Haitian Earthquake Relief

I get so tired of hearing that Haiti is un pays maudit, as if God designated particular geographical regions for exceptional hardship, as if having enough money to build to earthquake code were a question of theodicy. I heard this exact phrase, that Haiti is a damned country, from my French neighbor just this morning, who served as a UN peacekeeper for two years in Port-au-Prince. I hear exactly the same thing from the many Haitians I know, or only briefly encounter in the back of their taxis, in Montreal. They are proud of the fact that Haiti was the first Black republic anywhere, and one of the first republics in the western hemisphere, but are resigned to what they take as a simple fact, that the legacy of Toussaint Louverture was doomed to failure from the outset. In fact, Pat Robertson's senescent account of Haiti's plight --an account that happened to go viral, but was really only meant for the ears of elderly, bedridden Americans who lack the initiative and the computing skills to check these things out for themselves-- is really just a slightly more crude version of what almost everyone says about Haiti. Even Haitians say it.

Most Haitians are probably better able to get their facts straight, though. In his brief summary of the circumstances of the purported deal with the devil, Robertson notes that at the time of the revolution, the Haitians "were under the heel of the French, uh, you know, Napoleon III, or whatever." In fact, Napoleon III was not born until four years after the Haitian Revolution, in 1808. When Haiti revolted, it was against a France still very much under the reign of Napoleon I (in the course of transitioning from consul to emperor). But maybe this sort of knitpicking is irrelevant, since that 'or whatever' is likely meant to signal that facts are not really what is at issue here. Pat Robertson deals with a higher order of truth.

One curious implication of Robertson's account of things is that he would seem to wish that France had maintained a greater colonial presence in the Western hemisphere: an unusual point of view for so respected a member of the American religious right. Haiti's independence in 1804 comes less than two decades before the introduction of the Monroe Doctrine, which declared the United States the only global power with any right to interfere in the internal affairs of the many burgeoning republics of the Americas. France kept St. Pierre and Miquelon (2009 population: 7,050) and a few other inconsequential clods of earth, but from then on the US had control over everything that mattered.

While popular wisdom, which Robertson is only echoing, has it that the Haitian Revolution was doomed from the start, in fact it was a glorious revolution, and based on many of the same values that motivated the American revolution 28 years earlier. What then could have made things go so wrong, if not a pact with the devil? The short answer is that even though the American and Haitian (and French) revolutions were motivated by the same values --liberty, equality, and so on-- these were values that were never meant to be extended quite so far: they were universal, but only in a local sort of way. The US, still based on a slave economy, was not ready to have a Black republic, sharing in its democratic ideals, so close by. Two centuries of meddling followed, with interventions, puppet governments, anti-communist cronyism, and so on (I'm not going to attempt to summarize the history with names and dates here; for that you have Google), with the result that Haiti is now a fully contained ghetto of the extended United States. Like any ghetto, building codes are different there, and that is why more people died in their earthquake yesterday than would have died in an earthquake of comparable magnitude in Connecticut. 

My usual cynicism about the efficacy of charity still prevails, so I would like to make a different sort of plea: do not give money to the William J. Clinton Foundation to distribute as it sees fit for earthquake relief and recovery efforts. US presidents have had Haiti in their budget for quite some time, and have been expert at sustaining the country in near perfect misery since the early 19th century. Instead, text a $5 or $10 donation by cellphone at www.yele.org. Yéle is a respected humanitarian foundation with a long track record of promoting health, education, and well-being in Haiti. What's more, they have Wyclef Jean as their spokesman, whom I always considered a bit of a buffoon and a showman, and even the Fugees' weakest third, but whom I trust infinitely more than Bill Clinton to get your generous donations where they need to go. I've already texted in $10, which is more than I've given to any cause not motivated by rank nepotism, or by my inordinate concern for non-human animals, in quite some time. 

Comments

[Leon Garcia G.]

Thanks for the article and the tip to make a useful donation for the suffering Haitians.
In "La malédiction divine sur Haïti : un message ambigu et forcément caduc", Jean Galin provides a good summary of the myth of Bookman's satanic pact of 1791 in Bois Caiman.
(http://www.alterpresse.org/article.php3?id_article=1766)
I lived through Mexico City's big one in 1985, and I will never forget the daze of destruction, the scandal of the government inaction and the subsequent collapse of its legitimacy. But most of all, I will never forget the countless gestures of solidarity among the people, who took over the rescue efforts in what was truly an apocalyptic scenario.
Coming back to the subject of curses and divine punishments, Pat Robertson should know that el caudillo y dictador mexicano Porfirio Díaz clarified once and for all the dialectics of les pays maudits when he said: "¡Pobre México, tan lejos de Dios y tan cerca de los Estados Unidos!"
Just change the first and last subjects for whatever countries you wish, and you'll see how this business of divine punishment really works!
But then, Haiti is particularly close to the USA-- its slums are largely a function of its status as America's client. Contrast neighboring, godless Cuba, and see who really lives under a curse, Mr Robertson!

[Luke Lea]

Didn't the Haitian rebels slaughter all the white Europeans in the country during the revolution? Could this have something to do with the country's subsequent history? Look at the other end of the island for comparison.

[Ed Emmer]

Thanks for the tip.
I was surprised by the way that you didn't throw in a Lisbon 1755 (Leibniz/Voltaire/Kant) reference when mentioning Pat Robertson's remarks about the Earthquake and Haiti's alleged pact with the devil.

[fred dijs]

justin,

thanks to 3 quarksdaily for finding this blog entry.
thanks to you for giving the link to yele.org.

i felt like donating although i never donate.

so i started to make a payment
to the dutch national aid-conglomerate.

but i hesitated and stopped.

it appeared to be a too global operation,
serving the west, 'us', too well.

so, now i donated to a haitian organisation.

i hope you were right by suggesting that.

fred dijs, amsterdam

[Ruchira]

As for Pat Robertson, even God is embarrassed.
http://borowitzreport.com/article.aspx?ID=7090

I personally trust Doctors Without Borders during such emergencies. This is an agency that is always reliable.

[fred dijs]

justin,

unfortunately i am forced to have seconds thoughts
about my contribution to yele.org for help in haiti.

the smoking gun is reporting dubious transactions bij yele.org, see
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2010/0114102wyclef1.html.

might it be in this case as well
that charity is the mask of greed?

fred dijs, amsterdam

[Steve]

The truth is that they did make a pact with the devil.

Now the significance you put on that pact I guess has to do with whether you believe the devil is real or not.

But it is one of Haiti's founding myths.

http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/small_axe/v009/9.2laroche.html

According to Haitian national history, the revolutionary war was launched on the eve of a religious ceremony at a place in the north called Bwa Kayiman (Bois Caiman, in French). At that ceremony on August 14, 1791, an African slave named Boukman sacrificed a pig, and both Kongo and Creole spirits descended to possess the bodies of the participants, encouraging them and fortifying them for the upcoming revolutionary war. Despite deep ambivalence on the part of intellectuals, Catholics, and the moneyed classes, Vodou has always been linked with militarism and the war of independence and, through it, the pride of national sovereignty.

So, yeah if there is a devil, Haiti made a pact with it. Might explain why even though Haiti and the Dominican Republic share the same island, the Dominican Republic has been far more successful.

[RothSUMMER]

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