29092: Potemaksonje (reply) Simidor (asks): Haitian radio on the internet (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

> From Potemaksonje
potemaksonje@yahoo.com



Accounting for the drop off of Haitian radio stations,
some foreign funded sources have lost the mandate, or
rather grants to operate/sponsor local radio stations.
 The multi-million dollar RAMAK grant from USAID has
run out.  RAMAK had this for about 3 or 4 years to
help pay off opposition pro-coup radio stations, pay
for politically manipulative adverts, and construct
false allegations against Lavalas organizers.   With
USAID Congressional State Department funding no longer
available for its radio activities in Haiti it could
be difficult for some pro-coup radio stations to stay
afloat.  Although others may still find an income
source (I.E.:Boulos, Baker, Nadal).

Take a brief look at RAMAK and SAKS, another foreign
sponsored program utilized to manipulate the Haitian
airwaves.   SAKS is the Canadian-government funded
counterpart to the USAID-financed "popular"
organization RAMAK, which used to be staffed by
right-wing Haitians who backed the 2004 coup, today
they work for the IRI, the International Republican
Institute, and work closely with the Group of 184.

RAMAK is the Haitian subsidiary of Creative Associates
International Inc (CAII).  CAII, with a five million
dollar contract with USAID from September 2001 to
September 2005 (Through U.S. State Department
"Democratization" Grants) has held programs out of the
U.S. embassy in Port-au-Prince and provides reports to
the U.S. State Department in regards to its
activities.

The founding Project Director of RAMAK, an American,
Terry Thielen, is currently involved with the Haiti
Democracy Project, a right wing think tank run out of
Washington D.C. that is funded in part by Haitian
Chamber of Commerce kingpin Reginald Boulos.  Thielen
helped organize protests in front of the Washington
D.C. Embassy of the democratically elected government
of Haiti in the weeks prior to the coup.  Around May
of 2004 one of RAMAK's partner stations Radio Vwa
Liberation Pep La (VLP) went so far as to file charges
against a Lavalas mayor based on rumors spread by a
senatorial candidate of the pro-coup opposition.

 The SAKS and USAID-funded RAMAK programs which fall
between psyops and traditional indoctrination (AKA
"civic education") campaigns, are all part of a common
"democracy promotion" strategy that will fashion a
Haiti along the lines of a U.S. led transnational
model of elite and neoliberal rule. See
http://www.mediashaiti.org for details on the
Canadian-government funded media infiltration program
and to trace it's ties to USAID, NED, and others, see
http://www.inthenameofdemocracy.org, and
http://www.dec.org (where the latest CAII/RAMAK annual
report can be downloaded). It's too bad that groups
like the Haiti Support Group (HSG) and other "friends
of Haiti" cannot seem to produce reports that are
critical of the real imperialist program that is being
carried out in Haiti.



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