photos - lavalas - 19th anniversary march - part 5

After the speeches were made the people started heading home.

This band led the way.

The police did not have any major incidents at the CEP building.

It was a peaceful protest and the police watched as the people headed for home.

Manu and Benson are enjoying hoarding bottle caps with the hope of winning a prize from the Coca Cola/Seven Up company.

photos - various

Poor Kimosabee broke his back. It was a large repair.

The springs sprung! Instead of stacked they formed a fan. 2 of the plates on the right side and 1 on the left broke. The mechanic was able to find some replacements again and Kimosabee was rolling again on Friday!

Port-au-Prince has some decorations up for Christmas. This is the large christmas tree that the Sogebank on Delmas puts up every year.

They also put out a nativity scene.

The older guys put up our christmas tree. They had fun! Have a blessed Christmas as we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

VIDEO - O HOLY NIGHT

O Holy Night is one of my favorite christmas carols. Celine Dion is a Canadian and she sings this song well. The person who made the slides to go along with the music did a good job too. To watch the video follow the link to:


www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AgOMsXLCtw

haiti update - december 20, 2009

“And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.”
Luke 2:8-11.

Hi! This week was a busy week with the school program. The students wrote their 2nd Controle Exams from Monday to Thursday. Also on Thursday the children made decorations in preparation for the Christmas party on Friday. They had a lot of fun. A team from the United States made a visit and treated the children to some treats and gifts. The children sang a couple of songs for the visitors and when the visitors left the teachers organized some games. The report cards were done and we had a parents meeting on Sunday afternoon. The children also sang some songs for their parents as well. There was a question and answer time with the parents and one of the parents stood up and said that some people look for a “big” school or notice that a school is a “small” school. But this parent says she is relieved that her child is in school and learning and this is what she looks at. It was good for the teachers to hear words of support from the parents. This week we received a blessing of some more Feed My Starving Children food from Love a Child and we shared this with the parents. The school program will be on Christmas break until January 4th and the children will miss their meal that is cooked for them each school day. The gift bag of food we gave to each parent will help them provide food for their children during the Christmas break. We give the Lord thanks for this assistance.
Kimosabee had some big problems this week. He broke his back (leaf springs). I knew there was something not right but I decided to take a chance because the truck insurance was due on the 15th and in order to renew it I had to get an “expertise” (verify that the motor and identification numbers are the same) done at the insurance office. When we left the expertise area there was some bad noises coming from the underneath of the truck and I pulled in at the CDTI hospital compound to get the truck off the street. The springs are normally stacked one on top of the other but the right side looked like a fan. We finished paying the insurance anyway and then went to the accident department and asked them for suggestions of who we could get for a tow truck. The friendly policeman there gave us a note to the police officer (Patrick) over at Circulation and Amos took a motorcycle to go find him. A little while later the tow truck came. It was a well-worn tow truck and the tires were a little bald. We headed up Rue Chretien, which is a steep hill, and because of the bald tires the tow truck driver could not drive straight up the hill. He zigzagged up the hill instead. I was sitting in front in between the driver and the policeman and I was hoping that they would not sideswipe Kimosabee against something. It worked out well and we made it home. The tow truck driver gave me his card so that we can just call him the next time Kimosabee has problems. Kimosabee was fixed on Friday and he now has a healthy back and new shock absorbers too!
While we were downtown we passed in front of the palace and they had a large Christmas tree on the lawn. We saw a group of people but they were not singing Christmas carols in front of the Christmas tree. They were in front of Aristide’s (ex-president of Haiti) statue, which is across the street, and were holding a banner. On Wednesday the Lavalas political party, which Aristide founded, had a march through the streets from the downtown area up Delmas and to the front of the CEP (electoral building). About 3,000 supporters were in this group commemorating the 19th anniversary of the year Aristide was first elected as president. The people were requesting the return of Aristide, denouncing President Preval and the resignation of the members of the electoral council. The UN and the Haitian police provided security and the march up to the CEP building was calm. There were some thieves mixed in amongst the people that were walking and the people handed them off to the police. We saw the police walk with one young man and put him into the back of their pickup truck. The people were telling the police to take the thief away. Aristide still has a large following especially amongst the poor. There were even some elderly and handicapped people amongst the supporters. As the group got near the CEP building the publicity truck started blaring Christian music from the speakers. Leaders of the group spoke from the microphone and after a while announced that the protest was over and everyone turned around and headed for home. The Lavalas and Lespwa (Preval’s party) are both barred from the upcoming elections, which will be held in 2010. Preval has created a new party called Unity. Some of the members of the Lavalas party are joining other political parties. Pray for the electoral process and for peaceful elections.
Coca Cola/Seven Up is offering prizes under their bottle caps. Sometimes a “free” drink sign appears or a $ sign shows up. Collecting 3 “$” signs means you can fill in one ticket for a draw. Manu and Benson are enjoying hunting for bottle caps in search of prizes. Benson came up to me one day and asked if he could look for bottle caps on the street in front of our house. A little later I drove down Delmas 31 and saw a child using a stick poking through the sewer water at the side of the road. It was Benson. I stopped and asked him what he was doing. He told me he was searching for bottle caps. I was embarrassed and told him to go home. People on the street were laughing. Every few days the children take their bottle caps with the “$” signs to the coke depot to fill out the tickets for the draw. Manu came back the other day from the coke depot excited about seeing an arrest on our street corner. He told me the story about the naked thief. The previous evening the police were patrolling and heard a sound. A naked man was removing the tires from a broken down vehicle near the mayor’s garage. The guy was naked because he figured with his black skin nobody would seem him in the dark. The policeman flashed a light in his direction and the man scooped up his clothes and ran. The police must have recognized him because the man who was arrested on the corner was one of the tire changers. Manu told me the man tried to punch one of the police officers and before he knew it his hands were behind his back and he was on the ground. Manu was impressed with the skill of the policemen. The Coca Cola contest will be over soon. It has been fun watching the kids hoard their treasure of bottle caps!
My nephew John is out of hospital. He spent a difficult time recovering from his surgery on the blocked shunt but was finally able to go home on Saturday. When John wasn’t doing so well the doctors had thought that he might be in the hospital through Christmas. That is a great Christmas present that he is not in the hospital.
Have a blessed Christmas from everyone here at Coram Deo!

Karen Bultje, Coram Deo

ARTICLE - MIAMI HERALD - HOTELIERS, INVESTMENTS

HOTELIERS LEAD INVESTMENT CHARGE IN "HAITI OF TOMORROW"

Led by hoteliers, Haiti's private sector is fueling a wave of investment in a country long saddled with a bad rap for business.

BY JACQUELINE CHARLES

PETIONVILLE, Haiti -- Within the elegant brick walls of the new hillside Oasis, locals dine on lobster, sip $300-a-bottle Dom Perignon, then relax in a sleek lounge.

Just outside, the skeleton of an exclusive boutique hotel, featuring a rooftop helipad and 300-car garage, dominates the pastel orange landscape.

It could be a scene out of Coral Gables or South Beach. But it's not.

``I have folks say to me: `You'll never think you are in Haiti,' '' said Jerry Tardieu, 42, the visionary behind the Oasis in this Port-au-Prince suburb. ``I tell them, `It is Haiti. It's the Haiti of tomorrow.' ''

Five years after Haiti plunged into lawlessness, this investment-hungry nation is riding a wave of improved security and relative calm. The result: a renewed sense of investor confidence by an unlikely crowd -- the local business elite.

The hotel industry is leading the charge. Within walking distance of the Oasis, an upscale Best Western is rising, soon to become the country's first new international-brand hotel in a decade.

``We are now willing to invest our money and effort in this nation,'' said Christopher Handal, 36, president of the Haitian-family-run company that is behind the Best Western venture. Often despised for their opposition to the government and highfalutin lifestyle, Haitian business leaders are now joining with President René Préval to recruit foreign investors.

Among those heeding the call: Vietnamese looking to invest in the state-run telephone company and Brazilians interested in manufacturing clothing.

The change comes as Haiti's international supporters, led by former U.S. President Bill Clinton, call on the Caribbean nation to encourage the kinds of investments that create jobs.

``The approach of the private sector, the way we perceive the government, it's all totally different today,'' Richard Coles, a Haitian manufacturer, told an audience of hemispheric business leaders during a Haiti investment seminar at a Miami conference last week.

``Mentalities are changing in Haiti,'' he said. ``There is a new synergy, a new enthusiasm.''

NEW INVESTMENTS
Only four years ago, a surge of kidnappings and violence had the wealthy in the hills of Petionville packing for Miami and Montreal. But in recent months, the area has welcomed:

• The Karibe Hotel & Convention Center. First conceived in 1996 by owner Richard Buteau, it was finally completed in February 2008. Family-owned, Karibe boasts a luxury spa, a lush courtyard and 87 rooms, including a presidential suite designed by Miami artist Romero Britto for its first guest: Clinton.

• The expansion of the Montana. One of Haiti's most well-known hotels, it has undergone several expansions since it was built in 1947. The latest involved replacing the tennis courts with an expansive commercial mall featuring designer shops, a wedding chapel and an infinity pool offering a breathtaking mountain view.

The center of Haiti's chattering classes, the hotel welcomes the competition, said Garthe Cardozo-Stefanson, a hotel co-owner.

``It sends the signal that Haiti has changed directions,'' she said.

• The renovation of El Rancho. Faced with the possibility of bankruptcy, the family of this private home-turned-hotel and casino recently sold controlling interest to a new group of investors. They are drawing up new plans and hope to attract a Hilton franchise. In 2002, Hilton planned to invest in Haiti but pulled out as the country descended into turmoil.

• The Oasis Complex. The L-shaped, $19 million multi-use development was once the site of Haiti's landmark Le Picardie restaurant, which in its heyday hosted Marlon Brando and Walter Cronkite. Builders kept the original brick walls, which today feature the designs of Haitian architect Nadine Hippolyte and are festooned with well-stocked mahogany wine racks. Exterior wood walkways lead past a lush tropical garden to a South Beach-inspired lounge.

The most unique feature isn't the sold-out, high-end office space but the ability of travelers to avoid the traffic-clogged streets of Port-au-Prince by shuttling from airport to hotel rooftop aboard a helicopter.

Travel time: 10 minutes.

Tardieu is proud that the Oasis is blossoming with money from 100 Haitian investors, ranking from schoolteachers to business titans -- ``not a dime from foreign investors.''

``Just look around Petionville and you see how much money Haitian investors are pouring into big buildings, whether they be supermarkets, banks or other financial buildings,'' he said.

Gladys Coupet, Citibank's manager for Haiti and the chairwoman of a presidential commission on competition, said ``there is a determination both locally and from the international community that Haiti has to make progress.''

Although progress has been made -- for instance, it now takes 75 days instead of 195 to form a company -- Haiti still must work to shed its reputation for offering an abysmal business climate.

In a ranking of business-friendly countries, Haiti recently moved up three spots, but it is still 151st out of 183 --just ahead of Tajikistan, according to a recent World Bank study.

The United States wants to see Haiti pass legislation to protect investors and make it easy for Haitian Americans to start businesses in their homeland. They also want to see long-held monopolies dismantled and competition welcomed.

PUSHING PAST BLAME
Haiti's economic elite have long been criticized for looking out for themselves and doing the bare minimum to foster economic development, but that's a bum rap, said Reginald Boulos, head of the National Chamber of Commerce and Industry, a federation of 10 regional chambers.

``The notion that the private sector in Haiti has been on the sidelines is false,'' said Boulos, who is courting the Hilton chain to take over the El Rancho project.

``The Haitian private sector has also been a victim of the instability of the last 20 years and is poorer today than it was 20 years ago.''

He blames the politicians for ``creating such a bad environment for any investment.''

But the new alliance between the economic and political elite was evident last week when powerful Haitian businessman Edouard Baussan and the country's leading shippers used the Miami conference to highlight Haiti's progress. Sitting at the head table: recently installed Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive, who received a standing ovation following his ``Haiti-is-open-for-business'' speech.

``People have started to want to believe in Haiti,'' said businessman Gregory Mevs.

``We've said to ourselves, `We as the private sector have a responsibility to deliver.'

VIDEO - TOURISM - OASIS OF THE SEAS - LABADEE

There is tourism in Haiti. The world's biggest cruise ship just made its first visit to Labadee Haiti the other week. This video shows how beautiful Haiti can be. To watch the video follow the link to:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcW1hmtC5-s

ARTICLE - NYT - TOURISM

HEALTHY REEFS BUOY HAITIAN HOPES FOR TOURISM REVIVAL

By NATHANIAL GRONEWOLD of Greenwire
Published: November 23, 2009
Fifth in a six-part series on Haiti's environmental problems.

ARCADINS COAST, Haiti -- There was a time when Haiti was known as the "Pearl of the Antilles," a Caribbean vacation destination as famous as Jamaica or Puerto Rico are today.

Haiti's sandy beaches and coral reefs lured tourists by the boatload. Its 1,100 miles of coast offered playgrounds for scuba divers, yachtsmen and cruise ships. And the tourism trade until the early 1990s provided solid incomes for Haitians.

"It was much easier because you had a lot of tourists," recalled Jose Roy, a Haitian dive master here. "You really didn't have to fight for survival."

The government and private entities want the good old days and the tourists to return. They are pouring money into schemes aimed at restoring and protecting marine areas, much of which are still pristine despite the devastation wrought on land by deforestation and dense development of wetlands and floodplains.

Haiti even came close to establishing a national marine reserve here before yet another government was ousted at the end of October, an indication that political instability may still get in the way of marine and coastal restoration.

That Haiti has healthy marine resources is a small miracle. Its coastline have been damaged by unrestricted dumping, runoff from eroded and deforested mountains and uncontrolled fishing. Beaches near cities are littered with trash and sewage, and reefs close to shore are choked with silt washed into the water by torrential rains.

"As far as marine and coastal legislation goes, there is none," said Rafael Rodriguez-Leal, a researcher with Columbia University's Earth Institute who arrived here recently to help with U.N. work. "There are no quotas for fishing, there are no permits to be issued, and as long as you are a local fisherman, you don't need a license."

Reefs remain in good shape far offshore, though, including those off the coast of La Gonâve and the Arcadins Islands, a region activists hope to transform into Haiti's first marine park.

Coral formations there are as colorful and vibrant as in protected waters elsewhere in the Caribbean. But marine life is scarce. Smaller aquarium fish can be found, but these waters are almost completely devoid of stingrays, sharks, sea turtles, barracudas and other species common elsewhere.

"There's almost no fish in the water with you," said Jean Weiner, director of the Fondation pour la Protection de la Biodiversité Marine, or FoProBim.

Roy, a 30-year veteran of diving in Haiti, remembers when marine life was abundant. He also remembers catering to American, German, Swiss and Italian tourists who frequently came to his dive shop at the Kaliko Beach Club to explore the underwater environment.

Roy's business, Pegasus Diving, did brisk business right up to 1991, when turmoil picked up after former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted in a military coup. As security worsened, Haiti's tourism industry was among the first casualties. Club Med left, and many travel agencies followed. Persistent U.S. State Department warnings against travel to Haiti sped the collapse.

From 1997, everything fell apart. That year, Roy said, "was about the last time I had a good time."

Government chaos
Of 800,000 or so tourists who traveled to Haiti last year, almost all of them -- more than 500,000 -- were brought by Royal Caribbean cruise ships to the company's private and heavily guarded Labadee enclave on the north shore.

Elsewhere, beach hotels and dive shops do the bulk of their business with U.N. peacekeepers and aid workers enjoying their downtime, or with better-off Haitians looking for an escape.

Wiener, who has been running the Haitian nonprofit FoProBim for more than 20 years, believes conditions are ripe for a resurgence of tourism.

"We don't have the 20-kilometer-long white sandy beaches that you find in maybe the Dominican Republic, Cuba and Puerto Rico," Weiner said. "But there are plenty of areas which, in terms of scuba diving, coral reef conditions are in very, very good shape."

FoProBim sees particular promise in Haiti's long southern coast. Though damaged, the beaches on the south peninsula are larger and in better shape then those found elsewhere.

Conservationists point to the reefs off Île à Vache, in the far southwest, as one of the better examples of Haiti's surviving marine environment.

But the Arcadins Coast, stretching from Port-au-Prince northward to Saint Marc, has the best chance of bouncing back in the short run, conservationists and tourism promoters say.

It is here where most of the larger beach hotels are found, including the former Club Med, redubbed the Indigo and now popular with Brazilian soldiers on leave. A Dominican company is busy repairing this stretch of road, cutting travel time to the capital and airport by half.

And it is here that FoProBim would like the government to establish the nation's first marine protected area, a zone where conservation would be paramount and fishing restricted in an effort to bring biodiversity back.

After years of painstaking assessment and planning, Wiener's work culminated in a draft presidential decree landing on the prime minister's desk last summer. It would have established an Arcadins and La Gonâve coastal marine park, one of eight the organization would like to create.

But government disorder got in the way.

The marine park idea was said to be gaining currency, the closest FoProBim had ever been to seeing it become reality. Then last month, a group of powerful senators voted to oust the prime minister, marking Haiti's fifth change of government in as many years.

Weiner figures he is now back to square one.

Restoration proceeds
Nevertheless, work continues on other fronts to restore and protect Haiti's coasts.

Rodriguez-Leal and a team with the U.N. Environment Programme are working with the government on a comprehensive survey of the coastline to determine which places would benefit most from protections.

In the past few months, their research has focused on the southern coast, with teams traveling from Le Cayes to Jacmel all the way to Anse à Pitres, near the Dominican border.

The Columbia University scholar is also reviewing every environment-related law on the books, in hopes of reviving these and getting the government to fill in legal gaps where they exist.

Officials are considering setting up a coast guard to enforce old and new laws.

The government has tapped millions of dollars from the Inter-American Development Bank to finance road construction all along the southern coast, long-term planning for the return of tourism. Work on the road to Saint Marc is almost complete.

Private-sector investment is growing, as well. Royal Caribbean is spending $55 million on enhancements to Labadee, building a giant pier designed to accommodate the world's largest cruise ship. Carnival is said to be in talks with the government on its own leasing arrangement. And officials are scrambling to build an efficient link between the burgeoning cruise ship port of call and the Citadelle near Cap-Haïtien, the largest fortress in the Americas, built in the early 1800s to keep the French out.

Meanwhile, locals insist security concerns have been overblown. Violence has been the main detriment to tourism, but it comes in spurts and is almost always political. Haitians say that in quiet times, their country has much lower violent crime rates than Jamaica or even the Dominican Republic. It is a claim borne out by international crime statistics -- murder rates are much higher in other large Caribbean states, with the exception of Cuba.

Though crime persists, U.N. officials say security is improving, and peacekeepers are now focused on training the national police. Alix Duplessey, a local hotel operator, says he has noticed the improvement: The national police force seems to be operating in a more professional manner, he said. At night, a heavy U.N. presence gives way to Haitian police checkpoints, a clear indication that government authority is gradually returning.

With better security, Haitians are now venturing out more to explore their own country, something previously unheard of. They say tourists should follow if the local population learns to respect and protect the environment.

"You have to teach people to respect certain rules if you want to get into international tourism, and you have to enforce them," Roy said. "Strong environmental protection will help the country, not only my business."

But it may be necessary to have the government first show a stronger commitment cleaning the coasts, a sentiment seemingly shared by most hoteliers and tour operators. Of the 2009-2010 national budget, 0.71 percent is devoted to the environment. Tourism promotion is promised 0.23 percent, though road and infrastructure improvements eat up a much larger share.

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