18094: White: Re: 18086: (Chamb) Haiti-Protest(s) a snippet of reality... (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Randall White <raw@haitiaction.org>

...that really could use some help. If we want to see the bigger picture.

The usual AP hacks leave their names off of this
story (as forwarded) but they were quite busy
yesterday-Thursday, January 22 2004. As in the
other stories of the past couple of days, the AP
stringers get a tip from the agitators that there
will be "a little fèt" down at the Med School and
it runs just like clockwork. Shortly thereafter,
another call is made to the police that there's
some rabble rousers busy at the Med School and by
the time the stringers show, you have a
confrontation between the police and the
opposition "rabble" masquerading as students.

Of course, I'm making all of this up (like, how
would I know what's really going on). So let's
just stick to the fa...

...I mean, story that AP played on the wires:

    << PORT-AU-PRINCE, Jan 22 (AP) -- Police blocked students from joining a
        protest Thursday demanding President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide's resignation,
        while his supporters demonstrated freely just blocks away.>>

This is the latest myth being floated. That while
pro-government demonstrators are given free
reign, "student" opposition-supporters are
stifled by heavy handed police. As we know, the
pro-government organizations have been
infiltrated. Whenever a demonstration is planned,
the agents-provocateurs do what they are being
paid to do.

         <<Riot police cut off the protest route
with trucks and stood in the way
        of some 200 protesters, who milled about outside the State University
        medical school chanting "Aristide must go!"
            Police fired tear gas to keep back
about 100 Aristide supporters, some
        of whom threw rocks and bottles at
officers. No one was reported injured,
        and student protesters dispersed peacefully after a few hours.
            About 1,500 students who support Aristide marched a few blocks away,
        calling for new legislative elections, which the opposition has refused
        unless Aristide resigns.>>

This seems to be fairly straightforward, but it's
really a setup for the propoganda that they need
to place as many times as they can (I can almost
quote it from memory):

       <<It was the third time in a week that police have blocked a student
       demonstration. On Monday and Wednesday, police fired tear gas and warning
       shots near the university to keep back students.
          Haiti has been in turmoil since
Aristide's party swept 2000 legislative
       elections that observers said were flawed. In the past four months, at
       least 47 people have been killed during protests calling for Aristide to
       resign.
          Aristide has said he will not step down before his term ends in 2006.

ENOUGH OF THAT! Really, I told you alll of that just to tell you this:

Going back to the "straightforward," *almost*
factual part-it's not hard to see what happened
there. A real student group-that is much larger
than the right-wing "student groups"-is finally
taking to the streets. Before this they were
preoccupied with their studies (*trying to guild
the lily here* I should be ashamed of myself.
NOT!). In any event, since they are not so saavy
in the ways of CD (or UCD, for that matter) they
let the police know that they wanted to
demonstrate for Aris...

...un uh. "...for NEW elections!" (I could abuse
the bandwidth here, providing a pedantic analysis
of that. Just use your brains.)

In any case, they "coordinated their efforts with
the police beforehand and were allowed to march.
Meanwhile, the right-wing "students" were
intending on provoking the larger "peaceful"
group and the police-wanting to avoid the far
worse inevitability-chose to nip trouble in de
bud. About that time, some "OP hotheads" broke
off the larger demonstrations (thass right, there
was more than that 1,500 group) and decided to
mix it up with the paid rabble (I didn't say
THAT).

Now, the underpaid, overworked, scapegoats-I
mean, police-had to keep these two groups of
hotheads apart. The odd thing here was that they
seemed hurl more abuse on the police than they
did each other. ODD...

But back to the "peaceful" students.

While that group of 1,500-that were marching "for
NEW elections" (don't make me come down
there)-there was a much larger group of (get
this) STUDENTS, who were "Aristide-supporters"
outside the National Palace while all this was
happening!!!

One estimate was that there were over 7,000 just outside the National Palace.

But that doesn't tell you about the 10,000
marching "at the initiative of two "real" student
groups. For that account you have to read AHP.

I also want to acknowledge Michael Norton, for
reporting that there were 20,000 Fanmi Lavalas
marchers the other day. I won't quibble with the
numbers other than to say that 20,000 was a
highly conservative estimate. When trying to
figure crowd estimates in Port au Prince it
really hard to show crowds larger than 30,000.
TNH just doesn't have any helicopters. But look
at the video, and make up your own mind:

http://www.tnhaiti.org/nouvelles/mercredi/index.htm

Out of character-for me-I'll forward the AHP account to the list.

So, the picture here is that AP wants to provide
the pretense of "journalistic balance" in that
there was an Opposition component that was about
20%, of the pro-government component, that was
repressed by police. That is what your average
U.S. citizen will read today. The real story is
that Andre Apaid is the largest employer in Haiti
and was able to get together a paid group for the
opposition that amounts to 3% of the peaceful,
loving people that showed up to march with what
the real student groups organized. This *never*
gets reported.

While, I'm not saying that the opposition only
amounts to 3% of the population, I am saying that
the opposition are given *far more* weight in the
corporate media than they deserve. I'm sooo
misunderstood.

But, I did have this real weird dream that Michel
Martelly became a Franciscan monk...

Blessings

RAW