#2596: Calling on Gran Brijit, La Sirenn and other Lwas of Haiti (fwd)

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From: Guy Antoine <GuyAntoine@windowsonhaiti.com>

I would like to call a truce between "Bon Mambo Racine Sans Bout
Sa Te La Daginen", Bébé Pierre-Louis, and others, and ask them
to call on all the lwas of Haitian, African, Greek, Celtic, Anglo-Saxon,
or universal origins, all the lwas with multiple husbands or multiple
wives, those that are monogamists, and those that have neither
husband or wife, those that are heterosexuals, homosexuals,
lesbians, or bisexual, those whose genealogy can be traced and
those who appear to come from nowhere and everywhere, those
that have multiple praise names that get confused with their siblings,
those which assume multiple personalities under multiple names,
those which propose marriage to mere mortals, those who appear
in people's houses in Haiti, or as far away (or perhaps as close) as
Freeport, New York, "the Indian Ocean, West and Central Africa,
Peru, Venezuela, Ireland, Germany, Russia, New York, etc., etc.",
please CALL ON THEM ALL to come to HAITI'S RESCUE.  Our
impoverished country overflows with spirituality, which attracts
well-meaning people from all over this world, but my question is
whether or not majority class Haitians who serve those lwas so well,
or are so frequently visited by them and all their spiritual brothers
and sisters from North America and beyond, would not finally take
ONE STEADY STEP FORWARD, if this magnificent pantheon of
lwas was collectively concerned about the well-being of their
feverishly supportive adherents.

The same reasoning applies to the great multiplicity of Catholic
saints and other spiritual beings "other than GOD, herself".

This is a request, that most likely is daring to the extreme in the
manifestation of my ignominious ignorance of the facts and sheer
incomprehension of the spiritual world, but it is not meant to be
sacrilegious in the least.  I may be forever bewildered by the
seeming overabundance of spiritual beliefs among Haitians and
Haiti lovers and the depth of the country's material poverty. Do
these spiritual riches serve Haitians' temporal needs or do they
play a role against them, or perhaps should it not be expected
that there would be any connection between our spiritual and
temporal lives?

Some will be offended by my questions, and I am sorry that they
will feel that way.  Be advised of my skepticism but good intent.
Furthermore all insults will be absorbed and not deflected back
to you.  Just don't waste your time on those scarycomical
so-called "Vodou dolls", please.  I eat them for lunch.

Yours for greater humanism, and in the case of Haiti a more
meaningful interplay between materialism and spirituality.  The
spirit of a people need not defeat its temporal advances, but
support the people in a cohesive and manifest manner.  All the
rest deserves to stay between you and your God.

Guy S. Antoine
Look thru & Imagine!
http://windowsonhaiti.com