18114: Arthur Re: 18103: Simidor, re Arthur's "new outrage" (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Tttnhm@aol.com

Daniel Simidor wrote: "One of the reports also noted the presence of "crack"
among the Lavalas marchers.  Crack cocaine is one of the most addictive and
violent drugs out there (with its own distinct and very nasty aroma), an ideal
substance to keep one's pennyless troops on the move and continuously angry.
Another recreative drug, Mr. Arthur?"


Charles Arthur replies:
My intention was to pillory the anti-Lavalas media for what was in my opinion
a blatant attempt to discredit the body of opinion that still supports
Aristide by focusing on some demonstrators who were smoking marijuana. I don't know
whether or not Daniel Simidor agrees with me that this is a low form of
politics masquerading as journalism, because in his response above he introduces a
new and substantively different issue.

As he accurately describes it, crack cocaine is quite different to marijuana
in terms of its effects and addictive nature.

Since he has introduced the subject of crack, for the record I'll say that I
believe that selling crack to underemployed and unemployed youth does indeed
have a negative impact on struggles for progressive change in Haiti (and
elsewhere).

To go back to my original intention for drawing attention to this sort of
reporting, I'd like to ask Daniel Simidor to provide a reference to the report to
which he refers. Who reported it, how widespread was the reported 'presence'
of crack cocaine, and was the reporter an eyewitness to the 'presence' or was
she or he just regurgitating something heard on the Group of 184's radio
station, Radio Metropole?

Finally, when I was in Port-au-Prince in 1993 I remember being very afraid of
the FADH attaches and the FRAPH because they had guns, killed people, and
allegedly had good access to crack cocaine - not a good combination. I also
remember journalists telling me about Toto Constant's parties that they had been
too, and how much cocaine was on offer.

I denounce the use of terror, gun-toting gangs, and cocaine, to block the
Haitian majority's aspiration for wholesale socio-economic-political change. I
denounce that, whomever is behind it. That means the Lavalas Family too.