Friday, January 15, 2010

THE EARTHQUAKE WAS AS IF A WORK OF PAPA DOC

THE EARTHQUAKE WAS AS IF A WORK OF PAPA DOC



Last Tuesday, at 16.53 local time, an earthquake of 7 on the Richter scale ravaged Haiti. That earthquake shook all over the entire island, especially the capital Port-au-Prince and its surrounding areas. Some buildings took a heavy toll from the shantytowns to the presidential palace whose proof was its damaged domes.

However,
That damaged island is the same island once ruled by a tyrannical dictator named Francois Duvalier. Known as "Papa Doc" by the rest of his supporters, the once doctor of public health and a trying hard Baron Samedi tried much to infuse his rule with voodoo and of iron hand, especially from the use of his paramilitary Tonton Macoutes against the people. He was also once ought to create a prayer using the our father as its basis:

"Our Doc
who art in the National Palace for life,
hallowed be Thy name
by present and future generations.
Thy will be done at Port-au-Prince
and in the provinces.

Give us this day our new Haiti
and never forgive the trespasses
of the antipatriots
who spit every day on our country;
let them succumb to temptations,
and under the weight of their venom,
deliver them not from any evil ..."

And even stating about Haiti's heroes as the embodiment of Duvalier, as if Papa Doc was god himself or whatsoever, especially based on the catechism being taught in Haiti's schools during his rule:

Question: Who are Dessalines, Toussaint, Christophe, Petion and Estime?
Answer:Dessalines, Toussaint, Christophe, Petion, and Estime are five distinct Chiefs of State who are substantiated in and form only one and the same President in the person of Francois Duvalier.


And since Since Papa Doc is dead, followed by rulers who tend to forget the legacy of that dreaded dictator, the island remains as it is-of voodoo, poverty and a trying-hard democracy. Also ridden by natural calamities, Haiti struggles to recover-only to suffer again by an earthquake, this time more fatal than ever, that even led to subsequent events whether it is economic or social, then what's next? A resurgence of conflicts around Haiti consists of coup plotters and of Tonton Macoutes wannabes?
Well...
To me that earthquake reminds of something, more as-if of a legendary response from Papa Doc, as Baron Samedi and one of the loas in voodoo mythology, and for sure his response was simply fatal- that pointed against the system which was and is rotten, of being ridden by everything, that all must respond simply by not being dictated by the poicies of the United States nor any other country except Haitians themselves, for Papa Doc, also a trying-hard embodiment, a sublimation of all the heroes may have test every black who will and must be the helper of its own homeland. (Using Papa Doc as an example shows that he tried much to stress his magical side, and I used him for perhaps he wanted Haiti for himself to be on that way, a concoction of his own concept of mythology, of western government practises and nativist way of life.)
And who must help resurge Haiti?
Is it the Americans? No,
The Europeans? Not also,
The Cubans and other Caribbean nations? Can be but...
How about the Haitians themselves? Who, being former slaves united in fighting against the White man? Yes. And every Haitian must have the power to built its own as what Touissant L'Overture, Jean Jacques Dessalines, and even the tyrranical Papa Doc Duvalier wanted. That earthquake is not his work, but rather a means to resurge the island nation-only to unite all Haitians, whether he or she is a full blooded black or a mulatto to rebuild, with or without the support of the nations-especially of the imperialists and even the domestic oppressors, and to act like Baron Samedi and the rest of the Loas in both rebuilding and defending the country against those who oppress-not just by invokng prayers like "Our Doc" or whatsoever in the catechism but of massive popular action, for that is what the founing fathers wanted: a popular action for its own beloved home and for its own self.