Singer Martelly woos Haiti voters with popular touch

   THOMONDE, Haiti (Reuters) - Like the seasoned entertainer that he is, Haitian carnival music star and presidential contender Michel "Sweet Mickey" Martelly is working the crowd.
    Gesticulating with one hand, cracking jokes in Creole, the 50-year-old, shaven-headed singer draws cheers and hoots of laughter from his audience, showing the powerful communication skills and popular touch he hopes will propel him into his country's top job in a run-off vote on Sunday.
    Far from being unnerved by suggestions from the camp of his politically more experienced opponent, 70-year-old former first lady and law professor Mirlande Manigat, that he lacks the profile to be president, Martelly has turned the personality issue into a campaign weapon.
    Responding to critics' jibes that his colorful past as an iconoclastic entertainer -- which has included antics like dropping his trousers on stage -- disqualifies him from being president, the wealthy star of Haiti's catchy Konpa carnival music is brashly unrepentant.
    "They've been saying I dropped my trousers. Yes, I did. But I always pulled them back up again," he said, drawing guffaws from the mostly young audience packed into the square of the farming town of Thomonde in Haiti's Central Plateau region.
    "There are people who've been dropping their trousers over the heads of Haitians for 20 years at the National Palace but they never pulled them back up," Martelly bellowed into the microphone, wearing a pink striped polo shirt and blue jeans.
    In Sunday's decisive run-off that will elect a successor to President Rene Preval, policies seem to be taking a backseat to personal styles in the contest to choose a leader for the Western Hemisphere's least developed state.
    Overwhelmed by poverty, corruption and mismanagement for decades, the hapless Caribbean country bears the still raw scars of a devastating 2010 earthquake that killed more than 300,000 people. Haiti also suffered floods and a deadly cholera epidemic after the quake.
    The United Nations, with a more than 12,000-strong peacekeeping force in Haiti, and the United States and other major foreign donors hope Sunday's vote will deliver stable new leadership and avoid the chaos, widespread fraud and unrest that marred the Nov. 28 election first round.
    Political neophyte Martelly is telling voters his energetic style is just what the country needs to blow away the cobwebs of a jaundiced political establishment viewed as selfish, corrupt and ineffectual by most Haitians.
    "We represent a new way of doing and thinking," he told Reuters after addressing the Thomonde crowd. "We represent the wind that is blowing to establish a new state of law, a state where public function becomes service to the people, contrary to what is happening today," he added.
    A recent opinion poll by local pollster Brides put Martelly ahead in the contest, with nearly 51 percent of the vote. The survey gave rival Manigat some 46 percent.
    "PINK MILITIA"
    Underlining the contrast in styles, opposition matriarch Manigat, who has years of experience in politics and academic life, sees a possible threat to Haiti's fragile democracy in Martelly's muscular style and the way he mobilizes supporters.
    At a news conference in Port-au-Prince on Wednesday, law professor Manigat accused Martelly supporters of attacking with stones and bottles a rally she tried to hold in Mirebalais, south of Thomonde, in the Central Plateau on Tuesday. At least one person was hurt, she said.
    Referring to the party color of pink worn by Martelly and his fanatical young backers, she denounced what she called the apparent formation of a "pink militia" that she said could pose a dangerous threat of political intolerance.
    "I don't desire a dictatorship for my country, wherever it comes from," she said, appealing for calm among voters.
    Madame Manigat is battling perceptions from some critics that her Sorbonne education and professorial style may be keeping her aloof from a largely destitute and poorly educated Haitian electorate.
    The wife of former President Leslie Manigat, who was elected in 1988 but forced into exile by a coup soon afterward, Manigat gained the most votes in the November 2010 election first round but not enough to win outright. She would be Haiti's first elected female president if she wins.
    In an echo of the ill-tempered first round, Martelly exhorted supporters to "vote -- and watch out," saying plans were afoot to "steal" what he forecast would be his victory.
    Haiti's already feverish political climate is being stoked by reports that this week may see ousted ex-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a leftist, charismatic former Catholic priest, return from exile before Sunday's vote in a move the United States and other Western donors fear could distract voters from the Manigat-Martelly contest.
(Additional reporting by Joseph Guyler Delva, Editing by John Whitesides)
    By Pascal Fletcher

Why does US fear Aristide' s return in Haiti ?

   SUCCESSIVE administrations in Washington have demonstrated an obsession with the presence in Haiti of Jean Bertrand Aristide — whether or not he is functioning as president of that Caribbean nation that languishes in a state of permanent crisis.

Latest example is the unsolicited advice publicly given by the Hillary Clinton-led US State Department that the former popular Roman Catholic priest of the poor, turned politician, should not return to his homeland before this coming Sunday's scheduled second round presidential run-off.

This is quite baffling. What gives the government of President Barack Obama the right — legal or moral — to publicly and presumably privately as well, request him to delay his planned imminent return to his homeland from exile in South Africa?      

Twice elected to the presidency and twice ousted from power in mid-term, with the US Central Intelligence Agency as an accomplice with corrupt Haitian political and military leaders, Aristide was restored to power in 1994, with the use of military force by President Bill Clinton, who has continued to distinguish himself as a stout "friend'' of the people of Haiti.

By 2004, amid orchestrated domestic political turmoil, the Washington administration of President George W Bush was to play a leading role, along with France, in ousting President Aristide from power, against the protestations from the governments of the Caribbean community of which Haiti is a member state.

Aristide was flown into exile on a US military aircraft and following a brief period of political asylum in Jamaica, South Africa became the place of choice for his almost seven years in exile.

When the unprecedented earthquake-triggered devastation of Haiti occurred in January last year, Aristide was lamenting his absence from Haiti and has shown an interest to be back among "my fellow Haitians".

Following the surprise return to the country of ex-dictator Jean Claude Duvalier, Aristide applied for a new Haitian passport and signalled plans to return soon. However, once the passport was delivered he started to experience unexplained complications in official arrangements, including security, to return home.

He felt obliged that he had no interest in becoming involved in the  ongoing political squabbles over the controversial outcome of last November's parliamentary elections which led to violent demonstrations and a necessary second round presidential run-off in the face of documented examples of electoral rigging

Early last month, then US State Department spokesman, Philip Crowley, was to go public with a claim that Aristide's return to Haiti before the second round presidential run-off "would be an unfortunate distraction and the two participating candidates (Mirlande Manigat and Michel Martelly) should be the focus at this time…"

That contention provoked an immediate protest demonstration from Haitians, including militant activists of Aristide's Fanmi Lavalas  party, who cried "no Aristide, no second round (election)…"

As if bent on pursuing a course of action to deter Aristide — a former legitimate Haitian president forced out of office by the US and allies like France — from returning home before this Sunday's run-off presidential pol — a new State Department spokesman, Mark Toner, has emerged to sound a warning with an even more disturbing overtone.

For Toner, Aristide's return before Sunday's decisive vote, "can only be seen as a conscious choice to impact Haiti's elections", and that Washington was also seeking the cooperation of the South African government to persuade the former president from returning before the March 20 poll.

Why this fear of Aristide's presence at this time?

For seven years Aristide has been in exile. During that period no credible information was provided by either governments in Port-au-Prince or administrations in Washington (Republican or Democrat), that he has a political agenda to disturb the peace (sic) in Haiti, affect the conduct of the presidential run-off and create more problems for that poor nation of endless miseries.

The governments of Caricom should speak, unequivocally, in one voice, on the fundamental right of the former president of Haiti to return to his homeland, whenever he so determines, and that this should not be left to the whims and fancies of a foreign government, in this case one, ironically, headed by President Barack Obama.

It is quite understandable for the Joint Organisation of American States (OAS) and Caricom Mission  in Haiti to have made their public appeal on Monday for a peaceful atmosphere to prevail for Sunday's final presidential run-off, and to have again denounced the political violence that had marred the first-round campaign of last November's parliamentary and presidential poll.

Nevertheless, it is quite strange that Caricom has refrained from commenting on the repeated public calls for Aristide to stay away from Haiti until after Sunday's second round run-off between the 70-year-old former first lady Manigat and 50-year-old pop singer Martelly.

For that matter, why the silence of outgoing Haitian President Rene Preval himself?

Having agreed to Aristide being given the new passport he required, and the former dictator Jean Claude Duvalier, is in Haiti and soon to face court trials for crimes committed, why not a statement of clarification on Aristide's right to return to his homeland, whenever he chooses?

By
Rickey Singh
Story Created:
           Mar 16, 2011 at 12:42 AM ECT 
Story Updated:
Mar 16, 2011 at 12:42 AM ECT

Hillary Clinton won't serve a second term as secretary of State

Posted by Amy Davidson
“No,” “No,” “No,” “No”: those were Hillary Clinton’s full answers to four questions from Wolf Blitzer. He had asked, “If the president is reelected, do you want to serve a second term as secretary of state?” And then, after the first no, if she’d like to be Secretary of Defense, Vice-President, or President of the United States. (How about a ballerina, a firefighter, or an astronaut?) She had a longer response when he asked her why not, though it wasn’t very responsive—it was mostly about how much fun it had been to be Secretary of State. And though she said, after a followup, that she was “moving on” from thoughts of the Presidency, she also used the slightly avoidant “no intention or any idea even of running again.” And where would she get an idea like that?
There was another, questionable no from Clinton today, this one concerning the case of Raymond Davis. “The United States did not pay any compensation,” Clinton said, according to Reuters. Well, but someone did: about two million three hundred thousand dollars to the families of two men Davis shot and killed on the streets of Lahore in what he claimed was self defense, and a third who was killed when a car Davis called for from our consulate slammed through traffic. (I’ve written about Davis, and about the Times’s strange explanation of its decision not to report on his connections to the C.I.A.) Maybe Clinton’s denial is a matter of verb tenses—“did not pay,” as opposed to “is not paying.” (“We expect to receive a bill,” an American official told the Washington Post.) Our government had been trying to assert diplomatic immunity on Davis’s behalf, enraging many people in Pakistan. Pakistani law allows judges to issue a pardon, however, if the family of a victim attests that it has received compensation, and is satisfied. (The provision has its basis in Sharia law; Eric Lach, at TPM, found some irony there.) That is what happened today. Davis is free, Pakistan put its judicial machinery through some formal motions, and it never got to the point where the Pakistani courts had to make a call on the diplomatic-immunity question. But you can’t really call it elegant. There were protests in Lahore when the news came out, and it leaves untouched the larger questions of impunity and covert operations in Pakistan. There are also questions about the pressure the families had on them to settle. A lawyer who had been representing them said that he was held in a room at the courthouse for a number of hours and not allowed to talk to them while the deal was being struck. One of the relatives who won’t be sharing the money is the eighteen-year-old widow of one of the dead men; she is dead, too, now, after killing herself by swallowing rat poison. Was there justice for her? Maybe Hillary Clinton has an answer.

Nicole Scherzinger said solo album was born out of Haiti earthquake

Singer Nicole Scherzinger said her new album Killer Love was born out of the Haiti earthquake.The 32-year-old met producer Red One when they recorded the Haiti earthquake charity song last year and he helped her on her new solo project.She said to UK newspaper Daily Star: 'The one good thing to come from that tragedy was my music. It was a moving experience recording We Are The World for Haiti and I got to work with Red One, which was beautiful.

'That's when I said: 'I want to do this album with you and what I have in mind is an album that's as big and explosive as a live show.''

Caribbean quake shakes Dominican Republic

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, Wednesday March 16, 2011 – A 5.3 magnitude earthquake shook the Dominican Republic this morning just days after experts warned that the country is at risk of experiencing a quake similar to the one that hit neighbouring Haiti last year.
There were no immediate reports of major damage or injury, however.
The quake, which hit around 9:37 am about 77 miles east north east of La Romana, Dominican Republic at a depth of 0.6 km (0.4 miles), was measured at 5.3 magnitude by the Santo Domingo State University’s UASD Seismology Institute. The US Geological Survey initially put it at 5.0.
The Associated Press last week reported that Columbia University researchers had warned that the Dominican Republic could be hit by an earthquake similar to the 7.0 magnitude tremor that devastated Haiti in January 2010.
“The next event of this type will probably occur on the other side of the island (Hispaniola)," said the university’s Urban Design Lab director Richard Plunz, who led the investigation. "It could generate very serious damages in the long term.”
Plunz and the rest of the researchers are to meet with President Leonel Fernandez at the end of next month in Santo Domingo to apprise him of their findings.
Worries of earthquakes in the region and calls for the Caribbean and Latin America to get themselves earthquake ready have been heightened since last Friday’s 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
“Tragedies of this magnitude, triggering tsunami warnings across the entire Pacific and numerous other countries, underscore the importance of like-minded states collaborating in the vital area of disaster mitigation and preparedness,” acting CARICOM Secretary-General Ambassador Lolita Applewhaite said after the disaster that killed thousands and damaged a nuclear plant.

Tout pour le pouvoir , alliance avec Titid s'il le faut

Alors que la Candidate Mirlande Manigat, avait déclarée le 3 mars dernier, lors d’un point de presse a l’aéroport de Miami en Floride « Comme citoyenne, je préférerais qu'Aristide revienne après les élections [...] Je pense que ce que nous avons besoin maintenant, c'est d'avoir plus de Paix [...] s'il décide de rentrer, je ne suis pas le chef de l'Etat, je n'ai pas l'autorité nécessaire pour bloquer son retour ».

Lundi midi, lors d'une conférence de presse, Mirlande Manigat a « réajustée » son discours concernant le retour de l’ex-Président Jean Bertrand Aristide déclarant « Loin de m’opposer au retour d’Aristide en Haïti, je m’en réjouirais, vu que l'ancien Président a promis d’aider, une fois de retour dans le pays, dans le domaine de l’éducation » ajoutant « tout le monde connait la place importante qu’a l’éducation dans mon programme et si Aristide veut aider dans ce domaine, il pourra m’aider à mettre en application mon programme. »

Un ajustement nécessaire, puisque tout comme son adversaire Michel Martelly, elle cherche à s’attirer une partie des votes de l’électorat Lavalas.

Affrontement a Mirebalais

Contrainte de renoncer à s’adresser à ses partisans et d’abandonner précipitamment la ville, théâtre de tirs nourris et de jets de pierre, la candidate démocrate-chrétienne dénonce l’attitude, une fois de plus, violente des supporters de son rival, Michel Martelly, et s’apprête à protester officiellement auprès de l’institution électorale

Des affrontements à coups de pierre ayant opposé, au milieu de tirs nourris, des partisans de Michel Martelly et de Mirlande Manigat, ont fait plusieurs blessés légers, lors d’un meeting de la candidate démocrate-chrétienne qui a dû être annulé mardi après-midi à Mirebalais (Bas-Plateau Central, centre), un nouvel épisode de violence qui marque la campagne électorale entrée dans sa dernière ligne droite.
Evacuée d’urgence par les membres de sa sécurité rapprochée avec le soutien des agents de l’Unité départementale de maintien d’ordre (UDMO), Mme Manigat a sévèrement condamné ces "nouvelles provocations" des partisans de "Sweet Micky" et annoncé son intention d’adresser dès mercredi une "protestation formelle" au Conseil électoral provisoire.
Suite à des jets de pierre, de nombreux coups de feu ont retenti provoquant des scènes de panique au moment où le service d’ordre tentait de maîtriser des individus chauffés à blanc qui avaient investi la foule avec des posters de Michel Martelly.
Parmi les blessés que le correspondant local de Radio Kiskeya a pu remarquer figurait un des musiciens du groupe rap vedette Barikad Crew (BC) ayant endossé la candidature de la professeure Manigat.
Sans avoir eu le temps de s’exprimer devant de nombreux supporters qui l’attendaient, l’aspirante à la Présidence a été contrainte de quitter précipitamment la place publique de Mirebalais où devait se tenir le rassemblement.
Les incidents ont touché d’autres secteurs de la ville et l’Hôtel Mirage, un établissement appartenant à un partisan de Michel Martelly, a essuyé des jets de pierre.
Intervenant en direct sur les ondes de Radio Kiskeya au "Jounal 4è" (l’édition de 16 heures), Mirlande Manigat a dénoncé les "attaques systématiques" des partisans de son rival dans ses différents déplacements électoraux.
Une situation qu’elle qualifie d’inadmissible en soulignant qu’à Mirebalais des hurleurs ont causé un vacarme insupportable pendant trois quarts d’heure.
Elle s’est, par ailleurs, plainte de la passivité de la police qui n’aurait rien fait contre les agresseurs.
La candidate entend aller jusqu’au bout de sa campagne après avoir effectué une tournée globalement satisfaisante dans le département du Centre qui l’a aussi conduite à Hinche, Cerca Carvajal et Boucan Carré.
A cinq jours d’un deuxième tour historique, l’intolérance et la tension semblent gagner nettement du terrain après déjà de graves incidents qui avaient fait plusieurs blessés lors d’un autre meeting de Mirlande Manigat, la semaine dernière au Cap-Haïtien (nord).
L’Organisation des Etats américains a condamné lundi ces violences électorales et exhorté les deux camps à calmer leurs partisans en vue de rendre le scrutin de dimanche pacifique.

La démocrate-chrétienne a notamment reçu au cours des dernières 24 heures le soutien de la ministre de la culture, Marie Laurence Jocelyn Lassègue, qui a obtenu une mise en disponibilité, et de quatre syndicats d’enseignant. spp/Radio Kiskeya

Harvard Men’s Soccer to Host Haitian National Team April 10

 CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — The Harvard men's soccer team will host the Men's National Team of Haiti on Sunday, April 10 to benefit Partners in Health relief efforts in Haiti.

The Haiti National Team is traveling to New England for a five-day benefit tour, taking on Dartmouth on April 8 before heading to Cambridge for a 5 p.m. game at historic Harvard Stadium.

Haiti is currently the 99th ranked team in the world out of the 202 FIFA nations.

"We are thrilled to host our friends from Haiti," said head coach Carl Junot. "Together with Partners in Health and the administration at Dartmouth, we hope that this extended weekend of games will be a large benefit to Partner's In Health's work in Haiti."

he events at both Dartmouth and Harvard will raise money to support Partners in Health and its relief efforts in Haiti, which is still recovering from a catastrophic 7.0 M earthquake that struck on Jan. 12, 2010.

Admission for the game will be free to Harvard undergraduates, but donations will be accepted for this worthy cause with all the proceeds going to Partners in Health. Check back at GoCrimson.com for more details on the event as it nears.

Almost a year ago, the Harvard University Student-Athlete Advisory Committee successfully coordinated a "Harvard For Haiti Campaign" that raised over $5,000 in donations and contributions on Feb. 19, 2010.

The SAAC collected donations at men's basketball and ice hockey games with student-athletes, dressed in vintage game apparel, passing through the stands with size-18 sneakers and zie-14 ice skates. Additionally, the Department of Harvard Athletics donated all parking proceeds from the night which included events for basketball, ice hockey, men's lacrosse and MIAA Swim Championships at Blodgett Pool.

"After the earthquake in Haiti, there were many student-athletes who wanted to help out, but weren't sure how to do so. With the help of the athletic department, SAAC was able to collect money for Haiti relief," said former SAAC president and current Harvard Varsity Club Assistant Director Melissa Schellberg. "I was so impressed at how willing Harvard basketball and hockey spectators were to give to such a great cause. It's inspiring for all of us who wear Crimson, fans and athletes alike, knowing that we are helping out in every way we can."

• Haiti Radio Commercial (Creole)
• Official Dartmouth Press Release

rapper Nate Dogg died

Rapper Nate Dogg dead at 41

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March 16, 2011 |  5:27 am

The family of rapper Nate Dogg has told the Long Beach Press-Telegram that the performer died Tuesday at age 41.

No details were immediately available, but the paper said Nate Dogg, whose real name is Nathaniel D. Hale, had suffered two strokes in recent years.

His musical collaborator, rapper Snoop Dogg, posted a note on his Twitteraccount saying: "RIP NATE DOGG."

Rapper Ludacris said on Twitter: "There is a certain void in hip hop's heart that can never be filled. Glad we got to make history together."

Hale was born in Long Beach.

He got his start with Snoop Doggy Dogg and Warren G in a Long Beach-area band called 213. He later recorded with Dr. Dre on "The Chronic" and appeared in Snoop Doggy Dogg's "Doggystyle," according to Times reports.

Cholera epidemic in Haiti may exceed UN projections: Study

The cholera epidemic in Haiti will exceed UN projections, reveals a new study conducted by the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and the Harvard Medical School.

The United Nations' has estimated that there will be 400,000 cases of diarrhoeal disease over the course of the epidemic. But, the study, to be published in the journal Lancet, predicts that the number of cases may double and reach upto 779,000 between March and November this year.

"The epidemic is not likely to be short-term", "It is going to be larger than predicted in terms of sheer numbers and will last far longer than the initial projections," The Eureka Alert quoted UCSF medical resident Sanjay Basu, as saying.

Basu, who conducted the study with Jason Andrews, a former UCSF resident, said that three public health interventions must be used by the authorities to curtail the epidemic .People must be provided clean water, vaccination and proper antibiotics.

Analysis suggests that antibiotic treatment can be the most effective way to save thousands of lives in Haiti.

According to Basu, the high cost of the antibiotics makes it difficult to ensure its access to the people.

Earlier, no cases of cholera were registered in Haiti, but due to the devastating earthquake in 2010, the disease has emerged as a major epidemic.

Last year, between October and December nearly 150,000 people in Haiti suffered from cholera, and over 3,000 people had died. (ANI)

S.Africa 'cannot stop Aristide's return to Haiti'

PRETORIA (AFP) – South Africa cannot prevent Haiti's exiled ex-president Jean-Bertrand Aristide from returning home before this weekend's presidential run-off on the island, an official said Tuesday.

"It is not our responsibility to say if Jean-Bertrand Aristide should or should not leave South Africa before the election," deputy foreign minister Marius Fransman said.

The United States on Monday urged South Africa to encourage Aristide to stay put, fearing that his return would cause political turmoil as the country prepares for Sunday's vote.

"The US needs to engage the Haitian government. If his (Aristide's) passport has been issued, we cannot decide when he should leave South Africa," Fransman told reporters.

Haiti cleared the way for Aristide's return by issuing him with a new passport in February.

"It is essential that the Haitian government should be leading the process and we will facilitate whatever decision they take," he added.

An Aristide aide in Haiti said last week the return of the ousted leader, who has been living in South Africa since 2004, was "imminent".

Aristide and his wife Mildred work at the University of South Africa in Pretoria, where he received a PhD in African languages in 2007.

Aristide served three presidential terms and was ousted from office twice, eventually fleeing a 2004 popular uprising aboard a US plane.

He remains a popular figure in certain quarters in Haiti, especially in the capital's teeming slums, and in the tent cities that have sprung up since the January 2010 earthquake where many decry the slow pace of progress.