a1091: The Big Question (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Amy Wilentz <amywilentz@nyc.rr.com>

May I just ask one extended question of the list:

Like others on the list, I grow impatient with the conversation.

Where is the good that is happening in Haiti today?

When we defend Aristide: his reputation, his governance, his ideals,
what is it we are defending, now, and can we see any of those abstracts
made concrete in Haiti today?

The media would tend to make one think there is nothing good happening
in Haiti today. The list does not do a better job outlining the advances
and good qualities of Aristide's administration.

I haven't been in Haiti now for two and a half years, but what I hear
about are armed thugs, rice scandals (from an administration whose
leader was once vociferously opposed to the importation of manje
sinistre),descents of armed politicians into the governmental chambers,
attempted coups, journalists dead with impunity, and what feels like a
void at the center of power? Is any of this accurate?
Is none of it?

Are there really no answers to these questions, and is Haiti now a place
where there are only two sides, and no center, no truth, no reality?

Amy Wilentz

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-haiti@lists.webster.edu
[mailto:owner-haiti@lists.webster.edu] On Behalf Of Bob Corbett
Sent: Wednesday, March 06, 2002 12:07 PM
To: Haiti mailing list
Subject: a1086: Re: a1079: On Pina & Paul Raymond and [iso-8859-1] Reni
Civil: Slavin (fwd)


From: kevin pina <kpinbox@hotmail.com>

"On any day of the week you can arrange a meeting with Raymond and
Civil.
Your descriptions of them are reminiscent of the way Lynn Garrison used
to
speak about FRAPH. "Come over and meet the guys." Roger Lafontant was
one of
the most charming and interesting people I've met in Haiti. Let's say he
was
like that in some of my interviews with him. That did not stop
journalists
from calling him a killer and a torturer, even though, of course, many
reporters, myself included, never saw him commit a crime except
brandishing
shotguns".

Actually, Mr. Garrison's favorite game was not unlike your own argument
,
false parallelism. The main thrust of his argument, as appears to be
your
own, is that Aristide is actually a dictator in democrat's clothing and
that
the popular organizations represent nothing more than a noveau Ton Ton
Macoutes. This is the same position of the elite and apologists for the
coup
of September 1991. The coup was necessary in order to stop Aristide's
tyranny, ala Duvalier, and the army was the only institution that could
guarantee order.  This is virtually the same argument being put forward
today with a few twists added in for good measure.

You are certainly right that Raymond and Civil are not media savvy
darlings
but to equate them with the Macoutes displays another agenda at work
here.
As for equating apologists for FRAPH with a call for a rational
assessment
of meta-messages currently running in the press with regards to events
in
Haiti, another example of false parallelism.


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