Pierre or Pie?

[NALs]

Here is a story reported today, Tuesday, February 6, 2007 on DR1 news.

How do you think this will affect her public image?

Originally Posted by DR1 News

Is she or isn't she Sonia Pierre?

Listin Diario is reporting that Haitian rights activist Sonia Pierre's real name is Solian Pie. Radhames Batista, president of the National Border Council, said that Pierre has used the alias Sonia Pierre to hide the fact that her parents were illegal. Pierre, who recently received the Kennedy Foundation award for her activism in favor of Haitian immigrants, is president of the Dominico-Haitian Women's Movement (Mudha), an NGO with internationally funding. Batista told the Listin that following his revelation, he has received personal threats and that his office at the Ministry of Foreign Relations was broken into on two occasions. He said that the intruders had stolen documents, computer hard disks and CPUs from his office last week. Batista claims that Pierre obtained her cedula fraudulently because she is the daughter of sugarcane-cutters who did not have legal status when they lived at a batey in Villa Altagracia.

Pierre is an advocate for the granting of Dominican citizenship to all children born in the DR, regardless of their parents' immigration status. The Supreme Court last year ruled to the contrary, and the practice so far has been that only the offspring of parents with legal status are legally awarded citizenship.

-NALs

[NALs]

Here is Listin Diario's report which further elaborates on this (in Spanish): Dicen Sonia Pierre usa un nombre falso.

-NALs

[Chirimoya]

Mountain out of molehill.

SP's batey-dwelling parents were probably illiterate, so the French "Pierre" became the Kreyol "Pié".

The young girl used a more Spanish-sounding first name like so many immigrants (or children of immigrants) in every country who want to fit in, and as she was more educated than her parents, decides to spell her last name the correct French way - Pierre.

As a campaigner for the rights of Dominico-Haitians, she has nothing to hide - neither the fact that her parents were Haitian (duh) or even the fact they were illegal, because she advocates granting DR nationality to children of undocumented/illegal immigrants anyway.

It's a feeble attempt to discredit her, which will have no effect. People who don't agree with her will continue to fume, and people who share her opinion or don't care either way will think "so what?".

[NALs]

Originally Posted by Chirimoya

Mountain out of molehill.

SP's batey-dwelling parents were probably illiterate, so the French "Pierre" became the Kreyol "Pié".

The young girl used a more Spanish-sounding first name like so many immigrants (or children of immigrants) in every country who want to fit in, and as she was more educated than her parents, decides to spell her last name the correct French way - Pierre.

As a campaigner for the rights of Dominico-Haitians, she has nothing to hide - neither the fact that her parents were Haitian (duh) or even the fact they were illegal, because she advocates granting DR nationality to children of undocumented/illegal immigrants anyway.

It's a feeble attempt to discredit her, which will have no effect. People who don't agree with her will continue to fume, and people who share her opinion or don't care either way will think "so what?".

That could certainly be the case. Of course, if it's simply a case of illiterate parents and their educated daughter which brought about this discrepancy in her name, why would this escalate to threats?

Originally Posted by Listin Diario

"La denuncia fue hecha ayer lunes por el presidente del Consejo Nacional de Fronteras, Radhamés Batista, quien atribuyó a las denuncias que ha hecho contra la presidenta del Movimiento de Mujeres Dominico-Haitianas (Mudha) las amenazas que ha estado recibiendo a los últimos días y el robo, en dos ocasiones, en sus oficinas situadas en la Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores."

Or a suspicious robbery where valuable materials were left alone, but documents, disks, etc were stolen?

Originally Posted by Listin Diario

"Batista reveló que en dos ocasiones, en la semana pasada, personas no identificadas penetraron a sus oficinas donde robaron documentos, discos duros de computadoras y Unidades Centrales de Procesamiento (CPU).

Cree que el robo está vinculado a su denuncia, ya que los ladrones rompieron uno de los cristales de las ventanas que dan hacia los jardines del edificio, luego manipularon los pestillos y sólo robaron documentos a pesar de que en el lugar había otros objetos de mayor valor económico."

Oh well...

-NALs

[Chirimoya]

There's also the possibility that the break-ins are unrelated. Does he specify the nature of the missing documents?

[aegap]

Originally Posted by NALs

...why would this escalate to threats?

yeah, and we can always count on Listin Diario for accurate, unembelished objective reporting ..

[NALs]

Originally Posted by Chirimoya

There's also the possibility that the break-ins are unrelated. Does he specify the nature of the missing documents?

None. The police captured four men who could had been connected to the crime, but had to be released due to lack of evidence.

-NALs

[NALs]

Originally Posted by aegap

yeah, and we can always count on Listin Diario for accurate, unembelished objective reporting ..

Listin Diario (along with El Nuevo Diario, El Nacional, among other media sources) is simply presenting to the public the allegation the DNCD head said, including the threats of death towards him.

Radhamés Batista



Cedula of Solain Pie (source: El Nuevo Diario)


-NALs

[aegap]

It also inssinuating (as you are too) that they are both somehow related. ..the Drug Enforment head was most likely threatened with death by people on the drug underworld. I suppose its a good thing - it more than likely means he is doing his job well, or at least better than they would expect - but more like has nothing to do with the Solain.

[NALs]

Originally Posted by aegap

It also inssinuating (as you are too) that they are both somehow related. ..the Drug Enforment head was most likely threatened with death by people on the drug underworld. I suppose its a good thing - it more than likely means he is doing his job well, or at least better than they would expect - but more like has nothing to do with the Solain.

For certain that's a plausible possibility, but it's not clear if the two are connected or not.

For that reason, any of the two possibilities (it's connected or it's not connected) are both very real at this moment in time. Perhaps, tomorrow or some other time this confusion is resolved.

Until then, nobody here really knows other than maybe it is or maybe its not connected.

Keep in mind that what occured to the Drug Enforcer is different from the allegation being made by Batista.

-NALs