DAJABON. - Une commission de techniciens et d’experts dans différents secteurs en provenance du Brésil ont ici exprimé leur disposition de s'insérer et prendre part à des projets de développement de la région frontalière, surtout dans les secteurs d'infrastructure, agriculture, éducation et environnement, entre autres. La position a été fixée par une commission technique de haut niveau de la ville de Curitiba, état de Parana, dirigée par le secrétaire des Travaux Publics, Ney Caldas, qui s’est prononcé pendant une rencontre convoquée et dirigée par le directeur de Développement Frontalier, Major général Manuel Jesus Florentino et Florentino; le titulaire du Bureau National de l’aménagement du territoire, Franklin Labour, le vice-ministre de Planification, l'Économie et le Développement, América Bastidas et du PNUD, Franco Torres.
La mission brésilienne a été intégrée outre Caldas, par Santiago Gallo, secrétaire du Conseil du Développement et Intégration du Sud, CODESUR ; Jorge Callado, secrétaire d'Environnement et des ressources Hydriques ; Newton Pohl Ribas, de l'Institut de Technologie ; Julio Salomao, du ministère de l'Agriculture et par l'expert agricole Joao Nshi de Souza.
Caldas a exposé l'intérêt des autorités supérieures de l'état de Parana de soutenir les projets et les actions qui conduisent à continuer à améliorer la qualité de vie des habitants des deux côtés de la ligne frontalière haitiano dominicaine. Il dit qu'ils peuvent aider en ce sens parce qu'ils vivent l'expérience de l'état de Parana qui se trouve entre le Paraguay et l'Argentine. …
Après la rencontre les membres de la mission brésilienne, accompagnés de la délégation dominicaine ont visité les bureaux de Migration et de Douanes, ainsi que le point de division entre Haïti et la République Dominicaine situé sur le pont jeté sur la rivière Massacre….
http://elnuevodiario.com.do/app/article.aspx?id=213172
dimanche 12 septembre 2010
Prochainement un Nouvel hôpital près de la Capitale d’Haïti
Port-au-Prince, Haïti.- Un groupe humanitaire américain et les autorités sanitaires haïtiennes ont annoncé des plans pour la construction d’un hôpital universitaire de 15.000.000 de dollars au nord de la capitale haïtienne détruite par le tremblement de terre.
L’Organisation avec son siège à Boston « Partners in Health » annonce que la structure avec une capacité de 320 lits qi devra être construite dans la ville de Mirebalais est destinée à diminuer de la pression sur l’hôpital Général de Port-au-Prince sur utilisé et sous financé.
Peu d’haïtiens aujourd’hui disposent d’un accès régulier à des soins de santé.
Partners in health a déclaré vendredi que l’hôpital universitaire prendra en charge entre 450 a 500 patients par jour.
New hospital announced near Haiti's capital
The Associated Press Friday, September 10, 2010; 8:16 PM
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- A U.S. humanitarian group and Haitian health officials have announced plans for a $15 million teaching hospital north of the earthquake-battered capital.
The Boston-based organization Partners in Health says the 320-bed facility to be built in the town of Mirebalais is intended to take pressure off the overburdened and underfinanced general hospital in Port-au-Prince. Few Haitians now have regular access to health care.
Partners in Health said Friday that the teaching hospital will serve an estimated 450 to 550 patients a day. It will include six operating rooms, have digital X-ray and be powered in part by solar panels.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/10/AR2010091006618.html
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- A U.S. humanitarian group and Haitian health officials have announced plans for a $15 million teaching hospital north of the earthquake-battered capital.
The Boston-based organization Partners in Health says the 320-bed facility to be built in the town of Mirebalais is intended to take pressure off the overburdened and underfinanced general hospital in Port-au-Prince. Few Haitians now have regular access to health care.
Partners in Health said Friday that the teaching hospital will serve an estimated 450 to 550 patients a day. It will include six operating rooms, have digital X-ray and be powered in part by solar panels.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/10/AR2010091006618.html
Just 2 percent of quake debris in Haiti cleared
By TAMARA LUSH The Associated Press
Saturday, September 11, 2010; 1:35 PM
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- From the dusty rock mounds lining the streets to a National Palace that looks like it's vomiting concrete from its core, rubble is one of the most visible reminders of Haiti's devastating earthquake.
Rubble is everywhere in this capital city: cracked slabs, busted-up cinder blocks, half-destroyed buildings that still spill bricks and pulverized concrete onto the sidewalks. Some places look as though they have been flipped upside down, or are sinking to the ground, or listing precariously to one side.
By some estimates, the quake left about 33 million cubic yards of debris in Port-au-Prince - more than seven times the amount of concrete used to build the Hoover Dam. So far, only about 2 percent has been cleared, which means the city looks pretty much as it did a month after the Jan. 12 quake.
Government officials and outside aid groups say rubble removal is the priority before Haiti can rebuild. But the reasons why so little has been cleared are complex. And frustrating.
Heavy equipment has to be shipped in by sea. Dump trucks have difficulty navigating narrow and mountainous dirt roads. An abysmal records system makes it hard for the government to determine who owns a dilapidated property. And there are few sites on which to dump the rubble, which often contains human remains.
Also, no single person in the Haitian government has been declared in charge of the rubble, prompting foreign nongovernmental organizations to take on the task themselves. The groups are often forced to fight for a small pool of available money and contracts - which in turn means the work is done piecemeal, with little coordination.
Projects funded by USAID and the U.S. Department of Defense have spent more than $98.5 million to remove 1.2 million cubic yards of rubble.
"There's not a master plan," Eric Overvest, country director for the U.N. Development Program, said with a sigh. "After the earthquake, the first priority was clearing the roads. That was the easiest part."
Overvest said the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission - created after the earthquake to coordinate billions of dollars in aid - has approved a $17 million plan to clear rubble from six neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince. The neighborhoods have not yet been selected, however, and it's unclear when debris will be removed from other areas.
Leslie Voltaire, a Haitian architect, urban planner and presidential candidate, says his country needs a "rubble czar."
"Everybody is passing the blame on why things haven't happened yet," he said. "There should be one person in charge. Resettlement has not even begun yet, and it can't until the city has been cleared."
Voltaire maintains that there are enough crushers, dump trucks and other heavy equipment for the job; others say that more machinery is needed. But everyone agrees that recovery will take decades - and the slower the rubble removal, the longer the recovery.
Most Haitians are simply living with the rubble, working and walking around it. After a while, the gray heaps and cockeyed buildings just blend into the tattered background of the city.
"It will take many, many years to fix," Overvest acknowledged. "We can't just go with wheelbarrows to remove it."
But that's exactly what some Haitians are doing: using shovels and wheelbarrows to clear properties - a Sisyphean task if there ever was one.
"Personally, I don't think Port-au-Prince will ever be cleared," said 47-year-old Yvon Clerisier, an artist working a temporary job clearing rubble with a rusty shovel for a private homeowner. He wore torn jeans, a sweaty T-shirt and sandals, and was covered in a fine dust.
Clerisier was one of a dozen men working in temperatures higher than 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 Celsius). The property owner, Gregory Antoine, said he paid the crew $1,200 for three weeks of work.
"People want to work," Antoine said. "If you get a good organization to put people to work and give them direction, things will get done. But right now, nothing is getting done."
It's not for lack of trying. The nonprofit organization CHF International spent about $5 million of USAID money on heavy machinery and paying Haitians to remove rubble from specific sites.
Dan Strode was the rubble-removal operations manager for CHF for three months; some dubbed him "the rubble guy" because of his enthusiasm for the job.
"Rubble isn't sexy," the Californian said. "And clearing it is not as simple as people think."
Strode's big worry: that debris won't be cleared fast enough and that the piles of rocks and garbage and dirt will be overtaken by tropical growth.
"If we don't clear it, what we will leave behind is something that is worse than before," he said. "If you come back in a year, and the rubble hasn't been cleared, it will be grown over, subject to landslides and unstable."
Strode, who coordinated the removal of nearly 290,000 cubic yards of material in three months, said a major obstacle to demolishing buildings has been the lack of property records, which either were destroyed in the quake or never existed at all.
Without an owner's consent, it is difficult to remove debris, he said. Another problem: Strode often received approval to demolish a building such as a hospital or a school - even when nearby homes were at risk.
"You cannot wantonly go in and demolish," he said. "There's a liability issue."
Strode is no longer doing rubble removal. The grant money ran out, and has not yet been renewed.
Another hurdle: dumping the debris.
While many private landowners and others are dumping the rubble in the streets, canals or countryside, there's only one place in all of Haiti where NGOs using U.S. money can take contaminated rubble: an approved and environmentally surveyed site.
"Not all rubble is the same," said Michael Zamba, the spokesman for the Pan American Development Foundation. "There's a lot of contaminated rubble with human remains in it. It can't go in a standard landfill."
Zamba points out that before the earthquake, Haiti was the least-developed country in the Western Hemisphere - so it's not that surprising recovery is slow.
"Haiti is a really expensive place to work: You have to ship in gas, vehicles, people," he said. "But you clean up the rubble in a neighborhood, and it transforms it. Life comes back."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/11/AR2010091102621_3.html?sub=AR
Saturday, September 11, 2010; 1:35 PM
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- From the dusty rock mounds lining the streets to a National Palace that looks like it's vomiting concrete from its core, rubble is one of the most visible reminders of Haiti's devastating earthquake.
Rubble is everywhere in this capital city: cracked slabs, busted-up cinder blocks, half-destroyed buildings that still spill bricks and pulverized concrete onto the sidewalks. Some places look as though they have been flipped upside down, or are sinking to the ground, or listing precariously to one side.
By some estimates, the quake left about 33 million cubic yards of debris in Port-au-Prince - more than seven times the amount of concrete used to build the Hoover Dam. So far, only about 2 percent has been cleared, which means the city looks pretty much as it did a month after the Jan. 12 quake.
Government officials and outside aid groups say rubble removal is the priority before Haiti can rebuild. But the reasons why so little has been cleared are complex. And frustrating.
Heavy equipment has to be shipped in by sea. Dump trucks have difficulty navigating narrow and mountainous dirt roads. An abysmal records system makes it hard for the government to determine who owns a dilapidated property. And there are few sites on which to dump the rubble, which often contains human remains.
Also, no single person in the Haitian government has been declared in charge of the rubble, prompting foreign nongovernmental organizations to take on the task themselves. The groups are often forced to fight for a small pool of available money and contracts - which in turn means the work is done piecemeal, with little coordination.
Projects funded by USAID and the U.S. Department of Defense have spent more than $98.5 million to remove 1.2 million cubic yards of rubble.
"There's not a master plan," Eric Overvest, country director for the U.N. Development Program, said with a sigh. "After the earthquake, the first priority was clearing the roads. That was the easiest part."
Overvest said the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission - created after the earthquake to coordinate billions of dollars in aid - has approved a $17 million plan to clear rubble from six neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince. The neighborhoods have not yet been selected, however, and it's unclear when debris will be removed from other areas.
Leslie Voltaire, a Haitian architect, urban planner and presidential candidate, says his country needs a "rubble czar."
"Everybody is passing the blame on why things haven't happened yet," he said. "There should be one person in charge. Resettlement has not even begun yet, and it can't until the city has been cleared."
Voltaire maintains that there are enough crushers, dump trucks and other heavy equipment for the job; others say that more machinery is needed. But everyone agrees that recovery will take decades - and the slower the rubble removal, the longer the recovery.
Most Haitians are simply living with the rubble, working and walking around it. After a while, the gray heaps and cockeyed buildings just blend into the tattered background of the city.
"It will take many, many years to fix," Overvest acknowledged. "We can't just go with wheelbarrows to remove it."
But that's exactly what some Haitians are doing: using shovels and wheelbarrows to clear properties - a Sisyphean task if there ever was one.
"Personally, I don't think Port-au-Prince will ever be cleared," said 47-year-old Yvon Clerisier, an artist working a temporary job clearing rubble with a rusty shovel for a private homeowner. He wore torn jeans, a sweaty T-shirt and sandals, and was covered in a fine dust.
Clerisier was one of a dozen men working in temperatures higher than 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 Celsius). The property owner, Gregory Antoine, said he paid the crew $1,200 for three weeks of work.
"People want to work," Antoine said. "If you get a good organization to put people to work and give them direction, things will get done. But right now, nothing is getting done."
It's not for lack of trying. The nonprofit organization CHF International spent about $5 million of USAID money on heavy machinery and paying Haitians to remove rubble from specific sites.
Dan Strode was the rubble-removal operations manager for CHF for three months; some dubbed him "the rubble guy" because of his enthusiasm for the job.
"Rubble isn't sexy," the Californian said. "And clearing it is not as simple as people think."
Strode's big worry: that debris won't be cleared fast enough and that the piles of rocks and garbage and dirt will be overtaken by tropical growth.
"If we don't clear it, what we will leave behind is something that is worse than before," he said. "If you come back in a year, and the rubble hasn't been cleared, it will be grown over, subject to landslides and unstable."
Strode, who coordinated the removal of nearly 290,000 cubic yards of material in three months, said a major obstacle to demolishing buildings has been the lack of property records, which either were destroyed in the quake or never existed at all.
Without an owner's consent, it is difficult to remove debris, he said. Another problem: Strode often received approval to demolish a building such as a hospital or a school - even when nearby homes were at risk.
"You cannot wantonly go in and demolish," he said. "There's a liability issue."
Strode is no longer doing rubble removal. The grant money ran out, and has not yet been renewed.
Another hurdle: dumping the debris.
While many private landowners and others are dumping the rubble in the streets, canals or countryside, there's only one place in all of Haiti where NGOs using U.S. money can take contaminated rubble: an approved and environmentally surveyed site.
"Not all rubble is the same," said Michael Zamba, the spokesman for the Pan American Development Foundation. "There's a lot of contaminated rubble with human remains in it. It can't go in a standard landfill."
Zamba points out that before the earthquake, Haiti was the least-developed country in the Western Hemisphere - so it's not that surprising recovery is slow.
"Haiti is a really expensive place to work: You have to ship in gas, vehicles, people," he said. "But you clean up the rubble in a neighborhood, and it transforms it. Life comes back."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/11/AR2010091102621_3.html?sub=AR
For now, Haiti's presidential candidates in quest for unity
In the battle for Haiti's presidency, candidates jockey to define themselves as the unifying force as ideology falls by the wayside.
BY JACQUELINE CHARLES
JCHARLES@MIAMIHERALD.COM
PORT-AU-PRINCE -- As presidential hopeful Jude Célestin registered his candidacy inside the quake-battered headquarters of the electoral commission last month, the group of supporters crowding him reflected Haiti's turbulent political past.
Behind him was a militant of ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's Lavalas party. Steps away, a member of Haiti's elite. All around, backers of President René Préval. And leaning over his shoulder, his uncle, a hard-liner of the 29-year Duvalier dynasty.
``For the last 20 years, we've been discriminatory,'' said Gregory Brandt, a member of Haiti's traditional elite and president of the Haitian-French Chamber of Commerce, referring to how Haitians have dealt with power. ``We've been Duvalierists, Putschists, Lavalas, Lavalas Revisionist/Prevalians. Now, it's about time we talk about being Haitians.''
Political tides may be changing in an earthquake-shattered Haiti. In a country where brutal politics have led to exiles, ousted presidents and repressed opponents, candidates for the presidency are focusing less on ideology and more on how to unify this battered nation.
But the changes are creating conflicting emotions, especially among old-guard pro-democracy militants who fought past dictatorships. While some welcome the blurring of political boundaries, others doubt the respite from politics-as-usual will survive past the Nov. 28 election date.
``It's mental disorder, a carnival,'' Jean-Claude Bajeux, a longtime human rights activist and democratic reformer, said in a dismissive tone.
Still, several of the 19 candidates are jockeying to define themselves as the rassembleur or unifier in a country with class, race and political divisions. ``We don't just need to reconstruct a country, but we need to reconstruct the people's mentality,'' Célestin, the former head of Haiti's state-owned road-building outfit, told The Miami Herald. ``We need a different way to think socially and politically.''
One of the first things he did after being chosen over Alexis to lead Préval's INITE (UNITY) platform, was to call opposition party members, Célestin said.
``I said `Let's form another generation of politicians with another vision. It doesn't make any sense to fight. Now is the moment to sit down and see what we can do for the country.' ''
Candidates say the Haitian people -- even more desperate and deprived following the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake that left an estimated 300,000 dead -- are increasingly looking past ideology.
``They are looking for jobs, life, schooling for their children. Not ideologies,'' said Mirlande Manigat, a former first lady and the lone candidate from the traditional opposition.
Manigat, a university scholar who spent years in political exile, said she hopes ``the elections under these trying circumstances, mark a turning point'' in the political life of Haiti.
``I don't know if we Haitians understand the gravity of Jan. 12 in our consciousness. The problems existed before Jan. 12 -- hunger, unemployment, insecurity, corruption, high cost of living, health, education,'' she said. ``The earthquake was a revealer. Only now are a lot of Haitians discovering the gravity of the situation.''
Former two-time Prime Minister Jacques-Edouard Alexis said Haiti, known for its exclusionary politics, can no longer afford to ``practice politics in the same-old-trickery fashion.''
Alexis, a candidate for the presidency, showed up to register at the elections office with a member of Haiti's Arab community who has opposed every government he has led.
``The ideological values that allowed us to determine if someone is to the left, center or the right, we don't see them anymore,'' he said. ``But given the quantity of social and economic injustice we have in Haiti, it demands that whichever group comes to power arrives at a national consensus to govern the country.''
But even Alexis, who strongly advocates the need for Haiti's political structure to be more formalized and professional, demonstrated how fluid the boundaries are. Hours after fellow members of Préval's party rejected his candidacy, Alexis joined a very unlikely new party to register for the presidency. That party, Movement for the Progress of Haiti (MPH), is headed by Samir Mourra, a Haitian American who was banned from the 2006 presidential race because of his U.S. passport.
Manigat, wife of former President Leslie Manigat, said she's always had reservations about using the labels ``left or right to sum up someone's political leanings.''
But she understands the dilemma of people who are in search of candidates' overarching vision, but feel lost.
``This is not good for Haitian politics. But it wouldn't be good either to have completely rigid ideological lines,'' Manigat said. ``Ultimately, this is a stew. You can't tell which ingredient is which.''
Critics say the political stability is welcome. But they worry that the laissez-faire manner in which politics are practiced and alliances created are more about political expediency and convenience, than vision.
``If you want to be elected in the current climate you want to pretend you can bridge whatever divisions there was between elite, the average population and political clout,'' said Robert Fatton, a Haiti-born political scientist at University of Virginia. ``Once you get it, you have to decide who is going to be riding with you, and that is going to lead to some political divisions again.''
Others argue that the lack of vision they are seeing in the campaign does little to address the deep social issues affecting Haiti's poverty-stricken masses. Also, the absence of debate on ideas and issues leaves Haitians without a hint about how public policies will be shaped.
``None so far has produced any sort of platform that one could scrutinize,'' Alex Dupuy, a Haiti-born sociologist at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, said about the candidates. ``I don't see any candidate one could get excited about and think he or she could make a significant difference in changing the status quo if elected.''
For now, the candidates are more interested in selling their character in a country where exclusionary slogans -- Makout Pa Ladann, used after the collapse of the dictatorship to deny government access to anyone with ties to the Duvalier regime -- once heralded change.
``As long as you want to bring this country forward, we don't care where you come from,'' said Charles Henri Baker, a candidate who lost to Préval in 2006.
Jean-Henry Céant, a lawyer and notary who is reportedly backed both by Aristide supporters and some who forced his ouster, said for him rassembleur is more than just a word.
``When I say it, I stand behind it. All the others who are saying it, it's just words from their lips because they all are practicing exclusion,'' he said.
Ready to back up his position, Céant says he supports the return of Aristide, exiled amid bloody turmoil in 2004, as well as Jean-Claude "Baby Doc'' Duvalier and former military coup leaders Raoul Cedras and Henry Namphy.
"My dream is to construct a huge club in Haiti, where we have all of the former Haitian presidents sit together, because I believe they all have a political experience that I can benefit from," Céant said.
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/09/08/v-fullstory/1815038/for-now-haitis-presidential-candidates.html#ixzz0zJ7gPfWW
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/09/08/v-fullstory/1815038/for-now-haitis-presidential-candidates.html
 |
| Haiti Presidential hopeful Jude Celestin, in a stripe shirt registering his candidacy, is joined by a crowd of supporters. Among them, his uncle Rony Gilot, a one-time hardliner of the 29-year Duvalier dynasty; Sen. Jean Rodolphe Joazil, who was elected under the Fusion party. Others in the crowd include backers of President Rene Preval, and a militant of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's Lavalas party. COURTESY OF LE NOUVELLISTE |
BY JACQUELINE CHARLES
JCHARLES@MIAMIHERALD.COM
PORT-AU-PRINCE -- As presidential hopeful Jude Célestin registered his candidacy inside the quake-battered headquarters of the electoral commission last month, the group of supporters crowding him reflected Haiti's turbulent political past.
Behind him was a militant of ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's Lavalas party. Steps away, a member of Haiti's elite. All around, backers of President René Préval. And leaning over his shoulder, his uncle, a hard-liner of the 29-year Duvalier dynasty.
``For the last 20 years, we've been discriminatory,'' said Gregory Brandt, a member of Haiti's traditional elite and president of the Haitian-French Chamber of Commerce, referring to how Haitians have dealt with power. ``We've been Duvalierists, Putschists, Lavalas, Lavalas Revisionist/Prevalians. Now, it's about time we talk about being Haitians.''
Political tides may be changing in an earthquake-shattered Haiti. In a country where brutal politics have led to exiles, ousted presidents and repressed opponents, candidates for the presidency are focusing less on ideology and more on how to unify this battered nation.
But the changes are creating conflicting emotions, especially among old-guard pro-democracy militants who fought past dictatorships. While some welcome the blurring of political boundaries, others doubt the respite from politics-as-usual will survive past the Nov. 28 election date.
``It's mental disorder, a carnival,'' Jean-Claude Bajeux, a longtime human rights activist and democratic reformer, said in a dismissive tone.
Still, several of the 19 candidates are jockeying to define themselves as the rassembleur or unifier in a country with class, race and political divisions. ``We don't just need to reconstruct a country, but we need to reconstruct the people's mentality,'' Célestin, the former head of Haiti's state-owned road-building outfit, told The Miami Herald. ``We need a different way to think socially and politically.''
One of the first things he did after being chosen over Alexis to lead Préval's INITE (UNITY) platform, was to call opposition party members, Célestin said.
``I said `Let's form another generation of politicians with another vision. It doesn't make any sense to fight. Now is the moment to sit down and see what we can do for the country.' ''
Candidates say the Haitian people -- even more desperate and deprived following the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake that left an estimated 300,000 dead -- are increasingly looking past ideology.
``They are looking for jobs, life, schooling for their children. Not ideologies,'' said Mirlande Manigat, a former first lady and the lone candidate from the traditional opposition.
Manigat, a university scholar who spent years in political exile, said she hopes ``the elections under these trying circumstances, mark a turning point'' in the political life of Haiti.
``I don't know if we Haitians understand the gravity of Jan. 12 in our consciousness. The problems existed before Jan. 12 -- hunger, unemployment, insecurity, corruption, high cost of living, health, education,'' she said. ``The earthquake was a revealer. Only now are a lot of Haitians discovering the gravity of the situation.''
Former two-time Prime Minister Jacques-Edouard Alexis said Haiti, known for its exclusionary politics, can no longer afford to ``practice politics in the same-old-trickery fashion.''
Alexis, a candidate for the presidency, showed up to register at the elections office with a member of Haiti's Arab community who has opposed every government he has led.
``The ideological values that allowed us to determine if someone is to the left, center or the right, we don't see them anymore,'' he said. ``But given the quantity of social and economic injustice we have in Haiti, it demands that whichever group comes to power arrives at a national consensus to govern the country.''
But even Alexis, who strongly advocates the need for Haiti's political structure to be more formalized and professional, demonstrated how fluid the boundaries are. Hours after fellow members of Préval's party rejected his candidacy, Alexis joined a very unlikely new party to register for the presidency. That party, Movement for the Progress of Haiti (MPH), is headed by Samir Mourra, a Haitian American who was banned from the 2006 presidential race because of his U.S. passport.
Manigat, wife of former President Leslie Manigat, said she's always had reservations about using the labels ``left or right to sum up someone's political leanings.''
But she understands the dilemma of people who are in search of candidates' overarching vision, but feel lost.
``This is not good for Haitian politics. But it wouldn't be good either to have completely rigid ideological lines,'' Manigat said. ``Ultimately, this is a stew. You can't tell which ingredient is which.''
Critics say the political stability is welcome. But they worry that the laissez-faire manner in which politics are practiced and alliances created are more about political expediency and convenience, than vision.
``If you want to be elected in the current climate you want to pretend you can bridge whatever divisions there was between elite, the average population and political clout,'' said Robert Fatton, a Haiti-born political scientist at University of Virginia. ``Once you get it, you have to decide who is going to be riding with you, and that is going to lead to some political divisions again.''
Others argue that the lack of vision they are seeing in the campaign does little to address the deep social issues affecting Haiti's poverty-stricken masses. Also, the absence of debate on ideas and issues leaves Haitians without a hint about how public policies will be shaped.
``None so far has produced any sort of platform that one could scrutinize,'' Alex Dupuy, a Haiti-born sociologist at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, said about the candidates. ``I don't see any candidate one could get excited about and think he or she could make a significant difference in changing the status quo if elected.''
For now, the candidates are more interested in selling their character in a country where exclusionary slogans -- Makout Pa Ladann, used after the collapse of the dictatorship to deny government access to anyone with ties to the Duvalier regime -- once heralded change.
``As long as you want to bring this country forward, we don't care where you come from,'' said Charles Henri Baker, a candidate who lost to Préval in 2006.
Jean-Henry Céant, a lawyer and notary who is reportedly backed both by Aristide supporters and some who forced his ouster, said for him rassembleur is more than just a word.
``When I say it, I stand behind it. All the others who are saying it, it's just words from their lips because they all are practicing exclusion,'' he said.
Ready to back up his position, Céant says he supports the return of Aristide, exiled amid bloody turmoil in 2004, as well as Jean-Claude "Baby Doc'' Duvalier and former military coup leaders Raoul Cedras and Henry Namphy.
"My dream is to construct a huge club in Haiti, where we have all of the former Haitian presidents sit together, because I believe they all have a political experience that I can benefit from," Céant said.
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/09/08/v-fullstory/1815038/for-now-haitis-presidential-candidates.html#ixzz0zJ7gPfWW
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/09/08/v-fullstory/1815038/for-now-haitis-presidential-candidates.html
Arte : la chute d’un dictateur populiste en Haïti...MOLOCH TROPICAL...UN FILM DE RAOUL PECK
Arte, Haïti, Télévision Par yucatan
le 11/09/2010
Vendredi 10 septembre nous avons eu le plaisir de voir sur Arte, un film exceptionnel qui n’a pas encore été programmé dans les salles obscures de l’hexagone. Son titre Moloch tropical. Le Parisien le décrit ainsi : « film franco-haïtien de Raoul Peck 2009, 105 min. Avec Zinedine Soualem et Sonia Rolland. Les dernières 24 heures avant sa chute, du président haïtien démocratiquement élu, Jean de Dieu Théogène, renversé par une révolte populaire. »
Il s’agit en fait, de l’histoire légèrement romancée de la fin du deuxième mandat du président haïtien Aristide, ancien prêtre catholique de la théologie de la Libération, élu avec 93 % des voix et... 5 % de votants.
L’action se passe à huis clos dans l’impressionnant palais de l’ancien roi Christophe (1767 - 1820), perché sur une montagne toute nimbée de brouillard. La commémoration du bicentenaire de l’indépendance sert de fil conducteur. Magistralement interprété par Zinedine Soualem, le président haïtien nous est montré dans une lente descente aux enfers qui se termine par une crise de folie. Crise révélée par son discours de commémoration où il se prend pour Gandhi, De Gaulle, Antoine et Cléopâtre et de nombreux autres personnages hétéroclites. Abandonné par tous ses amis et commanditaires, dont les USA en tête, il finira nu au sens propre comme au figuré. Prisonnier dans son palais bunker, dont les soubresauts du soulèvement de son peuple, ne lui parviennent que par écrans de télévision ou téléphones interposés, on ne peut que penser à Hitler éructant contre le monde entier dans son trou, tandis que Berlin au-dessus est à feu et a sang. Le ‘’héros’’ malgré lui, nous fait part, avec un certain humour inconscient et macabre, durant tout son calvaire, de sa conception du monde, du pouvoir et des difficultés à gérer un peuple d’anciens esclaves, qui depuis 200 ans cherche son centre de gravité. L’orchestre du palais, omniprésent et qui doit inaugurer les festivités du bicentenaire, matérialise le discours de son président : même dans la musique, malgré les efforts surhumains du chef d’orchestre, il n’arrive pas à jouer l’hymne national. Difficile entente et coordination entre les métis et les noirs traités de paysans par le chef des musiciens épuisé. Noirs qui ne servent que de valets ou d’exutoires sexuels aux dirigeants métis en mal d’être. Belle prestation de la femme de Théogène, interprétée par l’ancienne miss France : Sonia Rolland.
L’atmosphère de fin de règne, qui oscille entre le tragique, le morbide, le scatalogique et l’ubuesque, est interprétée de main de maître par le réalisateur, enfant du pays. Spectacle à ne pas manquer lors de son passage sur les écrans français.
http://www.lepost.fr/article/2010/09/11/2215661_arte-la-chute-d-un-dictateur-populiste-en-haiti.html
Moloch Tropical - Sonia Rolland / Une première dame de coeur
Première dame d’Haïti, Michaëlle a beaucoup fait pour la carrière de Jean de Dieu. Épouse fidèle aujourd’hui délaissée, elle assiste à sa chute, impuissante.
« Michaëlle est une bourgeoise haïtianno-américaine de 35 ans. Autrement dit, rien à voir avec moi ! Mais Raoul Peck va toujours au-delà des apparences, comme le prouve le choix de Zinedine. Il m’a dit : tu es une bosseuse, tu n’as pas froid aux yeux, alors montre-moi que tu en es capable. Pile les mots qu’il faut pour me pousser… Car évidemment, j’aimerais aller de plus en plus vers ce type de rôles. J’ai travaillé mon anglais, étudié les différents profils des premières dames, beaucoup observé Carla Bruni-Sarkozy et Michelle Obama, qui incarnent ce rôle de façon très moderne. Michaëlle est une combattante.
Le message du film est universel.
Elle est tombée amoureuse d’un homme aux fortes convictions politiques et elle a cru en lui comme beaucoup d’autres. Mais malgré la violence de sa déception, elle choisit de rester – par amour, et poussée par ce fatalisme qu’on retrouve en Afrique, dans tous les pays qui ont connu la dictature. Le message du film est universel. Il parle du pouvoir en général, montrant comment on finit par se perdre dans ses dédales.
Nous étions vraiment conditionnés : coupés du monde, comme les personnages, dans cette citadelle perchée en altitude, dans une humidité constante. Cela nous a tous animés d’une même énergie… Raoul sait créer un climat d’intimité très créatif. Il susurre ses indications à l’oreille, pour ne jamais vous mettre dans l’embarras. Je suis très fière d’avoir travaillé avec lui. On s’était rencontrés il y a des années sur le casting de son film Quelques jours en avril (HBO Films). Depuis ce jour, on savait qu’on ferait quelque chose ensemble. »
Jean-Michel Basquiat
SAMEDI 11 SEPTEMBRE 2010 À 0H10 - REDIFFUSION : 12 SEPTEMBRE À 17H45
La vie de cet artiste noir new-yorkais est matière à roman.
Sa carrière fulgurante, de graffeur SDF de la mouvance underground (« SAMO ») à un peintre adulé, ses œuvres poétiques et percutantes, où tel un DJ il compile dans un élan archaïque les éléments les plus hétéroclites, ses amitiés avec des célébrités new-yorkaises comme Andy Warhol ou Madonna, ses dreadlocks rebelles et ses costumes Armani souillés de taches de peinture, qu’il portait de préférence pieds-nus.
Exposition: Basquiat
Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.
11, avenue du Président Wilson
75116 Paris
Du 15 octobre 2010 au 30 janvier 2011
Heures d'ouverture :
Du mardi au dimanche de 10 à 18h. Fermeture le lundi.
Sa mort enfin, à 27 ans (1988), d’une overdose.
Cette année, il aurait eu 50 ans - l’occasion d’une première rétrospective européenne qui, conçue par la Fondation Beyeler de Bâle, ouvrira ses portes en octobre à Paris. Selon Bruno Bischofberger, ami intime du peintre, « Basquiat a mis fin au grand bâillement dans l’art ». Ce marchand d’art suisse a mis à la disposition de l’exposition des œuvres de sa collection privée.
Au même moment, un documentaire de Tamra Davis sort dans les salles : « BASQUIAT - The Radiant Child ». Amie intime de Basquiat, la réalisatrice, qui garda pendant 20 ans les images qu’elle avait tournées du vivant de l’artiste, ressent aujourd’hui un besoin impérieux de les diffuser : « Trop de choses ont été dites à son propos, il est temps qu’on lui laisse la parole ».
Liens :
Basquiat à la fondation Beyeler (en allemand)
Kunsthalle de Vienne : Street and Studio (en allemand). Von Basquiat bis Séripop, jusqu’au 10 octobre 2010
Bande annonce « BASQUIAT – The Radiant Child », à partir du 13 octobre 2010 sur Youtube
Auteur : Susan Loehr
Metropolis
dimanche, 12 septembre 2010 à 17:45
(Allemagne, 2010, 43mn)http://www.arte.tv/fr/3390034.html
Sa carrière fulgurante, de graffeur SDF de la mouvance underground (« SAMO ») à un peintre adulé, ses œuvres poétiques et percutantes, où tel un DJ il compile dans un élan archaïque les éléments les plus hétéroclites, ses amitiés avec des célébrités new-yorkaises comme Andy Warhol ou Madonna, ses dreadlocks rebelles et ses costumes Armani souillés de taches de peinture, qu’il portait de préférence pieds-nus.
Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.
11, avenue du Président Wilson
75116 Paris
Du 15 octobre 2010 au 30 janvier 2011
Heures d'ouverture :
Du mardi au dimanche de 10 à 18h. Fermeture le lundi.
Sa mort enfin, à 27 ans (1988), d’une overdose.
Au même moment, un documentaire de Tamra Davis sort dans les salles : « BASQUIAT - The Radiant Child ». Amie intime de Basquiat, la réalisatrice, qui garda pendant 20 ans les images qu’elle avait tournées du vivant de l’artiste, ressent aujourd’hui un besoin impérieux de les diffuser : « Trop de choses ont été dites à son propos, il est temps qu’on lui laisse la parole ».
Liens :
Basquiat à la fondation Beyeler (en allemand)
Bande annonce « BASQUIAT – The Radiant Child », à partir du 13 octobre 2010 sur Youtube
Auteur : Susan Loehr
Metropolis
dimanche, 12 septembre 2010 à 17:45
(Allemagne, 2010, 43mn)http://www.arte.tv/fr/3390034.html
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