22465: Antoine responds to #22437: Mambo Racine On Criticizing Rape in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Guy S. Antoine <webmaster@haitiforever.com>

Kathy, I appreciate the long response to the List.
The body of anecdotal evidence that you present is indeed
considerable.  However, I am afraid that you somehow
missed the point made generally by a lot of the people
who wrote me off-list.  Let me add that I also concur with
many of them, at least in the expression of the following
thought:  In your original post, you clearly exaggerated
a bad situation and you impeached an entire culture
through overstatement and excessive generalization.

Now, who in their right mind, would claim that rape never
takes place in Haiti?  Which sane person would claim that
sexual violence is never a problem in Haiti cherie?  Who
would dare say that you are making those things up?  So,
I don't think it's quite necessary to cite more anecdotes of
rape (however factual) to make this valid point:  Sexual
and domestic violence is a very serious problem in Haitian
society, and our successive administrations have not
seriously addressed the issue of voting and enforcing
laws against such reprehensible behavior.

Let me recall some of your overstatements, so perhaps you
might begin to see the real point of our objections, which
in no way was a denial that there is a problem of violence
in Haiti (in many forms other than rape) :

- "every Haitian thinks his fists are bigger than the other
guy's fists,"

- "every Haitian woman thinks her vagina is more attractive
than all other women's vaginas,"

- "The fact is that Haitian men are raised to be rapists,
and
rewarded for rape."

Don't you think that is overreaching?  If we grant that your
"every Haitian" is rhetorical (you have not clearly conceded
that), would you then care to guess what percentage of
Haitian men and women is covered by your every's?  Are
you talking of the overwhelming majority of Haitian men
and women, a simple majority, a substantial minority or
just "a heck of a lot"?  I think you have a background in
the
social sciences, and surely you must understand that some
form of quantification is important when describing any
serious problem in a culture or society.  When you are
dealing with a population of eight million people, surely
ANY amount of anecdotal evidence you can amass will
not prove your conclusions one way or the other.

Perhaps you have closed your mind to every decent man in
Haitian society.  You may not see them at all. That does not
mean however that they do not exist or that they are not
even in the majority.

The strongest point that you make however is that legal
enforcement works extremely poorly in Haiti and that
situation is conducive to an abnormal level of criminality
in ANY society.  We do have a long standing tradition of
impunity in Haiti, and the reasons for that are both
political
and historical.  When you do look at the historical reasons,
a reasonable person would conclude that the French, the
Spanish, the British, and the Americans are far more
responsible for a legacy of rape in Haiti and the Caribbean,
than our African culture.   Don't get me wrong, I am not
advocating that any perpetrator of rape should go
unpunished.  Quite the contrary!

However, when you unilaterally blame our "inferior"
culture, that is quite an evasion of all historical
responsibility. You exhibit a very narrow view of
culture, Kathy.  It's like the world started overnight
and African men just happen to be in Haiti, happily
raping their women, like bonobo monkeys.

That's exactly what you make Haitians sound like, Kathy:
Bonobo monkeys!  And I am certain there are people on
this list who are grinning and thinking: "Way to go,
Mambo Racine... tell those sub-humans exactly what
we think of them!  We couldn't say it using our real
identity, but you're doing a fine job for us!"

In all likelihood, some of those people reside in the U.S.
Embassy in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.  Others are Protestant
missionaries, preaching the gospel with USAID dollars.
So many of them really think that Haitians are inferior and
they must be happy to read about your characterizations
of Haitian culture.

You also said that no intervention is going to change
Haitian society for the better.  You are absolutely right on
that score!  There have been many cases of U.S. soldiers
raping Haitian women as well.  Just as they have raped
Vietnamese women, Afghan women, Iraqi women, etc.
Yet, I would never make such a blatantly unfair statement as
"every American soldier is a rapist, every American soldier
is a torturer".  Of course, I could present a substantial
body of anecdotal evidence gathered at the Abu Ghraib
prison alone!

If I made the effort, I could match each one of your stories
with a story of American abuse.  But in the end, what would
we have proven on a qualitative basis?  That American
soldiers are just as worthless as "every Haitian" that you
describe?  And then, should we move on to the French, the
British, the Belgians, etc?

The bottom line is that Haitians must break the back of a
200 year-old record of impunity, which they assimilated
from their former masters.  The historical record leaves
no doubt in that regard.  The responsibility for correcting
those faults is ours.  The French, the Americans, and the
Canadians cannot, will not do it for us.  USAID will not
do it for us.  Missionaries will not. Hougans and Mambos
will not. Churches and peristyles will not. The all-powerful
U.S. Marines will not.  Foreign do-gooders (especially the
prejudiced sort) will not.

Haitian society will not change until Haitians themselves
are determined to change it (In that I fully agree with
Kathy Grey).

One thing that I do know: This will not happen until we see
the value of building each other up, for the sake of "THE
HAITIAN" instead of spending so much energy smearing
each other for all sorts of baseless and ridiculous reasons.

HOW will this happen?  That is the only question truly worth
debating between Haitians.  We value other people's input,
but it means diddly squat until we turn INWARDS like the
Amish and begin to do the job ourselves.

Is this just rhetoric?  No, the general feeling was there
before, not too long ago.  They just shot the hell out of
it.

We just have to get back on track, only wiser this time
around.

Guy Antoine
Windows on Haiti
http://haitiforever.com