Everybody failed - Boston Haitian Reporter

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Boston Haitian Reporter
Page BOSTON HAITIAN
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Boston Neighborhood News, Inc.
January 2009
REPORTER
Vol. 8, Issue 1
JANUARY 2009
FREE
“Everybody failed”
Months after storms, misery continues in Gonaives - Page 8
A boy holds a fish in an area where homes are flooded from recent storms in Gonaives, on Dec. 3, 2008. World Bank officials estimate
that total damage from last year’s storms surpassed $1 billion. Story, page 8. AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa
Christmas tragedy in N.J.
hits home in Boston
Gala marks Independence Day
A traditional family
gathering in New Jersey
turned tragic last month
when Joel Baudouin and his
mother Marie Vernet were
killed in a freak tree
accident on the Garden
State Parkway.
Page 2
Joel Baudouin, 42, right, and his
mother Marie Vernet , 70, left, were
killed when a tree fell onto their car
as they traveled to a relative’s home
on Christmas morning. Photo courtesy
Baudouin family
The Arc-en-ciel dance group were part of the program at the eighth annual H.A.U.
Independence Day gala on Jan. 3rd. Photo by Beausejour Antoine. Page 16
Page Boston Haitian ReporteR
January 2009
BostonHaitian.com
Christmas morning tragedy hits close to home
Mother, son die in freak tree accident in N.J.
By Bill Forry
Managing Editor
Christmas morning should be a time for unwrapping presents, preparing for an afternoon meal, and
enjoying the company of close family and friends.
This year, the peace of those special hours came to
a sudden halt when a terrible overnight accident
claimed the lives of two beloved members of Boston’s
tight-knit Haitian American community.
Joel Baudouin, 42, of Arlington, and his mother,
Marie Vernet, 70, of Dorchester, were killed at 1
a.m. on Christmas morning as they drove to visit
relatives in New Jersey. A tree toppled along the
side of the road and came crashing down upon
Baudouin’s car as it moved along the center lane of
the Garden State Parkway. A state highway official
characterized it as a freak accident, something that
would be impossible to replicate. Joel’s two young
daughters in the back seat were spared, although
the older of the two girls, 13 year-old Rachelle, remained hospitalized.
The mother and son were buried in Dorchester’s
Cedar Grove cemetery on Jan. 2 after an overflow
crowd assembled for their dual funeral service at
Temple Salem Seventh Day Adventist Church.
As news of the double tragedy spread through
the Haitian community on Dec. 25, the Lower Mills
home of Joel’s younger brother, Edouard and his wife
Kenya, soon became the epicenter of mourning. All
day Christmas, and in the days since, their apartment was filled with well-wishers bearing food and
condolences and prayers.
Together, they cheered themselves with fresh
memories of Joel, who celebrated his 42nd birthday
on Thanksgiving with family and friends in this same
Lower Mills apartment. A well-known photographer
Joel Baudouin and his mother, Marie Vernet, died on
Christmas morning after their car was hit by a falling
tree on a New Jersey highway. Baudouin’s two daughters,
who were passengers in the back seat, were injured, but
survived. Photo courtesy Baudouin family
Joel Baudouin, 42, of Arlington, died suddenly
in a car accident in New Jersey on Dec. 25, 2008.
Born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Joel was a graduate
of Seminaire Adventiste Franco Haitien and Cambridge College and was working on a Masters degree.
Joel worked as a manager at Children’s Hospital
and was a professional photographer, who enjoyed
painting and music. His greatest joys in life were his
two daughters, Rachele and Cassandre, whom he
leaves behind. He was a loving son to Marie Andree
(Joseph) Vernet, who also died in the accident on Dec.
25. Joel is survived by his loving siblings and their
spouses: Neil Baudouin and his wife Jouselie
Baudouin; Ruth (Baudouin) Auguste her husband
Pierre Auguste; Edouard Baudouin Jr. and his wife
Kenya Baudouin; Jean-Marie Cantave, Anne-Marie,
Poupette and Mireille Baudouin. Sign guestbook at
dolanfuneral.com.
Marie Andree (Joseph) Vernet, 70, of Dorchester,
died unexpectedly in an accident in New Jersey
on Dec. 25, 2008. A native of Croix-des-Bouquets,
Haiti, she was the daughter of Therese Bruno and
Meseus Joseph and the sister of Miralda Pauyo.
She was a loving mother to Joel Baudouin, who
also died in the accident on Dec. 25; Neil Baudouin and his wife Jouselie Baudouin of New
Jersey; Ruth (Baudouin) Auguste and her husband Pierre Auguste of Los Angeles; and Edouard
Baudouin Jr. and his wife Kenya Baudouin of
Dorchester. Marie leaves behind her former husband Edouard Baudouin Sr. of Somerville.
She was a devoted grandmother to Rachele and
Cassie Baudouin and also leaves behind their
mother Chantal Baudouin. She is survived also by
Ashleigh and Melissa Baudouin. She was a loving
aunt to Wilner Theagene (and his children), Simone
Dargenson Nemourin (and her children). Marie
was a devoted member of Temple Salem Seventh
Day Adevntist Church in Dorchester. She was a
former Nurse’s Assistant, a generous individual who
enjoyed politics, cooking and feeding everyone. Sign
guestbook at dolanfuneral.com.
Man convicted for murder
of Heureur Previlon
Second trial to begin later this month
The first of two young
men brought to trial for
the 2005 slaying of Heureur Previlon, a beloved
Haitian-born cab driver
and aspiring minister,
is going to jail for the
rest of his life. Cleveland Martin, 22, was
convicted of first degree
murder on Dec. 16 for his
role in fatally stabbing
Previlon, 31, to death in
a Brighton parking lot
on Aug. 25, 2005.
Martin’s alleged accomplice in the robberyturned-murder— 23
year-old Jashawn Rob-
inson — will go on trial
later this month. The
verdict in Martin’s trial
came after a two week
trial and a full day of
deliberation by a jury.
Following the delivery
of the jury’s verdict, Previlon’s uncle delivered an
impact statement from
the witness stand.
“It’s my pleasure to
talk about Heureur,”
Wilbert Previlon said of
the man who was born
in Haiti and graduated
from Somerville High
School. “He didn’t believe
in money. He didn’t work
for money. He worked for
his family.”
His voice quavering,
the man added, “I’m from
Haiti. I’m an American
citizen. I believe in U.S.
justice …. God bless you.
God bless America.”
“Heureur Previlon was
a truly innocent victim, a
man with only kindness
in his heart, who paid
the ultimate price for
trusting the wrong men,”
Suffolk County District
Attorney Daniel Conley
said. “His case touched
the hearts of police and
prosecutors alike. We
are very pleased with
the verdict and we hope
it brings some comfort to
the family Mr. Previlon
left behind.”
.
Cleveland Martin will
spend the rest of his
life in prison for killing Heureur Previlon in
2005. The victim was a
native of Haiti who was
working as a cab driver
at night when he was
murdered in Brighton
in 2005. Photo courtesy
Suffolk County DA Dan
Conley’s office.
in the Haitian-American community, Joel worked
as a manager at Children’s Hospital. He loved to
cook, paint and share his artist’s eye for photography
with friends. More than anything, though, he loved
his daughters — and they loved him. Mrs. Vernet
was a former nurse’s aide and devout member of
Dorchester’s Temple Salem Seventh Day Adventist
Church who was renowned for her talents in the
kitchen. She was devoted to her grandchildren, as
well as her own four adult kids and was beloved
by her neighbors in Grove Hall.
The family was en route to a traditional Christmas
week gathering at the New Jersey home of Joel’s
older brother Neil’s home on the night in question.
The group had just stopped for food at a rest area
on the Garden State Parkway and was just minutes
from their exit when the tree toppled, striking the
front of the car where the roof and windshield meet.
The car then veered off the road. The impact of the
tree killed Joel and Marie and left young Rachelle
with serious injuries to her leg.
Joseph Orlando, a spokesman for the New
Jersey Turnpike Authority, told the Star-Ledger
newspaper that wind likely played a factor in the
tree falling.
The mysteries of life — and of our own mortality — came crashing down on Christmas Day. The
nature of this freak accident just added to the
surreal loss. How could it be that two vital, loving
and caring people could be taken from us in such
a way, and on this of all days? More than one was
heard to ask, ‘Why would God do this?’
There is, of course, no good answer. It is left to
us —as a community, a neighborhood— to rally
around our friends and provide an embrace that
eases a pain too great for words and beyond the
grasp of reason. In doing so, we seek a balm for our
own wounds and relief for this awful reminder that
we, too, are just visitors to this place.
BostonHaitian.com
January 2009
Boston Haitian Reporter
Page Alleged scheme targeted Haitians, bilked $23M
By Jennifer Kay
Associated Press Writer
MIAMI — A man is accused of bilking thousands
of Haitian-Americans of more than $23 million in
an investment scheme where he promised to create
a “nation of Haitian millionaires.’’
George Theodule used his Haitian background
to urge Haitian-Americans nationwide to form investment clubs and funnel funds through his Lake
Worth, Fla.-based company, Creative Capital, the
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said on
Dec. 31.
“This alleged Ponzi scheme preyed upon unsuspecting members of a close-knit community, attempting
to take advantage of the trust they had in each
other,’’ said Linda Chatman Thomsen, the SEC’s
enforcement director.
Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks issued an emergency order Monday to halt the alleged scheme and
freeze the company’s assets.
An e-mail and a phone message left for Theodule’s
attorney, and messages left at phone numbers listed
for Theodule in Palm Beach County and in Loganville, Ga., where he moved in September, were not
immediately returned.
Theodule held face-to-face meetings where he
drew his investment plan on dry erase boards and
flip charts, and his company raised at least $23.4
million since November 2007, regulators said.
“He pitched himself as a man of God who was going to create a nation of Haitian millionaires,’’ said
Jared Levy, a West Palm Beach attorney who filed
a federal class-action lawsuit against Theodule on
Dec. 26.
A minimum investment of $1,000 per investor
was required. Theodule only accepted cash, and
targeted churches with large Haitian populations,
Levy said.
Theodule, 48, allegedly guaranteed a 100 percent
return on all investments within three months. Investors were also promised that Creative Capital’s
trading profits were being used to fund startup
businesses in Haiti, Sierra Leone and the Haitian
community in the U.S, the SEC said.
Zamor leaves HMSC,
search underway for replacement
Riché Zamor, who has led the Haitian MultiService Center for the past four years, has left the
agency to take a new position as president of the
University of Fondwa in Haiti. Zamor’s last day at
the Dorchester center was Dec. 19.
In an e-mail to friends and colleagues last fall,
Zamor said that the position at the university would
be the fulfillment of a lifelong dream of “returning to
Haiti to give back and contribute to the development
of the next generation of Haitians.”
“Catholic Charities remains committed to continue to work on all the initiatives and collaborations
we have pioneered during my tenure. As I move into
my next life adventure, I look forward to continued
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collaboration,” Zamor wrote.
Vivian Soper will fill Zamor’s role in a temporary
fashion at the Columbia Road facility to provide
“administrative leadership”, according to Bridget
Snell, the director of marketing and public relations
for Catholic Charities, which operates the center.
Soper will be assisted by Guy Appollon, who will
act as a”a representative to the community until a
permanent replacement is found.”
Snell said that the Catholic Charities board hopes
to hire a full-time replacement for Zamor in the
spring.
BILL FORRY
However, Theodule lost at least $18 million trading stocks and options over the last year and repaid
investors with money collected from new investors,
according to the SEC complaint.
Theodule continued to promise huge returns with
no risk — a 200 percent return after one year — even
as the global economy staggered, Levy said.
Most investors gave Theodule $5,000 to $10,000,
though some invested their life savings, Levy
said.
“ He preyed on people who didn’t have much investment experience,’’ Levy said. ``He would tell them
they didn’t have enough money to open brokerage
accounts themselves.’’
Theodule also mixed the investors’ money with his
own and took at least $3.8 million for personal use,
including two luxury vehicles, a down payment on a
house, credit card bills and payment for a wedding,
regulators said.
“ We want to recover all the money that investors
gave to this guy,’’ Levy said. (AP)
Haitian man
guilty of bank
fraud in Conn.
HARTFORD—A Haitian citizen has pleaded
guilty to federal bank
fraud charges involving
stolen checks at the Navy
Federal Credit Union in
Groton.
A federal prosecutor
says 43-year-old Jean
Andre Aine, who has
been living in Brooklyn,
N.Y., pled guilty to a
single count of bank
fraud.
Authorities say Aine
took part in a scheme
that involved cashing
stolen federal tax refund
checks at the Navy Federal Credit Union.
The prosecutor says
Aine convinced others to
cash federal tax refund
checks. Aine faces up to
30 years in prison when
he’s sentenced in February. (AP)
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Page Boston Haitian ReporteR
January 2009
BostonHaitian.com
Church members graduate from financial literacy program
These are tough economic
times, but one roomful of people is now ready to tackle the
challenges of today’s economy
with greater knowledge and
confidence and the determination to support each other
through these hard days.
On Saturday, December 13,
Boston Missionary Baptist
Church in Roxbury, hosted
a graduation of an exciting
program designed to equip its
participants with the knowledge of how to manage money
wisely and build strong financial futures for themselves and
their families.
Led by Rev. Dr. Soliny
Vedrine, Boston Missionary
Baptist Church has a congregation of approximately 800
Haitian families. The 19 smiling graduates had completed
a class, conducted in Haitian
Creole and English, in the
Moving from Debt to Assets
program, which was run by
the Greater Boston Interfaith
Organization (GBIO). State
Senator-elect Sonia ChangDiaz and State Representative
Linda Dorcena Forry were on
hand to offer their congratulations to the graduates and
stress the importance of the
lessons learned in the program
during the current economic
conditions.
This class was sponsored by
Citizens Bank and the Citizens
Bank Foundation, which was
represented at the graduation
by Marlena Carter-Diaz, Manager of the Mattapan bank
branch, and Rulx Marseille,
Teller at the same branch.
This is the fifth Moving from
Debt to Assets program offered
at Boston Missionary Baptist
Church, each conducted in
Creole and English. Overall,
since its start in 2005, 418
people have graduated from
GBIO’s Moving from Debt to
Assets program, in which half
the groups have been run in
languages other than English.
Moving from Debt to Assets
includes a combination of
classes, one-on-one financial
counseling, peer support
groups, and cash grants to
qualified participants.
In his speech at the graduation, Keke Fleurissant, the
owner of Keke Financial
Group and a long-time leader
in GBIO, stated, “The lessons
of Moving from Debt to Assets
were always important, but
now they are absolutely essential for our survival through
these rough times:
• Make sure you have a
budget and stick to it!
• Cut spending – Remember to distinguish between
WANTS & NEEDS
• Invest in yourself – Save
for your future!
• Use credit wisely, as a tool
- Don’t get caught in the credit
card trap.
As one program graduate
said in her speech at the
Graduation, “Money is power,
you can’t live without it. Pay
yourself first, take control
of your money, learn how to
manage your money. Believe
me, if I can do it, you can do
it also!”GBIO is a broad-based
organization, made up of 66
churches, synagogues, unions,
and other institutions, which
works to bring together, train,
and organize the communities
of Greater Boston, across all
religious, racial, ethnic, class,
and neighborhood lines, for
the public good. Founded in
1998, its primary goal is to
develop local leadership and
organized power to fight for
social justice.
Lena Park CDC shutters community center
By Pete Stidman
News Editor
Just months after closing
down its after-school and daycare programs, the Lena Park
Community Development
Corporation has moved out of
its home of 38 years.
Their nearly 100-year-old
building at 150 American
Legion Highway has become
too expensive to maintain and
heat, said Bruce Blaisdell,
Lena Park’s newly-hired interim director. Heating bills
have been between $18,000
and $20,000 for the coldest
months, he said.
He also emphasized that the
move is temporary.
“The board is beginning a
planning process to determine
what the future of the building
is,” said Blaisdell. “Options
include rehabbing the building
and moving back in or finding
another use for it. One of the
factors is the importance of
maintaining the character the
building and Lena Park and its
relation with the community
it serves.”
Blaisdell said that the CDC’s
yearly audit discovered a deficit for fiscal year 2007, which
ended in July, but didn’t say
how large. Judging by the
organization’s most recent
990 form, filed with the IRS
for 2006, it’s likely to be significant. That year, Lena Park
cleared over $500,000 and had
over $1 million saved in net
assets and fund balances.
This month the CDC will
move to a building at 1542 Columbus Ave. owned by Urban
Edge, another CDC located in
Jamaica Plain. The Franklin
Park Coalition, which also has
offices in the building, will
move to another Urban Edge
property at 2010 Columbus.
The move will not affect
Lena Park’s deal with the
New Boston Fund on the $150
million Olmsted Park development on the old grounds
of the State Hospital, said
Blaisdell.
“Some of the affordable
housing units have come online and that project continues
to go forward,” he said. “Lena
Park is not going out of business.”
Programs like the CDC’s job
training classes will move to
the new location, along with
affordable housing management operations.
Lena Park abruptly told
parents it was closing down
its daycare and after-school
services in November, helping
them find new services in just
one week.
There have also been a series
of leadership changes at the
Lena Park. Lorraine Baugh,
director of the CDC, was asked
to resign and did on Oct. 24.
Theodore Fleming, former
chair of the board of directors,
left last year on Nov. 13, and
David Wright, director of the
Black Ministerial Alliance,
took over as chair.
Baugh was taken by surprise by the resignation request, but did not question
the board’s decision publicly.
Both Baugh and Fleming were
instrumental in guiding the
board into their partnership
with New Boston to develop
Olmsted Green.
The building itself was first
bought by Lena Park from
the Young Mens’ Hasidic
Association-Hecht House in
the summer of 1970, after
several Hasidic and Jewish
congregations had relocated to
Brookline - taking most of the
area’s Jewish population with
them. The newest portion of
the facility is the gymnasium,
built in 1960. The main building dates to the 1900s.
Obituary
Marie Annette “Mommy Annette” Lucien (1935-2008)
Marie Annette Lucien, 73, a long-term Boston
resident who migrated from Haiti in the late 1970s,
died December 12, 2008 at Memorial Hospital in
Hollywood , Florida , of lung cancer. Until 2007,
she lived in Boston, in the Dorchester, Hyde Park
and Mattapan neighborhoods and was an active
member of Saint Matthew’s Church.
Born in Cap Haitien , Haiti in 1935, she worked
as a seamstress, an elementary school teacher and a
secretary. She was the widow of the late agronomist
Legrand Lucien (1929-1980).
While working in Boston to ensure the education
of her three sons, “Mommy Annette” assisted many
in Haiti, including distant relatives, godsons, goddaughters and often traveled to her native land to
perform charity work among the poor and homeless
around the Port-au-Prince Cathedral.
She was known as the matriarch of the family. She was also known for welcoming her sons’ friends
as the mommy who would always generously lend
her cooking skills and hospitality as way as way to
support them in their educational and professional
goals.
In 1992 she was the recipient of the Mother of the
Year Award presented by the Haitian Student Unity
of Northeastern University, from which two of her
sons, Lyonel and Patrick Lucien graduated.
Quiet in nature, in her spare time she enjoyed
her grandchildren, large family gatherings and was
an avowed consumer of American celebrity gossip
and political news. She excitedly expressed her
satisfaction at seeing Mr. Barack Obama become
the democratic nominee during the 2008 elections,
then later president elect.
She retired in 2007 and moved to Florida, where
she was diagnosed with cancer early in 2008. After
returning in Boston to undergo treatment, she traveled back to Florida where the cancer unfortunately
resurfaced. Unable to travel back to Boston, she
nevertheless enjoyed several visits by her sons and
her grand children on her hospital bed before she
passed away.
Immediate family members in sorrow include her
sons Charlot Lucien of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Lyonel Lucien of the Mass
Highway Transportation, Patrick Lucien of Mentor
Graphics; her grand daughters Malaika, Sarah, Samantha, Isabelle and Sophia, her grand sons Sebastien and Gaethan Lucien; her brother Bernard Duly
Fanfan; her sisters Denise Fanfan, Marielle Fanfan,
Hermithe Mongesta, and Marie Lucie Geffrard; her
daughters-in-law Sandra Calixe Lucien, Bernadette
Henri Lucien; several cousins, nephews and nieces
currently living in the US and in Haiti. BostonHaitian.com
January 2009
Boston Haitian Reporter
Page Deportations resume following
post-storm pause
By Kellie Kennedy
Associated Press Writer
MIAMI (AP) — Deportations to Haiti have resumed
after being suspended for nearly three months following a wave of deadly storms that racked the country,
U.S. immigration officials said Monday.
Immigration officials temporarily stopped returning residents to Haiti in September after hundreds
were killed in four storms.
“The individuals being returned have final orders
of removal and the necessary travel documents,’’
ICE spokeswoman Nicole Navas said in an e-mail
to The Associated Press. “We have contacted interested members of Congress to apprise them of the
reinstituted removals.’’
Navas didn’t provide further details on the timing
of the flights or discuss numbers of deportees.
“This decision only complicates the Haitian
government’s ongoing recovery effort,’’ U.S. Rep.
Kendrick Meek, a Florida Democrat, said in an
e-mail. “The Bush administration has less than
six weeks to do the right thing and grant Haitians
temporary protected status.’’
Leaders of the Haitian commmunity in Florida
and human rights advocates argue that conditions
have been slow to improve since at least 425 people
were killed and thousands left homeless by severe
flooding after the storms.
Late last month, the mayor of Port-au-Prince estimated that 60 percent of the city’s buildings were
unsafe, built shoddily and now standing on ground
weakened by a torrential hurricane season. A school
collapse last month killed nearly 100 people.
Even before the storms, skyrocketing food prices
had sparked violent protests.
“Deportations at this time are simply inhumane,
sending people to conditions of famine and disease.
The change in policy is unwarranted by reports on
the ground which confirm that the humanitarian
crisis in Haiti continues and worsens,’’ said Randy
McGrorty, chief executive officer of Catholic Charities Legal Services in Miami.
Some South Florida congressional members, who
represent the largest Haitian community in the U.S.,
have said they were disappointed that Haitians have
not been granted temporary protected status.
The status allows immigrants from countries
experiencing armed conflict or environmental disasters to stay and work in the U.S. for a limited
time. It has been granted to a handful of African
and Central American countries.
Associated Press Writer Jennifer Kay contributed
to this report.
US charity to send
dumped shoes to Haiti
MIAMI — A U.S. charity group has stepped
forward to collect thousands of shoes mysteriously
dumped on a Miami-area highway and will send them
to the impoverished Caribbean nation of Haiti.
Soles4Souls, a Nashville, Tennessee-based charity, is sending representatives to Miami to collect
the shoes. The group will distribute them to people
in Haiti, according to a statement.
The Florida Highway Patrol said thousands of
Haitians
denied
temporary
immigration
protection
MIAMI — The Bush
administration won’t
grant temporary protected status to Haitians
living in the U.S. illegally while their Caribbean
homeland struggles to
recover from four deadly
tropical storms.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael
Chertoff denied the status in a Dec. 19 letter to
Haitian President Rene
Preval.
Chertoff said his department tried to help
Haiti by directing the
Coast Guard to provide
humanitarian relief and
delaying deportations
until last month.
Preval wrote Bush
twice last year asking
for the status that allows immigrants from
countries experiencing
armed conflict or environmental disasters to
stay and work in the
U.S. for a limited time.
The summer storms
killed hundreds, displaced thousands and
severely crippled Haiti’s
infrastructure and agriculture. (AP)
work boots, bath slippers, tennis sneakers, beach
sandals, even pairs of inline skates, inexplicably
materialized Friday morning on the busy roadway.
Traffic was disrupted for hours.
A private contractor was hired to pick up the sea
of soles and deposit them in an empty field. The
investigation into who discarded the shoes continues. (AP)
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OUR PATIENTS’
LEGAL HEALTH
By Joel Abrams, President and CEO
Dorchester House Multi-Service Center
I have a very exciting new development to discuss
this month. For the past 15 years, the Medical-Legal
Partnership for Children (MLPC), based out of Boston
Medical Center, has been providing a critical service by
connecting lawyers with pediatric clinicians. Through
the program, doctors and nurses are able to refer patients
in need of legal services to direct legal assistance.
This life-changing program is based on a principle that
has been the foundation for most of Dorchester House’s
programs - that health is directly affected by a family’s
surroundings, living conditions and life circumstances.
Once a week, a legal clinic is held at Dorchester House
with lawyers present and ready to respond to the needs
of clients who have been referred to the service through
their clinicians.
And here is the new, very exciting development:
We’ve been adopted by a wonderful law firm! So what
does that mean, and why is that exciting? Well, for the
last few years, the MLPC has facilitated “adoptions” of
community health centers by Boston law firms. The
law firms work with MLPC staff and eventually provide
pro bono (free) services for patients. MLPC remains a
partner in the adoption by providing mentoring, training
and assistance. I am thrilled to report that Dorchester
House has been adopted by Ropes and Gray (R&G), one
of the top firms in the city. Beginning this month, R&G
is working at Dorchester House alongside MLPC.
The program will also expand beyond the pediatric
department and be open to adults and families
without children. The services will focus on housing,
immigration, employment, guardianship, end of life
and other geriatric issues, education and school issues,
income support, and utility protection. R&G has a
six-member staff team that includes a partner, two
associates, and four paralegals who will all be working
here at Dot House. And there are 100 staff at their
Boston office who have volunteered to be on teams with
specific expertise in the major areas. For example – the
team that will assist with housing issues has experience
in courtroom eviction defense.
These volunteer attorneys provide very real services
that improve or maintain the health of our patients.
For example, a patient may be living in a rental that has
mold and other known asthma triggers. Or a patient
might reveal to her doctor that the landlord is saying
that her family will be evicted in 30 days, even though
they’ve been paying rent. Often, a single phone call
from a lawyer is all that is needed for the problem to be
resolved. The landlord takes care of the problem, and the
family’s threat to health or well-being is alleviated.
Another common problem is the need for support
for educational intervention. A patient may explain
that his child was expelled from school for behavioral
problems, but that no referral to another educational
program was made. The attorney makes sure that the
school does its part to find a proper placement for the
child, as required by law.
Immigration issues are particularly sensitive, and
patients are often hesitant to talk about them. But
immigrants do have basic rights, and a lawyer based at
a community health center can help patients navigate a
system that can be confusing, particularly when there’s
a language barrier.
MLPC’s work at community health centers clearly
demonstrates what can be achieved by the medical and
legal professions. Ropes & Gray’s adoption of Dorchester
House is a natural outgrowth of this collaboration
and all of us at Dorchester House are thrilled to have
them work with us. There is no doubt that this kind
of advocacy allows health care providers to have an
influence beyond the clinical arena, and it can make a
profound difference in the quality of one’s life.
If you would like to comment on this column,
visit us on the web at www.dorchesterhouse.
org.
www.dorchesterhouse.org
Page Boston Haitian ReporteR
January 2009
BostonHaitian.com
News Background
Wilkerson tells crowd: Ministers conspired against me
By Pete Stidman
News Editor
In a meeting last month that was insulated from
the lenses of TV cameras and newspaper reporters,
former State Senator Dianne Wilkerson lashed out
at several ministers affiliated with the Black Ministerial Alliance of Greater Boston and the Boston
Ten-Point Coalition, essentially accusing them of
conspiring to remove her from office.
According to several individuals who were among
the 50 or more people at the Dec. 17 meeting in the
Eliot Congregational Church of Roxbury, Wilkerson
encouraged former constituents to come together to
push for a list of her former “legislative priorities.”
She encouraged them to work with her successor,
Sonia Chang-Diaz, to make that happen.
But she also pointed a finger at the Black Ministerial Alliance (BMA) and the Boston Ten-Point
Coalition. She described them as usurpers of the
community’s right to pursue those legislative goals
and accused certain ministers of collaborating with
the FBI to bring about her downfall, according to
several sources who heard her speak.
Wilkerson cited as proof of a conspiracy, the sources
said, rumors of an impending FBI raid on her office
that she said were circulated by a particular pastor
from one of the organizations in February 2006,
three months after her vote against a constitutional
ban on gay marriage the previous November, a vote
that many ministers opposed. No such raid took
place in 2006.
In addition, several of those present said Wilkerson claimed that a particular pastor, unnamed
by Reporter sources, pressured her to resign at a
meeting at Charles Street A.M.E. Church on Oct. 31
with the threat that if she did not resign that day
- with legions of the Boston press corps awaiting her
announcement in the next room - the BMA would
lose funding that was included in several line items
in the state budget.
When contacted by the Reporter, confidants of
Wilkerson offered a slightly different version of
that statement, saying that five ministers who met
with Sen. President Theresa Murray pressed for
some legislative priorities from Wilkerson’s list and
neglected others.
“They had some type of deal set up between some
ministers and certain people up at the State House,”
said Bob Marshall, a Wilkerson supporter who attended the Dec. 17 meeting and said he has listened
to “many” conversations with Wilkerson on the topic.
“The ministers had been promised something by
someone at the State House. They had a timetable,
and Dianne upset their timetable.”
In a compromise, Wilkerson conceded her reelection bid that Friday afternoon (Oct. 31), and
promised to announce her resignation as soon as
was “possible.”
Pastor Bruce Wall, a Dorchester minister who
is not currently affiliated with either ministerial
organization, also heard the charges leveled by
Wilkerson last week.
“This kind of stuff creates distraction,” said Wall,
who was at the meeting to “gather information.”
“I have never seen such anger and rage as in that
room. The perception was that the black pastors
were selling the senator down the river for grant
money.”
“What?” responded Ten-Point Coalition director
Rev. Jeffrey Brown when asked if any such funding threat was made. “That’s a lie. Let me say this:
Any allegations that the ministers were going to
lose money is flat-out false. Who would even say
something like that? That’s just a lie or a figment
of someone’s wild imagination.”
Rev. Gregory Groover, who ministers at the
Charles Street A.M.E. and was also at the meeting, said he did not recall any statement of the
kind being made. “There were some concerns that
were expressed at [an internal] BMA meeting, that
the allegations made against Wilkerson could sort
of cloud the way for immediate resources that the
community needed… but that was never mentioned
in the meeting with Wilkerson.”
Brown was similarly incredulous with respect to
the accusation that the ministers were involved in
the FBI probe. “I can tell you unequivocally that no
minister of the BMA, in particular the leadership,
knew of any investigation that was going on by
the FBI or any other Federal alphabet, the ATF or
whatever, of Dianne Wilkerson. Anyone that would
conjecture that is grasping at straws,” said Brown.
“And if the senator said that, it is a sad day.”
Organizers of the assembly worked hard to keep
Wilkerson’s claims against the ministers out of the
media. Amir “MC Spice” Shakir, a local radio personality and a public supporter of Senator-elect Sonia
Chang-Diaz, was told the press was not allowed in
the meeting. He was allowed to stay only when he
said he wasn’t there as a journalist.
A flier promoting the meeting listed the organizers as “Concerned Citizens of Roxbury” and carried headlines such as “Stop the assault on black
leadership” and “What is the role of certain black
ministers in this story?”
Calls to Wilkerson’s cell phone seeking comment
this week went unanswered.
Wilkerson and the BMA have had their disagreements in the past, particularly over the gay marriage
issue. In 2006, Bishop Gilbert Thompson, leader of
the Jubilee Christian Church on Blue Hill Avenue
and president of the BMA, said Wilkerson was following “a radical sexual agenda that will destroy
the family as it now exists,” according to the Boston
Phoenix. At the time, rumors circulated that the
ministers were searching for a candidate to run
against Wilkerson.
Nevertheless, Brown said, Wilkerson and the
ministers frequently collaborated before she was
charged with accepting $23,500 in bribes in exchange
for legislative favors earlier this year.
“You had ministers who continued to support
Wilkerson through all the ups and downs she’s
had,” he said. “There wasn’t any open animosity.
We disagreed on the open marriage issue, but there
wasn’t any rancor there.”
Others say there is a growing resentment against
the powerful ministers in the community.
“I’ve been to at least three different community
meetings where there was an impromptu discussion
about the ministers and Dianne, or the ministers
and the ballot question around decriminalizing marijuana,” said Joyce Ferriabough-Bolling, a Roxbury
political consultant. “Many were most upset by the
actions the ministers took against Dianne before she
had her day in court and wondered why the rush to
publicly ask for her resignation before the election...
calling it just plain wrong.”
For their social programming, both the BMA
and Ten-Point Coalition are regular recipients of
money that flows through state government from
federal block grants. How the funds are spent can
be guided by legislation and influenced by legislators informally, but ultimately they are allocated
by departments in the governor’s administration.
An example is the Department of Public Health’s
Prevention of Youth Violence grants, from which
the BMA received $105,000 out of $1.6 million distributed by the state in 2007.
“I believe that black clergy and civic leaders
need to come together and I’m praying for peaceful
resolve,” said Rev. William Dickerson of Greater
Love Tabernacle Church, who was also at the Dec.
17 session. “We must move forward toward healing
because too much finger pointing is going on.”
Reporter correspondent Gintautas Dumcius contributed to this report. This story first appeared in
the Dec. 24 edition of the Dorchester Reporter.
Report: Crime rate drop hiding rise by black teens
By Jay Lindsay
Associated Press Writer
Black teenagers are killing each other in rising numbers as part of a troubling trend that has
been masked by a falling crime rate in the United
States, according to a new study released Monday
by Northeastern University.
FBI crime statistics show overall decreases in violent crime and murder. But amid those numbers, the
report by criminal justice professors James Alan Fox
and Marc Swatt found other disturbing trends.
Among their findings: an increase of more than
39 percent in the number of black males between
ages 14-17 killed between 2000 and 2007 and an
increase of 34 percent in the number of blacks that
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REPORTER
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age who committed homicide.
The increases for white male teens, meanwhile,
were nearly 17 percent and 3 percent, respectively.
“We can’t ignore the fact that hidden within the
overall good news on crime is very bad news for a
segment of the population — young black males
— and that needs our attention,’’ Fox said.
Fox calls for an infusion of government money
to beef up police forces and restore mentor, sports,
after-school and summer programs that withered as
federal funds were redirected from cities to homeland
security after the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
“We need to invest much more in the lives of these
kids,’’ Fox said. “I know there’s lots of people who
say times are tough and we don’t have the money,
but we either pay for these programs now or pray
for the victims later because crime doesn’t wait until
the economy improves.’’
Fox emphasizes that despite problems highlighted
in his report, crime isn’t out of control. Recent crimes
statistics indicate progress, including a drop in
overall crime and murder rates between 2006 and
2007, the most recent year available.
The numbers are a vast improvement over the
1990s when the emergence of crack cocaine fueled
an explosion in violence, the Northeastern report
said. In 1993, 225 out of every 100,000 blacks ages
14-17 committed homicide compared with 81 out of
100,000 today.
But that’s an increase from 2000, when the number
was 66 per 100,000.
“When you stop paying attention to it, when you
stop working at it, the problems can and do rebound,’’
Fox said.
The report indicates guns are overwhelmingly the
weapon of choice for young black offenders and are
now used in nearly 85 percent of all homicides they
commit, matching 1990s levels. The Rev. Jeffrey
Brown, executive director of the anti-crime Ten Point
Coalition in Boston, said the spike in gun murders
by and on young blacks “bears out what I see on the
streets every day.’’
“The victim and perpetrators of gun crimes are
getting younger and younger,’’ he said.
Expansion in government and after-school programs would be welcome, he said. He added that
local families and the larger community groups,
particularly churches, also need to do more helping
kids and families at risk from violence.
Teens — who Brown said “don’t know from one
day to the next if a bullet screaming through their
street has their name on it or not’’ — talk to him
about more mentoring and after-school programs,
more strong male and female role models. They
also wonder if their lives would be different if their
fathers were around.
“When you get to the street level, politics doesn’t
matter. What matters are these young people and
the daily violence that they have to face, and is
there anybody out there to help them?’’ Brown said.
``That’s their question.’’
But some warn more money for more programs
could be wasted. Kay Hymowitz, a Manhattan
Institute fellow who has studied the breakdown of
marriage in the United States, said programs for
at-risk youth are often ineffective and don’t address
the root problem of absentee fathers and fractured
black families.
“We still need to bring the conversation around to
the subject that everyone has been uneasy about,
and that’s the breakdown of the family,’’ she said.
Hymowitz said people have shied from addressing
the disarray in the black family because “it sounds
like blaming blacks to some people.’’ But she said
the issue must be confronted head on.
“We don’t know how to bring fathers back into
the family, but we do know that the silence on the
subject over the last 40 years has been a disaster
for blacks and this (report) is evidence of that,’’ she
said. (AP)
BostonHaitian.com
January 2009
Boston Haitian Reporter
Page News Background
Immigrants see personal triumphs in Obama
By Jennifer Kay
Associated Press Writer
MIAMI — There is no box on U.S.
Census forms that accurately describes
Ray Gongora.
The Belize-born naturalized citizen
grew up in an English-speaking Central American country, a former British
colony where African slaves were once
sold. He emigrated in 1986 to a country
that deemed him Hispanic based on
the geography of his birth.
“I identify myself as other,’’ Gongora
says. “I am black, so to speak — a
brown-skinned Caribbean person. You
cannot identify yourself as a black
American because our cultures are so
totally different.’’
He doesn’t worry about not being
counted, though. Not with Presidentelect Barack Obama set to take office
Jan. 20.
Obama, the son of a white woman
from Kansas and a black man from
Kenya, will be the first black U.S.
president, fulfilling the dreams and
promise of the civil rights era. But for
black immigrants and their children,
Obama’s swearing-in realizes other
dreams.
In Obama, they see their own parents, themselves as outsiders and the
children they raised to believe that
education was the road to success.
His election superseded not only color,
but also economics, family divisions,
government failures and nagging questions of identity.
“It’s an individual accomplishment
for each of us,’’ Gongora said.
Gongora, a 53-year-old postal worker, scheduled a vacation day Jan. 20 to
watch the inauguration on television
at his Pembroke Pines home. His hope
for his U.S.-born children is that no
one will question their citizenship in
an Obama administration, even with
a Honduran mother and a Belize-born
father.
“I said to my (17-year-old) son, ‘You
are natural born, you were born here.
You can be president even if your
parents were both born in different
countries,’’’ he said.
Haitian-American schoolchildren
were so caught up in the election that
they wrote “Obama’’ on their arms
when they visited the Haitian Heritage
Museum this fall. His story, not just his
skin color, was so similar to their own,
said Lawrence Gonzalez, the Miami
museum’s education manager.
Obama’s father left Kenya to continue his education in the U.S. The
president-elect also knows what it’s
like to uproot his life:
He was born in Hawaii, then spent
part of his childhood in Indonesia. He
returned to Hawaii to live with his
grandparents, then left the islands
for college. He eventually settled in
Chicago.
“They left that comfort zone and
came to a random area where they
weren’t accepted. They continued to
work to make a better life and get a
career going,’’ said Gonzalez, a Haitian-American who was born in Miami.
“Our parents did this.’’
Jean-Marie Denis, 67, beams as he
lists the reasons any Haitian could
say, “Obama is my brother!’’
The president-elect achieved success
through education, so prized in the
Caribbean country that families scrape
together money for tuition even in the
hardest times. He made his name in
Chicago, a city whose first permanent
settler was Haitian. He named a Haitian-American, Patrick Gaspard, as his
political director.
Finally Obama fulfills Haiti’s legacy
as home of the world’s first successful
slave rebellion, led by former slave
Toussaint L’Ouverture.
“Martin Luther King’s movement
was a continuation of Toussaint
L’Ouverture’s dream. Obama is, 40
years later, the realization of Martin
Luther King’s dreams,’’ said Denis.
“Toussaint L’Ouverture didn’t work
in vain.’’
Denis, a naturalized citizen whose
bookstore Libreri Mapou is a cornerstone of Miami’s Little Haiti, also sees
himself in Obama’s father, who left a
poor African village to study in the
United States.
“Now his son is president,’’ Denis
said. “He’s just like me. I came to this
country with $50 in my pocket and
now look at me, with two doctors in
my family.’’
For all the times that Obama had to
fit into a new environment, he never
lost his roots, said Sharon Makoriwa,
a 30-year-old Kenyan.
Obama has said that while the world
saw him as black, he still identified
with the small-town values instilled
in him by his Midwestern-grown
grandparents, something that helped
him connect with rural Illinois voters
in his Senate run.
“During the campaign they said,
‘Who exactly is this Obama?’ I found
it a very ridiculous question,’’ said Makoriwa, a grantswriter for the African
Services Committee in New York.
“I connected with him as a newcomer
to the United States. I’m living in a new
culture, I have to learn to respect the
culture and I have to fall back on my
values and my principles to be who I
am,’’ she said.
Many immigrants are also hopeful
that Obama will inspire change in their
home countries.
The president-elect’s Kenyan ancestry gives him the authority to criticize
African governments, and will set an
example on a continent where leaders often fail to uphold the rule of
law, said Bonaventure Ezekwenna,
47, who left Nigeria to study in New
York in 1983.
‘He is in a better position than anybody else to speak with the leadership
on the African continent, eyeball to
eyeball, that it is time for change,’’
said Ezekwenna, CEO of Africans in
America, which focuses on human
trafficking issues. “As leader of the
free world, if he tells them the game
is up in his motherland, his ancestral
home, they will get a clue that the game
is up.’’ Marlon Hill, a Jamaican-born
Miami attorney, made Obama’s election official as a member of Florida’s
Electoral College.
“It felt like carrying tons of history on
my shoulder,’’ the 37-year-old said.
But Inauguration Day should not
be a time for immigrants to stop and
reflect on past sacrifices and achievements. They need to expect more, he
said — from Obama and from themselves.
“It’s beyond just being about Obama
and him being a president who is
black. It is about our circumstances
and, whether we are black or black
immigrants, can we do more with our
circumstances?
Can we provide for our families
around us?’’ Hill said.”We have fewer
excuses now because of an election of
an Obama-like person.’’ (AP)
Obama’s true colors: Black, white ... or neither?
By Jesse Washington
AP National Writer
A perplexing new chapter is unfolding in Barack Obama’s racial saga:
Many people insist that “the first black
president’’ is actually not black.
Debate over whether to call this son
of a white Kansan and a black Kenyan
biracial, African-American, mixedrace, half-and-half, multiracial — or,
in Obama’s own words, a “mutt’’ — has
reached a crescendo since Obama’s
election shattered assumptions about
race.
Obama has said, “I identify as African-American — that’s how I’m treated
and that’s how I’m viewed. I’m proud
of it.’’ In other words, the world gave
Obama no choice but to be black, and
he was happy to oblige.
But the world has changed since the
young Obama found his place in it.
Intermarriage and the decline of racism are dissolving ancient definitions.
The candidate Obama, in achieving
what many thought impossible, was
treated differently from previous black
generations. And many white and
mixed-race people now view
President-elect Obama as something
other than black. So what now for
racial categories born of a time when
those from far-off lands were property
rather than people, or enemy instead
of family?
“They’re falling apart,’’ said Marty
Favor, a Dartmouth professor of African and African-American studies
and author of the book “Authentic
Blackness.’’
“In 1903, W.E.B. DuBois said the
question of the 20th century is the
question of the color line, which is
a simplistic black-white thing,’’ said
Favor, who is biracial. “This is the moment in the 21st century when we’re
stepping across that.’’
Rebecca Walker, a 38-year-old writer
with light brown skin who is of Russian, African, Irish, Scottish and Native American descent, said she used
to identify herself as “human,’’ which
upset people of all backgrounds. So she
went back to multiracial or biracial,
“but only because there has yet to be
a way of breaking through the need to
racially identify and be identified by
the culture at large.’’
“Of course Obama is black. And he’s
not black, too,’’ Walker said. “He’s
white, and he’s not white, too. Obama
is whatever people project onto him ...
he’s a lot of things, and neither of them
necessarily exclude the other.’’
But U.S. Rep. G. K. Butterfield, a
black man who by all appearances is
white, feels differently.
Butterfield, 61, grew up in a prominent black family in Wilson, N.C. Both
of his parents had white forebears,
“and those genes came together to
produce me.’’ He grew up on the black
side of town, led civil rights marches
as a young man, and to this day goes
out of his way to inform people that
he is certainly not white.
Butterfield has made his choice; he
says let Obama do the same. “Obama
has chosen the heritage he feels comfortable with,’’ he said. “His physical
appearance is black. I don’t know how
he could have chosen to be any other
race. Let’s just say he decided to be
white _ people would have laughed
at him.’’
“You are a product of your experience. I’m a U.S. congressman, and I
feel some degree of discomfort when
I’m in an all-white group. We don’t
have the same view of the world, our
experiences have been different.’’
The entire issue balances precariously on the “one-drop’’ rule, which
sprang from the slaveowner habit of
dropping by the slave quarters and
producing brown babies. One drop of
black blood meant that person, and
his or her descendants, could never
be a full citizen.
Today, the spectrum of skin tones
among African-Americans — even
those with two black parents — is
evidence of widespread white ancestry. Also, since blacks were often light
enough to pass for white, unknown
numbers of white Americans today
have blacks hidden in their family
trees.
One book, “Black People and their
Place in World History,’’ by Dr. Leroy
Vaughn, even claims that five past
presidents — Thomas Jefferson,
Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln,
Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge
— had black ancestors, which would
make Obama the sixth of his kind.
Mix in a few centuries’ worth of
Central, South and Native Americans,
plus Asians, and untold millions of
today’s U.S. citizens need a DNA test
to decipher their true colors. The melting pot is working.
Yet the world has never been confronted with such powerful evidence as
Obama. So as soon as he was elected,
the seeds of confusion began putting
down roots.
“Let’s not forget that he is not only
the first African-American president,
but the first biracial candidate. He
was raised by a single white mother,’’
a Fox News commentator said seven
minutes after Obama was declared
the winner.
“We do not have our first black
president,’’ the author Christopher
Hitchens said on the BBC program
“Newsnight.’’ “He is not black. He is
as black as he is white.’’
A Doonesbury comic strip that ran
the day after the election showed several soldiers celebrating.
“He’s half-white, you know,’’ says a
white soldier.
“You must be so proud,’’ responds
another.
Pride is the center of racial identity,
and some white people seem insulted
by a perception that Obama is rejecting
his white mother (even though her family was a centerpiece of his campaign
image-making) or baffled by the notion
that someone would choose to be black
instead of half-white.
“He can’t be African-American. With
race, white claims 50 percent of him
and black 50 percent of him. Half a loaf
is better than no loaf at all,’’ Ron Wilson
of Plantation, Fla., wrote in a letter to
the Sun-Sentinel newspaper.
Attempts to whiten Obama leave a
bitter taste for many African-Americans, who feel that at their moment of
triumph, the rules are being changed to
steal what once was deemed worthless
— blackness itself.
‘For some people it’s honestly confusion,’’ said Favor, the Dartmouth professor. “For others it’s a ploy to sort of
reclaim the presidency for whiteness,
as though Obama’s blackness is somehow mitigated by being biracial.’’
Then there are the questions remaining from Obama’s entry into national
politics, when some blacks were leery
of this Hawaiian-born newcomer who
did not share their history.
Linda Bob, a black schoolteacher
from Eustis, Fla., said that calling
Obama black when he was raised in
a white family and none of his ancestors experienced slavery could cause
some to ignore or forget the history of
racial injustice.
“It just seems unfair to totally label him African-American without
acknowledging that he was born to
a white mother,’’ she said. “It makes
you feel like he doesn’t have a class,
a group.’’
There is at least one group eagerly
waiting for Obama to embrace them.
“To me, as to increasing numbers of
mixed-race people, Barack Obama
is not our first black president. He is
our first biracial, bicultural president
... a bridge between races, a living
symbol of tolerance, a signal that
strict racial categories must go,’’ Marie
Arana wrote in the Washington Post.
(Associated Press)
Page Boston Haitian ReporteR
January 2009
BostonHaitian.com
“Everybody failed”
Thrice-built house embodies Haiti aid shortfalls
Flood victims carry sacks of rice they received from an international aid organization in Gonaives on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2008. While more than $70 million in
U.S. and U.N. aid after Tropical Storm Jeanne went to immediate relief such as food, medical aid and putting people back to work, little went to flood control,
according to an Associated Press review of relief spending. Four major storms hit Haiti within a month this year. AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa
By Jonathan M. Katz
Associated Press Writer
GONAIVES— The farmer camps in a crude tent
of broken sandbags as he guards the foundation
of his destroyed home and his last possessions: a
pickax, a hoe and some charcoal.
This is the third time Olisten Elerius is preparing
to build his tiny cinderblock house. Four years ago,
Tropical Storm Jeanne flooded it and drowned his
father, sister and nephew. Then, late this summer,
Tropical Storm Hanna swallowed it along with
his daughter and another sister. It could happen
again.
After Jeanne struck in 2004, more than $70 million in aid went to immediate relief such as food,
medical aid and jobs, but little went to flood control,
according to an Associated Press review of relief
spending. Despite pledges to prevent such devastation in the future, few projects to build drains, fix
roads and stop erosion were even attempted.
In other parts of Haiti, U.S. officials launched
an ambitious flood control project. But it took 3
1/2 years to plan and was not placed in Gonaives
because of a lack of funding.
So when four major storms hit within a month
this year, nothing stopped the La Quinte River from
roaring over its banks again. It inundated farmers
like Elerius on its way to the center of Gonaives,
where men, women and children swam for miles
through swirling waters to escape. The storms killed
793 people and caused $1 billion in damage.
“The authorities were always coming here to take
pictures and measure things,’’ Elerius said. “The
words in their mouths said they would help, but
they never did anything.’’
Top officials agree that efforts fell short.
“I think we were very successful in getting Gonaives back on its feet,’’ Alexandre Deprez, an official
for the U.S. Agency for International Development,
said of the work after Jeanne. “But it is true that
we didn’t put the time and the resources to do what
needs to be done in the longer term.’’
Haiti’s floods are not natural disasters, but a
direct result of widespread deforestation, erosion
and poverty. Farmers cut trees for charcoal and
plant shallow-rooted crops. Rains that would be
forgotten elsewhere can kill thousands.
In 2004, Elerius was working in the neighboring
Dominican Republic when Tropical Storm Jeanne
came twisting like a wounded animal out of the
northern sky, sending a wall of water through his
cinderblock home and sweeping away his father,
sister and nephew.
Gonaives residents fled to their rooftops as rivers broke their banks, overflowing morgues with
bloated corpses. A horrified world pledged to help.
Elerius returned home just as the money and the
white SUVs of non-governmental organizations began flowing into Gonaives, in the north of Haiti.
The U.N. appealed for $37 million in flood relief.
Washington would donate more than $45 million,
first for emergency food and supplies and then
through USAID for the two-year, $34 million Tropical Storm Jeanne Recovery Program.
Disaster officials, newspapers and aid workers
called for well-planned, well-financed, long-term
aid. Haitian officials told the agencies to spend the
money on projects that would save lives: secure
rivers, fix roads, design better canals, build homes
with better drainage to the sea.
But the U.N. member states, distracted by the
Indian Ocean tsunami four months later, raised
less than half their funding target.
Work was hampered by violence and insecurity.
The Inter-American Development Bank provided
about $10 million in loans, mostly for construction of a small drainage system. That project was
abandoned by Haitian contractors after bandits
stole the cement and steel, IDB representative
Philippe Dewez said.
Washington sent money mostly for short-term
projects: cleanup, restoration and repair of basic
services such as schools, health clinics, roads,
bridges and homes. In 2005, the U.S. Government
Accountability Office reported that U.S. organizations cleared more than 2 million cubic feet of
mud and restored the livelihoods of 48,000 people.
But the GAO said they failed to meet an already
reduced target for houses and completed no roads
or bridges.
Elerius rebuilt his family’s flimsy home at Mapou, a flat plain on the outskirts of the city, just 50
feet (15 meters) from the La Quinte River after it
descends from barren mountains toward the sea.
On the denuded hillside, USAID said projects to
grow plant cover and build terraces have restored
3,700 acres (1,497 hectares) of the La Quinte watershed — 2 percent of the basin. But few trees are
visible, and local officials said most saplings were
eaten by goats.
Corruption watchdogs with Transparency International said public funds — nobody seems
to know exactly how much — were distributed
with little oversight by the U.S.-backed interim
government.
Soon after Jeanne, USAID commissioned a study
of Haiti’s watersheds, which led to an ambitious
$18 million effort to reduce flooding. Work did not
begin until February 2008.
The report recommended action in high-risk flood
areas, including Gonaives. But the U.S. Congress
only gave enough money for the agency to start in
two smaller, less populated watersheds — Limbe
in the north and Mountrouis in the west, both more
than 40 miles (64 kilometers) away from Gonaives.
Some money went to a project on a Port-au-Prince
river this year.
“With the funding that we were given we said
to ourselves, ‘Why go into a place where you’re
not going to make a difference?’ “ Deprez told The
Associated Press. “Go into a place where you can
focus and make a difference and test the approach
that was recommended.’’
It will take five years to know the effects of the
pilot flood-control programs. Officials then hope to
replicate them elsewhere.
But the storms didn’t wait.
Starting in mid-August, Tropical Storm Fay
hit Haiti, followed by Gustav, Hanna and Ike.
They destroyed thousands of homes, devastated
crops and set the country back decades. Starving
families, whose plight had fueled April riots, got
even hungrier.
On the dark afternoon of Sept. 2 in Gonaives,
there was no warning as mountain run-off began
to gather in ravines. Officials were not given orders to evacuate, and in any case no plan was in
place. There was nobody to clear fallen trees that
had jammed a bridge on the La Quinte River and
caused it to divert the day before.
Elerius was in town getting supplies when he
heard radio reports about a new storm. Even as
rain fell in Gonaives, radio broadcasts in Port-AuPrince, the capital, repeated predictions that it
would veer to the north, away from Haiti.
It was only word of mouth that sent Elerius
running home. There he found the river had again
become an ocean, his family submerged and his
house disintegrating.
He dived into the water and pulled his mother and
4-year-old son Jonslay to safety. Then he yelled for
his 6-year-old daughter, Joniska, and his 21-yearold little sister, Jimele. Neither called back.
This time, without a network of roads that could
withstand the flooding, Gonaives was trapped.
A Haitian-funded causeway needed to connect
it to the capital, 80 miles (129 kilometers) away
across the cactus plain of Savanne Desolee, was
left half-finished, denying scores of families a way
out. Refugees climbed its scaffolding to escape the
rising waters.
Others were stranded on their rooftops. It took
four days for the U.N. to bring in ample food aid
by ship.
Some development workers say the reduced
death toll this year — in the hundreds instead of
thousands — validates their efforts. But survivors
and local officials say more survived this time because the memory of Jeanne sent them running
for higher ground.
Continued on page 9
BostonHaitian.com
January 2009
Boston Haitian Reporter
Page Gonaives still paralyzed by killer storms of ‘08
Continued from page 8
Today in Gonaives, homeless families crowd tent
neighborhoods. Men scrounge for fish in stagnant
floodwaters. Schoolgirls wear sunglasses and surgical masks to block the clouds of dirt that cover
the city. The road to Port-au-Prince is still blocked
by an enormous lake. As former Gonaives disaster
management coordinator Faustin Joseph said,
“Everybody failed.’’
The craggy roads of Gonaives are filled again
with white SUVs. The U.N. issued a $107 million
appeal, of which it has raised about half, and is
now requesting $20 million more. The World Food
Program has delivered more than 11,000 tons of
food. The Haitian government has set aside $198
million for rebuilding roads, fortifying river beds
and restoring agriculture.
The U.S. government pledged more than $30
million in immediate relief. Another $96 million
from Congress is on its way.
President Rene Preval told the U.N. General Assembly in September he feared that “once this first
wave of humanitarian compassion is exhausted,
we will be left as always, truly alone, to face new
catastrophes and see restarted, as if in a ritual, the
same exercises of mobilization.’’
Some in Gonaives have become restless.
“If things go like they did after Jeanne again, and
it looks like people are doing nothing, we might get
up and start burning things down,’’ said Odrigue
Toussaint, 40, who has not worked since he lost his
motorcycle to Hanna. “We will let the authorities
know it can’t happen again.’’
Elerius sent his son, mother and siblings to live
with neighbors. He never found the bodies of his
sister and daughter.
He sleeps on the dirty ground under the plastic
tent. Inside it’s stiflingly hot during the day but
cooler at night.
The La Quinte River gouged a shallow canyon
through what was once his farmland, where he
planted onions, plantains and potatoes. The topsoil
washed to the streets of Gonaives, encasing the
city in mud.
Haitian construction crews put the river back into
its bed a week after Hanna, just as they did after
Jeanne, and built temporary levies with gravel and
sandbags that Elerius pilfered to make his tent.
The bags were falling apart anyway, he said.
The farmer who keeps losing everything is
resigned.
“Whatever they do now we’ll accept it,’’ Elerius
said. “I just wish they would have already done
more.’’ (AP)
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Page 10 Boston Haitian ReporteR
January 2009
BostonHaitian.com
Local health centers would suffer from BMC cuts
By Pete Stidman
News Editor
A number of Dorchester and Mattapan health centers, unions and advocacy groups have joined a citywide
coalition called Put Patients First to
urge the governor to halt funding cuts
to the Boston Medical Center and the
Cambridge Health Alliance.
The group’s leading organization,
political heavy-hitter SEIU Local 1199,
recently resceduled a rally planned for
Jan. 15—the same day as Gov. Deval
Patrick’s State of the State address—to
Jan. 29, after the presidential inauguration.
Some $114 million has been cut from
BMC’s FY 2009 state payments all told,
and the cuts are on track to jump to
over $220 million in FY 2010, according to hospital representatives. The
hospital took drastic action last month,
cutting staff, benefits, programs and
capital spending.
“We’re potentially looking at a huge
cliff in fiscal ‘10,” said Thomas Traylor,
BMC’s vice-president of government
programs. “There’s no way BMC can
do what we do with minus $200 million.”
The directors of Dorchester House
and Codman Square Health Center,
which are licensed under BMC, say
if something isn’t done to reverse the
tide of budget cuts, their funding could
suffer heavily as well. Dot House gets
around 10 percent of its entire budget
from BMC and Codman around 18
percent. The South Boston and East
Boston community health centers are
also dependent on BMC.
Last month BMC cut $2 million in
support it routinely gave to the Quincy
Medical Center.
“Just from the Dorchester perspective were talking about a lot of jobs and
services here… there would be massive
cutbacks,” said Bill Walczak, director
of Codman Square Health Center. “The
legislature and the governor should be
very concerned.”
The potential cuts would represent
over 20 percent of BMC’s $800 million
budget, and threaten hundreds of jobs
and potentially even basic services like
the hospital’s busy emergency room, a
destination for most ambulances blaring sirens out of Dorchester.
The cuts derive not only from the
worsening economy and Patrick’s reaction—tightening up spending with
“9C” cuts—but also from the lingering
effects of health care reform itself,
known as Chapter 58.
Both BMC and Cambridge Health
Alliance are benefited by tens of millions in funding thanks to “Section
122” in Chapter 58, which was meant
to be a three-year financial cushion
while the reformers figured out how
to address payments for hospitals like
BMC and Cambridge Health—which
serve a much higher proportion of lowincome people than most.
Though many have flocked to Commonwealth Care—at Codman Square
the number of uninsured patients has
dwindled from around 50 percent to
less than 15 percent—reimbursement
rates to hospitals for those covered are
less than they were for the uninsured
under the old Free Care plan, and
the Safety Net Trust Fund meant for
the remaining fraction of uninsured
patients is far smaller than the old
Uncompensated Care Pool and many
uninsured aren’t eligible for it..
For the last two years, Section 122
has kept BMC and Cambridge Health
rolling despite these problems, but in
FY 2010 it will simply go away. That
will be a $191 million cut for BMC,
and nearly half of the subsidy, some
$84 million, isn’t being honored by the
state in FY 2009.
Additionally, changes in Medicaid
rates were cut by $14 million for BMC
in the FY 2009 state budget, and Patrick cut them a further $16 million
with 9C cuts.
“In our view the rates are supposed
to grow and instead they’ve gone backwards,” said Traylor. “We can’t do what
we do with payments of 60 cents on the
dollar compared to our costs.”
Those cuts add up to $114 million
in this year’s budget for BMC, and
potentially $221 million in FY 2010.
Cambridge Health Alliance is facing
a similar crisis.
“The extent to which the BMC has
been taking the hits in order for the
state to bring the budget into balance,
the hospital and the Cambridge Health
Alliance feel they have been disproportionally affected by the cuts,” said
Joel Abrams, director of the Dorchester
House. “And justifiably so.”
The governor made over $1.4 billion
in cuts to the state budget in October
and has recently told reporters he will
need to make $1 billion more to keep
the ever shrinking budget in balance.
The reductions will come close to
shearing 10 percent off the $28 billion
state budget.
“We recognize that BMC is an important provider, particularly to lowincome populations,” said Jennifer
Kritz, a spokesperson for the Patrick
administration’s Executive Office of
Health and Human Services. “We’re
working with them to mitigate budget reductions and find sustainable
payment reductions… Unfortunately
when we are facing a budget shortfall
it is impossible not to impact BMC and
other safety net providers.”
In late December, Patrick joined New
York Governor David Patterson and
others in a letter to the president-elect
asking for an $800 billion economic
stimulus package, which would include
a $250 billion boost for “countercyclical” programs like the Federal Medical
Assistance Program (FMAP).
If Obama takes up the suggestion,
or something like it, it could directly
improve Patrick’s ability to fund the
two critical safety net hospitals. But,
as the Boston Globe reported last week,
Patrick is hinting that he may divert
Medicaid money to other areas of the
state budget.
“We can displace that money for
other needs,” he reportedly said at a
press briefing.
To members of the coalition, that
raises the specter that Patrick might
not fully restore funding to the hospitals even if the FMAP funding comes
through.
“There is nothing specific that the
hospital can be assured of and that is
really the problem,” said Traylor. “We
meet all the time but they just sort of go
on and on and they’re not fruitful with
a vision of what can happen here.”
Under SEIU 1199, some political
pressure could come to bear, however.
The Dorchester-based SEIU union has
quickly become a political powerhouse
in Massachusetts. It sent hundreds
of volunteers to New Hampshire and
ran massive phone banks for the campaigns of both Sen. Hillary Clinton
and President Elect Barack Obama
last year and was key in Patrick’s own
electoral victory in 2006. With political
fundraising starting to heat up for the
2010 Governor’s race, it would be bad
time for Patrick to break with SEIU.
“We’d like there not to be a rift,” said
SEIU 1199 vice-president Victoria
Turner, an ex-employee of BMC. “We’d
still like to support the governor. We
just want him to do the right thing
with this money.”
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BostonHaitian.com
January 2009
Boston Haitian Reporter
Page 11
Community Health News
Protect your vision with early screeings for Glaucoma
By Tarma Johnson
January is National Glaucoma Awareness Month
and Mattapan Community Health Center would
like to make the community aware of the disease,
its causes and treatment options.
According to the Glaucoma Research Foundation,
glaucoma is a group of eye diseases that gradually
steal sight without warning. Many times in the
early stages of the disease, patient may not have
any symptoms. This is one reason why it is very
important for everyone to have their eyes checked
every one to two years or as advised by your doctor.
People with glaucoma should have a complete eye
exam with eye dilation every one to two years.
Vision loss from glaucoma is caused by damage to
the optic nerve. The Glaucoma Research Foundation states that the optic nerve acts like an electric
cable with over a million wires. It is responsible for
carrying images from the eye to the brain.
Early diagnosis of glaucoma is essential in order to
slow down the process of the disease, because at the
present time, there is no cure for glaucoma. Medication and/ or surgery can slow or prevent further
vision loss. There are several types of glaucoma (primary open angle glaucoma, angle closure glaucoma,
normal tension glaucoma, secondary glaucoma and
pediatric glaucoma) and treatment depends on the
type of glaucoma that is diagnosed.
High pressure within the eye, known as intraocular
pressure or IOP, is the main cause of this optic nerve
damage. The glaucoma research foundation states
that IOP is clearly a risk factor, but there are other
factors that must be involved because even people
with “normal” levels of pressure can experience vi-
sion loss from glaucoma.
There are two categories for adult glaucomaprimary open angle glaucoma and closed angle
glaucoma. Primary open angle glaucoma is the
most common form of glaucoma, affecting about
three million Americans. It happens when the eye’s
drainage canals become clogged over time. The inner eye pressure (also called intraocular pressure or
IOP) rises because the correct amount of fluid can’t
drain out of the eye. With open angle glaucoma,
the entrances to the drainage canals are clear and
should be working correctly. The clogging problem
occurs further inside the drainage canals, similar
to a clogged pipe below the drain in a sink. This
type accounts for 19 percent of all blindness among
African Americans.
Most people have no symptoms and no early warning signs. If open angle glaucoma is not diagnosed
and treated, it can cause a gradual loss of vision.
This type of glaucoma develops slowly and sometimes without noticeable sight loss for many years.
It usually responds well to medication, especially
if caught early and treated.
Glaucoma can affect anyone, but there are certain
groups who are at higher risk than others. The
following are groups at higher risk for developing
glaucoma:
• For African-Americans glaucoma is the leading
cause of blindness, occurring six to eight times more
often in African-Americans than in Caucasians. African-Americans ages 45-65 are 14 to 17 times more
likely to go blind from glaucoma than Caucasians
in the same age group.
• People over 60 are six times more likely to get
glaucoma than if younger than 60.
• Family members with Glaucoma-primary open
angle glaucoma, is hereditary. Family history increases risk of glaucoma four to nine times.
• Hispanics in older age groups -recent studies
indicate that the risk for Hispanic populations is
greater than those of predominantly European ancestry, and that the risk increases among Hispanics
over age 60.
• Asians- People of Asian descent appear to be at
some risk for angle closure glaucoma. Angle closure
glaucoma accounts for less than 10% of all diagnosed
cases of glaucoma. Otherwise there is no known
increased risk in Asian populations.
• Eye injury -injury to the eye may cause secondary open angle glaucoma. This type of glaucoma can
occur immediately after the injury or years later.
Blunt injuries that “bruise” the eye (called blunt
trauma) or injuries that penetrate the eye can damage the eye’s drainage system, leading to traumatic
glaucoma. The most common cause is sports-related
injuries such as baseball or boxing.
• Other risk factors-high myopia (nearsightedn
ess),diabetes, hypertension, and a central corneal
thickness less than .5 mm.
The Glaucoma Research Foundation web site
www.glaucoma.org is the informational resource
for this article. For more information on Glaucoma
or to make an appointment for an eye examination, call Mattapan Community Health Center at
617-296-0061.
Tarma Johnson, APRN, BC, is the director of
Clinical Health Services at Mattapan Community
Health Center.
Study: Millions of older Americans use risky drug combos
By Lindsey Tanner
AP Medical Writer
At least 2 million older Americans are taking a combination of drugs or supplements that can be a risky mix
— from blood thinners and cholesterol pills to aspirin
and ginkgo capsules — a new study warns.
Among older men, the numbers are particularly
alarming — one in 10 are taking potentially harmful
combinations, according to the study.
The results aren’t always disastrous, but older people
are more vulnerable to side effects and drug-to-drug
interactions. And patients need to know that just because lots of medicines and supplements don’t require
prescriptions doesn’t mean they’re harmless. Nor are
some of these safe to take when you’re prescribed other
medications.
Experts say the take-home advice is to ask about any
side effects of prescription drugs, and tell your doctor
before taking other medicines.
The report showing just how many older people
are using risky combinations comes from a study of
nearly 3,000 interviews with people aged 57 to 85. The
research, funded by the National Institutes of Health
and University of Chicago, appears in Wednesday’s
Journal of the American Medical Association.
It’s well-known that as people age, their medication
use goes up. But the study highlights the potential
problems with some sobering statistics.
Ninety-one percent in this age group use at least
one medication, often for heart disease and related
problems. That translates to more than 50 million
people. More than half use at least five remedies,
including prescriptions, over-the-counter medicines
or supplements.
Virtually every medicine can have side effects, and
with so many being used by so many older adults, the
potential for harm is high.
For example, warfarin, a potent prescription clotfighting drug, was often taken with aspirin. Both increase the risk of bleeding, so the odds are even higher
when both drugs are taken. The researchers said these
risks also occur when warfarin is taken with garlic
pills, which some studies have suggested can benefit
the heart and help prevent blood clots.
Signs of bleeding problems include bruising easily,
hard-to-stop bleeding from the gums or from cuts and
blood in the urine.
Other commonly used and risky combinations included:
• Aspirin taken with over-the-counter ginkgo supplements, increasing chances for excess bleeding.
• Lisinopril, a blood pressure drug, taken with potassium, which combined can cause abnormal heart
rhythms. Potassium is often prescribed to restore low
levels of this important mineral caused by certain
blood pressure drugs.
• Prescription cholesterol drugs called statins taken
with over-the-counter niacin, a type of vitamin B that
also lowers cholesterol. This combination increases
risks for muscle damage.
“Patients need to know that while medications are
often beneficial, they’re not always safe,’’ said lead
author Dima Qato, a University of Chicago pharmacist.
“If they need to self-medicate with over-the-counter or
dietary supplements, they should definitely consult
with their physicians or pharmacists.’’
The study relied on data from in-person interviews
with 2,976 adults questioned about which medications
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they routinely used. The nationally representative survey was done between June 2005 and March 2006, and
results were extrapolated to the general population.
The researchers assessed how many people routinely
used at least two medications of any type known to
have dangerous or even fatal interactions. The number
totaled at least one in 25, corresponding to 2.2 million
nationwide.
Those interviewed weren’t asked if they’d ever had
a bad reaction from taking those combinations. And
the study didn’t assess whether patients were taking
medications inappropriately.
Dr. Jerry Gurwitz, chief of the geriatric medicine
division at University of Massachusetts Medical School,
said taking multiple medications, despite possible bad
interactions, isn’t necessarily a bad idea as long as
patients are in close contact with their doctor.
“There are definitely many instances where if they’re
monitored carefully and there’s good reason for using
them, that they could be used safely,’’ said Gurwitz,
who wasn’t involved in the study.
Prescription drugs were the most commonly used
and nearly one-third used at least five prescription
drugs.
Michael Cohen, a pharmacist and president of the
Institute for Safe Medication Practices, called the
study an important snapshot of medication use in
older Americans. But as someone who takes at least
five medications himself, Cohen said the widespread
prevalence isn’t surprising.
Cohen said his group recently launched a new Web
site, http://www.consumermedsafety.org that will allow
consumers to enter names of their medications to check
for any potentially dangerous interactions. (AP)
Page 12 Boston Haitian ReporteR
January 2009
BostonHaitian.com
Music Reviews
Zenglen reinvents itself—
again— with new lead singer
By Steve Desrosiers
Contributing Editor
Zenglen
5eme Vites
The restless, Zenglen
returns to fans with a
new album and lead
singer. The widely anticipated release, “5eme
Vites” (5th gear) features
11 new compositions and
is a product of Tropikal
Records.
The self-proclaimed
“Superstar Maker”,
drummer and band
leader Jean H. Richard
a.k.a. Richie, is out to
make former NYAS and
509 singer, Kenny Desmangles, a star in the
fashion of Gracia Delva
and Reginald Cange.
It is the very rare band
that manages to survive
the departure of one popular lead singer. Zenglen
has yet to recover from
the departure of the
talented Gracia Delva.
It took the astounding
vocal ability of Reginald
Cange to rouse fans back
to the band’s shows and,
even then, he needed
a second lead singer,
Frero, to satiate the ex-
pectations of the average
Zenglen fan. Can Richie
help fans forget not only
Gracia but Reginald and
Frero with the advent of
Kenny?
“5eme” is full of the
musical treats that
have long entertained
Zenglen’s hardcore fans.
The album’s memorable
songs include “Mwen
Pap tounen”, armed
with a memorable lead
melody and some catchy
moments on synth, guitars and backing vocals.
Surprisingly, I even
like the “K-anyway” rap
feature!
“Jere Sexy A” is sure
to be a favorite among
dancers for its gripping
grooves, generously solos and a feel that is
very reminiscent of the
work of the band’s talented former keyboardist Nick Prud’homme.
“Ti Bebe”, overwritten
as it is, is among the
album’s strong tracks
for the thoughtfulness
of its message, fine horn
arrangements, a set of
fine guitar solos by Pozo
and its melodic charms.
And last but not least,
“Mizikanou” is a fine lit-
tle addition to the band’s
latest stew of songs.
Zenglen’s post Cange
work is decent! The
album – mostly written
and arranged by Richie
– presents Zenglen’s traditional menu of catchy
melodies and anecdotal
songwriting. Kenny does
his best on vocals and
really shines on quite
a few numbers but his
actual tone, while distinct, is light and not of
caliber that will impact
the band’s dedicated
listeners. We, fans, have
been treated to a cast
of astounding vocalists
and while Kenny is a
good singer, this band
has been led by two of
the industry’s best and
as much we want Richie
and Kenny to pull off a
miracle, it may be quite
a challenge this time
around.
Hardcore fans of Richie’s work will not be disappointed by Zenglen’s
latest.
Belo
Reference
Haiti’s talented singer/
songwriter Belo returns
from the success of his
thought-provoking first
release, “Lakou Trankil”
with his latest work,
“Reference”. The album
is a 12-song mix of new
and previously released
material.
Born Jean Belony Murat in Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti, Belo stood
out among the many
young artists discovered by Mizik Mizik’s
Fabrice Rouzier and
Keke Belizaire in 2006.
Armed with throaty vocals usually associated
with Jamaican artists
like his idols Bob Marley and Buju Banton,
he – like them- has a lot
to say about the state of
his country and society.
He met significant success after the release of
“Lakou Trankil” (Peaceful yard) whose modest
number of hits propelled
him onto the international scene where he
represented Haiti in
places like Accra, capital
city of Ghana, Africa.
Belo’s first release
was heavily influenced
by Jamaican Reggae,
while its potent message was delivered in
the most native Kreyol.
“Reference” finds him
taking a wide detour
from that approach as
it hosts Belo’s Kreyol
sentiments against a
World Beat or Smooth
Jazz soundtrack.
The album’s best
songs include the likes of
“Mwen Bouke” a catchy
and well-played tune
about the fatigue of Haitians with the island’s
living conditions. There
is also the finely crafted “Deblozay”, clearly
showcasing Belo’s fine
vocal technique and
his dramatic ability to
maintain a listener’s
interest with a complex
melody. The spartan
“Fanm Kreyol” stands
out for its fine blend of
World Beat and Reggae feels and, of course,
Belo’s leading role in
actually selling the song
to the listener.
Unfortunately, the
closest we get to Haiti
– instrumentally speaking -is the frolicsome
“Pwopozisyon”, the album’s last and, actually,
most memorable song.
“Reference” is a fine
sophomore release for
Belo. The album is well
executed and a fine testament to what can happen with Haiti’s young
talents, given proper
support. Producer and
musician Andy Barrow
blesses this album with
his very best work to date
and Belo is surrounded
by a fine cast of musicians.
Unfortunately,
the message and its
soundtrack do not
match. The light heartedness of Smooth Jazz
and World Beat which
seek to accommodate
leisure and fun do not
complement the timely
and thought-provoking
messages Belo offers as
a songwriter. This is the
same issue Emeline Michel faced with some of
her earliest recordings.
She eventually found
the right musical fit for
her message and it is
my hope that Belo does
the same.
“Reference” is a fine
achievement for Belo
and well worth its place
in your collection.
The
Reporter
Thanks:
Patrick St. Germain of
International Perfumes
and Discount for availing
the CDs for review. The
releases are available
at 860 Morton Street
Dorchester, MA (617)
825-6151.
Now:
Read the Reporter online
each month at bostonhaitian.com
BostonHaitian.com
January 2009
Boston Haitian Reporter
Page 13
“Growth industry”
Food pantries under pressure to meet demands
By Chris Harding
Special to
the Reporter
People are directed to
a neighborhood facility
where on one morning
In the first of a two-part or afternoon a week they
series, Chris Harding can get a pre-packaged
looks at the challenges bag with food for a couple
facing the city’s increas- of days.
ingly patronized food
The tragic new reality
pantries. is that many local food
No one knows exactly pantries find themselves
how many food pantries now saddled with burden
there are in Dorchester, of trying not just to probut one thing is very vide a care package here
clear: The number of and there to tide a caller
problems accessing these over for a few days, but
resources and keeping to keep an ever-growing
them running is spiral- number of families’ home
ing.
pantries stocked with
“Our numbers have staples for the foreseetripled since Catholic able future. Dorchester
Charities moved from churches and community
Bird Street here to the and social service agennew Yawkey Center in cies are buckling under
January of 2006,” reports the pressure of trying to
Beth Chambers who address this chronic and
oversees the Columbia still-rising need. Road food pantry. “And
“I hate to say this, but
there’s no sign on door poverty in Dorchester is
or publicity that we even a growth industry,” obhave a food pantry. It’s all serves Rev. John Odams,
word of mouth.”
pastor of Pilgrim ConThe Yawkey Center gregational Church in
served over 700 families Uphams Corner. He has
in December 2008, but been involved with food
has had to limit visits to pantries for the last eight
once every other month. years and like many othProject Bread’s Food- ers has seen a doubling
Source Hotline, (1-800- in demand for the free
645-8333), the most and decreased cost food
frequently used phone programs. His church,
number for those seeking which distributed bags to
food, refers to 21 sites in 200 visitors last month,
Dorchester, according to requires a referral each
Director of Communica- time a person or family
tion, Rita Guastella. visits.
She adds, “The hungry
“While the Greater
person in Dorchester can Boston Food Bank keeps
also be served by Boston up the supply,” Odams
agencies [of which there says, “the limiting facare 91]. We try to refer tor is the number of
people to the ‘closest’ volunteer hours required
agency that would be to pick up and deliver
open so people will not the food from the food
waste money on trans- bank, sort into bags, and
portation.
handle distribution durWhile it is by far the ing pantry hours.”
most nearly complete
In contrast, Michelle
reference around, the Rue, Director of Health,
FoodSource database is Education and Outreach
made up largely of places for Dotwell, estimates
supplied by the Great- her two agencies’ sites
er Boston Food Bank could distribute twice
(GBFB). Some indepen- as much as the GBFB
dent church pantries rations out. Rue overand those that work with sees both the Codman
other free food “wholesal- Square Food Pantry,
ers” aren’t included for a which feeds 900 to 1,000
variety of reasons.
families each month, and
An organization dis- the Dorchester House
tributing food to the pantry, which can see
needy cannot impose as many as 1,200 foodrequirements of reli- seekers.
gious involvement or
“We have on average
attendance to receive 80 to 100 new families
food. Only those quali- requesting food each
fications imposed by month,” Rue states.
federal, state and city “When I order Parmalat
agencies determine who milk from the GBFB
can or cannot receive each week, the computer
food. The distributing limits me to 5 cases with
group can set the day, 12 cartons each. Then I
time and place for food to have to figure out how
be dispensed. However, to distribute 60 cartons
limiting the publicity among 200 families.”
about the pantry’s hours
The Red Cross, whose
–or even word of its ex- facility at 1033 Mass Avistence— can effectively enue is by far the biggest
narrow the people served food pantry in the city
to the organization’s tar- (helping 4,000 people
get population, whether each month), assists
it be by language spoken some pantry managers
or by membership to a by helping transport food
particular congregation. from the GBFB to their
Calls to the hotline for front door. Red Cross
information about food limits its delivery to Dotpantries are traditionally well locations to 3,000
referred and responded to pounds, but Rue figures
as emergency situations. her facilities could easily
distribute 5,000 pounds
each. “We often run out,”
she says regretfully, “or
we can’t offer people full
bags.”
It is painful and frustrating for caring staff
and volunteers to have to
limit what they offer or to
package items they know
clients may not like.
Given the ethnic diversity of Dorchester, many
immigrant pantry visitors balk at SpaghettiOs, and press for garden
produce, which is more
costly and harder to keep
fresh. Overburdened
volunteers and staff
can resent what may be
perceived as contentious,
ungrateful, or “entitled”
patrons.
Patrons, for their part,
complain that most pantries are open only for
an hour or two one day
a week — and almost
never on the weekend
when most people have
fewer conflicts with their
job schedule. Language
barriers and the personalities and burnout
of pantry staff can all
enter into the equation.
Further complicating
matters, the poor tend
not to have cars, so the
programs near public
transportation are hit
more often than more
out-of-the-way ones.
Many Dorchester resi-
Beatice Burton works to organize products at the Codman Square Food Pantry.
Photo courtesy DotWell.
dents have limited cooking facilities and/or cooking experience. Over
Thanksgiving free fresh
turkeys with fixings were
handed to folks who had
never prepared a bird
or don’t have access to
a conventional oven. A
surprising number of
Dorchesterites subsist
with just a can opener
and a fork. A more recent complication is that
inaccurate information
continues to be disseminated. Some Dorchester-
oriented websites, for
example, still list pantries like those connected
with Little House, Log
School and St. Ann’s, all
of which have closed in
the last year or so.
Unfortunately, no one
really has a clear overall perspective on the
Dorchester pantry scene.
For example, two pantries which work out of
the same address had
no idea of the scope of
each other’s work. Even
the heads of the biggest
pantries admit to having only a vague sense
of how their program
compares in size, services
and operational practices
with other neighborhood
programs.
Despite this state of
affairs, undaunted residents and agencies are
responding heroically to
the crisis –often in ingenious new ways.
Part two of this report
will be printed in next
month’s Reporter.
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Page 14 Boston Haitian ReporteR
January 2009
BostonHaitian.com
Ruth’s Recipes
Twenty years later, a visit ‘home’
triggers wide range of emotions
Mango Punch
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Island, and se
By
Marie Ruth Auguste
Special to
the Reporter
(Editor’s Note: Last
month, our longtime columnist and close friend
Ruth Auguste lost her
mother and her brother
in a tragic car accident
in New Jersey. Ruth is
not writing this month,
but we are pleased to
re-publish this article
from Sept. 2007, in which
Ruth recounts a visit to
Haiti, her first in nearly
two decades.)
This summer I went
back to Haiti for the first
time in almost twenty
years.
The reason for my trip
was quite sad and sudden. My mom’s younger
sister suddenly passed
away. I received the news
one Saturday morning in
July and by the following
Saturday morning I was
at the Aeroport International De Toussaint
L’Ouverture in Haiti.
Getting to Haiti was
a long journey because
I traveled from Los Angeles. I had to first
cross the country and
get to the east coast via
overnight flight that put
me in Fort Lauderdale,
Florida. From there I
had a four-hour lay over
before boarding the flight
to Haiti which took a
little under 2 hours.
I began to feel all
kinds of emotions while
I waited for the flight to
Haiti. I was sad because
my aunt was dear to me
and our whole family.
Her sudden death was a
hard hit. I was anxious
because I had not been
to Haiti in almost twenty
years. I had been told
what to expect by family
and friends but the truth
is I really didn’t know
what to expect emotionally. I knew that things
Hingham family seeks fulltime housekeeper/house
manager, live-in optional.
Valid MA driver’s license
required.
Call 617-650-5587.
Now:
Read the Reporter online each month at
bostonhaitian.com
had changed drastically
since the 80s. Additionally, I was afraid because
of all the terrifying news
and warning that I had
heard about Haiti. From
the kidnappings to the
robberies to even killing
stories, I was definitely
concerned.
Strangely, part of me
was also excited. I
couldn’t wait to see the
house that I was raised
in during the early years
of my life. I couldn’t wait
to see the people and
eat the food! But I had
to first get through the
traveling nightmares.
All cultures have their
own ways about certain things; Haitians
in general have their
ways about traveling.
For instance, the rules
about carry-on items
were not followed by
most people on the flight.
I don’t know how but
people got on with extra
carry-on items. The first
groups that boarded
used the majority of the
above-head compartments leaving very little
space for people behind
still boarding the plane.
As I entered the cabin I
took one look from front
to back and noticed the
cabin overheads were
packed, including the
space above the row
where I was assigned.
I was the first person to
get in the row yet there
was no space for my bag
above my seat.
I was not surprised.
I was seeing for myself
stories that I had heard:
large comforters, boom
box radios, and plastic
bags containing hats and
stuff took up most of the
space. Luckily, the flight
attendants were used
to this routine. They
moved things around,
took things down to get
checked and in no time, a
space was created for my
little roller. This did not
go well with the people
behind me who had to
check-in their carry-on
items. I did not react to
their comments and did
not engage in their conversations about how I
should have been the one
to check my bag because
it was a real “malèt” or
luggage. I was simply
glad that I was spared
the chaos that waited at
baggage claim in Haiti.
I was the only one in my
family traveling alone
but the arrangement
was that my brother who
had arrived the day prior
would pick me up; he was
to be accompanied by
someone from the family circle that we could
trust. My friend Sherley
had warned me about the
chaos that goes on at the
airport in Haiti. She said
I needed to make sure of
two things: 1) “ Whoever
is picking you up must
be trusted- you better
trust them with your
life”; and 2) “the people
picking you up need to
be on time- they cannot
be late.”
I exited the plane and
walked the tarmac to the
structure. I was immediately engulfed in the
heat and humidity. It
was cloudy, breezy and
at that moment I was
happy to be in Haiti.
Going through the inside
part of the airport was
smooth, the line moved
quickly, no questions
were asked. The majority of the flight was now
in baggage claim and
very few people were
walking out. I found
the exit and walked out
to what appeared to
be a one-level stadium
packed with people, eyes
fixated on one thing: me,
the “dyaspora” wearing
casual jeans, tank-top
and flip flops.
I quickly scanned the
crowd and did not see
my brother as planned.
I was not prepared for
this. “Great,” I thought.
“They’re not here, this is
exactly what I was afraid
would happen.”
Meanwhile, a group
of taxi drivers began to
approach me offering to
take me to my destination. I shook my head
to say no while actively
searching the crowd for
my brother with my eyes.
Paranoia was quickly
settling in, I was upset
and scared. I couldn’t
pull out my cell phone
to call; I had no coverage
in Haiti.
Shoot- what do I do
now? The cab drivers
were beginning to annoy me as they got into
an argument between
themselves about who
approached me first,
which didn’t matter because I was not getting in
a cab. I lowered the sun
glasses that were resting
over my head precisely to
hide the fear that may
have been apparent in
my eyes. I decided to
walk down the path that
led to the end of the tent
where the people lined
up gawking.
I thought maybe my
brother and whoever was
with him were waiting at
the end of the tent and I
couldn’t see them. Negative. I walked back to the
main exit, still with all
those eyes following me.
I decided to be calm and
to wait in the doorway for
my brother to spot me.
It took about 5 minutes which felt like an
eternity before I heard
a familiar voice calling
out my name- not from
the crowd but way over
from the side of the road.
It was my sister in-law
and my brother was with
her. Thank God! They
had been there the en-
Marie Ruth Auguste
tire time chatting with
a cousin that they ran
into at the airport and
lost track of time. And
they came to the airport
by themselves, not with
a trusted local. Now we
were 3 “dyasporas” traveling alone. I was furious
but they both acted as
if there was nothing to
worry about, so I tried
to relax and go with the
flow. We had to walk to
the car which was parked
way up the street, all the
while refusing service
from people demanding to carry my small
carry-on bag. My brother
had to raise his voice a
couple of times at people
reaching for my bag
despite my refusal. A
few guys followed us to
the doors of the car and
finally settled to ask us
for a couple of dollars.
It was sad, scary, and
frustrating. My sister
motioned to reach inside
her purse but my brother
cautioned us not to give
anything to a single person because that would
create more problems;
you give to one, you have
to give to all.
To me, Haiti has
changed in many ways,
but the people are the
same in a lot of ways.
Although I freaked out
when I first arrived in
Haiti, by the next night
I was buying fritay (fried
goodies- goat meat, plantains, etc.) by the side of
the road. In fact, I had
a great moment eating fritay and drinking
Prestige.
Wake services are
different from what I
remember growing up.
Tea is no longer served.
Beverages including
sodas, beers and Barbancourt are must- haves.
After the funeral people
no longer expect patties,
we had to have a reception catered with a lot
of food including cake
for desert.
Other things were the
same, however. People
still travel from near
and far to give love and
support and food is still a
big part of it all. My trip
to Haiti was loaded with
emotions and a whole
lot of food. In the end, I
had to bring back a taste
of Haiti with me: fresh
mangoes, okra (kalalou),
cocoa, and of course,
Rhum Barbancourt,
which I used to make a
delicious punch!
Please send your questions and comments
to ruthsrecipes@gmail.
com
BostonHaitian.com
January 2009
Boston Haitian Reporter
Page 15
Immigration Q & A
ESTA is Coming: What is ESTA?
Q. I have been traveling to the United States on
brief visits for years, and all I’ve had to do is present my passport to the US immigration officials at
the airport and sometimes answer a few questions
about my trip. I’ve heard that this is about to get a
lot more complicated, with new U.S. government
requirements. What do you know about this?
A.
Travel to the United States for brief pleasure or
business visits (up to 90 days) has in fact been a simple
matter for most citizens of countries participating in the
U.S. government’s “Visa Waiver Program” (VWP),
who need only their passports and no visitor visa to
enter the U.S. Those countries participating in the
VWP are Andorra, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brunei, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland,
Ireland, Italy, Japan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg,
Monaco, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway,
Portugal, San Marino, Singapore, Slovenia, Spain,
Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom,
plus seven new countries that were added just
this weekCzech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Republic of Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, and Slovakia.
Now, U.S. Customs and Border Prote tion
(CBP) is introducing another le el of complexity to the VWP arrangement. Starting last
November for the seven new countries, and on
Jan. 12 of this year for the other participating
countries, visitors intending to enter the U.S. by air or by
seausingtheVisaWaiverProgrammustapplytoCBPon
line (at http://esta.cbp.dhs.gov) before their
next planned trip for an “Electronic System for
Travel Authorization” (ESTA) approval. The
application will involve submission of essentially the same biographical and traveler eligibility information that currently is supplied by
VWP travelers on the paper I-94W form they
complete on the airplane and present to passport
control.
That information will then be checked
against government databases to determine whether there is any reason not to
allow the traveler to enter the United States without a visa.Travelers from VWP countries who have
visas (students, temporary workers, etc.), as well as
those from other countries, are not affected by the
new requirements.
At this time the requirement does not apply to travel
into the United States at land border crossing points,
and there is no fee charged. It is recommended that
the ESTA application be done no later than 72 hours
before the planned travel, although DHS says that
the system will be able to accommodate last minute
and emergency travel plans. The ESTA authorization
will be valid for multiple entries for up to two years or
until the traveler’s passport expires, whichever comes
first. If the information in an ESTA-authorized traveler’s passport changes or a new passport is obtained,
the authorization can be updated or reissued online.
Also, please note that in order for a VWP traveler to enter the United States without a visa,
if his or her passport was issued on or after
Oct. 26, 2006, the passport must be an “e-Passport.” Your passport is an “e-Passport” if it has
the small rectangular symbol for e-Passport on
the cover. The symbol is normally located at
the bottom of the passport and is a small horizontal rectangle with a circle in the middle. If the
passport was issued before Oct. 26, 2005, and has
a machine-readable zone, or if the passport was issued between Oct. 26, 2005, and October 25, 2006,
and has a digital photograph, a VWP traveler
may also use that passport for visa-free travel.
Disclaimer: These articles are published to inform,
not to advise in individual cases. Areas of law are
rapidly changing. US Citizenship and Immigration
Services and 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.
Renewed push for CORI reform seen for new year
By Gintautas Dumcius
Reporter Correspondent
Activists are planning on another run this year
at overhauling the state’s criminal offender record
information system.
Saying the records are sometimes inaccurate,
hard-to-read and burdensome for individuals with
minor criminal records who are seeking jobs, activists will re-launch their efforts after failing again
earlier this year to help individuals remove what
they call a “scarlet letter” from their record.
The renewed push also comes as one of criminal
offender record information (CORI) reform’s top
advocates was ousted out of the Senate and is now
fighting to keep additional criminal charges off
her own CORI. Sen. Dianne Wilkerson, a Roxbury
Democrat, stepped down in November amid federal
corruption charges and an election loss to challenger
Sonia Chang-Diaz, a Jamaica Plain Democrat.
“I think it’s a thing whose time has come,” said
Suffolk County Sheriff Andrea Cabral, who hosted a
forum on the subject at UMass-Boston on Dec. 13.
A former prosecutor, Cabral said public safety
always is a priority, “but there needs to be a balance,” since the records can potentially close doors
for individuals, leaving a return to crime as the
only option.
“I think there will be a re-filing of several bills,”
she said.
Some hope there will be an education component,
saying entities like employers and housing authorities don’t always know how to use a CORI record
and aren’t aware of the effect on a person by denying
them housing or a job because of it.
“I’m really interested to see what will come of
CORI reform,” said Charmane Higgins, executive
director of STRIVE, a Codman Square job training
agency for ex-offenders. “Clearly, it’s a hot button
issue.”
Gov. Deval Patrick filed his own version of CORI
reform this year as part of an anti-crime package,
saying the current CORI system “undermines public
safety” in the state. But some reform advocates,
including Wilkerson, said the proposal didn’t go far
enough and didn’t address juvenile records.
A revamped version of the legislation emerged in
the waning summer days of the Legislature’s formal
sessions, but died as a number of other bills rose to
the foreground.
That bill would have allowed job applicants to
not be asked about their criminal histories on
initial job applications and waiting periods to seal
misdemeanor and felony records would have been
reduced to five and 10 years, respectively. Existing
limits are 10 years for misdemeanors and 15 years
for felonies.
“There was too much on the plate,” said Cabral
of other bills.
The fact that the bill had emerged at all from
the Judiciary Committee was a good sign, reform
advocates say.
“I think that bodes well for quicker action this
[coming] year,” said David White, a former president of the Massachusetts Bar Association who has
worked on CORI reform.
A spokesman for Patrick’s Executive Office of
Public Safety said a crime package will be re-filed
and include “some type” of CORI reform, but the
proposals were still in development.
Whoever ends up filing the bills, CORI reform
will again compete with a wide array of issues in
the upcoming two-year legislative session, which
looks to be dominated at the outset by transportation and ethics reforms, along with budgetary strife
resulting from the economy in recession. The new
session starts in January.
Other lawmakers will also keep taking up the CORI
reform banner, White added. “There won’t be lack
of support from specific legislators,” he said.
Specifically, CORI reform activists are looking to
Chang-Diaz to aid them in their efforts.
“She’s going to help us on our agenda,” said Sean
Pelzer, a senior organizer with the Union of Minority Neighborhoods. “She knows there’s a need in the
community for CORI reform to take place.”
Chang-Diaz said the budget crisis, with the state’s
spending plan potentially sent billions out of balance, offers an opening to look at low-cost reforms
such as CORI.
“It’s an issue I think is hugely important for the
district,” she said.
Should advocates fail again, they have a back-up
plan: “We’ll just go back and do it again,” Cabral
said.
Roxbury Prep is a college preparatory 6-8
school that places students in outstanding
public and private high schools.
Roxbury Prep provides:
• A rigorous, tuition-free, college preparatory public
•
•
•
•
education
A safe and serious academic environment with a strict Code
of Conduct and mandatory uniforms
Outstanding teachers
Close partnerships with parents and families
High school placement and graduate services
Applications are available for families whose
children are currently in 5th Grade.
Thursday, January 15th at 6:30 PM
Saturday, January 17th at 10:00 AM
Thursday, January 22nd 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
Page 16 Boston Haitian ReporteR
January 2009
BostonHaitian.com
H.A.U. Gala celebrates 205 years of independence
Boston’s Haitian-Americans United gathered for
the eighth annual inddependence gala on
Saturday, Jan. 3 at Lombardo’s in Randolph. The
event featured dinner, dancing and entertainment.
Rep. Marie St. Fleur offered special remarks on
the Milot pilot city project she has led in recent
years. Boston Mayor Tom Menino also joined the
celebration, as did City Councilman Rob
Consalvo. Entertainment came in the form of
eight year-old Rebecca Noelle Zama, pictured
below with Menino and Consalvo, Pierre Gardy
Fontaine and Ernst St. Cine.
Randolph celebration now in its 8th year
All photos by Beausejour Antoine/ courtesy HAU
CONGRATULATIONS
on 25 years of outstanding contributions
to the Dorchester neighborhood!
From your very long-time friends and colleagues at
Action for Boston Community Development, Inc.
178 Tremont Street, Boston, MA 02111
617-348-6000 | www.bostonabcd.org
Ed Forry, Dorchester Reporter
Founder and Publisher, speaks out at
opening of the rebuilt ABCD
Dorchester Neighborhood Service
Center (NSC). He served as Co-Chair
of the fundraising committee for that
effort - just one of his many community contributions over the years. At
right are Bob Coard, ABCD
President/CEO and Thelma Burns,
Dorchester NSC Board Chair and
former ABCD Board Chair.