• Lost and found: how a photographer sniffed out the magnolia species not seen for a century
• Magnolia species lost to science for 97 years rediscovered in Haiti
• New Marriott heralded as boost to beleaguered Haiti hotel market

• Hunger deepens as relentless gang violence targets Haiti's capital
• Why is Haiti so chaotic? Leaders used street gangs to gain power. Then the gangs got stronger
• A timeline of Haiti's gang violence and how the country got to where it is

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Positive Trends
Short Summaries of Top Stories

Lost and found: how a photographer sniffed out the magnolia species not seen for a century
15 December 2022 - Eladio Fernandez was rewarded after an arduous hike up a Haitian mountain, following in the footsteps of the Swedish botanist who last saw the fragrant flower in 1925. (more)

Magnolia species lost to science for 97 years rediscovered in Haiti
5 August 2022 - A conservation team has rediscovered a native magnolia tree in a forest in Haiti for the first time since it was lost to science in 1925. Boasting pure white flowers and uniquely shaped leaves, the northern Haiti magnolia (Magnolia emarginata) was found originally in the forest of Morne Colombo, which has since been destroyed by deforestation. It was considered endangered and featured on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's red list of threatened species, and its discovery has sparked new hope for the potential rewilding of Haiti's forests. (more)

New Marriott heralded as boost to beleaguered Haiti hotel market
24 February 2015 - Haiti's meager hotel offerings got a major boost on Tuesday with the inauguration of a brand new Marriott in the heart of the capital, the latest in a series of modern additions to the impoverished Caribbean island's hospitality sector. (more)

Bob Keesee's rain catchers bring clean water to Haiti's poorest
15 August 2014 - Bob Keesee first went to Haiti nearly 20 years ago with a group that planned to build a church that could also be used as a clinic and school. When he saw how far women had to walk to get water, and the desperate efforts people made to collect rainwater, he knew he had to do something. (more)

Young Canadian reunites Haitian 'orphans' with parents
28 July 2014 - Morgan Wienberg, a slight 22-year-old from Canada, was only 18 when she joined the wave of volunteers who flew to Haiti to help out after the catastrophic earthquake in 2010. She has returned, putting off a medical career to help Haitian children. Ms Wienberg set up her own charity in late 2011 to safe places for children to receive care while their parents are traced. So far Morgan has rescued 86 children and is helping their families provide for them at home, while also paying to educate 156. Despite her present involvement, Morgan hasn't necessarily given up on medical school. (more)

Haiti witnesses declining cholera rates, significant gains in development
17 July 2014 - Haiti, often cited as one of the least developed countries in the Western Hemisphere, has reached -- or nearly reached -- several of the Millennium Development Goals ahead of the 2015 deadline, according to a report launched by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) a month ago. Among other achievements, the country has seen a steady boost in enrollment rates in primary education from 47 per cent in 1993 to nearly 90 per cent, achieving equal participation of boys and girls in education. Haiti has also halved the number of underweight children under the age of five some three years ahead of the 2015 deadline. (more)

Haiti: UNESCO to send experts to examine possible wreck of 'Santa Maria'
26 June 2014 - The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has announced that it will provide technical assistance requested by the Government of Haiti and send a mission to the site of an underwater shipwreck, which may be that of the Santa Maria, the flagship of Christopher Columbus's first voyage to America. (more)

Haiti creates commission to monitor possible Santa Maria wreck
28 May 2014 - The Haitian government plans to create a high-level commission to monitor the possible discovery of the 500-year-old remains of Christopher Columbus's flagship off the country's north coast, Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe said on Wednesday. Lamothe said the commission would be composed of experts from the United Nation's cultural arm, UNESCO, the ministries of culture and tourism, specialists from the Haitian National Pantheon Museum (MUPANAH), as well as Clifford -- the US Marine explorer leading the team that found the wreck. Clifford has said he would like the ship to stay in Haiti as part of a permanent exhibition to help the country's struggling tourism industry. (more)

Shipwreck off Haiti could be Columbus's Santa Maria, explorers say
13 May 2014 - A shipwreck found off the north coast of Haiti could be the 500-year-old remains of the Santa Maria, which led Christopher Columbus's famed voyage to the New World, according to a team of marine explorers. The Santa Maria was one of a fleet of three vessels that departed Spain in 1492 looking for a shorter route to Asia. The ship, after arriving near the Bahamas, drifted into a reef and had to be abandoned. Columbus ordered sailors to build a fort nearby before taking the remaining two ships back to Spain to report his findings. (more)

Clinton Foundation funds recycling plant in Haiti
18 February 2014 - The Clinton Foundation has awarded a $250,000 grant to a Haitian recycling plant that seeks to clean up the country's dirty capital city. Former President Bill Clinton, who heads the private foundation, made the announcement Tuesday before the end of a two-day trip to the Caribbean nation, where he used to serve as a United Nations special envoy. His foundation focuses on bringing investors to Haiti. The grant goes to Sustainable Recycling Solutions, a business founded in 2012 by a team of Haitian business leaders and foreign aid workers. (more)

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Flops
Short Summaries of Top Stories

Hunger deepens as relentless gang violence targets Haiti's capital
29 March 2024 - Gangs have intensified their rampage in the downtown area of Haiti's capital, setting fire to a school and looting pharmacies across the road from the country's largest public hospital. The attacks that began Monday [25 March] and continued into early Tuesday mark nearly a month since gunmen began targeting key infrastructure across Port-au-Prince including police stations, the main international airport that remains closed, and Haiti's two biggest prisons, releasing more than 4,000 inmates. (more)

Why is Haiti so chaotic? Leaders used street gangs to gain power. Then the gangs got stronger
12 March 2024 - What is going on in Haiti? It's easy to blame this latest spasm of violence in the West's first free Black republic on longstanding poverty, the legacy of colonialism, widespread deforestation, and European and U.S. interference. However, a series of experts told The Associated Press that the most important immediate cause is more recent: Haitian rulers' increasing dependence on street gangs. (more)

A timeline of Haiti's gang violence and how the country got to where it is
7 March 2024 - Haiti is once again facing a wave of chaos fueled by ongoing gang wars, which have spiraled since the 2021 assassination of the country's president. Gang leaders have grown increasingly violent and empowered, taking advantage of power vacuums in the Caribbean nation to grow in strength. As gangs continue to rampage across Haiti, the country's embattled Prime Minister Ariel Henry remains blocked out of the country due to the closing of the airport. Here's a look at how Haiti got to this point: (more)

Gangs in Haiti try to seize control of main airport in newest attack on key government sites
4 March 2024 - Heavily armed gangs tried to seize control of Haiti's main international airport on Monday, exchanging gunfire with police and soldiers in the latest attack on key government sites in an explosion of violence that includes a mass escape from the country's two biggest prisons. ...The attack occurred just hours after authorities in Haiti ordered a nighttime curfew following violence in which armed gang members overran the two biggest prisons and freed thousands of inmates over the weekend. (more)

In Haiti, gangs take control as democracy withers
1 February 2023 - At a time when democracy has withered in Haiti and gang violence has spiraled out of control, it's armed men like [Jimmy] Cherizier that are filling the power vacuum left by a crumbling government. In December, the U.N. estimated that gangs controlled 60 percent of Haiti's capital, but nowadays most on the streets of Port-au-Prince say that number is closer to 100 percent. (more)

Haiti at breaking point as economy tanks and violence soars
4 October 2022 - Daily life in Haiti began to spin out of control last month just hours after Prime Minister Ariel Henry said fuel subsidies would be eliminated, causing prices to double. ... The poorest country in the Western hemisphere is in the grips of an inflationary vise that is squeezing its citizenry and exacerbating protests that have brought society to the breaking point. Violence is raging and making parents afraid to send their kids to school; fuel and clean water are scarce; hospitals, banks, and grocery stores are struggling to stay open. (more)

Gangs abduct 2 doctors in Haiti, including a needed surgeon
22 August 2021 - Two doctors at hospitals treating earthquake victims in Haiti's capital have been kidnapped, forcing one of the institutions to declare a two-day shutdown in protest, officials said Thursday [19 August]. The abductions Tuesday and Wednesday dealt a major blow to attempts to control criminal violence that has threatened disaster response efforts in Port-au-Prince. (more)

Powerful quake adds to Haiti's misery, killing at least 304
15 August 2021 - A powerful magnitude 7.2 earthquake added to the misery in Haiti, killing at least 304 people, injuring a minimum of 1,800 others, and destroying hundreds of homes. Saturday's earthquake struck the southwestern part of the hemisphere's poorest nation, almost razing some towns and triggering landslides that hampered rescue efforts in two of the hardest-hit communities. The disaster also added to the plight of Haitians, who were already grappling with the coronavirus pandemic, a presidential assassination, and deepening poverty. (more)

At least 304 dead, 1,800 hurt as powerful quake slams Haiti
14 August 2021 - A powerful magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck southwestern Haiti on Saturday, killing at least 304 people and injuring at least 1,800 others as buildings tumbled into rubble. Prime Minister Ariel Henry said he was rushing aid to areas where towns were destroyed and hospitals overwhelmed with incoming patients. ... The earthquake also struck just over a month after President Jovenel Moise was killed, sending the country into political chaos. ... The National Hurricane Center has forecast that Tropical Storm Grace will reach Haiti late Monday or early Tuesday. (more)

'Perfect storm': Haiti COVID-19 peak set to collide with hurricanes
16 May 2020 - In a country already struggling with political instability, social unrest, drought, and economic woes, hurricane season and coronavirus are an unwelcome addition. (more)