15170: Pina Congratulates Deibert (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: kevin pina <kpinbox@hotmail.com>

I wanted to take this opportunity to congratulate our colleague Michael
Deibert, the former Reuter’s correspondent in Haiti, for his new position
with DOW JONES NEWSWIRES. I will always be grateful to him for encouraging
me to see myself as more then just another documentary filmmaker. He
inspired me to consider myself a journalist worthy of writing analysis from
my perspective of the situation in Haiti.

I always admired Deibert’s courage in letting me show him another face of
the majority of the base that forms Lavalas. Although I was not sure about
loosely borrowing the title of the piece from a Tupac Shakur album, "Notes
from the Last Testament", has become one of the few pieces written about
Haiti that gave a voice to the silent majority of the working poor.  In the
end I did not agree with his conclusions but I will always respect him for
having the guts to go the extra mile by giving a voice to the voiceless
majority of Lavalas. No other journalist has since shown the same courage
and objectivity in explaining Haiti’s current reality and, while it is true
that my living room is "sparsely furnished", I was honored to have Michael’s
honest search for the "real" add to the décor of my home. I was also glad
that the result of that visit may have in some small way contributed to
Reuter's decision to hire him as their Haiti correspondent.

Alas, our views tended to differ radically over the past year and I regret
it ended our dialogue, still I shall always respect him for that piece of
work. I am sure that Haiti will always occupy a part of his big heart.

Congratulations Michael, I truly wish you all the best.


Sincerely,


Kevin Pina



"Notes from the Last Testament" can be found at windowsonhaiti.com:

http://haitiforever.com/windowsonhaiti/voices.html


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