Haiti not the deadly place shown on TV, some locals say

North Adams Transcript

NORTH ADAMS — As national news sources broadcast stories about fresh political violence in Haiti, several city residents see the media’s eye on Haiti as vastly misleading. The truth, they say, is that Haiti is no more violent than America, probably even less violent, and the real struggle in Haiti is one of poverty and hunger.

Perusing some recent headlines, few would come to that conclusion: “Six killed in Haiti clash,” “Gunfire kills at least 3 in Haitian Slum,” “Violence and prison riot kill more than a dozen in Haiti; put U.N. peacekeepers on alert.”

Sister Eunice Tassone, a North Adams native, is the leader and initiative coordinator of COTY Center’s Haiti Plunge program. The program started in 1984, and takes college-age youths to villages in the countryside of the Cabaret region to educate natives, reforest the land and help build schools, clinics, wells and roads.

Tassone said she only postponed a trip to Haiti once in June, but plans on taking a group of eight youths to Haiti on Dec. 27. Tassone said she is in and out of Haiti once every two months.

“I don’t find the media truthful. I find the media sensational,” she said. “The media presents Haiti as a very volatile, unsafe, corrupt country and in reality those three words could be used for the United States of America. But we don’t want to look at it that way.”

Tassone said all the talk about political violence strays away from the true central issue in Haiti, one of poverty. She said villagers have little food, no electricity and no running water. These are the people who need media attention, she said, these are the people who need help. The media today misunderstands and misrepresents Haiti, and the violence is blown out of proportion, said Tassone.

Still, the violence surrounding President Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s exile is nothing new, said Lucien Archille, a Haitian-born local and owner of the Haitian Gallery and Crafts.

Archille described Aristide as a preacher with strong lower class support. Aristide was elected in a popular election once in 1991 and again in 2001 for five-year terms. Both times he was ousted from the country by his opposition. The most recent exile happened in February.

Since Sept. 30, Aristide supporters have fought against the interim government in an attempt the bring Aristide back to power. About 90 people have died so far during the political clashes. Thousands of United Nations soldiers and police are currently in Haiti working to quell the situation, said The Associated Press.

“It’s like the same thing that it used to be. It’s Haiti, it’s the way it is. Governments keep changing,” Archille said.

Archille said that most political strife is always centralized in Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital, where political activity is centered. The countryside, on the other hand, is safe from any of the turf wars.

“So, if you are going to Haiti and you are going to the countryside, you have nothing to worry about,” said Archille.

He said the fight in Haiti is caused by a class war, a constant power struggle between the small but powerful bourgeois against the poor and middle classes. Both sides want control, but don’t want to work together, so squabbles and disagreements continue all the time, he said.

In 1994, the United States helped return Aristide to power after he was exiled for three years. He immediately dismissed the Haitian military, which controlled the interim government in his absence. Archille said he was once part of the military in Haiti, but moved in 1995 to the U.S. after the entire military was disbanded. He left, he said, because it was “too hot” politically for a former military man.

He had to leave his four children back in Haiti, and they still live in Port-au-Prince in a safer middle class neighborhood, he said. He has lived in the U.S. for almost 10 years with his wife, Claudette, but still hopes to go back to Haiti one day when the situation cools off.

Archille suggested that media attention is often used for political purposes by whoever is out of power to put pressure on their opposition.

“That’s a political gun in Haiti to show the world that stuff is going bad,” Archille said.

Willot Joseph, a Haitian-born Drury High School Spanish teacher, agrees with Tassone.

“I don’t think there is as much violence in Port-au-Prince as there is in Chicago,” Joseph said.

“The media has destroyed Haiti — mostly the American media, because they say don’t go there, don’t go there, don’t go there,” he added.

Joseph said Haiti gains intense media attention for any amount of violence, even though Jamaica has the highest rate of violence in the Caribbean, but is not heavily covered.

Joseph came to the United States five years ago and has a master’s degree in languages. His father lived in the U.S. already, so he was able to gain automatic residence, he said. He studied languages at the School for International Training in Brattleboro, Vt., and he speaks English, French, Spanish, Creole, Portuguese and some German, he said.

“Haiti is not a city,” he said, adding that if someone is away from Port-au-Prince there is little to no violence there.

Joseph said he is confident that things aren’t nearly as bad as the U.S. media makes it seem in Haiti. He said he likes to read other media sources from Europe to balance the news he receives.

He said, “Me, if I could go, I would go now.”