8047: Re: 8035: Re: 8013: Re: 8003: Re: 7996: Re: 7994: Re: 7987: Social Ser... (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Racine125@aol.com

In a message dated 5/24/2001 3:44:03 AM Eastern Daylight Time, C. Henrius 
writes:

<>

It's not "sad" and that is a patronizing statement, it implies that someone 
with greater wisdom and knowledge is looking at people who are sadly deluded 
into illogical behavior.  This is untrue.  If having many children "didn't 
work" to improve Haitian womens' chances of survival they wouldn't do it!  
Again I repeat that the infant and adult mortality rates, unemployment rates, 
exclusion of women from most income-generating activities, and lack of social 
programs for the support of seniors makes it obligatory for majority-class 
Haitian women to have many children to optimize their chances of having 
gainfully employed sons who can stand between them and starvation when they 
grow old or ill.

<< <yawn>  >>

If you thought this topic was boring enough to make you yawn, Henrius, you 
wouldn't write a reply.
 
 <>

That is a very Eurpean-derived cultural value, frankly.  I might like it, you 
might like it, but it is not the commonly held value of majority class 
Haitian women.  The emphasis in most relationships (which are common-law 
marriages to polygamous men) is not on sexual fidelity (on the part of the 
man) but on his ability to support children economically.  Women are also 
expected to contribute to the economic support of children and other family 
members, but women are excluded from most income-generating activities.

Social services in Haiti must provide culturally competent outreach programs, 
and not devalue Haitian women yet more by viewing them as irrational or 
irresponsible people whose values are based on misperceptions and whose 
actions are based on a desire to entrap men.

Now that Senator Jeffords has rejected the Republican Party, that old 
curmudgeon Jesse Helms won't be head of the Senate Foreign Relations 
committee any more, and maybe now culturally competent reproductive health 
outreach programs won't be blocked as they once were.  If this changes, the 
five-year anti-AIDS initiative in Haiti will get a real boost.

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