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JANUARY 16 – JANUARY 22, 2015
VOLUME 23 NO. 3
STILL STRUGGLING
Five years after a devastating earthquake, political and economic uncertainty in Haiti still remains. Major toll
BY JACQUELINE CHARLES MIAMI HERALD /TNS
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – On Monday, President Michel Martelly used his nation’s most solemn anniversary – Jan. 12, 2010 – to issue an appeal for calm and unity, asking Haitians to remember the victims of the country’s devastating earthquake five years ago by putting Haiti first. “Haiti needs peace,” he said, attending an official ceremony at the site of the mass graves near Titanyen, where many of the more than 300,000 victims are buried. During the solemn commemoration of the disaster, which was more low-key than in previous years, Martelly reminded Haitians that in the first hours and days after the unimaginable tragedy, they came together to help each other. Sometimes using nothing but their bare hands, Haitians dug through the rubble of collapsed schools and homes to “help a neighbor, a colleague, someone whom we had never met before.” “Every life that was saved, was a victory,” he said, “every child who came out from underneath the rubble – joy.”
In addition to those who died, there were 300,000 injured and 1.5 million left homeless. The number of earthquake dead has long been debated and Monday was no exception. Every speaker had a figure different from the 316,000 that former Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive, who was in office at the time, announced. Among those dead was the top brass of the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission, which was meeting when the earthquake hit at 4:53 p.m. Last week, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon unveiled a memorial for all of the U.N.’s personnel who died that day.
Clinton absent Former U.S. President and U.N. Special Envoy Bill Clinton did not attend the commemoration, unlike previous years. He said, “We should be thankful for the progress made and strong in our commitment
PATRICK FARRELL/MIAMI HERALD/TNS
Workers off the beach in the village of Basse-Terre in the northwest region of See HAITI, Page A2 Haiti attempt to fix a damaged boat.
Military dismisses Boko Haram killings
DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., 1929-1968
‘A stone of hope’
Social media says Nigeria ‘ massacre’ ignored COMPILED FROM WIRE REPORTS
KANO, NIGERIA – Hundreds of people have been killed in northeastern Nigeria in terror attacks in the last week, local officials say, as Boko Haram militants took control of 16 towns in a new humiliation for the country’s struggling armed forces. Nigeria’s military has disputed reports that as many as 2,000 people were killed in a recent assault by militants on a town in the country’s northeast, putting the dead at 150, including many of the attackers. The military, under fire for losing large swaths of the northeast to militants from the group Boko Haram, dismissed reports of the high death toll in the town of Baga, saying it based its lower estimate on investigation and surveillance. “From all available evidences, the number of people who lost their lives during the attack has so far not exceeded about 150 in the interim,” the Defense Ministry said on Twitter. It said the military had not “given up” on Baga or any part of the country. See KILLINGS, Page A2 ANDRE CHUNG/MCT
Rita Mistry takes a photo of her family in front of the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial, a four-acre monument of stone, trees and located along the Tidal Basin in Washington, D. C. Read the full text of “I Have A Dream” on Page A5.
Deep South HIV/AIDS patients die sooner than rest of nation FROM WIRE SERVICES
DURHAM, N.C. – The southern U.S. had the nation’s lowest five-year survival rate among those diagnosed with HIV or AIDS in 2003-2004, according to new Duke University research. Fifteen percent of people diagnosed with HIV and 27 percent of those diagnosed with AIDS in that year had died within five
ALSO INSIDE
years of diagnosis. Nine southern states (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North and South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas) are hit disproportionately hard by HIV/AIDS. Patients in this region tend to be younger, more rural, African-American and female. They are also more likely to attribute their HIV infection to heterosexual sex.
‘Dire consequences’ “This research documents the dire consequences that having an HIV diagnosis in the Deep South region has for too many individuals,” said Duke University law professor Carolyn McAllaster, who directs the Southern HIV/AIDS Strategy Initiative (SASI) and the law school’s AIDS/HIV and Cancer Legal Project.
The research team included the Center for Health Policy and Inequalities Research at the Duke Global Health Institute, SASI, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the University of North Carolina School of Public Health. Their findings appear in the December 2014 edition of the Journal of Community Health.
SNAPSHOTS FLORIDA | A3
More female drama for Zimmerman NATION | A6
Congress leader: Black America is in a state of emergency
ENTERTAINMENT | B5
Dick Gregory finally getting Hollywood star
See HIV/AIDS, Page A2
COMMENTARY: CHARLES W. CHERRY II: RANDOM THOUGHTS OF A FREE BLACK MIND | A4 COMMENTARY: JULIANNE MALVEAUX: EDUCATION, ECONOMIC JUSTICE AND THE KING MANDATE | A4