Tag: Haiti

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Business Channing Mathews Community Development Food and Drink

The Pearl of the Antilles in Charlottesville

two people pose in a restaurant
Sober and Zakiah Pierre pose in Pearl Island, their Pan-Caribbean restaurant. Photo credit: Kori Price

by Channing Mathews; featured photo by Kori Price

The story of Pearl Island Cafe is a search for identity, passion, and roots. The delightful smells and artwork of the Caribbean-inspired restaurant draw you in for a warm taste of the Caribbean, right in the heart of the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center and the historic Vinegar Hill Neighborhood in Charlottesville. Starting from the first jar of pikliz, a cabbage-based, vinegar-forward, and spicy condiment, sold at the Charlottesville Farmers’ Market, Pearl Island is thriving as Charlottesville’s premiere Caribbean lunch and catering space.   

Named to honor owner Sober Pierre’s Haitian roots, the restaurant pays homage to Haiti’s reputation as the Pearl of the Antilles, a place filled with treasures and turmoil throughout its complicated history. “Part of what I am doing right now is to reflect the beauty of Haiti. You know the richness that it had then, I want to emphasize that now. [I ask myself] ‘How do I showcase the beauty in the flavor, the people, and the culture as a whole?’”

a map of Hispaniola
A map of the Caribbean island Hispaniola

Born to Haitian immigrants in Miami, Florida, Sober had an early knack for business, using recycled wire from downed and inactive power lines to make bracelets for sale. But his business savvy would take a backseat to his educational pursuits. Sober attended Tuskegee University, a historically Black University in Alabama, to pursue mechanical engineering and a football scholarship. Upon graduation, he pursued job opportunities at John Deere and Caterpillar, where he discovered his interest in engineering was not aligned with his desire for something more: “I loved engineering, like the innovation of it, but I also wanted something I was more passionate about.”

In search of greater fulfillment, Sober pursued business school at the University of Virginia’s  Darden School of Business, where the ideas for Pearl Island started to come together in his current food business. “My reasoning for going to business school was identifying something I was passionate about and connected to. Something that at the end of the thirty-year career, I wouldn’t be questioning what it was all for.” This passion pursuit led him into a deep dive into his culture and identity exploration to learn about diversity of cultures in the Caribbean through the communal experience of food. “What we are trying to offer is access to the people and to the culture. Food being a very important, if not central part of it.” 

a container of food and drink
A tropical lemonade and trifecta platter of food from Pearl Island including chicken, pork, plantains, kale, rice, and pikliz (a spicy cabbage slaw). Photo credit: Kori Price

But the marriage of business with food and identity did not necessarily mean the abandonment of his engineering background. In addition to partnering with his wife, Dr. Zakiah N. Pierre, an analytical chemist by training, Sober applied his engineering mind to the design of his kitchen to maximize efficiency and consistency of the brand. This was an especially important skill when COVID-19 resulted in Pearl Island becoming a one- man kitchen, as work staff became less consistent as the pandemic progressed. “We’ve evolved…my wife has always been in the background, supporting wherever needed. In 2020, when we had a large amount of transition, she took on more of the catering side of things. I reimagined the process in the kitchen that helped me to ensure that the full burden of producing a consistent product didn’t all fall on my shoulders.” 

My experience of Pearl Island brought me back to my time living in the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti. To experience the food of Pearl Island is to experience the warmth and welcoming of what you might find in a Caribbean household with spices baked into the walls, and no written recipes beyond the magic of the chef’s hands. Every forkful of my curry chicken and sous poulet brought me back to the lush richness of food culture on the island, and made me chuckle as I fondly remembered my favorite street food vendors, who set up shop just outside of the kitchens within their home, inviting me to dine on their patios. 

It seems that such a memory is not uncommon when experiencing the food at Pearl Island: “One of the things I miss most about the farmers market is that a lot of our customers were always excited to share about their travels to the Caribbean, and what our stand represented to them… It’s been a way for us to connect and to share our culture. It’s been great to have the experience of people enjoying [the food] and coming back.”

three workers prepare meals in a restaurant
Workers at Pearl Island prepare meals for customers. Photo credit: Kori Price

As a scholar of ethnic-racial identity development, I am always intrigued by the ways that food speaks to our racialized identities in the same ways that words and labels do. Food is where we share space and stories, moments that we share with others, years or even moments after we leave the table. Food is a place for us to take pause and inventory, to remind ourselves to slow down and spend time with old peeps, or find some new ones to create new memories. Pearl Island reminds us of those shared stories, by giving our tastebuds a new story to tell in community. “It shows that there’s promise and possibilities. Making the diverse flavors of the Caribbean more accessible is what I want to get to. And we are doing that.”

Oh yes, Mr. Pierre. Y’all are certainly doing that!

 

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National Headlines

Thousands of Haitian migrants forced to gather under Texas bridge

More than 9,000 migrants, primarily from Haiti who’ve been affected by a series of natural disasters, were being held in a temporary staging area in Del Rio, Texas.

According to reports from the U.S. Border Patrol, more than 9,000 migrants, primarily from Haiti who’ve been affected by a series of natural disasters, were being held in a temporary staging area in Del Rio, Texas.

It was initially just a few hundred individuals earlier in the week, The New York Times reports.  The Border Patrol insists they will have additional agents “to immediately address the current level of migrant encounters and to facilitate a safe, humane and orderly process.”

The shaded area under the bridge where the migrants are being held should “prevent injuries from heat-related illness” as more migrants are processed.

Migrants Del Rio Texas thegrio.comMigrants wash their clothes in the Rio Grande River near a makeshift encampment under the International Bridge between Del Rio, TX and Acuña, MX on September 17, 2021 in Del Rio, Texas. (Photo by Jordan Vonderhaar/Getty Images)

Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered the state police and the National Guard to assist border agents.

“The Biden administration is in complete disarray and is handling the border crisis as badly as the evacuation from Afghanistan,” Abbott said.

Del Rio’s Mayor, Bruno Lozano, also spoke out, commenting on the conditions the migrants are subjected to. There’s minimal access to clean water and food. There are just a few dozen portable toilets available.

“There are 9,000 people really anxious and stressed,” Lozano said. The city of Del Rio currently has a population of an estimated 35,000 residents.

The Del Rio border sector has been the site of much migrant traffic this year. In June, many were caught illegally crossing the border, twice as many as in May. The numbers continued to rise month to month.

The government has plans to fly some of the migrants to other parts of the border that aren’t as overpopulated as Del Rio. Return flights to Haiti are also in effect, currently scheduled to begin on Monday, Sept. 20. Biden’s administration hopes this will encourage other Haitians to try not to cross the southern border.

Abbott has instructed Texas state law enforcement to arrest migrants for illegal trespassing, claiming the Biden administration was not doing its part. The Biden administration has come under much scrutiny for its handling of the situation or lack thereof.

Large Migration Surge Crosses Rio Grande Into Del Rio, TexasMigrants walk across the Rio Grande River carrying food and other supplies back to a makeshift encampment under the International Bridge between Del Rio, TX and Acuña, MX on September 17, 2021, in Del Rio, Texas. (Photo by Jordan Vonderhaar/Getty Images)

Victor Escalon, the South Texas regional director for the state’s Department of Public Safety, has spoken of the arrests made for criminal trespassing of illegal migrants, which he says has overwhelmed the local jails.

“We have to put the pressure and deter the activity,” he said. Escalon is leading Operation Lone Star, a program created by Gov. Abbott that allows him to send resources and state agents to border communities.

Tiffany Burrow, the operations director for the Val Verde Humanitarian Border Coalition’s migrant respite center, said the city just cannot accommodate as many migrants that have been coming in.

“We can’t help that many people,” she said. “The city is not going to sustain all these people. The city under the bridge could become bigger than Del Rio.”

Usually, the group helps an estimated 300 migrants a day. They assist with connecting them with transportation to their final destination in the U.S.

Unfortunately, the conditions remain the same. The thousands of migrants have access to just 22 portable toilets. There is no running water.

The report notes that migrants typically feed themselves with food purchased in Mexico, which they get by running back and forth across the Rio Grande. They sleep in packed dirt beneath the bright with minimal lighting.

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National Headlines

‘We need help’: Haiti’s interim leader requests US troops

The Biden administration has so far given no indication it will provide military assistance in the aftermath of President Jovenel Moïse’s assassination

Haiti’s interim government said it asked the U.S. to deploy troops to protect key infrastructure as it tries to stabilize the country and prepare for elections in the aftermath of President Jovenel Moïse’s assassination.

Amid the confusion, hundreds of Haitians gathered outside the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince pleading for a way out of the country. Women carried babies and young men waved passports and ID cards as they cried out, “Refuge!” and “Help!”

“We definitely need assistance and we’ve asked our international partners for help,” Interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph told The Associated Press in a phone interview late Friday. “We believe our partners can assist the national police in resolving the situation.”

Haitians gather in front of the U.S. Embassy amid rumors on radio and social media that the U.S. will be handing out exile and humanitarian visas, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Friday, July 9, 2021, two days after President Jovenel Moise was assassinated in his home. (AP Photo/Joseph Odelyn)

The stunning request for U.S. military support recalled the tumult following Haiti’s last presidential assassination, in 1915, when an angry mob dragged President Vilbrun Guillaume Sam out of the French Embassy and beat him to death. In response, President Woodrow Wilson sent the Marines into Haiti, justifying the American military occupation — which lasted nearly two decades — as a way to avert anarchy.

But the Biden administration has so far given no indication it will provide military assistance. For now, it only plans to send FBI officials to help investigate a crime that has plunged Haiti, a country already wracked by gaping poverty and gang violence, into a destabilizing battle for power and constitutional standoff.

On Friday, a group of lawmakers announced they had recognized Joseph Lambert, the head of Haiti’s dismantled senate, as provisional president in a direct challenge to the interim government’s authority. They also recognized as prime minister Ariel Henry, whom Moïse had selected to replace Joseph a day before he was killed but who had not yet taken office or formed a government.

One of those lawmakers, Rosemond Pradel, a former secretary general of Haiti’s provisional electoral commission, told the AP that Joseph “is neither qualified nor has the legal right” to lead the country.

Joseph expressed dismay that others would try to take advantage of Moïse’s murder for political gain.

“I’m not interested in a power struggle,” said Joseph, who assumed leadership with the backing of police and the military. “There’s only one way people can become president in Haiti. And that’s through elections.”

Meanwhile, more details emerged of a killing that increasingly has taken the air of a murky, international conspiracy involving a shootout with gunmen holed up in a foreign embassy, a private security firm operating out of a cavernous warehouse in Miami and a cameo sighting of a Hollywood star.

Among those arrested are two Haitian Americans, including one who worked alongside Sean Penn following the nation’s devastating 2010 earthquake. Police have also detained or killed what they described as more than a dozen “mercenaries” who were former members of Colombia’s military.

Some of the suspects were seized in a raid on Taiwan’s Embassy where they are believed to have sought refuge. National Police Chief Léon Charles said another eight suspects were still at large and being sought.

The attack, which took place at Moïse’s home before dawn Wednesday, also seriously wounded his wife, who was flown to Miami for surgery. Joseph said he has spoken to the first lady but out of respect for her mourning has not inquired about the attack.

Colombian officials said the men were recruited by four companies and traveled to the Caribbean nation in two groups via the Dominican Republic. U.S.-trained Colombian soldiers are heavily sought after by private security firms and mercenary armies in global conflict zones because of their experience in a decades-long war against leftist rebels and powerful drug cartels.

Two suspects in the assassination of Haiti’s President Jovenel Moise are moved to be displayed to the media at the General Direction of the police in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Thursday, July 8, 2021. (AP Photo/Joseph Odelyn)

Some of the men had posted on Facebook photos of themselves visiting the presidential palace and other tourist spots in the Dominican Republic, which shares Hispaniola Island with Haiti.

The sister of one of the dead suspects, Duberney Capador, told the AP that she last spoke to her brother late Wednesday — hours after Moïse’s murder — when the men, holed up in a home and surrounded, were desperately trying to negotiate their way out of a shootout.

“He told me not to tell our mother, so she wouldn’t worry,” said Yenny Capador, fighting back tears.

It’s not known who masterminded the attack. And numerous questions remain about how the perpetrators were able to penetrate the president’s residence posing as U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents, meeting little resistance from those charged with protecting the president.

Capador said her brother, who retired from the Colombian army in 2019 with the rank of sergeant, was hired by a private security firm with the understanding he would be providing protection for powerful individuals in Haiti.

Capador said she knew almost nothing about the employer but shared a picture of her brother in a uniform emblazoned with the logo of CTU Security — a company based in Doral, a Miami suburb popular with Colombian migrants.

The wife of Francisco Uribe, who was among those arrested, told Colombia’s W Radio that CTU offered to pay the men about $2,700 a month — a paltry sum for a dangerous international mission but far more than what most of the men, nonommissioned officers and professional soldiers, earned from their pensions.

Uribe is under investigation in the alleged murder of an unarmed civilian in 2008 who was presented as someone killed in combat, one of thousands of extrajudicial killings that rocked Colombia’s U.S.-trained army more than a decade ago.

CTU Security was registered in 2008 and lists as its president Antonio Intriago, who is also affiliated with several other Florida-registered entities, some of them since dissolved, including the Counter Terrorist Unit Federal Academy, the Venezuelan American National Council and Doral Food Corp.

CTU’s website lists two addresses, one of which is a gray-colored warehouse that was shuttered Friday with no sign indicating who it belonged to. The other is a small suite under a different company’s name in a modern office building a few blocks away. A receptionist at the office said Intriago stops by every few days to collect mail and hold meetings. Intriago, who is Venezuelan, did not return phone calls and an email seeking comment.

Haitians gather in front of the U.S. Embassy amid rumors on radio and social media that the U.S. will be handing out exile and humanitarian visas, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Friday, July 9, 2021, two days after President Jovenel Moise was assassinated in his home. (AP Photo/Joseph Odelyn)

“We are the ones who are most interested in clarifying what happened, so that my brother’s reputation does not remain like it is,” said Capador. “He was a humble, hard-working man. He had honors and decorations.”

Besides the Colombians, among those detained by police were two Haitian Americans.

Investigative Judge Clément Noël told Le Nouvelliste, a French-language daily newspaper printed in Port-au-Prince, that the arrested Americans, James Solages and Joseph Vincent, said the attackers originally planned only to arrest Moïse, not kill him. Noël said Solages and Vincent were acting as translators for the attackers, the newspaper reported Friday.

Solages, 35, described himself as a “certified diplomatic agent,” an advocate for children and budding politician on a now-removed website for a charity he started in 2019 in south Florida to assist resident of his home town of Jacmel, on Haiti’s southern coast.

He worked briefly as a driver and bodyguard for a relief organization set up by Penn following a magnitude 7.0 earthquake that killed 300,000 Haitians and left tens of thousands homeless. He also lists as past employers the Canadian Embassy in Haiti. His Facebook page, which was also taken down following news of his arrest, features photos of armored military vehicles and a shot of himself standing in front of an American flag.

Calls to the charity and Solages’ associates went unanswered. However, a relative in south Florida said Solages doesn’t have any military training and doesn’t believe he was involved in the killing.

Joseph refused to specify who was behind the attack, but said that Moïse had earned numerous enemies while attacking powerful oligarchs who for years profited from overly generous state contracts.

Some of those elite insiders are now the focus of investigators, with authorities asking that presidential candidate and well-known businessman Reginald Boulos and former Senate President Youri Latortue meet with prosecutors next week for questioning. No further details were provided and none of the men have been charged.

Analysts say whoever plotted the brazen attack likely had ties to a criminal underworld that has flourished in recent years as corruption and drug trafficking have become entrenched. The growing power of gangs displaced more than 14,700 people in Haiti last month alone as they torched and ransacked homes in a fight over territory.

“This country has nothing to offer,” said 36-year-old Thermidor Joam, one of those thronged outside the U.S. Embassy on Friday. “If the president can be killed with his own security, I have no protection whatsoever if someone wants to kill me.”

Prosecutors also want to interrogate members of Moïse’s security detail, including the president’s security coordinator, Jean Laguel Civil, and Dimitri Hérard, the head of the General Security Unit of the National Palace.

“If you are responsible for the president’s security, where have you been?,” Port-au-Prince prosecutor Bed-Ford Claude was quoted as telling Le Nouvelliste. “What did you do to avoid this fate for the president?”

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National Headlines

What does Haiti President Moïse’s assassination mean for Haitians?

With no clear succession of power, it is up to the people of Haiti to navigate this new power vacuum and the international community to support and uplift them

A coup is typically described as the removal or seizure of a government and its powers — technically an illegal and unconstitutional seizure of power by a political faction, military or dictator. But in Haiti’s case, many are unsure of the circumstances that resulted in President Jovenel Moïse’s untimely death. 

Haiti's President Jovenel MoiseHaiti’s President Jovenel Moise speaks during an interview at his home in Petion-Ville, a suburb of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Sources say Moise was assassinated at home, first lady hospitalized amid political instability. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery, File)

Around 2:45 Wednesday morning in Pelerin 5, President Moïse was assassinated and First Lady Martine Moïse severely wounded. Looking from the outside in, this may seem like an unprecedented attack, but for those who have been following the politics of the Moïse regime, this demise is not shocking.

For the last 12 months but certainly, since Feb. 7, (the date that his alleged term ended) there have been outcries for the removal of President Moïse, as many alleged he had overstayed his presidential term. Moïse had been coincidently running the country via presidential decree as both parliament and senate had been disbanded under his authoritarian rule.

His latest attempt at governance came in the form of his referendum agenda in an effort to effectively dismantle the Haitian constitution. Amongst these referendums included immunity for himself and any Haitian president while in office while doing away with the prime minister position in its entirety — opting instead to replace it with a vice president position. 

Perhaps Moïse’s interest in doing away with the prime minister position is a reflection of his unlucky fortune with them —ultimately going through seven prime ministers before today’s assassination. His 7th appointee was tapped as recently as two days ago (July 5) and was not properly installed before the late president’s death.

Ariel Henry, a neurosurgeon and former minister of interior was set to replace interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph — who has overnight become the most powerful man in the country as acting prime minister. 

The chaos and unclear succession of power have left Haitians and the diaspora alike grasping for straws on what the future of Haiti will look like. The president of Haiti’s Cour de Cassation (Supreme Court) would naturally be the next in power — but the recent death of the last Supreme Court president, Rene Sylvestre, from COVID-19 complications makes matters even more perilous. No Supreme Court president, no senate and no parliament. Not to mention, the neighboring Dominican Republic has closed its borders and all flights in and out of the country have been immediately suspended until further notice. 

But who is responsible?

Although not much is known about the attacks, there are allegations of an unidentified group of mercenaries taking the home — commando style. The language of the killers is unknown; some allege the group was communicating in Spanish, and others claim American English was the language of choice. Some allege the DEA’s (Drug Enforcement Agency) involvement while others implicate Latin America (this allegation has been staunchly denied by the DEA).

Haiti’s President Jovenel Moise, center, leaves the museum during a ceremony marking the 215th anniversary of revolutionary hero Toussaint Louverture’s death, at the National Pantheon museum in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery, File)

What is clear is that a trained paramilitary group carried out the attack, and the last time Haiti witnessed an assassination in office it resulted in the infamous occupation of Haiti by the United States Marines. This occurred after President Jean Vilbrun Guillaume Sam was murdered on July 28, 1915, and resulted in a 19-year marine occupation sanctioned by President Woodrow Wilson. 

But what would happen if history repeated itself? One must only look to the past to see the detrimental effects that the U.S. Marine Occupation had on Haiti. After removing half a million dollars from the Haitian National Bank for “safe-keeping” in New York, they created the Haitian Gendarmerie — a military amalgamation of Haitian and American citizens controlled strictly by the U.S. Marine Corps. In this way, the United States controlled both the military and finances of the country. It wasn’t until President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “Good Neighbor Policy,” that military forces officially withdrew from the country nearly 20 years later. 

With no clear succession of power, it is up to the people of Haiti to navigate this new power vacuum and the job of the international community (UN, OAS, and individual nations) to support and uplift them as they navigate their way through troubled waters.

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Wen-Kuni Ceant, theGrio.com

Wen-kuni Ceant is the CEO and Co-Founder of Politicking. She is a Fulbright Scholar and through the fellowship she studied health infrastructure in Senegal during the last year. She received her Masters in Public Health in Health Management and Policy in 2016 from Drexel University. Before Drexel, she attended Howard University, in Washington, D.C. where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa and with honors with a Bachelors of Science in Biology.

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