A massive earthquake hit Haiti last night, with an epicentre only 15 kilometers from Port au Prince, the capital city. It will be some time before the extent of the devestation is known, but early reports suggest that thousands are likely to be reported dead. Major landmarks, including the Presidential Palace, National Assembly and Port au Prince cathedral have been destroyed. Haiti is the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere, and the damage from the earthquake will compound the massive challenges the country already faces.
Reporters are racing to Haiti to report on the disaster, but voices are already making themselves heard from the decimated city. Georgia Popplewell, Global Voices’s managing director and pioneering Caribbean blogger, has been rounding up tweets coming from Haiti on our site. Some of the tweets include photos that show the intensity of the destruction.
Photo sent to twitter user marvinady by Carel Pedre of Haiti’s Radio One.
Georgia has started a list on Twitter, aggregating accounts of people who are posting from Haiti. Pooja Bhatia is apparently posting from Port au Prince and reported last night, “quake happened as sun was setting but in plenty of time to see that all the slum houses built into the hillsides disappeared”. Her posts today have documented the devestation of various landmarks and people’s increasing concern about obtaining food and water. Other Twitter users are enroute to PAP and writing about their progress and setbacks in reaching the city.
There are buildings that suffered almost no damage. Right next door will be a pile of rubble.
Thousands of people are currently trapped. To guess at a number would be like guessing at raindrops in the ocean. Precious lives hang in the balance. When pulled from the rubble there is no place to take them for care Haiti has an almost non existent medical care system for her people.
I cannot imagine what the next few weeks and months will be like. I am afraid for everyone. Never in my life have I seen people stronger than Haitian people. But I am afraid for them. For us.
Response to the tragedy has been rapid online. My twitter-scanning scripts estimate that 1.5-1.8% of tweets on Twitter this morning have mentioned Haiti – that’s much higher than mentions of “china” or “google”, refering to the major story breaking in technology news, Google’s decision to stop censoring search results in China. Much of the Twitter conversation centers on ways to help the Haitian people – in the US, texting “haiti” to 90999 donates $10 to the Red Cross to support Haitian relief efforts. Chris Sacca offers five more ways you can help, donating to other worthy organizations and learning more about relief efforts as well as about Haiti’s history and resilience. Jen Brea is tracking reactions from the Haitian diaspora and efforts to help, including the project organized by Haitian-American rap artist Wyclef Jean.
We’ll be tracking the crisis and response in Haiti closely on Global Voices and expect to have a special coverage page up within an hour. Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone in Haiti and Haitians in the diaspora around the world.
“We did hear [Tuesday] evening from my mother-in-law, who lives in Cavaillon, in the south of Haiti,” said Ms. Danticat, who in 2009 was named a MacArthur Fellow. “She said she felt tremors in the ground, and that some rivers were swollen, but that they were more or less okay. She didn’t know the extent of what was happening in the capital because the radio was down.”
Ms. Danticat, 40 years old, said that the picture on Wednesday was much foggier in Port-au-Prince, which she described as a “very crowded city with a lot of people. The magnitude of this is immense and unbelievable. Every minute counts.”
The author, interviewed in Miami by telephone, noted that a number of international writers had been expected to meet Jan. 14 in Haiti to discuss literature, as part of a broader arts festival that got underway Jan. 1. A blog that comments on Caribbean culture, Repeating Islands, said that 50 authors had been expected to attend.
Akashic Books, an independent publisher based in Brooklyn, will publish a collection of short stories being edited by Ms. Danticat titled “Haiti Noir” next January, according to Johnny Temple, Akashic’s owner.
Back in 2007, Akashic published “New Orleans Noir,” which is now in its third printing. Half of that book involves stories set in New Orleans prior to Hurricane Katrina, with the remainder unfolding in post-Katrina settings. Ms. Danticat said she is open to including some post-earthquake stories in the upcoming Haiti collection, but that it is too early to decide. “If someone writes a good story, I would definitely be interested,” she said. Ms. Danticat doesn’t have any immediate plans to visit Haiti, saying she wouldn’t “want to get in the way.”
A biography of Ms. Danticat posted on the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s Web site describes her as a “novelist whose moving and insightful depictions of Haiti’s complex history are enriching our understanding of the Haitian immigrant experience.” The program awards its fellows $500,000 in support over a five-year period to spend as they see fit.
Pat Robertson has caused anger and bafflement (as ever) with the claim that the devastating earthquake in Haiti is just the latest disaster to hit the country as the result of a “pact with the devil” supposedly made by Haitians to rid themselves of French rule.
This supposed pact has been obsessed over before by neo-Pentecostal Christians who regard spiritual causality as the directing force behind world events. In 2004, The Revealer noted the views of Terry W. Snow, country director of Youth with a Mission, who described the pact but also announced that it was at an end:
2004 will be the official ending of the 200 year pact known as the Boukman Contract. (See below for more details.) Made by a slave named Boukman, who was considered to be a great witchdoctor, the contract surrendered the Haitian people to spiritual slavery through a voodoo ceremony, in exchange for their physical freedom. On the night of August 14, 1791 the sacrifice was made and the contract agreed to. However, it wouldn’t be until January 1, 1804 that Haiti was recognized as the first independent black nation in the world.
…On the night of August 14, 1791, the slaves sealed that unity in a ceremony held in the woods at Bois Caiman, not too far from Cap-Haitien. A pig was slaughtered, and all of those present drank of the blood of that pig and together pledged 200 years of service to the spirits of the island in exchange for victory over the French. An iron statue of a pig sits in Port-au-Prince to commemorate that event.
On the night of Aug. 22, they began a war by setting the entire Northern Plain on fire, and hunting down and taking vengeance on the plantation owners. Years of battles followed—against France, Spain, and even England—but in the end they got their victory, proclaiming independence on Jan. 1, 1804. As a nation, they have been mostly faithful to their deal with the devil. And in exchange, the spirits have given them nearly 200 years of turbulent and often miserable history.
“…our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 6:12
In fact, the details of the ceremony at Bois Caiman are difficult to establish and interpret, as the nineteenth-century sources added a romantic anti-Christian slant and elements from Classical paganism. David Patrick Geggus’ book Haitian Revolutionary Studies has a chapter-length discussion, which can be accessed on Google Books. It may perhaps have been a Dahomean blood pact; of course, neo-Pentecostal Christians regard all non-Christian religions negatively (with some exceptions made for Judaism), but the idea of a “pact with the devil”, suggestive of Satanism and of identification with evil, is an ignorant, lurid, and polemical interpretation of the event. And as an explanation for Haiti’s various problems – let alone the latest tragedy – it is both risible and in bad taste.
Snow is still in Haiti, and looking on the bright side post-earthquake:
…During our time of prayer this morning we felt God saying that this is the start of new beginnings in Haiti. That in this time of need when most people hit rock bottom, that they will look and see that their voodoo god is not real and cry out to God.
President Aristide’s state recognition of voodoo was decried by American missionaries as an attempt “to rededicate Haiti to Satan”, and, as I blogged in 2004, there was rejoicing when he was forced to flee the country.
UPDATE: A Haitian pastor named Jean Gelin considered the story in 2005:
I was born and raised in Haiti, and I am a graduate of the State University in Port-au-Prince. I am also a believer in the Lord Jesus-Christ in accordance with the Bible. In all of my studies of Haitian history, however, I have yet to find a good evidence of even the idea of Satan’s assistance in the Independence War, let alone a satanic pact.
For quite some time now, several articles on the Internet have mentioned the existence of an iron pig statue in Port-au-Prince as a monument to commemorate Haiti’s so-called pact with the devil through Vodou. The statue would be in remembrance of a pig that was killed during the gathering by the African slaves. In an effort to know more about that rumor, I contacted several authors about the exact location of the pig statue that’s incidentally nowhere to be found in the country. Their answer was complete silence, a simple apology, or just the removal of the reference from their texts.
…I would not be surprised if the satanic pact idea (followed by the divine curse message) was put together first by foreign missionaries and later on picked up by local leaders. On the other hand, it is equally possible that some Haitian church leaders developed the idea on their own using a theological framework borrowed from those same missionaries who subsequently propagated the message around the world. Either way, because of this message, Haiti has been portrayed as the country born out of Satan’s benevolence and goodwill toward mankind. Shouldn’t such a fantastic idea be tested for its historic validity and theological soundness?
Pat Robertson really should change his name to Predictable Racist. Whenever something bad happens to black people somewhere in the world, PR is always there to make sure every knows how cursed the race of Ham really is. Yeah, read up on that — the whole ridiculous notion of the Curse of Ham (it was really Canaan who was cursed but the truth never stopped crazy right-wing fundamentalist preachers before, why should it now?) because it feeds into why Pat Robertson could even hold this idea in his head. Hint: Hamite = black and the so-called curse of Ham has been used in the past to defend slavery.
In discussing other religions, Robertson said that Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism and other religions “are mostly demonic powers. Sure, they’re demons.”
Here’s what he said today to Kristi Watts who is the paid black stooge on his program. Note how her eyes look away at one point when Predictable Racist starts talking about the devil and Haiti but then she snaps that smile back on and nods blankly straight into the camera. He always hides behind her when he decides to drop a big ol’ racist turd on America. Lord, that must be one big ol’ paycheck he’s giving her and I sure hope it’s worth her very soul and the shutdown of her brain…and the up-close smell of that turd (Kristi – I got my eye on you, girl).
“Something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it. They were under the heel of the French … and they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, ‘We will serve you if you will get us free from the French.’ True story. So the devil said, ‘OK, it’s a deal.’”
“Ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after another,” Robertson said, referring to the country’s poverty.
The Christian Broadcasting Network — surprisingly alert to the controversy here — already has this statement posted to their homepage in self-defense:
CBN.com – VIRGINIA BEACH, Va., January 13, 2010 –On today’s The 700 Club, during a segment about the devastation, suffering and humanitarian effort that is needed in Haiti, Dr. Robertson also spoke about Haiti’s history. His comments were based on the widely-discussed 1791 slave rebellion led by Boukman Dutty at Bois Caiman, where the slaves allegedly made a famous pact with the devil in exchange for victory over the French. This history, combined with the horrible state of the country, has led countless scholars and religious figures over the centuries to believe the country is cursed. Dr. Robertson never stated that the earthquake was God’s wrath. If you watch the entire video segment, Dr. Robertson’s compassion for the people of Haiti is clear. He called for prayer for them. His humanitarian arm has been working to help thousands of people in Haiti over the last year, and they are currently launching a major relief and recovery effort to help the victims of this disaster. They have sent a shipment of millions of dollars worth of medications that is now in Haiti, and their disaster team leaders are expected to arrive tomorrow and begin operations to ease the suffering.
Chris Roslan Spokesman for CBN
Yes, Pat Robertson loves all the poor black people and wants to help them. Charming clarification: except most of it is a damn lie based in ignorance and intolerance of other religions. Boukman Dutty was one of the leaders of the Haitian independence movement which led to the first slaves – the majority population in this case – successfully overthrew a country in pursuit of their freedom & self-determination in what historians would call the modern era (late 18th century). Toussaunt L’Ouverture remains the most famous of Haiti’s liberators. Still Dutty’s prayer at Bois Caiman is a seminal moment for Haitian history. No one made a pact with the devil. Here’s how Dutty’s prayer is usually translated:
This prayer, from the ceremony at Bwa Kayiman, has been traditionally been ascribed to Boukman: “The God who created the earth; who created the sun that gives us light. The God who holds up the ocean; who makes the thunder roar. Our God who has ears to hear. You who are hidden in the clouds; who watch us from where you are. You see all that the white has made us suffer. The white man’s God asks him to commit crimes. But the God within us wants to do good. Our God, who is so good, so just, He orders us to revenge our wrongs. It’s He who will direct our arms and bring us the victory. It’s He who will assist us. We all should throw away the image of the white men’s God who is so pitiless. Listen to the voice for liberty that sings in all our hearts.”
Boukman’s prayer in Kréyol
Bon Dje ki fè la tè. Ki fè soley ki klere nou enro. Bon Dje ki soulve lanmè. Ki fè gronde loray. Bon Dje nou ki gen zorey pou tande. Ou ki kache nan niaj. Kap gade nou kote ou ye la. Ou we tout sa blan fè nou sibi. Dje blan yo mande krim. Bon Dje ki nan nou an vle byen fè. Bon Dje nou an ki si bon, ki si jis, li ordone vanjans. Se li kap kondui branou pou nou ranpote la viktwa. Se li kap ba nou asistans. Nou tout fet pou nou jete potre dje Blan yo ki swaf dlo lan zye. Koute vwa la libète kap chante lan kè nou.
Bon Dje = Good God or Good Lord in our parlance.
Ok, and for context, please understand that Haiti at this time was ruthlessly run for maximum profit and one-third of slaves who arrived in Haiti died within a year due to the harsh labor and conditions. Most of the Native American population was dead at this point from slavery, massacre and disease. It is no wonder at the time that black Haitians had some questions about the nature of a people who found justification in their crimes in their God — and wondered why it didn’t resemble their notion of how a Good God operates. Remember also that many criminals such as the Spanish Inquisition & Hitler used God to find cover for their crimes against humanity. It is not difficult to understand then the nature of this prayer, which doesn’t say anything about the devil. Not at all.
No.
Pat Robertson is all about painting the traditions of Haiti as Satanic. 70-80% of Haitians are Catholics yet the religion of Vodou has influenced the beliefs of many in that country. Vodou is rooted in the spiritual traditions of Africa, where the slaves were from, along with a dash of local Indian spirituality as many of the indigenous population intermarried with those of African descent. Animal sacrifices are sometimes made — but the Bible is also full of animal sacrifices, btw. Most Christians in the U.S. no longer engage in this practice, but it remains common in some Muslim countries, for instance. To claim that people whose religion looks a little different from yours due to cultural differences as Satanic at their very hour of acutest need is just wrong. Using a tragedy to further your own proselytizing and fundraising goals is also just wrong, wrong, wrong.
What gets me is the dehumanization of Haitians. I mean, how dare they not love and appreciate their white French masters and resort to praying for freedom — and being willing to do whatever it took to be free? The proper place for the people of Ham is slavery is it not and any other arrangement defies God’s Curse of Ham.
That’s utter garbage. I hate it when people like Robertson cloak their hatred in pseudo-half-facts. But perhaps even more infuriating is the misinformation and poor history-telling: no pact was made by the devil at all and for your information, Pat “Predictable Racist” Robertson, it was Napoleon Bonaparte (well, his government in Haiti) who was defeated by Haitian freedom fighters, not Napoleon III. Jackass.
A magnitude-7.0 earthquake struck Haiti yesterday afternoon local time, about 16 kilometres south-west of the country's capital, Port-au-Prince, and at a depth of 10 kilometres. Powerful aftershocks - 32 at the latest count - continue to affect the region.
A major earthquake in the region of Haiti was long overdue, CNN reports. In fact, a group of scientists from the US and Jamaica warned in 2008 that a fault zone on the south side of the island - the Enriquillo-Plaintain Garden fault zone - presented a danger.
They predicted that a magnitude-7.2 earthquake would result if all of the strain along the fault "is released in a single event today", according to the abstract the team presented at the 18th Caribbean Geological Conference.
The earthquake is the worst that has affected the Haiti region in two centuries and around 3 million people are likely to have been "severely shaken" by the earthquake, the BBC reports. A United States Geological Survey "shakemap" pictured above shows the intensity and strength of ground shaking.
"Many buildings, including a hospital and the presidential palace in the capital Port-au-Prince, have collapsed, burying residents under the rubble," according to the British Geological Survey's website.
The United Nations has issued a statement to say that its local headquarters in Haiti have "sustained serious damage along with other UN installations" and "a large number" of employees are unaccounted for, adds the BBC.
According to Paul Mann, who was one of the scientists who gave the warning, Haiti is particularly vulnerable to earthquake damage because many people live in poorly constructed housing on steep slopes.
The region has had its fair share of natural disasters: many are still homeless following the spate of hurricanes and storms that ravaged Haiti in 2008, killing 900, according to British newspaper The Times.
I'm not interested in talking about Greg Clark or making comparisons to the West; if need be compare it to other black Caribbean nations, such as Jamaica or Barbados. It's much worse and in terms of social indicators it is also worse than many places in Africa. Why? Here a few hypotheses (NB: I don't endorse all of them):
1. Haiti cut its colonial ties too early, rebelling against the French in the early 19th century and achieving complete independence. Guadaloupe and Martinique are still riding the gravy train and French aid is a huge chunk of their gdps.
2. Haiti was a French colony in the first place and French colonies do less well.
3. Sugar cane gave Haiti some early characteristics of "the resource curse," dating back to the 18th and 19th centuries.
4. Haiti was doing OK until the Duvaliers destroyed civil society, thus putting the country on a path toward destruction. It is a more or less random one-time event which wrecked the place.
5. Hegel was correct that the "voodoo religion," with its intransitive power relations among the gods, was prone to producing political intransitivity as well. (Isn't that a startling insight for a guy who didn't travel the broader world much?)
6. For reasons peculiar to the history of the slave trade, Haitian slaves came from many different parts of Africa and thus Haitian internal culture has long had lower levels of cohesion and cooperation. (The former point about the mix is true, but the cultural point is speculation.)
7. Haiti has higher than average levels of polygamy (but is this cause or effect?)
8. In the early to mid twentieth century, Haiti was poorly situated to attract Chinese and other immigrants, unlike say Jamaica or Trinidad. It is interesting that many of the wealthiest families in Haiti are Lebanese, such as the Naders.
Overall I don't find this set of possible factors very satisfactory. Is it asking too much to wish for an economics profession that is obsessed with such a question?
If you are looking for some cross-sectional variation to ponder, consider the fate of Haitians in Suriname (they make up a big chunk of the population there), Haiti vs. Santiago, Cuba, pre-Castro of course, or why early Haitian migrants to Montreal have done better than later migrants to Miami and Brooklyn.
International relief efforts are underway in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, after yesterday's devastating magnitude 7 earthquake. The atmosphere at Twitter HQ is heavy today and based on the Trending Topics an overwhelming number of Twitter users feel the same.
Easy Ways To Help Many of us are wondering how we can contribute to the healing process. A few simple but effective ways to help have emerged.
The American Red Cross allows anyone in the US to text HAITI to 90999 as an easy way to donate $10 to the recovery effort. The money is billed to your mobile phone account.
Musician Wyclef Jean's Haiti-focused organization, Yele is also accepting text-message donations. To donate $5, text Yele to 501501 or visit the foundation's web site.
Oxfam International has also set up an earthquake response fund. You can visit their web site to make a donation to this fund.
Haiti's Presidential Palace...you can imagine how bad the rest is.
I know the national media is telling us to be obsessed with stupid television network decisions and that a former baseball player is the new Hitler, but some actual terrible news has happened in the last several hours.
Haiti, a nation which has suffered many horrible economic and political upheavals and deprivations just had an earthquake that may rival the Christmas Tsunami of 2004 in its scale.
The gleaming white presidential palace lay in ruins, its domes fallen on top of flattened walls.
Bloodied and dazed survivors gathered in the open and corpses were pinned by debris. Numerous powerful aftershocks rattled Port-au-Prince into the night.
The United Nations said a large number of its personnel in Haiti were unaccounted for after a five-story building at the headquarters of the U.N. mission collapsed.
As one might expect in a bitterly poor country, the building standards were sub-par and mostly concrete without substantial building standards, the results will be predictable, but still tragic.
Victor Tsai, a seismologist at the National Earthquake Information Center of the United States Geological Survey, said the depth of Tuesday’s earthquake was only about six miles and the quake was a 9 on a 1-to-10 scale that measures ground shaking. “We expect substantial damage from this event,” he said.
Raymond Joseph, Haiti’s ambassador to the United States, said in an interview on CNN that he had little information about the extent of damage but said the suffering inflicted on the was likely to be “catastrophic.”
Greg Mitchell has more extensive real-time coverage of the event.
A injured man is carried on a push cart by friends among destruction from the earthquake in Port-au-Prince, Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010. The 7.0-magnitude earthquake that hit Haiti on Tuesday flattened the president's palace, the cathedral, hospitals, schools, the main prison and whole neighborhoods.
Since the election of President Obama, Haitians in the U.S. have been anxiously awaiting a change in immigration policy which would grant undocumented Haitian immigrants temporary protected status (TPS). TPS is a temporary immigration status that is available to individuals from a small number of federally-designated countries suffering armed conflicts, natural disasters, or other extraordinary circumstances. Haitian immigrants in the U.S. probably should’ve been granted TPS long before yesterday’s earthquake. Yet now, as Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL) points out, it would be “not only immoral, but irresponsible” not to.
Haiti’s recent woes come after enduring four consecutive tropical cyclones in 2008 that left 800 people dead and from which the country has yet to recover. The Miami Herald has reported that the Haitian city of Gonaives, is still “uninhabitable.” That same year, Port-Au-Prince was “shattered” as even 9,000 United Nation peacekeepers were unable to halt the looting and violence that ravaged Haiti’s capital. In March, USAID estimated that 2.3 million Haitians were facing “food insecurity” as a result of high food prices. Political instability continues to devastate the country.
Haitian immigrants had high hopes with the election of President Obama. Yet, many have since become frustrated with the administration’s “failure to deliver one of their top goals.” In March 2009, the Obama administration indicated that it would continue deporting undocumented Haitians, “despite appeals by the Haitian government, which says deportations could destabilize a country where food, water and housing have been in extremely short supply since major storms last summer.” One month later, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton indicated that the Obama administration hadn’t granted Haitians TPS because “we don’t want to encourage other Haitians to make the dangerous journey across the water.” In July, five U.S. senators, including the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA), personally wrote to President Obama, urging him to grant Haitian immigrants TPS. The senators countered criticisms that such a move would spark an unmanageable influx of Haitian immigrants by pointing out that TPS is only available to those already living in the U.S.
This morning, Obama affirmed that Haiti “will have a friend and partner in the people of the United States today, and going forward.” Continuing to deport thousands of Haitian immigrants back to their ravaged home country rather than letting them stay in the U.S. to help their families in Haiti get back on their feet is inconsistent with the promises the Obama administration has already made to the people of Haiti. The U.S. generously granted and extended TPS for 82,000 Hondurans and 5,000 Nicaraguans after Hurricane Mitch in 1998 and to 260,000 Salvadorans after an earthquake in 2001. There’s no reason why Haitians should be treated any different.
Since the election of President Obama, Haitians in the U.S. have been 