Tag: Funeral

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Politics

U.S. delegation cuts Haiti journey brief after gunshots reported at president’s funeral

U.S. delegation cuts Haiti trip short after gunshots reported at president's funeral

A man attends the funeral of slain Haitian President Jovenel Moise, at Moise’s family home in Cap-Haitien, Haiti, Friday, July 23, 2021.

Matias Delacroix | AP

A U.S. delegation that attended the funeral of late Haitian president Jovenel Moise on Friday is safe and returning to the U.S. following reports of gunshots and crowd control gas as protests took place outside the ceremony, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Friday.

The delegation, led by U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield, was forced to end the trip early due to the unrest, a senior administration official told NBC News. However, Thomas-Greenfield was able to meet with Haitian leaders at the funeral, including newly sworn in Prime Minister Ariel Henry and his predecessor Claude Joseph before leaving.

There were no immediate reports of injuries among protesters, authorities or guests at the funeral. 

The U.S. delegation included House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y.; Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, R-Neb.; and NSC Senior Director for the Western Hemisphere Juan Gonzales. It also included Daniel Foote, who was newly appointed as the U.S. special envoy to Haiti by the Biden administration, and U.S. Ambassador to Haiti Michele Sison.

Greenfield, in remarks delivered upon the delegation’s arrival in Haiti, expressed solidarity with the Haitian people and condolences to First Lady Martine Moise.

“Our delegation is here to bring a message to the Haitian people: You deserve democracy, stability, security, and prosperity, and we stand with you in this time of crisis,” Greenfield said

The funeral service was opened by a brass band and church choir, but was disrupted by angry shouts of protesters accusing authorities of being responsible for Moise’s death, according to Reuters.

Haitian officials arriving at the event were met with verbal anger from protesters, with one man calling Haitian police chief Leon Charles a criminal, Reuters reported.

Protests erupted in the northern city of Cap-Haitien leading up to the funeral for Moise, with supporters of the slain president angry over unanswered questions about his assassination, according to Reuters.

“We are deeply concerned about unrest in Haiti,” Psaki said at a Friday briefing. “In this critical moment, Haiti’s leaders must come together to chart a united path that reflects the will of the Haitian people. We remain committed to supporting the people of Haiti in this challenging time.”

This comes over two weeks after Moise was shot dead at his private Port-au-Prince residence, a shocking assassination that plunged the Caribbean nation into political upheaval.

U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in a statement Friday the U.S. will continue to provide requested assistance, including equipment and training, to the Haitian National Police and government of Haiti. The Department of Justice and Homeland Security will also continue to aid Haitian authorities in their investigation into the killing at the request of the Haitian government.

Sullivan added that the departments will continue working closely with international partners to support the Haitian government’s efforts to hold the perpetrators of the assassination accountable.

The Haitian government has also requested that the U.S. deploy American troops to protect critical infrastructure in Haiti.

Biden announced last week that the U.S. will only send American marines to secure the U.S. Embassy in Haiti and has no plans to send military assistance. 

“The idea of sending American forces into Haiti is not on the agenda at this moment,” Biden said at a joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel last week. 

Earlier this month, the U.S. sent a delegation of U.S. officials to Haiti to assess the political and security situation in the nation, assist with the investigation of Moise’s murder, and encourage free and fair elections. 

— Reuters contributed to this report.

Categories
World News

As Haitian Chief’s Funeral Nears, Anger Burns within the Streets

As Haitian Leader’s Funeral Nears, Anger Burns in the Streets

CAP-HAÏTIEN, Haiti – Hours before mourners were due to pay tribute to assassinated President Jovenel Moïse at a state funeral on Friday – a moment many hoped would help heal a broken nation – the northern city of Cap-Haïtien burned with anger and frustration exposing the deep divisions in Haiti.

Black smoke from burning tires billowed across the streets on Thursday, a common form of protest in a country divided on geography, wealth and power. Large crowds of demonstrators ran through the narrow colonial streets and shouted: “You killed Jovenel and the police were there.”

Mistrustful of the elite who had come out of the capital, angry men tried to prevent the arrival of mourners from outside the city by throwing a cinder block at the leading car of a motorcade that had navigated through the fire and later over a concrete telephone pole A street.

“We sent someone alive, they sent him back a body,” shouted Frantz Atole, a 42-year-old mechanic, promising violence. “This country will not be silent.”

The state funeral planned for the Moïse family homestead, less than half an hour from downtown Cap-Haïtien, was to attract diplomats from around the world and officials from across the country. But the uproar before the ceremony raised questions about safety and whether everyone who wanted to pay tribute to Mr. Moïse would actually come to the funeral.

Two weeks after Mr Moïse was riddled with bullets in his own bedroom in the capital, Port-au-Prince – killed by a group of Colombian mercenaries, authorities say – the country is still circling the country with unanswered questions and seething with rage. Several members of Mr Moïse’s own security department were also questioned and taken into custody.

A new government was installed in the capital this week, with leaders vowing to get to the bottom of the horrific murders and to reach consensus between the country’s warring political factions and its angry civil society groups. But the unrest Thursday threatened to turn hopes for consensus into a naive, unrealized dream.

“The Port-au-Prince bourgeoisie is responsible. You are the reason for all of this, ”said Emmanuella Joseph, a 20-year-old high school student who cried into a washcloth by the roadside at the end of an ongoing protest. “All I ask is to close all roads so they don’t come.”

She added lamentably that the president’s killers were outsiders who had long interfered in the fate of the country. “What kind of nation comes and kills a president?”

Others shouted that the police and the Presidential Guard, whose members were not injured in the attack on the President’s home, were involved in the murder.

Cap-Haïtien was dressed in mourning on Thursday. It was once the capital of the French colony of St. Domingue, which claimed one of the world’s most brutal slave plantation economies and was later overwhelmed by the world’s most successful slave rebellion. Banners hung over the streets reading “Justice for President Jovenel” and “Thank you, President Jovenel. You gave your life for the struggle of the people and it will go on. “

In the immediate vicinity of the city’s main stone square, where rebel leaders were executed more than two centuries ago, mourners queued to sign books of condolence and light candles before a large photo of the president was taken in a government building.

“We live in such a fragile time,” said Maxil Mompremier in front of the Notre Dame de L’Assomption cathedral from colonial times, where Moïse’s supporters had previously gathered for a service. “Nobody understands what happened. Lots of people are scared. “

The assassination of the President of Haiti

Mr Moïse comes from the north of the country and was not known in the country’s center of power, Port-au-Prince, when he was elected as a candidate for the 2015 elections by the ruling party. Born in the nearby town of Trou-du-Nord, he later began his entrepreneurial career in Port-de-Paix, where he became President of the Chamber of Commerce.

The fact that he was killed far away in Port-au-Prince sparked old divisions between the less developed north and the capital and economic center of the country and deepened the rifts between the country’s small elite and its destitute majority.

“It occurs incessantly in the entire history of Haiti,” said Emile Eyma Jr., a historian from Cap-Haïtien, speaking of the resentments of the northerners. “It is dangerous that both the question of color and the question of regionalism are used as weapons for purely political reasons.”

The president’s wife, Martine Moïse, who was injured in the attack, has announced that her family will pay for the funeral. Planes arrived at the usually sleepy airport all day, with more to arrive on Friday.

But anger burned in the streets of this city.

“We’ll protest all night,” Mr. Atole vowed as the tires burned on a bridge behind him. “We’ll make it difficult for them in town.”

Harold Isaac contributed to the coverage.

Categories
World News

Harry Will Attend Philip’s Funeral, Elevating Hope Royal Rift Will Heal

Harry Will Attend Philip’s Funeral, Raising Hope Royal Rift Will Heal

LONDON – Buckingham Palace said Saturday that Prince Harry would be returning to the UK for Prince Philip’s funeral this coming weekend to spark feverish speculation over whether the reunion would fix fences in the royal family or sow deeper discord.

The visit, Harry’s first since stepping down as high-ranking king last year, will force a meeting with his brother, Prince William, and father, Prince Charles, whom Harry said in an explosive interview last month was in one trapped in unhappy palace life. But Harry will be traveling without his wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, who, according to palace officials, would stay at the couple’s California home by order of the doctor because she is in the final stages of pregnancy.

For weeks as the world waited for Oprah Winfrey’s interview with Harry and Meghan last month, many Brits’ eyes were on the health of Philip, Harry’s grandfather, who had been hospitalized with heart disease.

The newspapers pictured Prince Charles getting out of bed of Philip, his father, in February – the son’s eyes bloodshot as he was evicted. Harry and Meghan have been scourged for comments about leaving their royal roles, which critics found indecent in the face of Philip’s illness. “Don’t you have any respect?” yelled the Daily Mail.

This period of national concern about Philip’s health lent sympathy to the royal family amid an unusual cloud of dust within the institution that brother versus brother when Harry accused his family of racism and emotional abandonment in an interview with Mrs. Winfrey.

With this conflict still raging, Philip’s death on Friday at the age of 99 opened a new and uncertain chapter in the turbulent life of the House of Windsor. Among the first acts of the post-Philip era was the announcement that Harry would attend his grandfather’s funeral, slated for April 17, a scaled-down ceremony that palace officials said would be limited to 30 people.

No question bothered royal watchers more than whether Harry would make peace with his brother, Prince William, after a month-long feud.

“Harry will come home and a meeting between the brothers and maybe, with luck, a reconciliation over their dead grandfather might be a possibility,” said Penny Junor, a royal historian.

Or not.

“It will go one way or the other,” said Ms. Junor. “There is a kind of war going on in the family that is fought out in public. It was everything the family doesn’t want. “

The warming of these tensions during Philip’s hospital stay created an uncomfortable split screen with Buckingham Palace defenders attacking Harry and Meghan for doing anything that could harm the patriarch’s health.

In her interview, Meghan referred to Philip’s illness after Mrs Winfrey asked about regrets. She said she woke up that morning to find out that Philip had been hospitalized.

Even so, she and Harry offered a painful account of their lives in “The Firm,” the family institution that Philip spent much of his life preserving.

They said family members have raised concerns about how dark the skin of the couple’s then-unborn child, Archie, would be. Meghan said her mental health efforts had been rejected by palace officials who were concerned about possible harm to the monarchy.

Harry was so concerned about how the interview would affect Philip and Queen Elizabeth II that he contacted Ms. Winfrey shortly after it aired.

“He wanted to make sure I knew, and when I had the opportunity to share, that his grandmother or grandfather wasn’t part of those conversations,” she told CBS News, referring to the comments on Archie’s skin color.

The interview was barely featured in wall-to-wall coverage of Philip’s death on UK news channels on Friday. And for some in the country, it was a time to leave the royal turmoil of the past few months behind.

“Obviously there was so much scandal over the Meghan and Harry thing,” said 18-year-old Lottie Smith, who heard of Philip’s death on a train ride to London on Friday and came to Buckingham Palace to pay her respects. “I think his death will somehow leave that alone now.”

Her friend Catherine Vellacott, 19, stepped in in hopes that she “might unite the nation more”.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson saw it that way too. He tossed Philip’s death on Friday as a reminder of the glue that held Britain to its monarchy for so long.

“Like the seasoned coachman that he was,” said Mr Johnson of Philip outside Downing Street, “he helped steer the royal family and monarchy so that it remains an institution conducive to balance and happiness is undeniably important to our national life. ” ”

Even so, the greatest test of whether Philip’s death can reunite his warring family seems likely to come at his funeral.

In keeping with Philip’s preference to avoid fuss, as well as Covid-19 restrictions on large gatherings, he will not be in the state, a ceremony where the public should have seen his coffin. The 30-person limit for his funeral at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle was in line with state restrictions and forced him to cut back a guest list that would normally have been several hundred people.

Palace officials said Saturday that his coffin would be carried around the palace grounds in a Land Rover. The plans for the television ceremony that Philip approved a few years ago have been scaled back because of the pandemic.

Members of the royal family and military personnel will take part in the procession.

Gun salutes marking Philip’s death were fired from cities in the four nations of the United Kingdom and at sea on Saturday. This tradition goes back centuries. In London, among other things, 13 pounder field guns from the First World War were fired, which were also fired at the wedding of Philip and Queen Elizabeth II in 1947.

While serving in the British Navy during World War II, Philip was credited with devising a plan in 1943 to save the lives of crew members when they were shot at by German bombers.

Harry told James Corden, the talk show host, about video chatting with his grandfather and Archie during the lockdown in late February when Philip, instead of pressing the red button at the end of the call, opened the lid of the laptop.

Travelers to England need to self-isolate, although private coronavirus testing can shorten it. Harry’s representatives said he would follow the protocols.

Few elements of the conflict between Harry and the rest of his family have tormented the British as much as his strained relationship with William, with whom he once had a very close relationship.

“If there is a gathering at the funeral and the boys the brothers can talk to each other and forgive and forget, then I think the hope is that Philip’s death could end something that might otherwise have been going on for decades,” said Ms. Junor, the historian, who wrote, “The Company: The Troubled Life of House Windsor. “

“But that hasn’t happened yet, and it can’t happen,” she said. “I definitely hope so.”

Royal commentators suggest that as Philip stepped down from his busy public schedule in recent years, he continued to play an active role in major problems faced by the family, with Harry and Meghan departing.

If the Queen is Britain’s head of state, commentators say, Philip was the head of the royal household. He has been credited with giving television cameras an early glimpse into the family’s private life in the 1960s and introducing efficiency improvements at Buckingham Palace.

Still, his administration of the royal household was not without its difficulties. Known for cracking the whip, he wounded Charles, his eldest son, with frequent disparities. And while Philip took upon himself to steer the family through marital issues, he was blamed in part for the palace’s seemingly reluctant response to grief over the death of Charles’ wife Diana, Princess of Wales, in a car accident in Paris in 1997.

Geneva Abdul and Stephen Castle contributed to the coverage.

Categories
Health

Zoom Funeral Ideas – The New York Occasions

Zoom Funeral Tips - The New York Times

In my family’s case, we were really impressed with how video conferencing, which can be so stressful in our daily work lives, enabled us to celebrate my father’s full life in a beautiful and moving way.

If you need to arrange a memorial service on a video platform, here are some tips.

We bought a one month subscription to Zoom Pro (it’s currently $ 14.99 per month and you can cancel it at any time). It allows up to 100 participants (other plans allow more at an additional cost) with unlimited meeting time and saves a recording in the cloud. We’re glad we did. If we had to limit the time of the event, we would have missed many moving contributions from the participants.

Since I created the account, I was the de facto host of the meeting. In retrospect, I wish I had passed the role to my 17-year-old daughter, a digital native. The tasks include picking up people from the waiting room. Mute all microphones as needed; Muting the official or other speakers; Troubleshooting technical problems; Support of guests; and forward messages to family members in the chat box. Introduce the tech host at the beginning of the service so people know who to turn to for help.

The back end of video sharing platforms has settings that can be difficult if you’re new to them, especially if it’s an emotional event. The host can go over the toggle switches in advance to find out how to mute people as they enter, or activate the waiting room. This security feature keeps guests in a queue until the host allows it.

Our virtual memorial was partially successful because the rabbi was not distracted from the difficulties that inexperienced zoomers had to begin with. When the service passed into Shiva, my mother moderated – greeted the people and made sure that everyone who wanted to offer a memory had the opportunity.

Schedule one or more short hours of practice to solve problems and ensure you are on the same page regarding different roles. Some of the attendees at our event were complete novices to Zoom who feared not to miss the laudatory speech and knew they were holding up the program when they tried to mute as requested. We recommend giving guests tips on logging in and out. Muting and unmuting; Switch screen views; and using the chat function – either together with the invitation or on request prior to the event. Don’t assume everyone will connect to current devices.

We sent an email to notify friends and relatives of my father’s death and the Zoom event, including a link and a password. Each of our family members has compiled and distributed their own lists. You can also use Zoom to send email invitations.