Haiti: The Victim of Media Fabrications - Essay Example

Haiti The victim of media fabrications February 29, 2004 was one of those dark nights when the most dreaded fear of an honest man came true. In the early hours of the morning, a short, small framed black man along with his wife was abducted by the soldiers of the neighboring not so friendly country. He was given no time or no chance to talk to his friends, colleagues or relatives. No legal explanation was given as to why was this done to him and he was forced to board a plane taking him to the unknown place. The not so friendly country that was behind this illegal abduction, with all the detailed work in place, planned to cheat the world about this important political event. It created news that the president of Heiti had resigned on his own will and had decided to run away from the country fearing his death in the hands of rebel ( Randll, Page.1) . And this media hoax is what the small poor country of Heiti is suffering for 100 of years. Because, the man who was abducted was most loved and respected Heitian President Jean-Claude Aristide. And the country that was responsible in his abduction was none other than one of the most powerful country, United States of America. The real and the true Heiti has never been brought in front of the world. Under the guidance of Aristide, Heiti had realized that she is capable of living on her own. What she lacks is a genuine medium through which she can voice her atrocities to the world. What Heiti needs is a power of true journalism which can show the world the true picture of all the political events that take place inside her borders without any fabrications and hoax added to justify the inhuman and illegal activities carried out by the power hungry countries. Media is powerful. And particularly the media that is responsible for the news. It has the capacity to change the belief of the society. It can create its own stories and has the ability to fool the people into believing that they are the true stories. It works on the basis of visual psychology, “what you see is what you believe”. And these powerful media people can decide not only ‘what’ you see or read but even ‘how’ much of a particular event do you see or read. There are three aspects to a lie. 1) Hiding the truth: If you hide a truth to save someone’s life or to help some needy person, then that hiding is not bad. However, if truth is hidden where it can cause hunger and death of millions of people, then it is not only harmful but also a crime. The truth that is being hidden from the world is that United States, France and Canada has an selfish interest in Heiti. They do not have the slightest intention of letting the people of Heiti have a peaceful life. They are trying all sorts of atrocities, not less than terrorism, funding the rebels and carrying out most heinous mass killings to stop the support for president Aristide ( Randall, Page 36) [1] . In his book “Heiti, From Revolution To The Kidnapping Of The President” Randall has mentioned the attack on the police station. One of the government officers had once served in the U.S. army and he recognized that all the arms and the uniforms of the attackers were similar to what he was provided when he was in the U.S army. It does not take long to realize who funds these killers ( Randall, page 36) . The rebels were armed with most sophisticated weapons which is not possible for the financially broken rebels. It was funded by the U.S. This truth has never come out. There are some writers like Randall Robinson who have the desire to know the truth and instead of ignoring the news as just news, they do their best to find out the truth behind the events. 2) Distorting the truth: When President Aristide was forced to exile on February 29, 2004, the USA said that he did it on his own will. Now, let us understand one thing here. Aristide was not a man who can be tamed by a bunch of rebels. He was bold, intelligent and leader of the oppressed people of Heiti. In his whole political career, there were many attempts to kill him, as many as nine (Randall, Page 29). He was the one who had taken a decision to fearlessly raise his voice and create a movement against the violent dictatorship of Jean-Claude Duvalier (Randall, Page 29). So the reason given for abduction that he fled fearing his death at the hands of rebel was all distorted. One other thing. It was also said that he decided to leave the post of presidency on his own will. He had promised the people that he will create new programs and see to it that he helps the poor in every way [2]. Also, the fact remains that Aristide increased the minimum wages of the nation from thirty-five gourds to seventy gourds (Randall, Page 47). This disturbed the elite upper class as they were realizing that if the policies proposed by Aristide goes into effect, they will lose their hold on the people and may lose their share in the power (Randall, Page 48). These were the 1 percent elite and upper class people who owned more than half the wealth of the country (Randall, Page 28). So obviously they had a lot to lose. The president who was designing so many programs and reforming the policies for the oppressed population of Heiti, cannot decide to leave on his own. So saying that he left on his own will is nothing but a white lie (Randall, Page 1). 3) Creating a false story: By 2003, it was evident the Aristide was extremely popular and has a very strong backing from the poor and victimized Heitian people. It was sure that if he fights the election again, he will win. This was not acceptable by USA and the elite population that had a strong support of U.S.A. So, the question that these power hungry politicians and the wealthy people had was, “ How to remove Aristide and also justify the action of his removal.” The answer was simple, tarnish his image, charge him with crimes and make the world believe that he is not fit for the job. He was framed for stealing millions of dollars and a suit was filed against him which was later withdrawn for the lack of evidence[3] . He was also said to be corrupt, violent, and a murderer. And as if this was not enough, the U.S. agency had spent tens of millions of dollars to create opposition movements against Aristide so as to make life a hell for him and make him step down as president (Randall, Page 53) Media was used as a comfortable medium to plant these lies and create false stories so that the real Heiti is never seen. The real atrocities and the inhuman treatment of the black poor people of Heiti has never come in front of people. If Aristide was really a corrupt man and was instrumental in murders of opposition leaders, why was he not brought to trial legally. Why did U.S. utilized the illegal way of removing him from his own country? The reason is that the citizens of United States are fed with all false information. They are made to believe that their government works for the best of the humanity and that they are the citizens of the great country. And for them to believe this, the government agencies fabricate news and pay the writes of these news stories a pretty interesting amount [4]. However, there are some genuine journalists, who do not like to be bribed by the government agencies. They depend on their own investigation, ask ‘how’, ‘why’ and ‘what’, and only after knowing the truth are satisfied to write the stories. Diana Barahona is one of the freelance journalists who has tried to investigate and find out the truth behind the political events happening in Heiti [5] . We will discuss the points that she has written in her article regarding the American news reporting on political situation in Heiti. She has done a great job in asking questions that we as citizens fail to ask and maybe are not trained to have an investigative bent of mind. In her article, Diana has specifically discussed 16 stories written by journalist Michael Deibert as a special correspondent reporting from Heiti. Diana focuses on three main points that she found baseless. 1. Aristide has lost his popularity Diana has questioned the stories that describe Aristide as an unfit human being to continue the term of presidency in Heiti. The articles written by Deibert talked about how Aristide was initially popular for his efforts to work for the poor. He was their true leader who was doing all he can to alleviate their position in the society and make them self-reliant. But how, recently, he had lost his popularity and people have gone against him. He has gone so far as to describe that people who were his strong followers initially were actually protesting against him for becoming corrupt, violent and selfish. Diana says that there were witnesses who said that compared to the anti-Aristide protestors, there was much large group of his loyal followers. The point here is, when Deibert mentioned again and again in his articles that Aristide has lost popularity and loyalty from his followers, nowhere does he talks about how he reached that conclusion. He did not conduct interviews with followers, did not conduct poll or had a survey. So when a genuine journalist talks about a president of a country, he cannot activate his fantasy and malign as respectable and loved man as President Aristide. What if someone writes about the President of United States in such a way. Will it be tolerated? No, it won’t be. He will be asked to prove it with evidence. And if the evidence is provided, the government agencies will do their best to destroy it. 2. Portraying Aristide as a Dictator It also is evident that Diana has studied the articles thoroughly as she also questions the words that the author has used to describe the political situation under the governance of President Aristide. Words like ‘dictator’, ‘back to power’, ‘regime’ and ‘corrupt’ are lavishly used. Calling Aristide a dictator shows noting but a desperate attempt of the author to mislead people into believing that the removal of Aristide was a right action taken. The U.S. government has done its best to fabricate stories and portray Aristide as a dictator who is using his ‘power’ to gain selfish motives. Aristide did not attack any established power to gain his position. He had won the election by 90% votes in the year 2002. So where Deibert got the idea of dictatorship is a mystery. 3. Aristide managed and used armed gangs Deibert has suggested in the stories that Aristide has used armed gangs and thugs to attack the opponents so that they don’t dare to raise a voice against him. He has mentioned it many times, not just once or twice. He has described in such a way that it feels as if Aristide has unleashed a terror in the city and his gangs roam the city threatening people who go against him. Let us for the unbiased outlook sake, believe in these stories for some seconds ( even tough nothing of this was ever proved). Still the question remains, what actually happened? Are the Heitians really happy without Aristide who gave them life, who gave them not only hope but the true reform and who fought the strong evil and selfish governments like U.S. Agencies, France, Canada, and also evil dictators like Devulier? No one cared to know because they don’t want to know. Why was there a sudden need to malign President Aristide’s image in front of the American population and the world population as a whole? And what were the sources that Deibert used to prove his fabricated stories? Diana has mentioned that he has quoted people blaming him for drug trafficking and sacrificing children in his home. Such a baseless allegation cannot be tolerated unless the author is supported or indirectly forced to write that way by some strong agency. If this is the truth, then people have a right to know the sources and where it is coming from. And if journalists were reporting the so called crimes by Aristide, where were these reporters when thousands of Heitians were suffering horrendous and indescribable torture, violence and massacre of the peaceful Aristide supporters in Cite Soleil on July 6, 2005 [14] . The so called peacekeeping force entered the Cite Soleil and started a vicious round of firing at the poor people living there. Red cross aid was not allowed and the reason given by the force was that these were criminals and they were carrying out all sorts of illegal activities. First of all, no criminals in any democratic country are shot dead by mindless firing. And second, there were women and children among the people who died. But was this investigated? Was there any committee appointed to bring these killers to get arrested and punished for their heinous crimes? No, there was no committee. Because this was not shown to the world and even if it was, it was all faked and fabricated so that it can be proved valid. If Aristide, the only supporter and the lover of the poor, tortured and oppressed black people of Heiti, was removed using all their might by selfish, ruthless and power hungry people of hostile countries, then who will speak up for them? Who will be instrumental in making Heiti people believe and trust that they will get their land back and they will govern their land. Who has the ability to transform their life so that they don’t have to starve and tortured to death ? Is there anyone who can do it? Yes, there is. And this is where I believe and agree with Diana when she supports the necessity of showing a true picture of political situation in Heiti. The journalists can do it. The media has a power to make or break a government. And this is especially the job of the journalists and writers in United States as it is their own country who has an evil face hidden under the mask of a good Samaritan. Every news story that is written about the political situation in Heiti should be questioned. The sources should be verified and it should be carefully studied to see that the story does not quote the people who are biased. And how can they do it? After all, if a writer or a journalist decides to work independently and bring forth the true situations in different countries, they need money. If they decide to form their own network of honest writers, they need someone who can manage their bills when they travel different countries and meet different people to investigate the truth. One thing is clear, if they work with the news networks that are pressurized and handled indirectly by the government agencies, they will not be allowed to bring out the truth. So these journalists need to be independent. But the question is, who will sponsor them? Government? Pepsi? Nike? Or Oprah? No, no one of these organizations are needed to help the writers to let the American people know the truth about Heiti. One American citizen is enough. This is how it should work. The journalists should form a network of honest writers, reporters and photographers. The team then should go to the educational institutes, schools, religious places, clubs, football grounds, restaurants and bars. They should sketch out a plan where they will distribute the true stories about the political situation in Heiti and ask every American citizen to donate just one dollar to bring the truth about Heiti in front of people. Letting American citizens know that they are in some way or other responsible for the atrocities of the Heitian people, is very important. If they don’t take the responsibility of what their government is doing, then they better not vote the next time. Heiti’s political situation is not being shown correctly to the people. If justice is to be done to Heiti, then the honest writers and reporters should work hard and do their best to tell the world of what is rally happening. Heiti’s primal screams can be heard only through the pen of a genuine journalist, who supports and writes only the truth and nothing but the truth. References : 1) Robinson Randall, Heiti, From Revolution To The Kidnapping Of The President, Basic Civitas Books, New York, 2007 Citations : [1] Article by Shirley Pate, The International Community and Haiti: Testing the Water or Sinking the Ship? < http://www.haitianalysis.com/international-relations > [2] Profile: Jean-Bertrand Aristide, 9th December 2008 < http://www.google.co.in/search?hl=en&q=aristide&btnG=Search > [3] [4] Article by Stephen Lendman , Targeting Haiti`s Symbolic Leader In Exile, 9th December 2008 < http://www.haitianalysis.com/2008/12/6/targeting-haiti-s-symbolic-leader-in-exile > [5] Article How to Turn a Priest Into a Cannibal: Michael Deibert and U.S. Reporting on the Coup in Haiti, 9th December 2008 Read More