Haiti Observer Blog

An AMBER Alert is an urgent bulletin put out when a family abduction has taken place. Issued across all forms of media, it gives the physical description of both child and perpetrator. Along with the physical characteristics of perpetrator and victim, the license plate number and make and model of the crime vehicle is also included.

AMBER Alerts use the Emergency Alert System to broadcast to news, on-air, and Internet media outlets. Other outlets include electronic highway billboards and other billboard entities such as Clear Channel.

The responsibility of issuing an AMBER Alert usually comes under the jurisdiction of highway patrol or state trooper agencies, which involve themselves in investigation of the abduction.

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The Central Directorate of the Judicial Police (DCPJ) arrested Clifford Brandt, a businessman and entrepreneur, accused of kidnapping two youths, Coralie and Nicolas Moscoso. They were abducted on Bourdon Road. The kidnapping laid bare a network of abductors, who have been targeting victims for abduction for many years.

The arrest occurred on October 16, 2012 by the Cell Against Kidnapping and Criminal Brigade of the Haitian National Police (HNP). Five other suspects connected to the abduction were also taken into custody.

The abduction network has spread to the HNP. Senior command police officers and inspectors, past and present, have been implicated in abduction plots across Haiti. In particular, Inspector Edner Comé is being actively pursued, considered armed and dangerous.

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In order to reduce the likelihood of a renewed outbreak of cholera. For the general population, the basics of cholera prevention are re-emphasized:

• use soap and water to disinfect hands before preparation of food, and during the consumption of it.
• disinfect plates, glasses, forks, knives, and spoons with hot water.
• disinfect hands after using toilet facilities.
• boil or disinfect possibly contaminated water.
• use disinfected water only for household tasks.

Because many poorer Haitians don't understand good sanitation habits, the Ministry of Health issues a stern warning to avoid defecating on the ground. And to also avoid defecation near bodies of water, natural or man-made.

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A Trinity Wall Street report confirms that the Rev. Canon Oge Beauvoir became the first bishop suffragan of the Diocese of Haiti on May 22, 2012 during a service in the open-air cathedral of diocese. He was the dean of the Episcopal Theological Seminary in Port-au-Prince prior to become the bishop suffragan.

On November 25 of the last year Oge Beauvoir was elected to become the first bishop suffragan. The important election was held at Ascension Church in Carrefour, a suburb of Port-au-Prince where he was elected on the second ballot with 25 priest votes and 68 lay votes.

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Pierre Toussaint is one of the few people all over the world to have led a holy life as described by the Roman Catholic Church. He lived in New York where he was a slave to his masters and where he began his life. He led a simple life here and was a hair dresser for quite some time. When his master died he was left with the widow whom he took care of with the money he received from his hair dressing activities.

However she too died leaving Pierre Toussaint free. He then took on his life and established an orphanage for the disabled and the Haitian refugees that used to come there seeking for a better life or escaping the harsh conditions at home. He took it upon himself to take care of them such that eventually he became the official responsible for all the immigrants.

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Participating in sports can be an important part of a young person's life. If the youngster gets the right coaches, who are teachers and leaders, the experience can lead to a lifetime of involvement and enjoyment with sports. This is what Mooser and his friend had in mind when they started baseball in Haiti. They started a Little League team which got Martha Rogers, the chair of the Rogers Foundation, a charitable organization also involved after meeting Mooser through Artists for Peace and Justice, a nonprofit organization.

Rogers also involved the Jays care Foundation and Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment and with their donations, they helped to build a sports academy in Haiti. Danielle Bedasse, the executive director of the Jays Care Foundation took the initiative with a lot of passion. He said, "These are kids that don't have anything, so the least we could do was use some of the resources that we have and provide some equipment and Blue Jays gear and make them feel great." They bought the equipment, Blue Jays hats, T-shirts for the kids, and they started a baseball program.

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Marc Calixte was born in Montreal, Canada, on September 26, 1978. A Haitian-American, he began his professional football career nine years ago, as a seventh overall pick, in round one in the Canadian Football League (CFL) Canadian Draft in 2003.

Prior to his entry into professional sports, Marc Calixte played college football at Tennessee-Martin University. He now plays as a linebacker for the Stampeders, a position in which strength is highly valued. According to John Hufnagel, the Stampeders General Manager and Head Coach, "Marc is as effective a special-team player as you can find in the Canadian Football League . . ."

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One of the few Haitian-American boxing champions, Andre Berto has had a variety of titles that he has won easily and with a great fight where he has always shown how mighty a fighter he can be. He was the welterweight champion in 2008 where he had beaten the then champion Miguel Rodriguez. He had then dropped the title after a unanimous decision to Victor Ortiz.

Andre then bounced back into the fights where he beat Jan Zaveck in the IBF welterweight champion. He kept the title for a while then dropped it and went towards other goals in his life. He has had a great professional career as a boxer where he has seen various winnings which are more than the losses he has had by almost a quarter.

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Antoine Craan was born in Port au prince on the eve of January 17, 1931. He relocated to Canada at the age of 24 years to play professional soccer for Le Tricolore de Montreal in the province of Quebec. He made history by being one of the two black players in the region. He then went on to work in the Ligue de Soccer Minuer in the 1960s. He continued to ascend the career ladder when he became the technical director of Federation de Soccer du Quebec, which recognized his contribution to soccer and embedded his name in its soccer hall of fame in 2001.

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Zombies, like vampires, are dominating the entertainment media lately. You can view these monsters in movies, TV, and read of their ghoulish exploits in penny-ante novels. But contrary to the popular idea that zombies are evil incarnate, in Haitian lore they are victims of maltreatment at the hands of witch doctors known as bokers. The Haiti government has used the specter of these re-enlivened corpses to instill fear in the Haitian people, particularly during the Duvalier dynasty, which lasted nearly 30 years.

Papa Doc Duvalier formed a death-squad, the Tonton Macoutes, a group of men clad in denim shirts, straw hats, and sunglasses, who carried machetes. They often killed people in broad daylight, or carried them away in the dead of night, never to be seen or heard from again. The unexplained disappearance of a member of the Haitian community gave rise to the idea these victims had been turned into zombies, the living dead. Fed by Tonton Macoutes' threats they would zombie-fy anyone, whom they perceived as a dissident of the Duvalier regime, the legend took hold in Haitian imaginations.

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