18618: Simidor: further clarification (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Daniel Simidor <karioka9@mail.arczip.com>

It is relevant to add here that most if not all the Antoine-Simidor clashes on this list have been over the Aristide/Lavalas tandem, and not about the need for violent revolution in Haiti, as Antoine claims.  (Revolution is a necessity in Haiti, but I don’t bother preaching this on the list or over the internet. “Revolution is bloodshed.” Malcolm X said that.  And blood is Haiti’s middle name anyway – Haiti Bloody Toma, ha, ha.)  I remember my very first post on this list, “Aristide, the Measure of a Man,” which Antoine denounced in his usual “reasonable” sort of way, because among other things I had suggested that the country would be better of had Aristide died in 1991.  That was back in 1997.  I always knew of Antoine’s special affinity with Aristide through his sister.  I knew it because we have friends in common.  But it didn’t matter so much until people started to quote him (Antoine) as the ultimate “independent observer” on all things Aristide.

Let me also add “for the record” that “an obvious material connection” doesn’t suggest payment under the table. The little I know about Antoine suggest an honest middle-class kind of guy who is not in need of illicit payments from a corrupt government.  I knew that after his initial legal boast he would come to his senses and would know exactly what was expected of him.  In the process I made an honest man out of him again, and that deserves a thank you.

P.S.  My quote of the day from the much-vilified mainstream press: “You cannot love both truth and authority,” attributed by a critic to the philosopher Leszek Kolakowski (NY Times, p. B11.)

Daniel Simidor