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Pat Robertson's smear of Haiti and the Haitian people reflects the burning hatred that the rulers of this country -- and that includes Robertson, though he is not in the top tiers -- have for the Haitian revolution against slavery and French rule. Which was inspired by the North American revolution against British rule, but even more by the French revolution I'm sure that despite his advanced years, he is working hard to reach billionaire status. Views like his are organic to the ruling class in this society. They are not at all by nature attached to the pseudo-rationalism servants of their interests like Barack Obama or Zbigniew Brzezinski. They think all kinds of crazy stuff. It is important to have the facts on claims like Robertson's, absurd as they might seem to those of us who have a certain distance from the world that many others inhabit. Voodoo, still the dominant version of Christianity among the Black masses of Haiti, is not a form of devil worship, and devil worship is simply the Christian term for identification with pre-Christian gods. (It is useful to get a grip on this to read Gore Vidal's Julian and Creation -- the first a full-scale literary classic, the latter quite good but more politically flawed -- a defense in part of the Aryans as the source of world civilization.) If we were working among workers (regardless of race), we would find a core who entertain or consider views like this although I am certain they are a minority (even among white workers, to whom this appeal is PRIMARILY directed.) I am submitting this with a second item, a letter to the major Minneapolis newspaper from a reader with sound solidarity instincts and a sense of humor. Fred Feldman '` It strikes me http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2010/01/13/haiti_satan_pact/print.html Haiti's "pact with the devil" myth 1. How Pat Robertson turned a country's origin myth into a cheap invocation of Satanism By Thomas Rogers Jan. 14, 2010 | One of the most callous reactions to the Haiti disaster thus far has come from televangelist Pat Robertson, who told viewers of his Christian Broadcasting Network on Wednesday morning that he knew the real reason for the quake: The country's long-standing pact with Satan. "Something happened a long time ago in Haiti ... they were under the heel of the French, uh, you know, Napoleon the third and whatever ... and they got together and swore a pact to the devil, they said, we will serve you, if you get us free from the Prince. True story." But is it a true story? We spoke with Andrew Apter, professor of history and anthopology at UCLA, about Haiti's voodoo traditions, the ignorance behind the evangelical community's distortions and the real cause of suffering in the third-world country. Is there any truth to what Pat Robertson is saying? Of course not! Haitians are Christians. Pat Robertson's language is the reductio ad absurdum of the Christian right. It's so absurd it's almost funny. This notion of a pact with the devil is basically an echo of an old colonial response to the successes of the 1790s Haitian revolution. What is this pact he's talking about? Part of the revolution mythology is that one of the revolution leaders sacrificed a pig in Bois Caïmin in a voodoo ceremony and made a contract with Petwo [Haitian voodoo spirits]. It may or may not be true, but to call that a pact with the devil is a gross misrepresentation of what voodoo is. It's about anything but the devil. He's imposing an evangelical religious order on a much more sophisticated practice, and he's turning it into a cheap invocation of Satanism. This is hate speech. It's saying these people are damned. It's a frequent theme among some Christians that Haiti is being punished for this supposed pact with the devil with extreme poverty and humanitarian crises. Tragically, many evangelical Christians in Haiti may actually, in their own extreme confusion and suffering and desperation, believe that God is punishing them. The reason Haiti is poor is because Europe imposed a blockade on trade after the slave revolt in 1804, and you have an extremely polarized class structure in which a few families stepped into the positions of the former colonial plantation owners. There has been a horrible cycle of plundering and autocracy within Haitian leadership. Why do you think this kind of obsession with Haitian voodoo persists? There's a fascination with all things voodoo, not only in New Orleans but also on TV, on shows like "Bones," and it stems from the occupation of Haiti by the U.S. Marines in the first part of the 20th century. There were campaigns under certain Haitian governments in conjunction with the church to rout voodoo, but it didn't come close to working, because voodoo is part of everyday life in Haiti. Do you think this has been holding Haiti back? I think other factors are more important in holding Haiti back: the class structure, the dispossession of a largely illiterate populace, the links that the underclass increasingly has with drug gangs, which has generated a lot of violence, and the tradition of sweatshop labor. I think the backlash against voodoo is a kind of reflection of the problems, rather than a cause of it. -- By Thomas Roger 2. Letter to the editor of the Star Tribune, written by Lily Coyle, Minneapolis January 14, 2009 http://www.startribune.com/opinion/letters/81595442.html?elr=KArks7PYDiaK7DU qEiaDUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUU Dear Pat Robertson, I know that you know that all press is good press, so I appreciate the shout-out. And you make God look like a big mean bully who kicks people when they are down, so I'm all over that action. But when you say that Haiti has made a pact with me, it is totally humiliating. I may be evil incarnate, but I'm no welcher. The way you put it, making a deal with me leaves folks desperate and impoverished. Sure, in the afterlife, but when I strike bargains with people, they first get something here on earth -- glamour, beauty, talent, wealth, fame, glory, a golden fiddle. Those Haitians have nothing, and I mean nothing. And that was before the earthquake. Haven't you seen "Crossroads"? Or "Damn Yankees"? If I had a thing going with Haiti, there'd be lots of banks, skyscrapers, SUVs, exclusive night clubs, Botox -- that kind of thing. An 80 percent poverty rate is so not my style. Nothing against it -- I'm just saying: Not how I roll. You're doing great work, Pat, and I don't want to clip your wings -- just, come on, you're making me look bad. And not the good kind of bad. Keep blaming God. That's working. But leave me out of it, please. Or we may need to renegotiate your own contract. Best, Satan ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: [email protected] Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
