What the WBAI Struggle Means to Haitians

Beside the all-important issue of free speech, violated by the Pacifica board and WBAI station manager, Utrice Leid, there is this personal and community concern of mine and my compatriots: Have we, the Haitian minority in New York City, lost a dependable, clear, supportive, and powerful voice on the airwaves with the shuffle that is going on today at WBAI?

Your coverage of the Abner Louima and Patrick Dorismond tragedies, and the political situation in Haiti over the years has been exemplary as well as extraordinary. I have always been struck, for instance, by Amy Goodman's empathy when reporting from deep in the countryside in Haiti, leaving the vast majority of her press colleagues in the capital, Port-au-Prince, scurrying after PR statements from the National Palace or from the American Embassy. While those same reporters would then spend time in one famous hotel hangout in Port-au-Prince, sipping on rum punches, engaging in every sort of opportune socializing, and waiting like "vultures" (an aptly named and self-described term) for the "important" people in town to show up (the newsmakers if you will), Amy, on the other hand, would stay for long periods in the "boondocks" of Haiti and convey to us the feelings of the forgotten majority of Haitian people.

It is precisely this quality of reporting, from an elections period in Haiti to cases of police brutality against Haitians in New York City, that has endeared us, Haitians to WBAI. And by listening to your uncommonly clear analyses, we have come to broaden our perspectives of life in the United States and the industrialized world from the exposure to labor and immigration issues, police brutality cases against other ethnic minorities, our tax-supported ventures in Grenada, Honduras, Salvador, Nicaragua, Colombia, East Timor, Indonesia, and various other hot spots in the world. Listening to WBAI has been a valuable education for all of us, and a level of education so far unmatched in the Corporate-sponsored news media. What will happen to WBAI now? I can't help but feel that the Haitian community is in great danger of losing a valued and irreplaceable friend.

We, Haitians living in the New York City area, should be more than willing to support your cause, just as you have always demonstrated your solidarity with our causes. Let's maintain the dialogue.

I have today, on the pages of www.windowsonhaiti.com, presented the speech of Congressman Major Owens in Congress on 3/8/01 regarding WBAI and Pacifica. I would suggest that you design a logo of support that websites all-around could display as an unmistakable sign that we want our dear old WBAI back, and not the new one they would like us to swallow.

Please keep the faith. We need you now more than ever.

Guy S. Antoine
Windows on Haiti
www.windowsonhaiti.com

Guy Antoine is the editor of the Windows on Haiti website, which was designed to facilitate a "positive learning of Haitian culture."