|
by Kim Ives
 According
to Charles Antoine Forbin, the Haitian Consul General of New
York, “Brooklyn College didn’t ask us for money” to host
President Michel Martelly’s address to a largely Haitian
audience at the school’s 2,350-seat Walt Whitman Theatre on Sep.
26.
But a Brooklyn College
spokesperson denies the claim.
Forbin told Haïti Liberté
that local politicians of Haitian origin like New York City
Councilman Mathieu Eugène and Nassau County legislator Carrie
Solages “all sent letters for us to get Brooklyn College” for
free.
But a Brooklyn College
spokesman replied on Oct. 2 that “the Haitian Consulate
officially rented the Whitman Theater and handled tickets,
invitations, and the program.”
When told that Forbin claimed
the hall had been provided free of charge, the spokesman said:
“That’s strange, because we have a contract. They are paying.
I’m not sure where he’s getting that stuff from.”
According to an anonymous
source in the Consulate, the cost of renting Brooklyn College
came to about $12,000, covering hall rental, sound, and
security, but has not yet been paid. Councilman Eugène claimed
that the matter “is still in process.”
Forbin also told Haïti
Liberté that the auditorium was filled by “4,000 people,
with 125 people outside.” But only the bottom of the theatre,
not the balcony, was open, and not quite completely full. “That
would be about 1,400 to 1,500 people,” said Richard Grossberg,
Walt Whitman’s Executive Director and General Manager.
Forbin said that he was very
pleased with how the event turned out. “It was an extraordinary
success,” he said. “Compared with [President Martelly’s speech
in 2011 at] York College, where they didn’t even have 400
people, but this year, you saw the success that President
Martelly had in the diaspora.”
When asked for names of those
who supported the event financially, “you can just say that the
entire diaspora of New York got together to have us get Brooklyn
College,” Forbin said.
Most of the people waiting at the gate outside the auditorium
could not enter because they had no ticket. But he said those
trying to get into the Martelly event, and not protesting, were
on “the right side of the road,” a reference to the hundreds of
Haitians who were demonstrating
behind police barricades on the other side of the street outside
the school. “We are going on the up side of the road, and they
are going on the down side, if you understand what I mean,” Forbin said. “There are some people who lost credibility in this
town. Enough is enough.”
Tickets to the President’s
speech were distributed for free at “barbershops, money transfer
establishments, and churches,” Forbin said. “The only thing that
we paid was the band, and then the band didn’t even play. In
fact, it was going to be a group of bands. One singer from Tabou,
one singer from Skah Shah, and one singer from Carimi.”
But the bands were scrubbed
“because the president said he didn’t come here for that, he
came to speak to his community.”
When a Haïti Liberté
reporter expressed surprise at Forbin’s assertion that Brooklyn
College had been provided for free, he said: “It’s only you who
don’t appreciate the President, but everybody internationally
appreciates him.”
Asked about the expensively
printed but misspelled Kreyòl posters saying “Aba Gran Gou”
(Down with Hunger) and “Viv Ti Manman Cherie” (Long Live
Dear Little Momma) with a smiling portrait of President Martelly,
Forbin said he did print them. “It was my job to make them,” he
said. “As Consul General, it’s my job to let the community know
what the government is doing.” |
