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<div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Feb 10, 2010 at 9:45 PM, Karen Medina <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:kmedina67@gmail.com">kmedina67@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:</div>
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<blockquote style="BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; PADDING-LEFT: 1ex" class="gmail_quote">That blog post reminds me of an uncle of mine (with whom I disagree)<br>who said: "When Colorado had that huge blizzard, they did not wait for<br>
a handout, they started delivering their own mail. Unlike New Orleans<br>who expected to get rescued. Why didn't they help themselves instead<br>of complaining?"<br><br>On a related note: I hear that Palestinians in Gaza donated items and<br>
money for Haiti. The poorest sharing what little they have. We should<br>follow their example.<br><br>It is hard to hug my neighbor when I need both arms to protect my possessions.<br><br>It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a<br>
rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.<br></blockquote>
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<div>It's very difficult for me to imagine any more than a tiny handful of white Americans entering into the kingdom of God.</div>
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<blockquote style="BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; PADDING-LEFT: 1ex" class="gmail_quote">-karen medina<br>
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<div class="h5"><br>On Wed, Feb 10, 2010 at 8:53 PM, C. G. Estabrook <<a href="mailto:galliher@illinois.edu">galliher@illinois.edu</a>> wrote:<br>> Voodoo, Development and the Culture of Haiti<br>> Marty Peretz<br>
> February 8, 2010<br>><br>> There are many factors which have determined and over-determined the<br>> miserable history of Haiti, to which almost everybody had become<br>> accustomed. The recent plague, however, provoked a moment of pity ...<br>
> and also of self-pity, which manifested itself by Haitian anger<br>> against the aid providers who did not act fast enough or did not bring<br>> the right equipment or did not bring sufficient aid-workers. Or<br>
> imported clothing when they should have brought water or food. This is<br>> the understandable petulance of people who usually expect nothing and<br>> then suddenly become the cause of the moment, the recipients of a<br>
> largesse that will not last.<br>><br>> The very issues of development and underdevelopment are heavily laden<br>> with ideology. Not just prescriptive of ideologies of left and right.<br>> But utilitarian models, supposedly neutral. Like a United Nations<br>
> administration of help and reconstruction, as if anything sponsored by<br>> the U.N. would be anything but corrupt, inefficient, confused, and<br>> racialist.<br>><br>> I myself proposed what would in effect be a mandate for Haiti overseen<br>
> by the United States. The model could be the American occupation and<br>> reform of Japan. But, of course, Japan was already a very advanced<br>> country. So the analogy is at best flawed. To tell the truth, whether<br>
> Japan or not, Haiti would be lucky to be a protectorate (against<br>> nature and against its own large-scale criminal elements) of America.<br>> No one in the U.S. is eager for such an encounter. It would be costly.<br>
> It would induce resentment among the hemisphere's "progressives" like<br>> the buffoon Hugo Chavez, who is leading his oil-rich country into<br>> poverty and has already led it into despotism and worse. And the<br>
> American left would denounce an American mandate for Haiti as<br>> imperialism, regardless of the processes or the outcomes. And what<br>> about the American imperialists, the Republicans? They would think it<br>
> nothing less than insane.<br>><br>> And insane it may seem.<br>><br>> The Haitian narrative is interlaced with the spooky charms of voodoo:<br>> fright, inference, faith, mystery. These are not traits that are<br>
> conducive to sound plans for economic development or rational<br>> political discourse. Lawrence Harrison, who once ran USAID in Haiti<br>> and now is professor at the Fletcher School of Diplomacy at Tufts, has<br>
> written a short but challenging essay on the role of voodoo in Haiti's<br>> past and the dreadful mortgage it has carried over into Haiti's<br>> future. It is not a topic politicians and others who are charged with<br>
> the good of Haiti are eager to touch.<br>><br>> But Harrison makes the point that voodoo is not a racialist<br>> explanation. But it is a cultural explanation. Cultural explanations<br>> may not explain all. But they always explain much.<br>
><br>> <<a href="http://www.tnr.com/blog/the-spine/voodoo-development-and-the-culture-haiti" target="_blank">http://www.tnr.com/blog/the-spine/voodoo-development-and-the-culture-haiti</a>><br></div></div></blockquote>
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