Published February 21st, 2006
Mainstream media misses the full story behind Haiti
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To the Daily:
The Associated Press is promoting twisted truths. It refers to Haiti's first democratically elected president as "the slum priest (who) fled Haiti as the United Sates withdrew support for its government" (Haiti chooses new leader, 02/17/2006). Other sources say U.S. diplomats told Aristide if he didn't leave Haiti, paramilitaries would kill him or many Haitians until he left. Aristide was flown to the Central African Republic and was basically imprisoned in a hotel on Feb. 29, 2004 after a coup d'etat led by the paramilitary Revolutionary Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti financially supported by U.S. intelligence agencies. Meanwhile, the United States publicly withdrew Artistide's U.S. security. The mainstream media continues to report that Aristide left voluntarily and quit the presidency, but neither United States nor the United Nations followed through on a resolution to do an investigation of Feb. 29.
The AP quoted Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice saying that the United States "has a good record in trying to get Haiti out of the desperate circumstances in which they live." History shows that the United States is the main reason that Haitians have continued to remain in desperate circumstances. Noam Chomsky says global elites are afraid of Haiti actually achieving democracy - what if other poor countries that the United States exploits did the same thing? It would make it harder for the World Bank's "structural adjustments" to abolish people's control and public ownership by allowing U.S. multinational corporations to privatize. The U.S. government wouldn't want to limit corporations' profits; who would fund their candidates' campaigns in elections? Although I'm oversimplifying, it is no coincidence that Aristide was against privatization.
Jesse Singal's column Our dirty big secrets (02/17/2006) read: "we don't know what's being done in our name" regarding the American government. Equally terrifying, and not coincidental, is the hegemonic position the media has in the American information hierarchy, while citizens remain at the blind bottom. Alternative and independent media sources such as Democracy NOW!, Z-Magazine, Mother Jones, indymedia.org and Ann Arbor's own Black Box Radio and Critical Moment are exceedingly undervalued as tools of self-empowerment. We can no longer rely on mainstream corporate news sources; the only way to reclaim control and find any truth about our government's activities is to actively seek it out.
Clara Hardie
RC senior
Inaccurate religion references only confuse debate
To the Daily:
I could almost appreciate what I think was Andy Petrovich's attempt at humor in his letter to the Daily (Immaculate conception should play bigger role in abortion debate, 02/20/2006), if he didn't get a few things wrong. Immaculate conception has nothing to do with Jesus himself; it is the Catholic belief that Mary was born without original sin and thus could bear the baby Jesus. The idea of Mary birthing a child as a virgin is called, oddly enough, a virgin birth.
He also mentions that "God can immaculately conceive any child he wants to, whenever he wants." Yet, Mary had a clear choice in the matter. God wouldn't just go in; she had to accept his offer. If you're going to use religious references, at least make them accurate.
Bravo to Rachel King (Abstinence the only sure way to prevent pregnancy, 02/16/2006), who realizes the simplest and most obvious way to avoid pregnancy and STDs - not having sex!
Peter Keros
Engineering freshman
