Ericq Pierre was nominated by Haitian President Rene Preval on Sunday and will soon be evaluated by the Haitian Parliament and in all likelihood will be approved to be the next Prime Minister of Haiti.

Early reports on the selection indicate that Pierre has a wealth of support among the current Haitian leadership. Pierre who is coming from a background in international banking and economics is being seen as not a politician but rather a problem solver and project leader.

Pierre will be attempting to replace Jacques-Édouard Alexis who was unanimously voted out by the Haitian Senate on April 12^th, for what many Haitians saw as failing to take drastic enough measures to ease the mounting food crisis that his country faces.

Pierre failed to receive the support needed to hold the seat of Prime Minister back in 2000, but much of the current leadership now admits that the rejection in 2000 had more to do with politics and less to do with Pierre’s capability.

Pierre’s nomination comes at a time when Haiti is in the midst of a dire and potentially tragic situation. The prices for staple foods such as rice and wheat have more than doubled in the last year for the Haitian population. These drastic increases in prices have lead to violent clashes with UN peace keeping forces and the potential for the panic to spread in a country where more than 50% of the population is unemployed and approximately the same amount of the population (50%) live on less than $1 dollar a day and go long stretches with no food. Some Haitian women have resorted to feeding their children mud cakes to alleviate severe hunger pains.

Pierre’s former employer Inter-American Development Bank, helped to pave the way for Pierre’s approval before the Haitian Parliament, whether intentionally or unintentionally, by pledging a $27 million grant to the Haitian government in order to help alleviate the food crisis, at least for the near future.

Part of the problem that Haiti faces in their food crisis is that they are far from being alone in dealing with a national food crisis. Last month the World Bank announced that by their estimates 33 countries around the world, most of which rely largely upon imported food, could face social uprisings as desperation becomes more and more prevalent.

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