#2309: Pina comments on U.S. complicity with Duvalier

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From: kevin pina <cariborganics@hotmail.com>

Dear Friends,

Now that the proverbial genie is out of the bottle, with regards to 
Duvalier, may we also discuss honestly US complicity in supporting and 
providing longevity to the familie's regime?

Might we also discuss how this ultimately fomented the movement of Ti Legliz 
and the popular sentiment that lead to the election of Jean-Bertrand 
Aristide as Haiti's first democratically elected president in 186 years.

Let us not forget the Order of the Father's of the Holy Spirit and how 
Duvalier tried to exterminate them through deportations and oppression. He 
was reputed to be especially angry at those old Belgium priests for their 
literacy campaign, the textbook for which was named Goute Sel or "A Taste of 
Salt". The legend of the zombie dictated that the only way a zombie could 
reclaim freedom was to take a taste of  salt and turn upon the master. The 
metaphor was not lost on Duvalier!

This led to the famous Concordat that allowed Duvalier to be the only head 
of state allowed to appoint his own bishops. It corrupted the Catholic 
church in Haiti and allowed macoutism to permeate the Catholic hierarchy 
creating the soil that promulgated Ti Legliz, which ultimately catapulted 
Aristide to the presidency.

It is time for transperancy and, for want of a better term, decantation of 
Haitian politics. The future depends upon the past and yet a better future 
must necessarily be born.

I lift my glass to those who seek truth and honest dialogue. May we find a 
way to know ourselves and history as it is and not as we wish it had been.


kp


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