IDEALS

WASHINGTON, (May 5, 2010) IPS/GIN – The U.S. House of
Representatives Wednesday approved a major trade bill designed to
boost U.S. and other investment in Haiti’s textile and apparel
industry following January’s devastating earthquake in which at
least 200,000 people are believed to have been killed.

The bipartisan bill, which passed by voice vote, could be approved
by the Senate and sent on to the White House for President Barrack
Obama’s signature as early as next week, according to Congressional
staff. Read the rest of this entry →

PORT-AU-PRINCE, (Apr. 8, 2010) IPS/GIN – For decades, the Saint
Louis de Gonzague school has groomed some of Haiti’s most elite
political players. Francois Duvalier, the iron-fisted dictator who
ruled Haiti for 14 years, sent his son to the school. About 1,500
children of Haiti’s wealthiest class attend each year.

Within days of the January earthquake, the sparse concrete grounds
of the Gonazague secondary school became home to nearly 11,000
Haitian families, driven out of destroyed neighborhoods in central
Port-Au-Prince.

Now the school’s director wants to reopen the school. The
government encouraged schools to resume classes on Monday, calling
it another small step towards normalcy. Read the rest of this entry →

PORT AU PRINCE, (Jun. 15, 2009) IPS/GIN – Crisis has gripped the
National University of Haiti (UEH), which has operated for the past
two months under the constant threat of student strikes, demanding
the reinstatement of cancelled courses and an increase in pay to
the country’s minimum wage earners.

Several of the schools which make up the UEH, including the Liberal
Arts School and the School of Social Science, remain paralyzed,
with students in those departments joining in solidarity with
students on strike from the School of Medicine and Pharmacology
(FMP) and the School of Medical Technology (ETM). Read the rest of this entry →

PARIS, (Mar. 25, 2010) IPS/GIN – As international donors prepare
to meet at the United Nations headquarters in New York to discuss
ways to rebuild Haiti after the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake, the
country’s artistic community has been mobilizing to make culture
a key aspect of reconstruction.

Led by Haiti’s minister for culture and communication,
Marie-Laurence Jocelyn-Lassägue, writers, artists and musicians
gathered in Paris this week at the U.N.’s cultural agency, UNESCO,
to map out medium- and long-term strategies for “recreating” the
Caribbean nation. Read the rest of this entry →

PORT-AU-PRINCE, (Jul. 8, 2009) IPS/GIN – In the shadow of the
Eglise Sainte Claire in the Petite Place Cazeau neighbourhood of
Haiti’s bustling capital, Frantz Saintil is visiting his daughter
and reflecting on the more than two decades he spent abroad before
finding himself back in his native country of Haiti seven years
ago.

“It didn’t take me long to become very Americanized,” says Saintil,
34, who left Haiti for Canada and eventually the United States with
his family when he was six years old.

“I like baseball and apple pie and everything American. I didn’t
want to be identified as Haitian and discriminated against. I
didn’t understand their way of dress, their musical preferences.
I was more into rock, some R&B, country music. I didn’t identify
with them at all.” Read the rest of this entry →

LEOGANE, (Mar. 1, 2010) IPS/GIN – Marie Saintus sat regally on a
wicker chair in the narrow alley by her makeshift home at the
Anacaona Stadium, in the middle of this once bucolic city, as she
teased her neighbours.

“Oh, don’t take pictures of food,” Saintus said jokingly. “We don’t
want people to know that we have food. Here, take a picture of that
little girl. She looks like she needs help.” Read the rest of this entry →

ROSEAU (Mar. 12, 2010) IPS/GIN – As he travels back to
his headquarters in Washington, World Bank president Robert
Zoellick must be painfully aware that Caribbean Community (CARICOM)
countries have very strong feelings on the redevelopment of Haiti
following the Jan. 12 earthquake.

Zoellick met with regional leaders on Thursday, the first of the
two-day CARICOM intersessional summit. While Haitian President RenÇ
PrÇval was not present, Caribbean leaders there pressed for a
“designated development fund for Haiti where all the resources
which have been pledged by various countries and institutions could
be deposited into a special account”. Read the rest of this entry →