20439: Leiderman: "culture of death" vs "cauldron of death" (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Stuart M Leiderman <leidermn@cisunix.unh.edu>


dear Readers:

a friend introduced me to Alan Pogue, an extraordinary photographer of
world crises <http://www.documentaryphotographs.com> from Texas who
expressed his strong reaction against the phrase "culture of death" in a
recent Miami Herald article posted here:

Date: Mon, 15 Mar 2004 21:04:56 -0500
From: J. Cadarette <jcadarette@att.net>
Subject: Another look at an earlier email: Haitian Report

Dear Friends

I forwarded an article to you yesterday with the subject: Haitian Report.
Alan Pogue, documentary photographer from Texas sent a response. I agree
with his assessment and want to share his comments with you.  <snip>
The particular article I'm referring to in case you still have it in your
computer is:  (Hermantin) Miami Herald -- Fatal ambush cuts off voyage to
escape slums.  The offending remark "culture of death" came at the end of
the article.  Here are the last two paragraphs:

`CULTURE OF DEATH'

On Wednesday, Father Rick came across one body -- the almost headless man on
the highway. He dragged him to the shoulder, bagged him and said a prayer as
dozens of onlookers watched. The next day, the body was still there, ravaged
by animals.

''It's hard for people in the First World to understand,'' he explained
later. ``It's such a culture of death here. It's everywhere. I could drive
around picking up dead bodies all day.''

Here is Alan's response:

Jane:

...After some reflection on the Haitian story you forwarded I think it is
unintentionally  racist and counter productive in creating sympathy for
the Haitian people. The Haitians do not have "a culture of death". Their
country has been turned into a cauldron of death by the U.S. and Europe,
particularly France. As a result the people of Haiti have no resources.
Like people in a concentration camp they are unable to protect
themselves. I'm sure that if their economy was allowed to recover they
would treat their dead as we do. I have seen their cemeteries and their
grave sites are much better than their homes. To say that there is a
cultural reason for their seeming indifference to death is to reinforce
the racist propaganda that Haitians are brutal pagans, voodoo savages,
unable to take care of themselves and therefore need the steady hand of
the white race to solve their problems. This over blown rhetoric is the
standard fare of the U.S. press and many of the books published on Haiti.

Alan

The phrase "culture of death" is used by Pope John Paul II in his
Encyclical Letter: Evangelium Vitae,  (The Gospel of Life).  I suspect
that the Fr. Rick in the Miami-Herald article was familiar with this term
and used it, as Alan suggested, unintentionally. Whether intentional or
not on Fr. Rick's part, I agree with Alan that the use of it in the
article is disturbing.

Jane

An excerpt from The Gospel of Life:  "In fact, while the climate of
widespread moral uncertainty can in some way be explained by the
multiplicity and gravity of today's social problems, and these can
sometimes mitigate the subjective responsibility of individuals, it is no
less true that we are confronted by an even larger reality...This reality
is characterized by the emergence of a culture which denies solidarity
and in many cases takes the form of a veritable "culture of death".  This
culture is actively fostered by powerful cultural, economic and political
currents which encourage an idea of society excessively concerned with
efficiency.  Looking at the situation from this point of view, it is
possible to speak in a certain sense of a war of the powerful against the
weak: a life which would require greater acceptance, love and care is
considered useless, or held to be a burden, is therefore rejected in one
way or another. ...In this way a kind of "conspiracy against life" is
unleashed.  This conspiracy involves not only individuals in their
personal, family or group relationships, but goes far beyond to the point
of damaging and distorting, at the international level, relations between
peoples and States."

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