21445: Dailey: Telemax, Marassa, Du Tuyau, Anonymous (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Peter Dailey <phdailey@msn.com>


When I originally wrote in response to Anonymous's post about the American
Documentary Filmmaker's stewardship of Telemax and the exemplary manner in
which it was run, I asked "Who is this prodigy?" The question was raised
facetiously and as such invited misunderstanding. It seemed to me obvious
from the post that the Acting Station Manager was Kevin Pina, and several
people have since written off-list to confirm this. Obviously, Marassa
picked up on this as well.

I did not see any of the Telemax broadcasts during the period in question
and I suppose it is just barely possible that those weeks represented a
Golden Age of Haitian Journalism, as Anonymous asserts. However, I doubt it
since I heard Kevin on Pacifica radio three or four times during this period
and read one or two of his articles, and they were all vintage KP.

There was little in the rest of Anonymous's post that would enhance its
reliability. According to his fourth hand report (Anonymous-informant-
station manager-reporter), in Les Cayes in early February, a Telemax
reporter fell into the hands of a uniformed ex-military who turned out to be
a Telemax fan and let the reporter go, although he kept the camera. The part
about the camera sounds plausible enough. To the best of my recollection,
however, the two truck loads of irregulars commanded by Phillipe and
Chamblain did not cross over from the DR until Feb. 14. So far I know of
only four of them have been positively identified by name as ex-FADH. The
uniformed ex-officer operating in Les Cayes a week or so earlier would have
made a fifth. However, this seems to me about as inherently reliable as
reports of the sightings of Zombies or Haitian members of Ben Dupuy's
"political party."

The response of my friend Jean du Tuyau, who took Anonymous's assertions at
face value,  seems to me to illustrate the fallacy of continuing to believe
that Corbettland is a disinterested community of 1,000+  persons concerned
about Haiti who share the conviction that the truth may be best arrived at
by the free exchange and discussion of ideas. Whatever it may have been, it
has long since been highjacked by ideological spammers and flaks.

It is, I suppose, faintly amusing that there are persons regularly posting
on Corbett or publishing in other forums under the impression that by
withholding their name no one will recognize who is writing. By itself,
anonymity is about as effective a disguise as Clark Kent's glasses. In the
present case, the author of the original post- "Anonymous"- is a friend of
mine. Most people reading his post would conclude that he was ignorant of
who the acting manager of Telemax was, and had never met Kevin Pina. This
would be ... very misleading.

I have no idea whether the ex-president or one of his proxies had an
ownership interest in Telemax. It obviously was an organ of the Lavalas
Party, else why would they have hired Kevin and why would Kevin be willing
to work for them. But I have absolutely no doubt that what has been written
so far about the corruption of Mr. and Mrs. Aristide and various Lavalas
Barons barely scratches the surface.

As per Marassa's rara song, I'm unfamiliar with the words but I think I know
the music.

Peter Dailey

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