Election Finances

Let the discussions continue/begin.
Will the U.S. change its mind and continue to pay?
Should the U.S. and other outside nations continue to pay for Haiti's election?
Can Haiti ultimately finance its own election?
Should Haiti be financing its own election?
Is it possible for Haiti to conduct a fair election?
How is Haiti's future influenced by its upcoming election?
How involved are Haitians outside of Port au Prince in the election?
Do NGOs have a role, influence in the elections process/outcome?
How critical is it for Haiti to ultimately establish a working government?

This is just our short list of speculative questions to prime the pump to hopefully raise awareness and discussion among all the players in Haiti, ever minding the values of subsidy and sustainability as they do so.

U.S. to Haiti: Pay for your own elections
The Miami Herald
By Jacqueline Charles
July 7, 2016 8:44 PM 

 
 

 

The U.S. will not be financing Haiti’s Oct. 9 rerun presidential elections, State Department spokesman John Kirby said Thursday.

Kirby said Haitian officials were notified on July 1 that the U.S. government, which provided $33 million toward last year’s contested legislative and presidential elections, “has suspended its assistance toward the completion of the presidential electoral process.”

“We did not plan funding for two more electoral rounds in 2016 and 2017,” Kirby said.
He insisted during a news briefing that the suspension of electoral aid did not symbolize a “reduction in U.S. support for the development of Haiti” or its people.

The U.S., along with the European Union, which announced last month that it was pulling its elections observer mission from Haiti , has made no secret of its displeasure with the country’s decision to rerun the first round of the presidential race. The decision was taken by the Provisional Electoral Council on the recommendations of a five-member panel tasked with auditing the Oct. 25 vote.

Even before the U.S. announcement, a number of Haitians, including the elections council head Léopold Berlanger and interim President Jocelerme Privert argued that the country should find the estimated $55 million to finance the upcoming presidential rerun and contest for 10 Senate seats, and Jan. 8 runoff.

“We already made ourselves clear: Haiti will make all effort to find the $55 million to do the elections,” said presidential spokesman Serge Simon. “If no one comes to our assistance we will manage because the priority for us is the elections.”

The U.S. announcement comes as Haiti’s bickering parliament continues to stall over whether to prolong the term of Privert, whose 120-day mandate expired on June 14, and the head of the United Nations peacekeeping operations warns that the international community is losing patience with the ongoing political crisis.

Coming Home!

Our friend Dick Neves recently emailed us about his 32 hours journey (June 27-28) to get from Savanette, Haiti back to his home in Blacksburg, Virginia.

Dick's parish is St. Mary's in Blacksburg; his Haiti twin parish is St. John the Baptist in Savanette. This is Dick's 10th year of visiting this community, usually 1-2 times each year.

Anyone who has traveled to Haiti at least a few times, to include us, could have at least one interesting travel adventure they could share.

We see Dick's travel adventure as a lot more, though.  Also included is a story within a story of the dedication it takes to be a volunteer, relationships and life as it exists for a lot of Haitians today.

Here is Dick's tale, enjoy!



"My flight was at 9 AM out of Port-au-Prince (PaP) for Ft. Lauderdale. We (Fr. Nicolas, his 2 sisters and 2 nephews, 1 niece, and me) got up at 2:30 AM to leave at 3:30 AM for Pignon, where he and Berteau would swap vehicles, Berteau driving us to PaP.

By the time we had all the stuff (pots and pans, bags of fruit and vegetables, coolers, unknown items in plastic bags brought by his sisters to help with the meal preparation for the feast day on June 24) lashed to the roof rack, and suitcases and bags in the back of the land cruiser, it was already 3:50.

It had rained a hard shower (~1 hr) that night, so the road was slick and all potholes full of water. So it was Berteau and I up front, and the 5 in the back seat.

About 10 minutes out toward Pignon, a herd of sheep decided to sleep in the road that night, and they would not budge. The Lord may be my shepherd (Psalm 23), but I certainly was not theirs and they did not respond to my voice or prodding. Berteau finally had to get right up to them, flash his lights, and race his engine while bumping them to get their tails off the road.

We get to Pignon and pick up 2 more passengers; an amputee named Guilande, who lost her leg near the hip in the 2010 earthquake, and her companion. She had an appointment at the hospital in PaP that morning, to see a couple specialists in prosthetics to determine whether it was possible to fashion a leg for her to walk again. For the last 6 years, she has been getting around on a hand-cranked wheel chair, and this hospital visit was her only hope.

So we got her comfortable in the back of the vehicle between the suitcases and stuff, and her companion road up front by the gearshift between Berteau and me. So we had 9 passengers now and were 45 minutes behind schedule.

The next 20 miles of road between Pignon and Hinche is dirt and water-filled pothole country, with allowable speeds between 3 mph and 30 mph (on short rough stretches). We had 2 rivers to ford (did I mention the rain last night?). The first was OK because we could determine by the motorcycles crossing where not to go. River two was not so easy; muddy, flowing fast, and motorcycles on both sides fearful of venturing into the swift mess.

Fortunately nothing deters Berteau. He plunged the vehicle into the river, with water at floor-board level, and drove it like a tank until we got decent traction on the opposite bank, spinning the wheels to get up and out onto the bank (would make a great car commercial), fish-tailing on the muddy uphill road until we hit level ground again.

Now we were about 1 hr behind. The remaining 15 miles of dirt road were traversed in record time, although a short visit to a chiropractor in Hinche would have helped my neck.

At Hinche, the road was paved, so the land cruiser became the Bat mobile, as we raced at unsafe speeds toward PaP, whizzing by donkeys, dogs, goats, ox carts, motorcycles, and slow trucks (passing on left or right is apparently sanctioned), only slowing down for signs that said STOP.

By the time we got to the outskirts of PaP is was 7 AM, so I was feeling relieved (to be alive) and leery about getting to the airport still 5 miles away.

Then we hit the traffic of PaP's narrow roads, single lane in each direction, with so many buses and trucks that you could not see why traffic crawled along so slowly.

Berteau decided to do some additional creative driving and took the sidewalk approach, bouncing along the rough sidewalk with horn blazing to warn pedestrians that it was now in use for motorized traffic. I looked back to see that he created quite a following of vehicles who liked his idea of the sidewalk shortcut.

By the time we were 2 miles from the airport, traffic was stopped and police were in a major intersection to direct traffic around an accident. I resigned myself to taking a later flight, but Berteau had a new idea. He flagged down a motorcycle taxi, put me behind the operator with my backpack and suitcase across my lap and another Haitian behind me on the seat (the motorcycle sandwich, or more colorfully, a turkey on rye sandwich).

I told Berteau not to worry about me, but rather focus on getting Guilande to the hospital to see the doctors (my problem was an inconvenience, hers was life-changing).

The operator cranked up his bike and squeezed between and around stationary cars and trucks, with some sidewalk driving for the first half-mile, and then began to pass moving vehicles (left and right) as the airport tower now became visible.

The last half-mile was almost open road, and we sped along at 50 mph, me clutching my suitcase as a shield in case of possible impact. We got there a few minutes before 8, and I rushed to the counter, only to be told that I was too late for check-in for the Ft. Lauderdale flight. So now I was on standby for the rest of the trip; PaP to Miami, Miami to Charlotte, Charlotte to Roanoke.

My suitcase did get checked to Virginia; unfortunately, it went to Norfolk and not Roanoke and may show up by the end of this week.

So this explains only the first 5.5 hours of my return home.

I'll stop there, because the most significant delays were in the U.S. and not Haiti (2:30 to 8:00 AM), and many of you have likely experienced the delays I experienced in U.S. airports like Charlotte. I still have not mastered the ability or location to sleep in an airport, but just a word of advice. Do not lay on the floor behind Handicap Assistance chairs or you may get hosed (vacuumed) by the cleaning crew.

My next trip may be this fall, so if it's adventure you seek, you too can experience some excitement first-hand."

Scouting in Haiti!

"Virginia Venturing crew starts Scout unit at *orphanage in Haiti"
Posted on May 3, 2016 by Bryan Wendell
International Scouting
(H.T.T. Editor's note: *Maison Fortune Orphanage Foundation Kudos to Maison Fortune and Hannah for this very worthwhile, sustainable initiative! - Steve)



Things were a little different the second time Hannah Wheaton visited Haiti.

In her first trip, in 2014, Hannah visited Haiti with a grand but complicated idea for a service project: Her Venturing crew wanted to start a Scout unit at a Haitian orphanage.
Back then it was just an idea, but in Hannah’s return visit last month, she could tell right away that her crew’s hard work had paid off.

When she arrived at the Port-au-Prince airport wearing the red-and-blue Haitian Scout neckerchief, complete strangers greeted her saying “Scout, Scout” (pronounced there like “scoot, scoot”).

Brunel Etienne, International Commissioner of Scouts d’Haïti, was there to greet her, too. When Hannah, her dad and her sister arrived at Maison Fortune Orphanage, more familiar faces awaited.
Now, thanks to this service-minded Venturing crew in Virginia, more than 90 residents at the orphanage in one of the world’s poorest countries are enjoying all that Scouting has to offer.

Service without borders

It all started in October 2014 when Hannah, her sister and her dad (also the crew advisor) met with Haiti’s national and international commissioners about the possibility of establishing a Scouting program at the orphanage.

Crew 824 of Chesapeake, Va., in the Tidewater Council wanted to support the unit as a way to spread Scouting to young people who need it. After all, Scouting has no real borders. Scouts in the U.S. and Scouts in Haiti are members of the World Organization of the Scout Movement.
Last month, Hannah, Southern Region vice president of communications and a recipient of the Venturing Silver Award, saw the results of her crew’s efforts when she attended a Scout meeting at the orphanage.

She practiced her French-speaking skills — and her dance moves, which they call “animation.”
“The meeting was full of more ‘animation,’ which could be a great thing to liven up a [Venturing] crew meeting,” she says. “I was particularly impressed that the Scouting meeting was entirely youth-led.”

The same, only different

After the meeting, Hannah talked to some of the leaders about the similarities and differences between Scouting here and Scouting there.

For one, the Haitian Scouts were confused by how we Americans identify our Scout units.
“They also were confused why we name our groups with numbers,” she says, “because in Haiti, they use names of famous people.”

Hannah’s a member of Crew 824 back home, but the Scout unit at the Haitian orphanage is called Catherine Flon, who in 1803 sewed the first Haitian flag.

The activities are a little different, too. One game was called “Mange Pomme,” in which apples are tied to a string from the ceiling of a tent and participants try to eat it without using their hands.

The game is “more difficult than I thought,” Hannah says.

Another difference: the use of the neckerchief. While the neckerchief is optional in many Scout units in the U.S., in Haiti it’s the primary way to identify Scouts.

But there are plenty of similarities between Haitian and American Scouting. One is service. All Haitian Scouts complete a project to improve their community.

Another is pride in the uniform — but for slightly different reasons.
“For many Scouts at Maison Fortune, [the uniform] is the nicest clothes that they own,” Hannah says. “So they wear it to church.”

Clean Gas Cooking!

"A Call for Change – A Move to Clean Gas Cooking"

Article written by Mary Kwasniewski (Email)
Maison Fortune Orphanage Foundation
Executive Director
June 16, 2016
(HTT editor's note: Thank you Mary. We see this as an outstanding example of subsidy to sustainability.)

On the campus of Maison Fortuné the day starts, as most do, with breakfast, then there is a mid day meal served to all the school children, followed then by dinner.  Our cooking staff of works non-stop on the weekdays and on the weekends the boys cook together for themselves.  As with all kitchens – it’s an area to congregate, share stories and hang out… but unlike your kitchen, our cooking flames are fueled by charcoal.  Each WEEK we procure 150 lbs of charcoal to keep our fires hot while the rice is cooked.  In Haiti charcoal makes up more that 60% of the consumed energy but it doesn’t have to.

              

The cost of charcoal to the island has been devastating – the deforestation, especially in the high mountains, has serious consequences: it causes soil erosion, which affects hydro-logical cycles and threatens the quality and availability of drinking water. It also causes longer periods of intense drought like Haiti experienced this past winter and has even been linked to rising levels of malaria incidence. Another effect is the destruction of the habitat of species endemic to the country and, more dangerously, makes Haiti vulnerable to natural disasters.  According to the New York Times, Over 98% of the Haiti’s lands are deforested and illegal charcoal is now flowing across the border from the DR where long ago their government banned the production of charcoal to protect its forests. 

At Maison Fortuné we are striving to raise the future leaders of Haiti – many of them will find work in agriculture.  This means it is also our job, to make sure jobs in agriculture will exist in the future. For this reason and to begin to reverse the effects described above Maison Fortuné has decided to take the steps towards Clean Gas cooking.

              
The cost to not do so is far more than the price tag it will take to make it happen.  We are especially thankful to report that thanks to the generous support of MFOF partners and friends, this effort will begin September 1, 2016!

Maison Fortuné will set the example for others and work to ensure the future of Haiti’s lands in the process.
 

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A 501 (c) (3) corporation serving the needs of children in Hinche, Haiti.
Post Office Box 3092, Chesapeake, VA   23327-3092
www.mfofoundation.org

"Parity: A Higher Form of Charity"

June Urban Perspectives
Article by Bob Lupton; author
Toxic Charity / Charity Detox
(Editorial bold text by H.T.T.)

Two students sat at a chess board under the portico of our high school in Nicaragua. I stood and watched their moves, curious about their skill level. One of the students was obviously a better player than the other. I could tell from his ability to strategize several moves in advance.

 

When the game ended, I asked if I could play the winner. He readily agreed. As we began playing, a small group of onlookers gathered. I was fairly sure I would defeat my young opponent, so I restrained some of my stronger moves so as not to overpower him. The game proceeded evenly, but in the end, I edged him out. The rich American won, but it was a good fight. I felt benevolent.

One of the students who had been watching my game asked to play me next. Of course! This was good sport. As we traded several opening moves, I observed my young challenger setting up rather skillful board control. I needed to be cautious, lest I underestimate him and lose a valuable piece of real estate. The best defense is a good offense. (This is chess wisdom I learned years ago in college.)  

 

So I countered him with a bold offensive move. But he saw it coming and blocked my advance. Back and forth we went. The first capture was his – my bishop. I countered, but didn’t see the trap he had set. Another of my men fell to his attack. I would now have to draw upon every bit of my skill to escape his strategy and reverse the course of the battle.

 

Then he hit me with another tactic that I didn’t see coming. I was losing! Badly. By this time, a crowd of students had gathered to observe the spectacle. They were smiling and chattering in Spanish – trying to hold in their laughter. Three more desperate moves and I was done for – crushed by a kid half my size and not even out of high school.  

 

It was not until my king was fatally in check and my humiliation complete that they revealed to me my opponent was the regional high school chess champion. Only then did I realize I had been set up! Drawn in. Fallen prey to a trap perfectly designed to lure an over-confident, benevolent American. The students exploded in laughter. So did I.  

 

For the students, it was a hilarious experience – the kind great stories are made of. For me, it was an important reminder. There is something in the human psyche that dislikes condescension. There is a certain (unspoken) delight in seeing the proud humbled. These students may not have expressed it in this way, but to see a highly educated American humbled by a Nicaraguan teenager made their delight especially delicious. No malice here. Just good fun. But very human.

 

So what are the unspoken feelings of peasants when prosperous, educated American mission-trippers come to their villages to conduct daily Vacation Bible Schools (VBS)? Or dig latrines? Or pass out clothes?

 

Intended or not, the message the visitors subtly communicate is: we know more than you, we have more than you, we can help you. And villagers always seem grateful. On the surface. Of course they do. Because we are their conduit to the vast reservoirs of Western wealth. We couldn’t expect them to reveal private feelings that might alienate their benefactors and threaten future bestowments.  

 

But what if we really wanted to forge genuine, trusting relationships? What if we wanted to engage as peers rather than patrons? Perhaps we would seek out activities providing a level playing field, like a soccer (or chess!) tournament. Or indigenous students teaching us conversational Spanish as we teach them English. Or employing experts in local culture and history – perspectives unlikely to appear in tourist brochures and guide books. Or having village elders impart wisdom borne of scarcity – faith journeys about which Western Christians know very little.

 

Parity eliminates pity. If we seek out talents and abilities rather than deficits and needs, we might encounter spiritual wealth that largely eludes the materially wealthy American missioner.

 

So grateful for your partnership in service, 

New Election Timetable!

Electoral Timetable 2016-2017 - Official
Haiti Libre
06/06/2016

This Monday, the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) at a press conference provided the details of the electoral timetable to conclude the elections of 2015.



Summary of the Electoral timetable - Process 2016-2017 :

1 voting day, October 9, 2016
- 1st round of the Presidential
- 2nd round of Legislative Complementary
- 1st round 1/3 Senate

2nd day of voting: January 8, 2017
- 2nd round of the Presidential
- 2nd round 1/3 of the Senate
- Local

- The launch of the process will take place 6 to 15 June 2016

- Preliminary results and display of 1st round of the Presidential Tour + 1st round 1/3 of the Senate will be given on 20 and 21 October 2016

- Preliminary results of Legislative Complementary 2015 will be given on 29 and 30 October 2016

- The final results of the 1st round of the Presidential + 1st round 1/3 of the Senate will be given November 22, 2016

- The final results of 2015 Legislative will be given December 5, 2016

- Preliminary results of 2nd round of presidential elections will be given 14 January 2017

- Preliminary results of the 2nd round 1/3 of the Senate will be given 20 January 2017

- Preliminary results for the Local will be given on 10 and 11 February 2017

- The final results of 2nd round of the Presidential will be given 30 January 2017

- The final results of 2nd Round 1/3 of the Senate will be given February 24, 2017

- The final results for local will be given April 2, 2017

- Closure of the process in April 2017

Electoral timetable 2016-2017 in detail :
http://www.haitilibre.com/docs/calendrier-CEP-2016-2017.pdf

Humanitarian Housing

The architects who want to build housing for the millions The world’s premier architecture fair throws its weight at a global problem McClean's Alex Ulam June 2, 2016 The neighborhoods of Jalousie (L), Philippeaux (C) and Desermites (R) in the commune of Petion Ville, Port au-Prince are pictured on October 26, 2015. (HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP/Getty Images) The image chosen to represent Reporting from the Front, the 15th Venice Architecture Biennale, is a photograph of an elderly archaeologist named Maria Reiche in a housedress standing atop a steel ladder. She is looking out over a desert for traces of a culture that disappeared long ago. Reiche could not afford an airplane to do her job, so she improvised. The photograph is a fitting symbol for a show that to a large extent is devoted to celebrating activist architects working in the trenches on some of the world’s most formidable challenges. Asked to climb Reiche’s ladder and describe what he saw, the Biennale’s curator, Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena, erupted with a passion that’s all too often missing from his profession. “We need to build a one-million-person city per week over the next 15 years for $10,000 per family,” he said. If we don’t respond adequately to this global challenge by 2030, he added, the world’s slums and favelas will swell with more than a billion residents living in deplorable conditions. Other issues in Aravena’s brief for this year’s Biennale, which opened last week, include sustainability, pollution, waste and quality of life. At the same time, he wants architecture to do something about the metastasizing “mediocrity” infecting the built environment today: the thickets of uninspired towers and soulless developments transforming cities such as Toronto and Vancouver. We are informed that this is not intended to be a “Biennale of the poor.” However, readers of design magazines and newspaper real estate sections undoubtedly will be unfamiliar with many of the types of structures on display. The world’s most important architecture show includes work from a host of little-known architects, a great many of whom work south of the equator. This is not a Biennale for the next Bilbao Museum, but one devoted to “humanitarian architecture.” There are examples of an unsuccessful social housing project in France that was renovated to be made more livable, and a model for a multi-level development in China that can accommodate large numbers of people within a relatively small footprint, yet also provide a great deal of open space. Some of the striking revelations here are the ways in which contemporary technologies and techniques are being used to unlock latent possibilities in preindustrial building materials such as bamboo, rammed earth and bricks. The new faces and ideas are intended to serve as a corrective. Heeding the cries of Occupy Wall Street and other cultural cues, the profession has been in mea culpa mode for the past few years. The curator of the 2014 Biennale, Rem Koolhaas, who designs high- end fashion stores and corporate headquarters, complained about the market economy eroding the moral status of architecture, but failed to provide a roadmap out of the morass. Aravena, who won this year’s Pritzker Architecture Prize and is best known for his innovative housing designs for victims of disaster, is better positioned to berate the troops. Director of the Venice Biennale of Architecture Alejandro Aravena, from Chile, poses with St. Mark’s bell tower in the background, on the occasion of the presentation of the 15th International Architecture Exhibition, in Venice, Italy, Monday, Feb. 22, 2106. (Luigi Costantini/AP) Dressed in a wrinkled white shirt with spiked graying hair, Aravena, 48, looked like a rebel and spoke like one too when he showed up at the Biennale’s opening in Venice’s cavernous Arsenale building. “Corporate architects are the real bad guys,” he said, “these offices with thousands of architects who are there just to help private capital to make profit, rather than contributing to the public good.” One of the first exhibits in the show, by the Chinese architects Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu perfectly exemplifies his agenda. It includes large pallets of recycled bricks and latticed wood neatly displayed, and videos telling the story of the two architects’ campaign to save China’s imperilled architectural heritage. In 2012, Wang, who had just won a Pritzker prize, was approached by the municipal government of Fuyang to design the city’s museum. Instead of immediately accepting the job, he wielded his newly won prestige and made demands. Fuyang had to commit to saving the remaining traditional villages in the area from the juggernaut of suburban tract development that was consuming much of China’s countryside. The two architects incorporated traditional materials and hand construction techniques into their design for the new museum. “Structure is about forces that you had better agree with: gravity, common sense,” Aravena told his audience at the Biennale. “This should be at the core of what architecture is trying to give form to.” An aerial shot of the Monterrey Housing project built in Monterrey, Mexico in 2010. “Half of a good house” development financed with public money. (Ramiro Ramirez) A visitor to this year’s Biennale can’t help but think of those words as he passes under a giant vaulted structure comprised of slabs of limestone that would violate most building codes. Although it is only an eggshell thick in places, the soaring unreinforced structure designed by the Block Research Group at ETH Zurich and MIT professor John Ochsendorf is not dangerous. Inspired by the Mediterranean arch, it relies on compression for stability. Nearby are two prototypes of concrete floor slabs, each with a series of embedded arches, which the team designed with digital fabrication and architectural form-finding technology. Thanks to the arch supports, these slabs require very little steel reinforcement and use 70 per cent less concrete than a typical concrete slab. “We are trying to change the construction industry,” says MIT’s Ochsendorf. “The challenge for the 21st century is how do we make architecture that celebrates creativity while reducing the global carbon footprint.” That idea is echoed by the award of a Golden Lion, the festival’s top honour, to Paraguayan architect Solano Benítez. His enormous parabola of brick panels, which is so slender that you might have doubts about walking under it, dominates a large room in the Biennale’s Central Pavilion. Thanks to these types of prefabricated panels, unskilled labourers without a mason’s training can work in Paraguay’s construction industry. In his essay on Benítez’s work, Aravena notes that because bricks are one of the most abundant and inexpensive resources in the world, these types of panel systems could be used to help build cost-effective housing for the great mass of migrants moving to cities. The interior of a house after residents have moved in to the Quinta Monroy Housing project, in Iquique, Chile in 2004. (Tadeuz Jalocha) Aravena’s own trailblazing work designing what’s known in the business as “incremental housing” would fit nicely into this year’s Biennale. To stretch limited resources and to ensure expeditious construction for victims of a 2010 earthquake in Chile, he designed half-finished houses with the basic requirements for shelter. The other half of the structure was left as a shell that the earthquake victims could eventually build out once they got established. One of the largest architectural models in the Biennale displays multi-storey low-cost housing, public open spaces and industrial facilities that could be built to accommodate some of the more than a million immigrants who have come across Germany’s borders in just the last year. The model, from the German firm BeL Architects, illustrates a strategy for rapid and inexpensive construction under which migrants would be presented with a basic framework of columns, slabs and beams and then given the opportunity to customize and complete their dwellings under supervision from German construction professionals. Jörg Leeser, a principal in BeL Architects, refers to his plan as the “second stage of incremental housing.” The plan replicates a strategy realized in an actual building in Hamburg that BeL Architects designed called Grundbau und Siedler. However, Leeser says because of the proposed building heights and mix of residential and industrial uses, German zoning codes would have to be revamped in order for it to get built. A picture shows a mud house built in Bangladesh by architect Anna Heringer, during the opening of the 15th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice on May 26, 2016. The Biennale, entitled “Reporting from the front”, curated by Chilean Alejandro Aravena will be open to the public from May 28 through November 27, 2016, in The Arsenal gardens. (VINCENZO PINTO/AFP/Getty Images) Building codes in most Western countries also generally ban the use of mud as a building material, but Anna Heringer, an architect who uses new technologies to enhance the performance of this most historic of building materials, is waging a campaign to change the rules. Her cozy mud “nugget,” in the Biennale’s Central Pavilion, is a nice place to recover from the barrage of information. In addition to serving as excellent insulation, the generally no-cost 100 per cent recyclable material is easily maintained and repaired. “What is very important for us is that this is not something that just works for Bangladesh or Africa or developing countries,” Heringer says. “It is also something that works well for Switzerland. I really believe that it is a global strategy for sustainability.” To be sure, for some of the most promising examples of the humanitarian architecture in this show to be realized on a large scale will require the co-operation of the people who wield real power: politicians and developers. Still, after you are finished here, the world’s most pressing problems no longer seem so overwhelming. The main obstacle to progress, as much as inflexible building and zoning codes, is a myopic way of looking at our surroundings. Taking inspiration from the photograph he chose to represent his show, Aravena says that he hopes that visitors will “expand their horizon the same way that Maria Reiche was going up a ladder and understanding that things could be different.”

Lemons in Haiti!

Haiti Libre
Monday, May 30, 2016

Saturday 28 May, a MoU was signed between the Ministry of Agriculture and the firm Agri Supply in order to contribute to the revival of production of lemon in Haiti.

In recent years the citrus groves (lemon grove) are in net regressions, mainly because of diseases like Grenning and the absence of opportunities due to the closure of processing plants in Haiti. Recall that in the 80s, Haiti was providing over 20% of US demand of lemon essential oil. The current situation has for consequence the massive annual imports (1,800 tons) of lemons from Dominican Republic for an estimated value of $1 million/year.

The objectives of this agreement are intended, among other to revitalize the sector of essential oils on the international market, boost production and develop a true processing industry. To this end, it is particularly provided :

• To establish a central nursery in the South with greenhouses for asexual reproduction ;
• To establish satellite nurseries, much in the Nippes ;
• To produce 1 million lemon seedlings per year (in the South more than 100,000 seedlings are already available and begin to be distributed).

Training will be provided by experts in citrus in contact with Agri Supply.

Learn more about the lemon in Haiti :
The lemon tree is a tree that helps in the protection of soil and produced fruit with which is elaborated the citronnade, lemonade, jelly, liquor, jam, soft drink (Sprite, lemon cola), salad dressing and an essential oil used in perfumery.

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

Don’t rush Haiti’s presidential vote

The Miami Herald
Sir Ronald Sanders
4/20/2016
 


Supporters of Haitian presidential candidate Jovenel Moise hold a demonstration in Port-au-Prince to demand that a final round of voting not be postponed any longer. No date for the election has been set by the interim government. Dieu Nalio Chery AP
 

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/op-ed/article72949727.html#storylink=cpy

Peace and development will be endangered in Haiti if the United States and other nations insist that the interim government holds the second round of a truncated election for president without a verification process of last October’s round of voting.

The secretary-general of the Organization of American States, Luis Almagro, who visited Haiti last week, was right to say that the Haitian authorities should be given time to organize the elections. He had invited me to accompany him to Haiti because I had led an earlier OAS mission that oversaw an agreement between the political players that led to the creation of an interim government after former President Michel Martelly left office in February when his term expired. Although I could not join him on this visit, I fully endorse his statement.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/op-ed/article72949727.html#storylink=cpy

Among the observer groups at the Oct. 25 elections was the OAS. At the time, we faced continuous claims from Haitians that the OAS contributed to foisting flawed election results by declaring them acceptable. Of course, this allegation was robustly resisted not only because it was absolutely untrue, but also because we knew it had become a convenient political crutch for all the candidates who had performed badly at the polls.

But, resisting an ill-conceived belief does not extinguish it, particularly as other observer missions declared that the elections were plagued by irregularities. The admission that, while numerous, the irregularities were not significant enough to materially affect the outcome of the elections did little to assuage suspicion. Like a sore that has been allowed to fester for almost six months, suspicion of the elections has spread more widely in the Haitian body politic.

The Oct. 25 elections delivered a runoff between Jovenel Moïse of Martelly’s PHTK party after he received 32.76 percent of the vote and Jude Célestin of the LAPEH party, who received 25.29 percent. The other 50 candidates shared less than 32 percent. That run-off was not completed before Martelly was due to leave office.

It was that failure to hold the second round of elections amid political confusion and simmering violence that led to the Feb.5 political agreement to establish an interim government that would hold runoff elections on April 24 and install an elected president on May 14. (Haiti’s government and elections council have acknowledged that the elections will not happen on Sunday and have not yet set a date).

As it turned out, continuing distrust between the political actors within and outside the National Assembly required a longer period of time than anticipated to select an interim president and prime minister. The same distrust continues to haunt the second round of the elections. The specter of a flawed first round election hangs ominously over the second. This is why the majority of political players are insisting on verification. The argument is simple: If the first round was tainted, however strenuous the scrutiny of the second round, the entire process is contaminated.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/op-ed/article72949727.html#storylink=cpy

Any president in Haiti who is not widely regarded as legitimately elected with a mandate to govern, will not be able to hold the country together and to give it the leadership it needs for tough choices that lie ahead. In such circumstances, the persistent poverty and underdevelopment that has plagued Haiti will deepen and the potential for political conflict and civil strife will intensify.

Consequently, the U.N. forces in Haiti that contributing countries are keen to withdraw will be compelled to remain, and the flow of refugees to the United States particularly will re-surge.
Against this background, it is far better to verify the first round elections before proceeding with the second. I was heartened by a reported statement on behalf of the United States by its Special Coordinator on Haiti, Ambassador Ken Merten, to the effect that if Haiti wants a verification process it should do so quickly.

Once the verification is complete, elections can follow quickly.

What the international community should now do is provide Haiti’s new nine-member provisional electoral council, headed by Léopold Berlanger, with the tools it needs to establish a verification committee and set it to work.

If Jovenel Moïse and Jude Célestin, who emerged from the first round as contenders, have faith in their electability, they should have no fear of verification and of their capacity for one to triumph over the other in a free and fair process.