19078: loveayiti - Haitian-American Call Poll Propaganda (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: love haiti <loveayiti@hotmail.com>

HAITIAN-AMERICAN RESPONSE TO PROPAGANDA POLL:

“U.S. HAITIANS SAY LET ARISTIDE FINISH TERM”

Published in the Miami Herald & Sun Sentinel to name a few on 2/20/04, page 5B

"two of the organizations they cite as their sponsors, the James Irvine
Foundation and the Evelyn & Walter Haas, Jr. Fund, have stated adamantly that
they did not provide funding for such a specific polling. Therefore, this leads
us to understand that “someone” is trying to use the integrity of those
institutions to validate their subjective views."





The Poll taken by Mr. Sergio Bendixen and his Firm has absolutely no
reliability in its finding as we analyze the line of questioning, the length of
the questions on the phone (!), and the sequence of the questioning that seems
to guide and influence the individuals being polled. The reasons for our
statement are detailed below:



Mr. Bendixen does not know how to deal in polling dictatorship governments. He
predicted, wrongly, the victory of the Sandinistas during the Nicaraguan
elections that was in fact won by Violeta Chamorro (by a very….very…large
margin…). He had to apologize on television for the lack of substance in his
findings.



It is common knowledge that Mr. Bendixen has “leftist” views, so his
objectivity must be questioned, if one wants to evaluate his records with
accuracy.



Question 5: One of the most intriguing polling questions suggesting that 52% of
Haitians would favor Aristide staying in office was posed in a prejudicial
manner, as follows: “As you know, Jean Bertrand Aristide was re-elected
President of Haiti in 2000. Some people say that President Aristide should
resign from office. Other people say that President Aristide should stay in
office until his term expires in 2006. What do you think – should President
Aristide resign from office or should he stay in office?”

“As you know?” The purpose of a poll is to elicit independent thinking. Mr.
Bendixen’s Firm induced an answer it wanted to hear before the question was
even asked. Additionally, many Haitians fear responding, even today, as to
their positions regarding Aristide due to the fact that their families could
suffer reprisals back in their homeland by the Aristide regime.



Question 7: “In general, do you believe opposition movements in Haiti are
fighting for democracy or are they political groups wanting power?” 55% stated
political groups wanting power.”

Who did they poll? It could not have been the more than 50 Haitian-American
organizations of professionals who have nothing to do with politics, and who
signed declarations to voice their disapprovals as to the negation of the
democratic principles that are evident, and demanding for the most part the
resignation of Aristide. These organizations in question are made up of
doctors, nurses, lawyers, businessmen/women, students, private citizens, union
representatives; etc… not to mention that throughout the United States, France,
Canada, and any place where there is a substantial presence of Haitians,
declarations have been made public against the Aristide Regime. In any
government, other than Aristide’s regime, these individuals would not be viewed
as “politicians!” Why have the pollsters not question these individuals, if
their aim was to present a true assessment of the Haitian crisis?





What is the relationship between those initiating the Poll and the Lobbyists of
Jean Bertrand Aristide’s regime? Interestingly enough, two of the organizations
they cite as their sponsors, the James Irvine Foundation and the Evelyn &
Walter Haas, Jr. Fund, have stated adamantly that they did not provide funding
for such a specific polling. Therefore, this leads us to understand that
“someone” is trying to use the integrity of those institutions to validate
their subjective views. And, thus far, no one seems to know how and by whom
these questions were formed. The NCM organization is “looking” into the
different sources that were used to generate the questionnaire!



Question 15: “In your opinion, is Haiti’s economic and political situation
better now under the Aristide Administration or was it better under the
Duvalier government?” Besides being a fragmented sentence, grammatically, and
even though the response is 56% better on the Duvalier regime, it is a question
with the goal of polarizing the different elements of the Haitian community.
The present situation has nothing to do with any past government. Aristide ran
on a platform of democratic values, economic development, providing security
for the lives of Haitians in their homeland, ridding the country of
governmental corruption and drug trafficking, elevating the social and health
care conditions of Haitians, amongst other things. However, none of these
promises have come to pass. The opposition against Aristide sprang forth from
his inability to govern with democratic principles, and his demonstrated thirst
for violence and abuse of power.



Lastly, NCM states that 80% of the 53% non-citizens polled were undocumented
Haitians? We would really want to know how NCM got a hold of those individuals!
Where did they find them, since they are undocumented?



In conclusion, we, the Haitian people, refute the results of the Poll published
by NCM for the reasons stated above. It is not representative of the Haitian
Diaspora, or the Haitians living in Haiti, by any stretch of the imagination!



Haiti-For-All

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