Haiti calm after firing of Prime Minister Michèle Pierre-Louis

Schools opened, public transportation ran as usual and Haitians went about their daily struggle Friday as this Caribbean nation awoke to find that Prime Minister Michèle Pierre-Louis' year-old government had been toppled overnight. Pierre-Louis' 18-member government was ousted by the Senate shortly after midnight Thursday following a raucous 10-hour session. The constitution allows any of the two chambers to dismiss a sitting government. On Friday, the international community issued statements respecting the decision, saying it was constitutional, but reiterated its support of Pierre-Louis. It also called on Haiti's political class to act quickly to put a new government in place to avoid the instability that gripped the country last year after the firing of the last prime minister, Jacques-Edouard Alexis. But unlike the misery-fueled discontent that rattled this nation of nine million in the lead-up to food riots that eventually led to the previous government's toppling, the mood throughout Haiti now is a sense of indifference. There were no street protests or riots. Still, many Haitians began their day Friday with little sleep after having stayed awake until 12:30 a.m. to watch the political drama unfold on national television.