[Peace-discuss] Another racist liberal on Haiti

[John W.]

On Wed, Feb 10, 2010 at 9:45 PM, Karen Medina <kmedina67 at gmail.com> wrote:



> That blog post reminds me of an uncle of mine (with whom I disagree)
> who said: "When Colorado had that huge blizzard, they did not wait for
> a handout, they started delivering their own mail. Unlike New Orleans
> who expected to get rescued. Why didn't they help themselves instead
> of complaining?"
>
> On a related note: I hear that Palestinians in Gaza donated items and
> money for Haiti. The poorest sharing what little they have. We should
> follow their example.
>
> It is hard to hug my neighbor when I need both arms to protect my
> possessions.
>
> It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a
> rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
>


It's very difficult for me to imagine any more than a tiny handful of white
Americans entering into the kingdom of God.




> -karen medina
>
> On Wed, Feb 10, 2010 at 8:53 PM, C. G. Estabrook <galliher at illinois.edu>
> wrote:
> >        Voodoo, Development and the Culture of Haiti
> >        Marty Peretz
> >        February 8, 2010
> >
> > There are many factors which have determined and over-determined the
> > miserable history of Haiti, to which almost everybody had become
> > accustomed. The recent plague, however, provoked a moment of pity ...
> > and also of self-pity, which manifested itself by Haitian anger
> > against the aid providers who did not act fast enough or did not bring
> > the right equipment or did not bring sufficient aid-workers. Or
> > imported clothing when they should have brought water or food. This is
> > the understandable petulance of people who usually expect nothing and
> > then suddenly become the cause of the moment, the recipients of a
> > largesse that will not last.
> >
> > The very issues of development and underdevelopment are heavily laden
> > with ideology. Not just prescriptive of ideologies of left and right.
> > But utilitarian models, supposedly neutral. Like a United Nations
> > administration of help and reconstruction, as if anything sponsored by
> > the U.N. would be anything but corrupt, inefficient, confused, and
> > racialist.
> >
> > I myself proposed what would in effect be a mandate for Haiti overseen
> > by the United States. The model could be the American occupation and
> > reform of Japan. But, of course, Japan was already a very advanced
> > country. So the analogy is at best flawed. To tell the truth, whether
> > Japan or not, Haiti would be lucky to be a protectorate (against
> > nature and against its own large-scale criminal elements) of America.
> > No one in the U.S. is eager for such an encounter. It would be costly.
> > It would induce resentment among the hemisphere's "progressives" like
> > the buffoon Hugo Chavez, who is leading his oil-rich country into
> > poverty and has already led it into despotism and worse. And the
> > American left would denounce an American mandate for Haiti as
> > imperialism, regardless of the processes or the outcomes. And what
> > about the American imperialists, the Republicans? They would think it
> > nothing less than insane.
> >
> > And insane it may seem.
> >
> > The Haitian narrative is interlaced with the spooky charms of voodoo:
> > fright, inference, faith, mystery. These are not traits that are
> > conducive to sound plans for economic development or rational
> > political discourse. Lawrence Harrison, who once ran USAID in Haiti
> > and now is professor at the Fletcher School of Diplomacy at Tufts, has
> > written a short but challenging essay on the role of voodoo in Haiti's
> > past and the dreadful mortgage it has carried over into Haiti's
> > future. It is not a topic politicians and others who are charged with
> > the good of Haiti are eager to touch.
> >
> > But Harrison makes the point that voodoo is not a racialist
> > explanation. But it is a cultural explanation. Cultural explanations
> > may not explain all. But they always explain much.
> >
> > <
> http://www.tnr.com/blog/the-spine/voodoo-development-and-the-culture-haiti
> >
>

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