My wishes for the year 2009

We are nearing the last day of 2008 meaning by now you should be ready to enter the year 2009. I normally don't like to make wishes 'cause I always end up forgetting about them the first 10 days into it. I do however have some special wishes for Haiti and here it is:

1- I wish it rains in Haiti a moderate rain, so that the land will be prosperous and therefore everyone can grow their own food and therefore provide the nation with their surplus and therefore make money out of it thus stimulate our economy. Then we will be able to sell to other countries and therefore become prosperous.

2- I wish Haitians would get together as one, no matter their skin colors, their religion or ideologies and seat on a table to see what is good for the nation and follow through with it.

3- I wish that all Haitians living abroad keep on sending money to Haiti to stimulate the economy.

4- I wish that all Haitians around the world would get together to promote peace in Haiti, help educate the Haitians, help Haiti to go forward economically.

5- I wish that Haitians living in the US illegally would be granted a Temporary protected Status(TPS) due to all problems we have had with 4 hurricanes, plus political unrest.

TPS allows certain foreign nationals to remain temporarily in the United States when any of the following conditions exist in their home country: there is ongoing armed conflict posing a serious threat to personal safety; it is requested by a foreign state that temporarily cannot handle the return of nationals due to environmental disaster; or when extraordinary and temporary conditions in a foreign state exist that prevent aliens from returning.

Haiti has long met the requirements for TPS, and it is now more vital than ever that the United States extend this helping hand to Haiti, as it has done for other nations in similar situations.

The United States has provided $235 million in aid to Haiti in the past year. This amount is dwarfed, however, by the nearly $1 billion in remittances sent by Haitians back to Haiti, totaling approximately one third of the country's GDP. The repatriation of Haitians will only further hamper Haiti's recovery efforts.(Source Miami Herald).

This is my wish that Haitians all over the world would be granted and stay of deportations where they can work and help their family.

7- I wish that We should work so hard and so efficiently that more tourists would come to visit this wonderful land full of unexploited resources. I wish that we start helping ourselves and not wait all the time for foreign nations.

6-More than ever I wish that Haitians would turn their face to God and proclaim him the king of kings and their savior in him and him alone their would place their faith. Without God we are bound to failure! No ifs, buts and ands about it!

It is time we start getting back on our feet so much that we start helping nations who have been helping us for so many years such as the USA, Canada etc... This blog is not about politics it is about lifting up the country of Haiti! Let's join hands together and let others know that there is more to Haiti than what is portrayed in the media.

May God bless you and have a happy new year! If you have a wish please let us know about it by posting it here.

Merry Christmas and happy new year!

Jesus is the reason for the season!
Some people say happy holiday but me I say have a Jesus filled Christmas! We are celebrating the birthday of the king who came to die for our sins! I wanna say thank you to God for his grace and mercy and a special thank you to his song Jesus!

May you enjoy it and know if it had not been for the Jesus, there would be no Christmas and we all would have been still bound in our sins!

Yon ti koze pesonèl avèk Aysyen yo! (Heart to heart talk with my fellow Haitians)

Lè m'ap gade kijan pèp Ayisyen soufri e kijan malgre tout bagay yo toujou gen yon bel souri sou vizaj yo! Le mwen gade kijan Ayiti ap degrade men nou toujou kenbe lespwa! Lè mwen gade kijan malgre tout sityasyon politik, ekonomik ak sosyal pèp Ayisye toujou kenbe fèm! Mwen realize ke se sèl Bondye ki Bondye! Si se pa te li tout moun tap fou! Lajan pa ba ou bonè! Li ka achte bèl kay pou ou, fè ou gen gwo relasyon men si ou pa Bondye nan lavi-w ou chire!
Ayiti, an nou leve Bondye pi wo! AN nou chèche pwisans li ak prezans li konsa peyi nou an ap sispann fe pa an aryè!

Konnen nou pa konnen ki jan peyi nou an rich, konnen nou pa konnen kijan peyi a bèl! Mwen swete nou tout yon bon fèt nwèl ak yon lerez ane!

Chak moun gen fason pa'l ke li ka ede Ayiti! Mwen menm sa mwen fe se ankouraje moun vini an Ayiti, Adopte timoun an Ayiti epi aprann istwa peyi-a! Yo pale mal de Ayiti anpil kote men yon moun ki li blog mwen yo ap we ke byen ke Ayiti gen anpil bagya ki pa bon nan li (tankou tout lot peyi), li gen anpil bon bagay ke pa gen anpil moun kin konnen. Mwen ekzpoze move yo men mwen mete plis aksan sou bon yo! Ayiti se yon bel ti peyi wi si ou konnen kote pou-w ale! Pèp Ayisyen an se yon pèp ki renemen akeyi moun dan la mezi ke ou montre li respè! Mwen fiè de ou Pèp Ayisyen! Mwen fyè de peyi mwen!

Mwen toujou ekri an anglè, paske plan mwen se pou mwen fè moun ki pale anglè yo konnen sa kap pase an Ayiti e pou yo ka aprann apresye'l! Mèsi pou tout sipo moral nou! Ayiti ou pap mouri ou gen pou-w leve kanpe! Nan non Jezi!

Calling on Lord's blessings for Haiti

Wherever you are! Please take a moment to pray for Haiti! We need a lot of things but more than ever, we need God to pour out his blessings on us!
Let us proclaim it and believe it!

The bible clearly states and I quote:"If My people which are called by My name shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land"
2 Chronicles 7: 14

Haiti you are blessed in the name of Jesus!
Amen!

You can make a difference this Christmas!

Christmas a time of joy! Whether you want it or not it brings joy to you! Unfortunately there are a lot of people in this time who are suffering from hunger while others are having a feast and throwing their food in the garbage. I know all over the world including the big industrial countries not every one celebrate Christmas with happiness and it is unwillingly but since my focus is Haiti, I would like to thank specially any of you who participated in a way or the other to help send some joy to Haiti by sending gifts, food, clothes, medicines or anything to Haiti kids during this time. I just want to let you know that no matter how much you contributed you are making a difference! I am issuing a challenge to you to come up with a project to make this Christmas special to some kids. If you want some ideas I will be glad to help you out! If you are a teacher, have your kids do it as a class project, encourage your church to do something as well.

Please let it be understood that this is not of this scam where people ask to send them money I am not accepting anything. Since I am from Haiti I can give you some ideas as to how to send stuff to Haiti but it is up to you to decide how you want to help. There are many churches, Non Governmental Organization, orphanages etc... that would appreciate your help.

Please, let us know how you have been helping by posting here!

Have a merry Christmas and thank you for making a difference!

Got a problem with Merry Christmas?

I find it very weird and troubling that people want to go as far in cities in the big old USA to ban the mention of Christmas and trying to replace it with holiday so therefore instead of wishing you a merry Christmas, they would rather say happy holiday! I get two words for this people: "Stop it"! Have you lost your mind? Christmas might not be the actual birthday of Jesus but it is a symbol of the birth of a savior who came to earth for the redemption of our sins. What people make of it is their business! 'Cause for some it is a time to con people! For others a time to receive present, for some it is a time to give and show off their giving but Christmas is the time to share the good news of which is the basis of Christianity. Without Christmas there would not be Easter or anything else!

The next time you hear any story about people wanting to ban the use of Christmas in schools, offices, whatsoever, just tell them for me that I said: "Stop it! Stop it and stop it!" Jesus came for us all! Let's not hate them but pray for them so that they will come to know Jesus is theirs as well and that it is time to stop rejecting him!

Patrick Gaspard: Obama's Glue Man

When you ask former and current colleagues to describe Patrick Gaspard, the picture they paint is eerily universal.

Barack Obama's political director, they say, is a tireless worker known for putting in 14-hour days. He is a family man, devoted to his wife and two kids beyond any other aspect of his life. He is intensely modest, often shunning credit for the achievements he's helped create. And he may very well be the most brilliant strategist and organizer you have never heard of.

"Patrick is the best political mind of his generation in New York and maybe the nation," says Kevin Sheekey, who as Michael Bloomberg's right-hand-man has frequently worked and battled with Gaspard.

"I wouldn't dispute that," said David Axelrod, Obama's chief strategist and Gaspard's cohort on the campaign trail. When reminded that such a title could be bestowed on Axelrod himself, the strategist said he was "happy to cede that" to Gaspard.

And yet, for all his abilities, there is shockingly little mention of Gaspard's accomplishments in the public record. A Lexis Nexis search of his name from before the 2008 campaign reveals next to nothing, a far cry from the star-power personas of former White House political directors like Ed Rollins, Rahm Emanuel and Karl Rove.

But one should not take Gaspard's near hermit-like desire for privacy -- attempts to reach him for this piece went un-returned -- as an indication that he's avoided the tough political fights. Far from it. As friends and colleagues recall, he's been content to do the grunt work while others reap the praise. "He is one of the most impactful people I have ever met in politics," said Axelrod.

Born in Haiti, Gaspard got his first taste of high-stakes politics in 1988 when he assisted Jesse Jackson's presidential campaign. That momentous but losing effort led to an equally historical win one a year later, when Gaspard helped David Dinkins become New York City's first African-American mayor. As would be a common feature throughout his career, aides say he poured himself into behind-the-scenes work, making inroads with different constituencies and offering strategic advice when needed.

"He has great instincts," Dinkins recalled for the Huffington Post. "You were not apt to find him beating his chest and talking about how great a job he did is. But anyone who worked for him would make that observation for him."
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The Dinkins years, owing mainly to a worsening economic situation and city's crime rate, were frantic ones, during which Gaspard was tasked with advance work and government affairs. One of his signature achievements came when he spearheaded a trip to South Africa for cabinet members to meet with Nelson Mandela in 1992. He poured himself emotionally into that as well as every other task, said Bill Lynch, Dinkin's chief aide at the time. And when, a year later, Dinkins was out of office, losing a closely contested election to Rudy Giuliani, Gaspard took the loss hard.

"When we came out to announce that we had lost he was out in the hallway crying," recalled Lynch. "He took it very badly. He had spent so much energy putting it together in 1993."

Over the next few years there is remarkable little about Gaspard on the public record, though Lynch says he was heavily involved with the city council and political organizing. An NPR piece from September 1995 described him hosting a meeting for an outfit called The New Party in the basement of his home in Brooklyn. The topic: school board races.

And then, the next big political issue came.

By 1999, Gaspard was working as the chief of staff for councilmember Margarita Lopez, when a 23-year-old immigrant from Guinea was shot and killed by four New York City Police Department plain-clothed officers. Amadou Diallo would become a symbolic crest to the anything-goes, oftentimes brutal police work that personified the Rudy Giuliani administration. Unarmed at the time of the shooting, Diallo's body was riddled with 19 bullets (out of 41 shots fired). When the four officers were acquitted of charges of second-degree murder, demonstrations erupted across New York.

One of the city's most powerful unions, SEIU's 1199, needed someone to coordinate their Diallo efforts. And the group's political director, Bill Lynch, turned to his old aide for the task. "[Patrick] took the lead on that," he recalled. "He helped organize city-wide efforts and was instrumental in bringing leadership together."

The protests were massive in their scope, with multiple elected and religious officials as well as a scattering of celebrities taking to the streets. And while they did not result in legal vindication, in March 2004 Diallo's family did receive a $3 million settlement from the government. Gaspard had his entrance into union life. Over the next few years he would help augment 1199 as a political force in the city and nationally. His work took him from Florida -- to help with the 2000 presidential recount -- to the streets of New York. And he took to the task with his usual vigor.

During a massive and successful fundraising campaign five or six years ago, Gaspard walked into the 1199 offices with a satisfied look on his face. "It was his birthday," recalled Jennifer Cunningham, the union's political director at the time. "When I wished him happy birthday, he looked very pleased with himself and finally admitted that he'd had a 'pretty good run' that morning. When pressed, he shared that he'd just run ten six-minute miles and knew that he was not over the hill yet. If it were anyone else, I would have HATED them. But he's so great and so self-effacing, I could only marvel."

By 2004, Gaspard was no longer one of those 40-under-40 budding political stars but rather a full on political force. After Howard Dean -- whom 1199 supported during the Democratic primary -- dropped out of the race, Gaspard signed on with America Coming Together, a 527 organization dedicated to getting out the Democratic vote.

"He is extremely close to his kids and obviously his wife," recalled Steve Rosenthal, director of ACT. "Getting him to leave New York to join us was a very big get. But he did it at an enormous sacrifice."

As National Field Director, Gaspard oversaw officials in almost every single state and played a key role in directing a paid staff of, eventually, 8,000. The work was tireless, and Rosenthal would occasionally tease Gaspard that he was going to "develop a severe case of carpel tunnel syndrome at a young age," from overuse of his BlackBerry. John Kerry would lose the election but in many regards ACT was a major success. Ken Mehlman, the RNC director at the time, credited the group with keeping the race close, and its work canvassing served as a template for much of what Obama would do four years later.

Gaspard, of course, would be there to see that effort through. After helping win state and local races for 1199-favored candidates in New York, he joined the Obama campaign in June 2008 to serve, once again, as "political director." His job interview became a semi-famous anecdote when it found its way into an article by the New Yorker's Ryan Lizza,

"I think that I'm a better speechwriter than my speechwriters," Obama told Gaspard. "I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors. And I'll tell you right now that I'm gonna think I'm a better political director than my political director."

Statements of bravado aside, Gaspard earned the respect of his boss and others on the campaign. Aides described him as a "glue man" -- tasked with holding different groups and constituencies together despite the obvious strains that a campaign can bring.

"He was dealing with politicians and political organizations from very high-ranking people to people down the line, all around the country," said Axelrod. "So it is fair to say that he had a lot of headaches from morning to night because you can never please everybody... Patrick was, I thought, incredibly deft at making the right judgments and enforcing the right decisions and doing it all in the spirit of our campaign."

There was similar applause over his appointment to the Obama administration. Rosenthal called him the "rare breed" of individual who could help bridge the world of activism and governing pragmatism. His skills as a strategist, organizer and political "technician," he added, will make him perfect for the director post. Lynch, meanwhile, said that Gaspard's efforts on behalf of working-class families would spill over into the White House, making him a key voice for labor and health care issues.

And in an administration that some say lacks a high-level liberal persona, Gaspard -- with his union background, his immigrant roots, and the political scars earned in New York City -- could be that voice.

"He is obviously a progressive guy," says Axelrod. "But I think there is a difference between being idealistic and being an ideologue. I think he generally believes you can enhance the lives of people through politics. I don't think that, to him, it is a game. I think it is to him and means to an end to make this place a better country."

Sam Stein
The Huffington Post
Dec 4, 2008

Un américano-haïtien à la Maison-Blanche

On dit qu'Haïti n'aura jamais été aussi proche des Etats-Unis avec la nomination de Patrick Gaspard, un Américain d'origine haïtienne, au poste de Directeur du Bureau des Affaires Politiques à la Maison-Blanche.

M. Patrick Gaspard, un Américain d'origine haïtienne, a été nommé Directeur du Bureau des Affaires Politiques à la Maison-Blanche. Né en Haïti en 1953, M. Gaspard, 55 ans, architecte de formation, lobbyiste, était directeur national de l'équipe politique du candidat Obama. Avant son implication dans la campagne du sénateur de l'Illinois, il a, en 2004, été le coordonnateur, sur le terrain, de « l'initiative unificatrice » des démocrates baptisée "America Coming Together ».Très actif dans le social, en tant que vice-président de 1199 SEIU, une organisation syndicale de travailleurs de santé influente basée dans le Massachusetts, il a joué un rôle important dans la campagne du gouverneur Howard Dean et de nombreux candidats démocrates au Congrès et au Sénat. Marié et père de deux enfants, ce mordu de politique présenté comme un homme ouvert, intelligent et plein de conviction avait pris part, déjà, à la campagne historique ayant conduit, en 1989, David Dinkins, le premier homme noir à la tête de la Marie de New York. Croyant comme Barack Obama que l'éducation est la clef du succès, il s'était impliqué dans des initiatives communautaires en faveur de la réforme du système éducatif des Etats-Unis.

Dans une interview accordée au magazine « New Yorker », Patrick Gaspard a fait état d'une fameuse remarque du président élu : « J'apprécie votre opiniâtreté en tant que conseiller, mais je pense que je suis plus brillant que ceux qui m'écrivent mes discours. J'en connais plus sûr les questions politiques que mon conseiller en politique et sur n'importe quels autres sujets. Je te le dis maintenant que je vais croire que je suis meilleur que le directeur des affaires politiques. »

L'annonce de la désignation de Patrick Gaspard qui a étudié à l'ENARTS (Ecole Nationale des ARTS), à la rue Monseigneur Guilloux avant d'émigrer chez l' Oncle Sam a provoqué beaucoup de commentaires et un sentiment de fierté au sein de la communauté haïtienne des Etats-Unis et de New York en particulier. « Qui sait ! A l'avenir, un descendant d'Haïtien peut devenir président des Etats-Unis. C'est le pays des opportunités», a commenté, à Brooklyn, Magali B. qui espère que Patrick Gaspard interviendra auprès d'Obama pour Haïti.

Barack Obama avait, peu avant son élection, indiqué qu'il va revoir la coopération des Etats-Unis avec Haïti. Les Etats-Unis, avait-il dit, doit aider Haïti à se développer. Créé sous l'administration de Ronald Reagan, le poste de Directeur des Affaires Politiques à la Maison-Blanche a été occupé par Karl Rove que la presse américaine avait présenté comme "l'éminence grise" de George W Bush avant de démissionner en août 2007. M. Karl Rove avait été cité à comparaître devant une commission judiciaire du Sénat dans l'affaire du limogeage de procureurs fédéraux. Le président Bush lui avait interdit de témoigner, évoquant une réserve due à son rang. Il a également été cité dans l'affaire Libby, qui avait mis en cause plusieurs membres de l'administration Bush, accusés d'avoir révélé, en 2003, le nom de l'agent de la CIA, Valerie Plame, dont le mari avait accusé les autorités américaines d'avoir exagéré la menace représentée par l'Irak.

Roberson Alphonse
robersonalphonse@yahoo.fr
Le nouvelliste
9 Décembre 2008

Discovery of Hispaniola

This day in History

Today is a holiday in Haiti and everything is closed!
Christopher Columbus discovered Hispaniola ( the Island). Now, my point is good for him but when he came to the Island there where "Indians" living there already so actually people knew about the Island as a matter of fact he thought he was in Asia and called the inhabitants of the Island Indians. Please do some more research on the story to see what happened next and it was not pretty.
One thing it taught him and the rest of the world was that the earth was larger than they actually thought it was.

World HIV/AIDS Day

Today is World HIV/AIDS Day and I am honored to give my take on it.
HIV AIDS is still a mystery as to its origin. One thing I know is that there is a theory out there implying that HIV originated from Haitians and in my opinion and I am not a scientist or specialist in this matter) this is as far from the truth as the death of the sea. We have been victimized. I have to make this clear and throughout my posts you can see that I am not the kind of person who will sit and cry foul all the time as a matter of fact, I encourage people not to be a victim but to overcome their situation, which is why I congratulate President (elect) Barack Obama for his achievement. At the same time I cannot ignore that we, specially Haitians are sometimes not being taken at our face value. We are a third world country with a lot of political and social problem but we are still human with feeling and pride. We kids, adults, mothers, fathers, care givers and citizens as any other nations. People need to stop claiming that we have originated this disease! I think that it is unfortunate and racist!

Now, let me be clear on that! I do recognize that HIV is a major problem in Haiti and as a matter of fact, I will post below the statistics I have been able to find about it. We all have to fight it together. Learn about it and how to protect yourself from it. Not all people with AIDS were/are promiscuous for example I know about a case of a baby in Haiti who contracted AIDS not through her mother but another person breastfeeding him since the birth mother could not produce milk.
A lot is being done in Haiti to educate people about HIV Virus but a lot more need to be done. Churches are talking more about it, schools debate the subject and there are a lot of institutions targeting young people by making them aware of the virus. We still have more to do but all of us have to be in it together!
AIDS for me is a virus that needs to be fought collectively pointing finger at one particular nation is not going to solve the dilemma rather hide it deeper. It is all over though more prominent in some countries.

Aids can be prevented by abstinence, the use of protection during sexual intercourse, i.e condoms, it can also be contracted through blood contact. So make sure you have gloves when you are helping a bleeding person. In other words, you can get AIDS by:
• blood transfusions ( not very common anymore).
• being born with it.
• having unprotected sex with someone who has AIDS.
• finding a used needle on the ground, picking it up, and getting the infected blood into an open wound.
• getting blood from someone else's cut who has AIDS, into yours.

I am a church goer and would rather encourage abstinence and fidelity for couples but the truth is there are people out there who are sexually active anyway with multiple partners in this case I encourage them to use protection. They need to know that they are taking risks and HIV does not discriminate! Church all over the world need to get mere involve in fighting AIDS. We tend to discriminate against people with HIV. We just have in our mind that they are sinners! You are right they are sinners but about you? Did you know that if God was judging us by our sins there would not have been any of us left on earth. Some people with HIV might get it through helping another person. We have to help them, love them and pray for them. We are all sinners, no matter what we sins we have committed but our God is synonym of love, patience, understanding and moreover he is a God of forgiveness!

There are millions of kids with HIV they do not know anything! Most of them are innocent babies! Look at these stats:
Vital statistics on children and AIDS
Click here to see vital statistics on children and AIDS

Vital statistics on children and AIDS

- Of the estimated 2.8 million people killed by HIV and AIDS in 2005, around half a million were children aged below 15 years.

- At the end of 2005, an estimated 2.3 million children globally were living with HIV.

- During 2005, an estimated 700,000 children around the world were newly infected with HIV.

VITAL STATISTICS

- Of the estimated 2.8 million people killed by HIV and AIDS in 2005, around half a million were children aged below 15 years.

- At the end of 2005, an estimated 2.3 million children globally were living with HIV.

- During 2005, an estimated 700,000 children around the world were newly infected with HIV.

- Every minute of every day, a child under the age of 15 becomes infected with HIV.

- AIDS is now the biggest single cause of death among the under 5s,

- Nearly 80 percent of new child HIV infections occur in sub-Saharan Africa, but the number of such infections is increasing in other areas, particularly Asia.

- Almost nine out of ten children (younger than 15 years) living with HIV are in sub-Saharan Africa. About 43% (around 860,000) of all children under 15 years of age living with HIV are in southern Africa.

- In Asia, an estimated 180,000 children are living with HIV.

- In Africa, more than one in three newborns infected with HIV die before the age of one, over half die before reaching their second birthday, and most are dead before they are five years old.

- Less than 8 per cent of HIV-positive children have access to any kind of treatment.

- One widely available drug, cotrimoxazole, can nearly halve child deaths from HIV/AIDS. The drug costs as little as three U.S. cents a day. But only 1 percent of children who need it have access to it.

- The overwhelming majority of children under 15 who are HIV-positive got infected through their mothers. But less than 10 percent of pregnant women are offered services to stop the spread of HIV to their babies.

- Less than 10 percent of children orphaned and made vulnerable by AIDS are receiving some kind of public support.

- By 2005, 15.2 million children around the world had lost one parent or both to AIDS. An estimated 20.2 million children will have lost one or both parents by 2010 with 15.7 million children orphaned by AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa.

source: Global Movement for Children www.gmfc.org


Below is the stats I have been able to find for Haiti. Let’s get together and help fight AIDS but using the best weapon we have which is knowledge and not wasting our time pointing fingers instead of spending it doing an impartial research.

HIV/AIDS in Haiti
8,706,497: population of Haiti (2007 est.)

110,000: Estimated number of people living with HIV/AIDS by the end of 2007
2.2%: Estimated percentage of adults (ages 15-49) living with HIV/AIDS by the end of 2007
53%: Estimated percentage of HIV cases that occured among women (ages 15-49) by the end of 2007
6,800: Estimated number of children (ages 0-15) living with HIV/AIDS by the end of 2007
7,500: Estimated number of deaths due to AIDS during 2007
Source
• UNAIDS 2008 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic. July 2008.

As you can see it is more prominent in third world countries just because it is more difficult to reach people over there through the common media such as TV, Radio and literature. More funds should be made available for people to go in these areas and talk to people either by group or one on one. If you have no electricity how are going to watch TV or listen to radio, if you can't feed your children are you going to to think about buying batteries and some remote places you can even get a radio signal and don't even mention the use of pamphlet because unfortunately illiteracy is very high in third world countries. On of the best way to reach to this people is through one on one or groups contact! If you know any organization working to help fight Aids please help them fund these projects or just become a volunteer. I know UNICEF, USAID, Red Cross, some local organizations as well and many more are doing a great job on this matter out there. Let’s get together and help fight AIDS but using the best weapon we have which is knowledge and not wasting our time pointing fingers instead of spending it doing an impartial research.

Unity brings power!

God bless!

Happy thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is not a celebration we do in Haiti. I am just writing this post to express my gratitude. One thing you need to know is that Haitians are very grateful. If you do something good for them, they will stick with you and make sure you are OK. We know what hospitality is like.

Thanksgiving a symbolic day like every holiday to be grateful. Unfortunately some people call it turkey day or feat day and they will eat so much that they will have to stay in bed for the remainder of the week. For others it's a time to see this embarrassing family member and pretend they get along. Others are stressed 'cause they are going to have people over that they only see at this time of the year and would be so thankful if they did not show up!

I have had many people in my short life who have made some big impact in my life. One good thing about it they all know it. You know why 'cause I always thank them for that and no I do not wait for thanksgiving to do so.

I am not going to mention any names for their privacy but I want to thank God for first for setting us free through the sacrifice of his own begotten son Jesus-Christ!

I am thankful for my family! For my in-laws! I am thankful to to have a place to call home!

I am thankful for being a able to take a bath using hot water.

I am thankful that the Lord help me make a difference in at least one person's life (hope they are many more)

I am thankful for my friends!

I am thankful for the safety of my family and friends all over the world!

I am thankful that I can open the fridge and choose what I want to eat or decide to go to the groceries.

I am grateful that I can wake up!

I am thankful for this blog!

I am thankful for everything and I do not take anything for granted.

We spend more times complaining than being thankful ( I am the first one) but if we should just go around in hospitals, jails, third world countries and see how things are we would have been counting our blessings instead.

There is always something to be thankful for even when things are not going your way!

Thank you Lord for everything!
Happy thanksgiving to all of you whether it's a holiday thing for you or a way of life! Let's always be thankful!

What are you thankful for?

Hallelujah for Haiti

Lately I have been really sadden and at the same time frustrated by what is going on in Haiti. When it is not insecurity, it is natural disaster. When it is not natural disaster, it is starvation. When it is not starvation, it is school collapsing on kids or kids hurting themselves due to fear of school collapsing and what is worse is that sometimes all of the above happened at the same time. What should we do as a christian?

Without any doubt the very first thing to do is to try to assist as much as you can specially financially . If you can raise money to buy clothes or food this is awesome but the most important thing you can do also is to lift up Haiti in your prayers. I am challenging you to do it now. Please post your prayers for Haiti and let the world know that we are not sleeping, we are alive and we know that we are serving and Almighty God!

I proclaim liberty for Haiti! Liberty against all evil spirit which are trying to take over the country! I know there are people all around the world though not living physically in Haiti are bound a way or the other to the Haitian people. Please post your prayer and let us know that you are Praying for us! May God bless you and may he empowers you with his mighty touch!
Hallelujah for Haiti is the cry of my heart!
Enough is Enough! We cannot take it anymore! We are not fighting against flesh and blood but against the devil and his disciples! Haiti is for Christ and Christ is for Haiti! Praise be to God!

Hallelujah for Haiti and let the country be free in the name of Jesus! I pray it! I declare it and I believe it!

Hallelujah for Haiti!

Frisch family on Extreme makeover

A big thank you to ABC Extreme Home Makeover! Thank for helping a family help many more in Haiti!

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition: The Frisch Family

* Nov 14, 2008 12:44 PM ET
* by Rib Hillis

This week on ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (Sundays at 8 pm/ET), we're helping out the Frisch family of Toledo, Ohio.

Aaron, the father, he is a hero. He is an absolute hero. He's a firefighter, so he saves people every day, and he saved his partner during riots that happened here in Toledo a few years back. Beyond that, Aaron and his wife, Jackie, were on a mission in Haiti and decided to adopt five kids they had never met before, then came back to Toledo and adopted three more kids from the inner-city. This family is just one big hero family. You have a firefighter father who gives back to the community, you have a mother who's been sick and is still struggling to recover — and you really don't know if she's going to make it — you have thee kids of your own and yet you're going to go out to adopt kids from Haiti and three from the inner city of Toledo, and you're going to do it with a smile on your face and be grateful for everything that you have.

One of my projects this week is doing a room for the three adopted guys from Haiti — Mo, Benson, and Joe. And I mean, these kids, this whole family they take nothing for granted, so it is my job to spoil them a little bit. You know, to give them what they don't even ask for. In their old room, the boys all slept practically right on top of each other. The bunk beds were just stacked up one on top of the next. The new room is not going to be like that. They're each going to have their own separate beds. But they're also still going to be together in one room, because that's important.

These boys, they all came from the same orphanage back home in Haiti, they have a bond, and now they're part of this family and I just don't want that togetherness to get lost just because they have a new house. This new room is going to be much bigger, gigantic closet they can actually hang up their clothes, beds that aren't stacked on top of each other, and a desk, a desk where Benson and Joe can actually sit down and work at starting this computer company that they want to start for the people of Haiti.

Things get crazy around here after we start demo. I mean we have to get this house, the old one down and the new one up, before the family gets home. I was lucky enough to catch up with our Builder Tim Schlachter from Buckeye Realty Group and talk with him in all this chaos. What struck me was that here's this man who's got all this responsibility, all this going on around him, and yet he didn't lose sight of why we're here. That this is for this family, this is about the community and about giving back and giving hope to the Frisch family and the community of Toledo. I thought that was amazing, amazing, Tim is a good guy to be here building this house.

Even through all this family will go through this week this family is not going to change. They may have a new house but they're still the same family. They were founded on love. They'll still keep on living for each other, just in a new house. This house means that Aaron doesn't have to worry about his family when he's out saving lives in the community. They don't have to worry about Jackie's being too hot, too cold, bundled up in blankets. Jackie said everything's going to be ok. I truly believe that with this new house, for the Frisch family, everything is going to be ok, today. Today we made a difference. We'll worry about tomorrow, tomorrow.

But today, we will affect this world in a positive way. Because that's what Aaron and Jackie do. Every single day they make this world a better place.

Haiti celebrates hero in tragic school collapse

14 Nov 2008 01:25:47 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Joseph Guyler Delva

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Nov 13 (Reuters) - An unemployed man who risked life and limb to pull children from the rubble of a collapsed school was celebrated as a national hero on Thursday by the impoverished Caribbean nation's president.

More than 90 people were killed in the disaster involving the La Promesse school, a ramshackle three-story building that collapsed in a slum on the outskirts of the Haitian capital.

Ronaldo Charilus, 29, said he rushed to the structure soon after it caved in last Friday.

"When I arrived on the site, I prayed and said to myself my life was not mine anymore. I left it in God's hands," Charilus told Reuters. "And from that moment on, I stopped thinking about my life but about the innocent children's lives."

Charilus, dubbed "Ronaldo the Hero" by the Haitian media, saved the lives of several dozen children trapped under the debris while putting his own life in almost constant danger, according to numerous eyewitness reports.

President Rene Preval, who visited the disaster site several times, told an awards ceremony at the National Palace on Thursday that Charilus was tireless in his efforts.

"The young man was all over the place. He worked with so much energy that he grabbed my attention," Preval said.

Though his dogged efforts continued day and night for several days running, Preval noted that Charilus was officially unemployed like so many other people in the poorest nation in the hemisphere.

"When I asked Ronaldo if he had slept, he replied to me by saying, 'Mr. President I can't sleep and I will never be able to sleep as long as I know there are people still trapped under the rubble,'" said Preval.

Several other rescue workers also were recognized for their service at the ceremony, but Charilus was clearly the star.

"He crawled like a snake through the rubble and squeezed himself into holes from which he was not sure whether he would be able to come out," said Gael Pinson, who worked alongside Charilus at the school site.

The school disaster, blamed on shoddy construction, struck as Haiti was struggling to recover from four tropical storms and hurricanes that killed more than 800 people and destroyed 60 percent of the nation's crops in August and September.

Charilus, the father of a 8-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son, said he acted as if his own children had been caught up in the tragedy.

"You know there is nothing a loving and responsible father won't do to save his children in immediate danger," he said. (Editing by Tom Brown and Vicki Allen)

Second school collapse hits Haiti

At least nine people were injured when a school building partially collapsed in Haiti - days after a similar incident killed more than 90 people.

Officials said most of the students were out in the playground when the collapse happened at the private school in the capital, Port-au-Prince.

A witness said the cave-in left chunks of wall scattered on the ground.

The accident comes less than a week after the deadly collapse at La Promesse College in Petionville.

Rescuers have now ended a search for survivors at that site.

Crews have cleared the wreckage, uncovering the remains of those trapped inside.

'No cement'

The second collapse occurred at the Grace Divine school, in the Canape Vert part of the capital.

The concrete roof was sagging and there were clear cracks in the remaining walls, AFP news agency reported.

Two students were taken to hospital with serious injuries while another seven had minor injuries, an official told the Associated Press news agency.

Haitian authorities have blamed the collapse of the Petionville school on poor construction - and indicated that the second one could have the same cause.

"It is the same kind of construction we have seen in Nerettes [in Petionville]," said Eucher Luc Joseph, secretary of state for public safety.

"It is construction with practically no cement, no iron. It has been built in total violation of regulations."

The owner of the Petionville school has been arrested.

Haiti-Ecole

Une nouvelle école, La Grâce Divine, s’effondre partiellement à Port-au-Prince : 8 blessés, dont 3 graves
D’autres élèves blessés dans la panique provoquée par des rumeurs relatives à l’effondrement d’un 3ème établissement scolaire

mercredi 12 novembre 2008,

Radio Kiskeya

Une nouvelle école, La Grâce Divine, s’est partiellement effondrée mercredi matin a Port-au-Prince, plus précisément dans le quartier de Canapé Vert (Est de la capitale), non loin de la résidence privée du chef de l’Etat, René Préval.

Sept élèves et un adulte ont été blessés dans l’accident provoqué vraisemblablement par un glissement de terrain, selon le ministre des Travaux publics, Jacques Gabriel, arrivé sur place. Trois des élèves blessés le sont grièvement.

D’autres officiels du gouvernement, tels le ministre de l’Education nationale, Joël Desrosiers Jean Pierre et son collègue de la Jeunesse et des Sports, Evans Lescouflair, se trouvaient également sur les lieux. Au moins deux parlementaires, le sénateur Youri Latortue et le député Frantz Robert Mondé s’étaient également transportés sur le site de de l’accident

L’édifice logeant La Grâce Divine, située à un endroit inaccessible au cœur d’un vaste bidonville, était encore en construction.

Alors que les autorités dressaient le constat de l’accident, une rumeur a circulé sur l’effondrement au même moment d’une autre école dans le quartier de Christ Roi, le Collège Saint-François d’Assise. Ce fut alors la panique, les gens, la police et les équipes de secours se ruant précipitamment vers le lieu du nouveau drame. Mais, il ne s’agissait pas effectivement d’un nouvel effondrement, mais plutôt d’un vent de panique ayant suivi une rumeur relative au vacillement de l’édifice après une légère secousse sismique. Moins d’une dizaine d’élèves ont été blessés en se précipitant vers la sortie de l’établissement.’

L’accident du Canapé Vert survient 5 jours après l’effondrement à Nérette (Pétion Ville, Est de Port-au-Prince) du Collège évangélique La Promesse. Le bilan de cet accident est de 89 morts et plus de 150 blessés, en majorité des élèves. [jmd/RK]

No signs of life in Haiti school collapse: rescuers

PETION-VILLE, Haiti (AFP) — Rescue workers said they have found "no sign of life" in the rubble of a Haitian school that collapsed last week killing at least 93 people, and recommended that search efforts turn to body recovery.

"We have inspected the rubble with cameras and dogs. We have unfortunately found no sign of life," French medic Daniel Vigier told reporters, saying that the rubble should now be cleared in order to remove the bodies.

"We will take every precaution possible" in order to protect any remaining survivors, Vigier said, noting however that the likelihood of finding anyone alive at this point was "very slim."

So far only four children have been found alive at the school, La Promesse, in Petion-ville, on the outskirts of the capital Port-au-Prince. The three-storey building collapsed on Friday morning.

"We have checked every possible void space and opening that we can get through and I believe ... we have done everything we can to try to assure that there are no people in there alive," said USAID rescue team member Mike Istvan.

The death toll was expected to rise, as about 250-300 people were believed to have been inside when the structure crumbled.

Although 700 students aged three to 20 attended, the school operated in two sessions and so about half that number would have been in the building at the time of collapse, Youth and Sports Minister Evans Lescouflair said.

One teacher who had left the building minutes before it came crashing down told the minister that "a maximum of between 250 to 300 pupils were inside," Lescouflair said.

Authorities have launched an investigation into the collapse and suggested that criminal prosecution could follow. The owner of the school was questioned by police after turning himself in Sunday.

Officials also pledged an investigation into the construction of the school and a survey of other education establishments that might be at possible risk.

"This construction did not meet normal standards. We are going to ask the minister of education to make an inspection of all the schools built in the same way," senator Yvon Bissereth said.

Justice Minister Jean-Joseph Exume lamented the deadly collapse, saying the building never should have held so many.

"It's a real calamity. This building was not suitable for a school," Exume said during a visit to the scene.

Early Monday, a security cordon encircled the area, while workers continued round-the-clock efforts to unearth dozens of bodies believed entombed beneath mounds of metal and concrete.

Teams from the United Nations, the Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, Haitian police and rescuers from France, the United States and Canada have been scouring the rubble since the school collapsed.

UN engineers and soldiers from the UN mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) have worked to remove heavy pieces of concrete and to contain the large crowds of people.

He said a camera was being used to peer into the pile of rubble and search teams were now clearing away roofing.

Officials have said that the school's head and owner, Pastor Augustin Fortain, was being questioned but so far "has not been formally charged with anything."

At the time of the collapse, builders had been adding a new floor to the school. Witnesses told AFP that Fortain had constructed the building without the help of engineers.

France has offered emergency aid amounting to 20,000 euros (25,000 dollars) to help build a new school in the area.

Haïti-Ecole-Accident

Catastrophe de Pétion-Ville : Au moins 103 morts et 150 blessés
Pratiquement plus aucun espoir de retrouver des rescapés ; deuil de deux jours dans la commune

lundi 10 novembre 2008,

Radio Kiskeya

Au moins 103 personnes ont été tuées et 150 autres blessées, en majorité de jeunes écoliers, dans l’effondrement vendredi du bâtiment de cinq étages du Collège évangélique La Promesse, dans le quartier de Nerette à Pétion-Ville (banlieue est de Port-au-Prince), a indiqué lundi soir sur les ondes de Radio Kiskeya le porte-parole de la Police Nationale, Gary Desrosier.

Un précédent bilan portait le nombre des décès à 96 et celui des blessés à 150.

Sept nouveaux corps en état de décomposition avancée ont été repérés dans les décombres du bâtiment de cinq étages qui logeait l’établissement.

Plus de 72 heures, les autorités semblaient avoir définitivement tiré un trait sur tout espoir de retrouver d’éventuels survivants, mais laissaient des sapeurs-pompiers haïtiens, américains et franco-martiniquais poursuivre leurs efforts de déblayage du site extrêmement fragile et dangereux.

Une grue du centre national des équipements (CNE), installée depuis trois jours devant les locaux du collège, a abandonné le théâtre de l’événement, préfigurant la fin prochaine des opérations qui pourraient toutefois se poursuivre jusqu’à jeudi.

La mairie de Pétion-Ville a décrété deux journées de deuil mardi et mercredi dans la commune en mémoire des victimes. Toutes les activités festives sont prohibées et les médias locaux sont invités à adopter une programmation de circonstance.

La mairesse Lydie Parent a été entendue lundi en milieu de journée au parquet de Port-au-Prince dans le cadre de l’enquête ouverte sur l’accident. Pour sa part, le directeur-fondateur de La Promesse, le pasteur Fortin Augustin, qui s’est volontairement constitué prisonnier, était placé en détention provisoire au siège de la police judiciaire (DCPJ). spp/Radio Kiskeya

The president on site talking about the tragedy

All kind of emotions after the school collapse

Rescuers, Finding No New Survivors, Will Raze Haiti School

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Reuters) — Rescuers at a collapsed school in Haiti were ending the hunt for survivors on Sunday and will soon demolish the remains of the building, where about 90 people were killed, officials said.

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Orlando Barría/European Pressphoto Agency
Haitians dug in the debris of a fallen school on Sunday after they pushed past security in anger at the rescue effort’s pace.
“Rescue workers and experts are making the last check to be certain there is nobody alive under the debris,” Nadia Lochard, a civil defense official, said Sunday. “We will recover all the bodies and destroy the building.”

Four survivors were pulled from the ruins of the three-story church school on Saturday, a day after it collapsed, injuring 150 people. No survivors had been found since, officials said.

Disaster experts, officials and rescue workers had held back from using heavy equipment at the site in Pétionville, on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, out of fear that wobbly blocks of concrete and other debris might fall on any survivors under the rubble.

“We are trying the best we can to make sure no one alive is under the debris by the time we start using heavier equipment,” said Luc-Eucher Joseph, the secretary of state for public safety.

Firefighters from Fairfax, Va., and rescue workers from Martinique were among the searchers at the school, la Promesse. They were using dogs to hunt for survivors.

Fortin Augustin, a Protestant minister who owns the school and church, was being held by the police on Sunday.

4 rescued from Haiti school's collapse

The Associated Press
November 9, 2008

Reporting from Petionville, Haiti -- Rescuers pulled four children alive Saturday from the rubble of a three-story school that collapsed on hundreds of students and teachers, killing at least 88 people.

Emergency workers cradled the dazed children in their arms and rushed them into ambulances, U.N. police spokesman Andre Leclerc said.

The extent of the injuries to the two girls, ages 3 and 5, and two boys, a 7-year-old and a teenager, was unknown, Leclerc said. The 3-year-old had a cut on her head but did not appear to be seriously harmed, he said. "She was talking and drinking juice," Leclerc said.

Search teams from the United States and France joined the hunt for survivors in the remains of the hilltop College La Promesse in suburban Port-au-Prince a day after it tumbled down. Thousands of Haitians cheered and shouted directions to rescuers, and trucks carrying oxygen and other medical supplies rumbled up the hillside.

Nadia Lochard, civil protection coordinator for the region, said that the death toll had risen to 84 and that 150 people were injured.

U.S. rescuers using digital cameras on long poles to look under the rubble found at least six bodies, but think that two of them were included in Lochard's death toll, said Evan Lewis, a member of a team from Virginia.

Angelique Toussaint kept vigil on a rooftop overlooking the rubble and prayed that her 13-year-old granddaughter, Velouna, would be saved. "I think they're doing a good job. It's a little slow, but I'm relieved all these people are helping," Toussaint said.

President Rene Preval said poor construction, including a lack of steel reinforcement, was to blame for the collapse. He said structures throughout Haiti were also at risk.

More videos and facts about the school collapse

- As I am writing this blog the death toll is estimated at 82 according to Radio Kiskeya. Can you imagine these kids went under the rubble I guess around 12ish pm and had to wait for a a rescue team from Martinique and the USA to come to really start helping. By bringing dogs and equipment. Jamaica also came to our help! I would like to thank these countries for their help!

- Some of the kids though they had they legs crushed were able to talk to people while under the blocks and they were given waters and cookies to survive. I am talking about kids from 3 to 20 and even older. The school has 700 students. A lot of teachers are feared dead as well. Thanks USAID for their help!

- The school is called: "La promesse" which is translated in English the promise! France is sending a lot of people from his provinces.

- The school is a christian school and the owner is Pastor Fortin Augustin. The school had a casual day event. In general students in Haiti go to school wearing uniforms.

Some of the kids under the rubble were able to call their parents while being crushed and of course their cellphone went dead and these parents are now losing their minds since they do not know the state of their kids.

Please keep on praying for Haiti. If you can help, do not hesitate to do so!

Haïti-Ecole-Accident

Plus de 30 morts et plusieurs dizaines de blessés à Pétion-Ville
Alors qu’une équipe du SAMU français devait participer aux secours, un autre accident a été enregistré non loin du site de la catastrophe

vendredi 7 novembre 2008,

Radio Kiskeya

Des spécialistes du SAMU français (service d’aide médicale d’urgence), en provenance de la Martinique, étaient attendus vendredi soir à Port-au-Prince en vue d’aider à retrouver des rescapés de la catastrophe enregistrée dans une école de Pétion-Ville (banlieue est de Port-au-Prince) qui a fait plus d’une trentaine de morts et des dizaines de blessés.

"Une équipe du SAMU accompagnée de chiens renifleurs sera opérationnelle vendredi à partir de minuit sur les lieux de la catastrophe", a déclaré en exclusivité sur Radio Kiskeya le ministre de la santé publique et de la population, Dr Alex Larsen.

Les experts et chiens venus du département français d’outre-mer devaient s’évertuer à identifier et dégager d’éventuels survivants qui se trouveraient parmi des personnes en nombre indéterminé coincées sous les décombres du bâtiment.

Des équipes techniques américaines et canadiennes pourraient également être dépêchées en Haïti.

Après les visites du Président René Préval, de la Première ministre Michèle Pierre-Louis, de plusieurs ministres, parlementaires et membres du conseil communal de Pétion-Ville, des parents et proches d’élèves de La Promesse Collège Evangélique portés disparus étaient littéralement désespérés à la tombée de la nuit. Ce qui restait du bâtiment de trois étages était plongé dans l’obscurité. Déjà, en milieu de journée, des torches et génératrices avaient dû être mises à contribution pour assurer l’éclairage du site qui se trouve au fond d’un corridor encerclé d’un vaste bidonville.

Parallèlement, le bilan de la tragédie s’est nettement alourdi, passant à au moins 28 morts et plusieurs dizaines de blessés, dont certains dans un état critique, selon des sources policières et des secouristes contactés par Radio Kiskeya.

Plusieurs autres corps avaient été retrouvés auparavant et acheminés à à la morgue.

Pour leur part, une soixantaine d’agents de la Mission de stabilisation des Nations Unies (MINUSTAH) étaient impliqués dans les opérations de secours. Des ingénieurs militaires brésiliens, chiliens et équatoriens ainsi que des militaires philippins ont apporté 540 litres d’eau aux personnes incapbles de sortir des décombres et victimes de déshydratation.

"Si nous ne pouvons pas faire venir des équipements pour les secours, cela va être difficile de sortir les gens coincés dans le bâtiment effondré", a affirmé David Wimhurst, porte-parole de la MINUSTAH, rapporte le Centre d’actualités de l’ONU. Il souligne que le commandant des troupes onusiennes, le général brésilien Carlos Alberto Dos Santos Cruz, a été contraint de garer son véhicule à un kilomètre de l’école et de se frayer à pied un passage à travers une foule compacte pour atteindre le site de l’accident.

Vendredi soir, un autre accident s’est produit à l’entrée de Pétion-Ville, corsant l’addition du jour. Environ six véhicules en stationnement ont été complètement écrabouillés lorsque les freins d’un tracteur, qui participait aux opérations de sauvetage, ont lâché. Trois personnes ont été blessées. spp/Radio Kiskeya

Rescue after school collapes in Haiti! Warning graphic images!

It is now 7:53 PM and local radio are asking people to go donate blood for the kids. People can hear the kids crying but they can not get to them 'cause there are no material that can do this work and also to access this particular part where the school is some houses have to be destroy to allow heavy duty truck to perform rescue there. Please pray for these parents who do not know whether their kids are in the hospital or dead.

Rescue continues into the night after Haiti school collapses

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (CNN) -- Rescue workers in Haiti will work into the night to dig out students from the rubble of a school that collapsed Friday, the Red Cross said.
Haitians try to help victims at a school that collapsed Friday in Petionville, near Port-au-Prince.

Haitians try to help victims at a school that collapsed Friday in Petionville, near Port-au-Prince.

At least 25 students died, said Alex Claudon, a Red Cross official on the scene in Petionville, near the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince.

Officials said the school could have had as many as 700 people inside, and the death toll is expected to rise.

"We are looking at major casualties here," Claudon said.

He said dozens of students appeared to be trapped inside but couldn't give an exact number. However, he said it was a typical school day and the building had been crowded.

Most of the students at the College La Promesse Evangelique range in age from 10 to 20, he said, but there are younger ones as well. Haitian press reports said the school has kindergarten, primary and secondary students.

Michaele Gedeon, president of Haiti's Red Cross, said she heard the voices of distraught children as rescuers tried to calm them while she was on the phone attempting to coordinate emergency rescue efforts. Video Watch as the Red Cross official describes the scene »

"On the phone, you can hear so many children, you know, crying, crying and saying, 'this one is dead,' 'that one is dead,' " she said.

Claudon said hundreds of bystanders and rescue workers were digging through the rubble, but "what we need right now is heavy search-and-rescue equipment."

Claudon later said, "local authorities are doing their best."

Fifty to 60 patients, 30 of them severely injured, were taken to Trinite Hospital in Port-au-Prince, said Isabelle Mouniaman Nara, the head of mission in the capital for Medecins sans Frontieres.

Trinite is the only hospital open in Port-au-Prince, the group said. The other two -- General Hospital and Hospital de la Paix -- are closed by strikes.

The school is in an extremely poor part of town, and the roads are nearly impassable, local journalist Clarens Renois said.

A United Nations helicopter was unable to land, Renois said.

"The school is poorly built," said Amelia Shaw, a journalist with United Nations TV who visited the scene.
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The school consisted of two floors with an addition built in the rear over a 200-foot ravine, Shaw said by telephone. The steep hillside, she said, is covered with shanty-like housing on both sides.

The disaster occurred when the second floor crumbled onto the first, Shaw said.

You can do it too!

Haiti! It is time we unite together and help each other in their accomplishment of their dreams. Yes we can! No matter your dreams always go for it! No mountain is too high just give it your best and therefore hope for the best! This goes to all people!

God bless!

Congratulations to the 44th elected President of the US

It's been a though race with millions spent in campaigning and tonight we just witness history in the making. Mr. Barack Obama is the 44th elected President of the United States of America. I wish him success! President Obama is the first African American to be elected president of this great country. But remember, this is not about race 'cause let's be realistic if only black people voted for Obama, he would not have been able to have such a sweeping victory over his opponents. So, it means that it was black and white and Hispanic etc... putting themselves together to vote. Let's all be united as one and work together forgetting about race issues or religion and country of origin. Remember, together we are stronger and divide we are weaker.

May God bless and protect President Obama and his family as well as the new Vice president Joe Biden. I know President Obama will be reading this blog and I want to tell him please remember Haiti.

Election day in America

Today American citizens from all the over the US are casting their vote to choose their next president. It's gonna be a very interesting day. This election is a very historic one. First it is the longest running campaign, with the outcome if Obama is elected, he will be the first Afro-American to be in power and if Mcain is elected he will be the oldest president to be president.

The message is out for everybody to vote no matter their choice. Voting is making your voice count and not voting is voting for somebody you would not vote for. I hope we learn from this in Haiti as well.

Enjoy!

Just wondering...

I know I am not going crazy and I know I am not the only one around asking why all this on Haiti? 4 disaster in a month! Even the most powerful countries in the world can not take it let alone Haiti. What is going on? Has God forsaken us when we need him the most? I surely know that if we seek him he will make himself available. I might not know the reason why all this happen, cause a lot of innocents people die but one thing I am sure of is that he says do not worry, if he can take care of the lily and the sparrow he surely is watching over us. May be this is the part of the story where he is not walking by our side, nor in front of us but rather he is holding us helping us go through this hard time.

Please if you can help, do not hesitate to do so> Fine a reliable organization though to make sure your efforts go where it should be. I thought it would be really appropriate to end the blog with this song: His eye is on the sparrow.

We are the world!

Another dedication to Haiti!
I love this so much I still can't get over it!

Leave your kind thoughts for Haiti

As you all knwo by now this past September was a total disaster for Haiti. The country got hit by 4 sucessive hurricanes and thundestorms. I am reserving this particular blog as a way for you to come and leave a message for Haiti and the Haitian people all over the world. I reserve the right to deny your post if I judge it inappropriate and/or direspectful. Thanks for your participation. I have posted with a song from a movie by Tyller Perry, Diary of a mad black woman: "Father can you hear me" please enjoy. Remenber to scroll down and turn off the default music when you want t hear /view a video.

Once again thanks for your thoughts.

Meet the president of Haiti

René Préval - son of agronomist Claude Préval and Céline Talleyrand - was born in Port-au-Prince on January 17, 1943. He is father to two daughters, Dominique and Patricia.

He studies agronomy in Belgium at Gembloux and Louvain and geothermal sciences at the University of Pisa in Italy.

Upon his return in Haiti in 1975, he works at the Minister of Mine and Energy.

In 1988, he opens a private practice and a bakery.

Starting in 1976 René Préval joins the fight against Jean Claude Duvalier’s dictatorial regime in favor of the establishment of democracy in Haiti. He then becomes a member of resistance groups against the Duvalier regime, a founding member of the association called “Honor and Respect” fighting for the strict observance of the 1987 Constitution and presides over the “Comité Pa Bliye” (Let’s not forget committee) dedicated to missing persons’ cases that occurred during the Duvalier regime .

On the 13th of February 1991, René Préval becomes the Prime Minister (and, also at the same time Minister of Interior and Defense) of President Jean Bertrand Aristide, winner in 1990 of the first free election in Haiti since independence in 1804. However, René Préval goes into exile in September 1991 when Haiti’s first truly democratic experience is interrupted by a coup d’état undertaken by the military. He first seeks refuge in various embassies in Port-au-Prince before leaving for Washington where he resides until October 1994.

Upon the return of the constitutional Government in 1994, René Préval becomes Director of the Economic and Social Assistance Fund (FAES).

In December 1995, René Préval is elected President of Haiti for a five year-term. He takes the oath of office on February 7, 1996.

In February 2001, upon completing his term, René Préval retires to Marmelade, his father’s hometown, and there he dedicates himself to local development activities.

As a candidate for the 2006 presidential elections, René Préval scores a first-round win on February 7, 2006. He is sworn into office on the 14th of May 2006 as the 55th President of Haiti.

source: http://www.haiti.org/president_of_haiti.htm

Official Holidays in Haiti

January 1: Independence Day
January 2: Ancestors' Day
May 1: Agriculture and Labor Day
May 18: Flag and University Day
October 17: Anniversary of the Death of Jean-Jacques Dessalines
October 24: United Nations Day
November 1: All Saints Day
November 2: All Souls Day
November 18: Battle of Vertières' Day
December 25: Christmas Day

Legal / Religious / Traditional Holidays (some dates vary according to the liturgical calendar of the Catholic Church)


Carnival (Monday through Ash Wednesday)
Good Friday
Pan-American Day: April 14
Ascension Thursday
Feast of the Assumption
Corpus Christi

WARNING ! GRAPHIC IMAGES HURRICANE DEVASTATION IN CABARET

I got this image from a Haitian tv station. It is very graphic and not suitable for children. I can not emphacize enough these images are graphics and show dead bodies. At anytime if this is too much for you please stop the video. I though about a lot before putting it up.

Thanks to all for you care in any shapes or forms, may God bless you all! Keep on praying and helping Haiti in anyways you can.

HAitians living abroad this is a message for you: Ann fè tout sa nou kapab pou nou ede peyi-a menm si nou pa ka voye lajan, gaye nouvèl! Spread the word and let everybody know about what's going on! You might not be able to help financially, just try to do something.

God bless!!!

Now, if you decide to watch these images, please understand this is the reality people are living in! You draw your own conclusion! In case you decide to help, they are numerous reputable organization in the US or all over the world that are helping and one of them is the Red Cross, make sure you verify before you donate. Sadly some people take advantage of this horrible catastrophy to scam people.

Ike update!

by Isabel Sanchez Sun Sep 7, 5:29 PM ET

HAVANA (AFP) - Hurricane Ike took aim at Cuba Sunday after leaving 20 people dead in Haiti, where fatalities from a succession of powerful storms in the past few weeks now tops 600.
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Ike was downgraded Sunday from a Category Four hurricane to a still potentially devastating Category Three, as Cuba evacuated hundreds of thousands in a frantic bid to evade the storm's fury.

Officials in Haiti meanwhile, continued aid operations in the flood-stricken town of Gonaives, which has borne the brunt of recent flooding and seen untold misery and destruction .

Ike plowed across the low-lying Turks and Caicos overnight as a powerful Category Four storm, causing some injuries and extensive damage on the British territory and tourist haven, Bahamas radio reported.

The hurricane then raked the southeastern Bahamian island of Great Inagua, toppling trees, blowing off roofs, causing an island-wide power failure and forcing many of its one thousand residents to seek refuge in shelters, a resident told AFP by telephone.

With winds decreasing slightly to 120 miles (195 kilometers) per hour, the storm was forecast to roar ashore in eastern Cuba Sunday night as a Category Three "major hurricane" on the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale.

But the immediate concern was its effect on Haiti , where a humanitarian crisis was unfolding after flooding from Ike and previous storms Hanna and Gustav left around 600 people dead and thousands in desperate need of food, clean water and shelter.

With winds near 215 kilometers (135 miles) per hour, the storm's outer bands lashed Haiti's vulnerable northwest coast with torrential rain.

Hundreds of bodies were found in flood-prone Gonaives, a town of 350,000 in northwestern Haiti, after a five-meter (16-foot) wall of water and mud engulfed much of the town. The storm followed on the heels of Hanna, last week's massive storm.

United Nations peacekeepers on Saturday evacuated several thousand residents from Gonaives, a local official said, but thousands more are still awaiting relief.

Some 650,000 Haitians have been affected by the flooding, including 300,000 children, and the task of delivering crucial aid has been complicated by dismal transport conditions, according to UNICEF.

Officials said 200,000 people have been without food and clean water, many for four days.

At least 20 people were found dead Sunday in Cabaret, 13 of them children, when a torrent of muddy water raged through the village, the region's parliamentarian said.

"What has happened here is unimaginable," deputy Pierre-Gerome Valcine told AFP from Cabaret, 35 kilometers (22 miles) north of the capital Port-Au-Prince.

"Many homes were destroyed in Cabaret, and we have seen some bodies of children in the water," added a journalist for UN radio who spent the night on the roof of his house.

Massive flooding over the past week in the poorest country in the Americas has triggered a humanitarian crisis that was worsening by the day -- and prompted prayers from Pope Benedict XVI.

"I want to remember the dear population of Haiti, greatly distressed in recent days by passing hurricanes," Benedict told pilgrims on the Italian island of Sardinia.

Continuing stormy weather hampered relief efforts Sunday, when heavy rains led to the collapse of a key bridge which severed the only viable land route to Gonaives.

The bridge gave way overnight at the town of Mirebalais in central Haiti, forcing three trucks loaded with emergency supplies and bound for Saint-Marc, where thousands of desperate flood refugees from Gonaives were crowding into shelters, to turn back, according to a World Food Programme official.

Many bridges in other areas of Haiti have also collapsed, homes have been washed away and crops ravaged.

Meanwhile, more than 600,000 people in Cuba began evacuations Sunday ahead of the Ike's arrival, including 9,210 foreign tourists who were moved out of Varadero, a tourism mecca about 120 kilometers (75 miles) east of Havana.

Cuban Vice President Jose Ramon Machado, meeting with authorities in Holguin, urged people to "carry out the evacuation in an orderly and speedy fashion," and to take steps to "avoid the loss of life."

Ike was expected to eventually careen past Florida into the Gulf of Mexico and sweep toward Louisiana and the storm-battered city of New Orleans as early as Tuesday.

Hurricane Ike Update

By JONATHAN M. KATZ, Associated Press Writer
Sun Sep 7, 10:00 PM ET



GONAIVES, Haiti - Haitians took to their roofs to escape rising floodwaters for the second time in a week on Sunday as squalls from Hurricane Ike killed 58 people and collapsed a bridge that cut the last land route into the starving city of Gonaives.

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All but one of Sunday's victims came in the Cabaret area north of Port-au-Prince, according to civil defense director Maria-Alta Jean Baptiste. She said another three bodies were found in Gonaives, victims of an earlier storm. They pushed Haiti's death toll to at least 319 from four storms that have hit the country in less than a month.

Witnesses in Cabaret said floodwaters rushed into homes in the middle of the night, crushing walls and reaching chest-high levels before receding Sunday morning and leaving everything caked in mud.

In the Always Funeral Home, 21 mud-crusted bodies were piled in a small room, unclaimed. Two of them were pregnant, one still clutching a small girl to her chest.

"We took refuge in one room and waited there all night and prayed," said Sister Marie Denise, who was trapped by waist-high waters in the house she shares with four nuns. They evacuated to the nearby school they run after the waters receded.

"We don't know if one of our girls is among the dead," she said of her students.

The rain had stopped by late afternoon, but authorities feared flooding could continue as water collecting in the mountains continued to run downhill. Much of Gonaives remained inaccessible even to United Nations peacekeepers in trucks because of rising waters and strong currents.

As the peacekeepers delivered aid to the parts of Gonaives they could still reach, scores of young men splashed alongside, begging for help. One called out with a bullhorn: "Hey, hey, my friend. Give me some water."

Food and fuel prices both skyrocketed, with gasoline reaching 500 Haitian gourdes (US$13) a gallon.

The U.N. beefed up security in Gonaives, which was isolated and pummeled by rains for four days last week during Tropical Storm Hanna. The city was cut off again Sunday when flooding caused the collapse of the Mirebalais bridge in central Haiti.

Relief workers in Gonaives said they had enough emergency food supplies for the next couple of days, but distributing it to the needy became ever more complicated.

A line of 3,000 people snaked around a warehouse-turned-U.N. shelter, and several hundred pushed and shoved to break down the door, only to be quickly subdued by Bolivian troops in riot gear.

Workers spent four hours handing our water and high-protein biscuits. But people were growing tired of relief food and started to demand rice, which has gone up 60 percent in price since the storms.

"We would like to eat some real food," said shelter resident Esaie St. Juste. "Rice, beans, sardines. Haitian people like real food."

Above Haiti's coastal floodplain, in the Artibonite Valley, authorities prepared to open an overflowing dam, inundating more homes and possibly causing lasting damage to Haiti's "rice bowl," a farming area whose revival is key to rescuing the starving country.

"Please evacuate as soon as you can," Agriculture Minister Joanas Gay urged Artibonite residents on state-run Radio Nationale.

Rains also pelted Haiti's northern coast as the storm made its way from the Bahamas west toward Cuba. But a U.N. humanitarian aid coordinator said there were no reports of major flooding, deaths or evacuations there.

___

Associated Press Writer Alexandra Olson in Cabaret contributed to this report.

Aftermath From Hurricane Hanna (AP)

Hanna pounds Haiti

Hanna pounds Haiti
September 03, 2008 05:35 EDT


SAINT-MARC, Haiti (AP) -- Hurricane Hanna could be affecting the U.S. within days -- and it's proving to be a killer.

At least 21 people are dead in Haiti, where families scrambled onto rooftops to stay above floodwaters triggered by torrents of rain.

Rescue workers have had a difficult time getting to victims.

Hanna's meandering off the country's northern coast, with 60 mile-per-hour winds.

A U.N. official says "the situation is as bad as it can be" in Haiti. It's been pummeled by three storms in two weeks and more than 100 people have died.

At least one death from Hanna has been confirmed in Puerto Rico.

Hanna could regain hurricane strength and turn toward the east coast of Florida, Georgia or South Carolina in the next few days.

Hurricane update

Haïti-Cyclone-Bilan

L’ouragan Hanna fait au moins 14 morts en Haïti
Sous les eaux, Gonaïves revit l’horreur de 2004 tandis que les dégâts sont très élevés à travers le pays

mardi 2 septembre 2008,

Radio Kiskeya

Au moins 14 personnes ont été tuées mardi au cours du passage sur Haïti de l’ouragan Hanna qui, selon les régions, déversait des pluies diluviennes ou faisait souffler des vents en rafale ayant provoqué d’énormes dégâts matériels et la désolation au sein de la population.

Déjà victime d’une incroyable tragédie en septembre 2004 lorsque la tempête tropicale Jeanne avait fait 3.000 morts, la ville des Gonaïves (171 km au nord de Port-au-Prince) a été sévèrement touchée. Un bilan encore provisoire dressé mardi soir par la protection civile et les autorités locales faisait état d’au moins douze morts. Interrogé par Radio Kiskeya, le commissaire de police Ernst Dorfeuille a confié avoir vu des corps flottant sur les eaux.

Alors que des responsables haïtiens et représentants de la communauté internationale annonçaient des interventions d’urgence en vue de procéder à des évacuations, jusqu’en début de soirée des éléments de la population civile continuaient de lancer désespérément des appels à l’aide. Juchés sur le toit de leurs maisons dans une ville située en-dessous du niveau de la mer, ils regardaient avec angoisse la dangereuse montée l’eau qui atteignait par endroit plus de 2,50 m de hauteur.

Un correspondant bénévole de Radio Kiskeya, Edson Mondélus, a indiqué que de nombreux habitants étaient complètement isolés et sérieusement menacés tandis que d’autres, un peu plus chanceux, cherchaient à se réfugier dans les étages supérieurs de certaines constructions élevées. Les équipes de la protection civile arrivées sur place étaient dans l’impossibilité de fournir l’assistance nécessaire aux personnes en danger.

Le journaliste dit craindre une catastrophe d’une ampleur encore plus grande que celle de l’été 2004 qui avait transformé les rues de la Cité de l’indépendance en un vaste spectacle d’horreur.

Selon le Député des Gonaïves, Arsène Dieujuste, une délégation dirigée par le Premier ministre ratifié, Michèle Pierre-Louis, et comprenant des parlementaires était attendue dans la région mardi après-midi. Cependant, deux véhicules du cortège auraient été victimes d’un accident qui aurait fait des blessés, ont confié à Radio Kiskeya des sources proches de la Présidence.

Outre Gonaïves, diverses autres communes de l’Artibonite étaient confrontées à de graves inondations. La situation n’était pas meilleure à Jacmel (Sud-Est) et aux Cayes (Sud) et au Borgne (Nord) où des rivières sont sorties de leur lit.

Dans l’Ouest, à Fonds-Verrettes, des témoins ont raconté avoir vu de violents coups de vents emporter les toits de toutes les maisons de la ville. Même un abri provisoire n’a pu résister à la puissance des rafales ayant atteint jusqu’à 110km/h, plongeant dans le désarroi ceux qui y ont été hébergés.

A Port-au-Prince, le chauffeur de la ministre à la condition féminine et aux droits de la femme, Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lassègue, a été gravement blessé au visage lorsqu’une partie du toit du ministère a été arrachée. Gaspard Ziméro a dû être hospitalisé d’urgence pour recevoir des soins appropriés. Affirmant que cet accident avait créé une folle panique, Mme Lassègue précise que tout le personnel du ministère a été renvoyé précipitamment.

Même si le cyclone, rétrogradé entre-temps en tempête tropicale, faiblissait mardi soir en s’éloignant des côtes d’Haïti, des rafales continuaient d’abattre toits de maisons, arbres et pylônes électriques particulièrement dans la capitale et ses environs.

Huitième tempête tropicale de la saison, Hanna a suivi de trois semaines la tempête Fay et de quelques jours seulement l’ouragan Gustav qui a balayé, la semaine dernière, les îles de la Caraïbe avec un lourd bilan de 77 morts seulement en Haïti.

Très mouvementée, la saison cyclonique 2008 qui s’achève officiellement le 30 novembre, n’a pas fini de surprendre. Déjà, les prévisionnistes annoncent la naissance au cours des dernières heures d’autres systèmes dans l’Océan Atlantique. spp/radio Kiskeya

S.O.S for Gonaives, Haiti

Dear friends,

Please say a special prayer for the people of Gonaives. Gonaives is a also called the city of the independence. The city is being pounded with rain a residents are actually staying on the top of their roof according to a report I heard live caraibesfm.com I do give praise to God that the storm did not do too much damage in LA but unfortunately it is not the same in Haiti. According to the reporters the sea and the rives all become one. We do not have a pumping system like in the US and according to one official the water level is about 3 meters high.

Gonaïves (Gonayiv in Kréyòl) is a city in northern Haïti, the capital of the Artibonite Department. It has a population of about 104,825 people (2003 census). The city's name derives from the original Amerindian name of Gonaibo. It is located at about 100 Kilometers (55 miles) northwest of Port-Au-Prince

It is also known as Haïti's "independence city" because it was there that Gen. Jean-Jacques Dessalines declared Haïti's independence on January 1, 1804.

In September 2004, Hurricane Jeanne caused major flooding and mudslides in the city. 3,006 people were confirmed dead in Haïti, and the death toll in Gonaïves was believed to have topped 2,000. Every building in the city was damaged by the storm, and 250,000 people were left homeless.

If you read our previous blogs you will be able to see how Gustave affected us now I am not sure if this is the reminiscent of Gustav or just the impact of Hannah.

Please, please help anyway you can. If you have families over there please land them a helping hand otherwise if there is any organization over there you can help people with relief.

God bless!

Haïti-Intempéries

Gustav : 59 morts, des disparus, des dégâts matériels importants en Haïti
Bilan encore provisoire

vendredi 29 août 2008,

Radio Kiskeya



Le bilan du passage de la tempête tropicale Gustav sur Haïti s’est considérablement alourdi jeudi passant à 59 morts, selon des données encore provisoires fournies à Radio Kiskeya par la protection civile.

Un précédent bilan faisait état d’une vingtaine de décès enregistrés dans les régions les plus touchées, notamment le Sud-Est et les Nippes (sud-ouest).

Le directeur adjoint de la protection civile, l’ingénieur Pierre-Louis Pinchinat, a annoncé qu’outre les 59 personnes décédées, 7 autres étaient encore portées disparues. La catastrophe a également fait 25 blessés, 3.478 familles sinistrées et 8.082 déplacés. Ces derniers ont été acheminés dans des centres d’hébergement.

Au chapitre des dégâts matériels, 1.283 maisons ont été détruites et 2.195 autres endommagées à travers le pays.

M. Pinchinat précise que les départements les plus affectés sont dans l’ordre, le Sud-Est, les Nippes et l’Ouest.

Au moins 35 personnes ont été tuées dans le premier, 18 dans le deuxième et 13 dans le dernier.

Par ailleurs, diverses communes et localités de la Grand’Anse (sud-ouest) étaient sous les eaux et sévèrement touchées jeudi soir.

Gustav, qui a laissé Haïti mercredi, se dirigeait jeudi vers la Jamaïque et menaçait la Louisiane. spp/radio Kiskeya