#991: Haiti. Who goes there? Delatour Replies (fwd)

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From: Mario L. Delatour <mardel@gol.com>
> 
> November 18, 1999
> 
> TRIPS
> 155 Filbert str,suite 245
> Oakland CA 94604
> Tel: (510) 834-3433
> 
> Attention to: Jason Wilson
> Ref: Haiti.Who Goes There ? October 99 issue.
> 
> Dear Jason Wilson:
> 
> I was outraged to read the vile content of your article HAITI. WHO GOES
> THERE ? It seems that your sole purpose in writing this article was to
> insult Haiti and its people. You have done a great diservice to your
> readers in writing such a bias ,mean spirited and erroneous article.     
 
>                               Had this been Iran,I believe this would
have
> been grounds for a
> "FATWA". Perpetuating old oudated cliches is certainly not what Haiti
> needs.Everyone knows Haiti is the poorest nation in the western
hemisphere
> and that her people have some of the worst living standards in the world.
> Fortunately Haiti can count on the help of thousands of Americans, unlike
> you, who have
> love in their hearts and understand the plight  and suffering of the
> Haitian people.
> As a Haitian I felt vexed and shocked at you choice of colors to
> describe Haiti:
> 
> "Brown is the color of Haiti's mountainous spine.Not a lovely sepia or
deep
> mahogany,mind you,but a flat sickly,heartbreaking brown......It's the
same
> brown as the hide of the mangy rabid dog that fights with an enormous pig
> over the right to eat a pile of garbage....."
> "a new color Blue.More specifically,bleu as in Haitian Bleu,a new variety
> of gourmet coffee bean now beeing grown by Haiti's highland coffee
> farmers....I wrote that more than a year ago. And I will freely admit
that
> I embellished,if not ouright lied,by writingit..it is now more than a
year
> later and coffee buyers and tasters say that Haitian Bleu is at best,a
> mediocre coffee,with too bitter of an aftertaste..."
> 
> You truly dissapointed me in not adding the color Black to further
> cruxcified poor helpless Haiti. It seems that the racist tone of your
> article was leading to that color anyway. "Black as in the color of the
> skin of most Haitians....Black as in ...of course it's a Black country,
is
> it any wonder ! You stopped short in revealing to your readers the level
of
> your bigotry. It takes courage to assume bigotry,if you're going to be a
> bigot, you've got to go all the way.
> 
> As for your table of important facts:
> DIVERSION/PASTIMES.......Cockfighting,soccer,seeking US aid
> TV PROGRAMMING............Limited,mostly news
> STUFF TO BRING HOME.......Sequined voodou flags,infectuous diseases.
> 
> You really outdid yourself on that one,it would be very hard to stoop any
> lower. "Infectuous diseases",If you had any notion of history at all,you
> would know that it was your ancestors who decimated whole nations of
native
> indians in the new world with their "infectuous diseases"fresh from
europe,
> thereby committing the largest genocide the world has ever known.It's
quite
> a legacy to bare.
> 
> In conclusion Jason (J as in Jerk) dont do us any more favors by
> "embellishing" the few remaining items Haiti can still offer the world. 
> You've already admitted to us that you "outright lied", we know now that
as
> a writer, you're void of any ethics.Futhermore,in the next issue of
> TRIPS,you should  probably submit an article on Oakland, the city thats
> home to your magazine. I was mugged there 23 years ago.
> 
> Sincerely yours
> 
> Mario L. Delatour
> Tokyo Japan
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