12796: Re: 12792: Re:12785 Haitians' growing discontent with Aristide may force U.S... (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: MKarshan@aol.com

The comments below are the personal views of Michelle Karshan and do not
represent or reflect the views of the GOH or the President:

Reading Kathy Dorce's post has moved me to add my two cents:

Has it not occured to anyone how ironic it is that the US is leading an
economic embargo which punishes the Haitian people (and corruption is a poor
excuse for the embargo because those funds (for example the IDB loans) would
be delivered in a staggered fashion based on deliverables and would be
overseen by the funder, accounting firms, etc., while at the same time
funding a phoney opposition to do their dirty work.

I find it appalling that Nancy Saint Martin chose to interview ONLY Jim
Morrell who is funded by the opposition, Horblitt who is funded by the US,
and Benoit who is in the Convergence ( and thus funded by the US too!
Further, an unnamed Western diplomat!  Was this piece deliberate in not being
balanced?  Are there no other "analysts" out there?

Further, I asked a well known French photographer in Haiti last week what was
happening in Cap Haitian when she told me that she went there with a
journalist.  She responded that absolutely nothing was happening. However,
Nancy Saint Martin who was there at the same time, wrote a misleading article
to portray an atmosphere of unrest and discontent brewing.

Further, I saw no mention of the economic embargo which is the cause of much
grief for the people.  Ms. Saint Martin is well aware of the embargo.  She is
also aware of the concrete work the GOH is doing to serve the people.  She
saw a lot of it with her own eyes while here. Was not this embargo designed
specifically to leave Aristide and Lavalas with insufficient funds to help
the country and thus frustrate his constitutency?

As Kathy Dorce has raised, where are the folks who should be alarmed and
revolted by those who unlawfully and unethically advocate overthrowing a
democratically elected president?

What happened out there?  We were all so opposed to the disinformation
campaign  (not to mention a coup d'etat) against Aristide from 90 to 94!
Just because Aristide and Fanmi Lavalas are not perfect, have we changed our
values to believe that a disinformation campaign and a bloodless, or bloody
coup are now alright!  And how did the extreme rightwing folks who did the 91
coup and waged repression against the people for years before that, suddenly
get to be legitimate democratics because the are in the "Covergence"?  Those
same press who were sexily writing their blood and gore stories against the
military and macoutes during the coup 91-94 period are now getting their
views and information from those same folks and taking it as gospel!

And is that acceptable to all you out there that when the US press comes to
Haiti there are all given the same list from the US Embassy of who to
interview and you guessed it, it's all Convergence folks!

There are problems here, but there is no nationwide momentum to overthrow
Aristide, nor is there even a regional momentum, nor a city momentum
anywhere.

===========================
The comments above are the personal views of Michelle Karshan and do not
represent or reflect the view fo the GOH or the President of Haiti.