26714: Ives: (reply) Re: 26712: Simidor (comment): Re 26669: This Week in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: K. M. Ives <kives@toast.net>

I knew it was only a matter of time before Daniel Simidor would come to the 
defense of his friends in Batay Ouvriye, USAID, the Solidarity Center and 
Washington. He presents us with classic ultra-"leftism": talk left, walk right. 
Rather than the usual gossip, rumor, and "zen" that the likes of Simidor deal 
in, Sprague offers a researched and reasoned piece that tears away the sheeps' 
clothing on the ultra-"left" wolves.

I should also respond to Simidor's predictable attack on Haiti Progres. After 
Dorismond's killing, the Rev. Al Sharpton proposed that the NYPD reach out, 
through community newspapers and radio, to hire more minority police officers. 
Haiti Progres, like ALL the Haitian radios, newspapers, and all the Caribbean 
and African-American media too, ran ads where the NYPD appealed for Haitians 
and African-Americans to join the force. A less racist, more culturally 
sensitive NYPD is not in itself a bad thing. After all, we were fighting police 
brutality, not the police as an institution.

Ultra-"leftists" in the Haitian Coalition for Justice seized on the publication 
of the ads to wage their usual guerilla war against Haiti Progres and Ben Dupuy 
(whom they hate almost as much as Aristide). Of course, they never raised the 
issue with any of the other Haitian media which also ran the ad. Disgusted with 
such infantile sectarian tantrums, I left the Haitian Coalition for Justice, 
which never did much after that, becoming a shell of an organization until it 
dissolved entirely several months later. They never got a chance to "throw me 
out," although they made plenty of face-saving declarations.

Simidor also talks about a "well-funded" International Tribunal on Haiti. Where 
does he get that? The usual ultra-"left" gossip parlors, of course. Two 
sessions of the Tribunal have been held, in Washington on Sep. 23 and Boston on 
Nov. 19, thanks to the support of grassroots contributions that have come 
through CISPES and Nicaragua Network following funding appeals (Internet & 
mailing) sent out by the groups and individuals collaborating on the Tribunal, 
which includes a wide range of Latin American and Haitian solidarity and human 
rights groups, as well  as the support of International A.N.S.W.E.R. and the 
International Action Center (IAC). (Still, we need support to continue the work 
of the Tribunal, which has a large deficit, particularly after the Oct. 6-11 
Commission of Inquiry led by Ramsey Clark).

It seems Daniel was impressed with the 5 x 7 glossy color cards we printed to 
publicize the Tribunal's sessions. A colleague of mine overheard him exclaiming 
that "this must have cost a lot of money." Pity he doesn't try to organize 
something himself someday so he could discover that such glossy cards (used by 
Caribbean entertainment producers throughout Queens, Brooklyn, & Miami) are 
much more economical (and durable!) than paper flyers. But then the 
ultra-"left" has no real clientele to distribute such flyers to, having 
garnered the universal disdain of New York's Haitian community.

As for his charge that the Lavalas Family party has accepted "millions of 
dollars, yes millions,... from the National Democratic Institute and other 
State  Department-funded institutions over the years," perhaps he could tell us 
all how many millions the FL has accepted, when and how they did so, and what 
HIS sources are.

Simidor also asserts that "aside from Haiti-Progres' owner, the Lyndon 
Larouche-like Ben Dupuy and  his virtual National People Party (PPN), the 
Haitian left universally rejected  the greedy Lavalas Family leader." This is 
patently false. One has only look at the size of the rallies organized by the 
Left groups opposing the coup against Aristide in Haiti versus those of he 
ultra-"left" grouplets supporting the coup. It's thousands versus a handful. 
(It would also be interesting to see the day when Simidor or any of his 
ultra-"left" friends could bring out thousands for a demonstration or a 
Congress as the PPN has done repeatedly over the years).

Finally, Simidor promotes Michael Deibert's "Notes from the Last Testament," 
one of the most ignorant and arrogant books ever written on Haiti. Deibert, a 
right-wing hack and gung-ho supporter of the Bush Administration's wars of 
aggression following 9/11, has woven a tapesty of gossip, inaccuracies and 
lies, much like Simidor does. Birds of the feather....

Kim Ives