Beatrice Lindstrom: Human Rights Lawyer Fighting for Accountability for Cholera in Haiti

“Immunity does not mean impunity,” argued social justice lawyer Beatrice Lindstrom before a packed courtroom to three judges of the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals. Lindstrom, a 2010 graduate of NYU Law School, has spent most of her career fighting for human rights for and with the people of Haiti. She appeared before the court as a lawyer with the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH) and Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI). She argued that the United Nations (UN) must be held accountable for its personnel introducing and spreading cholera in Haiti which has killed more than 9,000 and infected another 800,000 to date. While there is little question that UN personnel brought and spread cholera to Haiti, the UN continues to argue it is immune from suit. The court has not yet decided whether the victims are going to get their day in court or not.
Beginnings

 Lindstrom, who speaks, to varying extents, English, Swedish, Korean, French and Haitian Creole, has always had a global vision. She grew up in Sweden and Korea, “two of the least diverse countries in the world, and always felt like somewhat of an outsider. In Korea especially, the national identity doesn’t include a space for biracial people, and so I was often treated like a foreigner by default. Because of this, I’ve always defined my community and interests as more global than local, and I think that may also be what draws me particularly to accountability for powerful international actors.
“My mother was a leader in the student democratization movement in South Korea, and moved to Sweden to study democracy. She’s always been a vocal leader for progressive issues in ways big and small, whether through her career or in dinner table conversations, and that’s shaped both my worldview and my personal life view. My mom has always been a role model for me. She responds to every injustice she sees with righteous anger and doesn’t hesitate to be a force for social change.
Lindstrom’s path towards justice work started while she was studying political science and economics at Emory University.
When the 2004 Southeast Asian tsunami hit, “I found myself crushed by the images of the disaster streaming in on my TV. I organized a huge fundraising campaign for tsunami relief. It was my first time really stepping into the shoes of an activist on my own initiative.
“I then spent the summer teaching English in a village on the Southeast coast of Thailand during the week and working alongside a community trying to rebuild their homes and lives on the weekends. The devastation was still unspeakable five months later, but I was particularly struck by the extent to which the international community engaged with tsunami-affected regions as if they were a blank slate. They acted as if there weren’t communities with lives, cultures and histories that were rooted there and whose voices mattered. That was a wake-up call and made me look deeper at the structural injustices that are at the root of disasters and how we respond to them.
Law School “I didn’t think I wanted to be a lawyer, because it seemed like a profession removed from the type of vast social change I wanted to see in the world.
“I went to NYU School of Law partly because I wanted to learn how the frame of human rights could transform the ideals I believed in into something enforceable. Human rights language was always in the background of a lot of the issues I cared about (like economic and social justice), and I grew curious about what was meant about those rights. If they weren’t backed up by law, it just seemed like a glorified principle. So I wanted to understand how those pieces fit together, and to what extent we give human rights substance through national and international laws. Thailand brought that into focus as I became aware of the fights over land rights between the pre-existing communities and the government and companies that wanted to come in and build up the coastal areas.
“Law school can be a suffocating place for social justice lawyers, but it also forced me to defend the principles we stand for through a different lens. Our classroom discussions focused a lot of why the law is what it is, and what it should be, and thinking through both of those things is often so much more important than just understanding what the law is. I was also fortunate to find a really fabulous community in law school that included my now-husband and many of my closest friends. I was really taken by NYU’s commitment to public interest and human rights. In retrospect it was the perfect place for me and I still find myself very much plugged into the NYU law community.
“I didn’t think I’d take the bar exam, but the more time I spent in law school, the more interested I became in the idea of litigation as a complementary tool to other types of social justice work.
Haiti While Lindstrom was still in law school, Haiti was struck by an earthquake, which killed 300,000, and injured 300,000, left over 1.5 million homeless and fueled a surge in human rights violations against women, prisoners and the poor.
“When the earthquake struck Haiti in January 2010, the images of devastation reminded me of what I had witnessed in Thailand. The injustices in Haiti drew me to become engaged. I applied for a fellowship from NYU to spend a year in Haiti to support a human rights-based approach to rebuilding Haiti. I wanted to work with the one that would place Haitian voices at the forefront, the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI) in Port au Prince. The BAI is Haiti’s oldest public interest law firm, and one of the only organizations that exist to defend and enforce the legal rights of the poor and marginalized in Haiti.”
BAI is a grassroots legal organization that uses a combination of litigation, advocacy and community organizing to pursue justice in some of Haiti’s largest human rights causes.
Lindstrom moved to Port au Prince and joined renowned human rights advocate Mario Joseph at BAI working on issues of health, prisons, housing and women’s rights.
“I had only been in Haiti a few weeks when cholera broke out. Thousands of people were showing up at hospitals and collapsing from uncontrollable vomiting and diarrhea. In the first month, 1,000 people died. It was one of the worst public health disasters of our time, but because it was Haiti, and because it happened on top of so much other suffering, the world seemed to not pay attention in the way one would expect.
“Within weeks of the outbreak, evidence emerged that UN peacekeepers were responsible for the outbreak. Journalists exposed the fact that a UN base was leaking foul-smelling sewage directly into a tributary to the river that tens of thousands of Haitians rely on as their primary water source. Later investigations revealed that the soldiers on the base had recently arrived from Nepal, where cholera is endemic, and that the base had broken pipes and disposed of human waste from the camp toilets into open-air pits dug directly into the ground at the top of a hill, which overflowed into the river when it rained.
“The UN’s fault and causation was so clear, it seemed inconceivable at first that an organization like the UN, whose raison d’etre is promotion of human rights wouldn’t take its responsibility seriously and respond justly. But then study after study came out establishing its responsibility, and the official response was just to deny and marginalize the voices of Haitians calling for justice. That’s when our legal team at BAI and the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH) got involved.
Lindstrom was tasked with developing a legal strategy by Mario Joseph of BAI, Brian Concannon of IJDH, and Ira Kurzban of Miami.
“My first reaction, after researching the issue, was that there was nothing we could do. The UN has broad immunity from suit in national court, but it has international treaty obligations to establish alternative mechanisms to adjudicate and remedy individuals who are harmed by UN operations. Courts seemed to take the UN’s immunity very seriously, and we learned that the claims commission that was supposed to exists to decide claims in the place of courts had never been established.
“When I spoke to the team they reminded me that we couldn’t let the state of a law be a deterrent to seeking justice. So I went back to the drawing board.
“We decided to try to hold the UN to its obligations by filing claims in 2011 directly with the organization, and demanding the establishment of a claims commission.
“We worked with victims in rural Haiti to file 5,000 claims with the UN seeking compensation, a public apology, and investment in water and sanitation infrastructure.
“Over a year later, the UN rejected the claims without providing much of an explanation. That effectively left victims without any forum to get a fair hearing on their claims and seek remedies. It caused a huge uproar because everyone who looked at their response could tell they were just trying to avoid responsibility. To me this issue is such a deep betrayal of the UN’s own basic principle that human rights apply equally to all.
“Since it was clear that the UN had breached their obligations under treaties, we decided to file suit in 2013 in U.S. District Court in New York. The District Court dismissed the suit in 2015 on the grounds that the UN had immunity based on the treaties that created it. We then appealed to the US Court of Appeal. I’m really fortunate to get to work on this case and to get to have so much responsibility. When the case went to court, the team entrusted me to argue on the plaintiffs’ behalf.
“Over the past five years, I’ve been managing a campaign that brings together litigation and advocacy to secure justice and accountability from the United Nations. Our team works on many different levels at once to challenge the notion that the UN can hold itself above the law, using a range of strategies from organizing in Haiti to the halls of power in New York.
“There is no doubt in my mind that had the UN in New York contaminated the East River with cholera, the UN would immediately have owned up to it and done everything in its power to make it right. The fact that there is not a just response in Haiti, even after 10,000 deaths and the epidemic going into its six year, is unacceptable.
“I refuse to accept a world in which we have dual standards of justice based on the race, wealth, and political power.
”Of course, this is a problem that exists in the U.S. as well, and is why I’m also so inspired by movements like Black Lives Matter. But I feel that we should be able to demand more of the organization we’ve created to promote human rights, and will keep fighting for justice until the UN shifts course.
How Justice Happens “Litigation can be an important tool to obtain remedies, and also to put pressure on decision makers and keep an issue in the spotlight. But it’s an imperfect tool, and there is no way the issue would be where it is now if it wasn’t for all the movement building and advocacy that is happening simultaneously.
“Effective movement lawyering requires effective use of a lot of non-legal tools. Language skills, social media skills, and willingness to bring excellence to non-legal work are all really critical to effective social change.” “I believe that successful justice movements always start with and put the victims themselves at the forefront. Law and lawyers can play an important part in achieving justice, even when the system is stacked against it. Sometimes the act of bringing a lawsuit can be an equalizer and shift the narrative of an issue into one that’s viewed from a justice lens.
“For example, with the cholera case, the media at first treated Haitians calling for justice from the UN as ungrateful recipients of aid. There were a lot of headlines at the time along the lines of “angry Haitians blame benevolent aid organizations for their misery.” The lawsuit didn’t fix that overnight, but it did cause people to start opening their eyes to the facts that Haitian victims have rights and are entitled to demand respect for those rights.
“My legal career has been at BAI and IJDH, and the organizations’ philosophies have very much shaped and reinforced my own view on how to best affect change. IJDH is uncompromising in its commitment to social justice and unafraid to be disruptive, but also emphasizes movement building and strategies that will bring in new allies. I think that combination is both effective and important and informs my model of social change as requiring participation of all kinds of actors. The IJDH team is also constantly self-critical and reflective of what the appropriate role is for lawyers working for social change in a community that isn’t ours (as non-Haitians working in Haiti). We are constantly engaging in conversation about our privilege and how to better put our partners and clients at the forefront.
“I’ve also had the opportunity to partner with some terrific social justice organizations like the Center for Constitutional Rights and EarthRights International, both of which are at the forefront of undertaking impact litigation in a way that stays true to the people they support and puts them at the center.
Role Models “In addition to my mom, I’m endlessly inspired by the women in Haiti who are leading social justice movements in the face of so much structural injustice.
“Two of the lawyers I work with are role models for me. Mario Joseph, his courage and commitment to principles is unyielding and he uses that in service of the poor and marginalized. It’s a privilege to support his vision for a more just world. Brian Concannon always manages to strike a perfect balance between being unyielding in his principles and being accessible to everyone around him. He’s fostered an incredible community around our work, and empowers others to lead in a way that I strive, often unsuccessfully, to emulate. I’m also constantly inspired and empowered by the young women lawyers on our team.
Satisfaction and Challenges “I draw so much satisfaction from working within a team of dedicated, brilliant, hilarious, and compassionate people. I think when you’re up against difficult odds, which is almost always the case in social justice work; you have to make sure to celebrate the small victories.
I find it challenging when people don’t bring the same compassion that we bring to our work and to our relationships with each other. And when I realize that I am guilty of the same thing. Also, we’re such a small team that sometimes it gets overwhelming and can be hard to find balance between doing more and taking time for other parts of life.
Advice to Students
“Be close to people. Bryan Stevenson talks about the importance of proximity to people. I think it’s critical to pursue opportunities to immerse yourself with the communities we work with. This also ensures that lawyers aren’t pursuing agendas that aren’t people-centered.
“Law school has a tendency to emphasize the need to pursue very strict paths, but I don’t think that’s necessarily true. So much of my path has been a combination of conviction and chance. I can tell you how I got from point A to point B, but the reality is that very little of that path was due to my own intentional planning.
There are three books people interested in this work might read. How Human Rights Can Build Haiti by Fran Quigley, Success Without Victory by Jules Lobel, and Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson.
In addition to everything else, Lindstrom makes time to write about Haitian human rights for the popular press and for law reviews , speaks about Haiti to national and international media and law schools and volunteers with several human rights organizations.
Sustaining “I sustain myself mostly through good people and good food. I draw strength from spending time with my partner and connecting and laughing with friends and family over a good meal. I enjoy being out in nature and yoga, but I don’t do either as much as I should.
“Sometimes it’s hard to balance personal life with work, but these are all pieces that make me whole. I try to bring my whole person into my work, and my passions for justice into my life. I find that to be sustaining, even if it doesn’t always answer the very practical question of how to devote enough time to any one part.
“Joia Mukherjee, who is the Chief Medical Officer for Partners in Health recently said in a speech “Live with the radical notion that your life is of one piece. That family, friends, your children, your vocation, and your joy are of one piece.” That is what I strive for.
Join the debate on Facebook
Bill Quigley teaches law at Loyola University New Orleans and can be reached at quigley77@gmail.com.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/08/02/beatrice-lindstrom-human-rights-lawyer-fighting-for-accountability-for-cholera-in-haiti/

PARTIS ET ORGANISATIONS POLITIQUES A LA SAUCE HAITIENNE

A force de faire les choses toujours de la même manière, on finit par s'attribuer une façon propre à soi de fonctionner. Dans un sens où dans l'autre, l'exercice dévient un élément identitaire.
Dernièrement, je suis heureusement tombé sur un article écrit par la blogueuse politique la plus suivie et la plus radicale des réseaux sociaux d’Haïti dans lequel, dans son style caractéristique, elle faisait un plaidoyer en faveur des partis politiques haïtiens tout en fustigeant une mesure du gouvernement provisoire qui suspendrait le financement des partis politiques.
Le financement des partis politiques en Haiti est devenu un sujet de réflexion que j'ai rangé avec bien d'autres dans le tiroir où l'on entrepose les choses qu'avec le temps, finissent par devenir secondaires avant d'être carrément oubliées dans une dynamique des priorités que nous contrôlons de moins en moins.
L'accès à ces informations officielles constitue souvent un élément dissuasif très puissant.
La lecture de cet article m'avait appris par exemple que Michel Martelly aurait modifié la loi régissant la création d'un parti en exigeant un nombre de membres égal à quarante plus un (40 +1).
On comprend donc mieux pourquoi il y a eu plus de 200 partis et regroupements politiques inscrits dans les archives du Conseil Électoral Provisoire (CEP). De la même manière et pour les mêmes raisons, on peut remercier Dieu que l'on n’ait eu à compter que 200.
Le grand public n'est pas informé sur les modalités du financement des partis politiques mais lors des dernières élections, quelques bribes de nouvelles ont circulé à ce sujet accompagnant des scandales et des discrépances musclées entre chefs de partis et candidats autour de l'utilisation des sous alloués pour financer leurs participations aux joutes électorales.
En cette occasion, j'ai su que les candidats à la présidence par exemple avaient reçu 20.000 (?) dollars américains pour financer leurs campagnes électorales. Ceci pouvant constituer la motivation de plusieurs des 56 candidats dont pour un nombre non négligeable, on ne voyait pas une seule affiche dans les rues.
Devant un tel constat et dans un contexte de ressources économiques diminuées, beaucoup de voix se sont élevées pour dénoncer cette pratique quelque peu pernicieuse, qui ne fait qu'entraver le processus électoral dans sa partie logistique sans apporter un plus à notre démocratie.
Ces voix ont suggéré d'autres modalités de financement calquées sur ce qui se fait ailleurs.
La blogueuse en question considère que c'est non seulement une erreur stratégique de l'exécutif que de ne plus financer les partis politiques et le fait d’assujettir ce financement au pourcentage de votes reçu lors des élections serait improductif dans la mesure ou cette option pourrait censurer un « bon parti politique » qui aurait malheureusement réalisé un score médiocre.
Le critère de « bon » ou « mauvais » parti politique reste un critère très subjectif en dehors de cet élément clé qui est le nombre de personnes se retrouvant dans les idées et la vision de société que promeut ce groupe. Un nombre restreint d'adhérents présuppose une mauvaise réception du message véhiculé si on n'admet qu'un parti politique est une institution se donnant pour tache transformer une société moyennant une vision nette et claire de cette société récipiendaire.
Si cette adhésion ne se structure pas c'est qu'il y a un travail à effectuer pour mieux présenter le projet. Le gouvernement ne devrait pas avoir à financer directement ce travail.
L'appréciation d'un mouvement politique par un individu dépend de la vision de cet individu. Le parti démocrate est un aussi bon parti pour un démocrate que le parti républicain l'est pour un républicain.
Les courants extrémistes sont bien vus par des conservateurs qui se sentent mieux représentés à travers ce courant d'idées.
Un autre argument soulevé par la blogueuse est le risque que l’activité des partis politiques soit contrôlée par les marchands de drogues en assurant leurs financements.
Cet argument tient très peu la route en Haiti.
En effet les sommes allouées aux partis politiques sont insignifiantes par rapport au coût d'une campagne électorale bien menée. Cela veut dire qu'il sera très difficile à un leader de parti de refuser cette manne financière indispensable pour attirer des sympathisants et des militants. Faut-il admettre et reconnaître que la volonté d'exercer un monitoring sérieux sur l’activité politique n'est pas à l'ordre du jour en Haiti.
Dans l'évaluation d'un parti ou regroupement politique, j'accorde une attention certaine à ce que je considère comme la dynamique interne du mouvement. Plus particulièrement au rapport entre les membres appelés à porter au plus haut niveau décisionnel la vision du parti et le parti per se comme institution.
L’hyper mobilité des leaders pour certains ou l'attitude caméléon des aspirants pour d'autres demeure un critère suffisant pour identifier le déséquilibre entre un chef qui se place avec ses intérêts, au dessus du parti et de son projet politique qui dans la pratique a la vocation de changer la société pour apporter des réponses aux grands défis que confrontent ses membres.
La facilité avec laquelle un cadre de parti épouse, poussé dans le sens de ses intérêts personnels, la cause et l'idéologie du camp adverse est une preuve de la faiblesse de l’institution politique exploitée par des mercenaires se vendant aux plus offrants.
Nos sphères décisionnelles regorgent d'exemples de ces individus qui, au lieu de contribuer à une élévation du débat politique et à l'atteinte des objectifs y attenant, participent comme des fossoyeurs aguerris à y jeter l'opprobre et le discrédit.
Comme illustration et afin de leur garder leur place entre les pages sombres et peu glorieuses de notre histoire nous citons le cas de Monsieur Hériveaux qui est passé de sénateur influent du courant lavalas à suppôt et supporteur inconditionnel du PHTK et idolâtre du Martellisme primaire.
Cet « illustrement » sombre personnage de la vie politique haïtienne ne détient certes pas le monopole de l'instabilité, ni à lui seul les clés de ce véhicule toujours prêt à se diriger kote dlo a koule pi fre.
Au niveau du parlement, endroit par excellence du marchandising politique, pullulent ces élus porteurs de vestes multicolores en prévision de cette pratique de changer de couleur au gré des jeux et des enjeux.
On passe sans état d'âme du mouvement Unité au parti PHTK que l'on abandonne pour rejoindre la plateforme Vérité que l'on délaisse ensuite pour rejoindre les listes de Lapeh.
Cette trajectoire symbolise le parcours d'un individu dont le seul intérêt est celui de rester en poste comme député ou sénateur pour jouir des prérogatives matérielles qui font de cette fonction le premier objectif individuel national.
Ce serait une injustice flagrante et délibérée que de voir le problème comme une monnaie à face unique. C'est-à-dire de jeter la pierre à ces politiciens hyperactifs dans leurs capacités de mobilité sans inclure dans l'approche du problème les partis qui les regardent partir ou ceux qui accueillent les déserteurs qui rejoignent les rangs pour déserter à la prochaine occasion.
En effet l'individu se sentant, pour des raisons très claires, supérieur - donc placé au-dessus du mouvement politique - joue sa carte en se faisant voir comme un atout gagnant et surtout une bonne affaire pour le parti politique.
Le politicien possède tout ce dont un candidat a besoin pour gagner des élections : des hommes de main pour intimider jusqu'à l'agression physique les adversaires, une certaine popularité dans la circonscription convoitée soit par sa profession, soit par un clientélisme soutenu à base de petits projets insignifiants, des ressources financières pour acheter des votes et sans doute pour rendre heureux les cadres du parti.
Ces atouts suffisent largement pour assurer la victoire aux joutes quand ils sont favorisés par le désintéressement endémique de la société à la chose politique en général et aux élections en particulier.
Un exemple pour corroborer cette attitude qui constitue un vrai fléau, un vrai acte antipatriotique délétère au développement national c'est de se dire que celui qui a été sacré Maire de la capitale haïtienne, une mégapole surpeuplée de plus de 2.000.000 d'habitants dont la moitié serait en âge de voter (?), n'a bénéficié que du vote d'un peu plus de 20.000 personnes.
Ces mouvements d'un élu d'un parti à l'autre provoque un déplacement massif comme par effet de chute de dominos vers d'autres partis disposés à accepter pour les mêmes raisons les militants aspirants déçus.
Aujourd'hui une chose est nette et claire comme le nez au milieu de la figure, les partis politiques ne servent à rien !
On peut toujours épiloguer comme ceux qui pensent trouver, à travers des discussions interminables et des arguments peu solides, la quadrature du cercle, pour déterminer si l'arrêt des financements systématiques de tous les partis politiques ne contribuera pas à les rendre encore plus inutiles.
Cependant il est clair que la conceptualisation du parti politique chez nous n'augure pas une participation au développement du pays même avec ce système de financement sans condition.
Les conjonctures mondiales financières et économiques invitent plutôt à l'austérité et la diminution des dépenses publiques. Et ce, au niveau des nations beaucoup mieux loties que nous.
Notre actualité particulière greffant de surcroît notre crise électorale mettant en lumière notre perte honteuse de souveraineté politique, exige des sacrifices à tous les patriotes pour autofinancer les élections. Puisqu'il faut réduire les coûts, l'arrêt jusqu'à nouvel ordre, du financement des partis politiques reste et demeure une mesure cohérente et logique.
Aux prochaines autorités de revoir le problème et surtout aux législateurs de chez nous qui s'adonnent à toute sorte de taches sauf à celle qui est inhérente et définit leurs fonctions c'est-à-dire de légiférer, de reconstituer un cadre légal conforme à nos moyens pour le financement des partis politiques.
Docteur Jonas Jolivert 03/08/2016

EN ATTENDANT NEOT

Qu’il est bien loin ce temps où l’on se croyait concerné par ce qu’il se passait dans ce monde dont on se sentait bondé de cette puissante légitimité qui poussait à exclamer haut et fort que l’on était fier d’être citoyen de ce monde.
On le trouvait parfois drôle, souvent cruel et toujours injuste. On arrivait à se convaincre que pourtant tout y était prévu pour le bonheur de tous :
- la rosée du matin perlant un rhododendron d’un vert apaisant
- une vague qui s'épuise en écume et murmures sur du sable blanc et fin
- un clair de lune resplendissant une nuit étoilée
- un coucher de soleil de printemps sur les tropiques
- … Cependant il suffit de sortir de ce rêve pour se retrouver pieds et mains liés, les yeux écarquillés de l’incertitude et de l’incompréhension nous extirpant avec violence de notre contemplation candide.
Le monde est en effet ébullition et chaos capables de broyer idées et volontés.
Et submergé dans sa structure labyrinthique et pyramidale on prend conscience de son rôle d’acteur vecteur de changement.
Les appels viennent de partout. De la gauche comme de la droite des flèches de plus en plus acérées invitent à l’engagement car on a tous une partition à jouer. Avec le temps et la réalité des moyens devant cet imposant obstacle on essaie tout. On est prêcheur de bonnes nouvelles puis révolutionnaire théoricien sans moyen, radical supportant toute une gamme de préfixes.
Un jour on fait le constat amer d’avoir lâché prise. Et que l’on a perdu ses cheveux comme on a perdu l’envie et le désir de changement. Nos causes dans leurs diversités se rangent avec nos armes et nos bâtons de pèlerins là où l’on range regrets et remords et trophées insignifiants.
Le temps se fait promontoire de recul, l’âge belvédère pour observer s’agiter avec une fougue scintillant le regard ceux qui auront notre âge dans trente ans et qui brandissent l’étendard des causes qui se sont brisées en éclat devant la toute puissance du monde.
Ainsi va la vie et les gens avec …
Doc JOPI 2/08/2016

ENTRE REPOS DU GUERRIER ET DECEPTION

Le mois de juillet correspond depuis de nombreuses années à ma période de vacances. En effet c’est le temps que je mets de côté pour visiter ma famille qui réside dans l’ensemble aux États-Unis d’Amérique et pour respirer directement l’air d’Haïti.
  Pour cette raison, ceux qui suivent mes activités comme Blogger à travers Haïti Recto Verso (http://www.haitirectoverso.blogspot.com), et plus récemment ceux qui visitent nos sites internet savent très bien que ses supports ne sont pas mis à jour pendant cette période.
  Pourtant, généralement, cette période est souvent riche en événements intéressants sur le monde et sur Haïti qui se délite une crise après une autre.
Sur la crise haïtienne, j’avais pris la décision de ne pas me montrer très assidu dans mes écrits, dans la mesure où je ne dispose pas toujours d’éléments solides pour analyser et tirer des conclusions sur des phénomènes critiques qui se développent en dépit de tout bon sens et dans la plus incompréhensible des incohérences. 
Je m’amusais avant, pendant mes vacances, à publier une colonne que j’avais intitulée  « Choses vues et entendues aux États-Unis d’Amérique ». L’observation de ce que je pouvais considérer comme incongru ou hilarant m’avait inspiré dans ce sens.
En effet la presse américaine, comme toutes les presses en général semble fonctionner par scoops. A chaque voyage je suivais malgré moi, le cours de certaines actualités présentées comme des épisodes d’émissions de télé-réalité.
  Je me rappelle ces images de la poursuite en direct et de l’arrestation de O J Simpson comme ces épisodes relatant le jugement de la femme qui avait amputé de sa bite, un certain Bobbit qui deviendra par la suite un acteur de pornographie.
  Une année à Virginia Beach j’avais été émerveillé devant une boisson de couleur bleue ciel. En fait je trouvais amusant de demander au vendeur le nom du fruit qui était à l’origine de ce teint apaisant certes mais forcément peu agréable au palais malgré la notoriété et la popularité de la marque du produit.
  Depuis quelques années, je trouve les faits d’actualité américaine moins marrants. Les scoops ont une texture plutôt macabre, une odeur désagréable de rétrocession et d’injustice sociales. Il est question de policiers blancs exécutant des citoyens noirs devenus des « african americans » et des individus traités comme suspects et dangereux juste sur la base de leur origine ethnique.
Souvent il est question d’émeutes et de protestations autour d’une décision de justice attendue et liée à un meurtre survenu dans le même contexte.
  D’autres fois, l’actualité est dominée soit par un tireur embusqué semant la panique dans la population en ciblant des citoyens lambda quand celui-ci ne s’en prend pas à des policiers, a des élèves d’un établissement scolaire, a l’assistance d’une salle de cinéma ou des paroissiens d’une boîte ou d’une discothèque.
  Comme citoyen haïtien résidant en dehors d’Haïti et des États-Unis, je m’efforce toujours à m’expliquer et me convaincre des raisons qui font que les haïtiens de la Diaspora américaine évoquent souvent l’insécurité en Haïti pour ne pas s’y rendre et contribuer à la vie du pays.
  La force et la tournure des événements m’ont poussé dans les retranchements d’un repos du guerrier et mes vacances, je les fais rimer avec végétation !
Aujourd’hui encore grâce aux réseaux sociaux qui ont fait la fortune de leurs concepteurs, l’information vous tombe dessus avec la facilité et la fréquence d’un cheveu dans un bol de soupe. Et il faut beaucoup plus que la volonté de se couper du monde, pour prendre un vrai recul de cette actualité qui nous montre le niveau élevé de déshumanisation de ce monde dans lequel nous vivons. 
J’ai vu comment ceux qui suivent la presse aux États-Unis ont été maintenus en alerte scoop après scoop. Ça a débuté par la présentation en boucle de deux policiers blancs tirant cinq fois sur un homme de race noire maîtrisé au sol pour passer très vite aux images très choquantes diffusées en direct sur Facebook d’un noir entrain d’agoniser au volant de sa voiture après avoir été abattu par un policier blanc qu’il lui avait demandé de s’arrêter pour un contrôle de routine.
Les chaînes diffusant les nouvelles sont passées sans transition à la diffusion des images d’un tireur qui fit des morts à Dallas . L’attentat de Nice prit le dessus avec des envoyés spéciaux pour laisser vite la place au coup d’état manqué de Turquie puis un autre tueur de policiers à Baton Rouge pour finir avec le buzz du discours de la femme de Donald Trump ayant plagié le discours de Michelle Obama lors de la convention des démocrates en 2008.

Pendant ce temps, les choses ne sont pas plus porteuses d’espérance en Haïti. La crise générée autour de Privert ne prend pas le chemin conduisant à la solution. L’assemblée Nationale constituée par les députés et les sénateurs a du mal à se constituer pour statuer sur le futur du président provisoire dont le mandat a pris fin depuis plus d’un mois. 
Cela veut tout simplement dire que députés et sénateurs n’arrivent pas à constituer cette instance décisionnelle qui est l’assemblée nationale, la seule habilitée, par un accord raccordé à des préceptes constitutionnels, à décider du sort et du futur de l’exécutif.
Pendant ce temps au niveau de la gestion du pays il ne se passe rien. 
Dans l’avion il n’y a toujours pas de pilote ! 
Ouf ! 
Après avoir été abasourdi par tout ça, on a le droit d’être déçu de l’espèce humaine sans que l’on soit diagnostiqué de dépressif chronique.
Dr Jonas Jolivert

How the Clinton Foundation Got Rich off Poor Haitians

 by DINESH D'SOUZA July 18, 2016 4:00 AM @DINESHDSOUZA
 It filtered money through Haiti and back to itself. EDITOR’S NOTE: The following article is excerpted from Dinesh D’Souza’s new book, Hillary’s America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party. In January 2015 a group of Haitians surrounded the New York offices of the Clinton Foundation. They chanted slogans, accusing Bill and Hillary Clinton of having robbed them of “billions of dollars.”
Two months later, the Haitians were at it again, accusing the Clintons of duplicity, malfeasance, and theft. And in May 2015, they were back, this time outside New York’s Cipriani, where Bill Clinton received an award and collected a $500,000 check for his foundation. “Clinton, where’s the money?” the Haitian signs read. “In whose pockets?” Said Dhoud Andre of the Commission Against Dictatorship, “We are telling the world of the crimes that Bill and Hillary Clinton are responsible for in Haiti.”

Haitians like Andre may sound a bit strident, but he and the protesters had good reason to be disgruntled. They had suffered a heavy blow from Mother Nature, and now it appeared that they were being battered again — this time by the Clintons.
Their story goes back to 2010, when a massive 7.0 earthquake devastated the island, killing more than 200,000 people, leveling 100,000 homes, and leaving 1.5 million people destitute. The devastating effect of the earthquake on a very poor nation provoked worldwide concern and inspired an outpouring of aid money intended to rebuild Haiti.
Countries around the world, as well as private and philanthropic groups such as the Red Cross and the Salvation Army, provided some $10.5 billion in aid, with $3.9 billion of it coming from the United States.
Haitians such as Andre, however, noticed that very little of this aid money actually got to poor people in Haiti.
Some projects championed by the Clintons, such as the building of industrial parks and posh hotels, cost a great deal of money and offered scarce benefits to the truly needy. Port-au-Prince was supposed to be rebuilt; it was never rebuilt.
Projects aimed at creating jobs proved to be bitter disappointments. Haitian unemployment remained high, largely undented by the funds that were supposed to pour into the country. Famine and illness continued to devastate the island nation.
The Haitians were initially sympathetic to the Clintons. One may say they believed in the message of “hope and change.” With his customary overstatement, Bill told the media, “Wouldn’t it be great if they become the first wireless nation in the world? They could, I’m telling you, they really could.” I don’t blame the Haitians for falling for it; Bill is one of the world’s greatest story-tellers.
He has fooled people far more sophisticated than the poor Haitians. Over time, however, the Haitians wised up. Whatever their initial expectations, many saw that much of the aid money seems never to have reached its destination; rather, it disappeared along the way.
Where did it go? It did not escape the attention of the Haitians that Bill Clinton was the designated UN representative for aid to Haiti.
Following the earthquake, Bill Clinton had with media fanfare established the Haiti Reconstruction Fund. Meanwhile, his wife Hillary was the United States secretary of state. She was in charge of U.S. aid allocated to Haiti. Together the Clintons were the two most powerful people who controlled the flow of funds to Haiti from around the world.
Haitian deals appeared to be a quid pro quo for filling the coffers of the Clintons. 
The Haitian protesters noticed an interesting pattern involving the Clintons and the designation of how aid funds were used.
They observed that a number of companies that received contracts in Haiti happened to be entities that made large donations to the Clinton Foundation. The Haitian contracts appeared less tailored to the needs of Haiti than to the needs of the companies that were performing the services. In sum, Haitian deals appeared to be a quid pro quo for filling the coffers of the Clintons.
For example, the Clinton Foundation selected Clayton Homes, a construction company owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, to build temporary shelters in Haiti. Buffett is an active member of the Clinton Global Initiative who has donated generously to the Clintons as well as the Clinton Foundation.
The contract was supposed to be given through the normal United Nations bidding process, with the deal going to the lowest bidder who met the project’s standards.
UN officials said, however, that the contract was never competitively bid for. Clayton offered to build “hurricane-proof trailers” but what they actually delivered turned out to be a disaster. The trailers were structurally unsafe, with high levels of formaldehyde and insulation coming out of the walls. There were problems with mold and fumes. The stifling heat inside made Haitians sick and many of them abandoned the trailers because they were ill-constructed and unusable.

The Clintons also funneled $10 million in federal loans to a firm called InnoVida, headed by Clinton donor Claudio Osorio. Osorio had loaded its board with Clinton cronies, including longtime Clinton ally General Wesley Clark; Hillary’s 2008 finance director Jonathan Mantz; and Democratic fundraiser Chris Korge who has helped raise millions for the Clintons.
Normally the loan approval process takes months or even years. But in this case, a government official wrote, “Former President Bill Clinton is personally in contact with the company to organize its logistical and support needs. And as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton has made available State Department resources to assist with logistical arrangements.” InnoVida had not even provided an independently audited financial report that is normally a requirement for such applications. This requirement, however, was waived.
On the basis of the Clinton connection, InnoVida’s application was fast-tracked and approved in two weeks. The company, however, defaulted on the loan and never built any houses. An investigation revealed that Osorio had diverted company funds to pay for his Miami Beach mansion, his Maserati, and his Colorado ski chalet. He pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering in 2013, and is currently serving a twelve-year prison term on fraud charges related to the loan. Several Clinton cronies showed up with Bill to a 2011 Housing Expo that cost more than $2 million to stage. Bill Clinton said it would be a model for the construction of thousands of homes in Haiti. In reality, no homes have been built. A few dozen model units were constructed but even they have not been sold. Rather, they are now abandoned and have been taken over by squatters.

THE SCHOOLS THEY NEVER BUILT USAID contracts to remove debris in Port-au-Prince went to a Washington-based company named CHF International. The company’s CEO David Weiss, a campaign contributor to Hillary in 2008, was deputy U.S. trade representative for North American Affairs during the Clinton administration.
The corporate secretary of the board, Lauri Fitz-Pegado, served in a number of posts in the Clinton administration, including assistant secretary of commerce.The Clintons claim to have built schools in Haiti. But the New York Times discovered that when it comes to the Clintons, “built” is a term with a very loose interpretation. For example, the newspaper located a school featured in the Clinton Foundation annual report as “built through a Clinton Global Initiative Commitment to Action.” In reality, “The Clinton Foundation’s sole direct contribution to the school was a grant for an Earth Day celebration and tree-building activity.”
The Clintons claim to have built schools in Haiti. But the New York Times discovered that when it comes to the Clintons, ‘built’ is a term with a very loose interpretation. USAID contracts also went to consulting firms such as New York–based Dalberg Global Development Advisors, which received a $1.5 million contract to identify relocation sites for Haitians. This company is an active participant and financial supporter of the Clinton Global Initiative.
A later review by USAID’s inspector general found that Dalberg did a terrible job, naming uninhabitable mountains with steep ravines as possible sites for Haitian rebuilding. Foreign governments and foreign companies got Haitian deals in exchange for bankrolling the Clinton Foundation.
The Clinton Foundation lists the Brazilian construction firm OAS and the InterAmerican Development Bank (IDB) as donors that have given it between $1 billion and $5 billion. The IDB receives funding from the State Department, and some of this funding was diverted to OAS for Haitian road-building contracts.
Yet an IDB auditor, Mariela Antiga, complained that the contracts were padded with “excessive costs” to build roads “no one needed.” Antiga also alleged that IDB funds were going to a construction project on private land owned by former Haitian president Rene Preval — a Clinton buddy — and several of his cronies.
For her efforts to expose corruption, Antiga was promptly instructed by the IDB to pack her bags and leave Haiti.
In 2011, the Clinton Foundation brokered a deal with Digicel, a cell-phone-service provider seeking to gain access to the Haitian market. The Clintons arranged to have Digicel receive millions in U.S. taxpayer money to provide mobile phones.
The USAID Food for Peace program, which the State Department administered through Hillary aide Cheryl Mills, distributed Digicel phones free to Haitians. Digicel didn’t just make money off the U.S. taxpayer; it also made money off the Haitians. When Haitians used the phones, either to make calls or transfer money, they paid Digicel for the service. Haitians using Digicel’s phones also became automatically enrolled in Digicel’s mobile program.
By 2012, Digicel had taken over three-quarters of the cell-phone market in Haiti. Digicel is owned by Denis O’Brien, a close friend of the Clintons. O’Brien secured three speaking engagements in his native Ireland that paid $200,000 apiece. These engagements occurred right at the time that Digicel was making its deal with the U.S. State Department.
O’Brien has also donated lavishly to the Clinton Foundation, giving between $1 million and $5 million sometime in 2010–2011. Coincidentally the United States government paid Digicel $45 million to open a hotel in Port-au-Prince. Now perhaps it could be argued that Haitians could use a high-priced hotel to attract foreign investors and provide jobs for locals. Thus far, however, this particular hotel seems to employ only a few dozen locals, which hardly justifies the sizable investment that went into building it.
Moreover, there are virtually no foreign investors; the rooms are mostly unoccupied; the ones that are taken seem mainly for the benefit of Digicel’s visiting teams. In addition, the Clintons got their cronies to build Caracol Industrial Park, a 600-acre garment factory that was supposed to make clothes for export to the United States and create — according to Bill Clinton — 100,000 new jobs in Haiti.
The project was funded by the U.S. government and cost hundreds of millions in taxpayer money, the largest single allocation of U.S. relief aid. Yet Caracol has proven a massive failure. First, the industrial park was built on farmland and the farmers had to be moved off their property. Many of them feel they were pushed out and inadequately compensated.
Some of them lost their livelihoods. Second, Caracol was supposed to include 25,000 homes for Haitian employees; in the end, the Government Accountability Office reports that only around 6,000 homes were built. Third, Caracol has created 5,000 jobs, less than 10 percent of the jobs promised. Fourth, Caracol is exporting very few products and most of the facility is abandoned. People stand outside every day looking for work, but there is no work to be had, as Haiti’s unemployment rate hovers around 40 percent.
The Clintons say Caracol can still be salvaged. But former Haitian prime minister Jean Bellerive says, “I believe the momentum to attract people there in a massive way is past. Today, it has failed.” Still, Bellerive’s standard of success may not be the same one used by the Clintons.
After all, the companies that built Caracol with U.S. taxpayer money have done fine — even if poor Haitians have seen few of the benefits. Then there is the strange and somehow predictable involvement of Hillary Clinton’s brother Hugh Rodham. Rodham put in an application for $22 million from the Clinton Foundation to build homes on ten thousand acres of land that he said a “guy in Haiti” had “donated” to him. “I deal through the Clinton Foundation,” Rodham told the New York Times. “I hound my brother-in-law because it’s his fund that we’re going to get our money from.” Rodham said he expected to net $1 million personally on the deal. Unfortunately, his application didn’t go through.
Rodham had better luck, however, on a second Haitian deal. He mysteriously found himself on the advisory board of a U.S. mining company called VCS. This by itself is odd because Rodham’s resume lists no mining experience; rather, Rodham is a former private detective and prison guard. The mining company, however, seems to have recognized Rodham’s value. They brought him on board in October 2013 to help secure a valuable gold mining permit in Haiti. Rodham was promised a “finder’s fee” if he could land the contract. Sure enough, he did. For the first time in 50 years, Haiti awarded two new gold mining permits and one of them went to the company that had hired Hillary’s brother.
I wouldn’t go so far as to say the Clintons don’t care about Haiti. Yet it seems clear that Haitian welfare is not their priority. The deal provoked outrage in the Haitian Senate. “Neither Bill Clinton nor the brother of Hillary Clinton are individuals who share the interest of the Haitian people,” said Haitian mining representative Samuel Nesner. “They are part of the elite class who are operating to exploit the Haitian people.”
Is this too harsh a verdict? I wouldn’t go so far as to say the Clintons don’t care about Haiti. Yet it seems clear that Haitian welfare is not their priority. Their priority is, well, themselves. The Clintons seem to believe in Haitian reconstruction and Haitian investment as long as these projects match their own private economic interests.
They have steered the rebuilding of Haiti in a way that provides maximum benefit to themselves. No wonder the Clintons refused to meet with the Haitian protesters. Each time the protesters showed up, the Clintons were nowhere to be seen. They have never directly addressed the Haitians’ claims. Strangely enough, they have never been required to do so. The progressive media scarcely covered the Haitian protest.
Somehow the idea of Haitian black people calling out the Clintons as aid money thieves did not appeal to the grand pooh-bahs at CBS News, the New York Times, and NPR. For most Democrats, the topic is both touchy and distasteful. It’s one thing to rob from the rich but quite another to rob from the poorest of the poor. Some of the Democratic primary support for Bernie Sanders was undoubtedly due to Democrats’ distaste over the financial shenanigans of the Clintons. Probably these Democrats considered the Clintons to be unduly grasping and opportunistic, an embarrassment to the great traditions of the Democratic party. —

Dinesh D’​Souza is the author of Hillary’s America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party.

Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/437883/hillarys-america-secret-history-democratic-party-dinesh-dsouza-clinton-foundation

Prominent Dominican politico slams Washington, Haiti, Big Business

Santo Domingo.- Prominent author and veteran politico Euclides Gutiérrez on Monday said the US government and Pope Francis were behind the appointment Francisco Ozoria as Archbishop of Santo Domingo, the Catholic Church’s top post in the country.
The also member of the ruling PLD party’s to echelon the Political Committee, said Ozoria is known for working in favor of Haitian immigrants. Ozoria replaces cardinal Nicolas de Jesus Lopez Rodriguez, whom Gutierrez defined as "a true patriot."
In an article on newspaper El Nacional, Gutierrez says Ozoria’s appointment together with two other measures taken outside the country harms Dominican Republic’s present and future sovereignty.
The also member of the Dominican Academy of History and co-founder of the PLD said Washington’s the suspension of the aid for the Haitian elections set for October 9 and Port-au-Prince’s ban of Dominican products are linked to the prelate’s appointment.,br> The political leader claims having evidence to support his claims on the three measures he affirms harm the country.
Suspended aid
According to Gutierrez, the US government suspended the aid for the elections in Haiti, announced by John Kirly, and that the US$33 million were "stolen" in that country.
Import Haiti banned the overland import of Dominican products, a move which Gutierrez says threatens national interests, and has been criticized by the Dominican government, which has demanded an explanation from Port-au-Prince.
Calls to defend the Government
Gutierrez also asked the PLD to defend the government because the three measures taken within two months and from the "meddling" by the National Business Council (CONEP), the Institutionalism and Justice Foundation (Finjus), Citizen Participation, shipping companies and other “supposed” civil society entities in matters not of their scope, are eventually detrimental to the sovereignty and dignity of the Dominican people.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-et-cm-last-tiger-haiti-review-20160718-snap-story.html

Haiti's garbage has found its way into museums all over the world

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Amid a maze of car-repair shops in Haiti's gritty capital, Andre Eugene pitches a shredded tire he found atop a towering sculpture he built out of rusty engine parts, bed springs and other cast-off junk.
"This is what I do; I work with the garbage of the world," says Eugene, assessing the largest sculpture displayed at the entrance of his studio and open-air museum off a crumbling street cutting through some of Port-au-Prince's poorest neighborhoods.
The Haitian sculptor is a founding member of Atis Rezistans, a shifting collective of artists who recycle whatever useful scraps they can find to give a raw, physical shape to the spiritual world of Voodoo, or Vodou as the religion is known by Haitians, and weigh in on the country's chronic political and economic troubles.
Although Haiti's established galleries were slow to warm to the scrap sculptors of the capital's impoverished Grand Rue neighborhood, bustling with furniture-makers and other craftsmen, the artisans working with recycled materials have been embraced by a number of international art connoisseurs and academics.
During the last decade, the work of Atis Rezistans has been exhibited in cities such as London, Los Angeles and Paris. Sculptures are included in the permanent collections of museums, including the Frost Art Museum in Miami.
Haitian art has long had a reputation for imaginative richness, and wealthy international collectors including Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and filmmaker Jonathan Demme sought out self-taught painters that colorfully evoke the everyday lives of Haitians or depict dreamlike scenes. And even though found-object creations have been part of the poor country's art for decades, experts say there has been nothing like the in-your-face works of Atis Resistant.
"Atis Rezistans takes an old practice in new directions, expanding the range of materials used and offering stunning new meanings for objects found in everyday life," said Marcus Rediker, a collector of Haitian art and a distinguished professor of Atlantic history at the University of Pittsburgh.
The materials that form the sharp-edged sculptures include automotive fragments, carved wood pieces, broken TVs, discarded toys and even human skulls collected at a cemetery of mausoleums where bones were scattered by grave robbers.
Many of their artworks are a nod to Baron Samedi, the Vodou god of the dead, and his rambunctious offspring, Gede. Others offer a kaleidoscope of jarring images out of a Mad Max movie: sculptures of faces with spikes; masked figures resembling shrouded corpses; broken baby dolls fused with computer motherboards.
But it's not all darkness. There's plenty of evidence of playfulness and irreverent theatricality, such as a skull-topped figure with a stethoscope, snake sculptures with scales of inlaid bottle caps, and much frank sexual imagery.
Perhaps their most acclaimed collaborative creation has been a mashup of high-art-meets-developing-world called the "Ghetto Biennale." Every two years, international artists come to the Grand Rue neighborhood in a kind of cross-cultural festival that leaves the door open for almost anything. The Ghetto Biennale takes a form developed for European art fairs and radically subverts it, according to Anthony Bogues, a professor at Brown University who co-curated a 2011 exhibition of Haitian art at the Providence, Rhode Island, school. "Art for them is not about the elite but rather recognizing that art is a language in which Haiti speaks to itself and the world," Bogues said of Atis Rezistans. Collaborations with overseas artists who come to Haiti have given younger members of the collective chances to tap into art networks across the globe, while international artists are stimulated by the Haitian group's creative process. "Their philosophy to turn trash into art, thus something seemingly worthless into something valuable, has inspired me," said Alice Smeets, a Belgian artist who collaborated with members of Atis Rezistans to create staged photographs in Haitian slums that depict figures from tarot cards. Eugene hopes that the praise gathered for the group he founded with Celeur Jean-Herard, who left the collective, can translate into enough earnings to upgrade his yard's musty museum and improve the lives of members and local youngsters, dubbed "children of the resistance," who sculpt and paint.
Although he has traveled the world with his art, Eugene still lives in a small concrete shack next to his Grand Rue workshop and "Musee d'Art," where many sculptures are caked with dust and swathed in cobwebs. Two turkeys and several cats were the only visitors one recent afternoon.
He calls Atis Rezistans a social "movement" that should expand opportunities for its artists.
"I don't want to be famous," Eugene said in his rain-slicked concrete yard, shortly after returning to Haiti from an exhibit of a major piece in Milan. "Step by step, I am looking to make money so we can improve our situation here."
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/life_and_entertainment/2016/07/09/1-haitis-garbage-has-found-its-way-into-museums-all-over-the-world.html

U. S. to Haiti: Pay for your own elections

Suspension of elections aid is not a reduction of U.S. support
Haiti’s upcoming elections price tag is estimated at $55 million
The U.S. will not be financing Haiti’s Oct. 9 rerun presidential elections, State Department spokesman John Kirby said Thursday.
Kirby said Haitian officials were notified on July 1 that the U.S. government, which provided $33 million toward last year’s contested legislative and presidential elections, “has suspended its assistance toward the completion of the presidential electoral process.”
“We did not plan funding for two more electoral rounds in 2016 and 2017,” Kirby said.
He insisted during a news briefing that the suspension of electoral aid did not symbolize a “reduction in U.S. support for the development of Haiti” or its people.
The U.S., along with the European Union, which announced last month that it was pulling its elections observer mission from Haiti , has made no secret of its displeasure with the country’s decision to rerun the first round of the presidential race. The decision was taken by the Provisional Electoral Council on the recommendations of a five-member panel tasked with auditing the Oct. 25 vote.
Even before the U.S. announcement, a number of Haitians, including the elections council head Léopold Berlanger and interim President Jocelerme Privert argued that the country should find the estimated $55 million to finance the upcoming presidential rerun and contest for 10 Senate seats, and Jan. 8 runoff.
“We already made ourselves clear: Haiti will make all effort to find the $55 million to do the elections,” said presidential spokesman Serge Simon. “If no one comes to our assistance we will manage because the priority for us is the elections.”
The U.S. announcement comes as Haiti’s bickering parliament continues to stall over whether to prolong the term of Privert, whose 120-day mandate expired on June 14, and the head of the United Nations peacekeeping operations warns that the international community is losing patience with the ongoing political crisis.
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article88338777.html#storylink=cpy Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article88338777.html#storylink=cpy

CAMH launches partnership to help Haitian voodoo healers New partnership looks to incorporate evidence-based therapy into popular traditional voodoo practice

By: Gilbert Ngabo Metro Published on Fri Jul 08 2016
The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health is entering the voodoo business.
Well, sort of. Through its Office of Transformative Global Health, CAMH is launching a partnership with Haitian voodoo healers, helping them serve the mental health needs of the local population.
Cases of depression and anxiety in Haiti have ballooned in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake, but there’s a lack of trained mental health professionals, said the office’s program director Akwato Khenti.
In a country of over 10 million people, there are only 194 trained psychologists, 27 psychiatrists and three psychiatric nurses.
“People with even mild to moderate PTSD problems have no options to professional treatment unless they are wealthy,” Khenti said.
There are however some 60,000 voodoo priests, who use traditional methods such as storytelling and dance to treat various illnesses. CAMH is hoping to build on their popularity to increase Haitians’ access to mental health services.
“The voodoo community is often marginalized and dismissed as superstitious in Western societies, but it provides an important level of cultural comfort,” said Khenti, noting 40 per cent of mental health recovery is attributed to the relationship between the patient and the person providing care.
The partnership will aim to integrate evidence-based therapy into the traditional practice of voodoo, something Widner Dumay – who has practiced voodoo for over 25 years in Haiti – believes is “desperately needed.”
In particular, Dumay hopes incorporating contemporary techniques into voodoo will build trust with Haiti’s large Christian population, many of whom have been skeptical of the practice in the past.
He and a few other voodoo priests will be in Toronto later this month to support the Best of Both Worlds campaign raising funds to produce an interactive film for voodoo leaders in rural communities.
“We hope to learn new techniques and skills from professional therapists, because our work is already overwhelming,” said Dumay, who receives between 100 and 150 patients per week.
http://www.metronews.ca/news/toronto/2016/07/08/camh-to-help-haitian-voodoo-healers.html

A tarnished Red Cross

FEATURED EDITORIAL:
HOME FEATURED EDITORIAL
Published on June 27, 2016
In the wake of tragedy or natural disaster, Americans want to help. Many send money electronically or write a check to the American Red Cross.
What organization could be more solid? People have long trusted that the Red Cross would responsibly apply their contributions.
Not so, apparently.
A U.S. Senate investigation into how the agency managed a half billion dollars in donations for relief following the Haiti earthquake in 2010 not only raises questions about how the Red Cross handled donor funds, but reveals troubling details about its operations.
Sen. Charles Grassley (R., Iowa) has released a 300-page report so disturbing that a shakeup at the charity seems in order. Other members of Congress recommend an independent outside auditor — on a permanent basis.
● The Red Cross has long told the public that 91 percent of contributions go directly to clients in need. But this cannot be verified in the case of Haiti. There is no evidence for such a number. It was hype, a sales pitch, a lie.
● In Haiti, other groups were sub-contracted to do work the Red Cross lacked the manpower or expertise to accomplish. Much of that work was never done. But those groups charged another 11 percent in administrative costs.
● The Red Cross collected almost $500 million for Haiti and built only six permanent homes there. Six.
● The report says the Red Cross attempted to stymie and was not open with federal authorities.
The public first came to know what the charity was doing — or not doing — from media reports. Senator Grassley launched his investigation after learning about Red Cross handling of funding and other matters from National Public Media and ProPublica. The senator concluded that a whopping 25 percent, or $125 million, of the $500 million received from donations for Haiti, was used for in-house expenses.
Some 1.5 million Haitians’ homes were destroyed. Six homes is scandal.
The Grassley report reveals that additional funds were spent on oversight, to ensure proper use of Haiti aid. However, the senator’s office learned that the organization “is unable to provide any financial evidence that oversight activities in fact occurred.”
Senator Grassley’s office also said Gail McGovern, chief executive officer of the charity, made false statements as to whether it cooperated with congressional investigators. He said there was little cooperation with federal authorities, and that after a year of talking back and forth with the Red Cross, “We did not get satisfactory answers. It was like pulling teeth.”
The Red Cross could not even provide a complete list of all its projects in Haiti.
American Red Cross leaders have obviously forgotten that they are accountable to the public, and have a higher duty to keep faith with both their givers and those in need. It broke faith with both.
The American Red Cross has now been tainted and needs a complete leadership overhaul.
It also needs a watchdog.
Finally, someone needs to go to jail here. Fraud on the backs of almost unfathomable human suffering is about as shameless as shameless gets.
http://www.toledoblade.com/Featured-Editorial-Home/2016/06/27/A-tarnished-Red-Cross.html

American Red Cross exposed as massive, incompetent fraud: built just six homes after collecting half a billion dollars in Haiti earthquake donations

Sunday, June 26, 2016
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
Tags: American Red Cross, Haiti earthquake, donations fraud
Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/054476_American_Red_Cross_Haiti_earthquake_donations_fraud.html#ixzz4CmJrGY6Y The Red Cross received an outpouring of donations after the quake, nearly half a billion dollars.
The group has publicly celebrated its work. But in fact, the Red Cross has repeatedly failed on the ground in Haiti. Confidential memos, emails from worried top officers, and accounts of a dozen frustrated and disappointed insiders show the charity has broken promises, squandered donations, and made dubious claims of success.
The Red Cross says it has provided homes to more than 130,000 people. But the actual number of permanent homes the group has built in all of Haiti: six.
In effect, the Red Cross exploited the Haiti earthquake as a way to get gullible donors to wipe out its massive operational debt. Check this out:
Inside the Red Cross, the Haiti disaster was seen as "a spectacular fundraising opportunity," recalled one former official who helped organize the effort. Michelle Obama, the NFL and a long list of celebrities appealed for donations to the group.
The Red Cross kept soliciting money well after it had enough for the emergency relief that is the group's stock in trade. Doctors Without Borders, in contrast, stopped fundraising off the earthquake after it decided it had enough money. The donations to the Red Cross helped the group erase its more-than $100 million deficit.
The American Red Cross: Where donation money disappears into a massive bureaucratic black hole
So what did the Red Cross actually do? Like all big bureaucracies, its top officials all stood around shoving thumbs up each other's asses and calling it "success." Via ProPublica:
The Red Cross' initial plan said the focus would be building homes -- an internal proposal put the number at 700. Each would have finished floors, toilets, showers, even rainwater collection systems. The houses were supposed to be finished in January 2013. None of that ever happened. Carline Noailles, who was the project's manager in Washington, said it was endlessly delayed because the Red Cross "didn't have the know-how."
So the Red Cross collects half a billion dollars from gullible donors, but doesn't know how to build homes for the victims it claimed to be helping? This reality reeks of so much waste that I'm now nominating the Red Cross to be a full-fledged government agency, where it's amazing waste-amplified talents can be put to use on a larger scale, wasting far more taxpayer money than ever thought possible.
Millions spent teaching impoverished children with no water or soap how to wash their hands
While all the Red Cross's home building plans were being laughed off the table, the organization decided to use its half a billion dollars in funding to -- and I'm not even making this up -- teach hand washing skills to children who have no water and no soap. F-Yeah! Why didn't I think of that?
Instead of making concrete improvements to living conditions, the Red Cross has launched hand-washing education campaigns. The internal evaluation noted that these were "not effective when people had no access to water and no soap." (The Red Cross declined to comment on the project.)
You might think that somebody at the Red Cross would first realize that washing hands requires running water, but that would be giving them way too much credit. It's not about actually helping people, you see... it's all about raising money to raise Red Cross salaries and bonuses!
Bottom line: If you give a single dollar to the American Red Cross, you're a fool. The organization is a fraud. Pick a more honest non-profit next time, and do your homework before giving money to these donation fat cats who pay themselves huge salaries and bonuses while doing next to nothing to actually help real people in the real world.
SOURCE: Propublica.org
http://www.propublica.org/article/how-the-re... Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/054476_American_Red_Cross_Haiti_earthquake_donations_fraud.html#ixzz4CmJ0Qra3

Stevenson to defend boxing crown, seeks 15th win in a row

Montreal (AFP) – Haitian-born Canadian Adonis Stevenson, the World Boxing Council light-heavyweight champion for the past three years, will defend his crown July 29 against American Thomas Williams at Quebec City.
The showdown of southpaws will be Stevenson’s seventh title defence of the crown he took from US fighter Chad Dawson by knockout in June 2013.
Stevenson, 27-1 with 22 knockouts, is on a 14-fight win streak since suffering his lone loss to Darnell Boone in 2010, a defeat he avenged by knocking out the American in 2013.
In all, Stevenson has 12 knockouts in his past 14 bouts, the 38-year-old most recently stopping American Tommy Karpency in the third round last September in Toronto.
“I am very happy to return to the ring on July 29,” Stevenson said. “I’ll demonstrate that like fine wine, I’m even better with age. Even though I haven’t boxed in 10 months, I’ve never left the gym and I’m willing and ready to defend my crown.”
Stevenson, who hasn’t fought outside Canada since 2011, holds the lone belt in the division not owned by Russian fighter Sergey Kovalev, who had hoped to meet Stevenson to decide an undisputed crown but instead is set to defend his titles in Russia next month against Malawi’s Issac Chilemba.
Williams, 20-1 with 14 knockouts, has won three times since suffering his only loss to Spanish former world champion Gabriel Campillo in 2014. In April, Williams stopped Dominican Edwin Rodriguez in the second round.
“There were many people who had lost trust in me two years ago after my loss, but here I am,” Williams said.
“I’m coming off of the best performance of my career and I’m ready to hold that belt. Stevenson has never faced a puncher like me.”
http://www.breitbart.com/news/stevenson-to-defend-boxing-crown-seeks-15th-win-in-a-row-7/

LE DESTIN DE JOCELERME PRIVERT ET LA CRISE POLITIQUE EN HAITI DEUX POSITIONS

UN GESTE ! UN SACRIFICE DES EGOS ET DES INTÉRÊTS PERSONNELS ET DE CASTES POUR SORTIR ENFIN DE LA CRISE!
LAISSONS PRIVERT ET LE CEP ORGANISER DE VRAIES ET BONNES ÉLECTIONS !
Je n'ai jamais apprécié l'ensemble du comportement de Monsieur Privert qui voulait être président à tout prix. Dès lors il était vu par l'ensemble des parlementaires comme la meilleure option pour une vraie mainmise du pouvoir législatif sur les autres pouvoirs.

Les préceptes de la Constitution n'étaient ni assez clairs ni assez adaptés.

Les voix de l'opinion publique qui réclamaient la présence d'une personnalité ayant un certain vécu politique, ne furent non plus entendues.

Aujourd'hui Privert ne défend plus les intérêts de l'ensemble du parlement.​

L'évincer aujourd'hui serait reculer pour reculer et s'enfoncer dans la crise.
Il faut donc un geste magnanime de tous pour comprendre de quel côté se trouvent les intérêts de la nation.  

Accordons-lui une confiance prudente et restons vigilants.​

Dr Jonas Jolivert

21/06/2016

Un geste magnanime, mon ami Jonas se trouve dans le choix du Président de la cour de Cassation.

La constitution le veut ainsi .

Les promesses d’un assassin valent elles mieux que les écrits de loi mère ?
Privert ne connait rien au vrai amour du pays. Il est un pur lavalassien et ne mérite pas le bénéfice du doute !
Il n’a pas de parole d’honneur .

Tout pour lui est prétexte à se gonfler les poches de sous.
Pourquoi ferais-je pour lui ce que je n’ai pas voulu faire pour Martelly, quand je me suis rendu compte que lui aussi trahissait les espoirs d’une pauvre nation !
D’autres leaders sous d’autres cieux s’élèvent au-dessus de CE QUI SE PASSE dans les tripots malsains de nos politiques pour penser pays .

Avec Privert c’est le contraire :
Il est un corrompu .

Il est un menteur sans pareil .

Il se complait dans les limites de son imbécilité cultuelle qu’il assume être la manifestation d’une intelligence supérieure.
A la limite de la magnanimité, si telle est la disposition de notre esprit citoyen, on ne peut faite confiance qu’à ceux qui ont erré mais qui partagent encore nos idéaux .

Privert n’a jamais été de ceux-là.

Qu’il foute le camp cet oiseau de mauvais augure !

S’il faut une guerre civile pour nous débarrasser de cette canaille et sa racaille il nous faut accepter les conséquences.
J’en ai marre des excuses qui donnent à tous nos faux leaders les moyens extraordinaires de nous plonger au plus profond de la merde.

Geraldo Berroueto

21/06/2016

Grand ami Geraldo Berroueto;

j'ai plusieurs questionnements par rapport à l'option de la guerre civile qu'elle soit menée contre Privert ou contre un autre.

Mon premier souci réside dans le fait que j'habite en dehors d'Haïti et les justifications de cette guerre ne me paraissent pas assez solides pour me pousser à joindre les rangs. Et je ne voudrais pas assurer la promotion d'une guerre dans la quelle je ne prendrai pas partie.
Je suis totalement de ton avis que l'on aurait dû dès le départ exiger que l'on suive les préceptes de la loi mère pour régler le problème après le départ de Martelly.

Je continue à me demander pourquoi le pouvoir judiciaire par son silence indifférent s'est laissé transformer en vassal des deux autres pouvoirs et n'a pas pris part à la solution de la crise que posait le départ de Michel Martelly. 

Une guerre menée par la société civile pour exiger le respect de la Constitution m'aurait convenu.

Notre histoire a débuté avec des guerres civiles opposant des mulâtres menés par André Rigaud et les nègres libres de Toussaint Louverture. Puis les guerres ont opposé des régions, des garnisons et des hommes pour arriver au pouvoir. Aucune de ces guerre n'a fait du bien au pays.

J'ai du mal à intégrer le bien fondé d'une guerre civile opposant des lavalassiens à des tetkaleistes. Nous savons tous ce que sont devenus les lavalassiens et nous avions vu à l'oeuvre la bande de Michel Martelly.
J'aurai beaucoup de mal à rejoindre un des deux camps.

Je ne marcherai pas main dans la main avec Arnel Belizaire, Rudy Heriveaux, kplim et consorts pour exiger la validation d'une farce électorale destinée à mettre à la tête du pays un tel Jovenel Moïse, sorti de l'anonymat et investi leader par Michel Martelly.

La guerre civile n'est pas un match de football à la fin duquel le vaincu salut le vainqueur au nom du sport. 

La guerre reste une option tragique traduisant dans sa plus belle expression toute la bêtise de l'homme.

Cher ami, je suis convaincu que la vie d'un seul citoyen haïtien est plus importante que les intérêts de ces deux groupuscules érigés en éventuels camps.

S'il existe une troisième option portée par un troisième camp, un secteur mu par les vrais intérêts de la nation je rentre dans les rangs sinon, au nom de la cohérence et la logique élémentaire je suis partisan d'un dépassement de soi des camps opposés pour sauver ce qui peut l'être encore aujourd'hui.

Dr Jonas Jolivert

21/06/2016