Empress of Roots - Boston Haitian Reporter

Transcription

BostonHaitian.com
Exploring
the haitian
american
experience
Boston Haitian Reporter
Page BOSTON HAITIAN
BostonHaitian.com
© copyright 2008
www.bostonhaitian.com
Boston Neighborhood News, Inc.
December 2008
REPORTER
Vol. 7, Issue 12
December 2008
FREE
Empress of Roots
Manze Dayila’s debut album “Sole”
will transport you back to Haiti,
says BHR’s Steve Desrosiers.
Page 12
New York City-based songstress Manze Dayila fuses Haitian roots music from her childhood in St. Marc with an American sensibility that “will help to preserve
and propagate Haitian Racine well into Haitian-America’s future,” according to the BHR’s arts editor Steve Desrosiers. Photo by Blake Farber courtesy As Is
Entertainment
Amnesty International:
Haiti’s girls under siege
A new study released by the human
rights group Amnesty International
blasts the Haitian government for not
doing more to stop sexual
assaults and other crimes against
adolescent girls across the country.
Page 6
Ongoing food crisis preys
on children of Haiti
Malnourished children are dying in remote
areas of Haiti at an alarming rate, victims of an
ongoing food crisis that doctors say could get
much, much worse without international help.
Page 8
Three years later, justice sought
for slain cab driver, churchman
More than three years after
the brutal stabbing death
of local taxi driver Heureur
Previlon, right, the first of
two men accused of ambushing and then stabbing him to
death in a robbery attempt is
now being tried in a Boston
court. Prosecutors say that the
32 year-old aspiring minister
was the victim of a deliberate
scheme to rob a vulnerable
cab driver in Brighton in
August 2005.
Photo courtesy Suffolk County
District Attorney’s Office.
Story, Page 5
Haitian-American tapped for key White House job — Pg. 6
Page Boston Haitian ReporteR
December 2008
BostonHaitian.com
Poor oversight means many schoolhouses are unsafe
By Jonathan M. Katz
Associated Press Writer
PORT-AU-PRINCE — The
rumor shot like electricity
through the Haitian capital:
Another school was falling.
Desperate parents and wouldbe rescuers ran through alleys, leaped over walls and
wrestled with police to reach
the scene.
Emergency crews arrived to
find the school intact — vibrations caused by wind or traffic
had simply sparked a panic.
But at least a dozen students
were injured rushing out of the
building. A 19-year-old female
student suffered heart failure
and died in the hospital.
Such panics have been reported across the capital since
the collapse of the College La
Promesse killed nearly 100
people and injured 162 more.
Though based on false rumors,
they reflect a very real and
well-founded fear.
Port-au-Prince Mayor JeanYves Jason estimates 60 percent of buildings in his city
are unsafe, built shoddily and
now standing on ground weakened by a torrential hurricane
season. Petionville lawmaker
Steven Benoit said 2 million
people need to be relocated
nationwide.
“There are no studies for
these buildings. They aren’t
built by engineers,’’ said
Claude Prepetit, an engineer
and geologist with Haiti’s
Bureau of Mines and Energy.
``They just buy any materials
they can find and have no respect for building rules.’’
In a decade fraught with violent upheaval, little attention
was paid to building codes as
Haiti’s population grew from
6.8 million in 1998 to about 9
million today.
Families fleeing rural poverty and eroded fields have
settled in slums in the hills
that ring Port-au-Prince.
Pressed for space, they built
upper stories onto homes,
churches and schools out of
chalky local cinderblock, held
together with what little iron
reinforcement and mortar
they could afford.
One of those builders was
the Pentecostal preacher and
self-professed civil engineer
Fortin Augustin. Despite having been denied a permit, he
built his La Promesse church
and school in a slum a short
walk from the sturdy homes of
foreign diplomats and wealthy
Haitians in the suburb of
Petionville.
Even after a partial collapse
eight years ago, the school
continued to operate and was
even visited by the staff of
previous education ministries
— who came to assess the curriculum, not building safety _
new Education Minister Joel
Jean-Pierre told The Associated Press.
Last year, Augustin constructed a second school, La
Promesse College Evangelique
Annex, which still stands on a
remote hillside across Petionville. Its sloping concrete roof
is held up by a temporary iron
bar, and pieces of cinderblock
wall crumble at the touch.
Jean-Pierre said his office
was not aware of the annex
until almost a week after
the first school collapsed.
Augustin is in police custody
awaiting an investigation into
likely charges of involuntary
manslaughter and could not
be reached for comment.
Alourde Alcee’s 14-year-old
daughter, Mackendia, was in
class at the annex on Nov. 7
when cell phones started ringing with news of the disaster
across town. The mother of
five, who had been selling
cookies to students, sent her
daughter home and went to
help, arriving as the bloody
and broken bodies of children
were being pulled from the
rubble.
Like most Haitian parents,
Alcee is unable to afford topflight private schools or to
find space in the country’s few
publics. So she said she will
continue sending her daughter
to the La Promesse annex or
another shoddily constructed
school in hopes that education
will help the girl escape from
poverty.
“I don’t have any land, I
don’t have a good house, but
I can leave my children an
education,’’ said Alcee, who
has three daughters but can
only afford one $162.50 annual
tuition this year. ``When I die,
they can go find work and do
something with their lives.’’
For days after La Promesse
fell, parents and students were
consumed with bloody images
of the dead and frantic rescue
efforts on Haitian television
and in newspapers. Then,
five days later, a back-alley
house containing a church
school partially fell, injuring
at least seven students and
a teacher. Thousands of bystanders raced ambulances,
U.N. peacekeepers and Red
Cross vehicles to the scene.
Pushed back by U.N. and
Haitian police, the crowd’s
nerves jumped to panic amid
false rumors that a third
school had collapsed nearby.
Two children were injured in
the melee that followed.
The next day a school emptied, and two students were
injured falling down stairs in
another panic. Witnesses said
later that a piece of lumber had
fallen harmlessly onto the roof
from a nearby building site.
President Rene Preval has
pledged to crack down on lawless construction. Three public
schools were closed after the
collapse for emergency renovations because of concerns over
building safety, Jean-Pierre
said.
But with a struggling education ministry unable to even
catalog the schools that line
dusty hillsides or fill bulletpocked downtown districts
in the capital, officials face a
daunting task.
“Things have gone so far
it’s very difficult to say we
have the right answers,’’
said Prime Minister Michele
Gang members face
racketeering charges
WEST PALM BEACH,
Fla. — Two guys who
started out as part of a
rap group which then
— prosecutors say —
turned into one of South
Florida’s most violent
gangs are on trial for
racketeering. The trial,
which charges the pair
under state laws against
gangs, opened last month
in Palm Beach County.
Prosecutors say Ernst
Exavier, 25, and Jessee
Thomas, 22, are connected with Top 6, a
gang responsible for 150
shootings and at least 14
homicides.
Racketeering has historically been charged in
organized crime cases.
Prosecutors trying the
case must prove only that
Exavier and Thomas
committed two offenses
during their affiliation
with the gang. Defense
attorneys say the two
men are only rap musicians, and not criminals.
Authorities contend
that Top 6 has about 350
members who control at
least 10 predominantly Haitian or HaitianAmerican neighborhoodbased gangs throughout
Florida. (AP)
Teen fatally shoots
classmate in Cabaret
PORT-AU-PRINCE —
A Haitian teen has shot
and killed a classmate
on Nov. 24 in a rare outbreak of school violence
in the troubled country.
Police spokesman Garry
Desrosier says the 16-
year-old opened fire on
the 13-year-old north of
the capital in the town
of Cabaret. He threatened to shoot other students before fleeing and
has not been arrested.
The motive in Monday’s
shooting is unknown.
Violence plagues Haiti
but has rarely penetrated schools, especially
those outside the capital.
(AP)
President Rene Preval talks to student Gaetjens Thelusma during
a ceremony for those who died at the collapse of the College La
Promesse in the National Palace in Port-au-Prince, Wednesday,
Nov. 26, 2008. The collapse on Nov. 7 killed nearly 100 people
and injured 162 more. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
Pierre-Louis. But she added
that the government would
pursue a combination of financial incentives for schools
that meet building standards
and punishment for building
owners who do not comply.
Meanwhile, storefront
schools are stacked one atop
the other in downtown Portau-Prince’s rundown Bel Air
district, competing for customers with bright signs and
promises of price specials.
Boys and girls in neat gingham
uniforms cram into hovels that
reek of the open-pit urinals
nearby, scrawling rote Creole
phrases onto blackboards.
The second floor of one
primary school threatens
to buckle atop worm-eaten
wooden and cracked concrete
pillars. ``We’ve never had any
inspectors here,’’ said Monique
Ocean, the school secretary
and principal’s wife.
Evens Sanon contributed to
this story.
Two dead in helicopter
crash, US IDs found
PORT-AU-PRINCE
— At least two people
died in a helicopter crash
between the coastal cities of St. Marc and Gonaives, police said Nov.
18. Authorities found
two Florida driver’s licenses in the wreckage,
but have not been able to
identify those killed, said
St. Marc police commissioner Godson Jeune.
Witnesses told police
that the helicopter plummeted into a swamp near
the town of Bocozelle.
The type of helicopter
was not immediately
known. U.N. peacekeepers and the World Food
Program said the craft
was not theirs. They
have been flying frequent
aid routes to Gonaives
since Tropical Storm
Hanna and Hurricane
Ike caused widespread
flooding in September.
The U.S. Embassy
in Port-au-Prince was
advised of the crash and
was working to verify
the citizenship of those
aboard, embassy spokeswoman Mari Tolliver
said. If they are American, the names would not
be released until their
next-of-kin have been
notified, she said. (AP)
PORT-AU-PRINCE
— Haiti President Rene
Preval says authorities
will demolish unsafe
buildings and improve
urban planning following a school collapse
that killed nearly 100
people.
Radio Metropole is reporting that Preval will
hold three days of meet-
ings with mayors next
week about widespread,
lawless construction in
fast-growing slums.
Preval spoke at a presidential palace tribute to
victims of the Nov. 7 collapse of the K-12 College
La Promesse.
The mayor of Portau-Prince has estimated that 60 percent
of the city’s buildings
are unsafe. Many are
the homes, schools and
churches of families
who fled rural poverty
to shantytowns.
Underfunded government ministries have
been unable to catalog
all the churches and
schools. (AP)
Preval vows to raze
unsafe buildings
BostonHaitian.com
December 2008
Page Advocates cautious, but optimistic, about
immigration reforms under Obama
By Bijoyeta Das
Special to the Reporter
Expectations are rife among Boston-area advocacy groups that President-elect Barack Obama
will reform the immigration system. But no major
overhaul is expected in the first few months, with
the economy being the top priority for the new administration, say immigrant advocates.
“We are optimistically cautious,” says Eva Milona,
executive director of Massachusetts Immigrant and
Refugee Advocacy Coalition (MIRA).
Reforms are long overdue because the immigration
system has “broken beyond repair,” she said.
There is an atmosphere of hope that Obama will
push for a comprehensive immigration reform bill.
“We have high expectations that he will introduce
reforms that are just, workable and fair.”
Advisors to Obama made it clear that immigration is at number four on his agenda, she said.
Economy, health care and the war in Iraq are his
top priorities.
There are some who are not expecting any fundamental shift, says Alix Cantave, associate director
of William Monroe Trotter Institute for the study
of Black culture and history at the University of
Massachusetts in Boston. He is actively involved
with the Haitian immigrant community.
However, the situation is a “whole lot better”
with the election Obama and not John McCain, ,
he said.
“[We’re] waiting to see, who is going to be selected
for the important homeland security position.”
Obama is expected to select Arizona Gov. Janet
Napolitano as the homeland security chief. A lot depends on the role of the new chief, Cantave added.
Immigration was a major issue during the primaries but was not discussed during the later stages
of the presidential elections.
Grassroots advocacy groups such as MIRA and the
Irish Immigration Center say that they are teaming
up with other advocacy groups across the country
to emphasize the need for change.
“In the last few years it has become acceptable to
demonize immigrants,” said Thomas Keown spokes-
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person of the Irish Immigration Center.
Obama talks about changing the tone of Washington, he said. So there is a lot of hope that he
will not only introduce legislations to fix the system
“compassionately” but also pave a way for the hatred
to be left behind, he said.
The biggest obstacle in the past came not from
the White House but came from voices in Congress,
Keown said. So the onus will not be completely on
President-elect Obama but also on representatives
in the Senate.
“Hopefully the influence and the impact that he
has can change some of it,” he said.
“But it is a tough job.”
Immigrant advocacy groups are busy highlighting their recommendations to the transition team
through policy memorandums.
Though dealing with undocumented immigrants is
a major concern other issues relating to integration
of immigrants are also emphasized.
There is a need to push for a path to citizenship
for undocumented immigrants, said Milona, from
MIRA.
Reunification of families after immigration raids
such as the one in New Bedford last year is also
stressed. There is a lot of emphasis on reducing
immigration backlogs and visa waiting period, as
well as, ensuring safety and security of immigrant
workers, she said.
“The overarching principle is separating in the
people’s minds the issue of immigration from the
issue of national security,” Keown said. Linking
the two things together does both a disservice, he
said.
Without compromising border security, there
should be a process to recognize the undocumented
immigrants who are part of the economy, he said.
“The only practical and sensible way to deal with
undocumented immigrants is to provide them a way
to remain here and help them to become contributing citizens.”
The entire immigration system is “cumbersome,
confusing and slow,” Keown said.
There are many families with legal documents
who are waiting for up to 20 years to bring relatives
to be with them here, Keown said. “President-elect
Obama had said we should unite families where
we can.”
Advocates are also pushing for greater opportunities for the immigrants such as English language
classes.
“It is only smart and prudent to equip people to
contribute as much as they can and as quickly they
can,” he said. So providing immigrants with English
classes, that they can afford, will benefit all of us.
Providing drivers license to immigrants even if they
are undocumented is an “issue of common sense
“than immigration policy, he said.
Immigrants are not only employees but also employers, so people drive out of necessity. “Anyone
who thinks that preventing access to driving is
dreaming.”
There is an increase in the activities of the advocacy
groups to draw the attention of the new administration and also creating a more positive attitude
towards immigrants among people.
The Irish Immigration center plans to engage the
Irish immigrants and Irish Americans in remembering that one point they were all “brand new,”
Keown said.
“To think that this generation of immigrants from
being no different from what they were.”
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BostonHaitian.com
New Americans get governor’s ear through council
By Bijoyeta Das
Special to the Reporter
He’s been here 33 years. But Dorchester’s Binh
Nguyen, president of the Vietnamese American Community of Massachusetts and a Vietnamese immigrant,
still remembers how difficult it was to learn English,
which slowed access to the opportunities that drew
him to America.
State’s policymakers are lending their ears to
challenges that immigrants like Nguyen face. Immigrants—including refugees and those who are
undocumented—are invited to a series of meetings
called the New Americans Agenda.
The goal of this statewide project launched by Gov.
Deval Patrick in July— is to devise a series of policies
to better integrate the increasing refugee and immigrant populations into the civic and economic life of
Massachusetts.
The Governor’s Advisory Council will gather input
based on public meetings, research, suggestions from
state agencies and interviews with experts. Policy
recommendations will be made to the Governor in
July 2009, which will be shaped into a New Americans
Plan. The plan will address a host of issues including-citizenship assistance, employment and workforce
training, English language proficiency, education,
civil rights, fair housing, healthcare, public safety
among others.
At the first community meeting held at Chelsea
High School on Oct. 20, attended by over 200 people,
more than two-dozen people testified, including some
from Dorchester.
“The Governor appreciates and recognizes the contributions that new arrivals make to Massachusetts,” said
Richard Chacon, executive director of Massachusetts’s
Office for Refugees and Immigrants.
Immigrants represent 14 percent of population of
Massachusetts and 17 percent of its workforce. But
out of the 907,000 immigrants in the state about
175,000 of them are here illegally, according to a
report released by the Massachusetts Institute for a
New Commonwealth.
The New American’s Agenda will benefit all, irrespective of their immigrant status, said Chacon. “The Gov-
ernor believes that enforcement of immigration laws
is a federal issue and the state is not responsible.”
Gov. Patrick’s approach is markedly different from
his predecessor Mitt Romney.
In January 2007, Gov. Patrick rescinded former Gov.
Mitt Romney’s executive order allowing state troopers
to collaborate with federal immigration agents. State
prison’s no longer screen for illegal immigrants for
deportation.
“Mitt Romney was very suspicious and disrespectful
of immigrants, and used immigration as a political issue
during the presidential elections,” said Thomas Keown,
spokesperson for the Irish Immigration Center.
The trial for Patrick, he said, “will depend on how
he responds to the feedback.”
All immigrants, regardless of status, pay sales,
property and income taxes. “It is an often forgotten
fact,” he added.
It takes some courage and creativity to initiate such
an innovative program, said Shuya Ohno, director of
communications at Massachusetts Immigrant and
Refugee Advocacy Coalition (MIRA). “It is a clever
approach not to use taxpayers money.”
Though the economy is diving towards recession
and Patrick has ordered state agencies to make $1
billion in budget cuts and spending controls, the New
Americans Agenda will not stress the state’s budget.
The project is funded by grants and private donations
totalling $200,000 from Carnegie Foundation, the Barr
Foundation, the Bob Stewart Hildreth Charitable
Foundation and Partners HealthCare.
The new policies will also address the problems
that communities with large and diverse immigrant
populations face while integrating new arrivals.
Dorchester is home to immigrants from Cape Verde,
Haiti, Vietnam, Poland, Jamaica, the Dominican
Republic, Cambodia, Somalia, Ethiopia, Ireland, and
dozens of other countries around the world.
“The importance of Dorchester is also in welcoming
new immigrants and resettlement of refugee population,” said Richard Chacon. Many outreach efforts
have been made to engage Dorchester’s immigrant
communities, he said.
“It is really great that we are included,” said Binyam
Tamene, executive director of the Ethiopian Community Mutual Assistance Association.
“This is an opportunity to bring to the attention of
the Governor that there is an Ethiopian community
here in the greater Boston area,” said Tamene, who
lives in Dorchester.
There are more than 1,000 Ethiopians living in
Dorchester, he said. To help the immigrants become
part of the mainstream, they need “some kind of
helping hand,”
Because of economic hurdles, cultural shocks, discrimination and emotional alienation, immigrants
are often stressed out, he said. As a result they get
embroiled in depression, alcohol and substance abuse,
and domestic violence.
The immigrants and refugees find themselves in a
“difficult situation,” said, Abdirahaman Yusuf, executive director of Somali Development Center at Jamaica
Plain. Life is usually complex in foreign land. “But
they are happy to be living in a country where there
is peace, security and opportunity.”
Yusuf, who is also involved in resettling refugees in
Dorchester from different African countries such as
Somalia and Sudan, said the Governor should ensure
greater opportunities for adult education, assistance
with citizenship and more jobs.
Immigrant communities face more challenges,
because of “high dropout rates in schools and public
safety issues,” said Ohno from MIRA.
The Haitians are the largest group of immigrants
in Dorchester and Mattapan, said Jean Marc Jean
Baptiste, executive director of Haitian American Public
Health Initiative.
“A lot of people will be positively affected,” he said.
This project will help find out what can be done to
help the immigrants become a part of the “fabric of
the Commonwealth,” he added.
The locations for the four remaining meetings are
New Bedford, Lowell, Springfield and Fitchburg.
Recommendations can also be sent to the Office
for Refugees and Immigrants, 18 Tremont St., Suite
1020, Boston, MA 02108. Call 617-727-7888 for more
information.
Miami activist moves people into foreclosed houses
By Tamara Lush
Associated Press
Writer
MIAMI — Max Rameau
delivers his sales pitch
like a pro. “All tile floor!’’
he says during a recent
showing. “And the living
room, wow! It has great
blinds.’’
But in nearly every
other respect, he is unlike any real estate agent
you’ve ever met. He is
unshaven, drives a beatup car and wears grungy
cut-off sweat pants. He
also breaks into the homes
he shows. And his clients
don’t have a dime for a
down payment.
Rameau is an activist
who has been executing
a bailout plan of his own
around Miami’s empty
streets: He is helping
homeless people illegally move into foreclosed
homes.
“We’re matching homeless people with peopleless homes,’’ he said with
a grin.
Rameau and a group
of like-minded advocates
formed Take Back the
Land, which also helps the
new ‘tenants’’ with secondhand furniture, cleaning
supplies and yard upkeep.
So far, he has moved six
families into foreclosed
homes and has nine on a
waiting list.
“I think everyone deserves a home,’’ said Rameau, who said he takes no
money from his work with
the homeless. “Homeless
people across the country
are squatting in empty
homes. The question is:
Is this going to be done
out of desperation or with
direction?’’
With the housing market collapsing, squatting
in foreclosed homes is
believed to be on the rise
around the country. But
squatters usually move
in on their own, at night,
when no one is watching.
Rarely is the phenomenon
as organized as Rameau’s
effort to “liberate’’ foreclosed homes.
Florida — especially
the Miami area, with
its once-booming condo
market — is one of the
hardest-hit states in the
housing crisis, largely
because of overbuilding
and speculation. In September, Florida had the
nation’s second-highest
foreclosure rate, with one
out of every 178 homes
in default, according to
Realty Trac, an online
marketer of foreclosed
properties. Only Nevada’s
rate was higher.
Like other cities, Miami
is trying to ease the problem. Officials launched
a foreclosure-prevention
program to help homeowners who have fallen behind
on their mortgage, with
loans of up to $7,500 per
household.
The city also recently
passed an ordinance requiring owners of abandoned homes — whether
an individual or bank — to
register those properties
with the city so police can
better monitor them.
Elsewhere around the
country, advocates in
Cleveland are working
with the city to allow homeless people to legally move
into and repair empty,
dilapidated houses. In Atlanta, some property owners pay homeless people to
live in abandoned homes
as a security measure.
In early November, Rameau drove a woman and
her 18-month old daughter
to a ranch home on a quiet
street lined with swaying
tropical foliage. Marie Nadine Pierre, 39, has been
sleeping at a shelter with
her toddler. She said she
had been homeless off and
on for a year, after losing
various jobs and getting
evicted from several apartments.
“My heart is heavy. I’ve
lived in a lot of different
shelters, a lot of bad situations,’’ Pierre said. “In my
own home, I’m free. I’m a
human being now.’’
Rameau chose the house
for Pierre, in part, because
he knew its history. A man
had bought the home in
the city’s predominantly
Haitian neighborhood in
2006 for $430,000, then
rented it to Rameau’s
friends. Those friends
were evicted in October
because the homeowner
had stopped paying his
mortgage and the property
went into foreclosure.
Rameau, who makes
his living as a computer
consultant, said he is doing
the owner a favor. Before
Pierre moved in, someone
stole the air conditioning
unit from the backyard,
and it was only a matter
of time before thieves took
the copper pipes and wiring, he said.
“Within a couple of
months, this place would
be stripped and drug deal-
ers would be living here,’’
he said, carrying a giant
plastic garbage bag filled
with Pierre’s clothes into
the home.
He said he is not scared
of getting arrested.
“There’s a real need
here, and there’s a disconnect between the need and
the law,’’ he said. ``Being
arrested is just one of the
potential factors in doing
this.’’
Miami spokeswoman
Kelly Penton said city officials did not know Rameau
was moving homeless into
empty buildings — but
they are also not stopping
him.
‘There are no actions on
the city’s part to stop this,’’
she said in an e-mail. ‘It
is important to note that
if people trespass into
private property, it is up
to the property owner
to take action to remove
those individuals.’’
Pierre herself could be
charged with trespassing,
vandalism or breaking and
entering. Rameau assured
her he has lawyers who
will represent her free.
Two weeks after Pierre
moved in, she came home
to find the locks had been
changed, probably by
the property’s manager.
Everything inside — her
food, clothes and family
photos — was gone.
But late last month,
with Rameau’s help, she
got back inside and has put
Christmas decorations on
the front door.
So far, police have not
gotten involved. (AP)
BostonHaitian.com
December 2008
First suspect goes on trial for cabbie’s brutal murder
The trial of one of
the two men accused of
slaughtering a Haitianborn cab driver three
years ago in Brighton
opened in a Boston courtroom on December 1.
Cleveland Martin, 22, is
facing first-degree murder charges for allegedly
driving a knife into the
chest of Heureur Previlon
on the morning of August
25, 2005. Prosecutors say
that Martin and a second
man, Jashawn Robinson,
24, plotted to rob a cab
driver that night and
then took the crime “to
the next level, to the
ultimate level” by killing
Previlon in cold-blood in
a hospital parking lot.
“He himself is the one
who stabbed and killed
Heureur Previlon, plunging the knife six inches
into his chest,” chief
prosecutor Patrick M.
Haggan said of Martin,
noting that both men
acted in concert in a joint
venture. “But they were
a team.”
Previlon, 32, was a
well-known preacherand
musician who emigrated
to the Boston area in
1990. He was born in
Desdunes, Haiti and
joined family here to
study music and, later,
theology. He drove a cab
at night to support his
family and his ongoing
efforts to earn a Masters
in Theology.
Previlon happened to
be the unlucky driver
who responded to one of
the repeated calls that
Martin and Robinson
allegedly made in an
attempt to lure a vulnerable cabbie into their
trap.
Haggan said that the
duo called the Brookline-based Bay State
Taxi company “again
and again and again” for
almost an hour trying
to enlist a driver to take
them from Cleveland
Circle to Fidelis Way,
where Martin grew up
and where his girlfriend
lived.
“It didn’t matter who,”
the prosecutor said.
“They were looking for a
cab driver to rob.”
The men were specific in their choice of cab
companies, Haggan said,
because Bay State taxis
had no partition between
drivers and passengers –
unlike the Boston-based
cabs that also serviced
the Brighton area – and
would thus be easier
to rob with the kitchen
knives they carried.
“And these weren’t
pocketknives,” Haggan
said. “These were butcher knives … with tin
foil wrapped around the
handles so as not to leave
fingerprints.”
After at least one cab
driver refused their fare,
Previlon picked the men
up. At about 1:20 a.m.,
his cab drove into the
parking lot and a violent
struggle began. In the
course of that struggle,
Martin stabbed Previlon
to death but also sliced
This photo of Heureur Previlon was shown to jurors
in a Boston courtroom on Dec. 1, day one of the murder trial of Cleveland Martin, one of two young men
accused in Previlon’s 2005 homicide. Photo courtesy
Suffolk County DA Dan Conley’s office
Robinson’s hand open
as his friend held the
victim.
Boston Police homicide detectives spared
no effort in their investigation of Previlon’s
murder, beginning at the
moment his body was
found. Trash cans were
searched, evidence was
secured, and witnesses
were interviewed.
“You will even hear
from Heureur Previlon
himself,” Haggan said,
“through his blood, found
on the defendants’ clothing.”
As the investigation
grew more focused, Haggan said, Martin and
Robinson fled the state.
“The timing of their
departure was no coincidence,” Haggan said.
Boston Police and U.S.
Marshals located both
men in Virginia in September 2005. They were
returned to Boston and
have been held without
bail since their arraignments a few weeks later.
Robinson will be tried
separately at a later
date.
“The evidence will
come from many sources,” Haggan told jurors.
“It will leave you no doubt
who killed Heureur Previlon. One of those men
sits before you.”
The murder trial was
still ongoing as the Reporter went to press on
Dec. 4.
At the time of his
death, Previlon was
mourned as a gentle and
devoted religious man,
who devoted much of his
free time to his Chelsea
church, the Grace Tabernacles Church of God. He
led songs during Sunday
services, taught Sunday
school and founded a
musical group for youngsters called “Semence
Celeste.”
Are YOU Ready
for Winter?
Protect yourself and
your family with
a Flu Shot.
With winter comes the
cold and flu season and
we recommend flu shots
for everyone, even for
those children as young
as six months. But to
work best, immunizations must be given
before winter begins!
So dress warmly,
drink lots of fluids,
wash hands often and
see your family doctor to
get your flu shot today.
We are here for you,
conveniently located on
Dorchester Avenue, a
short walk from the
Fields Corner T Station
on the Red Line.
To make an
appointment, call
617-288-3230.
High quality, friendly health care
in your neighborhood.
In Fields Corner
1353 Dorchester Avenue
617-288-3230
For more information, visit us on the
web at www.dorchesterhouse.org
Page By Joel Abrams, President and CEO
Dorchester House Multi-Service Center
CHAMPIONS
OF
HEALTH
Welcome to our Dorchester House monthly column.
My colleagues and I at “Dot House” - as we are often and
affectionately called - will be writing this column with the
goal of bringing you news and information on subjects that
affect your health and the health of our community. At
Dot House, we have clinicians, public health professionals,
youth workers, and other staff who are committed to
serving our community. So we will use this space to offer
our perspectives on issues that are important to you, to
let you know what Dorchester House is doing to address
health needs, and to ask you to let us know what we could
do to make things better.
We all have reasons for visiting a health care professional. We may seek care for our annual checkup, a minor
problem, or something more serious. And we probably
have similar experiences. After checking in and getting a
quick once-over by a medical assistant, we spend quality
time with our caregiver and then we are dressed and out the
door – perhaps with some follow-up care needed. Terrific,
but we may ask ourselves, “Is that what my doctor does
all day?” Often, the answer is “no”. In fact, these same
medical professionals whom we visit in the exam room,
may at other times be teaching future health professionals,
leading research studies or developing and leading programs
to improve health outcomes, often on their own time and
without the credit they deserve. At Dorchester House,
we have come to think of these clinical leaders and other
professionals as our “champions” and I would like to take
this opportunity to sing the praises of just a few of our
many Dot House champions.
Pediatrician Dr. Giusy Romano-Clarke was concerned
that so many of her patients, including toddlers, were
presenting with poor oral health. She found funding and
launched “Healthy Teeth for Tots” to train pediatricians
to incorporate oral health screenings into the health visit.
This program is now a national model. Pediatric Nurse
Practitioner Emily Feinberg led a project to develop a
guide in the electronic medical record. This helps the
practitioners ask new mothers, during their babies’ well
visits, questions about maternal depression. Dr. Dana
Rubin, a pediatric psychiatrist, in response to the Rosie
D. v. Romney court decision, won a grant to develop a
better way to integrate behavioral health evaluation into
children’s primary care.
Our Nutritionist, Mary Lynch, goes well beyond
counseling patients on their diets. She teaches nutritional
cooking classes to teens in our after-school program, had
them plant a vegetable garden, and even has them learning
dance routines. And she organized a weekly farmers
market to bring locally grown, organic produce to our
neighborhood.
And we have champions in Adult Medicine as well.
Dr. Julita Mir leads our efforts to improve prevention and
treatment of chronic illnesses. When the CDC issued
new guidelines regarding AIDS/HIV, she jumped at the
challenge, and now Dorchester House (along with our
partner Codman Square Health Center) is the first in the
state to incorporate rapid testing for HIV in primary care.
Dr. Katie Harris is developing expanded programs for
our elderly patients, including house-calls to home-bound
patients and those in nursing homes. And Dr. Ivy Brackup
has developed and led a comprehensive support group
program for diabetic patients. The group meets weekly for
exercise, nutrition and other health information in order
to stay healthy and out of the hospital.
All of us at Dorchester House want to recognize the
leadership and dedication shown by our clinicians, and
acknowledge that there are health care professionals
everywhere serving their communities, working to produce
better health outcomes for all of us.
If you would like to comment on this column, visit us
on the web at www.dorchesterhouse.org.
www.dorchesterhouse.org
Commentary
Don’t wait, seek
fuel assistance now
The TV weather forecasters took delight this week
in reminding viewers that last Monday, December 1
marks the beginning of “meteorological winter.” Last
weekend’s driving rain, and Monday’s mild temperatures may have been enough to make one think that
global warming might not be so bad after all. The
sixty degree temps Monday afternoon made it seem
more like the beginning of spring than winter- yet
those video shots of beachfront homes up on the north
shore cascading into the ocean serves as a reminder
that Mother Nature will do what she will do, without
regard to any man-made calendar.
With the winter solstice still 18 days away, we can
expect a return this weekend to what is termed “seasonal” conditions. In short, the cold weather is here,
and it can be expected to settle in for the long haul.
So now here we are, officially in the heating season,
and despite the recent drop in the cost of a barrel of
oil — remarkably, it’s now under the $50 mark, we
are told — the complicating factor for all of us is the
emergence of some bad economic times. Government
economists said on Monday the country is now officially in a recession and has been for the past year.
Unemployment is on the rise, and likely to worsen
after Christmas, and people everywhere must struggle
to adjust their priorities. For many of our neighbors,
there will not be enough money available this year
to heat their homes.
But there is help available to meet heating costs
and the time to apply is here. ABCD, the city’s official anti-poverty agency, announced this week the
beginning of the enrollment period for fuel assistance.
The agency says that, because more people are now
eligible, and demand is up, first time applicants and
others are urged to apply now. The agency says it is
accepting applications weekdays at local neighborhood
offices, and beginning this weekend at its downtown
office at 178 Tremont Street on Saturdays from 10
a.m. to 2 p.m.
“Due to increased federal and state funding and
broadened eligibility, the program can now serve more
moderate-income families than in past years,” ABCD
officials said in a news release. “This year a family
of four with an income of $53,608 is eligible for some
assistance meeting their heating needs. The highest
fuel assistance benefit is $1,305.”
ABCD President/CEO Bob Coard urged those who
think they might be eligible to get their applications
in as soon as possible, before the worst of frigid winter weather hits. “Apply today,” he said. “With the
economy down and jobs and housing at risk, people
need to make use of every resource.”
ABCD’s neighborhood service centers (NSC) in
Dorchester, at 110 Claybourne Street, and in Mattapan Square at 535 River Street are serving as
intake centers during the weekday business hours.
The agency says that soon fuel assistance hours will
be extended for evening and weekends at both sites,
and also in other neighborhood sites throughout the
city. For more information, residents are urged to call
617-357-6012, or go online at bostonabcd.org. ABCD
provides fuel assistance and energy conservation
services to low and moderate-income working families
and seniors in Boston, Brookline and Newton. Payments are made directly to fuel vendors, whether oil,
gas or electric.
This is a government-sponsored program that works,
yet too many people do not take advantage of it until
the funds are exhausted. We encourage our readers to
act now, and get ready for the cold days ahead.
Ed Forry
December 2008
Don’t turn your back on girls Sexual violence in Haiti
Editor’s Note: On Nov.
27, Amnesty Internation
issued a report highlighting sexual violence in
Haiti, which the human
rights organization says
is on the rise. Below is a
summary of that report.
Sexual violence against
girls in Haiti is widespread and pervasive
and, although already at
shocking levels, is said to
be on the increase. While
information on the true
levels remains scarce,
there is much evidence
of sexual violence both
in the family and within
the wider community,
particularly by armed
gangs. Public security and
the legacy of sexual
violence Against a backdrop of
kidnappings, criminal violence and gang warfare,
violence against women
and girls in the community has soared. One
trend is the prevalence
of rapes involving groups
of armed men. For the
three years that followed
the military coup in 1991
when President JeanBertrand Aristide was
ousted, rape was used
as a political weapon to
instill fear and punish
those who were believed
to have supported the
democratic government.
During this time, there
were widespread reports
of armed men raping
women. Since the fall of
the military regime, this
has become a common
practice among criminal gangs. In run up to
Haiti’s annual carnival
in February last year,
50 cases of rape were reported in just three days
in the capital against
women and girls in the
capital Port-au-Prince. Violence in the family
is also prevalent and
often hidden. Children
often lack the resources
and support they need
to report violence in
which family members
participate or collude.
The result of the failure
to acknowledge and address this problem is a
social climate in which
violence in the family
is seen as normal and
inevitable. Poverty in Haiti is extreme and plays a major
role in putting girls at
greater risk of sexual
violence. Girls are bribed
to remain silent by perpetrators, who are able to
give them money to pay
their schools or accommodation fees. Others
who go in search of a
public place with lighting by which to do their
homework because their
home has no electricity
are attacked by groups of
men. Girls who become
pregnant as a result
of sexual violence find
themselves at risk due
to the lack of adequate
healthcare. Only one in
every four births in Haiti
is assisted by qualified
health personnel and
large numbers of women
and girls are dying as a
result of pregnancy related complications. The consequences of
sexual violence on girls
are profound and lasting.
In addition to immediate physical injuries,
survivors may have to
face unwanted pregnancy; sexually transmitted diseases; and
mental health problems
such as post-traumatic
stress disorder, anxiety
and depression. These
consequences can have
particularly series long
term effects on girls,
who are at higher risk
of dying during childbirth or pregnancy and
may also find their
education disrupted,
or find themselves excluded from school due
to pregnancy. One girl
who raped when she was
eight years old said: “I
was going to school, but
I left after I came here
[to a shelter] because my
father raped me. I was
in the first year. I loved
copying the lessons, writing. When I grow up I
would like to be a doctor.”
Barriers to justice Girls
are often unwilling to report cases of rape, largely
due to shame, fear, and
social attitudes that
tolerate male violence.
Another major disincentive to reporting is the
lack of confidence that
girls will experience a
positive and supportive
response from law enforcement officials. In
some rural areas, the
sole representative of
the justice system is the
justice of the peace. It is
not uncommon for the
justice of the peace to
encourage girls who have
faced violence accept an
“amicable settlement”
with the family of the
perpetrator. The justice system in Haiti is
weak and ineffectual.
The Police unit in charge
of protecting minors is
woefully under-staffed.
In March 2008, the unit
had 12 officers to cover
the entire country and
not a single vehicle. It
is not surprising that so
many of those who attack
girls are never brought to
justice, and so many girls
feel there is no purpose
in reporting crimes of
sexual violence. The authorities in
Haiti have taken steps
in recent years to address
the problem of violence
against women and girls.
The Ministry of Women’s
Affairs was established
in 1994 and has been
involved in important
initiatives to address the
problem. In 1995, a National Plan of Action to
Combat Violence Against
Women was adopted. If
implemented, this could
bring about significant
improvements in prevention and punishment. The Haitian authorities face major challenges posed by the ongoing
public security crisis, a
succession of humanitarian disasters, and high
levels of poverty and
marginalization. These
important concerns cannot be allowed to drown
out the needs of Haitian
girls. Amnesty International is calling on the
Haitian authorities to
take immediate action
to safeguard the rights
of girls:
• Collect comprehensive data on the nature
and extent of violence
against women and girls.
The lack of data currently stands in the
way of devising effective
solutions
• Investigate and prosecute all complaints of
sexual violence;
Ensure that police provide a safe environment
for girls to report sexual
violence, and ensure
that all complaints are
promptly and effectively
investigated.
For more on this Amnesty International Report, visit their website
at amnestyusa.org.
Haitian-American labor leader
tapped for White House job
REPORTER
“An Exploration of the Haitian-American Experience”
Mary Casey Forry, President (1983-2004)
Edward W. Forry, Publisher
William P. Forry, Managing Editor
Steve Desrosiers, Contributing Editor
Jack Conboy, Advertising Manager
Richardson Innocent, Advertising/Sales
News Room Phone : (617) 436-1222 Advertising : (617) 436-2217
E-mail: [email protected]
Boston Haitian Reporter Reporter is not liable for errors appearing in
advertisements beyond the cost of the space occupied by the error.
The right is reserved by Boston Haitian Reporter to edit,
reject or cut any copy without notice.
Next Issue: January 2009
Next edition’s Deadline: Friday, December 26 at noon
All contents © Copyright 2008 Boston Neighborhood News, Inc.
Mail subscription rates $25.00 per year, payable in advance.
Make payable to the Boston Haitian Reporter and mail to:
Boston Haitian Reporter,
150 Mt. Vernon Street, Suite #120, Dorchester, MA 02125
BostonHaitian.com
New Background
BOSTON HAITIAN
A publication of Boston Neighborhood News Inc.
150 Mt. Vernon St., Suite 120 , Dorchester, MA 02125
Worldwide at www.bostonhaitian.com
Photo courtesy of SEIU
A Haitian-American
labor leader who was
one of Barack Obama’s
leading strategists in his
presidential campaign
will soon be among his
chief lieutenants in the
White House. Patrick
Gaspard, a veteran political operative who
helped to lead political
and legislative affairs
for the potent Service
Employee International
Union based in New
York, has been tapped
to be Obama’s director
of political affairs in the
White House, according
to published reports.
According to the New
York Daily News, Gaspard took a leave from his
job as SEIU’s executive
vice president for politics
and legislation last sum-
mer to become Obama’s
national political director. The New Republic
magazine says that Gaspard is 41 year-old and
once worked as a lobbyist
and former field director for America Coming
Together, a get-out-thevote organization.
—Bill Forry
Reporter wins four Ethnic Media awards
The Reporter Newspapers — including the Boston
Haitian Reporter— won four New England Ethnic
Media Awards, or NEENAs, during a ceremony
held on Nov. 20 at UMass-Boston. The first annual
Ethnic Media Awards competition was sponsored
by UMass-Boston’s Center on Media and Society
and the California-based New America Media. The
winners will be entered into a national competition
in Atlanta in 2009.
Brian Concannon, Jr., a columnist for the Boston
Haitian Reporter, was awarded a finalist prize for
his commentary titled “Eating Dirt in Ireland and
Haiti.” Reporter managing editor Bill Forry won top
prize in the NEENA’s feature writing category for his
May 2008 story about the Grove Hall radio station
TOUCH 106.1 FM. Pete Stidman, the Reporter’s
news editor, was a finalist in the local news reporting
category for his January 2008 story about a viral
video that shed new light on gang violence in the
Vietnamese community. The Boston Irish Reporter’s
columnist Susan Gedutis Lindsay was also honored
for her arts and culture reporting. More on the
NEENAs and the UMass-Boston Ethnic Newswire
can be found online at ethnicnewz.org
BostonHaitian.com
December 2008
Page News Background
British report includes Haiti as weak state ‘threat’
By Meera Selva Associated Press Writer
LONDON — Britain is under threat from terrorists operating out of weak states where they can
run training camps and raise funds undetected, a
report published said last month.
The report, co-authored by former NATO chief
George Robertson, said there are 27 weak states
that pose a threat to Britain’s national security as
they could provide bases for terrorists. The countries
— which included Haiti, Nigeria, Somalia and Yemen — all have vulnerable governments that are
unwilling or unable to control all their territory.
The report’s authors said criminal groups that
fund terrorist organizations through drug trafficking
and manufacturing counterfeit goods can operate
in these weak states without being detected. Ter-
rorists who raise funds in these states could then
coordinate an attack on Britain.
“Transnational terrorists have quickly discovered
that the global space, being largely unregulated,
with the rule of law either weak or nonexistent,
is a place where they can operate with a reasonable prospect of impunity, just as they could in the
mountains of Afghanistan before 9/11,’’ said the
report, published by the Institute for Public Policy
Research, an international think tank.
Ian Kearns, deputy director of the IPPR and one
of the report’s authors, said terrorists could run
camps in remote areas which governments rarely
monitored.
“We have heard of terrorist training camps in the
Sahel,’’ he said, referring to a region of sub-Saharan
Africa which runs though several countries including
‘Sacred carnival’ offers respite
in troubled year
By Jennifer Kay Associated Press Writer
MIAMI — Goat meat stewing on the stove and
sweet potatoes baking in the oven. Cooked fish,
complete with bones and eyeballs. Spicy peppers
soaked in bottles of rum.
The food is an offering to the spirits expected to
dance among the revelers at Voodoo priest Erol
Josue’s Miami home that night.
Josue’s belief: Provide spiritual sustenance to
both the living and dead in Haiti and the U.S. to
help the linked communities cope with disasters
that have embroiled them the past year. Worldwide
economic turmoil, the ruin and death left in Haiti
by four tropical storms and a school collapse that
killed 90 all have left an imprint.
Josue’s night-long celebration of the dead, a condensed version of the two-day festival in Haiti that
opened November, was repeated in other homes in
Haitian-American communities during the month.
Vodouisants believe the Gede, or the dead, rituals honor their ancestors and the spirits and help
clear the pain of recent tragedies. About 1 million
Haitians live in the U.S., most in Florida. Large
communities are also in New York, New Jersey and
Massachusetts.
“Artists and advocates for Haiti have been doing
relief concerts to bring money for Haiti, which is
very good, but as a spiritual person, as a priest,
I think first of all we have to pay respect for our
brothers and sisters, for those souls who have died,’’
Josue said.
Hours before the “sacred carnival,’’ Josue and a
handful of vodouisants gathered before a small altar
to pay special homage to the nearly 800 storm victims
and those killed in the Nov. 7 school collapse.
He had expected at least 20 people for the daytime service.
But many have reserved their extra cash to help
relatives in impoverished Haiti. They told Josue
they couldn’t afford the gas for driving to the outskirts of Miami twice in the same day. And when
they came for the night service, they would wear
the same black and purple clothes they had on last
year, not being afford new things.
“And there’s only one goat,’’ Josue said and
sighed.
In the past, many guests laid offerings on the
altars adorned with decorative skulls in black top
hats. This year, they spent what they could to honor
the dead, while still trying to support the living,
Josue said.
“I don’t think the Gede will be offended,’’ Josue
said. “They will be concerned about the condition
of the world, because they have a lot of work to do
now.’’
Voodoo, a blend of Christian tenets and African
religions, was sanctioned as an official religion in
Haiti in 2003. It is widely practiced in the Caribbean
country of nearly 9 million people, and emigrants
continue traditions fused by slaves in Haiti’s colonial past.
Believers look to the celebration of the dead as
a way to relinquish the pain of the past year and
“start the new year with a positive attitude and
let go of anything that is going to weigh you down
physically and emotionally,’’ Raymonde Baptiste
of Miami said after the requiem at Josue’s home.
“This is a way of moving on.’’
All worries seemed to be abandoned at Josue’s
front door by 10 p.m., when the festivities began.
About 75 people, from young adult to old, crammed
into his living room, emptied of its furnishings to
make room for four conga drummers and a central
pole draped in black and purple, the colors of death
and strength. More guests, including a few wearing
skull T-shirts, spilled onto a sun porch and into the
front hallway.
Josue and a few initiates, now dressed in black
and purple, began calling the spirits with dancing and singing around the pole. When the spirits
overtook their bodies, they staggered and lurched
in the small space, supported by the outstretched
arms of the crowd.
The drummers maintained an upbeat, sometimes
frenzied pace well into the early morning. The air
grew thick with incense and the sweaty crush of
guests joining the other dancers in the hip-swiveling gyrations that reflect the Gede’s joking, vulgar
nature.
The Gede festival, believers say, is a time to say
and do things usually discouraged the rest of the
year. It’s just the fix for a tough year at home in the
U.S., and at home in Haiti. Haitians abroad sent
about $1.83 billion home last year, amounting to
about 35 percent of the country’s gross domestic
product, according to the Inter-American Development Bank.
``When you do the Gede, it’s like therapy,’’ said
Ingrid Llera, a Voodoo priestess who lives in Homestead, Florida. ``You just let it all out.’’ (AP)
Chinese president extends credit,
donations to Cuba
HAVANA — Chinese President Hu Jintao left
Cuba on Nov. 19 after visiting a frail-looking Fidel Castro and promising at least $78 million in
donations, credit and hurricane relief to China’s
communist ally. China agreed to donate $8 million
to Cuba and extend the second, $70 million phase
of $350 million in previously agreed-upon credit to
renovate Cuban hospitals. China also agreed to a
five-year postponement of payments on $7 million
in credit to Cuba from 1998, and delay until 2018
repayment of loans of undisclosed value from 1994
and 1995. It is unclear if Beijing ever expects to be
paid back.
China also agreed to buy Cuban nickel and sugar
and provide food and roofing and housing materials
to help Cuba recover from Hurricanes Gustav, Ike
and Paloma. Hu also brought 4.5 million tons in
humanitarian aid, and China committed to a plan
to help renovate Cuban infrastructure, including
crumbling ports and an earthquake detection system. (AP)
Mali, Chad and Sudan. “Those areas are impossible
to patrol and any activity could go undetected.’’
The report said Britain needed to help stabilize
these states. It also said Britain should push for
international regulations that would stop terrorists
using freely available information to create and
unleash new forms of biological warfare, such as a
modified version of the influenza virus.
“We need a multilateral approach to things like
biotechnology and we don’t think the government
is moving nearly fast enough on the subject,’’ said
Kearns. “The global financial crisis shows us very
clearly what happens if you don’t have multilateral
frameworks in place to deal with international issues.’’ (AP)
Caribbean News Briefs
Official: Russians
want to search for
oil off Cuba
HAVANA — Russia’s ambassador to Cuba says
his country’s oil companies are interested in searching for oil in deep Gulf of Mexico waters off of the
Caribbean island.
Ambassador Mijail Kamynin’s comments appeared
in the state-run newspaper Opciones on Nov. 22.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev was due to
visit Cuba last month.
Opciones reported that Kamynin spoke of ``concrete projects related to Russian oil companies’
participation in the perforation of the Cuban area
of the Gulf.’’
Kamynin also said Russian companies would like to
help build storage tanks for crude oil and modernize
Cuban pipelines, as well as play a role in Venezuelan
efforts to refurbish a Soviet-era refinery in the port
city of Cienfuegos. (AP)
Amnesty International:
Young girls at risk
for rape, crime often
goes unpunished
PORT-AU-PRINCE — A new Amnesty International report condemns rampant sexual violence
against Haitian girls and says it often goes unpunished. The document says most of the 238 rapes
reported between January 2007 and June 2008
involved girls under age 18. Some were infants.
The London-based human rights group says girls
who are raped are shunned by society and encouraged or threatened into not identifying attackers. It
says armed gangs used rape to intimidate. It does
not comment on the effects of U.N. peacekeeper efforts to combat gangs over the same period.
The report released on Nov. 28 criticized a weak
justice system it says fails to protect women. A police
unit in charge of protecting minors nationwide has
12 officers and no vehicles. (AP)
DomRep mulls South
Korea offer for
partnership
SAN JUAN— The Dominican Republic says it is
considering an offer from South Korea to buy sugar
and sell machinery and electronic equipment. The
Caribbean government says it will review the commercial exchange proposal. Dominican officials announced last month that sugar exports could triple
by 2010 under a new economic partnership with the
European Union.
According to the government, South Korea also is
offering to export rice as it does under an economic
program with several Asian and African countries.
The Dominican secretary of state recently visited
South Korea to talk about strengthening their economic relationship. (AP)
December 2008
BostonHaitian.com
Children dying, victims of food crisis
By Jonathan M. Katz
Associated Press
Writer
PORT-AU-PRINCE
— The 5-year-old teetered on broomstick legs
— he weighed less than
20 pounds, even after
days of drinking enriched
milk. Nearby, a 4-year-old
girl hung from a strap
attached to a scale, her
wide eyes lifeless, her
emaciated arms dangling
weakly.
In pockets of Haiti accessible only by donkey
or foot, children are dying
of malnutrition — their
already meager food supply cut by a series of
devastating storms that
destroyed crops, wiped
out livestock and sent food
prices spiraling.
At least 26 severely
malnourished children
have died in the past
four weeks in the remote
region of Baie d’Orange
in Haiti’s southeast, aid
workers said Thursday,
and there are fears the toll
will rise much higher if
help does not come quickly
to the impoverished Caribbean nation.
Another 65 severely
malnourished children
are being treated in makeshift tent clinics in the
mountainous area, or
at hospitals where they
were evacuated in Portau-Prince and elsewhere,
said Max Cosci, who heads
the Belgian contingent of
Doctors Without Borders
in Haiti.
Venecia Lonis, 4, who suffers from malnutrition, is held before being weighed at the Doctors Without Borders
hospital in Port-au-Prince, Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2008. Aid workers fear hunger is worsening in rural Haiti
after at least 26 children died of conditions exacerbated by a lack of nutrition, raising concerns that a grave
food crisis may be brewing following four devastating tropical storms.(AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
One evacuee, a 7-yearold girl, died while being
treated, Cosci said, adding: “The situation is extremely, extremely fragile
and dangerous.’’
At a makeshift malnutrition ward at a Doctors
Without Borders hospital in the capital, 10
emaciated children were
under emergency care
Thursday, their stomachs
swollen and hair faded by
pigmentation loss caused
by malnutrition. Several
had the puffy faces typical
of kwashiorkor, a proteindeficiency disorder.
Five-year-old Mackenson Duclair, his ribs protruding and his legs little
more than skin stretched
over bones, weighed in at
19.8 pounds, even after
days of drinking milk
enriched with potassium
and salt. Doctors said he
needed to gain another
five pounds before he
could go home.
Dangling from a scale
mounted from the ceiling,
4-year-old Venecia Lonis
looked as limp as a rag
doll as doctors weighed
her, her huge brown eyes
expressionless, her hair
tied with bright yellow
bows.
Mackenson’s grandmother, who has raised
him since his mother
died, said she barely has
a can of corn grits to feed
herself, the boy and her
8-year-old granddaughter
each day.
“These things did
not happen when I was
growing up,’’ 72-year-old
Ticouloute Fortune said.
Rural families already
struggling with soaring
food prices in Haiti, the
Western Hemisphere’s
poorest country, lost
their safety nets when
fields were destroyed and
livestock wiped out by
the storms, which killed
nearly 800 people and
caused $1 billion worth
of damage in August and
September.
U.N. World Food Program country director
Myrta Kaulard said she
fears more deaths from
malnutrition in other isolated parts of Haiti, and
search and medical teams
were fanning out in the
northwest and along the
southwestern peninsula
to check.
The World Food Program has sent more than
30 tons of food aid _
enough to feed 5,800
people for two weeks _ into
the remote southeastern
region since September,
and other groups funded
by the U.S. Agency for
International Development have sent food as
well, she said.
But the steep, narrow
paths and poor visibility
make it difficult to deliver
the food to the mountain
communities where hunger is worsening. In one
case, a WFP truck flipped
over while struggling up a
hill and slid into a ravine,
killing an aid worker.
“There is always a
bottleneck. The same
situation that the people
are facing is the same
situation we’re also facing,’’ Kaulard told The
Associated Press.
Haiti in general and the
mountain villages in particular have long suffered
from chronic hunger.
Child malnutrition rates
have been high for years
— the WFP reported in
2007 that nearly a quarter
of children were chronically malnourished.
Remote rural areas
Continued on page 9
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BostonHaitian.com
Hunger claims more young victims
December 2008
Page continued from page 8
in particular grow only
enough staples to feed
themselves less than
seven months out of the
year, Kaulard said.
But throughout the
year, aid workers and officials have been seeing
hunger get more severe,
and now people who live
in the mountains and aid
groups who are working
there say the situation is
worse than it has been in
the past.
This year, for instance,
Haiti’s agriculture ministry estimates 60 percent of
the harvest was lost in the
storms nationwide. Land
quality is already poor and
farmers lost seeds for next
year when the storms hit,
Kaulard said.
Effects of the storms
vary widely from village
to village and even family
to family. In some places,
food supplies seem intact.
In others, Doctors Without
Borders has found rates of
severe malnutrition as
high as 5 percent.
Aid shortages may soon
compound the problem.
Donor countries have
funded only a third of the
U.N.’s $105 million aid
appeal for Haiti following
the storms, and resources
could run out in January,
Kaulard said.
At the hospital Thursday, Enock Augustin sat
beside the bed where
his 5-year-old daughter
Bertha was sleeping. The
fragile-looking child was
evacuated by helicopter
Nov. 8 with vomiting
and diarrhea. When she
arrived, nearly a quarter
of her body weight was
due to fluid retention,
a sign of severe protein
deficiency.
The swelling gradually
receded as she was fed nutrient-enriched milk and
treated with antibiotics
and anti-worm medicine;
she shrank to just 21
pounds.
She has since gained
about two pounds but
can’t go home until she
reaches 26 pounds, doctors said.
For months, the Augustin family had gotten by
despite the soaring prices
of corn grits and imported
rice because they grew
potatoes, which they could
eat or barter for plantains,
yams and breadfruit that
did not fluctuate with the
world market.
But then, in August,
Tropical Storm Fay hit,
followed by Hurricane
Gustav, Tropical Storm
Hanna and Hurricane
Ike.
“Every time a hurricane
came through, it killed
our animals and plants,’’
said Augustin, a father of
six. The road was washed
out, markets became unreachable and “the price
of everything went sky
high.’’
The entire family subsisted on two cups of
corn grits, and Bertha
began shrinking — and
then swelling — before
his eyes.
“She was really bad. We
put her in the helicopter
and they brought her
here,’’ Augustin said. “I
hope the government will
hear about us and bring
more support.’’ (AP)
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Page 10 Boston Haitian ReporteR
December 2008
BostonHaitian.com
Asthma study raises researcher eyebrows
By Pete Stidman
News Editor
Sometimes even Ph.Ds can use a little help from
the neighborhood. Just ask Dr. Doug Brugge of
Tufts University.
Next to his and his colleagues’ names on a
breakthrough article in the November issue of the
Journal of Asthma are those of the Boston Urban
Asthma Coalition’s Acheson Bennett and Neal-Dra
Osgood. Bennett is a parent leader who graduated
from a training program Osgood runs at BUAC.
Both Bennett and Osgood—and several others from
BUAC—helped gather findings that have pointed
in a new direction for Asthma research.
“The community initiated the study and was
involved in every aspect,” said Brugge in a phone
interview. “I think it emerges from my values,
wanting to work in the community and address
their problems.”
Originally, Osgood’s aim, as part of the coalition’s
Strengthening Voices Project, was simply to gather
data on the neighborhood to help set priorities for
BUAC and other groups that focus on the disease,
which is diagnosed in over 14 percent of adults and
children in Massachusetts. Dorchester has one of the
highest hospitalization rates for the disease among
children 5 to 14 years of age.
“We just wanted to know about asthma prevalence in Dorchester and what barriers there were
for people to getting care for themselves and their
children,” said Osgood. “We called Doug and he was
more than willing to help us.”
But as Brugge and team combed through the
numbers, they noticed a significant disparity between U.S. and foreign-born African-Americans that
had never been recorded in a study before. Asthma
prevalence was 30.2 percent in U.S. born AfricanAmerican adults surveyed in the study, versus 11.1
percent for foreign-born African immigrants.
“I think that it suggests directions for more research that in my opinion are more important to
pursue,” said Brugge. “We have an idea why U.S.
born folks have more asthma but we haven’t proven
what that is.”
Other studies, including one led by Brugge in
Chinatown, have shown disparities in asthma prevalence between foreign and U.S. born populations of
Asians and Latinos, but this may be the first for
African-Americans.
The prevailing hypothesis—at least in Brugge’s
opinion—is that exposure to a higher burden of
infectious diseases in developing countries could
alter an individual’s immune system, thus creating
a resistance to asthma.
But there are many competing theories, and
Brugge’s favorite rules none of them out. Other
researchers have variously proposed that a higher
exposure to sunlight, drinking raw milk, breathing
in less pollution in rural areas, or ingesting certain
intestinal parasites may contribute to a lesser
prevalence of asthma in other countries.
And after an article on the study appeared in
Tuesday’s Boston Globe Brugge received a number of
complaints from people who prefer to blame chemicals for the higher prevalence here in Dorchester, a
claim he said his research does not rule out.
“I don’t feel like you have to choose one or the other,
asthma is a multi-factorial disease,” said Brugge. “It
includes generally a history of infectious disease but
it also includes exposure to tobacco smoke, pollution,
indoor pollution like molds and dust mites, just a
whole range of things, even psycho-social stress. I
don’t think we can claim it’s all one or another.
“The more practical outcome [of the study] I think
is if you are trying to establish asthma prevalence
in a population you really need to know how many
are native and U.S. born. Not doing that is really
going to obscure this hidden disparity.”
To see the results of BUAC’s survey, including
some interesting recommendations for improving
care locally that the group drew out of a related set
of focus groups with parents of children with asthma,
see their To Breath or Not to Breath report at buac.
org/buac_docs.html.
For information about the Boston Public Health
Commission’s efforts to reduce asthma disparities
in the city, including their nationally recognized
Breathe Easy at Home program, go to bphc.org and
choose “asthma.”
The AIDS epidemic: It’s not over— far from it
By Darline François
On December 1, 2008, people around the world
observed World AIDS Day. Established in 1988
by the World Health Organization (WHO), World
AIDS Day continues to raise awareness and focus
attention on the AIDS epidemic globally.
According to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), there are an estimated 33.2
million people worldwide living with AIDS and over
20 million have died of this disease. In the United
States there is estimated over 1 million people living
with the disease. It is the leading cause of death
for African American women ages 25-34 and the
second leading cause of death for African American
men ages 35-44.
According to The Health of Boston 2008, preliminary data for 2006 suggests that six Boston neighborhoods have HIV/AIDS incidence rates that exceed
the overall Boston rate. Those neighborhoods are
Back Bay, Jamaica Plain, Mattapan, Dorchester,
Roxbury, and the South End.
The rate for Boston is 32.9 per 100,000 new cases
and the rate for Mattapan is 39.5 per 100,000 new
cases. The mortality rate for HIV/AIDS in Mattapan
greatly exceeds the rate in Boston, 28.2 to 9.7 for
Boston. This shows that Mattapan has 290 percent
higher rate than Boston and we still have work to
do in our community to increase awareness. Mattapan Community Health Center provides FREE
HIV/AIDS counseling and testing to address this
health issue.
HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) is a virus
that attacks and breaks down the human body’s
immune system. HIV can be found in body fluids,
including blood, semen, vaginal fluids, breast milk
and bodily fluids that are handled by healthcare
workers.
HIV is passed from one person to another by having sex with a person who has HIV, sharing needles
with a drug user who has HIV, through pregnancy,
birth, or breast feeding if the mother has HIV. It
can also be passed by getting a blood transfusion
from a person with HIV.
As you can see, HIV is a disease that does not
discriminate and can affect anyone regardless of
race, age, sexual orientation, gender or religion.
Often individuals are afraid to get tested for fear
of knowing the results or being ostracized by their
family if positive. However, being tested and knowing your status is one of the first steps to decreasing
the incidence of AIDS in the country in general and
in the African American community specifically.
Abstaining — not having sex— and knowing your
status is one the best ways to prevent HIV/AIDS
from spreading. Being faithful to your sexual partner
and using condoms or other latex barriers during
sex are other ways to protect yourself or to prevent
transmitting the virus. HIV cannot be transmitted
by casual contact such as shaking hands, hugging
a person with HIV/AIDS. You cannot get it from
using a telephone, drinking fountain, restroom or
hot tub. Most of the time HIV does not show any
signs or symptom; some people have few symptoms;
some of them develop symptoms after several years;
also others may develop other viruses such as STD’s
and HIV2.
Even if there are no symptoms present, once HIV
gets into the body, it will damage the immune system. People who appear perfectly healthy may have
the virus and unknowingly pass it on to others. The
only way to know if you are infected is to be tested.
Although, there is not a cure for HIV/AIDS, there are
aggressive treatments available that have increased
the lives of many. In addition, supporting individuals with HIV by accessing medical treatment, social
support, partner counseling and referral services
are available as needed.
The National HIV Mobilization Campaign promotes and encourages individuals to use preventive
strategies such as safer sex, free counseling, testing,
public education, clean needle and syringe use to
decrease the number of infection and deaths.
Mattapan Community Health Center is located at
1425 Blue Hill Avenue. We provide HIV Counseling
and Testing Services Monday through Friday from
8:30-5:00pm, regardless of age, sexual orientation,
or gender. For more information please contact:
Darline François, Community Health Educator at
617-898-9005 or just walk-in to the health center
and a staff person will assist you.
Darline François is a Community Health Educator
at Mattapan Community Health Center.
Openly gay marchers debut at St. Marc AIDS rally
By Jonathan M. Katz
ST. MARC — A dozen men in T-shirts declaring “I
am gay’’ and ``I am living with HIV/AIDS’’ marched
with hundreds of other demonstrators through a
Haitian city on Nov. 30 in what organizers called
the Caribbean nation’s first openly gay march.
The march, held a day ahead of World AIDS Day
in the western city of St. Marc, called for better
prevention and treatment in a country long plagued
by the virus.
Organizers said they hoped the march will break
barriers to reach more HIV-positive people and gay
men with programs that have helped decrease the
country’s infection rate by two-thirds in the last
decade.
“They suffer double the stigma and double the
discrimination,’’ said Esther Boucicault Stanislas,
a leading activist known as the first person in Haiti
to publicly declare that she was HIV-positive after
her husband died of AIDS in the early 1990s.
About 500 participants that included health
ministry officials and workers with United Nations
programs followed a speaker-truck through the dusty
city, chanting and carrying banners en route to the
mayor’s office. No officials received them.
AIDS awareness marches have taken place before
in Haiti, but Boucicault and organizers with New
York-based AIDS service organization Housing
Works called this one the first march to include an
openly gay group in Haiti.
The nation of 9 million remains the most affected by
HIV in the Caribbean, itself the region with the highest infection rate outside Sub-Saharan Africa.
Haiti has long fought stigmatization and discrimination after its migrants were some of the first AIDS
cases identified in the United States. Unfounded
beliefs that Haitians caused the epidemic helped
decimate the country’s tourism industry.
The country has since been a success story, with
its HIV infection rate falling from 5.9 percent in
1996 to 2.2 percent today — due in part to programs
like the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS
Relief, which has given Haiti more than $320 mil-
Advertise in the Reporter
Call 617-436-1222
lion since 2004. The deaths of people with HIV also
contributed to the decline.
But gay men remain at risk because they hide
from social programs due to prejudice and harassment, despite making up one-tenth of reported HIV
cases in the Caribbean, the Joint United Nations
Program on HIV/AIDS reported.
In socially conservative Haiti, discrimination runs
especially deep.
Debate over Prime Minister Michele Pierre-Louis’
nomination earlier this year centered almost entirely
on rumors that she was a lesbian, with lawmakers
standing up one after another to denounce her as
immoral. She was approved for the post only after
agreeing to read a statement on Haitian radio that
the rumors were defamatory and untrue.
On Sunday, opposition was muted to the small
contingent wearing white T-shirts bearing the
word “masisi’’ — a Haitian Creole slur for gay men
that the marchers celebrated and chanted as their
own. (AP)
BostonHaitian.com
December 2008
Page 11
Community Health News
Homelessness Strikes Native-born and Immigrants Alike
By
Eduardo A. de Oliveira
New England
Ethnic News
A reporter of EthnicNEWz.org rode in both
vans and saw that among
the homeless were Asian,
The seasonal drop in Hispanic and African
temperature worries immigrants.
According to a 2008
more than just those
who don’t have roofs report of the Commisover their heads. It wor- sion Related to Ending
ries people like Nelson Homelessness in the
Bennett, a supervisor at Commonwealth, MasPine Street Inn, Boston’s sachusetts has a total of
largest homeless shelter, 24,000 homeless people,
and Oscar Alicea, a Sal- of which 5,000 are in
vation Army volunteer families, and 10,000 are
in New Hampshire. Both children. Boston has
of them know all too well 7,000 homeless individuwhat the homeless in als, according to a census
New England face every conducted in 2007 by the
office of Mayor Thomas
winter.
During his nighttime Menino.
There are no official
shift, Bennett leads a
crew of eight workers numbers to indicate
riding in a van to dis- the percentage of immitribute food, blankets grants, but Alicea estiand tickets to stay in a mates that 75 percent of
shelter, to 35 homeless those who seek the Salvation Army’s support in
people.
Alicea, a Puerto Rican Nashua are newcomers
who came to the US in from Latin America and
1976, is a van driver Africa.“With the econofor the Salvation Army. my the way it is, more
He picks up bell ring- Brazilians, Hispanics,
ers — Salvation Army and African refugees are
staff who stand in front losing jobs, that’s why
of stores to collect mon- they need our help,” says
ey from passersby, on Alicea, who himself lost
behalf of the charitable his job as a mechanic
organization — in Nash- in March and is strugua, NH, and gives them gling to raise his five
rides to Wal-Mart and children.
“We treat everybody
Market Basket stores.
the same way. We don’t
care if you’re native
or immigrant. Homelessness can happen to
anyone,” says Bennett,
a son of Honduran immigrants working with
homelessness for seven
years.During a van ride
last April, Pine Street
Inn workers spotted at
least four immigrants.
A man from Vietnam
rested under a heavily-lit Kid’s Footlocker
storefront, where he got
a new pair of socks that
he wanted.
Another person from
Cape Verde snoozed on
the corner of State and
Central streets, in downtown Boston. Bennett
carefully laid a blanket
on him and left. Jill
Roncarati, a physician
assistant for the Boston
Healthcare for Homeless Program, rides in
the Pine Street Inn van
twice a week.
“In the first contact
with patients, you need
to build their trust on
us,” she says. The most
common illnesses the
homeless have are liver
disease, cancer, hepatitis, pneumonia, bronchitis and skin infection.
Some 80 percent of her
patients require psycho-
logical assistance.
The Boston Healthcare
for Homeless Program is
based out of Jean Yawkey
Place, a $35 million
medical complex named
after the philanthropist
wife of Tom Yawkey, the
former owner of the Boston Red Sox. The complex
includes a 104-bed inpatient clinic, a pharmacy
and a dental clinic.
While homelessness
can be caused by an array of factors, says Roncarati, some are more
frequent than others,
such as mental illness,
history of substance
abuse and, in the case of
war veterans, post-traumatic stress disorder
syndrome.“As soon as
my disability kicks in I’m
going to Florida. No more
winters for me,” says a
homeless Iraq War veteran. Bennett estimates
that veterans represent
at least 20 percent of the
city’s homeless population.
On a recent cold night,
a man who served the US
Army in Beirut during
the ‘80s waited for assistance at a bus stop in
South Boston. It was 11
p.m. and the man carried
a plastic bottle of water
filled with beer. The
detox shelters, places
equipped to treat substance abuse patients,
were all full that night.
The man got soup, a cup
of hot chocolate, and a
blanket and spent the
night right there.
The Interagency Council on Homelessness,
a taskforce chaired by
Massachusetts Lt. Governor Tim Murray, recommended a new system
to fight the problem. The
plan, which is underway,
includes the creation of
regional service-coordinating entities to link
people with prevention
services, housing and
jobs.
In New Hampshire,
Alicea understands exactly what the people
most in need have to
endure. Three years ago
he was unemployed and
had no food to offer to his
five kids.
“So I swallowed [my]
pride, went to KFC and
asked for all the leftover
food they had,” he says.
For at least a month,
the Alicea family lived
on the fried chickens
and mashed potatoes
donated every night – the
supply would make for
good meals during the
day, too.
This winter, on a stipend of $25 a day (daily
eight-hour-shifts), volunteer bell ringers of
the Salvation Army will
work to make sure other
families can keep warm
and fed. But they have
hardships of their own.
“It’s hard right now. I
can’t make ends meet.
I go to a soup kitchen
and can’t get in,” says
Susanne Marchant, a
volunteer at Nashua’s
Salvation Army and a
former deli manager who
is disabled now.In Boston, Nelson Bennett will
not trade his third-shift
job for any other.
“I go home everyday
feeling good. I don’t mind
working at night. This is
the best job I ever had,”
he says.
For Roncarati, the best
reward comes when she
sees “a former client
moving into an apartment of his own,” she
said. “Homelessness can
happen to anybody. We
should not look down
at anybody because of
their financial hardships. Nobody is exempt
from that,” concludes
Bennett.
More on homelessness: pinestreetinn.org bhchp.
org armyonitsknees.org
ImmIgratIon Lawyer
Attorney Pamela Casey Lindmark
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Former Assistant District Attorney, Boston Criminal Courts
Law Offices of Pamela Lindmark
1330 Centre Street
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(minutes from Mass. Pike or Route 9)
617•964•4417
December 2008
BostonHaitian.com
Music Reviews
Manze Dayila’s suffering, joy evident on debut record
By Steve Desrosiers
Contributing Editor
It is mysterious that heaven sends its best treasures wrapped in a cloak of tears and misery. It
seems the bargain between nature’s mystical forces
are that anyone who stands to positively influence
humanity’s cursed journey must pay a price in long
suffering. It was so for artists like Bob Marley and
Louis Armstrong and it is true today for a currently
little-known Haitian woman who is known in New
York as the “Empress of Haitian Roots music.”
Manze Dayila is her stage name and she was
brought to my attention by New York-based actor
and musician Smith Nazaire (aka Atibon). Smith
took part in a video starring Manze in an original
composition named “Change”, honoring Barack
Obama. In the course of watching the video on YouTube, I was struck by the strength of purpose in her
voice, then by the uninhibited grace of her dancing. I
listened a few more times to the instrumental work
that enveloped her vocals and was enchanted by the
multi-rhythmic interweaving of such a simple line
up of instruments.
Dayila was born in Saint-Marc, a province in Haiti.
She grew up surrounded by the sights and sounds
of Haitian folklore and often took part in singing at
family gatherings and ceremonies. By 1988, Dayila
was 19 years-old, pregnant and Haiti – two years
after the ouster of Jean Claude Duvalier – was
yet again the scene of severe political unrest. The
mother-to-be considered the avenues open to her
and her child on the island and like many before citizens whose alarm at seeing Dayila’s condition
her, decided to risk a voyage by boat in hopes of among the other occupants caused such a sensation
that eventually news cameras, along with medical
reaching the United States.
She soon embarked on one of the cheaply con- attention, made their way to the scene.
Dayila, along with the others, was taken to Miami’s
structed dinghies that are legendary for daring the
trip, being overcrowded and prone to sinking before infamous Krome Detention Center, where some
reaching the safety of Miami’s shores. Three days years ago the grandfather of Haitian writer Edwidge
into the journey the ship ran aground in Cuba. Au- Danticat died, allegedly as a result of the center’s
thorities impounded the ill-built vessel and detained habitual mal-treatment of Haitians. She gave birth
the passengers for three weeks. Eventually, the to a baby girl and for a time made a home for herself
travelers, against the advice of their Cuban peers, in Miami with a man who heard her story on televiand
08-CCH-029
PCP
Print
11:25 AM sion
Page
1 took her in. The arrangement between the
again
set the
ship
out 1_2pg_MECH
to sea. The9/22/08
boat managed
two
adults
soon soured and Dayila took to land this
to land amidst sun tanning tourists and senior
time for a fateful journey to New York.
The young mother eked out a living doing odd jobs
in the city. She eventually became a sought after
singer for New York’s popular Vodou ceremonies.
At the encouragement of friends she took her singing more seriously and started honing her talent,
often performing in New York City’s subway system
where she drew crowds for a tradition of celebrating
“Gede” or Vodou’s ceremony for the dead by dressing
herself elaborately painting her face in black and
white and sharing Haiti’s traditional dances with
those who cared to partake of the experience.
Interestingly, Dayila’s subway performances led
to her first big break with a small American independent recording label. In 2001, she was selected
to perform in New York’s Metropolitan Transit
Authority’s “Music Under New York” showcase.
Dayila remembers of that fateful day that she closed
her eyes and “did my thing”, delivering a gut wrenching performance of an original composition named
“Sole”, an ode to the sun. The performance caught the
attention of one of the judges of the event, producer
Jamie Propp – head of As Is Entertainment – who,
in short order, contacted the singer and offered to
produce an album showcasing her talents.
Dayila’s first release, the album, “Sole”, is a refreshingly modern and cosmopolitan presentation
of Haiti’s traditional Racine songs. Like the many
Lwas or Gods of the Vodou religion it is mired in
duality and complexity. It is happy and sad. Haitian and American. Simple, yet complex. In new
arrangements of traditional songs like “Kwi”, a
slice of the popular black musical experience in
the west is available to the listener. “Kwi” starts
off with recognizable Haitian drumming, moves
seamlessly into a laid back roots reggae groove and
transforms magically into a grainy African dance
track held together by Dayila’s powerful voice. This
scene is repeated inventively in songs like “Misie
Rigaud”, “Kafe”, and “Ibo” where no sooner does
the song present its Haitian identity then it begins
to morph rhythmically to show its American, West
African or Spanish face, all of the ingredients that
continued on the next page
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BostonHaitian.com
By Gintautas Dumcius
State House News Service
December 2008
Panel offers ideas to combat urban violence
Access to substance
abuse treatment for all
regardless of income,
mandatory K-12 bullying and violence prevention programs, and aggressive steps to reduce
access to illegal firearms
are among the antiurban violence recommendations released last
month by the governor’s
Anti-Crime Council.
Other recommendations include immediate
steps to offer reentry
supports to violent offenders, job training for
individuals between 14
and 22 years old, and the
establishment of ways to
immediately respond to
and treat children who
witness violence.
Attorney General Martha Coakley, who chaired
the council subcommittee
that issued the report,
called for specifically
focusing on individuals
between 5 and 10 years
old with school truancy,
after-school and day
care programs. She said
those programs would
help identify “that group
of kids across the Commonwealth who in five
years or ten years will
be a crime increase if we
don’t deal with it now.”
Coakley acknowledged
the wobbly economy, a
$1.4 billion budget gap
that Beacon Hill is wrestling with, and predictions that a longer economic downturn might
require more spending
cuts.
“It’s a huge task but
this huge challenge gives
us an opportunity here,
I think, to start to look
with the governor, with
[the Executive Office
of Administration and
Finance], around where
do we spend our prevention dollars now,
are we focusing them
effectively and how we
can do that better,” she
said. “And I think the
governor agrees, these
recommendations give
us a good, sound basis to
start looking at how we
Music Reviews
continued from the previous page
have composed the dream and nightmare that have
fed the Haitian experience.
The album also points to the future of Racine in the
United States. In “City-fied” versions of songs like
“Simbi D’lo” and “Ibonodub” we find a taste of the
kind of musical exchanges that will help to preserve
and propagate Haitian Racine well into HaitianAmerica’s future. Jamie Propp and the fine cast of
musicians who propel this album’s fantastic line up
on songs have to be commended for weaving such a
fine listening experience. This work is reminiscent
of Emeline Michele’s astounding AKIKO record
with the Widmaer brothers. And Haitian Racine
has truly found its Empress.
You will hear this voice and be transported back
to Haiti and the firm grip your grandmother’s hands
as she tapped Africa’s rhythms on your back while
dancing and singing any one of Haiti’s fine traditional
songs of sorrow and joy!
Discover Manze Dayila and her Nago Nation band
at the following website: www.manzedayila.com.
Look her up on iTunes for Christmas!
actually have to cut the
budget.”
Programs based in
Boston that the 47page report noted for
their effectiveness include BOLD (Breath of
Life: Dorchester) Teens,
which focuses on youths
14 to 18 years old working on education, activism and peer mentoring; Dotwell, which
offers basketball and
soccer leagues for girls
in the summer; summer
activities through the
Federated Dorchester
Neighborhood House;
Uphams Corner Health
new violence prevention
program; and Boston
Police Department’s Safe
Streets program, with
officers walking beats
in the city, including
Codman Square and the
Bowdoin/Geneva area.
Asked whether the
state can afford to expand some of the programs, as the report
recommends, James
Alan Fox, a Northeastern University criminal
justice professor said, “It
has to afford it. We have
a tremendous concern
about the number of atrisk kids who are poorly
supervised.”
Gangs harbor a “tremendous attraction”
to them, said Fox, who
wrote the foreword for
the report. “The social
and economic cost of
doing nothing is exorbitant. Prevention is a lot
cheaper than the justice
system.”
Many of the ideas
have been aired before
in the halls and hearing rooms of the State
House. Patrick said the
report’s recommendations can form a “very
thorough” package for
the 2009-2010 legislative
session.
Patrick added administration officials are “not
starting from scratch.”
“There are tens of millions of dollars now invested in prevention,
intervention and rehabilitation initiatives in
a whole host of areas,”
he said. “The question
is how do we make
data-based decisions.
In other words, so that
we’re spending on what
works and not spending
on what doesn’t. And
how do we have… the
patience to have the results of prevention reveal
themselves.”
Public Safety Secretary Kevin Burke said
the administration is
still debating whether
to re-file legislation reducing the availability
of unlawful firearms,
developing mandatory
post-release supervision
and sharing information among responsible
agencies on at-risk juveniles.
The council subcommittee also calls on
policymakers to establish violence prevention
councils in every community and to “sustain
and amplify” promising
law enforcement initiatives.
“The kinds of programs that don’t work
Page 13
that are the ones that
are either ill-conceived
to begin with or don’t
have enough support to
be sustained,” Coakley
said. “That’s where one
of the recommendations
says every community
should have an across
the board violence council that starts to look at
how dollars spent and
how effective they are in
that community.”
Fox said he was “very
confident” the report’s
recommendations would
be implemented because
of the subcommittee’s
roster of officials like
Coakley and co-chair
Essex District Attorney
Jonathan Blodgett and
other education and public safety policymakers.
“It wasn’t a bunch
of academics writing
a report for a government agency,” he said.
“They’re going to ignore
themselves?”
A copy of the report is
available at www.mass.
gov/ag.
Grip!
Non, mèsi!
European Union to send
millions more in food aid
BRUSSELS, Belgium — The European Union says
it will send euro6 million ($7.7 million) in emergency
food aid to Haiti. The European Commission says
funds are meant to provide food for around a million
people.
The aid will also be used to pay for public health
measures to provide clean and safe drinking water,
sanitation and promote better hygiene. The EU has
already sent some euro20 million ($25.8 million) in
humanitarian aid to Haiti this year following a series of hurricanes and storms that resulted in more
than 800 deaths and destroyed thousands of homes
and farms.
The EU said that about 3 million Haitians are facing
acute food shortages, and that 23 percent of Caribbean
nation’s population suffers from malnutrition. (AP)
HAU plans gala for January 3
Haitian-Americans United, Inc. will host their eighth
annual Haitian Independence Day Gala on Saturday,
January 3 at Lombardo’s in Randolph, MA. The event
will include a presentation by State Rep. Marie St.
Fleur about a project to assist the city of Milot in rebuilding its infrastructure.
Entertainment will include Ernst St. Cine, Pierre
Gardy Fontaine and nine-year-old Rebecca Noelle
Zama; poetry by Fritz Dossous (Papados) and Jean
Bernard Mercredi; plus the dance group Arc-en-ciel.
Tickets are available in advance at $65 per person
and $120 per couple. Proceeds to go to the HaitianAmericans United, Inc. (H.A.U.) Vision Campaign
Funds including the Toussaint Louverture’s Scholarship Fund and the Events Fund for the 2009 Haitian
American Unity Parade and the Flag Raising Ceremony
in front of Boston City Hall.
For more information or to reserve a seat, contact
H.A.U. at 617-298-2976 or [email protected].
Grip touye 36,000 moun chak ane.
Mwen pwoteje tèt mwen ak moun mwen renmen. Mwen vaksine
kont grip!
enfòmasyon:
http://www.cdc.gov/flu | http://www.mass.gov/dph/flu
Telefòn: 866-627-7968
December 2008
BostonHaitian.com
Ruth’s Recipes
Delicious Green Pea Sauce made easy
ce
reen Peas)s Sau
Ruth’s gos
Pwa Fran
(s
ings
rv
se
x
si
to
ur
Makes fo
8 cups water
as
4 cups sweet pe
es
ov
4 whole cl
h scallion
ion or whole fres
1 small green on
es
2 fresh garlic clov
e
1 sprig thym
1 sprig parsley
t pepper
1 whole green ho asoning
se
o
ob
ad
1 teaspoon
cube
n
llo
ui
bo
n
1 chicke
er
tt
1 tablespoon bu table oil
ge
2 table spoon ve
d salt to taste
add everything
an
er
pp
black pe
ps of water and
cu
8
il
bo
a
to
g
in
vered on medium
In a large pot br
butter. Cook co es. Then bring
d
an
er
pp
pe
lt,
except for the sa rature for 1 hour and 45 minut e of the peas
pe
m
high to high tem , at this point you can crush so , butter and
ir
er
st
pp
d
pe
an
lt,
w
Add sa
fire to lo
oon as you stir. e warm, goes well with white
sp
n
de
oo
w
a
with
serv
inutes. Always
simmer for 15 m y or fish. Bon Appetit!
tr
rice and any poul
By
Marie Ruth Auguste
Special to
the Reporter
As you may know,
beans and peas are a big
part of Haitian cuisine.
For the most part, we like
to cook beans and peas in
two popular ways, with
rice (diri kolé) or in a
sauce with plain white
rice served on the side
(diri a sos pwa). There
are as many types of
beans/peas sauces as
there are beans and
peas, the most common
ones are white beans,
black beans, red beans
and green peas sauces.
There are a number
of less popular sauces
like pwa congo and pwa
inkonu.
Roxbury Prep is a college preparatory 6-8
school that places students in outstanding
public and private high schools.
Applications are available for families
whose children are currently in 5th Grade.
Tuesday, December 9th at 6:30 PM
Tuesday, December 16th at 6:30 PM
Thursday, January 15th at 6:30 PM
Saturday, January 17th at 10:00 AM
Thursday, January 22nd at 6:30 PM
Wednesday, February 4th at 6:30 PM
Thursday February 12th at 6:30 PM
Tuesday, February 24th at 6:30 PM
Saturday, February 28th at 10:00 AM
Tuesday, March 10th at 6:30 PM
All information sessions are held at Roxbury Prep
120 Fisher Ave, 3rd Floor Roxbury, MA, (617) 566-2361
[email protected]
www.roxburyprep.org
Personally, I like all
sos pwa, I think that
they are all really good
tasting foods however,
if you grew up in the
Haitian culture, you
must know that not all
beans/peas sauces were
created equal. For example in Haiti, people
cook certain beans and
peas sauces only on certain days. When I lived in
Haiti, green peas sauce
(sos pwa frans) was
mainly cooked on Sundays, white beans sauce
(pwa blan) was cooked on
Good Fridays and sometimes on Sundays.
In Haiti, having green
peas sauce was a true
delicacy. In fact, the
general population did
not indulge in this Sunday special on a regular
basis, I guess the relatively astronomical cost
of green peas had something to do with this.
Today, even here in the
United States I find that
most Haitians retain the
tradition of having white
beans and green peas
sauces only on certain
days. In fact, if you go to
any Haitian restaurants
in Boston, say on a random Tuesday and ask for
white rice and green peas
sauce, you most likely
won’t find any. You will
get the typical what are
you talking about look
with the following: “Pwa
frans? Pa gen pwa frans,
lé dimanche sèlman, wap
jwen pwa rouj.” Translation: “Green peas sauce?
There isn’t any green
peas sauce, only on
Sundays, you can get red
beans sauce.”
The truth about cooking beans and peas
sauces is the fact that it
involves such a cumbersome process, sometimes
when you cook you just
want to “set it and forget
Marie Ruth Auguste
it” like the famous roasting machine inventor
says.
To cook Haitian green
peas sauce, traditionally, you first have to
cook the peas with some
of the required ingredients for a long time, and
then you have to drain
some of the peas (not
all) out of the cooking
broth. Next you have to
mash the removed peas,
dilute the mashed peas
with some of the cooking broth and squeeze
the mixture through a
strainer back into the
cooking pot for further
cooking, when you get
to this step you also
have to add the other
ingredients, the spices,
etc. That’s just too much
sometimes.
One day I decided that
I didn’t have to follow
all the above steps to
have green peas sauce, I
wanted it but didn’t have
the availability to follow
the whole shebang, so I
cooked it all in one step.
The sauce did look a little
different from the traditional version but it was
as delicious and satisfying. If it is a weekday
and your taste buds are
craving sos pwa frans,
you can have it. Simply
cook it by following this
easy recipe, if you can’t
buy it, make it!
Enjoy!
Reach Ruth with questions or ideas at [email protected]
Dorchester Reporter
“The News and Values Around the Neighborhood”
All contents copyright © 2007 Boston Neighborhood News, Inc.
Volume 25 Issue 8
February 2007
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Boston’s hometown All
journal
of Irish culture. Worldwide at bostonirish.com
contents copyright © 2007 Boston Neighborhood News, Inc.
Mattapan Reporter
February 8, 2007
THE REpoRTER
“The News and Values Around the Neighborhood”
5 Issue 6
All contents copyright © 2007 Boston Neighborhood News, Inc.
Thursday, February 8, 2007
BOSTON HAITIAN
REPORTER
For the latest news
log on to dotnews.com
BostonHaitian.com
December 2008
Page 15
Immigration Q & A
Q.
When children travel
with just one parent
I plan to take
my two small children
on a vacation to several
countries. My husband
will be joining us a little
later. We are all US
citizens. Will there be
any problems because the
children will be traveling
initially with only one
parent?
The US government does not have exit
requirements for people
leaving this country. However, some airlines
may have policies regarding documentation
for children traveling
with one parent (or
guardian); the Transportation Security Administration at the airport may possibly raise
questions; and, certain
countries definitely do
have entry requirements
that cover this situation. This is true irrespective
of whether the travelers
are US citizens, legal
permanent residents, or
visa holders.
What should you do? First, check the entry
requirements for the
countries that you will be
visiting. They may, for
example, require a letter
from the parent not traveling that clearly shows
A.
consent to the children’s
travel. Or they may have
requirements that are
ambiguous, or they may
not address the issue at
all in information available from the particular
consulates. So we recommend
that you be prepared for
scrutiny as you travel
with your children, just
in case. You must, of
course, have passports
(including any necessary
foreign visas) for the
children. In addition,
it is a good idea to get
a notarized letter from
your husband precisely
describing and consenting to the dates and
destinations of travel. Also, you should take
along certified copies
of the children’s birth
certificates. Actually,
travelers coming to the
United States are advised to take these steps
as well.
The same advice applies in situations where
parents are no longer
together. In addition,
the traveling parent
should be sure to take
along a copy of any child
custody orders issued by
a court as part of divorce
proceedings, as these
typically address issues
surrounding travel by
the children, especially
out of the state of the
custodial parent’s residence. (If they do not,
we strongly advise that
they be modified to avoid
future misunderstandings.)
International child
abduction is of course
the very serious concern
underlying such precautions. Any parent who
has a concern in this
regard should go to the
US State Department’s
web site at travel.state.
gov and click on the link
to “Children and Family”
for a full discussion of the
legal and practical issues
involved, as well as the
resources available to
parents dealing with
abduction issues.
Disclaimer: These
articles are published
to inform generally, not
to advise in individual
cases. Areas of law are
rapidly changing. US
Citizenship and Immigration Services and
the US Department of
State regularly amend
regulations and alter
processing and filing procedures. For legal advice
seek the assistance of an
IIC immigration specialist or an immigration
lawyer.
Gang members face
racketeering charges
By Anika Kentish
Associated Press
Writer
ST. JOHN’S, Antigua
— Caribbean leaders
said that they will push
regional banks to provide
more loans to builders
and exporters, boosting
jobs and trade to counter the world economic
crisis.
Leaders from Antigua,
Belize and the Bahamas
made the pledge but
gave no specific details,
speaking to the news
media briefly after a
closed-door meeting in
Antigua on Nov. 22. The
meeting in the Dominican Republic includes
Honduran President
Manuel Zelaya, Haitian
Prime Minister Michele
Pierre-Louis, U.S. billionaire George Soros,
and Nobel Prize-winning
economist Joseph Stiglitz, who warned that
the current crisis will be
long and deep.
Bahamian Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham
said only that countries
will have to make adjustments to weather the
downturn.
Global economic turmoil is fueling joblessness across the Caribbean, which relies heavily
on tourism, foreign direct
investment and remittances from the U.S.
— all of which are plummeting. Several governments already unveiled
plans to slash social
spending programs as
the crisis threatens to reverse years of economic
gains.
Trinidad and Tobago
is set to cut government spending deeply
as prices fall for its oil,
natural gas and petrochemical exports. It will
name the programs it is
cutting next week.
Unemployment,
meanwhile, is expected
to climb 2 percentage
points to 10.7 percent by
year’s end in the Bahamas, as slowing tourism
costs at least 1,500 hotel
jobs, Ingraham said.
The Atlantis resort, the
island’s largest private
employer, already laid
off about 800 workers.
In Jamaica, where
joblessness is now 12
percent, the government
this week revealed that
unidentified companies
are warning of more
layoffs.
“Every day there are
new situations that generate new worries and
new uncertainties within the framework of the
international economy,’’
Dominican Republic
President Leonel Fernandez said Saturday
during a two-day eco-
C HRISTMAS at
ALL SAINTS, ASHMONT
You are cordially invited to celebrate the
wonder and beauty of Christmas with us.
THE PARISH OF ALL SAINTS, 209 ASHMONT ST., DORCHESTER
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02124
The Rev’d Michael J. Godderz, Rector
Frederick Backhaus, Organist & Master of Choristers
All Saints is located
next to the Ashmont
T Station and is
handicapped-accessible.
nomic conference he is
hosting. He called for
emerging economies to
have greater say in a new
world financial system.
Parish Office:
617.436.6370
www.allsaints.net
� Sunday, 21 December, Advent IV
Solemn Mass at 10 a.m.
Lessons & Carols at 4 p.m.
� Wednesday, 24 December, Christmas Eve
Choral and Organ Prelude at 7:30 p.m.
Candlelight Procession, Blessing of the Crib,
& First Mass of Christmas at 8 p.m.
Roxbury
Gateway
Community to Dream
College
the
There is still time
to register for
fall semester!
“ Biotech is a hot industry in
the Boston area, and I knew
I wanted to be a part of it. Apply Today
617.541.5310
Thanks to RCC’s Biotechnology
program, I now have a career
Roxbury Community College
in the Biotechnology field! ” 1234 Columbus Ave.,
Roxbury Crossing, MA 02120
www.rcc.mass.edu
December 2008
BostonHaitian.com

Empress of Roots - Boston Haitian Reporter

Transcription

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