Pat Robertson got so many things wrong when he suggested that Haiti is to blame for their many problems, which includes their recent earthquake. Cenk Uygur from The Young Turks nails it, on so many levels.
Napoloeon III? In 1804? Pact with the Devil? As if slavery under the French was an angelic Caribbean retreat ... Who made the deal? Why does this pact condemn an entire population in perpetuity?
Look, if Pat can unilaterally claim that Haiti - a virtual slave colony at the time of it's independence - made a pact with the devil then he needs to explain the role of the United States in the devil's work.
People forget that we (i.e. Thomas Jefferson) helped foment revolt in Haiti because we wanted to make things difficult on Napoleon Bonaparte (not Napoleon III, his nephew, who was born four years after the slave/devil's pact revolt Robertson refers to). Our goal was to get the French out of the Americas so we could make a move on the Louisiana territory. It's also why we encouraged the Indians to rebel in the areas in and around the Louisiana territories at the time. We wanted to harass Napoleon Bonaparte out of the Americas (the Louisiana Purchase was completed in 1803).
On another level, pointing to the Dominican Republican (Haiti's neighbor) as some kind of dream enclave is simply nuts. Has Robertson ever read the history of the Dominican Republic? It was no swim party under General Rafael Trujillo. Anyone who's seen the film In the Time of the Butterflies, with Salma Hayek, understands this (the film does a good job of portraying the Dominican Republic's past under Trujillo, who was the "inspiration" for the UN's International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women ).
In all cases, if Haiti made a pact with the devil, Robertson needs to think through our role in fomenting the devil's work. Does that make us the complicit angels of the devil?
What an idiot.
- Mark
Napoloeon III? In 1804? Pact with the Devil? As if slavery under the French was an angelic Caribbean retreat ... Who made the deal? Why does this pact condemn an entire population in perpetuity?
Look, if Pat can unilaterally claim that Haiti - a virtual slave colony at the time of it's independence - made a pact with the devil then he needs to explain the role of the United States in the devil's work.
People forget that we (i.e. Thomas Jefferson) helped foment revolt in Haiti because we wanted to make things difficult on Napoleon Bonaparte (not Napoleon III, his nephew, who was born four years after the slave/devil's pact revolt Robertson refers to). Our goal was to get the French out of the Americas so we could make a move on the Louisiana territory. It's also why we encouraged the Indians to rebel in the areas in and around the Louisiana territories at the time. We wanted to harass Napoleon Bonaparte out of the Americas (the Louisiana Purchase was completed in 1803).
On another level, pointing to the Dominican Republican (Haiti's neighbor) as some kind of dream enclave is simply nuts. Has Robertson ever read the history of the Dominican Republic? It was no swim party under General Rafael Trujillo. Anyone who's seen the film In the Time of the Butterflies, with Salma Hayek, understands this (the film does a good job of portraying the Dominican Republic's past under Trujillo, who was the "inspiration" for the UN's International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women ).
In all cases, if Haiti made a pact with the devil, Robertson needs to think through our role in fomenting the devil's work. Does that make us the complicit angels of the devil?
What an idiot.
- Mark
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