Time for the New US Ambassador to Haiti
Posted in: Media Writings on Haiti | Comments (0)
Ms. Janet Anderson, US Ambassador to Haiti, has resigned after 3 1/2 years at that post. She now will be replaced by a new appointee of the Obama Administration. The Miami Herald wrote a piece about her tenure at the Embassy, coupled with her picture and a brief assessment of her time as the US envoy to this troubled Caribbean nation.
HPierre @ June 27, 2009
Haitian Children Trapped into Modern Slavery
Posted in: Media Writings on Haiti | Comments (0)
On May 25, 2009, more than 500 Haitians gathered at a fancy hotel on the upper hills of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, participating at a conference about children in servitude in Haiti. This gathering was sponsored by The Restavec Foundation. This is a very serious problem, for a country that has fought for, and successfully obtained independence from slavery more than two centuries ago.
Restavec child in Haiti
The Jamaican Gleaner had a short article about this in one of its most recent publication. You can read that article by visiting their site, and you can also contribute to the cause of helping end this nightmare in Haiti by clicking on the Restavec Foundation’s donation link.
HPierre @ June 27, 2009
Students Protest Caused Stir in the Capital in Mid-June
Posted in: Media Writings on Haiti | Comments (0)
Haitian University students protested recently, around mid-June, about the conditions of the university system and also, over the issue of minimum wages that mostly affect factory workers. Read how their protest affected the general feel of the city of Port-au-Prince recently.
This article was written by Elizabeth Eames Roebling, stationed in the Dominican Republic, for IPS News.
State university students, protesting
HPierre @ June 27, 2009
Bill Clinton Named Special Envoy to Haiti
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Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton, Haiti Special Envoy for the UN
was recently named Special Envoy to Haiti by the United Sations. Although this had not been the first time he was asked to play such a role, his appointment has caused much stir and grumbling among many from Haiti’s traditional elite. The Christian Science Monitor wrote a piece about his appointment in their June 15, 2009, edition of their paper.
Read Howard LaFranchi’s analysis of his appointment by clicking here.
HPierre @ June 27, 2009
Timeline for the Reverend Father Jean-Juste
Posted in: Media Writings on Haiti | Comments (0)
Father Gerard Jean-Juste was a pillar of the Haitian community, in the United States (especially Florida) and in Haiti. He died on May 27, 2009. Click here to find out more about his life and death, as posted on the Miami Herald’s website
The late Father Gerard Jean-Juste
.
HPierre @ June 27, 2009
How the Traditionalists Become Truly Influential
Posted in: Readers' Opinions | Comments (0)
By Hyppolite Pierre
One way to look at the issue of lobbying in Haiti’s case, is to see how it influences the political process. Again, there is nothing wrong with lobbying by any group. It is when, in Haiti’s case, one group lobbies for its exclusive interest against that of everyone else that it may become a concern. In Haiti’s case, there seems to be a growing concern over how the vast impoverished majority has very little of any influence, while others are benefiting, it seems from their misery.
HPierre @ May 3, 2009
Power in Haiti, and the Absence of True Ideology
Posted in: Readers' Opinions | Comments (0)
By Hyppolite Pierre
The whole saga of the last elections has brought up to surface raw emotions from all corners, especially among those whose true interest is the empowerment of the entire electorate in Haiti for the establishment of a true democratic system. Indeed, more than 80 percent among those with the right to vote decided to stay away from the voting booth; but it is necessary to see why democratic implementation in Haiti is so difficult, and who are truly responsible for these structural difficulties.
I think there is a fundamental confusion in the political process in Haiti, which has been quite costly for the whole country. On April 27, 2009, I listened on the internet to the very famous Haitian journalist Marc Gracia (Marcus), reading an editorial on his radio station in Haiti (Radio Melodie FM) where he alluded to a Prime Minister from the Caribbean region who basically calls Haiti “a shame in the Caribbean”, apparently as the PM got very frustrated with the procedures used during the last elections.
HPierre @ May 3, 2009
Why the Sudden Rush to Haiti?
Posted in: Editorial | Comments (0)
By Hyppolite Pierre
On Tuesday, April 14, 2009, the US State Department reported in a PR blitz that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was due to address a Haiti Donors’ Conference at the Inter American Development Bank in Washington, DC. The conference is co-chaired by the bank’s President Luis Alberto Moreno, and Haiti’s current Prime Minister Michele Pierre-Louis. On Thursday, April 16, 2009, the same Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is due to arrive in Haiti, according to a Reuters article. Everyone seems to wonder, why the sudden change of heart as to Haiti matters?
The Aristide Factor.
HPierre @ April 15, 2009
Integrating Security and Development in Haiti
Posted in: Media Writings on Haiti | Comments (0)
Without economic development that can provide jobs and basic necessities, Haiti will be hard-pressed to achieve the stability needed to maintain the political and legal reforms that support a peaceful society. Read the whole text by James Marchall, by simply clicking on this link
HPierre @ April 10, 2009
Critical questions: the Haiti donor’s conference
Posted in: Media Writings on Haiti | Comments (0)
Source: Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
Background: This long-postponed conference has put Haiti back on the agenda of the international community at a critical time in the country’s history. In the last year, Haiti has experienced food riots in April 2008 that forced the resignation of its prime minister and left the government of President René Préval in turmoil as the Haitian parliament dallied for five months to select a replacement, Michèle Pierre-Louis. Within weeks of resolving this political crisis, a series of four hurricanes ravaged the country. With hundreds dead, the city of Gonaives underwater, and almost every road and bridge destroyed, Haiti’s humanitarian crisis set back any progress that had been made on specific economic and political reforms.
HPierre @ April 9, 2009
