Matt Damon and Wyclef Jean Unite to Fight Poverty

The African Children's Choir.
Photo: Jeff Chiu/AP Photo
By Dorinda Elliott
Talk about the power of travel and celebrity. At the third fundraiser for OneXOne, in San Francisco last night, actor Matt Damon, hip-hop artist Wyclef Jean, rock star Carlos Santana, singer Josh Groban, director David Arquette and the African Children's Choir came together to raise money to fight poverty and improve the lives of children in the U.S. and around the world. The key beneficiaries: Damon's H2O Africa, which funds water projects in Africa; Water Partners, with water projects around the world; Yele Haiti, which supports development in Haiti; and Feeding America, which runs food programs across the U.S.
What's the travel connection? Damon's interest in water issues stems from a trip he took two years ago to southern Africa, where he saw the opportunities that water wells can offer people. He has also become involved in fighting poverty in Haiti. Damon traveled there with Wyclef Jean after Hurricane Ike hit, and helped distribute food. What Damon saw in Haiti--the city of Gonaive submerged in water, people desperate for food, "the smell of death," "was something I have never, ever seen before," Damon said. "Clef looked at me and said 'this is not human. No one should have to live like this.'"
After the trip, Damon traveled to the Clinton Global Initiative meetings in New York, where he joined a multi-faceted commitment to support projects in Haiti that will provide food for 20,000 families for a year, supply 36,000 farmers with seeds, provide five million liters of clean water, rebuild thousands of homes, support education for 600,000 students, rebuild two bridges that were destroyed, and rebuild 12 schools. "This is fantastic," Damon says, "but what we need down there is a Marshall Plan." Jean's Yele Haiti foundation is developing plans to support small businesses, and he wants to attract investment for tourism. "Thats what I'm talkin' about," says Jean, decked out in a black suit, crisp white shirt and purple tie. "We dont want charity--we want tourism."
The fundraiser auction got heated, with several guests bidding against themselves. "This must be a new San Francisco tradition, bidding against yourself," Damon quipped. "My compliments on the selection of the wine tonight." The auctioneers sold three trips to visit Damon on the set of his next movie, The Human Factor, about Nelson Mandela, which will directed by Clint Eastwood and filmed in South Africa, for $200,000 each. "If Eastwood doesn't like the idea of having a lot of people around the set," Damon said, "I guess my trailer's going to be pretty crowded with a lot of people playing video games."

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Should Haitians, like Rwandans, Say Adieu to Français

Rwandans, Say Adieu to Français

Leaders Promote English as the Language of Learning, Governance and Trade

By Stephanie McCrummen
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, October 28, 2008; A10


KIGALI, Rwanda -- C'est la vie.

In another blow to the language of love, the Rwandan government has decided to change instruction in schools from French to English.

All government employees are now required to learn English, and everyone here from lawmakers to taxi drivers to students to businesspeople seems to believe that the usefulness of French, introduced by Belgian colonizers, is coming to an end.

"When you look at the French-speaking countries -- it's really just France, and a small part of Belgium and a small part of Switzerland," Theoneste Mutsindashyaka, Rwanda's state minister for education, said in English. "Most countries worldwide, they speak English. Even in China, they speak English. Even Belgium, if you go to the Flemish areas, they speak English, not French."

The decision, Rwandan officials say, was purely an economic one and had nothing to do with the country's souring relationship with France.

Rwanda has accused the French of arming the former Rwandan army and ethnic Hutu militias, even as they carried out the 1994 genocide. About 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered in 100 days of planned, systematic violence.

The Rwandan government recently accused 33 senior French military and political officials of direct involvement in the genocide, demanding that they stand trial. Among those implicated is François Mitterand, president of France at the time of the genocide and now deceased.

French officials have denied responsibility, conceding only that "political" errors were made. In 2006, a French judge accused Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who led the Tutsi rebel group that eventually stopped the genocide, of being involved in the downing of a plane carrying his predecessor, President Juvénal Habyarimana, whose death in April 1994 gave Hutu leaders the pretext to begin the genocide.

But Rwandan officials insist that their decision to promote English has nothing to do with knocking France.

"This is not about France," said Aloisea Inyumba, a senator and member of Kagame's ruling party. "This is about us. Introducing English is just being realistic. English is the language of business."

American and other English-speaking investors are pouring into Rwanda, whose East African trading partners are English and Swahili-speaking countries: Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. Rwanda has applied for membership in the Commonwealth of Nations, the association of former British colonies.

As a minor bonus, Mutsindashyaka -- who is in charge of rolling out the English-language curriculum for 2.6 million students and 50,000 teachers -- said he was happily surprised to find that English textbooks are far cheaper than French ones. A fourth-grade English math book costs 70 cents, for instance, compared with $4 for the French version.

Most Rwandans speak the local Kinyarwanda language or French. Fewer than 5 percent speak English, although that is set to change. Local English-language schools are filling up with students. It's common to find taxi drivers with French-English dictionaries in their glove compartments. Elected officials are dutifully leading the way, sprinkling their speeches with English words, often blended with Kinyarwanda. The other day, a member of parliament spoke of "gupuromotinga," or promoting, English.

"For English classes, we might have 50 students," said Susan Muhude, a teacher at the Baptist English Teaching Center here. "For French, there are very few, perhaps five."

Down the street, past a new building for Blue Financial Services and the beaten-down Touba Bijouterie jewelers, the shelves of the A to Z Book Centre are jammed with English titles. They range from motivational tomes by Anthony Robinson to romances by Danielle Steele.

Besides instructional books, the French titles are few -- mostly cookbooks, such as "Les Vins de la Vigne á la Table," and esoterica, such as "Inventaire des Oiseaux de France," a catalogue of birds.

Shopkeeper Silas Rwagataraka said he is expecting more customers now that the government is promoting English.

"The benefits of learning English are immense," he said, adding diplomatically, "But French, it's not useless at all -- if you have both languages, you have a better chance of making it."

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Haitian president makes surprise visit to Dade School Board

Posted on Thu, Oct. 16, 2008
Haitian president makes surprise visit to Dade School Board
BY JACQUELINE CHARLES AND KATHLEEN McGRORY
Haitian President René Préval -- on a brief layover in Miami while en route to a summit in Quebec City, Canada -- made a surprise visit to the Miami-Dade School Board on Wednesday.Préval thanked the district for its support of Haiti's hurricane-relief effort and also made a pitch on behalf of his efforts to rebuild classrooms in the storm-ravaged country, asking Miami-Dade for its surplus portable classrooms.

Préval's unexpected visit brought members of the board and others in the audience to their feet with a standing ovation when he entered the auditorium. His appearance came after a private meeting with Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, who visited the devastated country last month.

''As you know, over the past two months, Haiti has suffered two hurricanes,'' Préval said, speaking in French with a translator at his side. ``It is like Katrina in Haiti. All of the schools have been damaged, all of the health centers are damaged and all of the homes have suffered damage.''

The portable classrooms, Préval said, would be used for schools, shelters and health centers. ''We still have people sleeping on the street, or on the roofs of their houses,'' Préval said. ``The children are exposed to the sun and the rain. It is unimaginable.''

The request for Miami-Dade's surplus portables comes after Broward School Board member Benjamin Williams offered to donate 600 of that district's portables.

APPEAL FOR DONATIONS

When Carvalho made an expected appearance at a spiritual revival at Notre Dame d'Haiti Catholic Church in Little Haiti Tuesday night, The Rev. Reginald Jean-Mary asked him about donating Miami-Dade's surplus portables to Haiti. Carvalho agreed.

Last month, both men visited two of the hardest-hit areas in Haiti -- the northwestern port city of Gonaives and Cabaret, just north of the capital of Port-au-Prince. Carvalho said he paid for his own ticket.

During a meeting with Haitian Prime Minister Michèle Pierre-Louis, Carvalho offered the school district's assistance. He told board members that the district was supplying 20,000 book bags and supplies to school children on the island, along with an out-of-service school bus.

''The fact that children in the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere still have not begun school is something that we can help with,'' Carvalho said. ``Here, we have an opportunity to turn our surplus into a valuable commodity in Haiti.''

Préval told The Miami Herald that Carvalho told him there were between 6,000 and 7,000 surplus portables statewide and offered to help Haiti obtain them. Carvalho confirmed this, telling the board that he plans to contact Gov. Charlie Crist and the State Department of Education about the portables.

School Board members said they would look into donating the portable classrooms -- which could number in the hundreds -- and would otherwise be destroyed. Board Chairman Agustín Barrera asked that the district ensure the portables are usable -- even if it means tapping into dollars that would have been used to destroy the classrooms to repair them before sending them to Haiti.

''I am very happy,'' Préval told The Herald. The portables were ``something that could rescue Haiti from the situation in which we are living.''

SCHOOLS HELPING OUT

School leaders and students have also been collecting food and supplies at schools throughout the county. And Carvalho asked a number of community organizations and corporations to donate backpacks for kids.

Carvalho said 15 shipping containers worth of goods had already arrived in Haiti and he hoped to send an additional 15 containers in coming weeks. He said he thinks the portables could be sent to Haiti for free.

''In the name of the children of Haiti, I thank you,'' Préval said.

© 2008 Miami Herald Media Company. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.miamiherald.com

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Haitian Diaspora Supports Barack Hussein Obama

Haitian Diaspora Barack Obama Support shirt

As America decides whether to elect its first Black president in its more than two hundred year history, we as Haitians, in our more than two hundred year history, are no strangers to Black presidents, Black Prime Ministers or Black Emperors for that matter. Our history of democracy is much shorter, but the decisions have not been made based on race.

EchodHaiti.com and HaitianDiaspora.com endorse Barack Hussein Obama for President of the United States of America in the 2008 elections. For, as Haitian-Americans, we believe he is the better man to lead the U.S. in its Time for Change.

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