Haiti Observer Blog

This took place on the night of July 27 and 28, 2016 in Cite Blue Hills in cap-Haitian where 36 year old Anne-Rose Bel-Amour perished in a fire with her two children Nowens Jean age 3 and 4 day old baby Kervens Jean, and another relative, Vedeline Compere who was 6 years old. The origin of the fire has not yet been determined; howeve, according to Horace Jean, the father of the baby, in the room where the fire seems to be originated, there was a lamp and a gallon of gasoline stored there as well. This probably explains why the fire started so quickly without giving anyone there at the time a chance to evacuate

Read More | Comments

It is always a big relief and quite refreshing to walk into a cool room after being out in the hot sun. But very few of us are aware that prolonged use of air conditioners causes more harm than good. It plays havoc on our skin and hair. Our skins are not sufficiently protected to combat it; the chill of AC pulls out moisture from the skin and leave it feels dry and stretched. The people with dry skin must have noticed that their skin becomes flaky after regular or prolonged exposure to AC, because constant dryness affects the inner layer of the skin.

Read More | Comments

In October 2013, Hillary Clinton was paid $225,000 to speak at Goldman Sachs "Builders and Innovators" conference. The audience at the Ritz Carlton Dove Mountain Resort in Marana, Arizona was filled with tech entrepreneurs and investors. Some of the attendees said what Clinton said there was nothing controversial or memorable. If it sounds like a lot of money, it is actually roughly on the line what other famous public speakers receive per speech, for example, Donald Trump $1.5 million+, Bill Clinton $225,000+, George W. Bush $150,000, Condoleezza Rice $150,000, etc.

The price tag has less to do with the content of the speeches themselves. Hillary Clinton is the only woman in the U.S to become First Lady and held elected office herself-- even before her husband was the President. She was named one of the 100 most influential lawyers by the National Law Journal. It is a known fact to many that Goldman Sachs is almost like an extended family to the Clintons. When Hilary's son-in-law opened a hedge fund, one of the primary investors in the fund was none other than Lloyd Blankfein, the Chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs. Hillary Clinton's top financial adviser is Gary Gensler; he is a former partner of Goldman Sachs who worked in Bill Clinton's administration.

Read More | Comments

Former Prime Minister Jean Max Bellerive is probably not happy with having his name mentioned every time there is a reference to the 2010 earthquake recovery or Petrocaribe funds; however he continue to be an important character in relationship to both. This time once again his name was cited in a possible bribery case. The President of Commission of Anti-Corruption, Senator Youri Latortue, this week cited Jean Max Bellerive for possibly receiving close to seven million of American dollars in bribery or kick back by Dominican companies.

Jean Max Bellerive became Prime Minister October 30. 2009 under the government of Rene Preval and was involved in issuing multi-million dollar contracts to some Dominican companies immediaty following the 2010 Haiti earthquake. He was later replace by replaced by Garry Conille following the election of President Michel Martelly

Read More | Comments (1)

On the evening of September 11, 2012, in Benghazi, the second largest city in Libya, some Islamic militants attacked the American diplomatic compound, killing U.S. Ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens and U.S. Foreign Service Information Management Officer Sean Smith. Several hours later, a second assault targeted a different compound about one mile away, killing CIA contractors Tyrone S. Woods and Glen Doherty. According to United Nations' U.S. ambassador, Susan Rice, the attack was in some way, a response to protests to an anti-Islam video (Innocence of Muslims). Hillary Clinton, being the Secretary of State and an important member of the cabinet, subsequently took the responsibility of the security lapse at the compound. However, 'Judicial Watch' a conservative foundation that fights for accountability and integrity, obtained certain files that show that State Department officials under Hillary Clinton's command blatantly lied about this attack.

Read More | Comments

On March 2015, a controversy unfolded against the backdrop of Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential election campaign that she used personal email addresses connected to a privately-owned server, rather than government email accounts maintained on secured federal servers. She practiced this during her four year tenure as President Barack Obama's first-term Secretary of State. To some experts, this practice violated State Department protocols and procedures, as well as federal laws and regulations governing record keeping.

As per Hillary, she did nothing wrong on violating government policy, because some previous Secretaries of State, including Colin Powell, had also used personal email server, it became controversial because the system is prohibited under the present federal policy, to be more specific, it was enacted in 2014, after Clinton departed the State Department.

Read More | Comments

In an interview with newspaper Nouvelliste on Monday night, Cardinal Chibly Langlois made his opinion known about the current political crisis in Haiti. The Haitian cardinal calls for Jocelerme Privert to remain as Provisional President, calling it the lesser evils. Cardinal Chibly Langlois stated that he has been following the political development in Haiti and is concerned about what is going on in currently. He thinks that the Haitian Senators and Deputies should not use the Parliament as a tool to defend their own interests and that priority should be given to improving the condition of the population.

Read More | Comments

Mr Jonas Coffy who is the current director of the Ministry Social Affairs in Haiti accused Former Prime Minister Evans Paul as being the one behind the recent increase in insecurity in the Haitian capital. He also accused him of stealing government fund while he was Prime Minister. Mr. Coffy was reacting to recent comments made by Former Prime Minister Evans Paul; specifically his statement: "konpoze or dekonpoze" which many people believe to be coded messages promoting public violence. According to Mr. Coffy, " It's a shame that our Judicial system is so weakened. Was it not the weakness of the Haitian justice, a citizen like Evans Paul would have been behind bars a long time ago"

Read More | Comments

Tony Rodham is the youngest brother of Hillary Rodham Clinton. He is a former repo man, prison guard and private detective who used to work to secure foreign financing for a company. In October 2013, Tony Rodham joined the advisory board of VCS Mining, a Delaware-based company that was planning a gold mine in the Cap-Haïtien and was awarded the contract for carrying mining activities. It was a both lucrative and controversial deal, because Haiti has an estimated gold reserve of about $20 billion and the permit for mining was not issued to anyone in the last 50 years.

Read More | Comments

In 2009, when Hillary Clinton was at the State Department working with U.S. corporations, she pressured Haiti so that its Parliament does not raise the minimum wage rate to 61 cents an hour from 24 cents. Some memos found from the Wikileaks strongly suggest that the U.S State Department aggressively blocked the proposed minimum wage increase. The U.S Embassy officials in Haiti clearly opposed such wage hike and met several times with the factory owners and in turn, the factory owners directly lobbied against the raise to the Haitian president. The motive behind this move to fix a slave wage rate (less than $5.00 per day) for Haitian workers was perhaps to benefit the big U.S clothing manufacturers like, Levi's, Hanes and Polo.

Read More | Comments (1)