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BOSTON HAITIAN
BostonHaitian.com
© copyright 2006
www.bostonhaitian.com
Boston Neighborhood News, Inc.
REPORTER
Vol. 6, Issue 12
DECEMBER 2006
FREE
Helping the poor help themselves
BOSTON-BASED HAITI PROJECT MAKES SELF-SUFFIENCY ITS GOAL - Page 4
About fifty women are involved in the Haiti Project’s Cooperative D’Artisanat des Femmes, which
helps skilled, but poor women in the Fond des Blancs area of southern Haiti make a living through
sewing. It is just one of several programs run through the Boston-based non-profit. Story, page 4.
Kennedy award goes to
defender of Haitians in D.R.
Above, Massachusetts Senator Edward
M. Kennedy, left, presents Sonia Pierre
with an award named for his late brother,
Robert F. Kennedy.
Sonia Pierre, who has
spent her life protecting her fellow Haitians
living in the Dominican
Republic from
human rights abuses,
was honored last month
with the Robert F.
Kennedy Award for
Human Rights. At a
ceremony in Washington, D.C., the 42 year-old
woman vowed to continue her struggle to help
the estimated
650,000 Haitians
living in the
Dominican Republic.
Story, page 10
Inside the Reporter
‘Clef rocks Jacmel
Haiti’s best-known ambassador brought the message home to the masses last
month in a free concert in Jacmel. It was Wyclef’s first such performance
in Haiti since 1998. Story, page 10. AP photo/Ariana Cubillos
Page boston haitian Reporter December 2006
New commissioner’s goal: Connect officers to community
By Patrick
McGroarty
Reporter Staff
Edward F. Davis III
was sworn in on Dec. 4 as
the 40th commissioner
of the Boston Police Department at the Mildred
Avenue School in Mattapan, where he told an
auditorium packed with
city and police officials
that innovation, improving community trust,
and reducing violent
crime would be his top
priorities.
A 28-year veteran
of the Lowell Police
Department, Davis led
that city to a 60 percent
drop in crime during
his 12-year tenure at
that force’s helm and
developed a reputation
as a strident proponent
of community policing
and as an independent
thinker. He was also
a finalist the last time
Boston’s commissioner
job was open, in 2004.
Davis inherits the
department’s top job at a
critical moment. In-fighting has prompted a great
deal of movement within
the command staff since
Kathleen O’Toole left the
commissioner’s office
for a job with the Irish
national police.
And violent crime is
on the upswing in the
city. A murder on Florida
Street on Dec. 5 was the
city’s 70th of the year in
Boston, and the number
is on track to outpace
last year’s total of 75, a
ten-year high. The troubling crime statistics are
inseparable from sharp
decreases in federal
funding that have left
the department woefully understaffed and
prompted criticism from
neighborhood activists
and elected officials that
the city and department
leaders have not done
enough to staff more
officers and improve
police services.
Davis said addressing
resident concerns is of
critical importance.
“We’re going to do
Judge Mark Wolf, left, administers the oath of office to Edward Davis, Boston’s new police commissioner, during a ceremony on
Monday, Dec. 4, 2006 at Mildred Avenue Community Center in Mattapan. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
everything we can to
improve service.” said
Davis. “Spikes in violence occur over the long
range. But it’s about
getting officers out of the
cars, connected with the
community.”
Already Davis has
committed to meeting
with residents at civic
and crime watch meetings across the city,
including several upcoming appearances in the
neighborhood.
The first such availability will be December
19, when Davis attends
a community meeting
at the Bowdoin Street
Health Center at 6:45
p.m.
Davis also said on
Monday that he would be
an outspoken advocate
for increases in federal
funding to urban police
departments, a campaign which will likely
have the blessing of his
new boss, Mayor Thomas
Menino, who has decried
cuts that have made effectively budgeting and
staffing Boston’s police
department a constant
challenge.
Still, some said they
were skeptical as to
whether Davis would be
willing to direct the same
kind of vocal dissatisfaction at the Mayor, who is
known to take criticism
personally and has a
tendency to micro-manage many of the city’s
departments.
“If history is prologue,
I think it’s going to be
very difficult to exercise
the necessary autonomy,
given the management
style of Tom Menino,”
said City Councillor
Charles Yancey, whose
district includes the
Mildred Avenue School.
“[Menino] was deeply
involved in management
decisions by [former
commissioners] Paul
Evans and Kathleen
O’Toole, and I think that
her overall authority
and influence over the
day-to-day operations
was somewhat limited by
mayoral interference.”
On Monday, Menino
rejected the idea that
he would micro-manage
Davis’ work.
“He runs the police
department, he makes
those decisions, and I’ll
go along with the decisions he makes,” Menino
told the Reporter.
One such decision
might involve an evaluation of the city’s 911
call system. There have
been several instances
in recent weeks when
residents have said that
their calls have gone
unanswered or without a
response. Advocates asking for an overhaul to the
system grew louder last
week after a noisy, fournight party at a house
on Milton Avenue ended
with shooting death of a
teenager and the injury
of four others.
State Rep. Linda
Dorcena Forry, whose
family owns this newspaper, said that a review
of the method by which
calls are prioritized and
responded to might be
in order.
“These are key quality
of life issues that can
turn into something
major,” said Forry. “I
think the system does
need to be tweaked.”
When asked if such
adjustments would be
considered, Davis said
they would fall under
his general review of the
department’s structure.
“We’re reviewing all
of that,” Davis told the
Reporter. “I tend to run
an agency with an eye toward poignant analysis
and improvement of our
services.”
In his address, Davis
also said he would diversify the department, a
primary concern among
advocates from the city’s
ethnic communities.
“I will do everything
within the constraints
of the law to further diversify this department
and its command staff,”
said Davis.
Sensing second chance, Ed board wants review of tuition plan
By Gintautas Dumcius
State House News Service
Expecting the state Legislature and incoming
governor to revisit the issue early next year, the
state Board of Higher Education last month directed
staffers to assess the impact of granting in-state
tuition rates to illegal immigrants who attend public
colleges and universities.
At the urging of board vice chair Aaron Spencer,
outgoing chairman Stephen Tocco instructed staffers
of the board, which oversees 15 community colleges,
nine state colleges, and the five-campus UMass
system, to have a report on the ramifications of such
a move ready by February.
Tocco, who was personally honored today for his
work by Senate President Robert Travaglini, said
he sensed the issue will become a legislative priority
early next session.
“There’s no end of questions about it,” Spencer said
in pushing for the study, adding that the board held
earlier, “favorable” discussions, and that “enormous
misperceptions” exist.
The House in January rejected a bill granting the
in-state tuition rates, voting the measure down 57 to
97, despite support from Speaker Salvatore DiMasi
(D-Boston). Opponents of the bill said it was wrong
to reward illegal immigrants with benefits, while
Killed last year, in-state
tuition proposal could get
new life in 2007.
supporters said immigrant students are no different
or less deserving than their classmates. Support for
the bill crumbled in the days before the vote.
In 2004, Gov. Mitt Romney vetoed the in-state
immigrant tuition proposal.
The proposal would have allowed illegal immigrants to avoid higher rates paid by out-of-state
residents provided that the students are graduates
of a state high school, spent three years there, and
file or plan to file an application for permanent
residency.
Tocco said there is a need for the board to “arm
ourselves with information.”
The brief discussion of the issue came at the end
of a two-hour board meeting at UMass-Boston.
“I do think the discussion will come up and the
Legislature will look at it again because the governorelect has declared he’s in favor it,” Spencer told the
News Service after the meeting.
On the gubernatorial campaign trail, Republican
Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey, who helped defeat the measure
in January, criticized Democratic opponent Deval
Patrick, the incoming governor, for supporting the
bill as well as driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants.
Healey had said the tuition rate proposal would cost
$14.4 million over four years, and proposed pushing
efforts for English classes for illegal immigrants
instead.
A report from the business-backed Massachusetts
Taxpayers Foundation, released before the House
vote, said enrollment would grow to 600 and the
state would receive $2.5 million in revenue by 2009
if the policy change were adopted.
At a State House rally in April, hundreds of
immigrant advocates saved their loudest applause
for Patrick and cheered as the candidate said the
state will pass the in-state tuition bill.
The expected Board of Higher Education report,
which would include estimates of costs and how
many students would be affected, is expected in
February, Tocco said.
“I think that’s what we think is when the public
discussion will begin again, when the Legislature
reconvenes and the new governor sort of begins to
lay down his priorities,” Tocco said. “And we just
want to be ready with the information that they
need in order to advance whatever point of view
they’ll have.”
December 2006
BOSTON HAITIAN Reporter
Page News from Haiti
Lower turnout seen in long-delayed elections
By STEVENSON JACOBS
PORT-AU-PRINCE - Haitians cast ballots Sunday,
Dec. 3 in municipal and local elections that were
billed as the final step in the troubled country’s return
to democratic rule following a bloody February 2004
revolt that toppled former President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide.
Some 29,000 candidates were vying for 1,420 local
and municipal posts in Sunday’s vote, which was
marked by low voter turnout and isolated reports of
violence. The turnout was not yet available, but it
appeared to fall far short of the 63 percent turnout
in the February election that elected President
Rene Preval.
At least four people were killed during Haiti’s
local elections over the weekend, election officials
and local media reported Monday.
The deaths included an off-duty police officer who
was shot and killed just after voting Sunday in
Martissant, a Port-au-Prince slum where warring
gangs battle for control, Radio Kiskeya reported.
At least three other people were reported killed
in different incidents throughout the Caribbean
Former finance minister
released unharmed in
latest kidnapping
PORT-AU-PRINCE - A former Haitian Cabinet
official was kidnapped and held for three days in
Haiti’s capital before being released unharmed,
police said Dec. 4. Fred Joseph, who served as
finance minister during President Rene Preval’s first
term, from 1996-2001, was abducted while driving
through the Port-au-Prince suburb of Petionville
and released on Saturday, police spokesman Frantz
Lerebours said.
It was not clear whether a ransom was paid.
Lerebours said Joseph’s family negotiated with the
captors, not police. A rash of kidnappings against
Haitians and foreigners has plagued the capital since
a February 2004 revolt toppled former President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
Last month, a 17-year-old girl and a 6-year-old
boy were kidnapped and slain by their captors in
separate incidents. Authorities say gangs based in
the dense, mazelike slums of the Caribbean nation’s
capital are behind most kidnappings, but human
rights groups have also implicated corrupt police.
Continued crime has prompted criticism of Preval,
who was re-elected in February, and the 8,800-strong
U.N. peacekeeping force that was sent to restore
order after Aristide’s ouster. In response, Preval
last week announced that 500 new police officers
had been trained and would start work soon.
Legislators and business leaders have called on
his government to stop negotiating with gangs to
persuade them to give up their weapons and halt
their criminal activities. Preval’s prime minister,
Jacques Edouard Alexis, has defended the policy
and said the talks would continue. (AP)
Floods kill 3,
wash away roads
PORT-AU-PRINCE- Floods triggered by nearly
two weeks of heavy rain have washed away roads
and bridges, wiped out crops and killed at least
three people in western Haiti, the International
Red Cross said Dec. 5.
The destruction has been most severe in the rural
departments of Grande Anse and Nippes, along
the impoverished Caribbean nation’s vulnerable
southwestern peninsula. Flooding has also affected
the northwestern town of Port-de-Paix.
Haitian Red Cross workers have been providing first aid to injured residents and moving
flood-stricken villagers to temporary shelters, the
International Federation of Red Cross and Red
Crescent Societies said.
The Geneva-based group said it has asked donors
for $522,800 to buy hygiene kits, water, blankets
and mosquito nets for 17,500 people affected by
flooding.
The rain began Nov. 22, unleashing flash floods
that killed livestock, damaged two hospitals and
isolated many remote villages in the heavily
deforested country.
In August, Hurricane Ernesto washed away
wooden shacks and killed at least two people along
Haiti’s peninsula. (AP)
Reporter analysis: Elections
may prove to be Preval’s
greatest achievement- Pg. 8
country, said Stephane Lacroixe, a spokesman for
Haiti’s Provisional Electoral Council.
The elections took place more than a year late
because of street violence and logistical delays.
Final results were not expected for several days.
On Sunday, assailants burned two polling stations,
and shot and wounded a man in the northern town
of Limonade, local media reported. Police later shot
and wounded a Fusion party official after they found
him with two Molotov cocktails.
In the Port-au-Prince slum of Martissant, rival
gangs have been fighting for weeks and had threatened to disrupt the polling, residents said.
United Nations peacekeepers used tear gas to
disperse a small crowd that shouted anti-U.N.
slogans at a polling station in Cite Soleil, a volatile
slum on the edge of Port-au-Prince.
Voter turnout appeared low in most parts of the
capital of Port-au-Prince, with many polling stations
virtually empty. Officials had predicted turnout at 40
to 50 percent, well below the massive participation in
February’s presidential vote won by Rene Preval.
Visiting a polling center in the capital, Preval’s
prime minister, Jacques Edouard Alexis, praised the
organization of the elections but said he had hoped
for a higher turnout.
In the northern town of Limonade, police reported
that two polling stations were burned and several
people were arrested for intimidating voters or trying
to cast more than one ballot. (AP)
Page boston haitian Reporter Reporter’s
December 2006
Men Nou
News about people
making moves in & around
our community
Boston-based Haiti Project helps poor help themselves
By Yolette Ibokette
Contributing Editor
When Sarah Hackett, founder and president
of Haiti Projects, Inc., retired as a nurse in the
1990s and was asked to be the interim director of
St. Boniface Hospital in Fond des Blancs (Valley
of the Whites), a small area in south central Haiti,
she saw that its residents had many needs that
were not being met. As a result, she founded Haiti
Projects, Inc., a private, non-profit organization
that provides a framework for the development of
grass-roots, self-help projects in Fond des Blancs.
She proceeded to set up projects in collaboration
with the local residents to enable them to become
self-sufficient with the goal to eventually turn over
the management of these projects to local, qualified
individuals.
The first such project, Rassamblement Travailleurs Paysan (RATRAP) was created in 1994. This
men’s cooperative began as a small micro-lending
program to buy agricultural tools and livestock.
It has since become a vital educational resource
for farmers to learn how to care for the land and
livestock. It teaches farmers how to rejuvenate
depleted soil and address soil erosion. It has been
managed locally since 2001.
Another project, the Family Health Clinic, opened
in 1995. The clinic aims to educate people in methods
of pregnancy prevention. With the highest fertility
rates in the region, Fond des Blancs’ clinic serves
about 300 women and carries out more than 1,200
family planning consultations per year. The clinic
also educates clients about protection from sexually
transmitted diseases. Patients are required to pay a
small amount for these services. By having people
contribute what they can, Hackett believes their
dignity and pride are preserved. It’s open twice a
week.
The Chinese proverb, “Give a man a fish, and you
feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed
About fifty women involved in the Haiti Project’s
Cooperative d’Artisanat in Fond des Blancs earn
a living through the program, which is based from
the Boston area.
him for a lifetime,” comes to mind when one thinks
of The Cooperative d’Artisanat, another project.
The sewing cooperative was created in 1996 with
the goal of helping women help themselves toward
self-sufficiency. Local women earn a living by
making fine, embroidered linens and lingerie. Fifty
local women with excellent sewing, embroidery and
knitting skills gather together to create high quality,
exquisite products. These include embroidered,
cotton nightgowns and pillowcases; embroidered,
hemstitched napkins made of 100% fine European
linen; linen fringe napkins and table runners in
five dazzling Caribbean
colors; linen tablecloth
and napkin sets in a variety of beautiful colors
and embroidered with
Christmas or peasant
motifs. In addition,
layettes, pullovers, hats
and gloves knitted by
hand of yarn of 100%
wool as well as wool
and acrylic mixture are
made by these women.
Proceeds from the sales
of these items go directly
to the women, many
of whom raise their
children on their own.
The use their earnings
to buy food, clothing
and send their children
to school. They’re paid
individually for each
item they create. Once
the items pass strict
quality inspections, they
are sold in various ways:
through the Artisanat’s
workroom in Fond
des Blancs as well as
through stores in Portau-Prince, Petion-Ville
and Jacmel. Here in the
United States, 18 stores
ranging from boutiques
in Albuquerque to shops
in Cambridge, Cape Cod
and the North Shore
carry these products. The
best venues, however,
are Event Sales, sales
that are held in people’s
homes.
Haiti Projects also has
an education program to
help poor kids with the
costs of school, which
isn’t free in Haiti. Most
parents often can’t afford
the tuition, uniforms and
school supplies. Recently
the organization began collaborating with the St.
Boniface Haiti Foundation located in Randolph, Massachusetts, to support 370 youngsters in 9 different
schools ranging from elementary to secondary. The
local director monitors student progress as well as
the curriculum and teaching quality of the schools
in the program. Parents are asked to contribute a
small portion of their children’s educational costs.
The Community Library, the first in the region,
opened in 2001 with two small rooms but now has
a growing collection of over 3000 volumes and 850
card-carrying members. It’s open on Tuesdays and
Saturdays, and patrons are asked to pay a small
amount for their library card. The demand for the
library was such that lines of youngsters lined up to
get into the small rooms to borrow a book. However,
this past March, it was moved to a bigger and better
location that is more centrally located and closer to
foot traffic. This new venue also provides more space
including a separate children’s room. The library has
also become a community center for everyone in the
area. Individuals in the United States and locally
donate books, videos and other materials that are
then shipped to Fond des Blancs. The organization
hopes to raise funds to build a real library on land
it purchased for that purpose.
With all these success stories, one might think that
everything runs smoothly all the time. One of the
challenges the organization faces is transporting
things to and from Haiti. Since this can be very costly,
the staff relies on friends and supporters traveling
to and from Haiti to carry items. Last year, over
$4,000 worth of linen were stolen from a warehouse
in Miami. Another challenge is maintaining communication between the projects’ staff in Haiti and
those here in the United States. Luckily, Haiti’s staff
has access to email service, although some have to
go to an internet cafe.
One person who’s helping to correct this problem
is Kenson Calixte, a Senior Network Engineer at
IBM, who met Hackett and Anne Anninger, Manager
for Haiti Projects for the United States, a couple of
years ago.
Calixte says, “I was so impressed by these
dedicated ladies that I decided to help.”
His employer has a community service program
that gives non-profits either a piece of equipment
or a grant when employees volunteer with them
for a certain number of hours. Therefore, Calixte
was able to get a laptop for Haiti Projects’ staff to
do administrative work. He hopes to get them a
second one in the near future.
Anninger lives in Cambridge with her husband
and three sons, one of whom is Haitian. She has
been active in a number of Haitian organizations
over the last two decades. Since she retired from
her position as Curator of Printing & Graphic Arts
at Harvard six years ago, she is constantly on the
move for Haiti Projects.
Anninger looks for donations of books and
other materials for the community library. She
also looks for stores and specialty shops that may
be interested in selling the products made by the
sewing cooperative. While Anninger also sells these
goods at bazaars, churches, local festivals and civic
organizations, she recruits individuals willing to
host sales at these venues.
Anninger is always happy to assist in the planning
and preparation of personalized invitations and
flyers. She also provides the host a step-by-step
guide on how to prepare for and hold the event, and
if it is held locally, she helps on the day of the sale.
According to Anninger, people love it because it’s like
a party with friends, with beautiful things to look
at and purchase. Another part of her position is
the organization’s fundraising effort to support the
various programs. Anninger says, “I invite people
to participate and help the organization in any way
that suits them best.”
In the future, Haiti Projects would like to develop
into a much larger organization. However, it wants to
do so slowly and in an orderly fashion. To contribute
to the organization, please make checks payable
to: Haiti Projects, Inc., and mail to: 31 Leonard
Street, Gloucester, MA 01930. You can contact
Anne Anninger at 617-492-7349 or email her at:
anne@anninger.us, if you are interested in learning
more about the organization, would like to host a
sale, or make a donation of books (in French and
Creole). More information about Haiti Projects as
well as a catalog of its products and an order form
may be found on its web page. The address is: www.
haitiprojects.org.
December 2006
BOSTON HAITIAN Reporter
Page Center helps put women launch their own businesses
By Yolette Ibokette
Contributing Editor
Nancy Engel started
her small business, A
Sunny Window, with a
welfare check. Maria
Ngo’s E & K Staffing
Services business has
made it possible for her
to buy her first home.
Marie Carme Deravil
was an engineer before
opening Camie’s Bakery
Plus. These women’s
dreams of becoming
entrepreneurs came true
with the assistance of the Center for Women &
Enterprise (CWE).
Co-founded in 1995 by Andrea Silbert, who ran
unsuccessfully this year for lieutenant governor,
CWE has been invaluable to women interested in
owning their own businesses. With two graduate
degrees from Harvard University, Silbert could have
pursued very successful and profitable careers in the
private sector. Instead she resigned from a financial
analyst position with Morgan Stanley to go to Latin
America to work on improving the lives of the poor
through grassroots economic development in Costa
Rica, Columbia and Brazil. When she returned to
Massachusetts, she co-launched CWE.
The center’s mission, according to Silbert, is to
“empower women to become economically self-sufficient and prosperous through entrepreneurship.”
It was first initiated in a small office in Roxbury
which has since been moved to Boston. Today, there
is also an office in Worcester and one in Providence,
Rhode Island. CWE is now the largest and most
reputable women’s entrepreneurial training center
in the country.
According to Silbert, 60% of the women who
seek CWE’s services are interested in home-based
businesses. However, many are start-ups. The
non-profit provides education, training, technical
assistance and access to debt and equity capital
through programs and services designed for entrepreneurs at all stages of business development.
There are courses that provide guidance before
you start a business, after the business is initiated
and once it’s established. For example, “Managing
Your Finances” and “Steps to Starting a Business”
are beneficial before starting your business. If you
have no business experience, there are courses and
workshops to guide you every step of the way. With
some business experience, you’ll benefit from “The
Entrepreneurial Training Program” among others.
Those women who already have a business can grow
it by taking courses such as “Business Planning:
Soccer stars lift spirits
of troubled youth
PORT-AU-PRINCE- Three players from the MLS’
New York Red Bulls spoke with children at a juvenile
prison and donated soccer balls on Dec. 5, wrapping
up a five-day goodwill visit to the poor Caribbean
nation. Two of the players - Jozy Altidore and Jerrod
Laventure - are of Haitian descent and were making
their first trip to Haiti since they were boys. The
players were invited by Haitian-born rapper Wyclef
Jean, whose Yele Haiti charity held an arts festival
to promote development in the country.
``It was tremendous ... I want to help these people
as much as I can. It definitely touched my heart,’’
said the 17-year-old Altidore, whose parents are were
born in Haiti. Altidore, Laventure and teammate
Seth Stammler toured the Delmas 33 juvenile prison
in Port-au-Prince and told the children to focus on
school and sports after their release.
``You know they are good kids at heart,’’ Stammler
said. ``They grew up and that (crime) is all they knew.
They have to do things to stay alive here.’’
Altidore and Laventure said their Haitian heritage
helped them connect with people even though neither
speak Creole nor French.
``They love to smile and have fun. Under the
circumstances here, their attitude on life is a
testament to the people and something I hope I can
take back to the states,’’ said Laventure, a forward
whose father is from Port-au-Prince.
On Dec. 4, the players gave instructional clinics
at L’Athletique d’Haiti, a locally run sports academy
for children from area slums.
``The talent is here,’’ Laventure said. ``The kids we
played against were extremely skillful, way ahead
of their ages compared to kids in the U.S.’’ (AP)
Next Stage.” Established business owners can also
receive expert advice through individual and group
consulting, legal and loan consulting services as well
as assistance to gain access to corporate markets.
Additionally, CWE’s commitment to women’s
empowerment extends to girls. Recently this year, in
collaboration with the Girl Scouts Council, it held a
financial literacy summit for mothers and daughters
titled, “Your Money, Your Power.” Designed for Girl
Scouts as well as other teenage girls, ages 11-17,
and their mothers or other important women in
their lives, the summit discussed how to become
financially savvy while exploring the possibility of
becoming an entrepreneur at any age. Silbert, who
resigned from CWE to run for office, agrees. “All
girls and boys should realize the importance of being
economically self-sufficient,” she said.
Cambridge residents who are interested in CWE’s
services can take their courses and workshops in
that city. That’s where Deravil of Camie’s Bakery
Plus received assistance with her restaurant/bakery.
Although her undergraduate degree is in electrical
engineering, she’s always loved culinary arts.
Therefore, when she got laid off from an engineering
position years ago, she decided to enter Bunker
Hill Community College’s culinary arts program.
She then attended CWE’s small business program
sponsored by the City of Cambridge for its residents.
She says, “It’s very hard starting your own business,
even when you have a good idea. I wouldn’t advise
anyone to get into a field that they have no experience
in.” Thirteen years later, her business is thriving.
Deravil credits her strong work ethic, determination
and faith in God for her success. In the future, she
hopes to expand her cake design business to take
advantage of the college and university markets in
Cambridge. She’ll work with CWE again to design
her website and better market her business.
Thanks to CWE’s generous supporters, its
programs are very affordable. Most courses and
workshops range from $25-$50 per session with
scholarships available to qualified clients. Most
Cambridge residents can participate in these
programs free of charge.
For more information, please contact the Boston
office at 617-536-0700; the Worcester office at: 508363-2300; and the Providence, Rhode Island office at:
401-277-0800. In Cambridge, call 617-349-4618.
Page boston haitian Reporter December 2006
News from Haiti
PM Alexis: Haiti needs to make “peace with itself”
By Daniel Woolls
Associated Press Writer
MADRID, Spain (AP) - Haiti’s prime minister told
international donors last month that his country
must come to peace with itself before it can develop
and prosper.
Jacques Edouard Alexis said the Western
hemisphere’s poorest country, engulfed by violence
after a popular revolt that toppled the president in
2004, now has a legitimate, elected government,
and will complete one stage in its effort to return to
normalcy when it holds local elections on Dec. 3.
``We need a second push in order to develop,’’ Alexis
said at the start of a donors’ conference called to
review how and how much of $750 million pledged
at a July meeting has been disbursed.
But the government of President Rene Preval is
still saddled with a daunting array of problems,
including violence from street gangs that are a
holdover from the revolt that sent then-President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide fleeing into exile.
Under a U.N.-administered plan, Haiti’s government is offering hundreds of gangsters food grants
and job training if they disarm.
Alexis promised to work to restore the authority
of a weakened state throughout the territory of
the Caribbean nation of 8 million people and work
toward reconciliation.
``We must make peace with ourselves,’’ he said.
``No one can do it for us.’’
More than 30 countries and international institutions are attending the aid conference, which is
designed as a follow-up to the July meeting held
in Haiti. The idea is to review how those promises
are being implemented and coordinated with Haiti,
rather than seek more money.
Conference host Spain and the Organization of
American States insisted that the use of aid funds
be coordinated closely and effectively with a strong
and honest Haitian government.
``We have the historic opportunity and political
responsibility to clear the horizon of the Haitian
people’s future,’’ Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel
Angel Moratinos said.
After a series of opening speeches the conference
went into a closed-door session. A news conference
was scheduled for later in the day.
The Prime Minister of Haiti, Jacques Edouard Alexis speaks during an interview with the Associated
Press in his hotel room in Madrid, Thursday, Nov. 30, 2006. Alexis, who is in Madrid to attend an international donors meeting for Haiti, told international donors Thursday that his impoverished, violencewracked country must come to peace with itself before it can develop and prosper. Alexis said the Western
hemisphere’s poorest country, engulfed by violence after a popular revolt that toppled the president
in 2004, now has a legitimate, elected government, and will complete one stage in its effort to return to
normalcy when it holds local elections on Sunday. (AP Photo/Paul White)
Police commander resigns after indictment for conspiracy
By STEVENSON JACOBS
PORT-AU-PRINCE- A top Haitian police commander who has refused to appear before a judge
to face a charge of involvement in kidnappings has
resigned as head of his division, police said Nov. 15.
Inspector General Michael Lucius, who led an office
that investigates kidnappings and other serious
crimes, quit his post Nov. 14 and will be transferred
to another unit, police spokesman Frantz Lerebours
said.
Last month, a judge indicted Lucius for allegedly
conspiring with kidnappers and ordered his arrest.
Lucius denied the charge and refused to surrender
to authorities. He alleged that the judge, Napela
Saintil, was biased against him - a charge Saintil
denied.
Kidnappings for ransom flourished in the capital of
Port-au-Prince after a February 2004 revolt ousted
former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the impoverished Caribbean country’s first democratically
elected leader. Most of the crimes have been blamed
on street gangs - including some loyal to Aristide
- but corrupt police have also been implicated.
Lucius’ refusal to answer the kidnapping charge
has tested a weak justice system already hobbled
by corruption, chronic case backlogs and lack of
funds.
He told reporters he stepped down to prevent his
case from becoming ``a handicap for the work of the
legal and police institutions.’’
But Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis said
the government asked Lucius to resign ``so that
justice can be restored to this case.’’ He said Saintil
had also been removed from the case, opening the
door for a new judge to be assigned.
``This crisis has advanced sufficiently to oblige the
government to intervene,’’ Alexis told reporters.
Reached for comment, Lucius said ``it was my
personal decision’’ to resign, but added that ``maybe
the government wanted me to take that decision.’’
Earlier in the week, Port-au-Prince prosecutor
Claudy Gassant called Lucius a ``fugitive’’ and
vowed to arrest him.
Lucius said he’s ``ready to answer all the questions of the judicial system’’ now that a new judge
will replace Saintil, whom he accused of seeking to
discredit him on behalf of drug and arms traffickers
and money launderers.
``I think he has some people behind him. My
position is difficult in that it gives me many,
many enemies ... because I have some sensitive
information,’’ Lucius said by phone, declining to
give details.
Saintil wasn’t immediately available for comment.
The post held by Lucius has been marked by high
turnover, with 10 people holding the position since
it was created in 1997. Lucius was appointed to the
job in March 2004. (AP)
December 2006
BOSTON HAITIAN Reporter
Page U.N. vows to hunt down killers of 2 peacekeepers
By STEVENSON JACOBS
PORT-AU-PRINCE- U.N. peacekeepers remembered two slain comrades in a solemn memorial last
month as the United Nations envoy in Haiti vowed
to find their killers and redouble efforts to stabilize
the divided and impoverished nation.
Dozens of mourners watched as a Muslim imam
prayed before the flag-draped coffins of the Jordanian
soldiers, both shot to death Nov. 10 while returning
to base near a gang-controlled slum in the capital,
Port-au-Prince. They were the 13th and 14th
peacekeepers to die in Haiti since the U.N. mission
began in June 2004.
``We will spare no effort to apprehend the
perpetrators of this despicable crime and ensure
they are brought to justice,’’ said Edmond Mulet,
U.N. special representative, who laid a wreath
before the caskets.
The killings, by unidentified gunmen on a main
road, dealt a blow to the 8,800-strong Brazil-led
U.N. peacekeeping force, sent to restore order
after a bloody February 2004 revolt toppled former
president Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
After a lull in violence, peacekeepers and Haitian
police have been struggling to contain killings and
kidnappings blamed on street gangs, some loyal to
Aristide, currently in exile in South Africa.
More than 200 people, including 11 police officers,
were killed in and around the capital between June
and September, according to the Episcopal National
Commission for Justice and Peace.
The violence comes less than three weeks before
Haitians cast ballots in local and municipal elections
that are billed as the final step in the country’s
return to democratic rule.
Mulet said Jordan’s government promised to keep
its troops in Haiti despite having lost six soldiers
since the mission began - more than any other nation
that sent troops.
The latest victims, 1st Lt. Ahmad Mohammed Hassan Ba’irat and Cpl. Rami Wasif Taha Al Mohammed,
had finished a day of patrols when gunmen opened
Special U.N.
envoy tells
Europe: “Send
more money”
By Steven Ross Johnson
BRUSSELS, Belgium - The special U.N. envoy
to Haiti urged the European Union on Nov. 28 to
send more aid to the Western Hemisphere’s poorest
country, saying it was key to make sure government
reform would continue.
``The situation in Haiti right now is very difficult
and very complicated,’’ Edmond Mulet said. But
``I can say confidently that we are on the right
track.’’
Mulet was in Brussels to discuss the Caribbean
country’s situation with several European Parliament members before heading to Spain to take part
in an international donors conference scheduled for
Thursday.
Haiti, a country of 8 million, is struggling to recover
from a bloody 2004 rebel uprising that toppled
then-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and pushed
the country deeper into despair.
Recent unrest has come just weeks before
municipal elections are scheduled to take place on
Dec. 3. Earlier this month, around 100 university
students in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, staged a
protest calling for the removal of U.N. peacekeepers
from the country and two Jordanian peacekeepers
were killed.
Mulet said despite the recent unrest, much
progress has been made toward stabilizing the
country. He credited the Haitian government for its
efforts to prevent corruption and establishing order,
but said international aid was crucial in furthering
the progress that has been made.
``Almost 60 percent of the Haitian budget comes
from international donors,’’ Mulet said. ``The
international community should get more involved
in Haiti right now and try to support this enormous
window of opportunity we have there.’’
Last month, European Development Commissioner Louis Michel visited Haiti to discuss the
EU’s pledge of euro233 million (US $293 million)
in aid. (AP)
Now: Read the Reporter online
each month at bostonhaitian.com
fire on their vehicle near Cite Soleil, a vast
slum controlled by gangsters. Hassan Ba’irat
had arrived in Haiti only five days before his
death. Al Mohammed had been deployed since
May and was due to return home Nov. 16.
``Tragic incidents such as this one lead us
to redouble our concerted efforts with the
government of Haiti to continue to bring about
stability in this country,’’ Mulet said.
Meanwhile, anti-U.N. demonstrators were
planning major street protests this weekend
calling for peacekeepers to leave Haiti. Poor
slum dwellers accuse the blue-helmeted troops
of indiscriminately shooting during raids,
killing and wounding civilians. The U.N. says
peacekeepers only fire when attacked.
The U.N. Security Council in August renewed
the force’s mandate for at least another six
months. (AP)
A student chants slogans against the United
Nations mission in Haiti carrying a sign
that reads “We don’t like the U.N.” during
a protest by university students demanding the withdrawal of peacekeeping forces
in Port-au-Prince, Haiti Saturday, Nov. 18,
2006. About 100 student protesters were
marching through Port-au-Prince’s downtown when gunfire erupted, scattering
demonstrators. Witnesses said a security
guard at a nearby bank fired the shots and
was later arrested by police. It’s not clear
what prompted the shooting. (AP Photo/
Ariana Cubillos)
Page boston haitian Reporter December 2006
Commentary
Haiti’s stealth elections: What’s at stake?
By Brian Concannon Jr.
Haiti’s December 3 elections were quiet, from
almost every angle. As of press time (the morning
after the voting), no results were available, but
regardless of the final vote tally, in the long run
these elections may be
as important as the
much heralded Presidential elections last
February. They provide
Haiti an opportunity
to fully implement
its 1987 Constitution
for the first time in
nineteen years. If the
Haitian government
seizes this opportunity,
it can lay a foundation
for political stability
and accountability for
the nation’s judicial
system.
The International
press’ scarce attention
available for elections
in poor countries was
focused on Venezuela’s Presidential race the same
day, and altogether the foreign press published only
a handful of mostly short stories before and during
the voting. Even President René Préval spent the
day before the vote in Havana commemorating
the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution. The
Haitian press provided more coverage, but far less
than they did in February.
Voter turnout figures were not available at
press time, but observers and press report a light
turnout- probably below the 40-50% goal set by the
Provisional Electoral Council.
The elections were for municipal and local postsover 29,000 candidates ran for 1,420 positions- which
attract less attention in any country. They were
also a year late- they were originally scheduled for
November 2005 by the dictatorial Interim Government of Haiti (IGH), but postponed several times,
even as Haiti elected a President and Parliament
last spring.
More important, many popular candidates did
not run. Although the IGH is gone- Prime Minister
Gérard Latortue fled to the U.S. to avoid prosecution
for fraud and murder- the Provisional Electoral
Council it appointed is still running the voting. The
Council declined to re-open candidate registration,
which excluded candidates who feared to register
under the IGH, but were willing to participate under
the democratic Préval government. The exclusion
particularly impacted Haiti’s largest political
party, Fanmi Lavalas, which boycotted the 2005
registration because the IGH was routinely arresting
and/or killing its leaders and grassroots activists.
Although some local candidates registered under
the party’s banner anyway, they did so in less than
half the races, and those candidates were not vetted
or approved by the national organization.
THE CONSTITUTION’S SOUL
What is at stake Sunday is the “soul” of Haiti’s
government established by the 1987 Constitution:
a pyramid structure based on 4-6 person local
assemblies, called “ASECs” (Assemblés des Sections
Communales). The ASEC system is designed to
decentralize political power and ensure grassroots
participation at the highest levels of government.
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REPORTER
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A woman casts her vote on December 3, 2006. Photo by Wadner Pierre
It is so powerful that the powers-that-be, including
a broad spectrum of Haitian governments and
members of the International Community- the
United Nations, the Organization of American States
and the United States, all of which have played an
active role in the details of Haiti’s elections- have
ignored this foundation of Haiti’s constitutional
system for nineteen years. Haiti has had seven
election cycles since 1987, electing five Presidents
and several legislatures. ASECs have been on the
ballot less than half the time, and the system has
not been fully implemented once.
ASEC candidates run as a slate (from a political
party or group of independents) and are chosen by
voters in each communal section. Haiti is divided into
ten Departments, each Department is divided into
municipalities, or communes, and each municipality
is split into communal sections. A dense urban communal section could have more than 100,000 voters, a
remote rural section as few as a few hundred. ASEC
members wield little direct power themselves, but
they are the soul of the constitutional system for two
reasons. First, they act as the system’s conscience,
overseeing other government officials on behalf
of their neighbors, from local administrators to
Ministers. Second, they play a key role in selecting
the people most entrusted with keeping the system
fair: judges and electoral council members.
Within the communal section, the ASECs advise
and supervise the local Sectional Council, which
administers the section. Each ASEC sends one
representative to the Municipal Assembly, which
plays a similar watchdog/advisor role at the
municipal level. The mayor is supposed to report to
it on the use of municipal resources, and cannot sell
state lands without the Assembly’s approval. The
Municipal Assembly also makes the initial list from
which local justices of the peace are chosen.
Each Municipal Assembly sends a representative to
the Departmental Assembly, where the power starts
to accumulate. The Departmental Assembly chooses
the members of the Departmental Council, which
administers the Department. The Departmental
Assembly plays a similar watchdog/advisor role
at the Departmental level, and the Departmental
Council reports to it. The Departmental Assembly
also draws up a list of nominees for trial and appellate
judgeships in the Department. Each Departmental
Assembly nominates three people to serve on the
national Permanent Electoral Council (CEP), creating a list of 30 nominees. The Supreme Court, the
executive and the legislature each pick three names
from that list for the CEP.
Each Departmental Assembly sends a representative to the Interdepartmental Assembly. The
Interdepartmental Assembly helps the executive
branch, and is involved in policy planning. The
Interdepartmental Assembly is entitled to attend
and vote at Ministerial Council meetings that deal
with issues within its domain.
The ASEC system in principle ensures that nonprofessional politicians, elected by their neighbors,
have a say at every level of Haitian government.
The system is insulated from centralized money
and other forces because it is very difficult to predict
which ASEC candidates are likely to make it to the
Departmental Assemblies, where power starts to
accumulate.
For example, in the 3rd Section of Croix-desBouquets, outside Haiti’s capitol, there were seven
ASEC slates of six candidates each. If a candidate’s
slate prevails, he has a one-in-six chance of being
chosen for the Croix-des-Bouquets Municipal
Assembly. That Assembly has ten members, one of
which is chosen for the Departmental Assembly for
the West Department. So any one ASEC candidate
has a 1-in-420 chance of reaching the Departmental
Assembly, and a 1-in-4,200 chance of reaching the
Interdepartmental Assembly.
A HISTORIC STEP FORWARD
Implementing the ASEC system will bring some
much-needed stability to future elections, by
establishing a Permanent Electoral Council. The
1987 Constitution created a formula for choosing a
Provisional Council that would run a single election
that would set the ASEC system in motion. The
ASEC system was supposed to choose a Permanent
Council after those first elections, which would then
run subsequent elections. The 1987 elections ended
when paramilitary Tonton Macoutes, with support
from the military government, hacked and shot
hundreds of voters at polling stations. Although
subsequent elections were better, the ASECs system
was never implemented.
Because the ASEC system was never implemented,
every one of Haiti’s elections over the last nineteen
years has been run by a Provisional Council. All
but the first of those Councils was chosen through a
formula not recognized by the Constitution. And all
but the first of the elections they ran was contested
by the losing parties, who challenged (with good
reason) the Provisional Council’s legitimacy.
Implementing the ASEC system will also encourage judicial accountability. Almost all of Haiti’s
current judges were nominated through a process
not recognized by the Constitution, led by the
Executive Branch. In some cases, the government
tried to approximate the Constitutional system, by
consulting with the legislature on appointments. In
other cases, such as Mr. Latortue’s replacement of
five Supreme Court justices last year, the executive
branch simply installed its henchmen. In all cases,
the judges know that they primarily owe their jobs
to the Executive Branch.
The ASEC system ensures that judges are chosen,
in part, by the communities they are supposed to
serve. That encourages them to be more responsive
to the community, and to ensure that their acts
are perceived as fair not just inside the Ministry
of Justice, but on the dusty streets outside their
courtroom.
Nineteen years is a long time to lay the
Constitution’s foundation stones, but it is better
late than never. Sunday’s voting was a strong
first step, but it must be followed up with diligent
implementation of the entire ASEC system. By doing
so, President Préval could help end the incessant
series of electoral crises in Haiti, which keep spiraling
into political instability and twice have led to the
overthrow of the Constitutional government. In
the long run, Sunday’s ignored elections could be
the most important accomplishment of President
Préval’s administration.
Brian Concannon Jr. Directs the Institute for
Justice & Democracy in Haiti, HaitiJustice.org.
December 2006
BOSTON HAITIAN Reporter
Page Guest Commentary
Kennedy: Brother’s spirit seen in Haitian “champion”
By Senator Edward M. Kennedy
The following are excerpts of remarks given by
Sen. Kennedy during last month’s Robert F. Kennedy
Human Rights Award ceremony in Washington,
D.C., in which Haitian advocate Sonia Pierre was
honored.
The Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award is one
of the many good works of my brother’s foundation. It
serves as a reminder to all of us of the vital importance
of human rights and the many challenges we face
at home and abroad to protect those rights. It also
reminds each of us of the power of an individual to
make a difference in the lives of many.
It’s a privilege to present this year’s award to
one of those individuals, Sonia Pierre. Sonia has
devoted her life to the cause of equality and justice,
two of the most fundamental human rights. My
brother believed very deeply in those rights. As
he once said, “We must recognize the full human
equality of all our people - before God, before the
law, and in the councils of government. We must do
this not because it is economically advantageous
- although it is; not because the laws of God and
man command it - although they do command it; not
because people in other lands wish it so. We must
do it for the single and fundamental reason that it
is the right thing to do.”
Bobby saw this challenge firsthand in the United
States, in the plight of farm workers in our fields,
and in the struggles of African Americans for
equality. He saw it also in the history of immigrants
from Ireland, Italy, and Poland, and he spoke of
the “painful slowness [by which] the United States
extended and enlarged the practice of freedom to
all of our people.” He spoke out for the “thousands
every day denied their full and equal rights under
the law” and dedicated his life to do what it took to
make equal opportunity a fact, not just a goal.
We see that issue still playing out in the current
immigration debate. We’ve long welcomed immigrants as members of our communities, but for
decades we have denied them legal status. They’ve
been victims of an unfair system—living in fear of
deportation, exploited at their worksites, unable to
create the better futures they hope for and dream
about. Some in power would like to close our borders
and isolate America, violating the very principles on
which America was founded. Surely we can enact an
immigration reform bill that protects our borders,
without denying opportunity and basic dignity for
all immigrants in the United States.
Sonia Pierre has similarly fought for the rights of
a people long denied equality. Her story is the story
of the people of two countries, joined by history and
geography but separated by economic circumstances:
Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Haiti remains the
least-developed country in the Western Hemisphere
and one of the poorest nations in the world. It ranks
154th out of 177 countries in the Human Development Index of the United Nations. It ranks last on
Transparency International’s index of corruption.
Two-thirds of all Haitians depend on agriculture for
their livelihood. They work mainly in small-scale
subsistence farming. Deforestation and frequent
natural disasters, especially hurricanes, highlight
the peril of that dependence. By contrast, sharing the same island, the
Dominican Republic has had economic success – it
was one of the fast growing economies in the world
in the 1990’s, expanding at an average rate of nearly
8 percent a year from 1996 to 2000. Only a quarter
of its citizens live in poverty, compared to 80% in
Haiti. The boundary separating the two nations is
stark – the brown, deforested lands of Haiti end at
the green forests of the Dominican Republic.
The contrasts between these two countries create
an unequal dynamic. Haitians fleeing perennial poverty supply cheap labor for the Dominican economy,
particularly during the sugar cane harvest. They
fill jobs that even the poorest Dominicans won’t do.
As a result of this constant cross-border migration,
approximately 650,000 Haitians live in Dominican
territory, where they face discrimination, abuse,
harsh living conditions, and the constant threat of
deportation.
It is for the equal rights of these people, many
of whom have lived in the Dominican Republic for
decades, that Sonia has dedicated her life.
She was born to Haitian parents in 1963 in one
of the settlements for sugar cane cutters in the
Dominican Republic. She grew up facing first hand
the social, economic, legal and cultural barriers that
prevent Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian descent
from enjoying their basic human rights.
Her father died when she was two years old. Her
mother was a cane cutter, an unusual profession for
a woman because of the immense physical stamina
required. She raised Sonia and her eleven other
“Immigration of Haitians to the
Dominican Republic has occurred
for generations, but these workers
and their descendants are treated as
illegal and subjected to abuse and
rejection by the Dominican
authorities and population.”
-Sen. Ted Kennedy
children in a one-room portion of a barrack with
a dirt floor. Because of the respect her mother
had earned among sugar workers, Sonia and her
sisters did not have to endure the rape and physical
abuse that was commonly inflicted on the migrant
community by the authorities.
There was no school for the children, but when
Sonia was nine, she and a hundred other children
began to attend two hours of classes a day, offered by a local resident. When she was older,
she walked several miles each day to attend the
nearest school. She refused to be silent in the face
of obvious repression. At 13, she was arrested for
speaking at a demonstration on behalf of Haitian
migrant laborers in the Dominican Republic. The
demonstration lasted five days and actually led to
improved conditions for some of the workers. At 16, Sonia helped found the Dominico-Haitians
Cultural Center. She later studied social work in
Cuba before returning to the Dominican Republic
to fight for the rights of her people there - Haitians
and Dominicans of Haitian descent. Her community needed a champion.
Immigration of Haitians to the Dominican
Republic has occurred for generations, but these
workers and their descendants are treated as
illegal and subjected to abuse and rejection by the
Dominican authorities and population.
In fact, the Dominican Constitution grants
citizenship to “all persons born in the territory of
the Republic with the exception of those born of
diplomats or those in transit.” But government
policy discriminates against Haitians.
Children born in the Dominican Republic to
Haitian immigrants confront enormous difficulties
in obtaining a birth certificate that will allow them
to attend public schools and have all the political
and social rights of Dominican nationals. Even
documented Dominicans of Haitian descent face
serious discrimination in voting or obtaining the
social, health and education services available to
Dominican citizens, and may also be deported after
arbitrary round-ups by authorities. Living conditions are deplorable, with precarious
housing and no running water or electricity. My
brother Bobby’s grandson lived in the country when
he served in the Peace Corps, and he remembers the
barns with a family living in each stall, and without
electricity, running water, or bathrooms.
The situation is especially harsh for women
and children. Women are paid less for field work
and cannot obtain legal status, because the State
Sugar Council recognizes only male Haitian migrant
workers in its temporary foreign worker program.
Children in the sugar mill towns are also victims of
abuse and exploitation, and the lack of official status
prevents the community from accessing education,
health care and other public services.
Sonia saw all of this first hand. She lived it. And
she devoted decades of her life to their search for
equality and justice. In 1983, she founded a movement dedicated specifically to the empowerment of
women in the community.
The work of her organization, called MUDHA
consists of five main programs: education about human rights, assistance in obtaining birth certificates,
provision of legal representation, medical assistance,
and early childhood education. It provides education
for an average of 175 preschool, first and second
grade children each year, and has substantially
improved the health of women and children in the
settlements. MUDHA has helped more than 5,000 children
obtain birth certificates over the past 10 years. It
has also been very successful at raising international
awareness of the injustices facing the community.
MUDHA was a petitioner in a landmark case before
the Inter-American Court for Human Rights, which
for the first time in the court’s history upheld human
rights laws prohibiting racial discrimination in
nationality and citizenship. The Court also ordered
the government to admit all children to its schools,
and end the rampant discrimination in education.
So far, this government has refused to comply,
but the case has brought increased international
awareness to the plight of the community.
Sonia has also strongly opposed the random
and arbitrary deportation of Haitians living in the
Dominican Republic, which are estimated to reach
45,000 a year.
Lily Serrat, of the organization Haitian Women
for Haitian Refugees, said of Sonia: “I am a better
person today for having met, worked, and traveled
this road with Sonia Pierre. With certitude, I
can affirm that Sonia is one of the most selfless,
courageous and compassionate human beings of
my generation…Before [seeing her work], I knew of
no one who took a firmer stand, no one who risked
more, no one with that laser-like focus in dealing
with the issues that affected these disenfranchised,
mistreated, and voiceless groups of people: the
Haitian cane cutters and their Dominican Haitian
descendants…In life, we have many heroes and
heroines, Sonia is very near the top of my list of
heroines.”
Her colleagues compare her to a Nobel Peace
Prize winner and call her a hero. One said, “Sonia
never held anything back in promoting the human
rights of our communities.”
Sonia has personally affected the lives of thousands
of her people. She has given voice to their struggles,
won landmark legal victories for them, and created
new networks to meet their basic needs. Because of
Sonia, this neglected, impoverished, downtrodden
community has greater rights and greater hope
for a future where equality and justice are not just
ideas, but reality.
Her struggle is captured in an excerpt from the
Dominican poet Pedro Mir’s famous poem, There is
a Country in the World, which he wrote about the
sugar cane cutters in these words:
Some will think that in this fluvial country in
which earth blossoms,
and spills over and cracks like a bursting vein,
where day has its true victory,
the farmers will go amazed with their spades
to cultivate singing
their strip of ownership.
This love will shatter its solitary innocence.
But no.
. . .
There is a country in the world where a farmer,
cut down,
withered and bitter dies and bites barefoot his
defeated dust,
lacking enough earth for his harsh death.
Listen closely! Lacking earth to go to sleep in.
It is a small and beleaguered country.
Simply sad, sad and grim, sad and bitter.
Sonia overcame immense personal hardship to
become the voice and the champion for hundreds
of thousands of others. Her courage gives us all
hope. As they say in Creole, kenbe fem - “keep the
faith.”
Eventually, because of Sonia, there will be equality
and justice for all. She has been unique in her vision
of a Dominican Republic that embraces its entire
people equally. And for all of us, she is a model for
what it means to make a difference. It is an honor now to join Ethel in presenting
Sonia Pierre with the Robert F. Kennedy Human
Rights Award for 2006. Page 10
boston haitian Reporter December 2006
Wyclef calls for ‘new Haiti’ at free Jacmel concert
By Stevenson Jacobs
JACMEL, Haiti (AP)
- Haitian-born hip-hop
star Wyclef Jean called
on his countrymen to
reject violence and work
for a stable future during
a free concert aimed at
promoting development
in the impoverished
nation.
``It’s time to build a
new Haiti,’’ the Grammywinning artist told more
than 20,000 cheering
fans on Dec. 1 at the
waterfront pier of this
resort town.
Giving his first concert
in Haiti in eight years,
Jean strode onstage
atop a white horse and
thrilled the crowd with
a three-hour set that
included a fireworks
display, acrobatic dancers and performances
by several top Haitian
artists.
The concert capped off
a weeklong film and culture festival organized
by Jean’s Yele Haiti
charity, which promotes
music and the arts as a
way to reduce poverty,
create jobs and improve
Haiti’s image.
Jean, a Haitian citizen
who lives in the United
States, condemned the
ongoing street violence
that has followed the revolt, especially a wave of
kidnappings for ransom
that have plagued the
capital, Port-au-Prince.
``If we don’t stop kidnappings, the country
Wyclef Jean performs with a Haitian girl during his concert in Jacmel a small southeastern port city 110 miles from
Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Friday, Dec. 1,2006. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
can’t develop,’’ Jean
said.
Also on Dec. 1, Jean
held an HIV/AIDS
awareness seminar to
mark
World AIDS Day. Earlier this week, he donned
a Santa Claus outfit and
passed out presents to
600 children in Port-auPrince and led a street
parade through Jacmel,
on Haiti’s south coast.
Jean was born in Haiti
but left for the United
States with his family at
age 9. He later achieved
world fame through The
Fugees.
Dominican-Haitian activist hopes RFK award will
help her fight against discrimination, poverty
By JONATHAN M. KATZ
BATEY LECHERIA, Dominican Republic (AP)
- Sonia Pierre was just 13 when she was arrested
and threatened with deportation for leading her
fellow residents of Haitian descent in a march for
sugar cane-cutters’ rights.
In the three decades since, that lanky teenager has
grown into a 6-foot-tall champion of a beleaguered
minority in this Caribbean nation. Her tireless work
securing citizenship and education for Dominicanborn ethnic Haitians has made her the target of
threats here, but has earned her recognition from
overseas as a fierce defender of human rights.
On Nov. 17, Pierre was to receive the Robert F.
Kennedy Human Rights Award at a ceremony in
Washington, a prize of $30,000 and a promise from
the center founded in honor of the late senator to
help her cause.
``We hope to keep the international pressure on,’’
said Monika Kalra Varma, acting director of the
RFK Memorial Center for Human Rights.
An estimated 500,000 to 1 million ethnic Haitians
live in the Dominican Republic, many in isolated village slums that dot the countryside. Most born here
are descendants of Haitians who crossed the border
fleeing violence or seeking economic opportunity.
Haiti and the Dominican Republic share the island
of Hispaniola. While Haiti has been plagued by
poverty, violence and political instability, its eastern
neighbor, with a population of 9 million, grew out of
its own early struggles to be seen as a comparative
land of opportunity _ even as many Haitian migrants
are exploited as cheap labor.
Haitians face deep-seated challenges integrating
into Dominican society. Dominican independence is
measured not from Spain’s departure in 1864 but
from the end of a Haitian occupation two decades earlier. The Dominican Republic emphasizes European
ties over its African ancestry, distinguishing itself
from its neighbor to the west with a darker-skinned,
poorer population.
Sen. Ted Kennedy, left, with Sonia Pierre.
In 1976 when Pierre led her fellow Haitian-Dominican neighbors in a march to demand rights for
those who cut sugar cane, police arrested her. She
was jailed for a day and threatened with deportation
to Haiti, where her mother was born.
``I was crying because I didn’t know anyone in
Haiti,’’ Pierre recalled.
At 43, the towering Pierre’s high cheekbones and
weary eyes have become a public face of her people. As
head of the Dominican-Haitian Women’s Movement,
she has garnered acclaim from abroad, including an
award from Amnesty International in 2003.
But her advocacy also has made her and her family
targets. She was chased out of her Santo Domingo
office by a man waving a pistol and punched at a
stop light by a man who said only, ``I know who
you are.’’ Her children - 16-year-old twins and two
older children - have been repeatedly threatened,
she said.
Pierre insists she is trying to help her people, not
malign the Dominican Republic. ``I am not a critic
of my country - and this is my country,’’ she said. ``I
am a critic of my government.’’
In Pierre’s mountain-ringed hometown of Batey
Lecheria, an hour’s drive north of the capital, her
efforts have helped secure government aid, including
the installation of running water and electricity.
Citrus trees have replaced the state-owned sugar
fields where she mobilized residents to demand
better pay and housing.
But Pierre, who now lives in Santo Domingo,
says about half the 76 families in Batey Lecheria
lack Dominican citizenship, despite a constitutional
provision granting full legal status to anyone born
in the country.
Those without papers can’t attend school or take
jobs in the free-trade zones that pay better than the
$3 a day earned by workers picking fruit.
Last year, Pierre helped shepherd a landmark
case through the Costa Rica-based Inter-American
Court of Human Rights, which demanded that the
Dominican government enforce the constitutional
provision on citizenship equally.
A common practice in the Dominican Republic,
Pierre has said, is for the government to label
Haitians as workers in transit, which keeps their
citizenship status in limbo.
But as the Inter-American court does not have
authority to alter laws or enforce its decisions in
the Dominican Republic, changes have not been
implemented and even the plaintiffs are yet to receive
their full court-ordered compensation.
Dominican officials who oversee Haitian affairs
declined to comment on the court’s decision or answer
questions about its implementation.
The Robert F. Kennedy Memorial has assigned an
attorney to work with Pierre on ensuring the ruling
is carried out and is working to draw attention to
her cause. She is the 23rd recipient of the award
honoring the former senator, U.S. attorney general
and presidential candidate. (AP)
December 2006
BOSTON HAITIAN Reporter Page 11
Page 12
boston haitian Reporter December 2006
Music Spotlight
Alo Haiti project brings best up-and-comers to light
By Steve Desrosiers
Contributing Editor
Alo Haiti
Mountains Beyond Mountains
Soley Sound’s “Alo Haiti” music project generated a
strong buzz on many industry websites over the past
month and has finally made its way to the states. The
album is a twelve track-long compilation of originals
from the Island’s best up-and-coming talents.
Soley Sounds alongside new labels like Comme Il
Faut has been releasing the kind of products that
can some day place the Haiti’s more adventurous
artists on the world stage. Nickenson Prudhomme’s
widely successful solo release “Premiere Danse”, the
label’s first major release, is now poised to make
waves in Europe and there is reason to believe that
the label’s latest compilation may be marketed in
much the same way.
“Mountains Beyond Mountains” is a well-known
traditional saying among Haitians, originating
with one of Napoleon’s generals during the Haitian
revolution who explained his failure to quell the
slave insurrection by describing the terrain: “beyond
mountains are more mountains”. To draw the point
further he crumpled a sheet of paper in his hands
and lightly unraveled it before the Emperor. Today,
Haitians use the same words to bear witness to
the difficulties of life on the Island or the complex
psychology of the people who call Haiti home.
In Alo Haiti, the words point to the wealth of
musical talent that exists in Haiti even as the
small nation undergoes some of its worst days. The
Alo Haiti’s “Mountains beyond
Mountains” is a revelation
from beginning to end.
album celebrates a new generation of performers
and an additionally new generation of talented
producers. It begins with a collaboration between
producer Andy Barrow and singer Jean Bernard
Thomas in a masterful blend of Racine/Rock that
sheds light on things to come for Haitian folklore.
Michael Benjamin makes his debut as producer in
a captivating Dancehall/Ragga track, “Girl gonna
lead” with Haiti’s equivalent of Sean Paul, artist
“Fullbass” whose lyrical skills and vocal peculiarities
uplifted Mika Ben’s last solo release a few years
back. Mizik Mizik’s, Fabrice Rouzier, the only
established producer in the line up, makes several
appearances alongside newcomers like Stanley
George and Suzellee and Belo. Need I say that his are
among the album’s more engaging and memorable
arrangements?
Special mention needs to be made of producer
Knaggs who outpaces Fabrice in the number of
releases he backs on the album. His specialties
are Ragga and Rootsy Reggae beats that support
newcomers like R-Bass, Jay B, Sandra D’Haiti and
the talented Black Fanfan whose track “Shake your
Boom Boom” ranks among the album’s hottest.
“Mountains beyond Mountains” is a revelation
from beginning to end. The nice feature of the
album is that it gives us a glimpse of the musical
influences that are currently shaping the future
of Haitian music. There are few Konpa tracks as
exploration and experimentation seem to be the
order of the day on this release. The quality of the
performances and mixes are as good as the album’s
tasteful cover.
Three words: Get yours today!
Toto Laraque
Caribbean Groove
The tireless animator and former lead guitarist of
Caribbean Sextet continues his adventures in music
in the self released “Caribbean Groove”. The album
is a 13-song mélange of new songs and remixes of
Sextet classics.
Toto Laraque is among Haiti’s less appreciated
living marvels. Debates about the best Haitian
guitarists rightfully revolve around the usual
suspects: Dadou Pasquet, Robert Martino, Jean
Claude Jean, Elysee Pyroneau, Ralph Conde and
Claude Marcelin. However, Laraque is among
Haiti’s most adventurous players. As a young man,
his ability was such that he was among the few
who could replace the industrious Robert Martino
after his departure from the Gypsies. Some would
say that his technique even surpassed that of the
legendary Haitian/Italian legend. At the end of his
years with Gypsies came the adventure in Haitian
Jazz with Caribbean Sextet where he produced
some of the most progressive guitar work to grace
Haitian recordings during the 1980s. Upon leaving
Haiti for Canada in the ‘90s, he adapted his talents
to incorporate elements of Spanish flamenco guitar
to Haitian music.
Caribbean Grooves finds the restless Laraque continuing the exploration that began with the Canadian
release “Anbyans Toupatou”. Among the album’s
memorable numbers are the nostalgically arranged
“Yap mache di” a critical look at the industry’s taste
makers and ode to the hyperactive finger play that
was the hallmark of the great guitarists of 1970s. A
remake of the Sextet classic “Aye Manman” brings the
song to modern times outfitted with the aggressive
backing vocals of Toto’s daughter, Leila alongside
lead vocalist Luck Mervil whose smooth tone and
latently paced Ragga chat on this song will leave you
stunned. Boulo Valcourt’s Jazzy “Resiye’w” as sung
by the talented Jean Marie Celestin, Toto’s main
lead singer in Canada, is among the numbers that
feature the technique that make Laraque’s playing
a distinct study in taste, force and economy.
Personal friends of the artist know that he is a
big fan of the late “Coupe Cloue” and the legend is
resuscitated in the Konpa Manmba “ Ti Koulouloute”
(One of the attractions of singer J.M. Celestin for
Laraque is that he is among the few whose intonations can match those of the deceased legend).
The album’s other memorable tracks include
Sextet classic “Michaelle” and “Frappe Tambou” a
racine number that will get you through the coming
winter.
The multi rhythmic exchange between vocals,
horns, synths and guitars in this song is a rare
experience in today’s Haitian albums.
Laraque’s latest is a fun release. It delights,
entertains and showcases the fine talents who,
with their enterprise protect a significant part of
our musical identity. If that interests you, then this
album must be in your collection.
The Reporter Thanks:
Patrick St. Germain of International Perfumes
and Discount for availing the CDs for review.
All releases are available at 860 Morton Street
Dorchester, MA (617) 825-6151.
December 2006
BOSTON HAITIAN Reporter Page 13
Few lawyers aiding children facing deportation
By Cara Anna
Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK (AP) - He paces outside New York’s
immigration court, looking lost, scanning faces. Then
he finds them, two nervous-looking older teens.
``Habla English?’’ he asks them. No, they say. He
pauses.
``You have a passa-port? ID? Nada?’’ No. The
lawyer widens his eyes.
``Mother, father? Family? Tio, tia? Nobody? Just
you?’’ Yes, his new clients say.
In minutes, these boys will tell a judge whether
they want to fight deportation. But even with the
language problem, they’re lucky compared to others.
A list outside the courtroom says 37 children are
here today. Just three have lawyers.
A look at America’s immigration courts shows a
system where many children lack legal representation, where frustrated judges find themselves
explaining the law to 12-year-olds, often through a
translator, and where the government itself has no
real measure of the problem.
Though some new efforts are beginning to address
the issue, advocates worry about child trafficking,
smuggling or abuse that may go unnoticed because
children don’t know how to ask for help. In immigration court, the government treats detained children
like immigrant adults, giving them a phone list of
volunteer lawyers. Often, no call is made.
Non-profits and volunteer lawyers sometimes
appear, trying to offer assistance before youths accept
deportation. Some judges simply ask if anyone in
the courtroom can step in to help.
``Immigration judges know how to be fair even
when only one side is represented,’’ then-Chief
Immigration Judge Michael Creppy told a Senate
committee hearing in 2001. Of approximately
7,800 unaccompanied children who passed through
government custody in the fiscal year that just
ended, more than half went to court alone, some
observers say.
There’s no way to be sure. The government doesn’t
track legal aid in these cases. It can’t say how many
children show up for immigration court at all. A new
study by the Vera Institute of Justice should offer
the first idea. The group is looking at 18,000 cases
of children in government custody between January
2003 and July of this year, and it shared some early
results with The Associated Press. Two-thirds of the
cases had closed, and of those, 70 percent ended with
children being deported, while just 2 percent won
asylum. Most of the rest asked to be sent back.
Some children who might qualify for asylum don’t
know how to ask for it, the study says.
``I don’t know what asylum means. I don’t know
that word. ... I am afraid to go back to Haiti,’’ a
10-year-old Haitian girl told interviewers for a
Harvard report released this summer. The report,
``Seeking Asylum Alone,’’ criticized the government
for not providing lawyers and for not tracking the
problem.
``The judge doesn’t talk to me,’’ the girl continued.
``I don’t know his name.’’
•••
Caught at the border or deeper inside the country,
the immigrant children are most often from Mexico,
Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. Until 2003,
unaccompanied children with no guardian to claim
them were placed in detention centers, where they
sometimes mixed with violent offenders.
Now the children are sent to special shelters run by
the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement, or ORR,
in eight states: Arizona, California, Washington,
Illinois, Indiana, Texas, New York and Florida.
About 60 percent are released once a family
member or guardian can be found, sometimes within
days. That leaves little time for non-profit groups and
volunteer lawyers to meet with the children and try
to know their cases. After release, finding a lawyer
is up to the family and is often not done.
``The challenge is ensuring they get help when they
leave,’’ says Martha Newton, the director of ORR.
Even in shelters, many children are far from pools
of available attorneys. One shelter, in Nixon, Texas,
is in a city of 2,246 an hour’s drive from San Antonio.
Not many lawyers want to go, says Teresa
Coles-Davila, a private attorney who coordinates
free legal aid for children in San Antonio’s immigration court.
But the need is growing, she says. When the
shelter first called her for help three years ago, it
had half a dozen kids. Now it has close to 100, and
a maximum capacity of 136.
``No one pays me to do this,’’ Coles-Davila says.
``My position is, eventually the goodwill is going
to run out.’’
Goodwill hasn’t been enough in Houston. Until a
few months ago, Anne Chandler of the University
of Houston’s immigration clinic was the only lawyer
focusing only on children’s cases. Five shelters
for detained children are located nearby, with a
combined 172 beds. Another shelter is a three-hour
drive away. Chandler says less than one-third
of immigrant children in the Houston area get a
lawyer.
``I would miss kids,’’ Chandler says. ``I would go
to court and see a couple of kids and say, ‘I never
spoke to you’ and they would say, ‘No.’ Sometimes
I could take them into a private consultation room
for 20 or 30 minutes and give them advice.’’
That’s hardly enough time to get to know someone,
lawyers say. Coaxing out a child’s life story, especially
a traumatic one, can take hours. ``I feel I’m part of
a system that’s malfunctioning,’’ Chandler says.
•••
Recognizing the need for more than goodwill for
unrepresented children, the Executive Office for
Immigration Review, which oversees immigration
courts, has announced a new legal assistance
initiative at four sites.
The Vera Institute of Justice will give children
one-on-one legal information and help find volunteer
lawyers in Corpus Christi, Texas; Vincennes, Ind.;
Wayne, Ill.; and Seattle. The institute also has started
giving grants to non-profits in places like New York
and Houston for similar work.
In a separate effort to reach children after they
leave detention, the National Center for Refugee
and Immigrant Children was launched last year
with largely private funding. So far, it has matched
lawyers with more than 400 kids.
Adriana Ysern, the senior immigration program
officer, says the center, with a full-time staff of four,
hardly covers everyone. ``We can only respond to so
many,’’ she says.
A different approach is under way in Chicago. With
seed money from ORR, the Immigrant Children’s
Advocacy Project assigns each child a bilingual advo-
to explain the legal process to 12-year-olds who would
just watch him, confused. He was tired of ordering
them deported without knowing why they’d come to
America, or what they’d tried to leave behind.
``Say a kid wants asylum,’’ Vail says. ``Kids never
really qualify unless they’re before a really sensitive
judge, because kids have no political opinions they
can express.’’ The law requires a connection to a
political or social belief, or membership in a certain
group that has been persecuted in some way.
Vail left the bench in 1999. Now he works at the
University of Houston’s immigration clinic, trying
to give children legal aid. ``There are so many
kids,’’ John Richardson, an immigration judge in
Arizona, told the Harvard study. ``You look at their
faces, and they try to be cheerful, and you know
that most of them are going to go back to deplorable
situations.’’
In late 2004, the Office of the Chief Immigration
Judge gave the country’s judges some suggestions
for being more child-friendly. For instance: Wear
street clothes instead of the robe, let kids explore
the courtroom, bring a toy.
``Before asking how many times something happened,’’ the memo added, ``the immigration judge
should determine the child’s ability to count.’’
Both judges and advocates say children without
lawyers slow down court proceedings, waste taxpayer
money and keep children in government custody
longer than they should be there. These kids have
enough stress already, says Denise Slavin, the
Miami-based president of the National Association of
Immigration Judges. She likes the idea of appointing
them a lawyer if they can’t find one themselves.
``If we changed the system,’’ she says, ``maybe
children would be a great place to start.’’ (AP)
cate who meets with the
child every week, finds
legal representation and
goes with the child to
court. So far, advocates
have been matched with
about 120 children.
A similar national pilot
program is envisioned in
a bill that has passed the
U.S. Senate but has been
in a House subcommittee
since February.
•••
The blank looks in the
children’s eyes finally did
it. After facing hundreds
of kids in his courtroom,
many without a lawyer,
Joseph Vail quit his job as
an immigration judge.
He was tired of trying
Ghardy Daniel
Sr. Mortgage Specialist
Broker/Realtor/Notary
(508) 333 - 9176
Page 14
boston haitian Reporter December 2006
Community Health News
Hold the Stuffing!
Diet tips and recipes keep families healthier through the holidays
The holiday season is
filled with excitement—
visits to friends and family,
gifts, and food. Everyone
has visions of the perfect
holiday plate, piled high
with turkey, stuffing,
pie…and salad.
Salad?
Physicians at
Children’s Hospital
Boston emphasize that
a healthy diet, emphasizing low-glycemic
load (low-GL) foods
like vegetables, may
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be the smartest way for
children and parents
to avoid the traditional
weight gain associated
with this time of the
year. A low-GL diet—sometimes referred to as “slow
carb”—limits carbohydrates that are rapidly
digested and that raise
blood sugar and insulin
to high levels. Foods that
contain these carbohydrates include white
bread, stuffing, refined
cereals and concentrated
sugars. Low-GL carbohydrates release sugar
into the bloodstream
more slowly, and include
whole grains, most fruits,
vegetables, nuts and
legumes.
“It is possible to
partake in traditional
holiday foods,” says David Ludwig, MD, director
of the Optimal Weight
for Life (OWL) obesity
program at Children’s
Hospital Boston. “The
trick to getting through
the season is moderation. There are many
lower-GL foods that taste
great and fit right in on a
holiday table—stuffings
made from nuts and
whole grains, roasted
yams, and all kinds
of delicious vegetable
recipes to try.” “It’s helpful to think
about eating, especially
during the holiday
season, as a pyramid,”
Ludwig emphasizes.
“Fruits and vegetables
form the base of the
pyramid—eat these in
abundance. Next up
come the lean proteins,
like fish, chicken and
soy products. Also on this
step of the pyramid are
reduced-fat dairy foods,
eggs and beans. You can
eat these several times
a day.”
Ludwig adds that
higher up, and meant to
be eaten in moderation,
come whole grains and
pastas. Then, at the
top, to be eaten very
sparingly, are refined
grains, white potatoes
and sugary sweets.
Following a low-GL
diet year-round can
also improve insulin
resistance—a risk factor
for diabetes. It can also
lower serum triglyceride
and C-reactive protein
levels, which are risk factors for cardiovascular
disease.
Tips and tricks for
eating well this holiday
season:
• Make sure you and
your family eat three
meals a day, even on
a holiday when you
expect a large feast.
Sitting down at a carbohydrate-packed table
when you are starving
is a recipe for overeating,
not for making healthy
choices. • Aim for a holiday dinner plate that consists
of at least 50 percent
vegetables, excluding
starches like potatoes,
stuffing and corn. If
fresh vegetables aren’t
available or are too
expensive, you can substitute frozen.
• Avoid lots of refined
starchy foods, which
cause swings in blood
sugar that can lead to
overeating. For each
meal or snack, aim for the
equivalent of one slice of
bread (for example, half
a bagel).
• Maintain a balance
of protein, fat, and “good”
carbohydrates (fruits,
vegetables, legumes) to
keep blood sugar at an
even level and better
control hunger and appetite.
• Make small plates
and skip the seconds.
• Have one or two
snacks a day. Some combination of fruit, cheese,
nuts, raw vegetables and
dip is usually available
at holiday parties.
• Eat some kind of
protein at most meals
and snack. This helps
you feel full.
• Go ahead and have
a sweet treat, just keep
it moderately-sized and
have it after a balanced
meal.
Reach your
audience with the
Reporter
Call 617.436.1222
December 2006
BOSTON HAITIAN Reporter Page 15
Mattapan Community Health Center News
Combating premature birth a priority at health center
By Beverly Jones
On November 14 ,
2006, the March of Dimes
held its third annual
Prematurity Summit in
Boston. Raymond L. Cox,
Jr., MD, MBA, Chairman
of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
at St. Agnes Hospital,
in Baltimore, MD, gave
the Keynote Address.
In his speech, entitled,
Impact of Racial and
Ethnic Disparities on
Perinatal Outcomes, Dr.
Cox presented information showing that one of
the primary reasons for
preterm labor and delivery in African-American
women is the inequality
of their healthcare.
What is preterm labor
and premature delivery?
The time frame for a
full-term pregnancy is
considered to be 38 to
40 weeks. Babies born
before 37 weeks are considered to be premature.
Some of these babies may
have life-threatening
health concerns. Some
may have developmental
concerns.
What are the warning signs? Warning
signs may include:
contractions, which is
frequent tightening of
the abdomen; leaking of
th
fluid or bleeding from the
vagina; (increase) pelvic
pressure; (increase) in
low back discomfort;
cramping similar to
period cramps.
What should a woman
do if she believes she is
in preterm labor? If a
woman is concerned that
she is experiencing some
or all of the above signs,
she should immediately
contact her prenatal care
provider. Her provider
will instruct her on her
next steps. She may be
given some instructions
on things to try at home.
If she is instructed to go
to the hospital, she will
most likely be evaluated
in the Labor and Delivery
Unit of the hospital. Her
evaluation may include
certain medications that
have been proven to stop
labor. However, there are
some cases when labor
does not stop and the
woman goes on to deliver
a preterm baby. Always
follow the instructions of
the provider.
What are the possible risk factors? Any
pregnant woman can
experience preterm labor
resulting in preterm
delivery. However, some
women have certain risk
factors that may put them
more at risk than others.
Some of these risks are:
history ‑ women who are
pregnant with more than
one baby, prior preterm
delivery; lifestyle ‑ drug
use, alcohol, smoking,
no prenatal care or
late starting it; social
‑ stress, no family support or finances; medical
‑ untreated infections
(urinary tract, sexually
transmitted); and certain medical diagnoses
(high blood pressure,
diabetes).
As soon as a woman
knows or suspects she
may be pregnant, she
should obtain a lab quality pregnancy test. If
a home pregnancy test
is done, the woman
should have it confirmed
by a health center or
physician’s office. When
the test is indeed positive, the woman should
begin prenatal care as
soon as possible. Ideally,
prenatal care should
begin within the first
trimester (within the
first three months).
The Mattapan Community Health Center
provides an array of
services for the woman
who has tested positive
for pregnancy, which
include medical and case
unprotected sexual activities, receiving tainted
blood through transfusions, sharing needles or
works, or through direct
exposure to blood and
specimens at health care
facilities.
Thanks to research,
today there is medication
available as a treatment
(not a cure) for HIVinfected individuals.
There are prevention,
counseling, testing and
support services to help
lower the risk individuals of getting HIV. HIV
counselors can also help
people find a primary
care provider, educate
patients on having safer
sex and refer to social
service agencies.
MCHC encourages
individuals to “know
their status.” The
benefit of being tested
and knowing your HIV
status would decrease
the number of new HIV
infection, increase the
number of persons at
risk who know their HIV
status, and also improve
the health and well
being of people living
with/and or at risk of
HIV infection.
Mattapan Community Health Center is
located at 1425 Blue
Hill Avenue and provides HIV Counseling
and Testing Services,
Monday-Friday from
8:30a.m.-5p.m. For more
information contact:
Darline Francois, Community Health Educator
at 617-898-9005 or just
walk-in to the health
center and a staff person
will be able to assist you.
management services.
At the Health Center, a
woman who comes in suspecting she is pregnant
receives an appointment
with the Obstetrical
Case Manager or the
Obstetrical Nurse for
Prenatal Registration.
At this visit, a complete
medical, gynecological,
pregnancy, and social
history is obtained. If
pertinent, a tuberculin
skin test is given, along
with blood work and
urinalysis. If requested,
HIV counseling and
testing is provided. The
woman is given a choice
of providers, which deliver at Brigham and
Women’s Hospital or
Boston Medical Center.
If social concerns are
expressed, the woman is
assigned a case manager
who further assists with
her concerns. These
concerns may include:
housing, childcare, food,
material items, or support. If the woman or the
Case Manager feels it is
appropriate, the woman
may also be referred
to our Social Worker
who will provide clinical
counseling services. The
Case Manager provides
services during the prenatal and postpartum
period and, in certain
instances, for a period
of up to three years.
Case Managers also
provide home visits when
requested by the woman
and/or deemed appropriate by the provider. At
the end of the Prenatal
Registration visit, the
woman is then scheduled
for her first visit with
the Provider she has
chosen. She is also
scheduled for a visit with
the Nutritionist who
will provide an overall
nutrition assessment.
The Nutritionist may
also refer her for the
WIC Program (Women,
Infants, and Children),
which provides the
woman with nutritional
foods to help support a
healthy pregnancy.
At her first visit
with her Provider, the
Provider reviews the
information which was
obtained at the Prenatal
Registration visit. The
Provider performs a
complete physical exam
and further testing as
deemed appropriate for
her stage of pregnancy.
If specialized testing is
deemed appropriate, the
woman is then referred
to the hospital to receive
the tests. The woman
generally sees the same
Provider throughout the
course of her pregnancy
until, and including,
delivery of her baby.
Upon discharge from
the hospital, the woman
is provided with a twoweek postpartum appointment here at the
Health Center with her
Provider. any of the
women also establish
their baby’s Pediatric
Care here as well. At
the end of this visit, the
woman is then scheduled
for a six-week postpartum visit with her
Provider. At this visit,
the woman receives a
gynecological examination and is referred
for Family Planning
Services, if requested.
Beverly Jones is an
OB Case Manager at
Mattapan Community
Health Center.
Know your HIV status
By Darline Francois
December 1 is recognized as World AIDS
Day. It is a time to
reflect on how HIV and
AIDS have impacted individuals from all walks
of life and to recognize
those who are working
towards eradicating this
epidemic.
HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) is a
virus that destroys the
body’s ability to fight off
illness and is the cause of
AIDS (Acquired Immune
Deficiency Syndrome).
The Center for Disease
Control and Prevention
estimates that there are
approximately 250,000
people living with HIV
in the United States
who do not know their
status. Many people
were infected through
Mattapan
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1480 Blue Hill Avenue (Near Mattapan Sq.) 617- 298-4466
Page 16
boston haitian Reporter December 2006
Immigration Q & A
The basics on obtaining your Citizenship
By the Irish Immigration Centre
Q: What are the basic requirements for
obtaining US citizenship (i.e., naturalization)?
A: The basic requirements are as follows:
Age: US citizenship applicants must be at least
18 years old. (Contact the IIC for information on
citizenship of children younger than 18.)
Immigration status: An applicant must have
been lawfully admitted to the United States for
permanent residence (green card status).
Immigration Status and Physical Presence: An
applicant is eligible to file if, at the time of filing
the application, he or she:
• has been lawfully admitted for permanent
residence (is a green card holder);
• has resided continuously as a lawful permanent resident in the US for at least 4 years and
9 months (or 2 years and 9 months if married
to a US citizen) with no single absence from the
United States of more than one year. (Absences
of more than six months but less than one year
may disrupt the applicant's continuity of residence
unless the applicant can establish that he or she
did not abandon his or her residence during such
period);
• has been physically present in the US for at
least 30 months out of the previous five years (or
18 months out of the previous 3 years, if filing as
the spouse of a US citizen)
• has resided within the state or district in which
he or she is filing for at least three months.
Good Moral Character: Generally, an applicant
must show that he or she has been a person of
“good moral character” for the statutory period.
The statutory period is the five years preceding
filing for naturalization (or three years if married
to a US citizen). A person will not be found to be
a person of good moral character if during the
statutory period he or she:
• has been convicted of one or more crimes
involving moral turpitude;
• has been convicted of 2 or more offenses for
which the total sentence imposed was 5 years
or more;
• has been convicted of violating any controlled
substance law, except for a single offense of simple
possession of 30 grams or less of marijuana;
• has been confined to a penal institution during
the statutory period, as a result of a conviction,
for an aggregate period of 180 days or more;
• has been convicted of two or more gambling
offenses;
• is earning or has earned his or her principal
income from illegal gambling ;
• is or has been involved in prostitution or
commercialized vice;
• is or has been involved in smuggling illegal
aliens into the United States;
• is or has been a habitual drunkard;
• is practicing or has practiced polygamy;
• has willfully failed or refused to support
dependents;
• has given false testimony, under oath, in order
to receive a benefit under the Immigration and
Nationality Act;
• has failed to file required tax returns or has
failed to pay taxes;
• if male and held a green card between the
ages of 18 and 26 and willfully failed to register
with the selective service system.
In addition, an applicant is permanently barred
from naturalization if he or she has ever been
convicted of murder, or has been convicted of
an aggravated felony on or after November 29,
1990.
Please note that an applicant must disclose all
relevant facts to the immigration authorities,
including his or her entire criminal history, regardless of whether the criminal history disqualifies
the applicant
Attachment to the Constitution: An applicant
must show that he or she is attached to the principles of the Constitution of the United States.
English language: Applicants for naturalization
must be able to read, write, speak, and understand
the English language. There are some exemptions
from this requirement.
United States Government and History
Knowledge: An applicant for naturalization must
demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the
fundamentals of US history and government.
Oath of Allegiance: If you want to become a
US citizen, you must take the oath of allegiance.
In limited instances, such as membership in
a religion that prevents taking portions of the
oath, the immigration authorities may permit
applicants to take a modified oath.
Where to go for help: To learn more about
becoming a US citizen, contact John Rattigan (617)
542-7654 ext 15. You can make an appointment or
come to one of the legal clinics advertised in this
publication. It is especially important to review
with us any criminal
records, no matter how
minor, before applying
OHN
for citizenship.
Disclaimer: These
ALLAGHER articles
are published
Insurance Agency
to inform generally,
not to advise in specific
cases. Areas of law are
HOME
rapidly changing. US
&
Citizenship and Immigration Services and
AUTO
the US Department of
State regularly amend
INSURANCE
regulations and alter
Specializing in Homeowners and Automobile
processing and filing
Insurance for more than a
procedures. For lequarter century of reliable
gal advice seek the
service to the Dorchester
assistance of an IIC
immigration specialcommunity.
ist or an immigration
lawyer.
New Accounts
Compiled by The Irish
Immigration Center,
Welcome
59 Temple Place, Suite
1471 Dorchester Ave.
1010, Boston, MA 02111.
at Fields Corner MBTA
(617) 542-7654 Email:
immigration@iicenter.
org Web site: iicenter.
Phone:
org. An organization
265-8600
accredited by the US
“We Get Your Plates”
Department of Justice.
G
J
C.
December 2006
BOSTON HAITIAN Reporter Page 17
Ruth’s Recipes
Proving that Turkey isn’t just for Thanksgiving
By Marie Ruth Auguste
Last month we celebrated Thanksgiving
in the United States.
Americans and other
cultures throughout the
country celebrated the
holiday with a big dinner,
they served turkey as the
main attraction.
While cooking the big
meal, I randomly thought
about the fact that growing up in Haiti we didn’t
have a Thanksgiving
holiday. However, I do
remember that around
this time of the year
there would be a huge
live turkey hanging out
in the back of our house.
Tall and beautiful, the
turkey went around
eating corn kernels,
gobble, and gobble all
day long.
On the second day
of the New Year- “dé
janvyé” - we would have
a big meal with our
turkey friend as the main
course. Sometimes the
turkey was prepared
whole and other times
it was cut into smaller
parts. If you’re familiar
with Haitian cooking,
you know that there are
several ways to prepare
turkey. For example,
turkey cut into small
pieces, broiled or fried.
When turkey is fried it
looks more like tasso or
griyo (fried goat/pork).
Sometimes we make
turkey in a thick sauce
with peas and other
vegetables. I prefer to
season and slowly boil
the turkey and then
brown it in the oven. This
December or January 2nd
instead of going with the
traditional whole turkey,
try to cook it in smaller
pieces. Serve turkey
with brown rice and
my new ground turkey
cornbread stuffing as a
side dish (vyann moulu.)
Here are some of my
favorites for your next
holiday meal. Enjoy!
Broiled Turkey
(Kodenn griyé)serves 8
1 small turkey cut 15
to 20 pieces (approx. 10
pounds)
4 limes or lemon
4 large garlic cloves
4 scallions
2 cubes or 2 tablespoons chicken bouillon
(i.e. maggi)
1 teaspoon seasoned
salt (i.e. lawry’s)
1 half cup plain tomato
sauce
1 sprig of parsley
1 sprig of thyme
4 cloves
red cayenne pepper
to taste
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon natural
cane sugar
1 half red bell peppers
sliced
1 large onion sliced
1 green hot pepper
(habanero) pricked
kosher salt and fresh
ground pepper to taste
canola spray oil
half cup balsamic
vinegar
other side dishes.
To chodé or (prep.) the
meat bring a large pot of
water to a boil and add
a hand full of kosher
salt, squeeze in the
juice of 2 limes and add
the peels. Turn off fire
and add turkey pieces,
keep covered for 10
minutes, this will clean
and remove unwanted
fat in one easy step.
Meanwhile combine
and mince the following in a food processor
or blender: garlic and
scallion first. Next add
chicken bouillon, seasoned salt, 3 tablespoons
fresh lime or lemon juice,
pulse/incorporate and
then add tomato sauce,
cayenne pepper plus 1
quarter cup warm water;
mix together to create a
thick marinade. Remove
turkey from hot water
and place in a large
container, add marinade
and be sure to taste, add
salt and pepper to taste if
necessary. Keep covered
and refrigerated for at
least 2 hours.
To start the cooking, heat oil at high
temperature in large
cooking pan and add
sugar (this will help
the turkey have a nice
golden finish). Next add
turkey pieces, cook for 1
minute on each side and
add the marinade. Add
cloves, thyme, parsley,
whole hot pepper; cook
covered on medium heat
for 1 hour stirring from
time to time to prevent
sticking. IF for some
reason you begin to run
out of broth add 1 cup
chicken stock. Preheat
oven to 450 degrees.
Once turkey is tender,
remove from cooking
broth, place in grilling
pan and spray with
canola. Place grilling
pan in center of oven and
cook until golden brown
on all sides, this should
take approximately 15 to
20 minutes. Meanwhile,
place onion and bell
peppers in balsamic
vinegar and soak for
10 minutes. For the
sauce bring remaining
turkey broth to a boil.
Add tomato paste if you
desire a colorful sauce,
simmer on low for about 5
minutes. Add onions and
peppers from the vinegar
but do not add vinegar.
Turn off fire and let sit
for a few minutes. To
serve, pour sauce over
the turkey while hot.
Serve with rice and your
Rice and peas with
dry portobello mushrooms (djon-djon)
Makes 8 servings
1 cup dry Portobello
mushrooms (djon-djon)
3 cups chicken stock
or broth
4 table spoon pure
vegetable oil
1 scallion (finely
chopped)
2 garlic cloves (finely
chopped)
1 half onion sliced
1 cup of sweet green
peas (frozen or fresh)
fresh ground pepper
(about 3 grinds)
kosher salt to taste
1 fresh sprig of parsley
1 fresh sprig of thyme
2 cloves (remove before
serving)
1 teaspoon chicken
bouillon granule
2 .5 cup jasmine white
rice
1 whole habanero pepper
Boil mushrooms in
chicken stock on low heat
for about 5 minutes and
let sit for 5 more minutes. Next, completely
drain dark broth out
of the mushrooms into
a bowl.
All we want
here is the broth so set
it aside and discard
the mushrooms. Add
additional chicken stock
to the mushroom broth
(if necessary) to have a
total of 3 cups. Next, heat
vegetable oil on medium
high temperature, add
onions and cook until
translucent. Then add
garlic and scallion, and
stir for about 30 seconds
and add peas. Cook for
a couple of minutes and
add mushroom broth,
chicken bouillon, cloves,
parsley, thyme, whole
habanero pepper (do
not cut).
Bring broth to a boil,
rinse rice and add directly to the center of
the pot at once. Give it
a couple of quick stirs
and cook on medium heat
for about 15 minutes
or until broth dries up
completely. Now bring
temperature to very
low, cover tightly for at
least 20 minutes. Do
not disturb during this
final step, the toufé is
very important.
Spicy
ground
turkey stuffing
3 quarters of a pound
ground turkey
kosher salt to taste (1
pinch)
seasoned salt to taste
(i.e. lawry’s)
fresh ground pepper
to taste
all purpose adobo
seasoning to taste
1 teaspoon chicken
bouillon seasoning (i.e.
magi)
half teaspoon cayenne
pepper
1 tablespoon vegetable
oil
1 cup crimini mushroom sliced
1 large onion diced
3 garlic cloves finely
chopped
1 large red bell pepper
diced
1 sprig flat leaf parsley chopped (about 1
table spoon)
1 table spoon fresh
lime juice
half cup pure unsalted
tomato sauce
half cup hot chicken
stock or broth
2 cups cornbread
crumbled
Heat large pan on
high temperature and
add ground turkey, use
a cooking spatula or
flat spoon to break it
down. Add all the dry
spices one at a time,
constantly stirring and
mixing (salt, seasoned
salt, ground pepper,
adobo seasoning, chicken
bouillon seasoning, and
cayenne pepper). After
5 to 7 minutes, or when
the ground turkey begins
to brown, open a circle
at the center of the pan
and add oil and then add
onions until they become
translucent, and then add
garlic, pepper, thyme,
parsley and incorporate.
Finally, combine lime
juice, tomato sauce and
chicken broth on the side
and add to the stuffing mix
a little bit at a time while
stirring in two- minute intervals. This final step is
simply to give the ground
meat a nice orangey color.
In the Haitian cuisine
this is called “bay koulè”
or to color the meat.
Meanwhile cook the
mushrooms separately.
Heat a pan on high heat,
add olive oil and then
add mushrooms. Do not
touch and let it cook for
2 minutes. Then stir to
cook the other side and
season with kosher salt
and fresh ground pepper.
Add cooked mushrooms
to ground turkey and
turn off the stove. Lastly
add cornbread, mix and
keep covered in warm
oven until ready to serve.
Serve hot as a side dish
or stuffing.
TIPS: Try fresh Portobello (thinly sliced) and
boil for 10 minutes. Questions & comments: write
to ruthsrecipes@yahoo.
com.
Page 18
boston haitian Reporter December 2006
Pan-Caribbean News
Cuba’s Fidel Castro nowhere to be seen on 50th
anniversary of rebellion
By ANITA SNOW
HAVANA - Fidel Castro was a no-show Dec. 2
at a major military parade that doubled as his
80th birthday celebration, raising questions about
whether the ailing leader will ever return to power
as his public absence begins taking on a tone of
permanence. Many Cubans had hoped for at least
a glimpse of the ailing leader at Saturday’s parade,
where scores of olive-camouflaged tanks rumbled
through Havana’s Plaza of the Revolution and jet
fighters soared above.
But it was Defense Minister Raul Castro, who
Fidel Castro ceded his powers to four months ago,
standing at the mahogany lectern reviewing troops
on the 50th anniversary of Cuba’s Revolutionary
Armed Forces. The elder Castro’s absence came
after he made no appearances all week during
celebrations that he himself postponed from his
actual birthday on Aug. 13 to allow time to recover
from intestinal surgery.
Reading a half-hour speech that lacked his
brother’s rhetorical flourishes, the uniformed Raul
Castro reached out for dialogue with the U.S.
government in the latest sign he has consolidated
his leadership during his brother’s absence.
``We take this opportunity to once again state
that we are willing to resolve at the negotiating
table the long-standing dispute between the United
States and Cuba,’’ as long as the U.S. respects
Cuba’s sovereignty, said Raul Castro, who turned
75 in June.
``After almost half a century, we are willing to wait
patiently until the moment when common sense
prevails in Washington power circles,’’ he added.
Meanwhile, the defense minister said, the Cuban
people ``shall continue to consolidate our nation’s
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We support diversity.
military invulnerability’’ based on the island’s ``War
of All the People’’ doctrine calling on all able-bodied
citizens to take up arms in the event of a foreign
invasion.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Janelle
Hironimus said it is incumbent on the Cuban
government to take democratic steps first.
``The dialogue that needs to take place is one
between the Cuban regime and the Cuban people
about the democratic future of the island,’’ Hironimus
said on Saturday. ``Any deepening of our engagement
with Cuba depends on that dialogue and the Cuban
regime’s willingness to take concrete steps toward a
political opening and a transition to democracy.’’
Since breaking diplomatic relations in 1961, the
U.S. has maintained a policy to undermine Cuba’s
one-party authoritarian rule through a trade
embargo and restrictions on American travel to the
Caribbean country.
Raul Castro’s statements echoed those he made
less than three weeks after his brother made him
acting president on July 31, telling the Communist
Party daily Granma that Cuba is open to normalized
relations with the U.S. as long as there are no threats
or pressure.
Many longtime Cuba watchers consider Raul
the more pragmatic of the Castros, and likely to
communicate better with the U.S. government.
``The military is Cuba’s most effective interlocutor
with the United States,’’ Cuba military expert Hal
Klepak of the Royal Military College of Canada
said on the eve of the parade. ``They have prestige
with the Pentagon, and they are already in contact
with the U.S. on issues including (the U.S. naval
base at) Guantanamo, on weather, migration, drug
interdiction.’’
The event culminated five days of birthday events
for Fidel Castro _ none of which he attended. He has
not been seen in public since July 26.
Fidel Castro’s medical condition is a state secret.
Cuban officials insisted he is recovering, but U.S.
officials say they believe he suffers from some kind
of inoperable cancer and won’t live through the end
of 2007.
Some U.S. doctors have speculated he could have
diverticulosis, a condition relatively common among
older people that is caused when weak spots form
along the colon and intersect with an artery.
The elder Castro has appeared thin and pale in
official photographs and videos released since he
fell ill.
In town for the birthday bash, Bolivian President
Evo Morales, Haitian President Rene Preval,
Nicaraguan President-elect Daniel Ortega and
Colombian Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez
also attended the parade, where hundreds of
elderly former combatants from Cuba’s revolutionary
struggle sat near the podium.
On the field, thousands of marching troops
launched the parade, which included a replica of an
American yacht called the Granma that the Castro
brothers and 80 other rebels piloted from Mexico to
Cuba to launch their revolution. The Revolutionary
Armed Forces traces its roots to the yacht’s Dec. 2,
1956, landing.
The Castro brothers were among fewer than two
dozen rebels who survived a battle with then-President Fulgencio Batista’s troops after the landing.
From the mountains, they launched a guerrilla war,
which triumphed on Jan. 1, 1959. (AP)
Nine killed in nightclub fire in
Dominican Republic
By Ramon Espinosa
Associated Press Writer
SANTO DOMINGO- Fire struck a strip club after
it closed early on Nov, 27, killing nine employees who
lived on the floor above the establishment, including
several dancers, officials said.
The fire at Jazzys was already out by the time
neighbors notified authorities of the blaze about
4 a.m., said Col. Rafael Javier Bueno of the East
Santo Domingo fire department.
The victims, including six women and three men,
died of smoke inhalation and were found on the
second floor, Bueno said. They were the only people
inside the building at the time.
``Everyone who was inside the club died,’’ Bueno
said.
A preliminary investigation indicated an electric
short-circuit caused the fire, national police chief
Bernardo Santana Paez said.
The fire, which was confined to the interior of the
two-story building, charred tables, chairs and much
of the dancers’ stage. There was smoke damage on
the second floor, which was divided into several
small bedrooms and a large living space with five
mattresses on the floor.
Both of the building’s exits had been locked
from inside, and damage to a rear door suggested
EMPLOYMENT SUPPORT
SERVICES COORDINATOR
Catholic Charities in Boston seeks an Employment
Support Services Coordinator to provide supportive
services, including immigration, legal and mental
health in efforts to assist Cuban and Haitian entrants
attain, retain and advance in employment. Ability to
travel to Dorchester and Brockton weekly; fluency in
written/spoken Haitian Creole required.
Please send resume indicating Job #HR3967 to
resumes@ccab.org or via fax to 617-482-9737;
Catholic Charities, 75 Kneeland Street, 8th floor,
Boston, MA 02111.
AA/EOE.
www.ccab.org
neighbors tried to break in for a rescue attempt,
Bueno said.
The windows on the top floor were barred, leaving
a single staircase leading down into the club as the
only possible escape route.
The exterior, topped with domes and fake minarets
evoking an Arabian palace, showed no signs of
damage. No other buildings were affected in the
rough eastern district of the capital known for its
nightclubs.
A few family members stood outside the building
Monday morning, some of them weeping.
The club had apparently closed a few hours before
the fire started. In a bid to combat crime, the government imposed a law in July requiring all bars and
nightclubs to close at midnight on weekdays and at
2 a.m on weekends.
U.S. charity opens
children’s hospital
PORT-AU-PRINCE - A U.S.-based charity opened a
200-bed children’s hospital in this Caribbean capital
providing free dental and medical care to the poor.
St. Damien Hospital was built by Friends of the
Orphans, an Arlington Heights, Ill.-based nonprofit
group that supports nine orphanages throughout
Latin America and the Caribbean.
John C. Smith, interim chief executive of Friends of
the Orphans, called the hospital in Port-au-Prince’s
Tabarre neighborhood ``one more step toward
helping the people of Haiti end the cycle of poverty
in which they find themselves.’’
Friends of the Orphans didn’t disclose the cost of
the hospital, which will benefit residents of Port-auPrince and nearby communities. The group says it
supports 3,000 orphans in Bolivia, the Dominican
Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras,
Mexico, Nicaragua, and Peru. (AP)
Did You Know?
You can read the full
edition of the Reporter
@ bostonhaitian.com
December 2006
BOSTON HAITIAN Reporter Page 19
Pan-Caribbean News
Dominican president defends tax hike in budget crunch
By Jonathan M. Katz
SANTO DOMINGO- President Leonel Fernandez
defended his plan to close the government’s budget
gap on Dec. 4, promising the poor would not be hurt
by proposed tax increases and announcing he would
take a salary cut.
In a speech aired over radio and television,
Fernandez said the country remains $1.1 billion
short of its $7.9 billion budget for fiscal 2007 and
that he will ask Congress to raise taxes on items
such as tobacco, alcohol and luxury cars.
The International Monetary Fund-encouraged
reforms are likely to be passed as Fernandez’s Dominican Liberation Party controls both houses of the
legislature. But Fernandez’s plans have prompted
strike threats and contributed to a 15 percent drop
in his approval rating since August, according to a
Gallup poll published last week. Fernandez said
he met with affected groups to revise his proposal.
``Based on that collective intelligence, a project
arose that, thank God, avoids affecting the poorest
sectors of the country,’’ Fernandez said.
The president, who could run for election in May
2008, also promised to cut his own pay by 25 percent.
Fernandez laid out the revised fiscal package with
cold statistics, avoiding the harsh language and
political attacks of his first announcement of the
tax hike in November. But he did not specify how
much tax rates would increase.
He assured listeners that the price of food staples
such as sugar and milk would not be affected. He
also promised not to raise room taxes on hotels,
a hotly debated issue in this tourism-dependent
Caribbean country.
Much of the speech described $129 million in
proposed spending cuts, including reductions in
government salaries and the elimination of perks
such as the personal use of state-owned cell phones
and cars.
The reforms are necessary to prevent a return to the
conditions of a 2003 banking crisis which wiped out
about a quarter of the economy, Fernandez said.
The budget shortfall ``in time, would put in serious
danger the economic program we are developing to
assure the high level of growth we have had over
the last two years,’’ Fernandez said. (AP)
Dozens escape from Haiti’s largest prison
PORT-AU-PRINCE- As many as 30 inmates
escaped through a small hole in a prison wall in
the latest of several breakouts from Haiti’s largest
penitentiary, police said Dec. 5.
Witnesses told local media that prisoners waited
for a police patrol to pass before slipping through a
20-inch hole and fleeing the overcrowded National
Penitentiary during the day on Monday, just blocks
from Haiti’s National Palace. Police quickly cordoned
off the area and searched houses for the inmates.
It wasn’t immediately clear how many escaped, but
officials said up to 30 prisoners may be missing.
Police Inspector General Fritz Jean told reporters
the escape was under investigation. Private radio
station Kiskeya reported that four prison guards
were arrested on suspicion of involvement. In
July, 26 Haitian convicts deported from the United
States escaped from a holding cell at the National
Penitentiary. In February 2005, nearly 500 prisoners
escaped from the same prison in a jail break allegedly
aided by corrupt guards who unlocked the doors and
allowed inmates to flee.
A year earlier, hundreds of prisoners escaped
amid the chaos of a revolt that toppled former
president Jean Bertrand Aristide. The prison was
built nearly 100 years ago to house 800 prisoners
but reportedly holds twice that number, many of
whom have languished in squalor for years while
awaiting resolution of their cases.
When President Rene Preval took the oath of
office in May, inmates rioted and gathered on the
prison roof where they held aloft signs demanding
their freedom. (AP)
Grenada to release 3 prisoners convicted in 1983 coup
By Linda Straker
ST. GEORGE’S, Grenada (AP) - Three men
convicted of killings in
a 1983 coup in Grenada
that triggered a U.S.
invasion will be released
early from prison for
good behavior, officials
said Nov. 30.
The former soldiers
- Cosmos Richardson,
Andy Mitchell and Vincent Joseph - will be freed
after serving 20 years of
30-year sentences, the
Ministry of National
Security said in a statement.
``Under the law govern-
ing sentencing regulations, inmates’ sentences
are reduced by one third
if they have been deemed
as being industrious
and well behaved,’’ the
statement said. ``These
inmates have qualified
for the reduction in their
sentences.’’
The three - members of
the so-called ``Grenada
17’’ - were convicted of
manslaughter in the
killings of former Prime
Minister Maurice
Bishop, four Cabinet
ministers and six of
their supporters on Oct.
19, 1983. The other
members of the Grenada
17 were convicted of
murder and are serving
life sentences.
Defense attorneys for
the three men had been
seeking their release, arguing they should freed
because each received
more than one consecutive 15-year sentence for
manslaughter, amounting to multiple sentences
for the same crime.
In July, the Privy
Council, the highest
appeals court for most of
Britain’s former Caribbean colonies, refused
to throw out the men’s
sentences and release
them from prison.
``It must be an excellent day for them,’’ said
Keith Scotland, one of
the men’s attorneys.
``This has been a long
struggle, but I’m not
counting any eggs until
I see them hatch.’’
Leslie Pierre, editor
of The Grenadian Voice
and a campaigner for
releasing the members of
the Grenada 17, said the
government’s decision
was a ``great relief.’’
``Government has
come to its senses,’’
Pierre said.
Grenada became a
flash point in the Cold
War after Bishop led a
bloodless coup in 1979
and installed a socialist
government that turned
to Cuba for aid. The Cuban government began
building a large airport
in Grenada, and the
United States feared that
it would become a Cuban
military outpost capable
of sending jets deep into
South America.
Six days after the coup
that killed Bishop and
the 10 others, thousands
of U.S. soldiers stormed
the island. U.S. President
Ronald Reagan said he
ordered the invasion to
protect 650 U.S. medical
students - even though
the students radioed that
they felt safe - and stem
communist influence in
America’s back yard.
(AP)
Boston Water and
Sewer Commission
The Boston Water and Sewer Commission (BWSC) will have a
representative from the Community Services Department
at the following neighborhood locations:
Dorchester
Fields Corner
Uphams Corner Municipal Bldg.
500 Columbia Road
Fridays 10 AM - 1 PM
November
17, 2006
Dec. 15, 2006
December
15, 2006
Jan. 19, 2007
Kit Clark Senior Center
1500 Dorchester Avenue
Mondays 10 AM - 1 PM
November
2006
Dec. 18,20,
2006
December
2006
Jan. 29,18,
2007
Mattapan Family Service Center
535 River Street
Fridays 10 AM - 12 PM
Jan. 12, 2007
November
6, 2006
12(noon) - 1pm
December
14, 2006
Elm Hill Family Service Center
22 Elm Hill Avenue
Thursdays 10 AM - 12 PM
November 9, 2006
December 14, 2006
Mattapan
Roxbury
Our representatives will be available to:
• Accept payments
(check or money order only - no cash please).
• Process elderly or disabled persons discount forms.
• Resolve billing or service complaints.
• Schedule meter tests and special meter readings.
• Arrange payment plans for delinquent accounts.
Should you require further information,
please call Thomas Bagley,
Manager of Community Services at 617-989-7000.
980 Harrison Ave. Boston, MA 02119 617-989-7000 www.bwsc.org
Page 20
boston haitian Reporter December 2006
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boston haitian Reporter December 2006