[News] Benighted Journalists Assail Haiti

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Benighted Journalists Assail Haiti

By <http://www.zcommunications.org/zspace/joeemersberger>Joe Emersberger

http://canuckmediamonitor.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=350&st=0#entry499
Friday, February 12, 2010


Decent people in North America have tried to help 
Haitians after the devastating earthquake that 
struck on January 12, but the corporate media has 
left them unequipped to do one of the most 
helpful things they can do - oppose their 
governments' efforts to inflict more harm on the 
victims under the cover of disaster relief. If it 
seems paranoid to claim that Canada and the US 
will use the earthquake to further set back 
development and democracy, it is only because the 
criminal role they have played in Haiti has been very effectively hidden.

The Economics of Mass Murder

German playwright Bertolt Brecht wrote that "In 
democratic countries the violent character 
inherent in the economy doesn't show itself; in 
authoritarian countries the same holds for the 
economic character of the violence"[1]

With Brecht's words in mind, consider that under 
the dictatorship of Jean Claude Duvalier ("Baby 
Doc"), Haiti became the ninth largest assembler 
of manufactured goods for the US market. His 
regime kept wages attractively low to foreign 
investors through mass murder. By the mid 1980s 
wages were also kept low through the destruction 
of Haiti's agricultural economy. US imports began 
to flood the Haitian market, ruining its farmers 
and driving them into urban areas, especially 
Port-au-Prince, in search of any work they could 
find. The mass exodus from the countryside also 
led people to live in shantytowns where they are 
vulnerable to the impact of hurricanes and earthquakes. [2]

The Duvalier regimes were responsible for the 
murder of about 50,000 people. That does not 
include those who died preventable deaths from 
malnutrition and disease as a direct result of 
polices designed to enrich a small Haitian elite 
and foreign multinationals like Disney.[3]

The Duvalierist model of "development" eventually 
generated so much opposition within Haiti that it 
became unsustainable with Duvaliers in charge. In 
1986, Baby Doc fled Haiti. In 1990 Jean Bertrand 
Aristide won Haiti's first free elections. Though 
the Duvaliers were gone, "Duvalierism without 
Duvalier" has been the objective of Haitian elite 
and their foreign allies since 1990. Lavalas, 
Aristide's movement of the poor, despite its 
modest objectives, posed a serious threat to Duvalierism.

Twice, in 1991 and 2004, democratically elected 
governments in Haiti led by Aristide have been 
overthrown in US backed coups that led to the 
murder of thousands of his supporters. US 
governments (and their allies in Canada and 
France who helped out with the 2004 coup) are 
much like the Mafia. The Godfather has long 
decided that Haiti will offer some of the world's 
lowest wages to multinational corporations like 
Disney, Levi Strauss and Gilden Activeware. Haiti 
may be the smallest shopkeeper in the US 
neighborhood, but no competent Mafia Don lets the 
smallest shopkeeper defy him. [4]

Burying the Past and the Present

It is impossible to rationally assess foreign 
intervention in Haiti - present or future - 
without discussing to the two coups against 
Aristide's governments in 1991 and 2004. With 
numerous ideas being floated in the press about 
how to "fix", "rebuild" and even "re-imagine" 
Haiti, it's instructive to look at how often the 
coups were mentioned in articles written after the earthquake.

Between January 12 and February 6, according to 
Lexis Nexis, the words "Aristide" and "coup" 
appear in only 6.4% of the articles about Haiti 
in the major English newspapers (8% in the case 
of Canada's five largest newspapers). None of the 
articles that mention "Aristide" and "coup" in 
Canada's major newspapers were editorials. In 
contrast, two editorials (in the Globe & Mail, 
January 14 and Montreal Gazette, January 16) 
approvingly mentioned Paul Collier, a World Bank 
economist and leading proponent of the 
Duvalierist economic polices described above. Collier has written

"Haiti has labor costs that are fully competitive 
with China, which is the global benchmark. 
Haitian labor is not only cheap, it is of good 
quality. Indeed, because the garments industry 
used to be much larger than it is currently [my 
emphasis], there is a substantial pool of experienced labor."[5]

Just don't ask how wages will be kept appalling 
low or how they got that way. Collier's 
cheerleaders in the press ignore the violence 
that has always been required in Haiti for 
Collier's, hardly novel and untested, "suggestions" to be implemented.

Even those rare articles that mentioned the coups 
against Aristide usually regurgitated the version 
of events offered by the US and Canadian 
governments. A good example of the standard 
whitewash appeared in an article written by 
Geoffrey York for the Toronto Globe and Mail 
("Exiled Aristide bidding to come home", January 16, 2010). [6]

I wrote to Geoffrey York about his article and 
pointed out facts that, judging by his article, 
he was completely unaware of. York replied, and a 
lengthier exchange ensued than I have ever had with a corporate journalist.

The full exchange can be read here

<http://canuckmediamonitor.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=325>http://canuckmediamonitor.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=325 


One of the things York said in defense of his 
work was that "brevity" forced him to leave 
things out. This is how York summarized recent Haitian history in his article:

"He was elected president in a landslide victory 
in 1990, but was overthrown in a military coup in 
1991.After years of exile in Venezuela and the 
United States, he was reinstated to power in 1994 
with the help of heavy pressure from the U.S. 
government, including the deployment of 20,000 troops.

In 2000, he won election again, but human-rights 
groups criticized his campaign for using violence 
and intimidation. Opposition parties boycotted 
the election and refused to recognize his victory.

Over the next four years his government was 
plagued by protests against human-rights abuses, 
corruption, economic woes and high unemployment. 
His armed supporters were accused of attacking 
journalists and political opponents.

The anti-government protests intensified in 2004 
and turned violent, and Mr. Aristide was forced 
to flee the country. He later complained that he 
was 'kidnapped' and bundled onto a U.S. airplane 
by U.S. security agents. He was flown to the 
Central African Republic and later to South 
Africa, where the government gave him a villa in Pretoria."



Using an equal number of words (just as much 
"brevity") Geoffrey York could have written the following:

"In 1990, after decades of dictatorship 
bankrolled by Washington, Haitians voted in their 
first free presidential election. The winner, 
Jean Bertrand Aristide, was quickly deposed in a 
US backed coup. Bill Clinton ordered the regime 
to resign in 1994 but insisted that Aristide's 
years in exile count as years served in office 
and that Aristide implement policies favored by 
the Haitian elite. Clinton ensured that 
perpetrators of the coup escaped justice or 
remained employed in Haiti's security forces.

 From 1995-2002, the US spent 70 million dollars 
on strengthening Aristide's opponents. Aristide 
was elected again in 2000. His opponents used the 
international media to spread baseless 
allegations of electoral fraud, human rights 
abuses and corruption. The US and Canada imposed 
a crippling aid embargo. Aristide says he was 
kidnapped by US troops in 2004. The US blocked 
efforts by the Caribbean Community and the 
African Union to bring about an investigation. 
During 2004-2006, under a US (and Canadian) 
backed dictatorship, thousands of Aristide's supporters were murdered."



No doubt, the need for brevity forces a reporter 
to over simply things, to leave out supporting 
facts and arguments that, ideally, would be 
included. For example, among other things, the 
two preceding paragraphs do not say enough about 
Canada's complicity with the 2004 coup. Canadian 
troops secured the airport as US troops took 
Aristide out of Haiti. Canada oversaw the Haitian 
judiciary as it filled Haitian jails with 
political prisoners. A Canadian government funded 
"human rights group" (RNDDH) spearheaded the 
campaign to criminalize any association with Aristide's government. [7]

However, the need for brevity (in and of itself) 
does not force anyone to regurgitate government 
spin. This is trivially obvious, but anyone who 
has corresponded with journalists knows that 
"brevity", "concision", or "lack of space" is 
constantly invoked by journalists as an excuse 
for parroting establishment views.

Geoffrey York also pointed out to me that he is 
based in Johannesburg and covers sub-Saharan 
Africa after spending years in China and Russia. 
This is very important because it means his 
research about Haiti consisted of reviewing of 
corporate press reports. It would have been 
miraculous if York had written differently than 
he did – putting aside other constraints – if he 
relied on the corporate media.

There are a few corporate journalists who have 
broken with the pack in their reporting on Haiti. 
Two examples, which I pointed out to York, are 
Andrew Buncombe and Andy Kershaw of the UK 
Independent. Their work stands apart because 
they've looked beyond establishment friendly 
sources for information, but their work is so 
rare that anyone would almost have to know about 
it in advance in order to find it. Even the 
liberal newspaper Buncombe and Kershaw work for 
has taken editorial positions as blinkered and 
reactionary as one can find in the right wing 
press - virtually applauding the coup in Haiti in 
2004 and openly cheering the one in Honduras in 2009. [8]

Another one of the few articles to mention coups 
against Aristide was one written by Peggy Curran 
for the Montréal Gazette ("How Haiti Lost its 
Way", January 30). Curran's article was over 
three thousand words long, so brevity would be an 
especially feeble excuse for her distortions of history.

She wrote about the brutality of the Duvaliers 
but not about the crucial support they received 
from the US. She even cast the Reaganites as 
heroes who pressured Jean Claude Duvalier to flee 
Haiti in 1986. The US did finally cut Duvalier 
loose - and immediately transferred support to 
his military henchmen. In the first year after 
Duvalier fled, the Haitian military government, 
generously funded by the US, openly killed more 
protestors than Jean Claude Duvalier did in fifteen years.[9]

Of the 1991 coup, Curran merely wrote that 
Aristide was "returned to power with the help of 
U.S. troops in 1994 after his first term was interrupted for three years,"

The three year "interruption" was a bloodbath 
sponsored by the US that left 4000 people 
murdered, thousands tortured, and hundreds of 
thousands driven into hiding. Emmanuel Constant, 
one of the key ringleaders, was on the CIA 
payroll and was protected from deportation to 
Haiti for years by the Clinton Administration. [10]

Curran wrote of the 2004 coup that deposed Aristide's second government:

"...he, too, would be forced to flee, scuttled 
onto a plane to nowhere, one more in a dismal 
succession of failed leaders and abusive, 
discredited régimes in a land seemingly forever doomed by its past."

If her characterization of Aristide were accurate 
then Rene Preval's electoral victory in 2006 is 
impossible to explain. Preval was not part of the 
US and Canadian funded opposition to Aristide. 
Preval's candidacy was violently opposed by 
supporters of the coup, and, in contrast, 
endorsed by prominent Aristide allies such as the 
late Father Gerard Jean-Juste, and applauded by Aristide himself.[11]

I made many of these points in an email I sent to 
Peggy Curran. She did not reply.

Securing Disaster and Reviving Colonialism

Yves Engler, a Canadian writer and activist, 
recently pointed out that Haiti now has more 
foreign troops on its soil per square mile than 
Afghanistan or Iraq. [12] There is no war going 
on, but if these troops were providing effective 
assistance to the victims of the earthquake, then 
their presence could be justified. The reality is 
that the militarized relief effort has been a disgrace.

First hand accounts by independent journalists 
(Kevin Pina, Amy Goodman, Ansel Herz), other 
independent observers (Jim Quigley, Timothy 
Schwatrz) and even some corporate journalists 
(Mark Doyle of the BBC) have exposed the relief 
efforts as "pathetic" (Doyle's evaluation). Peter 
Hallward, in his essay entitled "Securing 
Disaster", thoroughly reviewed the evidence that 
justifies this assessment. [13]

As Hallward and others have argued, while the 
militarized relief effort has done little for the 
victims, it could help deal with "the 
ever-nagging threat of popular political participation and empowerment".

Corporate pundits have not been shy about calling 
for direct foreign control over Haiti. The 
Economist stated uninhibitedly that "Some will 
object that this would undermine a democratically 
elected government. But there is not much left to undermine."[14]

The US occupied Haiti from 1915-1934. Future 
trampling of Haitian sovereignty will require 
historical editing of that occupation. Right on 
cue, Peter Shawn Taylor, an editor-at-large of 
the Canadian magazine, Macleans, stepped forward 
with an article entitled "What we can learn form 
the US Occupation of Haiti." (Globe and Mail, February 1)

Taylor wrote that the US occupation was a "golden 
era" in Haitian history which "provides a 
convenient frame of reference for what the rest 
of the world can expect as it tries to rebuild 
the benighted country." For readers who will have 
to look up the word "benighted" (as I did), it 
means "to be in a state of intellectual, moral, 
or social darkness". Like all apologists for the 
US occupation, Taylor raved about the building of 
roads and other infrastructure.

I wrote to Taylor and pointed out facts his article ignored completely.

My full correspondence with Taylor can bee seen here

<http://canuckmediamonitor.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=341>http://canuckmediamonitor.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=341 


The infrastructure Taylor wrote about was built 
by reinstituting the "corvee" (slave labour) 
which had not been used since 1863. US troops and 
their Haitian collaborators killed 3,000 to 
15,000 Caco rebels in order to pacify the country 
(while sustaining only about 98 killed and 
wounded themselves). Some historians say the 
death toll for Haitians was higher. North 
American firms grabbed 266,000 acres of Haitian 
land by robbing 50,000 peasants of their land in 
the north of Haiti alone. The US occupation also 
left behind the modernized Haitian army which 
would effectively continue the US occupation after it officially ended. [15]

Taylor replied to me by saying that

"
the 'Golden Era' for Haiti to which I was 
referring was in regard to the amount of 
infrastructure built during the US occupation".

He made no attempt to explain his silence about 
slave labor or about the killing and 
dispossession of tens of thousands of Haitians. 
He wrote that he had been "thinking of mentioning 
your point about the gendarmerie [the Haitian army], but ran out of space."

He ended his reply by asking

"Can you suggest any time period in which more 
rapid development and modernization occurred in Haitian history?"

I answered his question as follows:

"Yes, under democratic rule between 1994-2000 
more schools were built in Haiti than between 
1804–1994. By 2003, literacy campaigns reduced 
the illiteracy rate from 85% to 55%., infant 
mortality declined from 125 deaths per 1000 to 
110. The Haitian army was abolished. All of that 
just scratches the surface of what was achieved 
despite the efforts of the US over this period 
(with Canada's enthusiastic help over the past 
several years) to crush democracy in Haiti." [16]

I asked Taylor why he didn't look at what 
Haitians achieved when they had a limited 
opportunity to govern themselves - and suggest 
that era, rather then the US occupation, as the template for moving forward.

He wrote back

"With respect to which period of time has seen 
more development in Haiti, I think we are at a 
stalemate. You cite some impressive evidence on 
building schools from a pro-Aristide group 
document, however even this paper shows that the 
American-era saw the construction of more hospitals and clinics..".
.
Taylor closed by saying

"You may disagree with by perspective, but again, 
that is a matter of opinion."

I replied again:

"I don't see a 'stalemate' when you consider that 
between 1994-2003 the Haitian governments (under 
both Aristide and Preval) were freely elected and 
did not resort to the murder and dispossession of 
tens of thousands of people or to the use of 
slave labour - all of which the US did during the occupation.

It is shocking to have to make this point - again 
- to a writer in the 21rst century with access to a large audience.

It comes down to values. A writer who glorifies a 
brutal occupation through lies of omission does 
not appear to value basic human rights or democracy."

Actually, it's possible that Peter Shawn Taylor 
does values human rights and democracy - just not 
for Haitians. That's an attitude that has proven 
to be quite prevalent in the corporate media.

SUGGESTED ACTION(S)

1) If you haven't already, make a donation to one 
the relief organizations recommended by the Canada Haiti Action Network (CHAN)
<http://canadahaitiaction.ca/>http://canadahaitiaction.ca/

2) Send polite, non-abusive emails to the following
( copy all letters and replies to Joe at canuckmedeiamonitor.org )

Peggy Curran
pcurran at thegazette.canwest.com

Montreal Gazette:
letters at thegazette.canwest.com

Toronto Star
lettertoed at thestar.ca

Toronto Globe & Mail
letters at GlobeAndMail.ca

3) Forward this alert far and wide

NOTES
[1] cited by Eduardo Galeano; "Open Veins of Latin America" pg 274

[2] see Paul Farmer's "Uses of Haiti" page 99, 
291; also Peter Hallward's "Damming the flood" pages 5,6

[3] See Hallward's "Option Zero" essay
<http://www.zcommunications.org/option-zero-in-haiti-by-peter-hallward>http://www.zcommunications.org/option-zero...-peter-hallward

[4] The Haiti as small shopkeeper analogy was 
used by Noam Chomsky in this 2007 interview
<http://www.haitianalysis.com/2007/1/15/godfather-and-the-small-storekeeper-chomsky-on-haiti>http://www.haitianalysis.com/2007/1/15/god...homsky-on-haiti

[5] Haiti: From Natural Catastrophe to Economic 
Security: A Report for the Secretary-General of 
the United Nations, Paul Collier, Department of 
Economics, Oxford University, January 2009
In Haiti, the menu of policies Collier advocates 
have, for decades, been derided as the "death plan".

[6] Rick Salutin and Gerald Caplan wrote articles 
mentioning US wrong doing in Haiti. Caplan's was 
quite hard hitting ("Some facts Stephen Harper 
should have on Haiti, Globe & Mail", February 5, 
2010) but both Caplan and Salutin said nothing 
about Canada's deep complicity with US.

Janet Bagnall of the Montreal Gazette took the 
same approach. My brief exchange with Bagnall is below
<http://canuckmediamonitor.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=339>http://canuckmediamonitor.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=339

Other correspondence with Canadian journalists 
about Haiti and other topics can be read here
<http://canuckmediamonitor.org/forums/index.php?showforum=6>http://canuckmediamonitor.org/forums/index.php?showforum=6

[7] See "Canada in Haiti: Waging war on the poor 
majority" by Yves Engler and Anthony Fenton

[8] Andrew Buncombe, "Discovered by Columbus, 
built by France – and wrecked by dictators"
<http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/discovered-by-columbus-built-by-france-ndash-and-wrecked-by-dictators-1869513.html>http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/am...rs-1869513.html

Andy Kershaw; "Stop treating these people like savages."
<http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/andy-kershaw-stop-treating-these-people-like-savages-1874218.html>http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/comme...es-1874218.html

Independent Editorial; "At Last, The US joins 
France to send Forces to Haiti", March 1, 2004

Independent Editorial; "Guns and Deomcracy" June 30, 2009

[9] See pg 109,110 of Paul Farmer's "Uses of Haiti"

[10] See my exchange my with Geoffrey York for 
sources and discussion of HRW's reporting on Haiti
<http://canuckmediamonitor.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=325>http://canuckmediamonitor.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=325

[11] On Father Gerard Jean-Juste's endorsement of Preval see
AP: February 6, 2006 Monday "Haitian priest urges 
vote for Preval in Haiti election"

See also Hallward's interview with Aristide in "Damming the Flood"

[12] Yves Engler made the point at the following 
talk 
<http://www.cctv.org/watch-tv/programs/catastrophe-haiti-natural-and-unnatural-disaster>http://www.cctv.org/watch-tv/programs/cata...atural-disaster

[13] Kevin Pina's reports from Haiti can be accessed here
<http://www.flashpoints.net/>http://www.flashpoints.net/

Blog reports from Haiti by Ansel Haerz can be accessed here
<http://www.mediahacker.org/>http://www.mediahacker.org/

For Amy Goodman's reports see
<http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/19/haiti_is_shaken_to_the_core>http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/19/hait...ken_to_the_core

See Hallward; "Securing Disaster" for other 
sources 
<http://www.zcommunications.org/securing-disaster-in-haiti-by-peter-hallward>http://www.zcommunications.org/securing-di...-peter-hallward

[14] (Economist, January 23, A plan for Haiti; After the earthquake)

[15] See "Uses of Haiti" pg 82-85; "Damming the Flood" pg 14

[16] The source I cited about the 1994-2003 era 
in my exchange with Taylor was the following
<http://www.teledyol.net/WWNF/wwnf.pdf>http://www.teledyol.net/WWNF/wwnf.pdf




Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

415 863-9977

www.Freedomarchives.org  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20100212/69b69619/attachment.htm>