Dog Food Truck!

H.T.T. Editorial - Steve Applegate - May 22, 2016

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Am I suffering from post-traumatic stress?

Ever since traveling to a developing country, in this case Haiti, the gap between my personal needs vs. wants has become a matter of conscience. 

Living with all the conveniences of “home”, it was easy to have values I had.  But now my consciousness is awakened and quietly talks to me in those moments when I allow myself to listen.   

The other evening, while comfortably watching the NBC Nightly News, there was a story about a new entrepreneurial business, food trucks for dogs. 

That night, lying in my comfortable bed, it was very quiet.  So quiet, I undeniably heard my consciousness speaking to me.

Food trucks for dogs.

I thought of the innocent, good people I had met, situations I experienced, in Haiti,  and their needs.

I ask you to watch this very short (1 minute/45 seconds) NBC Nightly News story for yourself.  After contemplation, will you hear a voice in your quietness?

Awareness can be the first step to substantial change.

Leading me to ponder, could informed, humble, dignified, collaborative discussions, both at home and with Haitians, enhance everyone’s potential to live in a more enlightened world with Grace?

Click on video to play (1 minute/45 seconds):

A Young Haitian Rebuilds After the Devastating Quake

Dwell Magazine

written by: Zachary Edelson

photo by: Collin Hughes

April 22, 2016

Project Azor Residence

Designer Josué Azor

 

“At a certain period it was hard to see hope,” says Josué Azor of Canapé Vert, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, where he grew up. Once “a very quiet and middle-class neighborhood” full of greenery and scores of homes, it suffered a grievous blow from a 7.0-magnitude earthquake on January 12, 2010. While exact figures remain disputed, estimates put the death toll between 220,000 and 316,000, with more than two-thirds of the capital’s buildings in ruins. More than 170 years had passed since the country’s last major earthquake: lack of building code enforcement, poorly trained engineers, and shoddy concrete and masonry construction had left Haiti vulnerable. 

 “Everything collapsed,” Azor says, and neither his family nor most of his neighbors wanted to return to the devastated landscape. “They thought it wasn’t a good idea, that I was a little crazy.” 

Undeterred, Azor chose to return alone to his family’s plot to rebuild a peaceful dwelling, construct it economically, and ensure it wouldn’t be felled by a future disaster. “I knew I would have to find a way,” he says. “I wanted something very clean, very simple…I wanted to make it happen, but in a good way.” 

In 2010 Azor was in his early twenties, and in Haiti, it’s rare for a young person to have his or her own place before marriage. But Azor is used to cutting his own path: his parents, aunts, and uncles are all in finance, administration, and marketing, and while he initially studied for those fields, he opted to pursue photography professionally instead. After the earthquake, a friend suggested he construct a place for himself: “A lot of people were building shelters, so the first idea was to have something cheap but strong.” His old family plot was still vacant: “The land was free. I said okay, maybe I should try this.”

“It was a very humble project because I didn’t have a lot of money,” says Azor. He knew he would have to be very hands-on with construction to keep costs low and to modify the plan to fit his needs. Through a friend of a friend he found an engineer—the notion of an architect is relatively new in Haiti—who suggested an initial plan. Azor had two unwavering conditions for the engineer: The build shouldn’t be expensive but it must incorporate an earthquake-resistant design. Its structure, a mixture of reinforced concrete and concrete masonry units, had to be able to resist a future quake. Azor immediately made changes: he moved the bathroom to allow sunlight in and enlarged the windows. And he raised his walls to 13 feet, a full five feet above most Haitian homes. That height “makes you feel like you’re breathing better, that you have more air circulating,” he explains, acknowledging an especially critical need in tropical Haiti.
  
Even more essential to Azor was the question of illumination. “Light was a very big preoccupation for me,” he admits. “I even say I have two houses: during the day it’s [one] place and at night I work with the light to create ambiance.” In his backyard garden a wall-mounted light box, punctured with holes, shines gently over cushions and a small table. Azor frequently refers to his place as a refuge, a sanctuary of sorts, and his backyard, where he entertains friends and family, is its heart. Azor describes the visitors’ journey from the street to the garden, which is filled with plants and even carries the sound of water from a nearby stream:  “You’re coming through a corridor, a long way like a tunnel, and then you’re discovering a quiet place.”

Word has spread fast of Azor’s unusual home. Does he hope this home will inspire others to rebuild, and in a way that’s ready for a future earthquake? “I have to admit,” Azor says with a note of lingering incredulity, “when people come to my place, after that, they will talk about my place and say ‘Whoa, if I have to construct, if I have to build something, this is definitely inspiring.’” Azor is quick to point out that it isn’t just the more minimalist aesthetic that others find so notable, it’s also the use of simple white surfaces and humble materials like exposed concrete and iron. “The materials used here are considered as suitable for poor people,” he explains. “Then when you use them in a new way, people find them to be very chic and they are surprised that it can go so well.” 

With all of this positive feedback, one might wonder if Azor will embark on a new phase in his career—that of designer. “Oh! I already have had that offer many times but I said, well, no. I can’t pretend I can do this.” For Azor, creating a home from scratch can only be a personal endeavor. 

“From time to time,” he explains, “you see what is best for you.”

Table Salt Can Eliminate This Crippling Disease By 2020

Forbes
Dec 18, 2015

"To help Haiti eliminate lymphatic filariasis, a disease that affects nearly half of its population, Cargill teams up with the Reverend Thomas Streit C.S.C. and the University of Notre Dame’s Haiti Program." 

 

When Jim Reimer retired, he did not anticipate the important role he and the company would play in helping millions of Haitians combat a terrible disease. In 2012, Reimer became involved in the University of Notre Dame’s Haiti Program, which works to rid Haiti of lymphatic filariasis (LF) by 2020.
LF is a disease spread by mosquitos that can lead to the extreme swelling of various body parts. It also carries a cultural stigma, which can result in victims being shunned and excluded from their communities. Despite its devastating effects, LF is one of only a few infectious diseases that have the potential to be completely eliminated. Knowing this, Reimer, a former Cargill executive, and a team of Cargill employees partnered with the Reverend Thomas Streit C.S.C., the founder of the University of Notre Dame Haiti Program, to work toward this goal.

The solution came in the form of a common food: salt. Everyone eats salt on a regular basis, so delivering medication by fortifying salt proved to be an effective way to fight the disease.
Because Haitians typically consume a type of salt that contains many impurities, it was difficult to add the medication successfully. To overcome the production challenges, Cargill worked with the University’s Haiti Program, providing technical expertise as well as US $150,000 in donations over a three-year period.

Current efforts to defeat LF have positioned the program to meet its goal of ending the disease in Haiti by 2020. A new salt processing plant located near the country’s capital is run by the Congregation of the Holy Cross to help with the large-scale production of fortified salt. The salt treatment method also offers the opportunity to address several other health issues in Haiti, including working to correct an endemic iodine deficiency, reducing other parasites like hookworm that can harm children and strengthening Haiti’s public health infrastructure.


Cargill provides food, agriculture, financial and industrial products and services to the world. Together with farmers, customers, governments and communities, we help people thrive by applying our insights and 150 years of experience. We have 149,000 employees in 70 countries who are committed to feeding the world in a responsible way, reducing environmental impact and improving the communities where we live and work.

Learn more about Cargill.

No end in sight to election mess in struggling Haiti

May 4, 2016

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/article75483502.html#storylink=cpy

By DAVID McFADDEN
Associated Press

In this Feb. 14, 2016, file photo, Haiti's provisional President Jocelerme Privert stands for the national anthem after delivering his speech at an installation ceremony, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Haitian lawmakers chose Privert, the country's former Senate chief to lead a caretaker government to fill the void left by the departure of ex-President Michel Martelly. Dieu Nalio Chery AP Photo

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/article75483502.html#storylink=cpy

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti

Senate leader Jocelerme Privert took office as Haiti's caretaker president with one real task: Quickly untangle a political stalemate blocking presidential and legislative runoff elections.


Three months on, yet another voting date has fallen by the wayside as political infighting continues to snarl election efforts. Privert, meanwhile, seems increasingly comfortable as Haiti's leader, traveling through the capital in horn-blaring motorcades and recently attending a U.N. climate change meeting in New York.
 
Welcome to Haiti's dysfunctional democracy, where few people think there will be voting anytime soon.


Under the accord that helped put him in office, Privert was supposed to make way for a voter-approved president May 14 following a late April election.

But his provisional administration got off to a sluggish start, and only recently appointed a commission to verify contested elections held last year that many Haitians believe were rigged to benefit Tet Kale, the party of previous President Michel Martelly.

"We can't go to the polls without first restoring confidence in the process," said Privert, who now suggests holding presidential and legislative runoffs in October along with already scheduled balloting for a third of Senate seats.

Lawmakers aligned with Tet Kale are demanding Privert's resignation, accusing him of putting up obstacles so he can hold onto power. The faction is stoking street protests as it opposes the verification panel, questioning its legality.

The impasse is a reminder of the fragility of democracy in one of the poorest and most unequal countries in the world.

Laurent Dubois, a Haiti historian at Duke University, said election postponements and declarations of fraud have been a consistent part of the nation's electoral process since the overthrow of dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier in 1986. They were also a part of the political process before that, including during the U.S. occupation of 1915-1934.

"Much of what is going on today is not that different from earlier election cycles," said Dubois, author of "Haiti: The Aftershocks of History."

In 2010, outgoing President Rene Preval was suspected of rigging the vote to elect his preferred successor, Jude Celestin, sparking violent clashes between Martelly's supporters and U.N. peacekeepers. Celestin was eventually eliminated from the two-candidate runoff under pressure from Washington, the Organization of American States and opposition protests. Martelly took office in May 2011.

This time, No. 2 presidential finisher Celestin announced a boycott as he rejected first-round results that put the Martelly-backed Jovenel Moise in the front-runner spot. As local election observers decried the October election as a sham, Celestin's opposition alliance called for a transitional government to organize a "fair" vote. International monitors with the EU and OAS have said last year's election results appeared legitimate to them.

The U.S. and other countries have been pressing Haiti to meet the deadlines of the last-minute deal for an interim administration negotiated by legislative leaders and Martelly less than 48 hours before he was to leave office. The February accord paved the way for Privert's 120-day government to oversee the runoff.

Few voters expected a quick fix.

"Haitian politicians refuse to compromise and will do anything to get power or keep it," said Patrice Zephyr, an electrician from downtown Port-au-Prince who voted for the first time in 2010 and was so disappointed with the result he doesn't expect to cast a ballot again.

Worried by Haiti's partisan tensions, the OAS says it's critical that elections resume without repeating the issues or problems of the recent past. "The elections should be held as soon as possible but shouldn*t be rushed," Luis Almagro, secretary general of the organization, told The Associated Press.
Frustration in Washington has grown. Last month, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told a Miami television station that Haiti's "so-called leaders need to understand there's a clear limit to the patience, the willingness of the international community to condone this process of delay."

In Haiti, though, there is deep resentment of anything that could be construed as outside meddling in the impoverished country, where foreign powers and NGOs have long held considerable sway.
"No Haitian should accept the meddling of foreigners trying to dictate what we do in our election," the National Human Rights Defense Network and three other local groups said in a statement.

Kenneth Merten, the U.S. State Department's special coordinator for Haiti, said the U.S. recognizes the vote is a Haitian process even though foreign powers are funding much of the cost. The U.S. has already spent $33 million on Haiti's suspended balloting.

Rejecting accusations of meddling, Merten said the international community simply wants an elected government in place that reflects the voters' will rather than a president chosen by politicians.

Merten described the newly launched verification process of last year's balloting as a sort of "black box" that risks being manipulated by political actors whose factions didn't make the cut last year.
"It is a very opaque and you could argue non-democratic way of moving forward," he told the AP shortly before traveling to Haiti last week to discuss the stalled elections.

Now there are new deadlines that Haiti may struggle to meet. The five-member verification commission installed last week has 30 days to finish gauging the legitimacy of the official results. Meanwhile, a revamped Provisional Electoral Council says it aims to publish a new election calendar later this month.

Many Haitians have little faith in their country's democracy due to years of unmet promises and political infighting. But some, deeply proud of Haiti and serious about their duties as citizens, still want to vote.

"If I get the chance, I will vote even though no government has ever brought improvements to this area," said Jean-Mary Daniel, a subsistence farmer struggling to grow beans and corn in isolated southeastern Haiti.

Building Relationships

Haiti.Today.Tomorrow.

A basic tenant of the Principles of Solidarity is the emphasis of relationships as well as resources.  As stated in the CRS Partnership Manual, "A true partnership implies the building and nurturing of a relationship over a period of time that transcends one act of working together (such as a project), or of sending a series of checks. If the partnership is based solely on resources, then the partner with few material resources is excluded from full and mutual participation. When the relationship itself is highly valued, it allows for mutual participation." There is an assumption, though, that initiating/maintaining nurturing relationships is an easy matter.  When in fact, we know it takes effort to initiate/maintain nurturing relationships. One basic tenant of having a nurturing relationships is being an effective conversationalist. Do you consider yourself an effective conversationalist? We offer you NPR Celeste Headlee's TED Talk as one way to evaluate yourself as a conversationalist. Click here to play