18974: Esser: Re: 18944: Kathleen: Re: 18927: Simidor (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. E s s e r <torx@joimail.com>

Speaking of degrees of ignorance (your words): You're really loosing
me when you write "No news on Haiti in the press 2000, 01, 02, 03
worth mentioning". If you have access to Lexis/Nexis or just a plain
search engine and even more so if you're capable of reading languages
other than english, you'll find that there's a plethora of reporting
on this country. If you criticize others for their lack of knowledge
about Haiti, it would do you good to a) make a good case for that and
b) lead by shining example. If your knowledge of Haiti exceeds that
of "Robinson" (Do I rightfully infer that you are referring to
Randall Robinson) wouldn't it be nice to supply us with a good
argument stating your case? I'd also really like to hear the facts
about the "widely acknowledged forced elections", in fact you might
have broken some ground here, since the concept of forced elections
is somewhat unique. Let's just say they were rigged, shall we, not
really my opinion, but it seems to be yours judging your post. I am
always open to new arguments - do you have such, or the facts to
corroborate it? Even people such as the current U.S. Secretary of
State are admitting that the current Haitian President was freely
elected.

Reporting on the condition of government buildings is really a minor
affair and if you want to change conditions in a country, do you
start by letting the bureaucracy work out of shacks? If this is a
major fault of Aristide to make sure offices are in good shape, he
isn't doing that bad is he?

And I almost forgot:  "...if they actually knew what Haiti was like on
a day to day basis, solely because of matching skin tone...", you
sayt that people don't know about skin tones in Haiti, well first
of all, I may speak of myself as having a mismatched skintone in the
Haitian context, albeit not along the lines of your thinking. What
are you actually trying to say here? That Aristide discriminates against
5 percent, and I'm being generous here, of people with a lesser
degree of pigmentation? Wow, really! Is it because the traditional
elite has lost some of their political power? If you ever spent a day
in Haiti you'll be able to tell us which complexion makes life easier
for you and who's discriminated against. In light of this and because
I share your disdain of ignorance, I therefore suggestt reading:
David Nicholls book: "From Dessalines to Duvalier" subtitled "Race,
Colour and National Independence in Haiti" and then let's have more
posts on the topic...