By Jacqueline Charles

The Miami Herald

President Barack Obama has nominated Ambassador Pamela Ann White, a career diplomat with more than 35 years public service experience mostly in Africa, as the United States’ next ambassador to a quake-ravaged Haiti.

White is a former Peace Corps volunteer who once served in Haiti as an executive officer for the U.S. Agency for International Development. Before her assignment in Gambia, West Africa, where she has been since 2010, White served as mission director in Liberia, Tanzania and Mali for the U.S. Agency for International Development.
As USAID’s mission director in Liberia, White managed the agency’s second largest development budget in Africa, averaging more than $200 million a year, according to the State Department.

Between 1999 and 2001, White served as USAID’s deputy director for East Africa. .

White has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Maine, a master’s from the School for International Training, and a master’s from the Industrial College of Armed Forces.

She joined the Peace Corps in 1971, and served as a volunteer in Cameroon until 1973. Five years later, she joined USAID. She also has been posted in Egypt, South Africa and Burkina Faso.

If approved by Congress, White will replace U.S. Ambassador to Haiti Kenneth Merten. Merten is a career diplomat who had two previous diplomatic assignments to Haiti before his August 2009 assignment in the Caribbean nation.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/01/25/2607042/obama-taps-career-diplomat-pamela.html#storylink=cpy

Great news to report! One our children residing at Lifeline has received her Haitian passport this week! She is now only a U.S. visa away from coming home to her forever family! We are very very excited about this news and hope that this little girl will be with her new family sometime next month!

By: TRENTON DANIEL | 01/09/12 7:04 PM
Associated Press

Haitians still have much to do to recover from the 2010 earthquake, President Michel Martelly said Monday, and he conceded to having made political blunders.

His remarks came as he presented his first government report since taking office in May and took on the task of rebuilding from a disaster that officials say killed more than 300,000 people and flattened the capital and surrounding cities.

"We need to help (Haitians) build back better their communities, give them more support, bring them water, infrastructure, electricity, drainage and police," Martelly told his audience of lawmakers and senior officials. "And don't forget to give them the opportunity for them to gain revenue."

But Martelly, a political neophyte before winning the presidency, conceded he had made mistakes in his first few months in office, saying he was "young to power."

"I have to ensure that all three powers are working together," he said, referring to the executive, legislative and judicial branches. "I'm hoping that in 2012 things will work out much better among the three powers."

Martelly began his five-year term by lashing out at lawmakers and they responded by rejecting two of his first picks for prime minister, which hobbled struggling reconstruction efforts. It took six months for him to install a prime minister who then put a Cabinet in place.

Relations between Martelly and Parliament plunged after police locked up an opposition legislator without following the law. Some senators and deputies accused Martelly of abusing his authority as president.

The 30-minute report Martelly presented spelled out the many challenges his government faces as Haiti enters the third year of recovery. It noted the need for improved security, more jobs and children in school and help for the countryside's farmers.

Martelly said 800,000 Haitians are living without electricity, 500,000 can't read or write, and eight out 10 live on less than $2 a day. Many educated Haitians have left the country, he added.

The president also mentioned how Haiti is run by a very small group of people but didn't single out anyone. Just 2 percent of Haitians control 69 percent of the economy, he said.

The controversial issue of Martelly's call to restore the disbanded army as a "national defense force" also came up.

Despite opposition from some Western diplomats and rights group, the leader said the new army would patrol Haiti's borders and protect its few remaining forests. A military, he said, would allow Haiti to regain its sovereignty and enable the withdrawal of a U.N. peacekeeping mission that has helped provide stability since its arrival in 2004.

Critics of the army proposal say money to revive the force would be better spent on strengthening the national police force, which has 8,000 officers in a country of 10 million, or on reconstruction efforts. The army was disbanded in 1995 because of its involvement in coups and other abuses.

The speech came three days before Haiti observes the second anniversary of the quake. Government officials, Western diplomats and humanitarian groups are spending the week promoting their work, but many Haitians are frustrated over what they see as little progress.

The events surrounding last year's anniversary were fewer and more solemn. The country was still in mourning, coping with a contested presidential election that had sparked tire-burning riots, and trying to control a cholera epidemic that had erupted only a few months prior.

The waterborne disease created a parallel crisis to the destruction caused by the earthquake. Health care workers say Haiti now has the highest cholera infection rate in the world.

Nearly 500,000 people have fallen ill and 7,000 have died because of the disease, health officials say. Studies show cholera was likely introduced to Haiti by a U.N. battalion from Nepal, where the disease is endemic.



Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/news/world/2012/01/haiti-pres-says-much-do-concedes-mistakes/2078541#ixzz1jkm7ewzX

Former Haitian president Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier continues to evade justice, one year after authorities launched an investigation into crimes against humanity committed under his rule, Amnesty International said today.

Duvalier returned to Haiti in January 2011 after 25 years in exile in France.

Since then, he has been under investigation for serious human rights violations – including torture, disappearances and extrajudicial executions – that took place during his rule from 1971 to 1986.

“Crimes against humanity committed while Jean-Claude Duvalier was in power remain shrouded in total impunity,” said Javier Zúñiga, Special Advisor at Amnesty International.

“The authorities haven’t made a serious effort to look into past events that afflicted a generation of Haitians with torture, enforced disappearance, extrajudicial executions, arbitrary arrests and other serious human rights violations.”

Regional and international human rights bodies including the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the UN Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights have re-affirmed Haiti’s obligation to investigate these crimes and bring those responsible to justice.

Haiti’s Justice Minister recently committed to tackling impunity for crimes committed since 2000, although this would not cover crimes committed under Duvalier's rule.

The investigation has also been undermined by repeated personnel changes in the post of Public Prosecutor – who makes critical decisions about how the investigation into Duvalier progresses – since current Haitian President Michel Martelly took office in May 2011.

At the end of September 2011, Public Prosecutor Félix Léger told Amnesty International that the file on Duvalier’s investigation for crimes against humanity had already been submitted to his office in July and that a task force would be created to examine the investigation’s findings and determine the next steps.

Félix Léger was replaced as Public Prosecutor in October and since then his position has been filled by three different people. René Cénatus, the most recent appointee to the post, took office on 4 January 2012.

“The investigation seems to have deliberately stalled by changing Public Prosecutors multiple times,” said Javier Zúñiga.

“It has become evident that in Haiti, the independence of the judiciary is just a mirage.”

Haitian authorities at the highest level have until now shown great leniency towards Jean-Claude Duvalier, while showing contempt to the victims of human rights violations who continue to await justice and reparation.

Despite being assigned to his residence during the investigation, Jean-Claude Duvalier continues to take part in public events accompanied by his lawyers and supporters.

In October, President Martelly paid a highly publicized visit to Duvalier’s home, under the pretext of national reconciliation. Duvalier took also part in an official ceremony this month to commemorate the second anniversary of Haiti’s earthquake.

“The Haitian government must end this pretence of justice and take a clear, public stance on the case against Jean-Claude Duvalier,” said Javier Zúñiga.

“Haitian judicial authorities must be given all the resources and support - including from the UN – they need to conclude the investigation and bring those responsible to justice in trials that meet international standards.”

(CBS News)
Two years ago Thursday, Haiti was pummeled by a Magnitude 7 earthquake in which some 316,000 people died. Many more lost their homes. Since then, there has been some progress in rebuilding. CBS News medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook went back to Haiti to find out why more hasn't been done.


Thirty-five-year-old Gilna Pierre is cooking the only meal of the day for her family and neighbors. It's 90 degrees and her coal stove on a stone ledge is surrounded by tattered tents in the area called Katalpa, just outside Port-au-Prince. Two years after Haiti's earthquake, her family is among 500,000 other Haitians still without permanent homes.


"What is the government doing for you?" LaPook asked her.


"They don't do anything," she said.


LaPook then spoke with Haitian Prime Minister Garry Conille. "The Haitians are a very patient people. Are you worried that that patience might run out?"


A demonstrator waves a Haitian flag while walking between makeshift tents at the temporary camp in Champ de Mars, across the street from the collapsed National Palace, during a protest to demand new housing in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Jan. 11, 2012.
(Credit: AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
"Every single day," said Conille.


Prime Minister Conille has been in office for three months. This American-educated doctor knows he's got a tough road ahead.


Three billion dollars had been donated to Haiti to rebuild. According to the United Nations, the Haitian government got only 18 percent of that money. Much of the balance went to the nearly 20,000 charities the prime minister estimates are operating in the country. So why does the nation look so broken?


Haiti: 2 years later, where's the money?
Ordeal for Haiti quake orphans endures
Special section: Haiti: The road to recovery


"The international community showed an incredible amount of generosity towards Haiti," he said. "Unfortunately, the systems weren't in place to make sure that the funding is channeled in an effective way."


Conille said charities helped in the short-term but have not collaborated with the government for long-term solutions. For example, one charity built a school but there were no teachers to fill it. Conille is considering a radical approach: making some charities leave.


"Can you envision throwing some of them out and saying, 'You know what? If you're not working with us, you're out of here,'" LaPook asked Conille.


"Yes, absolutely," he responded. "In fact I think we should be able to say very strongly that you're gonna play by certain rules or not play at all."


Tough language from a government previously known for corruption. But Conille says if nothing changes, neither will Haiti's desperate situation.


LaPook asked some women in a camp: "How many people here go to bed hungry?" Every hand went up.


Then LaPook asked them: "How long can you continue to live here like this?" One woman responded: "Only God knows."


Conille was asked by LaPook:" When you walk down the streets and you look into the eyes of the Haitian people, what do you see and what are they saying to you?"


"A combination of anxiety and hope," he said. "The country feeds on hope. And this is extraordinary. They really believe that tomorrow will be better. "


But for mothers like Gilna Pierre, there's a world of difference between belief and reality.