27435: RE: 27416: Benson (reply)Ogou: (reply) Kidnapping & Human sacrifices in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Legrace Benson <lgbenson@cbs.ucsb.edu>

Re: Charges of cannibalism.  Readers of Haitian history will be familiar
with the recurrence of charges of cannibalism committed by Haitians. While
some of these charges initially seemed well-founded, investigators were
never able to find substantiating evidence. The charges by Sir John Spence
are probably the most familiar and were thoroughly discredited. In the
history of the world, charges of cannibalism (i.e. cannibalism in the
absence of extreme starvation) tend to be laid on people or nations that the
accusers wish to depict as sub-human, thus unworthy of any accordance of
civil dignities or privileges.  If these charges can be substantiated by
dispassionate investigators then we shall see that we have a more profound
problem in Haiti than anyone imagined.  On the other hand, one should be
cautious in accepting accounts that come without any corroborating evidence.
In these days pf Photoshop, even photographs should be subjected to rigorous
standards of proof. These are serious charges which I hope will either be
definitively substantiated or definitively dismissed.  LeGrace Benson