United States - Haiti Observer Blog

U.S. State Department has issued its Fiscal Transparency Report (FTR) for 2014. The report analyzes governments' transparency in the preparation of their budgets, for them to qualify to receive foreign aid. However there are some countries that are still recipients of U.S. aid despite not meeting fiscal transparency criterion. The State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) was given $46.9 billion from the Treasury for the 2014 fiscal year. A total of 50 nations failed in 2014 to meet the minimum standards of budget transparency.

Haiti continues to receive U.S. aid because its circumstances are direst among poor countries in the western hemisphere. According to Executive Director Bob Perito of consultancy company, The Perito Group, Haiti is bereft of education and health systems. It also has neither a sanitation system nor running water.

Read more →  

Sometime, it is a good thing to listen to the opposing view. We might learn something, even from someone like Rush Limbaugh, a radio host in the United States who is well known for his conservative views.

Someone from Miami recently called his show to ask him a question about the double standard that exists in the American immigration law when it comes to Haitian immigrants.

CALLER: I'd like to know why Mr. Obama is granting amnesty to all the immigrants that came over here illegally. When the Cubans come here, if they make it to land, they get to stay. However, for the Haitians, whether or not they make it to land, they get sent back.

Read more →  

Mount Olive, a small town in Wayne County in rural North Carolina is best known for its pickle factories. The small town has recently received worldwide attention for its changing demographics. As many as 3000 Haitian population has been added so far with the town's population of 4,600. Haitian immigrants from toddlers to grandmothers have flooded this tiny hamlet south of Goldsboro.

There are many stories behind how this transition started. At the most basic, every story goes like this: in late summer of 2010, a Haitian who was working at the Butterball plant in Mount Olive once heard that his boss has to replace a dozen of his workers because their work permits have some problems. The Haitian worker came forward to solicit new workers from his country. He first called an aspirant friend in Miami, who again called some of his mates in other places. Two days later, two vans packed with energized Haitians arrived at Butterball who were offered immediate jobs. This was the beginning of exodus. Another similar wave of immigrants came twelve years ago when Mexican workers came to pick cucumbers for pickle factories.

Read more →  

On Thursday, 16 January 2014, the response capabilities of Haiti in the event of major natural disaster was enhanced when the U.S. Ambassador Pamela White accompanied by other officials from U.S Embassy in a handover ceremony in the capital city, donated 12 transport vehicles and 12 watercrafts to Haitian Emergency Response and Civil Protection Agencies. The transport vehicles include six 20-foot, all-terrain cargo trucks, six all-terrain, large cabin pick-up trucks. The watercrafts delivered include twelve 18-foot search and rescue boats.

These trucks and boats were purchased under U.S. Southern Command's Humanitarian Assistance Program to extend Haiti's emergency response capabilities in life-threatening and natural disasters crises. The Haitian representatives from the Ministry of Justice and Public Security accepted the keys of the vehicles on behalf of country's National Police firefighters. The trucks will be used by the Association of Haitian Volunteer Firefighter and these will be added to their existing fleet of disaster relief capabilities in six of the ten Emergency Units built under U.S assistance program for strengthening Haiti's disaster response system.

Read more →  

For as long as I could [i]remember, I have never seen the United States and Haiti ranked in similar position in any world index; that was until this new one came out.

In its annual World Press Freedom Index, a Paris-based media rights watchdog ranked the United States at number 46 in the world in 2014.
US has plunged 13 positions and this was directly related to its handling of the National Security Agency leaks.

Now the United states found itself between countries such as Romania and Haiti.

Mezanmi, Oukwè ke Amerikin ta vle nan yon pozisyon akote Ayiti, especialman nan sa ki konserne libète bouch moun?

Read more →  

Did you know that Haiti was one of the countries in the world designated by United States Department of Defense (DOD) as "imminent danger areas". Haiti found itself in that class along with eight other "land areas". The others countries are East Timor, Liberia, Oman, Rwanda, Tajikistan, United Arab Emirates, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan.

So what is it exactly? Is this good or bad? How did Haiti manage to get in that list?

The combatant commands conducted in-depth threat assessments on a regular basis to determine the level of imminent threat to US military personnel due to civil insurrection, civil war or act of terrorism. Based on their evaluation, Haiti was one of the many countries determined to be in the list.

Read more →  

Brouhaha is brewing over whether to formalize the district known as Little Haiti in Miami. The boundaries of Little Haiti are generally recognized as the area extending from 38th Street to 79th Street, bounded by Interstate 95 and the Florida Railway.

Little Haiti is comprised of the neighborhoods of Lemon City, Little River, and Buena Vista. By officially designating Little Haiti as a district would obliterate the colorful names of the neighborhoods, subsumed under the official name of Little Haiti. New immigrants to Little Haiti area are pushing for the formalization of Little Haiti. Long-time residents of the area say it's unnecessary.

Read more →  

Since the 9/11, the world has changed and the US has redefined "border enforcement" to combat terrorism against American interests in a whole new way. In that sense, the American homeland is the entire planed.

How does this affect us?

I am glad you asked that question.

Currently, US Border Patrol Agents are implementing Haiti - Dominican Republic border enforcement. The enforcement model that has been used by the Dominican Republic with Haiti was designed in United States.

Now between Haiti and Dominican Republic, you have Specialized Border Security guards, carrying assault rifle to petrol the border. This falls into the US policy to promote "strong borders" abroad as part of its Global War on Terror.

Read more →  

Recently, Haiti was visited by a United States congresswoman for the Democratic Party, Corrine Brown who, with her long-standing career in politics, now represents Florida's 5th District.

Born in November of 1946, Brown has served, since 1993, on Congress, and the districts she represents include, Alachua, Putnam and Orange Counties. Extensively educated at some of the state's most prominent universities, she has earned many degrees including one in science and an honorary degree in law.

During her visit to Haiti, Corrine Brown was met by representatives of the Haitian Government including the President, Michel Martelly. The discussion between the two was about the continuance of the relationship between the two countries they represent. Mrs. Brown also used her visit to meet with Andolphe E.D. Guillaume, a legal advisor, to talk about the adoption procedures in Haiti, at IBESR (the Institute of Welfare and Research).

Read more →  

Benedict Batraville was a resistance fighter for anti-American imperialist groups. America began occupying Haiti in 1915 under Woodrow Wilson. In order to weaken the resistance forces, Congress approved of replacing rebel leader, slaughtered Charlemagne Peralte, with his advisor, Batraville. He had a superior intellect and held information about Peralte's military strategy.

Benedict Batraville, known as Ti Benwa, agreed with the plan to allow imperialist forces to expand their occupation of the island. But he lay in wait to catch the troops at a disadvantage and push back with the insurgency.

The insurgents were successful and the Marines lost territory in Haiti. They understood in order to reclaim lost ground, they needed to find Batraville and finish him off. But he was not easy to apprehend. A master military strategist, who had advised Peralte, Batraville out-thought and out-flanked the Marines.

Read more →