2010.01.26: Togo RPCV Garry Pierre-Pierre Covers Haiti from Haitian Perspective

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Togo RPCV Garry Pierre-Pierre Covers Haiti from Haitian Perspective

Togo RPCV Garry Pierre-Pierre Covers Haiti from Haitian Perspective

The founder of the Haitian Times quickly transferred the paper's center of operations from an office in Brooklyn, N.Y., where it has churned out copy for the past decade, to his apartment in Port-au-Prince right after the massive earthquake Jan. 12. Several staffers accompanying him have filed stories and photos continuously on the haitiantimes.com Web site over the last two weeks. "I've been through some rough parts of the world, covered civil wars in Africa," Pierre-Pierre said in a recent interview. "This is definitely the worst tragedy I've witnessed." The 47-year-old Port-au-Prince native began his journalism career at The Ledger as a general assignment reporter in the Winter Haven bureau from January to May 1990. He graduated from Florida A&M University in Tallahassee in 1987, then joined the Peace Corps in Togo, West Africa.

Togo RPCV Garry Pierre-Pierre Covers Haiti from Haitian Perspective

Former Ledger Reporter Covers Haiti from Haitian Perspective


Caption: Haitian Times editor Garry Pierre-Pierre works on a story amidst the rubble of the Villa Creole hotel. ..A magnitude 7.0 earthquake rips through Port-Au-Prince, killing over 100,000 and destroying most buildings.... Photo: Andra Chung | IRIS

By CARL CRONAN
LEDGER CORRESPONDENT

Published: Tuesday, January 26, 2010 at 11:49 p.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, January 26, 2010 at 11:49 p.m.

On one hand, Garry Pierre-Pierre is living the career objective of many a seasoned journalist, serving as editor and publisher of his own newspaper. On the other, he has a frontline view and perspective of devastation in his homeland that few others currently reporting from Haiti can match.
Garry Pierre-Pierre surveys earthquake damage while covering the story for his New York-based newspaper, the Haitian Times.

The founder of the Haitian Times quickly transferred the paper's center of operations from an office in Brooklyn, N.Y., where it has churned out copy for the past decade, to his apartment in Port-au-Prince right after the massive earthquake Jan. 12. Several staffers accompanying him have filed stories and photos continuously on the haitiantimes.com Web site over the last two weeks.

"I've been through some rough parts of the world, covered civil wars in Africa," Pierre-Pierre said in a recent interview. "This is definitely the worst tragedy I've witnessed."

The 47-year-old Port-au-Prince native began his journalism career at The Ledger as a general assignment reporter in the Winter Haven bureau from January to May 1990. He graduated from Florida A&M University in Tallahassee in 1987, then joined the Peace Corps in Togo, West Africa.

He later worked at the Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale and moved on to The New York Times, where he shared the Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, before striking out on his own with the Haitian Times in 1999.

Starting the weekly paper, which has a circulation of 30,000 reaching Haitian communities in the New York metropolitan area and much broader reach online, is not as much a labor of love for Pierre-Pierre as his personal mission to properly disseminate news affecting Haitians.Its pages are published mostly in English, with a few in French.

"From past experience, it is done through the prism of foreign policy or in the worst scenario it is laden with naked and veiled racism," he said. "Reporters don't bother to get the human factor in a place like Haiti, so the Haitian Times focuses on what the story means for average Haitians."

Current dispatches from the island country, roughly 600 miles southeast of Miami, describe the reaction and plight of Haitian natives after the devastating magnitude 7 quake. Thousands of Haitians are expected to seek refuge in the U.S., likely entering through South Florida.

Even for a native such as Pierre-Pierre, coverage of the aftermath can tend to be a bit intense. In one such article, he describes encountering a street merchant who asked him whether he was a spy for the Central Intelligence Agency, then agreed to talk with him only after he bought something.

Challenges to covering the Haiti earthquake range from spotty phone service at best to numerous tremors at worst. Pierre-Pierre counts 50 aftershocks and one more earthquake measuring 6 since his crew flew into the Dominican Republic two days after the tragedy.

"I've seen some pretty gruesome stuff - bodies dumped on the streets, blowing up from decomposition, and this place looks like a bomb had dropped on it," he said. "As you drive by and witness the crumbling buildings with people trapped inside, presumably dead, you are shaken."

Colleagues of Pierre-Pierre, some of whom are now in Haiti covering the earthquake, admire his sense of humor in the face of such tragedy, as well as his resourcefulness.

"He is a no-nonsense guy and he calls it exactly as he sees it," said Trenton Daniel, a Miami Herald staff writer who worked for the Haitian Times in 2000-01 and has been friends with Pierre-Pierre since.

Daniel added that Pierre-Pierre has a unique perspective on Haiti, as a native raised in the states, especially over the many journalists who have gone there for only the first time in the last two weeks.

Adding to all of this, the Haitian Times faces the same troubles as most U.S. newspapers in the ongoing recession, though circulation and ad revenue suddenly become secondary concerns at a time like this.

"We've never had much so we've learned to do a lot with a little," he says, noting that traffic to the paper's Web site has increased 400 percent since the first earthquake.

Although much is being said and written about the world's generosity toward Haiti lately, including last Friday's "Hope for Haiti Now" telethon that initially raised $57 million, Pierre-Pierre said it is taking a while to impact its residents.

"The aid has been trickling in, but it's not coming fast enough to fill the need," he said. "People are getting restless about not receiving the aid."

It will take more money and time for Haiti to rebuild and recover, he added, pointing to Hurricane Katrina as an example.

"The problem is not short term," he said. "It's the rebuilding of an entire major capital city. I'm not sure who has the money to do this right now, given the world economic crisis. The U.S. has taken over everything here, and that is reassuring to most, but New Orleans has not yet fully recovered five years later."

On a happier note, Pierre-Pierre describes his time in Lakeland as brief yet memorable, noting that The Ledger staff was more tightly knit than would normally be found at medium and large papers.

"The camaraderie was nice," he says. "I remember that it had the best barbecue, and I'm still looking for something close to it."




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Headlines: January, 2010; Peace Corps Haiti; Directory of Haiti RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Haiti RPCVs; Peace Corps Togo; Directory of Togo RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Togo RPCVs; Journalism





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Story Source: The Ledger

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Haiti; COS - Togo; Journalism

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