. The global
supply was limited to
about 250,000 doses.
The vaccine, sold at $6
a dose, is used mostly by
affluent travelers rather
than people in cholerainfected countries.
In recent months, the
vaccine option has grown
more viable for several
reasons. For one, the
One of these women
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Getting tested is easy to schedule, convenient, and free.
To start, choose one of the following options:
1. Call your health care provider and make an appointment today
2. Call the Mammogram Hotline at 1-866-455-1344
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World Health Organization in September
approved the use of a
second vaccine, Shanchol, which is made by
Shanta Biotechnics Ltd,
an Indian subsidiary of
Sanofi SA. The approval
was needed so U.N. agencies like Unicef could
procure the vaccine.
Plus, Haiti’s new leaders, President Michel
Martelly and his prime
minister, Dr. Garry Conille, support the campaign.
In January, health
workers will fan out in
the Central Plateau and
the capital, urging people to seek vaccinations
and then documenting
those who do. They aim
to reach 80 percent of
their targeted population living in those areas.
The project includes
200,000 doses of the
vaccine currently available, its delivery to Haiti,
health workers’ salaries, and construction
of a refrigerated facility
to store Shanchol, according to Partners in
Health. Each dose costs
less than Dukoral, at
$1.85, and altogether
the cost will run about
$870,000.
Peter Graaff, the Haiti
representative of the
World Health Organization, acknowledged
complications associated
with the program.
“Cholera vaccination
is not the easiest form of
vaccination,’’ Graaff said
in his Port-au-Prince
office, pointing out the
need for a second dose
and refrigeration for the
vaccine and the limited
vaccine supply worldwide. “It’s obviously one
of a number of preventative measures.’’
Jon Weigel, a researcher for Farmer, counters
the concerns of a followup dose by pointing to a
successful vaccination
program Partners in
Health launched just
before the January 2010
earthquake. Health
workers sought to inoculate 3,000 girls with
the Gardasil vaccine for
human papillomavirus,
the main cause of cervical cancer.
The distribution was
relatively more complicated. It required three
doses over a period of
six months. Plus, chaos
from the earthquake
threatened to disrupt
delivery of the final dose.
The completion rate: 75
percent.
Coming up with the
money shouldn’t be an issue. Partners in Health
is negotiating with donors though it would
not identify them. The
health care nonprofit is
among the top recipients
of aid in Haiti, and last
year brought in $151
million for its work in
12 countries.
“This is an oral vaccine
that was designed to be
used in poor countries,’’
Farmer said. “This is the
lowest-hanging fruit.’’
(AP)
BostonHaitian.com
November 2011
Page 5
Sant Belvi serves the needs of Haitian retirees
By Yolette Ibokette
Contributing Editor
more I see them as a
hidden treasure.”
Sant Belvi opened
its doors in 2008 to
meet the needs of retiring Haitians. Oswald
Neptune, the director
and one of the founders,
recalls, “Haitians who
had been in the United
States for 40-50 years
hoped to return to Haiti
to retire. However, the
country doesn’t have
the infrastructure for
them to go back. And
they don’t want to go to
a nursing home. Many
people stayed at home
alone with nothing to
do. When Jean-Marc
Jean-Baptiste, director
of HAPHI (HaitianAmerican Public Health
Initiatives) and I saw
this need, we started
working on this center
and found a group of
people to invest in it.”
When it first opened,
the center only had six
clients. Today, its 22
employees serve 170
clients. To qualify,
applicants must have
MassHealth insurance
and be at least 65 years Seniors put on a dance performance at Sant Belvi.
Photo courtesy of Oswald Neptune
old. People with disabilities must be at
should have. The staff treats us with respect. It’s
least 18 years old. Junior Mengual, the director of like you’re home. I like the quality and courteous
Activities, details the daily activities he prepares service. Even the drivers treat us with patience and
for the clients. They include exercise, arts and respect.” Jean St. Cyr, 85, and his wife Philomene
crafts, storytelling, movies, crochet, sewing, dance St. Cyr, 82, who have been married for 55 years,
therapy and others. Additionally, he offers games have also been coming to the center since its incepsuch as dominoes, Bingo and checkers. He says, tion. He says, “Coming here makes me feel alive.
“We teach them not to argue, to live well together Every employee helps us, from the director to the
and respect each other. I do the work with all my driver.” Edline Marcellus, 89, enjoys the sewing
heart. I give them my all.” Exode Milfort and Lionel she does at the center. She says, “I used to use a
Charles, two of the drivers, are equally dedicated cane but not anymore. I love the employees. They
to the clients. Milfort says, “Once you start driving take care of me. If I don’t like the food, they give
them, they are like family. We joke around in the me something else. They treat me well.”
van, and everybody’s happy.” Charles agrees, “The
Neptune couldn’t be more pleased to hear these
clients get used to us. They’re disappointed when comments. He concedes that many elderly people
they don’t see their regular driver.”
need this center but don’t qualify because of their
The clients sense this dedication on the part of health insurance policies. So they stay home alone
the staff. Edner Pierre-Charles, 83, says, “I like it and lonely. He says, “Here, they meet old friends,
because before coming here, I stayed home. Here I and their families don’t have to worry about their
can play dominoes, hear jokes and listen to music.” safety. I’d love to see similar centers in Cambridge,
Rodolphe Mentor, 86, was there when the center first Somerville and Brockton, cities with large Haitian
opened. He adds, “I was at another program, a bad populations. There’s a definite need.”
one. So I told Oswald everything a good program
“We’re like a family.” That’s how the staff at Sant
Belvi, (Good Life Center, in English,) describes their
relationship with their clients. Some might say
that the Dorchester-based center sometimes does
a better job caring for their clients than their real
families. The organization is also known as the
Haitian Adult Day Health Center. Through the
center, clients receive individualized services that
meet their social, emotional and medical needs in a
caring, dignified and respectful manner. Cultural
responsiveness is at the heart of all interactions,
activities and programs. Indeed, the spacious
gathering area is warmly decorated with beautiful
Haitian arts and crafts.
Seated at a desk at the entrance of the lobby,
Lourdes Almonacy, one of the program assistants,
greets visitors with a warm, welcoming smile. Most
of the men and women are seated comfortably in armchairs and sofas watching a Haitian news program.
Clients are kept informed about local, national and
international events. English programs are interpreted into Haitian Creole. While most programs
and activities are conducted in the large gathering
area, there are also meeting rooms available for small
groups to pray, receive counseling, discuss religion
as well as take literacy and ESL classes.
The center aims to make the clients as independent
as possible. Marlyne Chery, the Assistant Director
of the center, says “We do what their kids can’t do,
due to their work schedules.” Transportation is
provided from door to door by the center’s drivers.
Since some clients are more self-sufficient than others, staff helps by taking them grocery shopping, to
the bank and to send money to relatives in Haiti.
Clients also receive nail and dental care. One of the
areas that the center excels in is overseeing health
needs. Chery says, “Our clients trust us to the point
that if they’re sick overnight, they don’t call for an
ambulance. They’re often afraid and don’t speak
English well; so they would rather wait to get here
because they trust us to care of them.” The staff
does advise clients to call for an ambulance if it is
an emergency.
The nursing station is led by Emilienne Valles and
two other nurses: R. L. Sauld and Dady Norbrun.
Some of the most common ailments they encounter
are: hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol and
coronary artery disease. Valles says, “When our
clients first arrive here, we do a head-to-toe health
assessment. We then oversee everything related
to their health.” This includes making and taking
them to doctors’ appointments, giving them their
medications and keeping in touch with their doctors
and families.
The staff acknowledges that it can be challenging caring for people who are set in their ways.
For example, some clients don’t follow their diets
and have difficulty restricting their salt and sugar
intake. Therefore, the nursing staff educates them
on these and other health issues. There are also T S F | 6 . 7 5 x 6 | r e v iSe d : O cT 2 010
monthly presentations by doctors and other health
professionals on conditions such as glaucoma,
cataracts, depression and breast cancer. Working
at the center since 2008, Valles, says, “When some
clients first arrive here, they usually have very high
blood pressure, but we stabilize them. Some stop
using their canes or walkers soon after they join
the center.” She enjoys working at Sant Belvi, “I’m
using my experience to help my people. I can’t go
to Haiti to help; so working here is very rewarding.”
The nursing staff works closely with the meals staff
which is headed by Bettina Eugene. She ensures
that the breakfasts and lunches served adhere to
each client’s specific dietary needs. Eugene also
has the challenging task of preparing Haitian meals
that respect state dietary specifications of less salt,
sugar, rice and frying. She says, “At other centers,
clients eat American foods, but here, if the meals
aren’t Haitian, they won’t eat them.” Eugene, who
has been with the center for two years, and her assistant, Margaret Michel, also educate the clients
40% chance of
about healthy eating.
Make
Like Eugene, Anne-Marie Jean-Louis does a lot of
educating. In addition to teaching about US laws
and civic obligations, Jean-Louis conducts citizenship, welfare, housing, social security benefits and
other workshops. She even accompanies clients to
their citizenship interviews. However, she readily
admits that one of her best rewards is accompanying
clients to their citizenship swearing-in ceremonies.
Hired in 2009 to assess client eligibility, she adds,
“If I see something they need to know about, whether
it’s related to health or lifestyle or religion, I teach
it in an unbiased, non-judgmental way.” With 27
years of social work experience, Jean-Louis says,
“For many years, I worked with mainstream Americans. Whatever I have left now, I want to give to
my people. I treat them with respect and humility
so they can feel like a human being. If I had to do
it again, I would. The more I enter their world, the
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November 2011
BostonHaitian.com
Commentary
Martelly, the consolidation of power, and the tailoring of Iron-Pants
By Patrick Sylvain
Contributing Editor
institutions? What is peculiar in a troubling way
is the fact that his musical success is perceived as
President Martelly declared education and fight- being translatable to political prowess. Martelly’s
ing corruption among his highest priorities in the lack of decorum and forceful personality is readily
displayed in his role as president, and some,
reconstruction of Haiti. Simultaneously,
but not all of his supporters are shocked
he extended a participatory hand to some
by his behavior.
of the country’s former leaders — known
The current struggle for consolidated
human rights violators, drug traffickers,
power is nothing but a normal product of
and corruptors. For some reason, Jeanthe Haitian male ego constructed at the
Claude Duvalier and former President
inception of the nation. Thus, the potential
Aristide are held in high regard by Marresurgence of the military in Haiti is not
telly and have been sought by him, in this,
surprising, as members of the bourgeoisie
the first year of his presidency.
have historically been protected by the
Martelly’s overtures to political leaders
military. (They were appalled by the rise
can simply be read as symbolic, which, in
of Aristide who brought the Cité Soleil
a country like Haiti that has historically
population among their ranks.) Now, with
been mired in exclusionary politics can
President Martelly, their power can potenresult in personal and political triumph.
be regained, reshaped, refashioned
Martelly’s embrace of both friends and
Voices of tially
and re-institutionalized in ways that were
foes automatically garners him political
Boston
neverthought possible. What Martelly
points that his predecessors have failed
and the Neo-Duvalierists are engineering
to earn. Whether his political embraces
and and maneuverings are genuine or not is abso- is an iron-clad political machine under the aegis of
lutely irrelevant; what is important is the how his democracy.
Thus far, the process of electoral representative
presidency has been perceived during this period
of power consolidation, the most critical for any democracy has failed, although the euphoria asgovernment. For Martelly especially, much atten- sociated the voting process itself was good practice
tion needs to be paid to how effectively he handles given Haiti’s coarse dictatorial tradition. As such,
his first episode of leadership, as he projects lofty recent electoral shams have resulted in the pollution
goals and authoritative tendencies despite minimal of nascent democratic practices. Plus, the political
incompetence of self-declared progressive politirepresentation in parliament.
Sa ki pa konn Micky, men Micky! (Those who do cians, rampant structural corruption, and mammoth
inequalities that have proven to be cancerous to
not know Micky, here’s Micky!)
The neo-political Duvalierist that effectively forms the society.
The dictatorial penchant expressed by the Marhis power base must be lauded for his cohesive discipline and showmanship. Although fomer President telly presidency is reflected by his political and legal
Aristide had several Duvalierists in his first regime, entourage that consists of ultra-conservatives and
his populist power base and antagonistic policies Neo-Duvalierists. Hence, it would be highly unlikely
created more rifts than accord. His actions and that Haiti’s feeble democratic process might be
leadership style vastly differ from those of President strengthened while there is neither historical precMartelly, an all-hands-on-the-Duvalier-deck type edent nor a culture that espouses democratic values.
The stability of the elite is clearly anchored to a
of president. His open fearlessness, (despite being
undemocratic in the tradition of the ruling class), new form of political control. They hold sway over
is indeed the leadership characteristic that certain representational interests and government stability
Haitians admire and is one that the international in a way that is intrinsically tied to the electoral procommunity “supports,” resulting in the completion cess. In a culturally dictatorial and corrupt country
of projects that ultimately benefit the ultra-rich. like Haiti, to maintain stability and control over
Martelly is fast transforming his particular style governance, the elite must resort to the creation of
a one (maximum two) party system, which has the
of leadership into an art.
Of course, in the field of politics where persua- ability to carry out their political interests. The
sion and perception in and of themselves are arts, return of the Haitian military is likely to be instievery move becomes a calculating one and each is tutionalized to safeguard their interests as well as
perceived by the masses who desire stability and those of foreign investors. Eventually, total control
seek assurance of movement toward a greater goal. of Parliament by the elite will likely be attained, as
How President Martelly spends his political capital will control of the media. There is a great chance
is to be pondered. Will he self-destruct due to his that the Martelly state will certainly emerge as a
arrogance and inflexibility? Or will his rigidity be cohesive unit with a zealous commitment to stability
beneficial for the survival of his presidency, given and fervent nationalism.
The public embrace between Aristide and Marthe culture of dictatorship that cements our failed
The dictatorial penchant expressed
by the Martelly presidency is
reflected by his political and legal
entourage that consists of ultraconservatives and Neo-Duvalierists.
telly in mid-October can be viewed as a political
death sentence for Aristide as he has slowly lost
legitimacy and is precluded from gathering up his
base after his long absence in the country. Each
former president, with the exception of Duvalier,
who embraces President Martelly through the
symbolic gesture of reconciliation, can be viewed as
politically wing-clipped. This permits Martelly and
his Neo-Duvalierists to soar in an unchallenged sky
void of valid moral authority.
Proof of the success of Martelly’s consolidation of
power is the recent arrest of Deputy Arnel Belizaire,
a crook in his own right, who not only is openly opposed to President Martelly, but recently challenged
him at a meeting with members of Parliament held
at the National Palace. Belizaire’s arrest, based on
his illegal past, overshadowed his parliamentary immunity. This move will certainly instill fear amongst
members of parliament who may have gotten away
with illegal acts under previous governments. In
Belizaire’s case, what is on display is a legitimate
legal and democratic fight for the future of Haiti. If
Belizaire is released in response to parliamentary
protests, it can certainly be viewed as victory for
democracy; however, we must see whether the legal
framework will ultimately be respected.
The tailoring of Martelly’s iron-pants depends not
only on the resurgence of the military, but also hinges
on his ability to control Parliament. If Parliament
insists on maintaining Belizaire’s immunity, than
Haiti will be in for a damaging struggle for democracy where the executive will be forced to clash with
Parliament over a member with a criminal record.
Martelly could potentially play his hand by violating
the constitution through strongman-showmanship.
However, in order for Martelly to show that he is a
no nonsense president who is indeed serious about
corruption and criminality in the Parliament, then
his temporary success in having the police arrest
Belizaire, albeit short, must be translated to permanency where legal means are used to properly
prosecute a wanted fugitive.
Unfortunately, as macho-political egos parade
their myopic personal interests, Haiti continues
to endure abject poverty and dire circumstances.
Feeble institutions, instead of becoming more
democratic, are now reconstructed with dictatorial
cement.
Patrick Sylvain is an Instructor of Haitian Language and Culture at Brown University.
Diaspora pushes for accountability in US aid to Haiti
By Kysseline Jean-Mary Cherestal and
A.D. Rachel Pierre, Special to the Reporter
The Haitian Diaspora has long maintained close
ties to Haiti. Over the many decades Haitians have
been immigrating to the US, they have continued
to support their brothers and sisters in Haiti by
sending remittances, and by standing in solidarity
with them, including advocating on their behalf.
BOSTON HAITIAN
REPORTER
“An Exploration of the Haitian-American Experience”
A publication of Boston Neighborhood News Inc.
150 Mt. Vernon St., Suite 120 , Dorchester, MA 02125
Worldwide at www.bostonhaitian.com
Mary Casey Forry, President (1983-2004)
Edward W. Forry, Publisher
William P. Forry, Managing Editor
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Steve Desrosiers, Contributing Editor
Yolette Ibokette, Contributing Editor
Patrick Sylvain, Contributing Editor
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Boston Haitian Reporter Reporter is not liable for errors appearing in
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Next Issue: December 2011
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Now more than ever, the Haitian Diaspora cannot
sit idle while gross human rights injustices continue
to claim the lives of Haiti’s marginalized citizens.
As the two year mark of the devastating January 12, 2010 earthquake approaches, Haiti’s reconstruction and development have barely begun.
Approximately 500,000 Haitians are still living in
precarious and deplorable conditions in tent settlements throughout the country. The recent flooding
has led to the resurgence of the cholera epidemic,
increasing the vulnerabilities of poor, displaced
Haitians. Since the outbreak of cholera last year,
the epidemic has caused a total of 465,293 cases of
infection, and 6,559 deaths. A recent report from
the United Nations Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs notes that access to water
and sanitation continues to deteriorate in Internally
Displaced Persons camps, torrential rains in September and October led to more cholera outbreaks,
and food security affects one in two Haitians.
From the vantage point of our fellow Haitians
forced to live in tent settlements while being threatened by forced evictions, there is very little evidence
of progress in Haiti. Now is the time to rethink
development in Haiti and institute a sound US
government policy framework to help Haiti develop
in a more sustainable and organic way.
The Assessing Progress in Haiti Act is one vehicle
that will help inform such development policies and
will ensure that U.S. tax payers’ dollars are spent
efficiently and effectively. The law would require
the Administration to report to Congress regarding the status of post-earthquake humanitarian,
reconstruction, and development efforts in Haiti.
This law will further incentivize the Administration
to implement key recommendations as outlined in
the May 19, 2011 Government Accountability Office
(GAO) and Inspector General (IG) Report’s audit of
USAID/OFDA shelter programs. The GAO recommends that USAID “take steps to ensure planned
monitoring and evaluation activities in a timely
manner.” In addition, the IG report recommends
that USAID/OFDA provide grantees with standardized shelter designs to reduce costs, prevent
delays in implementation, and to ensure shelters
meet international standards for security, privacy
and comfort. The Assessing Progress in Haiti Act
would seek to address issues raised in both of these
reports by establishing a reporting and accountability mechanism to assess the progress of U.S. funded
programs and projects. It would also build upon the
existing reporting requirements passed by congress
last year, which mandate the State Department to
consult with representatives of the Haitian national,
provincial or local government, local communities
and civil society organizations on all U.S. funded
programs in Haiti. In all, the Assessing Progress
in Haiti Act will help inform U.S. engagement with
Haiti and make certain that our efforts to build institutional government capacity and address the most
urgent humanitarian and long term development
needs of Haiti, are implemented in a more efficient
and accountable manner.
The future of U.S. government policy in Haiti
depends on passage of this bill. Call your Senators
now and urge them to vote for the Assessing Progress in Haiti Act to support just and sustainable
reconstruction.
Kysseline Jean-Mary Cherestal is an advocate who
resides in Washington DC; A.D. Rachel Pierre is the
executive director of The Andora Project, Inc.
BostonHaitian.com
November 2011
Page 7
Commentary
An Unnaming: The Haitian Earthquake Metaphor
By Danielle Georges
Special to the
Reporter
Nearly two years ago,
Haiti suffered a devastating earthquake, which
nearly destroyed its
capital Port-au-Prince;
a quake in which an extraordinarily large number of children, women,
and men lost their lives.
More than one million
quake survivors were
made homeless, and
many remain so today.
Everywhere in Portau-Prince remain signs
of the earthquake: debris not yet picked up by
the government; exposed
interior walls; the blue
and white tarps and
tents under which people
live—under which girls
and women are especially vulnerable to violence; the houses bearing
such stamps as MTPTC
4 or MTPTC à démolir
painted by the Ministry for Public Works to
indicate the degree of
a building’s structural
solidity or compromise.
People here, Haitians,
refer to the earthquake
as bagay la—that thing.
If a metaphor is a
transfer, then the shift
from the term “earthquake” to “that thing”
has us leaping from a
precise and measurable
natural phenomenon
to an unnamed zone or
space. Whether speaking English or Creole
(or Haitian) or French,
we know what an earthquake is: a trembling of
the earth; seismic waves
that propagate in fluid or
solid materials.
What the newly-created Haitian metaphor
does is signal to us not
what an earthquake is,
or what the January 2010
earthquake was—but
what this earthquake
means, has meant, and
will continue to mean.
The figurative thing
because of its generality, its indistinctness,
serves as an inclusive
field which can accommodate the heartbreak
and horror experienced
and witnessed by Haitians—the lost family members, neighbors, and colleagues;
the lost and profoundlyaffected institutions,the
smashed supermarkets
and outdoor markets;
the crushed schools, the
lost sites of memory and
community, of everyday
living.
If metaphors often
rely on image, then that
thing is marked by the
absence of image. Perhaps this responds to
an over-representation
of images relative to the
earthquake, a too-much
seeing. Moreover, which
one image would serve,
could serve, to describe
it all? And what is it all?
In living and moving forward, Haitians
must contend with the
structural, social, and
environmental issues in
place prior to the earthquake. These buttressed
Haiti’s poverty, allowing
for the scale of death and
damage seen in affected
cities and areas. There
is the historic tension
between the Haitian
state and the citizenry
it is meant to serve,
as well as the heavy
hand of the international
community in Haitian
political and economic
affairs. Add to this a
recent proliferation of
non-governmental organizations (some effective at providing needed
services, some not) on the
ground; the still highly
visible presence of armed
United Nations security
forces in a country not
at war; and the nation’s
continued public health
and ecological challenges. This daunting set of
circumstances is exacerbated by an external
gaze often reflecting “the
poorest nation in the
Western hemisphere,”
despite what Haitians
know to be an infinitely
more complex reality.
How can an image accommodate these truths?
With bagay la, Haitians have chosen not to
choose an image. What
image could hold what
the earthquake means?
Is it possible, too, that
the creators of the metaphor were reflecting a
sense of being unmoored,
unnamed by the earthquake which affected
the lives of poor, rich,
old, young, babies, those
with disabilities, and the
able-bodied alike? Perhaps they thought: the
earthquake unnamed
us, and so we unname it.
Same for same. Kif Kif.
•••
Seamus Heaney provides a definition for
poetry as an order “true
to the impact of external
reality and . . . sensitive
to the inner laws of the
poet’s being.”
The Haitian sensibility is a poetic and quickwitted one. Haitians are
known for the everyday
poetry and sophisticated word play in their
interactions with each
other—and for proverbs,
networks of metaphors,
which help illuminate
the political, economic,
social, familial and other
situations we all find ourselves in. Many proverbs
are rooted in Haitian
oral culture, and echo
Danielle Georges is an Associate Professor in the Creative Arts in Learning
division of Lelsey University.
the incisive comparative
and inventive abilities of
their authors, unidentified poets—like the
originators of bagay la.
Ravet pa janm gen
rézon devan poul. “The
cockroach is always
wrong when it argues
with the chicken” provides us with one mighty
big chicken, who by
virtue of its sheer size
relative to the roach, will
always win an argument.
Sé kouto ki konn kè
yanm-nan. “It’s the knife
that knows the heart of
the yam” encourages
us to have a healthy
skepticism in regard to
appearances.
Bourik chajé pa kanpé.
“A loaded donkey can’t
stand still” shows us a
beast so burdened that
running with its crushing load beats standing
inert under its impossible weight.
Yon sèl dwèt pa manjé
kalalou. “You don’t eat
gumbo with one finger”
emphasizes the need
for two fingers in order
to nourish oneself—and
our dependence on one
another.
Joudia pou ou, demain
pou mwen. “Today for
you, tomorrow for me”
envisions a future in
which what goes around
has come around—and
justice has prevailed.
On poetics, Aristotle writes, “the greatest
thing by far is to have a
command of metaphor.”
He adds, “this alone
cannot be imparted by
another, it is the mark
of genius, for to make
good metaphors implies
an eye for resemblances.”
That Haitians have
given birth to metaphors
grounded in Haitian
external realities, mirroring and refracting
them; and to bagay la, a
term both singular and
sweeping; a term that
wrestles with something
the likes of which we’ve
never seen before, could
just be a sign of poetic
genius.
Danielle Legros Georges is an Associate Professor in the Creative Arts
in Learning Division of
Lesley University. She
is the author of a book
of poems Maroon (2001)
which explores HaitianAmerican identity.
Breaking the long cycle of impunity: Rule of Law in Haiti
By Gladys Melo-Pinzon, PhD.
“The memory of the victims means that truth can
be reconstructed.”
(Commissioner Luz Patricia Mejía Guerrero,
March 2011)
Impunity for past human rights violations prevails in Haiti. With former president Jean-Claude
Duvalier’s return, the Haitian State is confronted
to observe its obligations under international law to
investigate the crimes committed under Duvalier’s
government and prosecute those responsible for
the crimes.
On January 16, 2011, after nearly 25 years of exile
in France, Duvalier returned unexpectedly to Haiti.
Two days later, the Haitian government arrested
and charged him with a number of offenses, including crimes against humanity. At the time, Amnesty
International made public and presented to Portau-Prince’s Public Prosecutor, numerous reports
of human rights violations perpetrated under his
government between April 22, 1971 and February 7,
1986. These documents help inform the investigation
and demonstrate the widespread and systematic way
in which these crimes were committed with total
impunity, condoned or abetted by the head of state.
Duvalier was more than a notorious figure from
the history books. He replaced his father, François
Duvalier as the President of Haiti in 1971, maintaining power until overthrown by a popular uprising in
1986. Duvalier was the flesh-and-blood despot whose
regime left behind a trail of scarred and disrupted
lives. Under his presidency, hundreds of Haitians,
journalists, trade unionists, and political opponents
were forcibly disappeared, extra-judicially executed,
tortured, arbitrarily detained, or forced into exile.
For the past 25 years, truth, justice and reparation
have been unavailable to the survivors of Duvalier’s
regime. Justice is a human right and the quest for
justice in Haiti will continue as long as victims of
human rights violations have their right to justice
denied. The memories of the serious human rights
violations committed by the regime remain vivid
and the thirst for justice is still intact although no
prosecutions have taken place. Impunity must end in
Haiti and Haitians deserve justice. To this end, Amnesty International released a report last September
titled “You Cannot Kill the Truth the Case Against
Jean Claude Duvalier.” Lawyers and supporters
of Duvalier interrupted a press conference held to
discuss the report’s findings. Duvalier’s legacy is
still so present, and the situation in Haiti so volatile.
The erruption made it very difficult to express the
message of the report: reconciliation cannot be built
on an intent of ignoring the past and all the pains
suffered by the Haitian people during three decades
of dictatorship from the Duvalier family. The broad
scale brutality of state that was experienced under
Duvalier cannot remain unpunished. If true justice
is to be done in Haiti, this trial should take place.
The right to social solidarity and national reconciliation must be sought in light of the requirements of
historical truth. A community, a country, a nation,
a people exists only in shared memory. So what will
the Haitian people remember about the chronic impunity that has befallen Haiti? What will Haitians
remember? What is done or not done will define who
Haitians are, and who we are. In this respect, the
international community also shares the responsibility to ensure justice is carried out.
Duvalier faces charges of committing crimes
against humanity in Haiti even though such crimes
are still not defined in Haiti’s Penal Code. However,
because these are crimes under international law,
Haiti nevertheless has an obligation to investigate
and prosecute these violations as crimes against
humanity and to provide the victims with access to
justice, truth and reparations. In line with international fair trial standards, any prosecution should
take place in an ordinary court of justice with all the
guarantees of trial for the defendant and the victims.
It is incumbent upon President Martelly and his
government must ensure that judicial authorities
are empowered to investigate and prosecute human
rights violations by Duvalier and other state officials
under his command with the technical, financial and
political support of the international community to
ensure that justice is done.
Haiti still struggles with the legacy of 29 years of
abuses under the Duvalier Family, and further serious human rights violations during 25 post-Duvalier
years. A trial against Jean-Claude Duvalier, while
immensely challenging and highly polarizing, could
greatly assist efforts to rebuild, to reform and to
reconcile by breaking Haiti’s long cycle of Impunity
and restoring the rule of law. This trial would mark
one more step forward in the struggle to dismantle
the entrenched impunity that has protected legions
of perpetrators around the world who have orchestrated crimes against humanity and have used the
systematic violation of human rights as a mode of
governance while in power.
Gladys Melo-Pinzon, PhD. is the Haiti country
specialist and strategist for Amnesty International
USA. For more information, visit amnestyusa.org/
our-work/countries/americas/haiti
November 2011
BostonHaitian.com
Commentary
Once again, US interests trump welfare of Haitians in aid
By Nathan Yaffe
Special to the Reporter
The US response to the earthquake in Haiti has
received ample attention. In the process, several
common critiques emerged. Some said aid was disbursed too slowly; others pointed to glaring flaws
in individual programs; and of course, many noted
that Haitian contractors and NGOs were sidelined
from the relief effort.
These critiques make a variety of important
points. However, one perspective that’s still underrepresented is the analysis of current US aid efforts
in light of the historical relationship between the
US and Haiti.
The Haiti Justice Alliance received data through
a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Request that
enables such an analysis. Our investigation reveals
that the US response showed a shocking lack of
sensitivity to the most historically troubling aspects
of the US-Haiti relationship.
Militarism and Miami Rice: Ignoble US
Legacies in Haiti
Among the most enduring, harmful legacies of US
involvement in Haiti are repeated military interventions and the destruction of Haiti’s agriculture.
The details of these stories are well known, but
they merit a brief overview for the purpose of the
present discussion.
Between 1850 and 1915, US warships were a
constant presence in Haiti’s coastal waters. In 1915,
the marines invaded Haiti, marking the beginning of
a 19-year occupation. During that period, Franklin
Delano Roosevelt wrote a Constitution for Haiti,
which the US imposed on the country at gunpoint.
Direct occupation gave way to proxy militarism
as the US propped up a series of violent regimes
beginning in the 1930s. Soon, this arrangement
stabilized in the form of the brutal Duvalier dynasty
(1957-1986), which the US consistently supplied
with military and financial aid.
The succession from Papa to Baby Doc Duvalier
was accompanied by a troubling development on
the economic front. As one condition of continued
support, the US demanded cooperation in forcing a
shift in Haiti’s economic structure from agriculture
to low-wage textile manufacturing. The goal was
two-fold: the US hoped to maximize profits from
what it saw as “cheap, docile labor” in Haiti, and
meanwhile create a guaranteed export market for
US rice.
Achieving these economic goals required suppressing Haiti’s agriculture. This was necessary not only
to pave the way for US food imports, but also to
free up labor for the nascent manufacturing sector.
Importing rice at dirt-cheap prices and donating
rice were two major components of the US effort to
induce Haitians to give up farming.
Eventually, these efforts paid off. In the 1980s,
US rice imports to Haiti were roughly 1/20th of local
production. By the early 2000s, after several decades
pursuing these policies, Haiti imported twice as
much rice as it grew for itself. This history is why
activists like Pierre Labossiere say hunger in Haiti
is “an imposed hunger.”
Since 2004, the primary expression of US militarism in Haiti has been the UN mission (MINUSTAH),
not the US army. With 12,000 armed personnel,
MINUSTAH enjoys US support because, according
to Wikileaks documents, it’s a “bargain” way for
the US to advance regional policy goals. Given that
the US provides no soldiers and only one-fourth of
MINUSTAH’s funding, the mission is the cheapest
way to maintain a military presence in Haiti.
Straddling Ignorance and Malice:
US Relief Efforts
In light of this history, US choices about aid
allocation after the earthquake appear indefensible.
The fact that the US sent 22,000 US soldiers to Haiti
after the earthquake has already prompted some to
call the response an “occupation.” What the FOIA
data reveals, however, is that of the $1.1 billion
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the US spent in Haiti in
2010, nearly half ($465
million) went to the
military response coordinated by the Department
of Defense (DoD). While
independent watchdogs
criticize the US for militarizing its aid in general, the fact that the
response in Haiti was
so heavily militarized is
particularly troubling.
The next area of concern is the money allocated through the “Food for
Peace” (FFP) program.
Of the $208 million FFP
allocation, $35 million
went to cash-for-work
and food vouchers. The
remaining $173 million
went to importing more
than 100,000 metric tons
of food aid. Predictably,
Haitian activists attempted to put a stop to
food donations shortly
after the quake–to no
avail. Thus, in the first
year after the quake,
60% of US relief money
was spent in ways that
reinforced historical patterns of exploitation and
abuse.
Of the $460 million left
over after the military
and food aid allocation, $110 million went
to the UN. While this
money wasn’t for the
peacekeeping force that
earned MINUSTAH the
title of “occupier,” the
UN nonetheless lacks
the popular legitimacy
necessary to be a leader
in the reconstruction.
The UN’s legitimacy has
further eroded since the
earthquake because of
a slew of scandals, the
most damaging of which
is undoubtedly the introduction of cholera.
Asking the Wrong
Questions
In 2010, the US set
aside $1.1 billion for
earthquake relief to
Haiti. Yet, nearly $750
million of that was channeled through the institutions behind the
most perverse historical
themes of US relations
with Haiti. Therefore,
when members of the
media and the independent watchdogs question
Continued on page 12
BostonHaitian.com
November 2011
Page 9
School remains a labor of love in Ile-a-Vache
By Yolette Ibokette
Contributing Editor
Anne Anninger and
Jean-Patrick Lucien
couldn’t be more different. She is white and
was born and raised in
the United States. He
was born and grew up
in Haiti until he moved
to the United States in
1986 after graduating
from high school.
What they have in
common, though, is a
commitment to give
poor Haitian children a
good education. In 2006,
Framingham resident
Lucien went to Ile-aVache, a breathtakingly
beautiful island in the
south of Haiti. There,
he visited a little school,
L’Ecole du Village, and
offered to provide some
much-needed materials.
When the owner decided
to close the school a year
later, Lucien talked to
students’ parents and
community leaders in
an effort to offer some
assistance. The school
was soon reopened with
23 students, two teachers and one principal.
Today, it accommodates
130 students in grades
pre-k through five with
seven classrooms.
Cambridge resident
Anninger who has a
Haitian son, Junior
Jean-Baptiste, directed
Haiti Projects in Fond
des Blancs for eight
years and managed its
women’s cooperative,
library and school until
she retired in 2010.
She first met Lucien in
1994 when they both
worshipped at the same
Haitian church here in
the U.S. Anninger was
on board from day one.
She says, “I saw with
my own eyes how so
many kids were not able
to afford an education.
When Patrick started
the school, it was natural for me to support
it and the kids.” She
provided books, opened
a library and paid some
teachers’ salaries.
The school is treasured by students who
would otherwise have
to walk an hour up
and down hills to get to
the nearest school. Its
mission is to teach the
students to appreciate
and respect their environment. The hope is
that they will care for
and embrace their environment and see it as
a place to embrace, not
flee. To instill a love of
books in students, teachers sit down with them
to write and illustrate
stories. These stories
are then printed and
made into books for the
library.
In order to provide
financial support for
the school, Anninger
recently opened a store
to sell beautiful handmade items such as ecofriendly children’s goods
from Haitian artisans in
Port-au-Prince. Reproductions of paintings by
well-known artists from
Jacmel are also on sale.
Proceeds from the store
fund the school. Orders
can be placed online by
going to: ptimoun.com.
The website also has
information on holiday
fairs where these items
will also be available.
To learn more about
the school, visit ecoleduvillage.org. One can also
sponsor a child or make
a one-time donation at
the website. Lucien, who
visits the school several
times a year, says, “I
received a well-rounded
high school education
from the Brothers of
Sacred Heart. Looking
back, I realize how fortunate I was and that
many in Haiti would not
have that opportunity.
The best I can do is give
back by committing to
see a small group of kids
have an opportunity for
an even better education. We hope others
can join us in achieving
that goal.”
Yolette Ibokette is a
longtime educator in
Massachusetts. She is a
native of Port-au-Prince
and contributing editor
for the Boston Haitian
Reporter.
Right: A student at
L’Ecole du Village in
Ile-a-Vache, Haiti reads
a book. The school survives thanks to the
volunteerism and fundraising of Greater Boston people, including
Jean-Patrick Lucien
and Anne Anninger.
Join Us in Promoting
Financial Literacy
to Our Youth!
You’re Invited
to a Book Signing!
100 FREE BOOKS*
When:
Saturday,
Saturday,
December 3,17,
2011
September
2011
NoonAM
- 2:00
PM AM
9:00
– 11:00
Where: A
OneUnited
Bank
Nubian Notion
146
Dudley
Street
Grove
Hall Branch
(On
corner
of Dudley
648 the
Warren
Street
and
Warren Streets)
Dorchester,
MA
Roxbury,MA
Teri Williams, President & COO of OneUnited Bank, will be signing books.
*One book per family.
November 2011
BostonHaitian.com
Muhammad Yunus talks ‘social business’ in Haiti
By TRENTON DANIEL
Associated Press
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti Economist Mohammad
Yunus was the consummate storyteller, a fount of
ideas on how to change Haiti. Visiting from his native
Bangladesh, the Nobel peace laureate poured out
tale after tale Friday of how his concept of “social
business’’ could apply to Haiti, a nation rife with
woes well before last year’s punishing earthquake.
Yunus told how he started his Grameen Foundation by lending $27 each to 42 illiterate women so
they could pay off their debts, how a small yogurt
business lessened malnutrition in Bangladesh and
about the importance of creativity.
“There’s a business world. There’s a charity world,’’
he told a hotel conference room crowded with college
students and development workers. “Why can’t we
take those ideas and try to make money and also
solve [social] problems?’’
It was Yunus’ first trip to Haiti, and he’s certain
to make more after he leaves Sunday.
The Grameen Creative Lab, based in Germany,
which Yunus founded, opened an office in Haiti last
year after the earthquake. It gave an $80,000 loan
to a new vocational and computer-training school
to cover startup costs, and it plans to hand out four
more loans before year’s end to other applicants with
their own social business ideas.
Yunus, a celebrity in development circles for his
ideas on helping the poor, recently joined a board
of more than 30 philanthropists, former presidents
and executives that seeks to advise Haitian President Michel Martelly on economic matters. Former
U.S. President Bill Clinton, also the United Nations
special envoy to Haiti, is co-chairman.
Martelly and his advisers met with Yunus on
Thursday on the grounds of the National Palace, still
a crumbled heap of snow-white concrete almost two
years after the January 2010 earthquake.
Yunus said the “social business’’ idea is different
from the “microcredit’’ industry that he pioneered
in the 1980s, when he gave tiny loans to poor people
to help them start small businesses.
His Grameen Creative Lab focuses on the “social
business’’ approach. It gives out bigger loans, be-
tween $10,000 and $100,000. The interest rate and
duration of the loan are set according to the risk
and type of business.
Whatever profit is earned by a “social business’’
financed by the lab goes back into expanding the
company. The aim is that creation and expansion of
businesses will help a society lessen ills like hunger
and unemployment.
“This is a new paradigm,’’ said Kesner Pharel, a
Haitian economist who was among a panelists of
microcredit experts at the hotel. “This guy can be on
the same level as Steve Jobs ... This is a new form
of capitalism. It’s not only about the bottom line but
about how the community is doing.’’
Following the conference, Yunus dashed off to
talk with students at the vocational and computer-
training school that got the Grameen Creative Lab
loan. He told several dozen students that they should
think of themselves as job givers, not job seekers.
The ideas that Yunus brought were not without
skeptics in a struggling Caribbean country where
employment has long been elusive. About 72 percent
of the population earns less than $2 a day.
“It’s impossible for a young entrepreneur to do
social business in Haiti,’’ said Stanley Pierre, 25, a
student at the school. “It’s not until the business is
truly successful and we have taken care of families
can we then turn around and help the community.’’
Yunus and his team planned to travel to Haiti’s
Central Plateau to visit an office run by Fonkoze,
a microcredit bank, and Partners in Health, a nonprofit group that provides health care to the poor.
On October 15th, the Association of Haitian Women in Boston (AFAB) celebrated its 23rd anniversary
at Cedars Hall in Jamaica Plain. The evening began with hors d’oeuvre and the music and dance of
AFAB’s youth program, Ayiti Demen. The evening’s keynote speaker was Yolette Andrée Jeanty, the
co-founder and Executive Director of Kay Fanm, a women’s social justice organization in Haiti. Attendees enjoyed a special performance by Volo Volo of Boston. Above, City Councillor-at-Large Felix
Arroyo, center, joined AFAB members.
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BostonHaitian.com
November 2011
Page 11
New T-Vice release captures the band at its peak,
Berklee grad Omicil dazzles with “Roots and Grooves”
By Steve Desrosiers
Contributing Editor
The band that calls itself “met beton” or “masters”
of the Haitian music scene returns with a live rendition of hits from their last studio release, “Welcome
to Haiti”. The album is named after T-Vice’s latest
popular slogan, “Bagay sou Bagay” meaning success
upon success and is an independent release!
“Bagay sou Bagay” is fated to become a collector’s item! Why? Glad you asked. The industry
was floored recently when T-Vice’s talented co-lead
singer, Olivier Duret, announced a sudden and apparently un-amicable end to his six year journey
with the Vice crew. The crooner related a desire
to get serious about a solo career as a main reason
for his departure but sources close to the situation
revealed Olivier felt songs showcasing his solo talent
weren’t given proper support by T-Vice’s leaders.
Olivier’s presence, over the past six years, brought
a new life and excitement to the band which allowed
T-Vice to contend with the strengths of strong vocal groups like CaRiMi, Harmonick and Kreyol-La.
Band leader Roberto Martino endured relentless
criticism on vocals up until the addition of Oliver
and that momentous collaboration not only brought
an end to the criticism but the handsome presence
of Duret on stage increased the band’s female following. This is likely the last T-Vice album with
Olivier Duret on vocals.
“Bagay sou Bagay” is layer upon layer of strong
performances. The songs on this release move with
an aggressive certainty that is a perfection of the
T-Vice approach to Konpa. Roberto’s extended solos
in songs like “Toi et Moi” and “Welcome to Haiti”
are backed by some serious supporting work from
Gerald Kebreau on bass and of course Baby Rey on
keys! By the time we hit “Kif, Kif” live, the band is
absolutely on fire showering a Boston audience with
everything in its repertoire of slogans and grooves.
One hates to be repetitive but Roberto’s guitar is
downright thuggish in its attack on this version.
Olivier Duret ends this fine release with a farewell
rendering of “Fe’m Vole” where Reynaldo Martino
delivers some of his own honeyed magic on synth.
If you’ve never owned a live T-Vice album, start
with this one! I’m not sure what the post-Olivier
future holds for the Vice but this is definitely the
work of a band performing at its peak. The mix is
great and Gerald Kebrau’s stellar work on bass is
heard and felt on every song. Roberto Martino’s
singular guitar style is in fine form and the rhythm
section’s team work- led by Reynaldo- is rock-solid.
Olivier Duret, of course, performs admirably on lead
and backing vocals throughout this heated release.
Ya already knew he would!
Oh, I can’t help myself. I’m disappointed! Olivier
is a good singer but might have waited to become
a great one by spending another four years with
T-Vice. Talent is not enough in today’s industry;
one needs serious finances and a devoted managerial team to make it. The fact that T-Vice is really
a family business proves this. Olivier’s best asset
was the access to all the stages T-Vice afforded and
the opportunity to develop a stage technique (body
movement, a walk, a dance etc.) all his own over
time. He still comes off a bit shy on stage and if one
of his aims is diversified markets that include the
American market, he’ll need to learn to master a
stage on top of the additional study that will make
his voice more competitive.
Aw well, we’re rooting for everyone in this sad
split. We’ll get over it in time and this release will
be a great way to do so. I highly recommend “Bagay
sou Bagay”, T-Vice in top form!
Jowee Omicil
Roots & Grooves
We have a talented new comer to the scene in the
person of Haitian Saxophone wonder, Jowee Omicil. Jowee belongs more to the Haitian Jazz side of
the industry’s equation. His new album “Roots &
Grooves” is an independent release featuring a 14
song long mix of original and traditional recordings.
Jowee hails from Montreal’s Haitian community.
He called Boston home for a number of years as he
completed his studies at the city’s prestigious Berklee
School of Music and worked his chops locally. I had
the fantastic pleasure of seeing him dazzle audiences with wild improvisations on jazz standards at
Boston’s famed Wally’s Jazz Club on Mass Ave. The
memorable thing about this musician was that he
not only played well but also danced-off his notes.
A born entertainer! Not one to limit himself to the
Jazz format, I also had the honor of gigging with
this exciting player while he still lived in the ‘hood.
Jowee now calls New York home where over the
course of the past years has collaborated with the
likes of Sweet Micky, Zekle, Emeline Michel and a
host of other well known Haitian acts in live and
studio settings.
Roots and Grooves is a
sunny Sunday afternoon
in a forest of rhythms
where leaves drip the dew
of fine melodies. Inventions like, Emely’s Groove
with its Tribe Called
Quest acoustic feel, HipHop styled melodic lines
and surprisingly simple
but addictively memorable hook lift a listener to
another dimension. The
arrangement for “Micky’s
Groove” is Afro-magic as
Haitian percussion meets
a Cape-Verdean style
melody aired on somber
clarinet conversing with
a wall of lush but whispered vocal choruses.
And speaking of vocals,
the nice aspect of this
Jazz album is its vocal
features that accentuate key movements in
Jowee’s fantastic flights
on saxophone. Some nice
examples of this effective
mélange are aired in the
arrangements for “Bee
Bop”, “Ayibobo” and “Min
Yo”among others.
Lovers of the Jazz tradition owe a debt of gratitude
for the work done by the
Hip/Hop generation to
keep the tradition alive by
incorporating the genre’s
hottest riffs into their
beats. Artists like Jowee
Omicil now use the pop
insights of the era of Tribe
Called Quest to create fine
instrumental work that
“We Treat our Clients
can walk that fine line bewith Care, Respect and Dignity”
tween art and commerce.
Turns out the key to it all
was developing a sense of
economy. Very few of us
mere mortals can keep up
with melodic lines that run
Services and Activities::
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Nursing Services and Health Oversight
changes. Sorry! But don’t
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worry, Jowee meets the
Nutritional and Dietary Services
needs of Jazz purists in
Counseling Services
tunes like “CubaTiando”
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Case Management
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Roots and Grooves
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Oh the album! Well it’s perfect! A sparse, quiet get a copy today. You won’t be sorry!
Arts
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masterpiece that we should all be celebrating from
The& Reporter
Thanks: Patrick St. Germain
Music,
Singing
and sou
Dancing
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“Bagay
Bagay” for our review from
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November 2011
BostonHaitian.com
A no-no combination: smoking and diabetes
By Tarma Johnson
Mattapan Community
Health Center
Two matters of great
health interest come
together in November:
It is Diabetes Awareness Month and it is the
month of the Annual
Great American Smoke
Out Day, which this year
is on Nov. 17.
This coupling offers
a great opportunity for
Mattapan Community
Health Center to offer
educational information
on diabetes and smoking.
Diabetes is a disease of
the pancreas, an organ
behind your stomach.
Normally, the pancreas
releases a substance
called insulin into the
Boston Residents,
Safely Dispose Of
Your Hazardous Waste,
& Recycle Tires And Propane Tanks
Saturday, October 29 9:00am to 2:00pm
UMass Parking Lot, Morrissesy Blvd Dorchester
(Electoronic Waste at Bayside Expo Lot)
Saturday, November 19 9:00am to 2:00pm
Public Works Yard , 315 Gardner St,
West Roxbury
Residents may bring up to 50 pounds of products labeled toxic,
flammable, reactive, corrosive, or poisonous; such as:
oil paint, motor oil, pesticides, solvents, glues, bleach or ammonia-based cleaners,
weed killers, photo chemicals, pool chemicals, car batteries, and used motor oil.
Latex paint is not hazardous
NO COMMERCIAL WASTE ACCEPTED
The City reserves the right to reject materials
PROOF OF RESIDENCY REQUIRED
Boston Public Works Department
Thomas M. Menino, Mayor; Joanne P. Massaro, Commissioner
For more information, please call 617-635-4500 or visit
www.cityofboston.gov/recycling
!"#$%&'()*%+,'-,%./0'!,&/,+' '
12,'!%+,'3,4%+/$,&/
blood. Insulin helps the
body use simple sugars and fats that are
broken down from the
food we eat. When a
person has diabetes, the
pancreas either does
not make insulin, does
not make enough of it,
or the insulin does not
work properly. Diabetes
is a serious illness and its
long-term complications
can include eye disease
(retinopathy), kidney
disease (nephropathy),
heart disease, and nerve
disease (neuropathy),
notes the Cleveland Clinic Foundation.
Smoking combined
with diabetes puts an individual at even greater
risk for cardiovascular diseases. The Great
American Smoke Out
day encourages smokers to quit for one day in
hopes that that one day
will result in quitting for
good. There are so many
health risks associated
with smoking: cancer,
respiratory diseases
such as COPD (chronic
obstructive pulmonary
disease), arthritis, cataracts, cavities, and digestive disorders such as
duodenal ulcers, Crohn’s
Disease and colon polyps.
For the full list of health
risks visit dhss.state.
mo.us/SmokingAndTobacco.
Nicotine, the primary
agent used in cigarettes
that is found in tobacco
plants, stimulates reward pathways in the
brain and leads to dependence. There are more
than 4,000 chemicals,
including 43 known carcinogens and 400 other
toxins, that can be found
in cigarette smoke. Nicotine can also cause a rise
in blood glucose levels.
Cigarettes are addictive because of the nicotine content, which produces a physical and psychological dependence
that is difficult to treat
and control. Relaxation,
mood improvement, and
appetite suppressant are
some of the things people
commonly report missing
when they stop smoking,
so when individuals are
ready to quit smoking
they should consult their
provider or a tobacco
treatment specialist to
pick the plan that will
work for them.
There are many different plans called Nicotine
Replacement Therapies
(NRTs) and different
medications to choose
from. According to the
ADA, nicotine patches
can increase blood sugar
levels in diabetics, but not
as much as smoking does.
At Mattapan Community Health Center, we
offer tobacco treatment
counseling and support
to patients when they
are considering quitting
smoking. Please call and
ask to speak to a provider at 617-296-0061. All
are welcome to come to
MCHC to get information
and tips on quitting and
treatment options.
Tarma Johnson, FNP,
is the Director of Clinical
Health Services at Mattapan Community Health
Center
Where’d the money go?
(Continued from page 8) Congressional Research
how and where the
relief money was spent,
they’re asking the wrong
questions.
The mystery isn’t what
happened to the money.
Rather, the mystery is
whether the US acted
in ignorance of, or else
willfully sought to replicate, the most abusive
elements of its relationship with Haiti.
Perhaps such patterns
should not be surprising.
After all, according to the
Service, “national security” and “commercial
interests” both rank
above “humanitarian
concerns” (PDF) as objectives for foreign aid.
Nonetheless, we have
the right to demand better. When the US government uses our money in
Haiti under the pretext
of giving aid, our actions
should advance Haiti’s
welfare, not our own.
Nathan Yaffe is a
board member of the
Haiti Justice Alliance
(HJA). HJA works for
the sustainable structural changes needed to
provide social, political
and economic rights to
all Haitians. In addition
to writing and educating about Haiti from a
justice perspective, HJA
supports established
grassroots partners in
Haiti. For more information, visit haitijustice.
wordpress.com/about.
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November 2011
Page 13
Haitian Movie Awards comes to Boston this month
(Continued from page 1)
best film award at Africa’s largest regular cultural
event, the Pan-African Film and Television Festival
of Ouagadougou.
The Haiti Movie Awards is expected to draw attendees and journalists from Haiti, Canada, France
and across the US.
“It’s the first time this type of show is done like
this in the community,” said Domercant. “We have
people, artists coming from all over. It’s an opportunity for families to come out and support the
actors they love.”
Voting for the ten categories of nominees closed
on October 31. The categories are: Best Actor, Best
Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting
Actress, Best DP, Best Script, Best Website, Best
Comedian, Best Director and Best Picture.
MPAH will also honor Governor Deval Patrick and
State Representative Linda Forry with humanitarian awards for their leadership in the aftermath of
the earthquake.
Proceeds from the ceremony will go towards the
The impressive list of accomplished actors, filmmakers and producers to be recognized includes
Reginald Lubin, Jacques Roc, Jean Gardy Bien Aime,
and famed comedian Jean Claude Joseph – better
known in the community Papa Pyè.
“To have pioneers like Papa Pyè join us for this
special event is truly an honor,” said Fabienne Eliacin, the program coordinator for the awards show.
“We need to celebrate and honor these pioneers so
that our youth can know and appreciate them before
they leave us.”
Among the list of confirmed guests is Arnold Antonin, who will be honored with a lifetime achievement
award. Antonin is a critically acclaimed writer and
filmmaker, whose movies and documentaries include
Haiti, the Way to Freedom, Does the President Have
Aids and Women of Courage. He’s received numerous
accolades for his body of work, including the Djibril
Diop Mambety award at the Cannes international
film festival and the Paul Robeson African Diaspora
Haiti-based Youth Filmmaking Learning Center in
Mirebalais, Domercant’s hometown. MPAH opened
the film school this October with a focus on training
the next generation of the Haitian cinematographers.
“I think it’s a wonderful thing, because in Haiti,
schools like this are lacking,” said Betty Lemite,
co-host of the Haiti Movie Awards and local media
personality best known for her memorable run on
Team Venus. “Many students don’t have access to
this kind of training and it’s a great opportunity for
them to learn and grow in cinematography.”
“I’m very excited to be a part of this event. And
we’re honoring people who should have been honored
a long time ago. I think this will bring awareness
to where Haitian cinema can go and spike interest
in the community to support Haitian cinema.”
The Haiti Movie Awards will take place in the
UMass Boston campus center ballroom.
For more information, contact 617-980-6673 or
visit haitimovieaward.com
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Page 14 Ruth’s Recipes
May 2006
Boston Haitian RepoRteR
Boston Haitian ReporteR
November 2011
page 2
BostonHaitian.com
Remapped Congressional landscape set for review
Ruth’s Green Peas Sauce
all bean
(Sos Pwa Frans)
uces are
By Gintautas Dumcius
minority district, restructuring it to include an we’ve ever had in the Commonwealth,” Moran told
News Editor
the State House News Service. The voting-age miincrease in minority voters and residents.
State lawmakers plan to advance a proposal reBecause of the Bay State picking up population at nority population in the newly drawn district will
drawing the state’s Congressional districts, pulling a slower pace than other parts of the country, the increase from 48 percent to 51.8 percent, he added.
Quincy into U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch’s district, and Legislature’s redistricting committee was tasked
Lynch and Capuano will continue to share
handing over more of Dorchester to U.S. Rep. Michael with redrawing political boundaries for state House, Dorchester, although Capuano’s district lines will
Makes
four to six districts.
servings That meant move eastward.
Capuano. The state House and Senate expect to vote Senate, and
Congressional
on the proposal on November 15.
8 cups water
going to nine Congressional
seats from ten.
State Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz, a Jamaica Plain
proposal potentially set up a fight next year
Avi Green, co-director
of the
voter rights group Democrat who represents some parts of DorchesriE rutH The
augustE
4 cups sweet
peas
a South
group
would be submitting a ter, said Tuesday that she was withholding some
w, beans between
and peasLynch,
are a big
part Boston Democrat, and U.S. MassVOTE, said4 his
whole
cloves
Rep.
William
Keating,
a Quincy Democrat. But Keat- letter but it had not taken a position. But he said judgment until the public comment period ended on
For the most part, we like to
1 small green onion or whole fresh scallion
ingpopular
has saidways:
he will
be moving to the newly formed they
were “very pleased” with the redistricting Thursday. “People are still just starting to realize
as in two
With
2 fresh
cloves
which
includes
for garlic
a greater
number of people of the map is out,” she said. But she noted that there
n a saucedistrict,
with plain
white
rice Cape Cod and his summer committee’s push
1
sprig
thyme
home
in
Bourne.
color in the strengthened majority-minority district, was some unhappiness in Jamaica Plain, since the
(diri a sos pwa).
Under the proposal,
sprig
56.6parsley
percent, from 52 percent. neighborhood is getting split between the districts
y types of beans/peas
sauces as Lynch loses Needham and proposed to grow1 to
picks
up common
the Northones
End, Weymouth, Hingham, CoThe new1district,
as currently
designed, has four of Capuano and Lynch.
whole green
hot pepper
d peas, the
most
hasset,
Scituate,
and Hull. His district would take major interest
House Republicans said they felt “largely excluded”
groups,adobo
he said:seasoning
the African-American
ack beans,
red beans
and green
1 teaspoon
on a U-shape,
from
the deliberations over the new Congressional
largest
voting
bloc
in
the
district,
e are a number
of lessbending
populararound the district currently population,1the
chicken bouillon cube
occupied
by
U.S.
Rep.
Michael
Capuano,
a
Somerville
maps.
“While we continue to digest the numbers
running
southbound
from
the
South
End
to
Ranongo
1 tablespoon
Democrat and former mayor.
dolph; Latinos
in Everett, butter
Chelsea, East Boston, and totality of the maps presented to us for the first
spoon
oil white work- time today, we look forward to the public comment
Lynch had asked state lawmakers to keep his and parts 2oftable
Roxbury
andvegetable
Mission Hill;
e all
Congressional
district
largely
intact,
and
cited
its
black
pepper
and
salt
to
taste
ing
and
middle
class
voters
who
lean
left, living in phase of this process – however brief it may be –
that
large
Irish
population
as
one
reason.
Asked
after
Somerville,
Everett,
East
Boston,
and
in Brighton; and remain hopeful that an inclusive conversation
good
a hearing earlier this year aboutIn
the
possibility
of and
amongst
will take place before the maps
voters
in and
Backadd
Bay,
Beacon Hill,
a large
pot bring
to awhite
boil 8liberal
cups of
water
everything
except
for thelegislators
salt,
ever,
Quincy getting drawn into his district, Lynch said and Somerville.
become
finalized,”
House Minority Leader Brad Jones
the
pepper
and
butter.
Cook
covered
on
medium
high
to
high
temperature
for
1
hour
and
45
many Irish Americans had migrated south from
“It’s hard to create a more diverse district than said in a statement.
you
minutes.
Then bring
fire
to one
low without
and stir,resorting
at this point
you can
crush some ofMaterial
the peasfrom
with
Boston
to
Quincy.
“I’ve
heard
varying
proposals
out
State House News Service was used
this
to racial
gerrymanderot all
a wooden
as youing,”
stir. Green
Add salt,
pepper, butter and simmer for 15 minutes.
Always
there and I don’t know how that’s
going tospoon
work out,”
said.
in
this
report.
were
Lynch said. “I really don’t. There are
somewarm,
natural
serve
goes well
white
rice and
any poultry ordistrict
fish. Bon Appetit!
“Thiswith
is the
strongest
majority-minority
– that whole area going from Boston down to the
Haiti,
South Shore has been a natural migration pattern,
tain
if you will. Most of my family
is already
down there.”
that
most Haitians
retain the tradition of having mash the removed peas, dilute the mashed peas
uces
The plan also strengthens
Capuano’s
white
beans andmajoritygreen peas sauces only on certain with some of the cooking broth and squeeze the
ays.
mixture
a strainertoback
intodiversity,
the cooking
days. In fact, if you go to any Haitian
Byrestaurants
Manolia Charlotin
, Ethrough
ditor
cultural
the significant cross section of
aiti, green peas sauce (sos pwa
for
further cooking,
when
you getand
to this
stepare note-worthy.
in Boston, say on a random On
Tuesday
and
ask for21 pot
Friday,
October
the
Massachusetts
Improfessions
trades
ooked on Sundays, white beans
you also
have to
add the other
ingredients,
white rice and green peas migrant
sauce, you
likelyAdvocacy
andmost
Refugee
Coalition
(MIRA)
According
to MIRA, the
nearly half the doctoral degrees
as cooked on Good Friday and
spices
etc…
That’s
just
too
much
sometimes.
won’t find any. You will get
the typical
what
are
launched
the New
Americans
Integration Institute. held by the state’s One
working-age
population were
days. In Haiti, having green
I decided
that Iand
didn’tawarded
have to to
follow
all the Latino and Asian-owned
you talking about look with
thenew
following:
“pwawillday
This
think tank
conduct
research
immigrants.
ue delicacy. In fact,
the general
aboverole
steps
have greenbusinesses
peas sauce,alone
I wanted
it over 50,000 Massachusetts
Economic
Development
frans? paAssistant
gen pwa frans, lé provide
dimanche
sèlman,
analysis
onwap
the state’s
in to
supporting
employ
ndulge in this Sunday special on
but didn’t
the availability
to follow
whole
the“Green
integration
nearly one
millionhave
foreign-born
jwen pwa rouj”. Translation:
peasofsauce?
residents,
withthe
over
$7 billion in sales.
ess the relatively astronomical
shebang,
so I cooked
it all inOne
oneofstep.
The saucegoals is to share information
residents.
The
MIRA coalition
is New
England’s
the Institute’s
There isn’t any green peas sauce,
only on
Sundays,
had something to do with this.
did look
little
different
traditionalcontributions
verlargest immigrant rights group
withaover
130
mem- from
aboutthe
immigrants’
across the state.
you can get red beans sauce.”
e in the United States, I find
If itceremony
is a
ber organizations.
On satisfying.
hand for the
was Governor Deval
The truth about cooking beans
and peas sauces is sion but it was as delicious and
weekday and
your
taste buds
are craving
sos pwa
As MIRA points
out, Massachusetts
ranks
eighth
Patrick, who
hailed
October 14 through November
the fact that it involves such a cumbersome
process,
frans,
you
can
have
it.
Simply
cook
it
by
following
in
the
nation
for
newcomers,
with
an
estimated
15
14
as
Immigrant
Entrepreneurship
Month. He
sometimes
when
you
cook
you
just
want
to
“set
Codman Square Neighborhood (NDC) seeks an Economic Development
ommEntary
this easy
recipe, if you
can’t
buy a
it,proclamation
make it!
percent
immigrant
population
and
that makes
up
issued
that
recognized
“immigrant
it
and
forget
it”,
like
the
famous
roasting
machine
Assistant (EDA). The EDA is responsible for supporting administrative
Enjoy!
17
percent
of
the
state’s
workforce.
entrepreneurship
is
vital
to
the
Commonwealth’s
inventor
says.
To
cook
Haitian
green
peas
sauce,
matters for all programs within the Econ Development Dept including
you ahave
a question
Ruith-economic
or maybegrowth,
an idea continued job creation and
“Immigrants
have
always Do
played
major
role in forstrong
youreporting,
first have to
cook the peas
with
but not limited to: extensive onlinetraditionally,
data management and
for
a
recipe?
Send
an
e-mail
to
Ruth
at
ruthsrecipes@
our
state’s
wealth
and
success,
both
in
economic
maintaining
its
innovative
edge.”
someof of
the and
required
ingredients for a long time,
customer interface, intake and gathering
financial
other docuand
cultural
terms,”
said yahoo.com.
Eva Millona, executive
To maximize this competitive edge, the Institute
and
then
you
have
to
drain
some
of
the
peas
(not
ments needed to complete foreclosure and other client files, managing
director of the MIRA Coalition.
plans to help immigrant entrepreneurs gain access
all) home
out rehab
of the
cooking
administrative tasks relating to closing
loans,
prepping broth. Next you have to
Massachusetts also boasts the most diversity in to start-up capital by working with government
and packaging materials for financial education classes, supporting
its immigrant population. Take Boston for instance, and financial institutions to address barriers and
the development and implementation of marketing materials, workover 100 languages are spoken here. In addition challenges.
ing with financial counselors and the Dept Director on other related
However, the first priority of the Institute is to
administrative issues.
ensure
that all immigrants know and exercise their
e 11)
Skills/Experience: At least two years administrative experience, with
basic rights – which is why the Institute’s first major
write this column, it
proven online data management and reporting experience. Bachelors
that
drive is to promote citizenship. Half of the state’s
dawns on me that these
A Excel
literacy
awareness
and games for the kids willforeign-born
be available.
residents are naturalized citizens, but
mindegree a plus. Excellent skills in Word,
and data
managementday, sponsored by the Matthree mothers function tapan Adult Basic Ed Partnership, will be held on
The public in invited to there
participate
this
free
is more in
work
to be
done to increase this number.
nent
software a must. Ability to work independently, and as part of a team,
within a church struc- Friday, May 19 from 10 a.m.-1p.m. at the Church
event, part of the citywide “300,000
adult education
and are eligible that haven’t
immigrants
n her
in a fast-paced environment and balance multiple projects and deadture which is where of the Holy Spirit parking
Lopital Brigham
And Women
fè tout posib
li pou
bay begins May 15 with a celebralot (corner
of ap
literacy
week,
which
applied and we want to actively encourage them to
ewswhile simultaneously prioritizing work. Ability to work with the
thelines,
official
tradition of Blue Hill Ave and River St). tout moun menm chans a la santé.
tion at Boston City Hall Plaza
at 11
a.m.
For Soults,
more MIRA’s communications
do so,”
says
Frank
rote
public, with exceptional customer service skills important. Bi-lingual
Mother’s Day originated
Come talk with students from
ESOL,
Preinformation
or to
volunteer, director.
contact Brunir
Sèvis
entèprèt
nou GED
an mete a la
dispozisyon tout
moun
“SomeO.ofShackthe reasons may include the ins as
in Spanish or Haitian Creole a plus.
in the United States. In and GED classes about their experiences
inpwofèsyonèl
Matentèprèt medical
gratis. at
Pouthe
plis enfomasyon,
leton
Mayor‚s Officecredible
of Jobscost,
& Community
which is $700.”
each,
Send resume
andVirginia,
cover letters to:tapan
Codman
SquareEd.
Neighborhood
Grafton,
West
AdultEnjoy homemade
and refreshvizitefood
brighamandwomens.org
ou sinon rele
Services
at nimero:
617 918-5244 or brunir.shackleton.jcs@
Soults says MIRA and its partners will continue
the
Corporation,
587 Washington
Street,
Dorchester,
MA
in Development
l907 Anna
Jarvis,
(617)
732-6458.
ments and
get
more information
about
how to enroll
cityofboston.gov.
to get the word out about the benefits of citizenship
ll as
02124.Reeves
Attn: Lorraine
Grubbs, Director
of Economic
Development,
Anna
Jarvis’
in
classes,
along
with
educational
materials.
Books
including, “applying
ough
by Novemberreferred
18, 2011. Please
daughter,
to no phone calls.
portfor
family visas, which
above distributed 500
was important to the
carnations to mothers at
OHn
ther
Haitian community,
Economic
Development Specialist
St. Andrew’s
Methodist
cher
for instance, after the
Episcopal Church. On
aLLagHer
arks
terrible earthquake in
May 10 l908, that same
ngelHaiti. Another benefit
insurance agency
church held a Sunday
ect of
is the right to vote which
service honoring mothSince
is very important for
ers.
HOme
e had
immigrants, as they are
Engaging faith with
MOP,
often turned into politiprograms that
&
ssion
cal scapegoats because
women
Dalisna, Specialist sought to work on
Economiclike
Development
ol, a
they lack a political
auTO
Marie,
andand
Guerty
are assets and wealth within the
building
preserving
voice.”
involved
change
resident in
and to
business
base in Dorchester.
Responsible
insurance
ative
MIRA along with
Haiti
to be
for need
a range
ofsupportactivities including:
counseling
homSpecializing
in Hompartners like College
urch
ed eowners
and emulated
to prevent both
home foreclosures;
and
eowners organizing
and Automobile
Bound in Dorchester
is a
in implementing
the Boston area
and and Insurance
one-on-one
group financial
for moreeducathan a
and Centro Latino in
in tion
Haiti
- of course
counseling
and with
workshops; quarter
processing
home
rehab
century
of reliable
Chelsea, will host sevMarie
a vision
of state of
loan applications
andthe
working service
with homeowners
and
to the Dorchester
eral citizenship clinlassartcontractors
educational
training
to get
work done; working
with merchants
community.
ics that will serve as
her
and
ansmall
improvement
and
businesses toinstart and grow their businesses;
information centers
ring,
Haiti’s
infrastructures.
working
with stakeholders to address a range of busiwhere immigrants can
w up
new
accounts
Nekita
Lamour,
moth- issues. Bachelor’s degree in
ness district
development
get assistance with the
olice
er of
two, isadministration
a veteran edu-or realted degree
business
with 2-4 years
Welcome
citizenship process.
cator,
a prolific
essayist,
relevant
experience.
Experience1471
in providing
financial
For more informaDorchester
Ave.
oney
and
a monthly
counseling
andcontribuassisting small businesses
financially
and
tion contact MIRA,
o my
at
Fields
Corner
MBTA
torotherwise
to the Reporter.
preferred. Good written and verbal communi617.350.5480, miracomy
cations
skills
and solid knowledge of Microsoft Office
alition.org
and
programs, including Excel required. Bilingual
in Spanish
Phone:
they
or Haitian Creole a plus. Send cover letter and resumes
not
265-8600
by November 14, 2011 to Lorraine Grubbs,
Director of
and
“We
Get
Your
Plates”
Economic Development, Codman Square
NDC,
587
Washington
St.,
Dorchester,
MA
02124.
as I
ed equal
MIRA launches new research wing
HELP WANTED
ian moms
go above
d beyond
Literacy day in Mattapan Sq. on May 19
Depatman Sèvis Entèprèt
g
J
c.
BostonHaitian.com
November 2011
SummerWorks
Youth Jobs Program
SummerWorks Youth Jobs Program
“TOY DRIVE & WINTER
CAMPAIGN” KICKS OFF!
The “Toy Drive & Winter Campaign” of Action for Boston Community
Development needs your assistance to put smiles on the faces of
children across the city this year and help families survive and thrive
during the holiday season and beyond!
JOIN US. PLEASE GIVE TODAY!
WE ARE ACCEPTING DONATIONS FOR:
Toys • Fuel/Heating Assistance
Canned Food • Winter Clothing
For more information or to volunteer, please visit:
www.bostonabcd.org or call 617-348-6559 to put a smile
on a child’s face this holiday season!
Page 15
November 2011
Roxbury
Community
College
BostonHaitian.com
WWW.HAITIMOVIEAWARD.COM
MOTION PICTURE
ASSOCIATION OF HAITI, INC
Gateway t0 the Dream
NOVEMBER 20, 2011
Special Guest from California
Hollywood Actor Benz Antoine
From the movie Romeo must Die, Get Rich or Die Tryin, Death Race
OTHER GUESTS :
Enroll today!
Fall 2011 classes begin September 7th.
Smoye Noisy
Mora Etienne Jr
Raynald Delerme
Yvon Alteon
Reginald Lubin
www.rcc.mass.edu
617-541-5310
1234 Columbus Ave
Roxbury Crossing, MA 02120
(Across from Roxbury Crossing T Station, MBTA Orange Line.)
Jacques Roc
Jean Gardy
Bien-Aime
Arnold Antonin
Papa Pye
Myriame Jean
CALL FOR VIP TICKETS AT : 617-980-6673
BOSTON HAITIAN
Harbor Health Services, Inc.
REPORTER
Online at BostonHaitian.com
BOSTON RESIDENTS
Dr. Jean Suzin Whitten joins the Family
Medicine Department at Geiger Gibson
Community Health Center.
Dr. Whitten has 9 years of experience as a practicing family medicine
physician. Most recently, she was a Staff Physician at Thomas Moore
Health Clinic in Fort Hood, TX. Prior to Thomas Moore, she was a
PROFIS Physician for the 547th Area Support Medical Company,
serving the medical needs of the fine men and women serving in
Baghdad, Iraq. Before serving in Iraq she worked as a Staff Physician
at the US Army Health Clinic in Baumholder, Germany. In between her
two tenures in Iraq, she returned to the US Army Health Clinic as its
Medical Director. She also worked as a Core Faculty Family Physician
at the Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center in Fort Hood, Texas.
Dr. Whitten received her Medical Degree from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston Texas.
She completed her residency at the Dewitt Army Community Hospital in Fort Belvoir, VA, and
completed a Fellowship at McClennan County Medical Education and Research Foundation
in Waco, TX. She also received her B.S. from the United States Military Academy and
graduated 6th in her class. In addition she has received numerous military honors including
a Bronze Star.
Leaf & Yard Waste
7-Week Collection
Boston Public Works will collect and compost residents’ yard waste
Seven weeks: October 17 - December 2
ON YOUR RECYCLING DAY.
Place leaves in large paper leaf bags or open
barrels marked “yard waste.”
For free “yard waste” stickers, call 617-635-4500
(up to 2 stickers available per household).
Cut branches to 3’ maximum length
and 1” maximum diameter.
Tie branches with string.
Place leaves and yard waste
at the curb by 7am
ON YOUR RECYCLING DAY.
Yard waste will not be collected
during the two weeks before
the Oct. 17 start date.
Please hold onto
your yard waste
from Oct. 3 to
Oct. 17, when
collection begins.
Dr. Whitten accepts new patients. To schedule an appointment please call (617)
288-1140. For more information about the Geiger Gibson Community Health
Center and Harbor Health Services, Inc.visit us on the web at www.hhsi.us.
Geiger Gibson
Community Health Center
a division of Harbor Health Services, Inc.
Thomas M. Menino, Mayor
NO PLASTIC BAGS

Elders find haven at Sant Belvi

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