18586: Antoine: Personal remarks on personal attacks on Corbett List (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Guy S. Antoine <webmaster@haitiforever.com>


Regarding List rules, is it permitted of a List member to attack another
in such a vicious and "politically dangerous" manner???????

What does Simidor qualify as "material connections with the Lavalas
ruling party"?  The wording would suggest under the table payoffs, that
is "money" or other material benefits.  Since I came to the U.S. as a
youth of 19, and obviously since I was born, I have never received
one red penny from any political party or political organization in
Haiti (nor in the United States, for that matter).  I always pride myself
in being an independent, and Simidor knows it.  He has HATED me
with a passion from the time I used to take him head-on, on the Corbett
List, with his then incessant calls for the Haitian people to rise up in a
bloody revolution.  I always tried to temper such arguments, and all my
debates with Simidor should by now have been archived on the List server.
I have not personally searched there, but I trust that they are there.  But
what you do not know is that, beyond the Corbett List, Simidor has never
stopped berating me in personal e-mails and in e-mails to other lists.
For instance, when I wrote "Moun Pòv, se moun yo ye?", I sent a copy
to Kim Ives, who then passed it on to a number of people on his own
personal list (I believe there were about 30 people on that list).  Simidor
replied to all stating (I paraphrase): "Why would you, Kim Ives, pass this
note around?  Antoine said absolutely nothing.  It's because he is so
involved ("makonnen") with Lavalas, that he has not criticized the
government's policies."

Never mind that anyone who's read my editorials at Windows on Haiti
( http://haitiforever.com/windowsonhaiti/mycomm.shtml ),  and even
on the Corbett List for that matter, and would conclude that I DO NOT
critique and (criticize on occasion) the government's policies, really
does not know his ass from his elbow.  Or in Simidor's case, if you
cannot attack the message, then you attack the messenger (however
disloyal the attack).  In fact, Simidor has attacked a number of people
on the list in such fashion, but I am a private Haitian national and
American citizen, not a public figure.  Never have I been, neither here
nor in the United States.

Such slanders, conceivably, could cost me my life, in today's highly
charged political atmosphere in Haiti.

However, Simidor is very intelligent.  He knows how suggestive
the word "material" is, but at the same time, he knows that the
word may simply mean "important" or "substantial", and he could
then say that he only was referring to my being the brother of
Claudette Werleigh, who was Aristide's Foreign Minister during
the coup years and for the last three months of Aristide's first
government, his selected Prime Minister.  Of being Claudette
Werleigh's brother, I plead guilty, proudly guilty, joyously guilty.
I would challenge anyone to show in any (non-ideological) manner
that my sister did not do her utmost to serve honestly the people
of Haiti.  I will also tell you that I have NEVER made a habit of
checking my opinions with her before sending them to the Corbett
List or putting them on my website.  Claudette and I respect each
other way too much, for either of us to attempt to influence each
other's opinions in a political way.  From time to time, I have sent
my sister copies of what I write, just so she would know where I
stand.  However, we think independently (without my trying to
negate the effects of a common upbringing), and we express
ourselves independently of each other.  I am very, very proud of
my sister's service to the Haitian people and I wish that the
government that she served would have maintained her high level
of idealism (though it should be said, that in the real world
governments survive on pragmatism, and not on idealism.)
Nevertheless, I have always considered it my duty to remind the
government in Haiti, using my personal and meager resources,
and armed with my integrity alone, that they will be held accountable
to the wishes of the people who elected them to office.   As a
Haitian-American, with family responsibilities of my own, that's
all I feel capable of doing.  I have tried to do that to the best of
my abilities, ALWAYS.

That Simidor feels inclined to attack my integrity is not surprising
to me in any way, because he has shown his hands before.  What
has surprised me was to see an intentional slander on the List.
But, in a way, how could we expect the List not to reflect the
general viciousness that surrounds the current political debate on
Haiti?  No matter where we turn, we can't seem to escape it.

Guy S. Antoine