death - Haiti Observer Blog

Haiti has now one more icon to mourn, one more to miss with the demise of singer/songwriter, Jean Michel Daudier. His death was announced on the morning it occurred, October 14th and it was a blow for the country that had united over the strains of his most popular song, Lem pa we soley la, released in the 1980's.

Jean Michel came into the world in 1957 as the newest member of a family already partial to the arts, filled as it was with poets and musicians. After an older half-brother of his left him his first guitar, broken as it was following a particularly rowdy night, Jean Michel learned to play at the young age of 15.

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According to "La Press" a major Canadian newspaper, the Coroner's Office confirmed yesterday to The Press that an autopsy was performed Thursday July 25, 2013 in Montreal on the body of the Haitian magistrate Jean Serge Joseph. "Information indicating that it could be an accident death in unclear circumstances". This has convinced the coroner to search the file further.

More about Judge Jean Serge Joseph

Here is the actual quote from La Press: "Le Bureau du coroner a confirmé hier à La Presse qu'une autopsie avait été pratiquée jeudi à Montréal sur le corps du magistrat. Des «informations indiquant qu'il pourrait s'agir d'un décès survenu dans des circonstances obscures» ont convaincu le coroner de fouiller le dossier."

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Here is the press conference conducted by the two U.S. Doctors at Hospital Bernard Mevs on Sunday July 14, 2013, following the sudden death of Judge Jean Serge Joseph. Contradicting rumors suggesting that the judge had been poisoned or assassinated, the doctors confirmed that the death came as a result of a stroke.

According to Dr. Vencent Degennaro, Judge Jean Serge Joseph was in very bad condition by the time he was brought to the Hospital as a result of a massive stroke. The Haitian judge arrived at the Hospital at 3:00 am on Sunday and died at 8:00 pm on the same day.

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A funeral in Haiti is an affair that might seem to an outsider, something out of a highly sensationalized plot. It invokes the same trappings of mainstream funerals in other countries, with the church, the body in the casket, the singing and scripture reading, but the differences soon become clear and can be quite an experience for someone who least expects it.

When someone dies in Haiti, burial is the only option. Organ donation and cremation are treated as abominations, as a body needs to be whole in order to be resurrected. And the belief in zombies, the dead-living created from evil intent or avarice, are the only reason, apart from suspected foul-play, why autopsies are sometimes practiced.

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On Monday, June 17, 2013, Haiti reported its first suspected death caused by the H1N1 virus or the A flu. It is reported that the person who fell victim of the N1H1 was a resident of Nan Bannann's community that lives in Belle-Anse's southern city that is located at a distance of 110 kilometers southwest from Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti. It was confirmed by a government official that the victim died in Thiotte's Sacred Heart Hospital that is located 65 kilometers to the east of Port-au-Prince.

According to reports, the person who is suspected to have died because of the N1H1 actually contracted this virus in the city of Anse-a-Pitres which shares a border with Dominican Republic, the country where 8 people have been confirmed dead because of the N1H1 virus.

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Officials who were investigating the assassination of Mireille Durocher Bertin said, after two weeks of the murder, that they were in complete darkness. Mireille Durocher Bertin was a right-wing critic of the then President of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The murder caused strains with Washington and it was accused that the Interior Ministers of the Aristide administration were involved in the assassination and that the orders of the murder were issued by Aristide himself.

On the day of assassination, Mireille Durocher Bertin was traveling in a white Subaru. The car was blocked in broad daylight and the assassins can riding in red Mitsubishi and shot the front tire (on the side of the driver) of the victim's car and then with automatic weapons, shot from both sides of the Subaru. This killed Mrs. Bertin who was a popular lawyer and a 35-year-old mother of 4.

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Haiti is among one of the world's poorest countries and THE POOREST in Western Hemisphere. Not only that, Haiti also records the maximum child mortality rate in whole Western Hemisphere. One child among every 8 children Haiti dies before reaching the age of 5 years. This translates into 117 children out of 1,000 births die under the age of 5. What kills them? Haiti is plagued by enormous poverty. 80% of Haitian live under poverty line and this leads to serious malnutrition issues. Healthcare facilities are also severely crippled with only 11 nurses and 25 physicians available for attending every 100,000 people. As a result, even preventable diseases like pneumonia, tuberculosis, malaria and diarrhea manage to show their dirty dance and claim several lives. Apart from this environmental hazards and social violence are also responsible for high child mortality rate.

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