#5260: Haiti Progrès: Chamberlain comments on Ives (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

> is beneath response.


This phrase of Kim Ives, I think, sums up the problem Haitians and others
have had with Haiti Progrès ever since it was founded in 1982.  Everything
is "beneath" it or "beneath response."

Of course, this is a old problem of the self-styled "revolutionary" left
anywhere -- contempt for everything and everyone around them that does not
fall in with their line or worship at their shrine.  "Vanguardism," as this
institutionalised intolerance is so grandly named to mystify the masses.

Sadly, it also reflects the familiar attitude of the Haitian upper class
into which Haiti Progrès' director was born and raised and the wealth into
which his chief American assistant ("lackey"?) was born.  

This would not be a problem if Haiti Progrès did not present itself as the
exclusive "alternative" and defender of "the people."  We should not be
fooled.  Now we see it blindly defending a political current in Haiti that
shows alarming signs of falling into good old habits of totalitarianism and
becoming yet another of Haiti's oppressors.   As Lionel Legros eloquently
pointed out, most of Haiti Progrès' line comes down to plain opportunism
and burning personal ambition.

Haiti-Observateur is indeed disgusting in its treatment of the Amos Jeannot
murder (thank you, Kathy, for noting that), but Haiti Progrès is no less
deceitful and cavalier in its "reporting" of events.  Each "newspaper" does
nothing to promote a society of tolerance in Haiti.  They only add to the
hatred and division.  At least Haiti en Marche and Haitian Times, for all
their failings, are not given over, week after week, to sneering and
hatred.


        Greg Chamberlain