Hurricane Dorian was the most catastrophic storm to affect the Bahamas to date.  Residents, which include many Haitians, continue to suffer.  As before the earthquake, some parts of civil society continue to stigmatise Haitians while others protect them. As the country preapres to rebuilds, undocumented Haitians worry about the possibility of forced deportation.  The Bahamian government has not issues an official statement but the Prime Minister has told hurricane-affected Haitians that they haven nothing to fear.  Haitians are part of the fabric of Bahamian society and will also need to be part of the rebuilding effort.   The full article by Jacquline Charles and Nicholas Nehamas of the Miami Herald is linked and below. 

Thoughout Haiti's modern history, peacekeeping forces have come and gone.  The transition to a smaller, more politically focused mission has thus been a careful one and goes into effect on October 16th.  The aim is to address the underlying issues that contribute to poverty and instability.  These issues are inherently political - corruption, lack of accountability, poor governance, and failure to show leadership on important issues such as environmental degradation and disaster risk reduction and response which will only get worse due to climate change.  This marks yet another transition for Haiti and, one hopes, a future where no peacekeeping forces are required.  The full article by Miami Herald journalist Jacquelne Charles follows.  

Haiti no longer receives discounted oil from an increasingly chaotic Venezuela - and all the good (cheaper oil) and bad (blatant corruption) that came with it.  Much of Port au Prince is now getting by with only thee hours of electricity a day negatively affecting the economy, political stability, health care, and transportation.  Increasing renewable energy may help Haiti in the long run, but in the short term, a more predictable and rational approach to petroleum imports is required. The full article by Associated Press journalist Ralph Thomassaint Joseph follows.  

The next Haiti Tech Summit will take place from June 20-23 at the Decameron Beach Resort at the Cote des Arcadins.  Participants will include investors, government officials, and entrepeneurs both in Haiti and the Haitian Diaspora.  Click here for more information and to purchase your tickets.  The agenda, speakers, sponsors, and partners are listed below.  Any questions can be directed to the following email address: info@haititechsummit.com.  

Internet penetration in Haiti remains low, limiting opportunities to grow Haiti's nascent information technology sector.  Despite the challenges, there is strong local interset.  For example, over 600 local developers and entrepeneurs signed up for a live streamed Google I/O Extended Conference at Hotel Karaibe to be followed by workshops and trainings conducted in Kreyol.  The event is being organised by Google employees of Haitian descent.  The full article by Miami Herald journalist Jacqueline Charles follows. 

Below is a PRI article about the Petrochallengers - a (mostly) younger generation of activists who, rather than just changing heads of state, want to reform the underlying systems that prevent accountability, transparency, and justice.  Corruption is so pervasive in Haiti that it is all too easy to become numb to it - but the misuse/outright theft of over a billion dollars in PetroCaribe funds was the last straw .  These funds could have produced the roads, hospitals, schools, and environmental programming Haiti needed to get back on the right track.  Without bringing those responsible to account, it remains business as usual.  While they may not think of themselves as revolutionaries, bringing about a government that invests in its own people would be nothing short of revolutionary.   

Given ongoing political instability, it is easy to lose sight of long-term development issues in Haiti like deforestation.  Agriculture, with the food and rural jobs it provides, depends in part on strategically reversing environmental degradation.  There are many challenges in doing so - electrifying major cities from which the demand for wood charcoal comes, creating alternative fuel sources that are accessible and less expensive the charcoal, creating more jobs from protecting the environment than from exploiting it, and of course, education.  North Haiti Christian University (NHCU) is one instiution with programs to promote agriculture and protect the environment.  A short BBC article by Gemma Handy about NHCU is linked and below. 

Over a million people have participated in protests this month.  The Carnival in Port au Prince was cancelled.  Instability strains access to heath care and other basic services.  Haitians are tired of unchecked corruption when life remains a daily struggle for many.  Whether this government remains or is replaced, Haiti's future depends upon improving its institutions and improving accountability.  As Athena Kolbe and Robert Mugga points out, it is difficult to imagine this happening without increasing the participation of women in local, regional, and national politics.  It is women, after all, who are holding the country together.  A new way of governing also depends upon involving youth and other civic groups to hold their government accountable, partner with it whenever possible, and to organise when it is not.  The full article which appeared in NPR is linked and below. 

While protests are nothing new in haiti, the scale of the ongoing demonstrations againt corruption and economic hardship are the largest in recent memory.   Unfortunately, the instability is negatively affecting operations at hospitals.  Even prior to the protests, many Haitian health care facilities lacked the medicines and equipment necessary to treat the sick.  It doesn't have to be like this and protestors understand that there will not be a better future until corruption is brought under control.  Below is recent article by CNN writer Sam Kiley about the impact on on health care facilities, staff, and patients. 

The cessation of Temporary Protected Status, which in reality often lasts many years, would result in the deportation of 200,000 Haitians, Nicaraguans, El Salvador, and Sudanese who together have more than 200,000 children born in the United States.  Deportations would separate families and create unneccesary suffering.  It would also have negative economic consequences for companies like Butterball Tukey who depend upon an immigrant workforce.  This is hard, dirty, and difficult work that would be hard to fill otherwise.   Policies can be be sound from both a humanitarian and economic perspective  at the same time - deporting hard-working people and separating them from their families when their labor is very much needed would be neither.