Black Immigrant Daily News

By Sir Ronald Sanders 

(The writer is Antigua and Barbuda’s Ambassador to the United States of America and the Organization of American States.   He is also a Senior Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London and Massey College in the University of Toronto) 

Haiti has never been far from wide-scale human suffering, grave political instability, and grim economic underdevelopment.  But its circumstances today are worse than they have been before.

The country has become a battle ground for rival criminal gangs, whose weapons are superior to those of the Police, both in quantity and fire power.  These gangs have established fiefdoms in which they rule supreme, terrorizing communities, kidnapping people, demanding huge ransoms, committing vile murders and even burning their victims – alive or dead. Even more disturbing, some gangs appear to have established links with politicians.

Beyond the loss of control of law and order, the country is being governed, in name, by unelected officials with no independent judiciary or functioning national assembly.  An accord among civil society groups and political players, fashioned in September 2021, has collapsed.  This makes fulfilment of the desire for a “Haitian-led” solution to the country’s problems most unlikely, and not credible.

What makes this situation worse is that Haiti has no strong institutions to support governance and to address the deep-seated problems of the country.

Some nations – among them countries whose governments have contributed to the underdevelopment and weakness of Haiti – now conveniently hide behind the Haitian call for a “Haitian-led” solution, to do little or nothing.   The United Nations (UN) withdrew its Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) in October 2017 after 13 years.

Despite the dire situation which now exists, the UN Security Council opted to extend the mandate of its Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH) until 15 July 2023, but not to expand it to tackle the spiral of violence, lawlessness, and the terror of armed gangs.

Against this background, Luis Almagro, the Secretary-General of the Organization of American States (OAS), issued a rousing public indictment of the “international community” and the self-interested political elite in Haiti.  Almagro minced no words when he declared: “The institutional crisis that Haiti is experiencing right now is a direct result of the actions taken by the country’s endogenous forces and by the international community”.  He stated unequivocally that, “The last 20 years of the international community’s presence in Haiti has amounted to one of the worst and clearest failures implemented and executed within the framework of international cooperation”.  To be clear, “the international community” in Haiti amounted to “a core group”, compromising the European Union, the UN, the OAS, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, and Spain.

I publicly agreed with his assessment.  It was the most honest and compelling statement by a high official of any regional or international institution ever issued, concerning Haiti.  In agreeing with his statement, I interpreted his definition of the “international community” as including every country, every international financial and development institution, the United Nations and its organs, and the OAS itself.   But I also recognized then, what I later said in the Permanent Council of the OAS on August 17, when the Foreign Minister of Haiti, Jean Victor Généus, clearly prompted by Almagro’s statement, asked for a meeting.

What I said, in brief, was that “many countries in the international community are perfectly innocent of what happens in Haiti or has happened there. There are others – both countries and institutions – that have damaged Haiti irreparably over many years. Now, it is up to those countries to do something to correct the situation.  Financial support is the obligation of those members of the international community with the resources to do so. And many of them, incidentally, bear responsibility for the situation in Haiti today”.

Almagro is clearly right in saying, “…resources have to be provided to Haiti through an institutionalized process by the international community with a strong monitoring component and capacity to combat corruption and prevent the resources from being diverted and misused”.

As I observed at the OAS meeting, Haiti cannot expect an international response to its needs “without some assurance that, within Haiti, there will be a collective, solidified position, both in terms of the requests they make, the cooperation they will give, and the openness with which they will deal with the international community”.

For his part, Foreign Minister Généus said that the Government has tried to promote dialogue, suggesting that its efforts have not been successful, but that “the Prime Minister will continue tirelessly in this quest for dialogue and consensus”.

Of course, such a dialogue will not happen, nor will any agreement be sustained, unless there is good offices mediation to facilitate it and oversee the implementation of its agreements.  Mediation cannot happen without an invitation from the Ariel Henry provisional government and the agreement of the other Haitian groups.

Neighbouring countries are already struggling with the failure of the Haitian State.  The Bahamas, with a population of 400,000, has an estimated 150,000 Haitian refugees in its territory. This year alone, the Bahamas Government has spent millions of dollars repatriating Haitian refugees.  In the words of the Ambassador of the Dominican Republic to the OAS, Josue Fiallo, the situation in Haiti “constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat to my country’s national security, foreign policy and economy”. And the US has deported or expelled thousands of Haitians, fleeing from their desperate conditions.

In his statement of August 8, Almagro identified what amounts to a programme of action to try to save Haiti.  It includes: bringing violence under control and disarming the gangs; providing technical and financial resources to address the current security situation; creating a central mechanism to deploy assistance without overlapping and wasteful efforts; a strong monitoring component to combat corruption; drafting a new Constitution that fixes deficiencies in the existing constitution, including by establishing an autonomous Central Bank, an independent justice system, a functioning and effective education system; and investment to create employment and alleviate poverty.

Few would disagree with this agenda.  The questions it raises are: who would provide the financing and which agency would be trusted to implement it?

These are questions, which must be addressed before Haiti sinks even deeper into an even bigger catastrophic humanitarian crisis than it has suffered so far.  Haiti must become a priority on the agenda of all international and regional bodies…  now.

Responses and previous commentaries: www.sirronaldsanders.com 

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Some 900 million people, or 96% of the population of the 35 countries of the Americas are currently protected by at least one of the six tobacco control measures recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), up 50% from 2007. However, progress has not been uniform.

According to the Report on Tobacco Control for the Region of the Americas 2022, presented today by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), 26 of the Region’s 35 countries have achieved the highest level of application of at least one measure; but other measures such as increased tobacco taxes have made slow progress and nine countries have not yet taken any action.

“Tobacco causes nearly a million deaths in the region every year and it is the only legal consumer product that kills up to half of those who use it,” said Dr. Anselm Hennis, Director of PAHO’s Department of Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health. “The response to this enormous threat must be equally aggressive. Control measures work and we must move more quickly to implement all of them.”

The report shows that, in 2021, of 35 countries in the Americas:

24 are implementing measures to protect against exposure to second-hand smoke

22 require large graphic warnings about the dangers of smoking on tobacco product packages

10 have surveillance systems with recent, periodic, and representative data on tobacco use by adults and young people

6 offer a comprehensive system to help people quit smoking

9 establish total bans on tobacco advertising, promotion, and sponsorship

3 apply indirect taxes to cigarettes that account for 75% or more of the retail price.

Progress in the application of the six measures known as MPOWER, established by WHO in 2008, has helped reduce the prevalence of tobacco use from 28% of the region’s population in 2000 to 16.3% in 2020, the second lowest in the world. In 2020, South America became the first smoke-free subregion of the Americas, where smoking is absolutely prohibited in enclosed public places, in workplaces, and on public transport.

Tobacco use is the leading risk factor for six of the eight leading causes of death in the world, and for the four most preventable and prevalent noncommunicable diseases: cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, and chronic respiratory disease. All forms of tobacco are harmful and there is no safe level of exposure.

Addressing the threat of new products

The PAHO report warns that new and emerging nicotine and tobacco products such as e-cigarettes are becoming increasingly available and accessible, posing a threat to tobacco control. It also warns that the tobacco industry makes misleading claims to increase consumers and enter new markets.

PAHO/WHO recommends that governments put regulations in place to help prevent non-smokers from starting to use these products, to prevent tobacco use from becoming socially acceptable again, and to protect future generations.

Currently, the sale of electronic nicotine delivery systems is banned in seven countries in the Americas. Five of these countries and 13 others have taken partial measures to prohibit the use of these systems, limit their advertising, promotion, and sponsorship, and require warnings on their packaging. Fifteen countries do not impose any regulatory framework.

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Scrap iron worker, Devon Hayde, in an interview on Thursday speaks with media. Like other workers, he too distanced himself from the Trinidad & Tobago Scrap Iron Dealers Association and blasts the government on the decision to implement a 6-month ban on export to the industry. Photo by Marvin Hamilton

THE Public Services Association has said it stands in solidarity with members of the Scrap Iron Dealers Association against government’s decision to impose a six-month ban on the export of old and scrap metal.

During a press conference on Thursday morning the association’s president, Leroy Baptiste, called on the government to reconsider this approach.

He said the government had disregarded the livelihood of scrap-iron workers, without offering incentives to the families affected by this move.

While he agrees there must be action to deal with the increase in theft and vandalism of state and private assets, he believes such a drastic move was unwarranted.

The ban came into effect on August 12, but was announced on August 15 at a joint press conference held by National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds and Attorney General Reginald Armour.

In three months, Armour will approach Cabinet with a review of the industry and proposed legislation aimed at monitoring and reducing the illegal trade in scrap iron and metal. Once Cabinet is convinced, the ban will end.

File photo: PSA president Leroy Baptiste. File photo/Sureash Cholai

But Baptiste said, “It’s unusual as a strategy to shut an industry for the purpose of drafting regulatory legislation…We are concerned about the business owners in the industry. They will have their financial commitments. How are they to meet those commitments? Don’t cut off the nose to spite the face.

“It’s not a surprise, but it’s concerning that government would take a decision that impacts workers’ lives and livelihood. It’s almost trivialised, it’s not even in any way giving any regard to how those workers will survive in those six months.”

He said if the government decided to halt the industry, there must be a safety net for the workers affected during that period, “so they can continue to cover important expenses… It’s callous and inconsiderate to simply not give any regard for the workers and businesses involved.”

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Acting CoP McDonald Jacob. File photo/Angelo Marcelle

The UNC is calling on acting Commissioner of Police Mc Donald Jacob to produce statistics on arrests being made in the US in places where guns shipped to TT originated.

Speaking at a mid-week media conference at the Office of the Opposition Leader on Thursday, UNC political and strategy analyst attorney Sean Sobers criticised Jacob for attributing the rise in crime to illegal guns coming through legal points of entry.

“He indicated there was some collating of data and a task force to be formed to collate information with the alcohol, tobacco, and firearms unit in the US. He also spoke about arrests being made in these originating states within the US.

“Where’s the statistical information on that? How can we trust what you are saying? Because we would have heard this song and dance many times before.”

Naparima MP Rodney Charles called on Jacob to insist that the scanners at ports are functioning. He also criticised the police for the abysmal detection rate and the lack of trust in them.

Referring to the US State Department’s report on human trafficking which said TT had not done enough work to fight the issue, Sobers said under the UNC, the counter-trafficking unit had been fully resourced.

“It has now been partially dismantled, and has to rely on other parts of the service to have strike capabilities. That’s why the US can say there is inefficiency.

“We need to improve the detection rate. Some people know the criminal elements in their areas but don’t trust the police. The social services and programmes in place under the People’s Partnership, which we knew would contribute to a reduction in the crime rate, have been gutted or stopped.”

Naparima MP Rodney Charles. File photo/Sureash Cholai

Charles called on government to write to the US State Department to demand clarification ofthe names of the high-ranking officials who the report said were involved in human trafficking.He called on the PM to fire National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds and take his place. He said prison officers and lifeguards had expressed a loss of confidence in Hinds.

Charles said he would be writing to Denmark’s Minister of Taxation Morten Bodskov to find out why he had said TT existed in a nook of shame.

“As we speak, TT remains on an EU negative blacklist for being a tax haven linked to such crimes as money laundering. Why are we alone among Caricom states on an EU watchlist? Something is amiss, and that EU minister clearly knows something of which we are unaware.”I therefore intend to write to him to find out what caused him to utter such pejorative remarks against my country.”

Charles said the UNC had supported every bit of legislation which would have enabled TT to be removed from the blacklist.

“Whether it was the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) – we made amendments. but we supported it. The Income Tax Amendment Bill in 2019: we supported that. The Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters Bill in 2018: we supported that; and the Tax Information Exchange Agreement Bill, 2018, we supported, because the instructions we had from our leader were to support any bill that would get us off the blacklist, although we would try to make any improvements we could.”

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by Neval Auguste

Miss Jassie Thomas, winner of the Ministry of Tourism’s TikTok video challenge, and her family were welcomed on August 12 at the Ministry of Tourism.

Tourism Minister, Hon. Dr. Ernest Hilaire, spoke briefly about tourism as an avenue for career development and creating livelihoods. He also expressed that young people should be selected to be ministers throughout all portfolios.

Miss Nathania Augier, Operations Manager at the Saint Lucia Tourism Authority (SLTA) presented a cheque of EC $1500 and a complementary bag of tokens to the new Junior Minister.

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Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Tourism, Ms Donalyn Vittet, presented the winner with a new laptop, whilst the Hon. Dr. Ernest Hilaire awarded her a plaque. Miss Thomas will also receive a day pass for two to the Anse Chastanet Hotel.

Miss Thomas expressed gratitude for the opportunity: “I would like to thank the Ministry of Tourism for giving me this opportunity to join the competition, along with my school, the Vieux Fort Comprehensive Secondary School, the Cadet Corps and my family members. I look forward to working with everyone and I am proud to be your Junior Minister of Tourism 2022/2023.”

The new Junior Minister called the process of putting together the video for the competition a rewarding experience.

Source: Government Information Service

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