18392: Levy: Re: 18376: Amywile: : Where is Aristide? (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Mike Levy <mlhaiti@cornernet.com>

 There is a vacuum, but it is in the coverage of Pres. Aristide. Let's just
take a couple of examples of where Pres. Aristide was making headlines that
most people never got to read.  Unfortunately, much of the media all but
ignored Pres. Aristide's busy February 7th schedule. He was all over the
Port-au-Prince metropolitan area that day, engaging in dialogue with peole
who came to hear what he had to say, as he repeated again and again the
importance of non-violence and peace. Perhaps the media had a hard time
keeping up with him as the streets were full of some 100,000 Haitians
commemorating February 7th, a moment for reflection on the crucial
importance of the democratic process, when the decisions of Haitian voters
result in the inauguration of a president every 5 years. Of course it was
not just President Aristide and the First Lady, along with government
ministers and other officials, who were so visible in public. There were a
number of ambassadors and other foreign officials taking part in the
February 7th events.
 The day before, Pres. Aristide was out inaugurating  the new University
Hospital, l'Hopital Universitaire de la Paix, in Delmas 33. The day before
that he was meeting with the new Swiss Ambassador. The day before he met
with a large group of labor leaders and held talks with the the CARICOM
delegation.
   It is of course always difficult for events such as these, a massive
peaceful demonstration and a leader energetically going about the business
of government, interacting with broad sectors of the population and the
international community, to grab the headlines when there is violence and
insurrection led by heavily armed gunmen and other government opponents
looting homes and public buildings. Relations between some media, especially
media sympathetic to the opposition point of view, and the government are at
a low point as well. Perhaps there is no such thing as purely 'obective"
coverage of events. But Haiti today is an example where the political
polarization that exists within society has very much affected the reporting
of news, reminiscent of the polarization of the media in the United States,
and it is very unfortunate that people interested in Haiti, or any other
important topic today, have to work very, very hard, whether they live in
Haiti or the U.S. if they want to have a reasonably full perspective of what
is going on anywhere in the world.

Mike Levy