14150: Pina replies to Chamberlain (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: kevin pina <kpinbox@hotmail.com>


Mr. Chamberlain,

Not that it is anyone's business but I do not receive money from the Haitian
government or Lavalas. No one pays me for my thoughts and independent
reporting of events in Haiti. I gladly contribute my time to it out of a
personal commitment to the poor majority and telling their side of the
story.

I have seen the devastating effects of bad U.S. foreign policy up close and
personal in places like Guatemala, El Salvador, Ecuador, Nicaragua and
Brazil. I have also seen the way in which the juggernaut  of the "official"
media was largely complicit, with a few exceptions, in representing the
State Department line in these countries. I have also seen how the my own
government has gone out of its way to destroy the careers of journalists who
dared to stray from their interpretation and spin of events. I remember when
Elliot Abrams and Otto Reich tried to destroy the career of Ray Bonner whose
only transgression was to write the truth about the massacre of El Mozote in
El Salvador. I also remember John Negroponte's attempts to frighten
religious fact finding delegations in Honduras who only wanted straight
answers about U.S. support of the Contras in Nicaragua.

All of this inspired in me a commitment to give a voice to the voiceless and
those who cannot possibly expect to compete with the money, power and
privilege of my own government and its influence upon the "official" media.
I don't like bullies and I believe that the American people deserve to be
informed by independent voices of concern.



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