13759: Kathy Grey re: 13716: Jhudicourtb:Nekita's nasty stuff about other Haitians (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Racine125@aol.com

Hi folks!  I send all Corbetteers a big hello from beautiful Jacmel, we are having rain here in the evenings and all the pastures are green and all the flowers are blooming!  Port-au-Prince can go up in smoke if it wants, our town is peaceful, happy and productive, thank God and Guinea.
In the latest go-round on the flaws of Haitian culture,
<<Nekita says:"I am thinking of how Haitians back stab, undermine one another in the work place and  churches when there are white  missionaries. Haitians will do anything to look good at the eyes of the "blan" who most of them don't even see them as human beings.>>
I am thinking of how Haitians backstab and undermine one another in the workplace and in churches even when there are no white people around for miles!  I'm thinking how *Americans* backstab and undermine one another in the workplace and in churches, too, just not to the same degree, not with the same carnivorous intensity.
But who doesn't see whom as human beings?  A lot of Haitians don't see "blans" as human beings, that's for sure.  And plenty of those "blan" missionaries definitely have an equally low opinion of their Haitian "brothers in Christ".
I remember one time I was in... Croix des Missions, I think, and I stumbled across this mother and daughter missionary pair who ran an "orphanage".  The mother had a Haitian toddler in her arms, and she was holding this child with such obvious distaste!  We talked a little, and she mentioned her daughter, "She's in that shack over there cleaning up another one to take with us", this with a shudder.
Sooo... it goes both ways, it's a psychodynamic triangle, you know, like this:
     savior
victim       persecutor
And the thing is with this triangle, it's unstable.  So the victim and the savior and the persecutor have a habit of changing places - today the blan is the savior and the poor Haitian is the victim (of ignorance, superstition and Vodou, for example), then tomorrow the blan doesn't give the Haitian what the Haitian wants, so then the blan is the persecutor and the Haitian victim must choose another person to play the role of savior - a bigger church, a Houngan, a President.  Then the blan feels that he or she is the victim and the Haitian is the persecutor, for failing to appreciate what the blan has done and given so far.  And so on and so on.
But JHUDICOURTB@aol.com oversteps when she says to Nekita -
<<This is what I think about this: You are Haitian, you describe Haitians in a negative way.  You also have disparaging remarks for white religious people.  Both types of  remarks are may show misjudgement based on race and culture. You are saying that poorly educated people in your church agree with the white priest and not with you.  Maybe the best solution is to find another place to do what you want to do and leave those who want to follow the priest or pastor alone.>>
WHOA NELLIE!
Nekita is Haitian and sees things in Haitian culture that Nekita would like to improve.  It is therefore Nekita's right and duty to confront the problem.  If undereducated Haitians are being taken advantage of by clergy (big surprise!) then the thing for Nekita to do is not to go away and be quiet, the thing for Nekita to do is to say, NO!  Just the way Nekita has done here.
<<Uneducated Haitian people tend to have as much wisdom (if not more) in their choices as educated ones.>>
I wish people would stop this!  This quaint, "wise peasant" stereotype which grows right out of Rousseau's "noble savage" idea.  Ignorance is not bliss, and what you don't know DOES hurt you.  Haitians of all social classes have the right to modern education and to all information available to the rest of the people on the planet!
The reason people need good information is because they need it to make CORRECT choices, choices which help them live longer, healthier, happier lives.  An uneducated person can be intelligent, but they can not be well-informed.
I took a fellow to the doctor the other day who was suffering from chronic fatigue and occasional fever.  Now, the man works very hard, he has a lot of animals, and he doesn't eat well because he's busy working all the time, so I wasn't even sure he was sick, I thought he might be just poorly nourished.
The doctor suspected either anemia or chronic malaria, so he ordered the appropriate tests.  Our patient stamped his two feet on the ground, and totally refused to take the tests.  To his mind, a blood test will reveal anything and everything that is "in his blood", he doesn't realize that a test for anemia is not the same thing as a test for pregnancy which is not the same thing as a test for malaria or a test for HIV - to him, all tests are just one test.  Okay, good - so all that was in this fellow's mind is that the tests for anemia and malaria were somehow going to conclusively prove that he had been sleeping with a woman other than his wife, and so he refused to take the tests.  No amount of persuasion could shake him.  And of course, now the doctor can't be sure what is wrong with the man, the man is not getting the treatment he would receive if the doctor knew precisely what illness the man has!
THAT is the result of IGNORANCE, of lack of proper EDUCATION.  People have a right to education and information, it's a sell-out to talk about the "wisdom" of people who have been denied access to information.
<<Because a group of people does not think or act the way you want them to, you should not base your opinion on their race and culture.>>
It is in fact possible and permissible to characterize a "culture", it does not make one racist or evil or mean to acknowledge the evidence of one's senses!  What we see and hear and experience has meaning!  And I am sure that Haitians living in the USA, coming from a non-American perspective, can make some interesting and unique characterizations of American culture too.
Peace and love,
Bon Mambo Racine Sans Bout Sa Te La Daginen
"Se bon ki ra" - Good is rare     Haitian proverb
The VODOU Page - http://members.aol.com/racine125/index.html
(Posting from Jacmel, Haiti)