Two Florida Democratic congressmen have been pushing the [George W. Bush] administration to permanently cease deportation of Haitians because of the hardship being experienced in the impoverished country. Kendrick Meek and Alcee L. Hastings, strong Haitian cates, have assailed the istration's policy on Haiti, ing that Haitians have, for long, been victimized by Washington's "double standard" immigration policies. Meek, who represents Miami, said Haiti "over-qualifies" for TPS, bestowed when the U.S. government determines eligible nationals are temporarily unable to safely return to their home country because of ongoing conflicts, environmental disasters or other "extraordinary and temporary conditions."
"That's terrific news," she added. "We're hopeful that Haitians wont be sent back until the country has had a chance to recover." [Kendrick Meek], who represents Miami, said Haiti "over-qualifies" for TPS, bestowed when the U.S. government determines eligible nationals are temporarily unable to safely return to their home country because of ongoing conflicts, environmental disasters or other "extraordinary and temporary conditions. [Alcee L. Hastings], who represents the city of Miramar, north of Miami, said, in his letter to [George W. Bush], that Haiti can "hardly sustain the lives of those currently living within its borders. "How can we also expect it to contend with the repatriation of the very people who left Haiti in desperation and who, through remittances, can aid in the nation's recovery efforts?" he asked.
MIAMI - Haiti Kids Foundation Chairman Jesse Johnson cycled into Toussaint L'ouverture Elementary School in Miami's Little Haiti neighborhood last month, ending his 4,000-mile in 40 days cross country "Bike for Haiti Kids" trip. "My hope all along was that people will be inspired by this ride to learn more about the children of Haiti, and get involved in making life changing improvements in their lives," said Johnson. "Even if people contribute only a few dollars, that money will make a difference to a child in need."
"It is a new day," [Phillip J. Brutus] told Caribbean Today. "No longer will Haitian Americans be taken for granted. We are demanding our place at the table." "We need to get Haitians involved in the process," Joseph "Billy" Louis, a spokesperson for the group, told Caribbean Today. "We need numbers in order to be taken seriously." Damian P. Gregory is a freelance writer for Caribbean Today. Caribbean Today's special focus on Haiti begins with Nick Carter's call for the nation to "re-invent" itself on page 9 and continues on page 29 with highlights of events there and in the U.S. marking Haiti's 200th Independence.
"For the ones who could not afford it, he (Nettleford) used his influence to get them into different dance schools throughout the world because he valued the totality in education in every genre of dance," he added. "He supported kids who weren't able to support themselves at the tertiary level, without fanfare. Many NDTC dancers get scholarships... the company sponsors them and pays their tuition while they are away." "Most of the steps that are considered Caribbean dance were developed by the NDTC under his tutelage," he said. "Dance companies in Jamaica mirror the NDTC and there are many other groups throughout the Caribbean doing these same dances." NDTC alumni have not just branched out to form their own dance companies in Jamaica, they have also had success internationally. Two prime examples are Jackie Guy, one of Britain's leading lecturers in Afro Caribbean dance, who choreographed "The Harder They Come", and Garth Fagan, who choreographed "The Lion King".
These articles mostly concerned [Castro]'s cracking down on terrorism and crime committed against tourists in Cuba. In reaction to incidents of hotel bombings, and in one case, the murder of an Italian tourist, Castro's government had passed a series of strict new laws to deter crimes that would further injure the country's leading source of foreign currency - tourism. One evening in Santago de Cuba, I was discussing the race issue with a few Cuban friends, among whom was a loyal Castro supporter who had fought for four years in Angola with the Cuban army. He argued that what was happening in his country wasn't so much a problem of racism as it was an honest attempt on Castro's part to protect the country's main source of revenue, tourism, upon which the U.S. embargo had made Cuba dependent. Although the once-again blatant debasing of my friend's civil rights incensed me, I did understand his point. Most of the tourists now coming to Cuba are from predominately white European countries, or they are upper-class whites from Latin America. Most of the tourists now coming to Cuba are from predominately white European countries, or they are upper-class whites from Latin America. Most of these white tourists come to Cuba with racism ingrained in them from their own cultures. In fact, it is unofficially acknowledged that a large percentage of the foreign currency in Cuba comes from sex tourism, which generally comprises white men drawn to Cuba by the lure of "exotic" mulatto women.
Haiti is a third world country with a population of over seven million and another few million scattered over the world. It represents per capita the poorest Western Hemisphere country but in reality it has been downtrodden by political instability and the insolvency of the Dictatorship stereotype. This dictatorship mentality has taken root with Duvalier regime (Papa Doc and Baby Doc) which for many years had an iron grip over this French-Creole island and resulted in the destruction of a truly unique island. Each leader since, Jean Claude Duvalier has monopolized and downtrodden the Haitian community for his own selfish reasons. The dictatorship tactics of Duvalier was emulated by each leader who succeeded him and the military in this place took the place of 'Baby Doc's' dreaded "Ton Ton Man Coute" death squads.
Tanya Quintero, a light-skinned mulatta and prominent independent journalist in Havana, said she was not aware of racial discrimination until she had a daughter with darker skin the than she. Suddenly, some of her friends referred to her child with a Spanish phrase that literally translates as "sour or dark stomach" but figuratively is slang for "a child who comes out darker than her mother," she said. Lighter-skinned children later made fun of her daughter for being a "marron," brown. Also the millions of dollars in "remittances" that Cubans in the United States and elsewhere send their relatives back on the island very year reach few "black" Cubans because more than 90 percent of the exiles are "white." As a result, the long-standing economic gap between darker and lighter Cubans widens. I use quotation marks around "black" and "white" because the terms don't mean the same as they do in the United States, with our traditional "one-drop rule." Race in Cuba, as in the rest of Latin America, is somewhat fluid: You are pretty much what you say you are, even within the same family.
Jamaica is doing so well that it was not even in the top 14 nations receiving the most deportees in 2009. Instead, for the Caribbean region, the top three nations receiving the most deportees last year, were the Dominican Republic, Cuba and Haiti. Mexico continued to lead the deportees statistics table. Mexican nationals accounted for 86 percent of the 613,003 aliens apprehended in 2009. The next leading countries were Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, China, and Brazil. A total of 393,000 foreign nationals were removed from the United States last year, the seventh consecutive record high. Of that number, 128,000 were known criminal aliens.
In the Class II race for boys ages 14-15, St. Jago's Raheem Chambers clocked 10.29 seconds to smash [Yohan Blake]'s mark of 10.34 set in 2006. He was followed home by Jhevaughn Matherson of Kingston College, who was timed in 10.37. The K.C. sprinter would turn the table on Chambers in the 200 meters the following day. The frenzied crowd had barely settled down after the Class II100, when K.C.'s Zharnel Hughes, who is from Anguilla, stunned them again with 10.12 seconds in the Class I event for ages 16-19. He emerged victor from a stirring battle with Jevaughn Minzie of Bog Walk High, whose 10.16 also bettered Blake's 2007 mark of 10.21. Champs' final day offered even more record shattering performances in front a capacity National Stadium crowd of roughly 35,000, with hundreds more locked outside. Calabar's Javon Francis, a medalist on Jamaica's 4x400 meters team at the 2013 senior World Championships in Athletics, toppled the Class I 400 meters set by Jamaica's current super sprinter Usain Bolt in 2003. Francis clocked 45 seconds, erasing Bolt's mark of 45.35.
The arrests came as authorities investigated the boat accident involving Haitian, Jamaican and Bahamian migrants. The U.S. Coast Guard said four people were killed and 11 rescued after the boat carrying the Caribbean migrants capsized. The fatal voyage reportedly began in The Bahamas, and ended when U.S. Coast Guard crews rescued the survivors. The criminal complaint said six of the Caribbean migrants interviewed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security identified Davis and [George Lewis] as the alleged smugglers.
"It's different because there is nothing like it," she said. "Hollywood wants the high drama, the fight, the ridiculous conflicts, shock behavior. We bring none of that to the production.
"Certainly, in the region, there has been substantial progress in the past 10 years or so," said Michel de Groulard, a senior programme advisor at UNAIDS's Caribbean office in Trinidad and Tobago.
* Friday, June 10 - The Rhythms of the Caribbean Ball, 7 p.m. to midnight at The Plaza Hotel New York. Hosted by NBC anchor Jenna Wolfe. A "barefoot" black tie affair. Tickets start at $350 and a portion of the proceeds go to finance scholarships to Caribbean nationals pursuing careers in tourism. The Caribbean Travel & Cultural Fair will take place 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. June 8 at Vanderbilt Hall in Grand Central Terminal. Admission is free. It will feature Caribbean performers and entertainers, as well as a Caribbean wedding organized in collaboration with the Global Bridal Group.
The Clarke bill calls for all questionnaires "used in the taking of any decennial census of the U.S. population, to include a checkbox or other similar option so that respondents may indicate Caribbean extraction or descent". "In conducting the 2010 decennial census and every decennial census thereafter, the Secretary of Commerce shall include, in any questionnaire distributed or otherwise used for the purpose of determining the total population by states, a checkbox or other similar option by which respondents may indicate Caribbean extraction or descent", states the bill. [Felicia Persaud] said the Clarke bill gives the Caribbean community renewed impetus to ensure they lobby around this cause and most importantly, fill out and return the 2010 Census form, especially by writing in their country of origin under Question 8. The origin's category is not an ethnic category so this will not divide the black or Asian or any other ethnic group that may perceive this as a 'divide and rule' strategy, Persaud added.
A delegation of South Florida Caribbean leaders attended the 11th Annual Legislative Conference sponsored by the Institute of Caribbean Studies (ICS) June 24-26 in Washington, D.C. The group, which included [Hazelle Rogers], State Rep. Yolley Roberson, Councilman Aster Knight, North Miami City Clerk Alix Desulme, attorney Marlon Hill, Hulbert James, Roxanne Valies, and Maria Kong, also attended a White House census briefing that focused on Question 8 and 9. James, chair of the South Florida census committee, was selected as one of three national co-chairs of the National Caribbean Community Census Committee.
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC - The Barbados-based Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) has signed an agreement with the Institute of Critical Thinking at the University of the West Indies (UWI) that could result in a "paradigm shift from role learning and regurgitation to real thinking".
At the same time, [Jesse Jackson] lamented what he described as the "disparity" in how the U.S. government treats Cuban and Haitian refugees. Jackson said while the U.S. readily welcomes Cuban refugees, it neglects Haitians. "When Haitian children's parents die at sea they are sent back," he said. "We subsidize Cubans to come to the United States, but we ship Haitians out...We should change our policy and measure human rights by one yardstick." "The Cuban immigrants are called political refugees, and they are welcomed in the United States," he said. "The Haitian immigrants are called economic refugees, and they are sent back...There is a distinction without a difference."
"The CBC and CARICOM pledged to strengthen their relationship in a structured manner," said Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, the St. Vincent and the Grenadines prime minister and former CARICOM chairman. The congressman said if the next Conference on the Caribbean is held in New York, it would enable greater participation from the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) and the Caribbean diaspora in New York, which has the greatest concentration of Caribbean nationals in the U.S.