People

Roosevelt Augustin who is the Vice President of The Christian Movement for a New Haiti and is the candidate for Gonaives' Mayor, has been released from jail after one month of his arrest. All the charges against Augustin have been dropped on the basis that his arrest was based on arbitrary grounds. It is being said that his arrest on 26th April, 2013 was initiated after an illegal call by Youri Latortue, which is the advisor to President of Haiti, Michel Martelly.

It was claimed by Latortue that Augustin, who was elected as director of a school operating under the program of Free and Compulsory Education, committed fraud but Augustin, has since the very beginning, claimed that he was innocent. One day after Augustin declared his candidature for the post of Mayor for Gonaives, he was arrested.

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Rosalvo Bobo became a Haitian revolutionary and government official as America and Europe entered World War I. Although educated as a physician and attorney, his strong political views and dominant personality led him to seek power in Haitian politics.

In 1914, Haiti had been a free republic for a decade, having won its independence from France. But it had not been successful as a stable government, having witnessed a turnover of three presidents in less than two years.

Near the end of 1914, Rosalvo Bobo led a military invasion on a prison holding detainees, which failed, forcing him to find sanctuary at the German embassy. After five days secreted, Bobo reappeared, announcing he was leading a rebellion to unseat President Oreste Zamor from office. He was successful and Davilmar Theodore came into power. Theodore named Bobo Secretary of State of the Interior and Commander of the Haitian police. However, both Rosalvo Bobo and Theodore's time in power was cut short.

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The Haitian legal profession has lost its most talented and dynamic litigator, Constantin Mayard-Paul, to an embolism, causing his heart to stop on May 30, 2008. When word of his death spread to Port-au-Prince Bar Association, they sent a courier notice asking all cases being heard that day in Port-au-Prince courts adjourn in honor of Constantin's demise.

Public-commentary station, Radio Kiskeya, interviewed Constantin's son, Thierry Mayard-Paul. Bereaved to say much, he did share his father's battle with emphysema, saying it did not prevent him from enjoying his retirement after half a century of practicing law.

One of Constantin's closest colleagues, Gérard Gourgue, spoke to news outlets about his nearly 60-year friendship with him. He said they had worked together on cases referred to their advocacy group, Haitian Human Rights League. He also noted some characteristics of Constantin's he admired, like his acute attention to fine points of law, his assiduous trial preparation, and diligent witness preparation for depositions.

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The government of Haiti's (GOH) latest corruption scandal has erupted over state-worker pensions (ONA) being moved from Central Bank (CB) to individual accounts at National Credit Bank (NCB).

Testifying before senators, Director Bernard Degraff, who runs the National Office of Pensions (NOP), evaded inquiries on how pension funds ended up being diverted to NCB. The transfer happened without state workers' foreknowledge, and in violation of Haiti's Constitution. It states no pension funds are to be moved from CB to any other financial institution.

Bernard Degraff, President Martelly's appointee to ONA, had been under investigation even before the pension-fund scheme was uncovered. Reports from inside GOH have alleged other instances of mis-management Degraff has been involved in. He is reputed to have fired scores of government administrators for no apparent reason, and given himself a whopping salary increase. GOH investigators have been combing through documents and interviewing NOP agency workers to compile a list of charges they will indict him with.

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Writer, economist, and firebrand Gérard Pierre-Charles was born in Jacmel in 1935. A radical, whose political beliefs were shaped by the government of Haiti's failed attempts at democracy, he co-founded a Marxist organization. In 1959, feared dictator François Duvalier caused him to flee to Mexico.

For the next quarter-century, Pierre-Charles taught economics at Mexico City University. He achieved respect as an academician and political extremist. He co-founded Haitian Unified Communist Party (HUCP) and waited for Jean-Claude Duvalier to be deposed, which happened in 1986.

Back in Haiti, he grew disenchanted with the Communist Party, and became an ally of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who had founded Lavalas Party. Aristide was riding high on a wave of popular support, assuming the presidency in 1991. But military opposition ousted him shortly into his presidency. Pierre-Charles seized control of Lavalas and shaped it into an effective political tool, Lavalas Political Organization.

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It is more than a bit contrary, and also quite ironic, that, for a country with so many of its great leaders and people of note from the past such as Louis Dejoie and present sharing a common career as agronomists, Haiti's governments have been wholly neglectful of the dire need for improvements to the agricultural industry, improvements which could have done well towards sustaining and nourishing the well-being of the Haitian people who now struggle to find so much.

Senator Louis Dejoie had said, during the 1957 election campaigns, that the consequence of the country's past neglect of its farmers was the 'food drain' now being experienced, where able farmers, desperately needed to play their role in the agricultural cycle to sustain Haiti, were seeking work in other countries, growing the crops so hard to find in their own homes. Through their departure, a second cycle prevails, that of Haiti's dependency on foreign aid and export, the former taxing on national pride, the latter on resources.

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Born in Petit Goave on August 20, 1932, Hubert Deronceray, lived to the ripe old age of 78 before becoming one of the many victims of Haiti's catastrophic 2010 earthquake. Growing up, Deronceray attended the Christian Brothers Institution before moving on to classical studies at the Alexandre Petion High School. He would attain a tertiary education at the State University of Haiti and Laval University in Quebec, Canada, where he earned a Master's and PhD in Sociology.

He would return to Haiti to teach in 1966 before founding the CHISS (Center for Investigation in Haitian Social Sciences) and he was made Secretary of State for National Education in 1972, UNESCO's Haitian Minister Counselor and Human Rights Committee chairman.

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The second female Haitian to become the Prime Minister of the Republic of Haiti was Michele Duvivier Pierre-Louis. Born on 5th October 1947, Michele stayed in office from 5th September 2008 to 11th November 2009. Since 1995, Michele has held the post of Executive Director for the non-government organization called Knowledge and Freedom Foundation or FOKAL. She was elected as Prime Minister by former President of Haiti, Rene Preval. Michele was the third nominee by Preval as the Chamber of Deputies rejected the first two nominees.

Michele Duvivier Pierre-Louis's nomination was approved by 61 in-favor votes against 20 abstentions and 1 opposing vote. After this approval on 17th July 2008, Senate approve Michele Pierre-Louis with 12 in-favor vote, 0 opposing votes and 5 abstentions. On 25th August the composition of the newly formed government was announced by the then President Rene Preval and Michele was appointed Prime Minister. Apart from the role of Prime Minister, Michele was appointed as Minister of Public Security and Minister of Justice.

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On Thursday, July 19, 2012, the motorcade of Haitian President Michel Martelly was caught in an accident. The accident occurred in Northern Haiti. The accident had led to serious injuries to seven people, one of whom was a little girl of 6 years age. Luckily, President Martelly escaped any kind of physical injury.

The Delegue Departmental du Nord, Yvon Alteon was seriously injured during the accident and was transferred to a hospital located in Port-au-Prince using aerial route. President Martelly was at the motorcade's front along with Stephanie Villedrouin, the Minister of Tourism in Haiti. Both President Martelly and Tourism Minister Stephanie Villedrouin escaped injuries.

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Haitian Flag Day was looming and, even in the Bahamas, the fervor among Haitians living in the country was high, inciting the fear and furor of many Bahamians who instinctively began to fear what they were ignorant about.

Speaking to a news agency in his country, The Tribune, Bahamian activist Rodney Moncur tried to assuage the population by saying Haitian Flag Day and those who would be hoisting the flag of the fellow Caribbean country on Bahamian shores, were not a threat to the people of the Bahamas.

He noted that his country was a democratic one and that people there were allowed to exercise their freedoms He also noted that Haitian flags were certainly not so strange as there is also a concentration of American and Canadian flags present there.

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