Posted on 01/17/2010 5:21:04 PM PST by DogByte6RER
Why God Hates Haiti
The frustrating theology of suffering.
By Lisa Miller | NEWSWEEK
Published Jan 15, 2010
From the magazine issue dated Jan 25, 2010
Haiti is surely a Job among nations. It is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere: half its population lives on less than a dollar a day. With 98 percent of its forests felled and burned for firewood, Haiti is uniquely vulnerable to flooding from hurricanes. In 2008 four storms in as many weeks left a million homeless. Haiti has an infant-mortality rate worse than that of many African nations, and its people are plagued by disease: diarrhea, hepatitis, typhoid fever, dengue fever, malaria, and leptospirosis are rampant there. This litany doesn't even touch on Haiti's disastrous political history, most notably the reign of François (Papa Doc) Duvalier, who assassinated and tortured more than 30,000 in the 1960s.
Now, with as many as 100,000 dead in last week's earthquake, a sensible person of faith has to grapple with the problem of what scholars call theodicy. If God is good and intervenes in the world, then why does he make innocents suffer? Why, as Job might have said, would God "crush an impoverished people with a tempest and multiply their wounds without cause? He will not let them get their breath."
For Pat Robertson, the TV evangelist, the answer is simple: it's the Haitians' own fault, presumably for practicing voodoo. On the Christian Broadcasting Network last week, Robertson alluded to events leading up to the Haitian Revolution of 1791, history's rare successful slave revolt. On the eve of the revolt, insurgents gathered in a forest called the Bois Caiman to swear a blood oath.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...
The earthquake didn’t happen on the DR side of the island...that is why they didn’t have as much damage. Plus, they have better buildings and infrastructure. But, if you all want to believe that Satan caused this, go right ahead. I prefer to live in the rational world.
Bingo. And that it became worse off as soon as the colonizers left.
In fact the same is true of Haiti itself. Haiti existed in abject squalor for over a hundred years after independence with little outside intervention from us or anyone else. They were politically dysfunctional throughout and had dozens of dictators, each violently ousting his predecessor. In 1915 after a string of several revolutions on a near monthly basis, the various lynch mobs running around the streets of the capital decided to attack all the foreign embassies. The U.S. said "enough is enough" and sent in the marines to take charge of the place.
We stayed for 20 years. In the process we put down all the rebellions. We rounded up all the criminal gangs and put them to work building roads, water lines, and other infrastructure. We modernized the capital and made it economically productive. We stabilized the political system, giving them 4 successive presidents who did not end their term by being ousted or killed by their successor (this sort of peaceful transition had only happened twice before in all of Haiti's history).
Then we left in 1934. The political system reverted back to where it is now. The infrastructure degraded and collapsed, with almost no new construction since we left. The roving street gangs and rebel armies returned. And worst of all, Haiti has blamed us ever since for "occupying" them.
The best thing to do with a sh*thole like Haiti is to ignore it and steer clear. They'll continue robbing, killing, and eating each other in the process, but it's gonna happen anyway so it is best not to trouble yourself over it. Haiti is a public nuisance of a country, and no matter what you do for them they're still ungrateful, still dysfunctional, and will still blame their dysfunction on the people trying to help them.
Agreed.
Robertson has an unfortunate tendancy to open his mouth at the wrong time, but, IF you believe in God, what he said could very well be the truth and the fact that the MSM cherry-picked what he said (for those curious, there are transcripts out there of his entire statement, not just the portion you hear on the MSM) tells you just what their agenda really is. It’s no surprise that the MSM holds Christianity in contempt, and Robertson opening his mouth at the wrong time just gives those jackals ammunition.
Look, jerkoff, I said nothing whatsoever about "Satan caused this". The question is "why" does the DR "have better buildings and infrastructure". Both countries share precisely the same resource base, yet one is (relatively) thriving, and the other is a basket case. "Placement in the world" obviously cannot explain the difference. And anyone who believes it does, is a fool, be that YOU, or be that Hitchens. There "have" been earthquakes in the DR, y'know.
And when they ran out of whites to kill, they started killing each other. Literally. The first president of Haiti proclaimed himself "Emperor for Life. This infuriated two of his former allies and "leaders" of the revolution, so they killed him.
Those two each claimed the presidency as his successor, set up rival governments in the north and south, and started warring with each other. The one in the north declared himself "King" and the one in the south picked "President for Life." The southern "president for life" died in 1818 and his hand picked successor (another leader of the revolution) tried to take control of the north. He succeeded when the "king" committed suicide there a few months later to avoid being captured by the mob in a coup, and then tried to take over the Dominican half of the island. That war lasted until 1843 when he too was ousted in a coup by a former subordinate from the coup against the first emperor...who was ousted a year later by another former revolutionary leader who had been given a title of nobility by the northern "King."
“This is what happens when you worship European culture.”
Not all societies are the same. None are perfect. If I point out some Politically Incorrect observations about one culture or human nature in general, does that constitute worship to you? The biggest mistake Europeans made was shipping any Africans out of Africa - that didn’t work out for anybody. The U.S. occupied Haiti for 20 years and tried to put them on the path to modernization. We left and they reverted to form. There is plenty of blame to go around besides the Europeans.
ah... those were the days! lol
Don’t call me a jerkoff, it makes the rest of your point less valid. I have friends in the DR, I know about Haiti, its a terrible place run by thugs.
But not by “satan”
So copying a culture that’s been nothing but oligarchal and opressive to everything that isn’t in their oligarchy is good for a country? I must have been taking a leak during civics class when they were talking about the Revolutionary War.
Like it or not, this would have been our culture too if we didn’t free ourselves of the British and everything that was British or European. Europe, has been, always was and always will be an oligarchal, class concious society. That’s why even when they do something good like embrace democracy, it devolves ito mob rule with one class fighting the other for control of the country. European culture simply isn’t meant for Democracy.
Mexico and other Latin American cultures are curretly stuck in that Europe-worshipping mentality and their countries too are stuck in that European class system. The sooner they ditch oligarchy and move onto classically liberal democracy with a truly capitalist system, the sooner they will start developing.
As for Haiti, nothing except pure capitalism will help their economy. The only businesses they can get in their country right now are a few sweatshops. If the libs are so serious about helping Haiti, they should let Haiti’s economy develop naturally instead of giving handouts to that place. All handouts are doing is harming Haiti and other third world countries. In fact, you know you can live like a god in Haiti for about 20K? With that much money, you can kickstart the economy to the moon. The only problem is that the people in Hati have such a bad taste in their mouths from the French and other foreign natioals pretty much doing the same thing I suggested and using the local employees as de facto slave labor. They’re afraid of investors for that reason. But there’s no other choice for that country. It’s either they live perpetually on handouts or they become an economic force.
And to the Stormfronters that post here (Not you, TR), shame on you, you’re part of the problem, not the solution. There’s a Prussia Blue poster waiting for your lonely fantasies in your room.
I see there are a number of points that we do agree on. Haiti needs to develop a capitalistic economy and not depend on handouts, but they also need a different model of government. What country do you suggest they emulate?
You even had to ask, FRiend?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.