MATE-TESOL HAITI WORKSHOP POSTPONE DUE TO TENSION IN PORT AU PRINCE Comfort Davis Mingot MATE-TESOL HAITI Workshop which was to be held on the 17th of December 2010 at the Haitian American Institute in Port-au-Prince was postponed due to tension caused by the announcement of the results of the legislatives and presidential elections which were held on the 28th of November. The MATE- TESOL HAITI workshop was planned in October. The topic, the date and time were decided upon. The anticipation of over 50 participants was done and preparations were on the way. And there were also going to be 3 presenters: Mr. Jean Francois Vilmenay, Mr. Francois Herve and Mrs. Comfort Davis Mingot all of MATE-TESOL HAITI. By mid November, English teachers and students wishing to attend the workshop started to call about information regarding the workshop. At the end of November, after the 28th, which was elections day a lot of teachers and students called again to find out if the workshop was going to be held as scheduled on the 17th of December, taking into consideration the declaration of the 14 candidates who requested that the elections commission cancel the elections because there were lot of frauds. This declaration was also understood by a lot of people as a call to demonstrate, to show to the international community that they were not satisfied. So on the same afternoon of the elections they took to the streets of Port-au-Prince and some other important towns in the country. I, Comfort Davis Mingot, public relations officer of MATE-TESOL HAITI, assured the teachers and students who called between the 29th and the first week in December to inquire about whether the workshop was going to be held as planned that indeed we were going to have the workshop if there was not going to be any political instabilities. The results of the legislative and presidential elections were announced in the evening of the 7th of December. These presidential candidates: Mirlande Manigat with 30% on the top, followed by Jude Celestin with 22% and Joseph Martely as the third runner up. The sympathizers of the candidate of Joseph Martely did not agree with the result placing their candidates as the third runner up so they took to the streets in and outside of the capital requesting that the election commissions should be dissolved and the elections be reorganized by neutral bodies. They demonstrated for three days. On the third day, the sympathizers of the candidate Jude Celestin also took to the streets in order to force the sympathizers of Martely to leave the streets. These three days of demonstrations the, 7th, 8th and 9th brought the country to a standstill. Schools, institutions, universities, businesses, private and public offices and government offices were all closed. Public transportation including the airport was closed. And more over, there have always been rumors that demonstrators are going to take to the streets sooner or later. The President, Herve Alcindor, the vice President, Jean Francois Vilmenay and the public relation officer and editor Comfort Davis Mingot of MATE-TESOL HAITI, then decided to postpone the workshop to the end of January or the early part of February 2011 if God’s willing. We are hoping that we are going to have a stable and peaceful political atmosphere. We thank all those who expressed their interest in attending our workshop and apologize for any inconvenience that the postponing of the workshop may have caused them.
Posted on: Tue, 02 Jul 2013 13:38:14 +0000
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