South Florida lawmakers call for granting special status to Haiti

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Tuesday, 06.23.09 Rec
South Florida lawmakers call for granting special status to Haiti
A bipartisan group of South Florida congressional lawmakers reiterate a call to the Obama administration to grant Temporary Protected Status to Haiti after a visit to the country.
By JACQUELINE CHARLES
[e-mail]

While progress is being made in a hurricane-ravaged Haiti, the country remains in need of assistance, including temporary relief from deportation for thousands of undocumented Haitians living in the United States, a South Florida congressional delegation said Monday after a day-long visit to the Caribbean nation.

Led by Miami Democrat Kendrick Meek, the group met with President René Préval, key Haitian business leaders, U.S. embassy personnel and U.S. Coast Guard officials. It included Weston Democrat Debbie Wasserman Schultz, along with Republicans Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, and Mario and Lincoln Diaz-Balart.

''There are so many wonderful things that are happening in Haiti,'' said Ros-Lehtinen, who highlighted the University of Miami's Project Medishare Program that is training Haitian doctors and health professionals in the country.

''There's a lot that we can do. There's a lot that we can do together. Haiti's problems must be paid attention to. We can be part of that solution,'' said Ros-Lehtinen, ranking minority member of the foreign affairs committee.

More:
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/story/1109348.html

[magbana]

1. Wow, Ros-Lehtinen and the Diaz-Balart Boys helping Haiti . . .

sends a shiver down my spine.

And, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz telling Haiti that because of low voter turnout on Sunday, Haiti needs to get its act together before others can help. The overwhelmingly dominant party in Haiti, Lavalas, was excised from the political process a year ago by Haiti's electoral commission when it disallowed its candidates from running in elections. Why? Official reason is that the head of the party (still Aristide) is not "in country" to sign necessary papers. Real reason is that the Lavalas candidates would trounce the others and their first order of business would be to bring Aristide back.

In fact, if this is of such concern to Rep. Debbie she should talk to Prez Obama. Little is done of a political nature in Haiti without express approval by the US gov't. When Preval came to office, there was hope he would change ambassadors because many of them had been appointed during the murderous, illegal coup government of former talk show host, Gerard Latortue (2004-2006). Word on the street is that the US told Preval to keep Latortue's appointee, Raymond Joseph, in Washington. Joseph is the same guy who told me at a public meeting, when I inquired about Haiti's investigation into the disappearance of human rights activitst and dear friend, Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine, that I would probably know more than he would and that he figured Lovinsky was on a Caribbean beach on holiday. Lovinsky has been missing since August 12, 2007, after meeting with a US delegation investigating human rights abuses of Latortue's regime. Long, damn beach vacation, huh?

[Billy Burnett]

2. Thank you, magbana.

For putting this in good perspective. How depressing. :( My heart breaks over the plight of the Haitian people. The fuss made over the light skinned upper class Iranian girl shot and killed (who now is the trademark face of US agitation their uprising), and in the same time frame the complete ignoring of that beautiful but black and dirt poor boy who was shot in the head and killed by the UN at the funeral for Jean Juste has me in a real tailspin. My hope for change is done.

< mini rant = off>

I hope that the LatAm/Haiti aficionados had a little time to check the Jean Juste funeral service videos on theYouTubes.


Thank you for your posts. :hug:

[magbana]

4. Thanks for your post, Billy. I added a post to my blog a few days

ago about a video of Haitian singer Wyclef Jean (formerly of the Fugees), singing a song he had written to demonstrate his solidarity with the people of Iran. The irony was more than I could bear so I "spit" out a post. If interested in reading the post, here's the URL: http://hcvanalysis.wordpress.com/2009/06/23/haiti-video-wyclef-jean-mia-during-priests-burial-and-un-murder-of-haitian-mourner/

Oh, and by the way, Wyclef is the nephew of the illegal coup ambassador to the US, Raymond Joseph.

[rabs]

3. Another look at the hours-long "fact finding" junket

This is by a blogger-ex-journalist in South Florida. He puts the visit in perspective in colorful, acerbic words. His remarks appeared in The Daily Pulp blog couple of days ago. You will get a chuckle on how de Groot describes the "soaring" rhetoric of Wasserman-Shultz, Ros-Lehtinen and Balart.

---------------------------------

Better Haiti Ate Cake

By John de Groot

Western history has long recognized a hallowed pantheon of world leaders able to inspire humanity with their words.

There was, for example, John F. Kennedy, who will long be loved and remembered by the German people when he proclaimed in the center of a divided Berlin:

"All free men, where ever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words 'Ich bin ein Berliner.'"

And more recently, President Barack Obama reached out to the Muslim world in the spirit of peace and brotherhood during his historic speech in Egypt last month when he said:

"All of us share this world but for a brief moment in time. The question is whether we spend that time focused on what pushes us apart or whether we commit ourselves to an effort -- a sustained effort -- to find a common ground, to focus on the future we seek for our children, and to respect the dignity of all human beings."

However...

Just as there is a pantheon of world leaders blessed with the grace and beauty of their words, there is also a shithouse for linguistically challenged politicians like Broward Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

After returning from a historic trip of several hours to impoverished Haiti, the congresswoman announced yesterday: If Haiti isn't able to get their political act together, then it's sort of gotta get out of its own way before others around the world will be able to help them."

The good news is that the Miami Herald buried the congresswoman's remarks deep in the bowels of its 4-A coverage of a surreal fact-finding mission to Haiti five members of South Florida's congressional delegation.

Again, however...

Not to be outdone by the Broward congresswoman's gross abuse of the English language, Dade Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen proclaimed: "There's a lot that we can do. There's a lot that we can do together. Haiti's problems must be paid attention to."

In fairness to their less-than-historic, one-day fact-finding mission to Haiti, the five members of the South Florida congressional delegation were unanimous in reporting the hurricane-ravaged people of Haiti were still barely surviving as hopeless citizens trapped in one of the most impoverished nations in the world.

Which is how and why Dade Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart was able to offer these ringing words of hope:
"One of the ways in which they are going to lift themselves up from poverty is with tourism."

Naturally, as a potential mecca for global tourism, Haiti will face stiff competition from other countries like Zimbabwe and Somalia as bargain getaway spots to watch people starve.

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[magbana]

5. This is excellent, Rabs! I'm going to circulate this to my peeps.