Riveted by "The Agronomist"

Maggie says:
I watched "The Agronomist" this weekend. Actually, I experienced "The Agronomist" this weekend. It seeped into my bones and took me to another place. Do watch it.

For those not in the know, "The Agronomist" tells the story of Jean Dominique, legendary independent radio journalist and founder of Radio Haiti, who was assassinated in April 2000 outside his studio. The film also tells the story of Michele Montas, Jean's widow and partner at Radio Haiti until the end. Jean Dominique was an amazing man, a true loss to humankind. A Paris-trained agronomist, he returned to his country commited to using his knowledge to advocate for peasant farmers, a commitment he maintained throughout his life. He transformed Radio Haiti from a little-known radio station into a bastion of independent news and connection for Haitians in periods of intense disconnection from each other and the rest of the world. Radio Haiti broadcast in Creole (the first station to ever broadcast in the "uneducated language" of Haiti rather than in French) in order to better communicate to the people, and it steadfastly provided independent news to Haitians from within the country and from the rest of the world, another very new practice.

"The Agronomist" celebrates the importance of a free and independent media in the most serious of ways: by portraying what a threat free thought is in countries of oppression. Radio Haiti was a station run by and for the people of Haiti. It refused to be a mouthpiece for various administrations, despite the murders, tortures, bombings, shootings, and periods of exile experienced by its staff members. Radio Haiti was always seen as a problem by various dictators or US-backed administrations because at the helm of Dominique and Montas, it simply would not give in to pressure to change its way of operating. The station became a symbol for Haitian people - a symbol of freedom, of success in hard times, and of dogged persistence. The station's slogan - "we have stumbled but not fallen" - embodied the struggles of all Haitians to remain free through generations of oppression. When Jean and Michele returned to Haiti after their first exile during the last of the Duvaliers' reign (they were notoriously known as Papa Doc and Baby Doc, as many of you know), 70,000 Haitians arrived at the airport to greet them. 70,000 people.

U.S. guilt is woven throughout this documentary. We see so clearly - and I hope like hell that people who are completely unaware of our guilt in Haiti along with many, many other countries will see this - that when our country involves itself in another with less-than-democratic intent, absolute chaos erupts. In Haiti, our country turned the Army into murderers, the provisional government into dictators. We take bad and make it worse, and for what? No where, at no time, will the U.S. admit to the profiteering on our hands, the blood spilled because we muddled and interfered with what was not ours.

Some of the most heartbreaking scenes in this film show boats filled with would-be Haitian refugees, desperately trying to reach the U.S. and escape the brutality and oppression of their country. We watch the Coast Guard turn them away in international waters and the point hits home: our country is responsible for creating unimaginable circumstances in the lives of Haitians, yet they still choose to believe we will help them, take them in, save them from the horror that is on our hands. If only our country actually lived up to the country they thought we were. But no. We are terribly unfair, unabashedly indifferent. As damning as the evidence about the School of the Americas and the CIA is, what's most damning is still those boats, those people, desperately wanting to believe that we will help them.

Jean Dominique was a man more democratic than his country, a voice for the people and no one else. His unwavering demand for human rights lives on. So does our unwavering guilt.

Technorati tag: the agronomist, jean dominique, haiti