“The dead bodies lying in the street were really jarring. The smell of the dead bodies was putrid. They were piled up everywhere. The government did what they thought was best when they did the mass burials. This was a natural disaster of biblical proportions.”
Gary Pierre Pierre wears a number of hats as a noted journalist and publisher of the Brooklyn-based Haitian Times.
Striving to maintain subjective objectivity, a month ago the Haitian-born host of CUNY TV’s “Independent Sources” flew down to both assess the damage in the wake of the horrific 7.0 earthquake and get his family to safety.
Writing articles on the ground for numerous news organizations, including the Amsterdam News, and recording his television show did nothing to distract him from his primary concern.
“I’m trying to get down there again,” he said, “but it is difficult because there are no commercial flights available, and the aid flights are pretty booked.”
His last trip had him flying to the Dominican Republic, Haiti’s Hispaniola neighbor, and then driving through the island to Port-au-Prince.
The gory sights he saw stay in his mind’s eye, he said
“It was mind-blowing,” he told the Amsterdam News. “It was unimaginable. Once you got around the initial shock, you tried to get down and chronicle peoples’ lives and what happened. I found my family; I got them to DR and most are in New York.”
Pierre Pierre said that he has covered dozens and dozens of stories that involved human tragedy, but nothing such as the earthquake in Haiti, and nothing in which he felt so much a part of the story.
“There was the kind of devastation that we’ve never seen before in our lives–it resembled WW I,” he said quietly.
In the CUNY TV green room, this reporter asked Pierre Pierre and Radio Soleil’s Rico Dupuy how they were both doing.
Both said that they felt strange answering that question.
“My family is okay, but I lost so many friends, so I can’t really say I’m alright,” said Dupuy.
Pierre Pierre nodded slowly.
Do you feel a sort of survivor’s guilt? the AmNews asked.
“Yes,” the two men responded.
“I never thought of it like that, but yes, yes, I do,” added Pierre Pierre.
Reflecting on his initial visit to his ravaged country of birth, later he noted, “My job first and foremost was to report the story, and then to move the debate so as to understand the depth of the devastation and move to action, and begin the hard work of rebuilding Haiti.
“It begins with a discussion, ‘Where do you go?’ and ‘What do you do?’”
There is a quiet sadness about Pierre Pierre as he tells the paper about his experience returning home. “You don’t ever switch off. It is just part of what I had to do. My home was destroyed. I still feel pain. I was there. I had to sleep in the yard with everyone else; I had to eat what everyone was eating. I was living what the people were living. I was there with the people. This thing affected everyone,” he said.
“The dead bodies lying in the street were really jarring. The smell of the dead bodies was putrid. They were piled up everywhere. During the first couple of days, the government did a pretty good job clearing the bodies. [[ED: PREV. QUOTES ARE USED IN 1ST PARA. AS WELL]] As much as I have criticized the government…it was a difficult thing that they had to do; and it was a case of damn if you do, damn if don’t.
“They didn’t have the capacity to put the bodies into morgues so that their relatives could identify them. They did what they thought was best when they did the mass burials. You have a major metropolitan city, and the dead bodies were creating serious mental and health conditions.
“You were spooked out. These were dead bodies. It was macabre. The fact is that there might not have been anyone to claim the bodies–the next of kin might have been wiped out, too.
“This was a natural disaster of biblical proportions,” said Pierre Pierre. “Even the U.S. probably couldn’t have put a plan together to deal with this.”
With discord and frustration being seen on the streets, the paper asked the publisher what it was like on the ground. “People are not thrilled with the government of Rene Preval,” he said. “He has not shown much leadership. The people don’t see them as responsive.”
As for the word that American-ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide wants to return to help rebuild his nation, Pierre Pierre determined, “Aristide is not a technocrat. He’s a failed leader twice and was ousted twice. Certain elements don’t want him. There’s some powers that be that don’t want him.
“He had to know basic political science; you are not just the president of the poor,” chastised Pierre-Pierre, “you have to manage up as well as down.
“[Preval] he’s staying,” Pierre-Pierre predicted confidently. “Elections were scheduled, but now what should happen is that they work towards a government of national unity.”
There are plentiful red flags a-flapping and warning lights flashing in terms of the aid money and where it’s going, along with the distribution of the generously world-donated relief supplies.
“A lot of kind-hearted people are raising money and giving it to the NGOs [nongovernmental organizations],” said Pierre Pierre. “We have to start looking at these NGOs, and the whole business of NGOs because they are the ones receiving all this money; and they can be Americans, French, British, Canadians–foreigners. There’s a lot of goodwill, but they are getting the money, not the government of Haiti.
“So are the Haitian people going to be victimized once again? We in the media and politicians have to raise the issue.”
As for the 10 Baptist ministers charged with and arrested for trying to kidnap 33 Haitian children, Pierre Pierre pulls no punches: “The governmental structure did work in this case and will take them through the justice system. Due to international pressure on the judge, he has shown leniency, but they were arrested and charged. The government worked this time and this was one of the best things to come out of this thing. It showed that you just can’t come in and be a white missionary or whoever you are, and just come in and take advantage of the people.”
Pierre Pierre proclaimed that the rebuilding of Haiti begins with discussion, then formulating a plan of action and executing the schematic so that this historic island nation, this first modern Black republic, can return to its righteous status quo.