Above: Haiti before the quake.
By now we’ve all heard about Pat Robertson’s implicitly racist and explicitly stupid remarks about Haiti’s deal with the devil. Here’s a piece on the history of Haiti from last May, which should give readers a better idea of who the real devils are in this story.
After a dramatic slave uprising that shook the western world, and 12 years of war, Haiti finally defeated Napoleon’s forces in 1804 and declared independence. But France demanded reparations: 150m francs, in gold.
For Haiti, this debt did not signify the beginning of freedom, but the end of hope. Even after it was reduced to 60m francs in the 1830s, it was still far more than the war-ravaged country could afford. Haiti was the only country in which the ex-slaves themselves were expected to pay a foreign government for their liberty. By 1900, it was spending 80% of its national budget on repayments. In order to manage the original reparations, further loans were taken out — mostly from the United States, Germany and France. Instead of developing its potential, this deformed state produced a parade of nefarious leaders, most of whom gave up the insurmountable task of trying to fix the country and looted it instead. In 1947, Haiti finally paid off the original reparations, plus interest. Doing so left it destitute, corrupt, disastrously lacking in investment and politically volatile. Haiti was trapped in a downward spiral, from which it is still impossible to escape. It remains hopelessly in debt to this day.
That’s right. The former slave owners demanded reparations.
What is to be done?
“There is only one solution to Haiti’s problems, and that’s mass emigration,” one senior American foreign-policy expert told me. “But nobody wants to talk about it.” So Haiti remains in debt, relieved for now, but not for ever. And the question of France repaying some or all of the compensation it extracted for Haitian independence is not even on the agenda.
Photo and quotes from Haiti: the land where children eat mud
See also: The Haiti Disaster and Superstition:
None of this explains why there was an earthquake in Haiti, which is a question for geologists, not political economists. But it does explain why a massive earthquake hits Haiti harder than it does most of the rest of the world. And it goes a long way toward explaining the rest of the more quotidien problems that effect Haiti.
Nolon Ashley, aka Cult of Zir, talks about his music, Portland, the OTO, and the Voudon Gnostic Workbook.
I asked Joseph about the services he performs for his clients.
“You name it man. Anything you want done for you I will do it. If you want a visa I have something for that. If you woman leave you I can get her back for you. If you have a court case I will deal with that too,” Joseph pounded his fist into his palm as he spoke and his eyes widened with excitement. He explained that $14,000 will get you a visa to any place in the world you’d like to visit and if the love of your life was silly enough to think she could leave you and go cavorting around town with another, he would get her back for you for a measly $7,000.
I asked Joseph how he got into the white magic business in the first place.
“Well, when I was 15 somebody try work science on me. Dem put a powder in my hymn book at church and it make my head feel like it was going to tear off! I was sick bad. I decide that I wouldn’t want anybody to have that power over me again so I start to read all kind ofbooks. My father was a great science man himself as well so I learn from him and carry on the tradition. I was the only one of his children who carry on the teaching and the work for him,” Joseph said.
Full Story: Jamaica Gleaner.
(via Padre Engo)
“The goat tethered to a tree outside Max Beauvoir’s home is doomed. Mr. Beauvoir, tall and majestic with closely cropped white hair, is a voodoo priest who was just named the religion’s supreme master, a newly created position that is aimed at reviving voodoo.
His grand residence on the outskirts of the Haitian capital serves as a temple for voodoo practitioners and a late-night hangout for those paying customers eager to take in an exotic evening of spiritual awakening. The temple, the P?ristyle de Mariani, is where Mr. Beauvoir and his followers dance around a giant totem to the beat of drums. It is where they light bonfires to summon the spirits. And it is where they drain the blood of animals like that scrawny white goat to, among other things, heal the sick.
On a recent night, Haiti’s voodooists convened for a special ceremony. With music blaring and devotees dancing with all their might, two children threw white rose petals on a red carpet. Then along came Mr. Beauvoir.”
(via The New York Times)
Part of me wants to just not bother with this and this, since no one really seems to be taking Jason and Shivanath seriously anyway. But, since I have endorsed work by both of them in the past, and still have a lot of respect for them, I feel like I’ve got to say: yes, they are spewing disingenuous bile. They have their own agenda evangelizing for their own New Agey religion, and are not any more “neutral” than Gypsy Lantern is on the subject.
Says “Johnny Templar”: “That voodoo hoojoo is just a recipe for human misery.”
But I gotta ask: aren’t Buddhism and Hindu also a recipe for human misery?
I don’t consider myself a practitioner of Vodoun, or of Tantric Hindu but have an interest in both. If I had to pick which one was “better” I’d pick the religion of the only successful slave revolt in history, not the religion that kept the Dalits ‘in their place’ for centuries. I’d pick the one that lets women and homosexuals be priests. That said, I’ve been influenced by Tantric and Hindu thought, particularly by Shivanath’s writings on the subject.
Readers of this blog know that I consider religion in general to be a recipe for human suffering and call myself an atheist. I believe that there are elements of religions that can be useful for individuals, but there is no objective utility any of this. Jason and Shivanath’s campaign against voodoo is silly at best, and creepy and cult-like at worst, especially when Jason’s throwing around statements like these: “Nobody invited you here. You came into *my* temple looking for a fight, and you are not welcome here.”
My brain hurts. Bad.
(it’s also available for pre-order from Amazon).
The Phenomena Interview Padre Engo: New York’s Voodoo High Priest, Militant Messiah, Music Producer and Musician Dateline:
Ed – You have stated that you are the incarnation of a Mexican god. How did you discover this?
PE – Yes I am Quetzalcoatl in the flesh. I am the first and there will be other avatars of the Feathered Serpent to come after me.
Only a black man can hold this spiritual title. Also, being a Moor (a black Muslim) and an avatar of Quetzalcoatl is not a contradiction in terms. Most people have no idea as to who Quetzalcoatl really is. All the so-called New Age books on Quetzalcoatl fail to tell you who he really is. Quetzalcoatl was not a ‘White Man with a beard’. The Mexican Indians never believed such nonsense. This idea only exists in the letter Cortez wrote to the King of Spain. Quetzalcoatl is a West African god that was always viewed as a black man from the East. This has been proven by the Harvard Professor Leo Weiner.
Quetzalcoatl is the product of the Mandingo magicians that colonized Mexico long before the birth of Christ, and again in the 1300s. He was originally depicted by the ancient Mexican Indians as a black man with a beard wearing a white ‘Islamic’ robe. His white robe is why he is often called a ‘White God’.
Full Story: Key 23.
Catherine Yronwode’s book in progress about hoodoo.
I get the funny feeling I’ve linked to this before, but can’t find it in the archives.
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