Look up equity in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Equity may refer to:

Finance, accounting and ownership[link]

• Equity (finance), the value of an ownership interest in property, including shareholders' equity in a business
  • Stock, the generic term for common equity securities is called stocks
  • Home equity, the difference between the market value and unpaid mortgage balance on a home
  • Private equity, stock in a privately held company
  • Equity in income of affiliates, an accounting term referring to the consolidated or unconsolidated ownership in affiliate companies

Fairness[link]

• Equity (law), a branch of jurisprudence in common law jurisdictions
• Equity (economics), the study of fairness in economics
• Educational equity, the study and achievement of fairness in education
• Intergenerational equity, equality and fairness in relationships between people in different generations (including those yet to be born).
• Equity theory, on the relations and perceptions of fairness in distributions of resources within social and professional situations.
• Employment equity (Canada), policy requiring or encouraging preferential treatment in employment practices for certain designated groups
• Health equity, fairness and justice in health and healthcare

Companies and organizations[link]

The word equity is also used in the names of the following companies and organisations:

Companies[link]

• Equity Bank Group, a financial services provider in East Africa, headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya
• Equity Bank (Uganda) , a subsidiary of the Equity Bank Group
• Equity Industries, an electronics subsidiary of Chiaphua Components Group
• Equity Music Group, a country music record label
• Equity Office Properties Trust, one of the largest owners and managers of office buildings in the United States

Organizations[link]

• Actors' Equity Association, Labor union of actors and stage managers in the United States.
• Canadian Actors' Equity Association, an association in Canada
• Forum Party of Alberta, a defunct political party from Alberta, Canada also known as the Equity Party.
• Equity (trade union) (formerly British Actors' Equity Association), an association in the United Kingdom
• Transportation Equity Network, a grassroots organization advocating equity-based transportation policies in the United States

Other[link]

• In poker strategy, a player's expected share of the pot
• Brand equity, in marketing, the value built up in a brand

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Look up commitment in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Commitment may refer to:

• Promise, or personal commitment
• Contract, a legally binding exchange of promises
• Brand commitment
• Involuntary commitment, the use of legal means or forms to commit a person to a mental hospital, insane asylum or psychiatric ward
• Ontological commitment, belief in an ontology in philosophy
• Organizational commitment
• Commitment scheme, in cryptography
• Commit (data management), to make changes permanent in data management
• Kingsbury Commitment, the beginning of AT&T's monopoly in the telephone industry
• Climate commitment, a model of climate change
• Yue Ding: Commitment, an album by Michael Wong
• Commitment (Seal album)
• Commitment (Lucky Boys Confusion album)
• "Commitment" (song), a 1998 song by LeAnn Rimes

See also[link]

• Committed (disambiguation)
• Commit charge
• The Commitments (disambiguation)

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Michel Martelly
56th President of Haiti
Incumbent
Assumed office 14 May 2011
Prime Minister	Jean-Max Bellerive Garry Conille Laurent Lamothe
Preceded by	René Préval
Personal details
Born	(1961-02-12) 12 February 1961 (age 51) Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Political party	Farmers' Response Party
Spouse(s)	Sophia Martelly
Children	4

Joseph Michel Martelly (born 12 February 1961), also known by his stage name "Sweet Micky", is a Haitian politician, former musician and businessman. Since 2011 he is the President of Haiti.^[1]

On 4 April 2011, a senior Haitian official announced that Martelly had won the second round of the election against candidate Mirlande Manigat.^[2][3] He assumed his position of the President of Haiti on May 14, 2011.

Early life[link]

Martelly was born in Port-au-Prince, the middle-class son of a super market supervisor. Martelly is a self-taught keyboard player and mango seller. After graduating from high school, Martelly briefly worked for a construction company in the United States before he enlisted in the Haitian Military Academy. In 1986, after one semester, he returned to Haiti just as Jean-Claude Duvalier, then president-for-life, was heading into exile. Martelly later returned to the U.S. with his then-girlfriend, Sophia, whom he later married in a small ceremony in Miami, Florida.

Upon their return to Haiti, Martelly had his first breakthrough in the music industry when he began playing keyboard as a fill-in musician in local venues in Pétionville and Kenscoff, upscale suburbs of Port-au-Prince.^[4][5]

Music[link]

Martelly has been heralded as a pioneer of a unique brand of compas music, a style of Haitian dance music sung predominantly in the Haitian Creole language. Originally, Compas, or Kompa, was the creation of Nemours Jean-Baptiste. Martelly, a keyboardist and the self-proclaimed "President of Compas," popularized a nouvelle génération, or "new generation" style, of smaller bands with few members that relied predominantly on synthesizers and electronic instruments to reproduce a fuller sound. Martelly's live performances and recordings are sometimes laced with physical humor and humorous sociopolitical commentaries and satires. Although he is the most recognized musician and public personality in Haiti, Martelly's performance style has sometimes ignited controversy throughout Haitian communities.

Recording career[link]

By 1988, Martelly's musical talent, charismatic persona, and his pattering style of compas had gained tremendous popularity at El Rancho Hotel and Casino and The Florville, another local venue. That year, he recorded his first single, Ooo La La, which became an instant hit, followed by "Konpas Foret des Pins" which was released in 1989, also a number hit from his debut album "Woule Woule". During the period of about 1988-2008 Martelly, using his stage name Sweet Micky, recorded fourteen studio albums and a number of live CDs. His music blends Haitian music with fresh interpretations of compas, zouk, reggae, salsa, Caribbean soca and jazz-fusion. In 1997, Martelly's crossover appeal to other musical genres was evident when Wyclef Jean of The Fugees featured him on the title track for Jean's solo effort Wyclef Jean Presents The Carnival featuring the Refugee Allstars. As Jean proclaims on 'The Carnival,' "Surprise - it's Sweet Micky, y'all!" Also in 1997, Martelly released an album containing one of his most celebrated hits, Pa Manyen ("Don't Touch"). The song is an adaptation of "Angola", composed by the renowned artist/composer/record producer Ramiro Mendes (of the Mendes Brothers), first recorded by Cesária Évora, the legendary Cape Verdean singer. Pa Manyen went on to be featured in various compilation albums, including the popular Putumayo Presents: French Caribbean in 2003. The song was also covered by Venezuelan singer, Soledad Bravo as "Canta, Canta Corazon" and by Jose Luiz Cortes of Cuba. See also the Mendes Brothers' original version of the song, performed by Ramiro Mendes included in the group's 1997 album - Para Angola Com Um Xi Coracao. Martelly is also notorious for his cursing on stage as well as using homophobic slurs.

Political career[link]

In 1997, Martelly participated in "Knowledge is Power", an HIV educational music video with a message about preventing the spread of HIV. His humanitarian work as the President of the Foundation Rose et Blanc, created by his wife Sophia and himself, to help the poor and disenfranchised of the country, was the basis for his choice as the Good Will Haitian Ambassador for the Protection of the Environment by the current Haitian Government. In 2010 he ran for President of Haiti where he challenged the results as to whether he placed second, making the runoff, or third. On 3 February 2011, it was announced that he would participate in a run-off election scheduled for 20 March 2011.^[6] On 4 April 2011, a senior official announced that Martelly had won the presidential run-off election against candidate Mirlande Manigat with more than 60% of the vote.^[3]

Presidency[link]

Martelly was sworn in as president on 14 May 2011 following the Haitian general election, 2010-2011. The following day, the incumbent Prime Minister, Jean-Max Bellerive resigned to allow Martelly to choose his own Prime Minister.^[7] Martelly was quick to pledge reforms the post-earthquake reconstruction process.^[8]

In August 2011, Martelly announced a plan to reinstate the nation's military. This plan was met with controversy as many human rights activists were concerned about bringing back a military which had been responsible for many atrocities in the past.^[9]

In September 2011, Martelly formed an advisory board that included business executives, bankers, and politicians such as former President of the United States Bill Clinton, that he hopes will improve business and economy in Haiti.^[10]

Personal life and later music career[link]

Martelly currently lives in Haiti, but has held several homes in Palm Beach, Florida. He lives with his wife and former manager, Sophia, and their four children, Olivier, Sandro, Yani, and Malaika, in 2006 Martelly announced his unofficial retirement from recording and performing, but two years later announced a return to music with a new single, Magouyè, and the video/short film, "Bandi Legal yo ki rive". He is a cousin of Port-au-Prince hotel manager and musician Richard Morse.^[11]

Discography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website

Music[link]

• Sweet Micky: Mon Colonel, music video

v t e Heads of State of Haiti Post-Revolutionary (1804-1859) Dessalines/Jacques I · Christophe/Henri I · Blanchet (acting) · Pétion · Boyer · Rivière-Hérard · Guerrier · Pierrot · Riché · Soulouque/Faustin I Post-Imperial (1859-1930) Geffrard · Saget (provisional) · Salnave · Saget · Council of Secretaries of State · Domingue · Boisrond-Canal · Lamothe (provisional) · Salomon · Boisrond-Canal (provisional) · Légitime · Jeune (provisional) · Hyppolite · Simon Sam · Boisrond-Canal (provisional) · Alexis · Simon · Leconte · Auguste · Oreste · Zamor · Théodore · Guillaume Sam · Dartiguenave · Borno · Roy Post-Occupation (1930-1986) Vincent · Lescot · Lavaud · Estimé · Lavaud · Magloire · Pierre-Louis (provisional) · Sylvain (provisional) · Executive Government Council · Fignolé (provisional) · Kebreau · François Duvalier · Jean-Claude Duvalier Post-Duvalier (1986-2011) Namphy · Manigat · Namphy · Avril · Abraham · Pascal-Trouillot · Aristide · Cédras · Nérette · Bazin (provisional) · Aristide · Jonassaint (provisional) · Aristide · Préval (provisional) · Aristide · Alexandre · Préval Post-Quake (2011-present) Martelly