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<a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/maxwell01252010.html" eudora="autourl">
http://www.counterpunch.org/maxwell01252010.html<br><br>
</a></font><font face="Verdana" size=2 color="#990000">January 25,
2010<br><br>
</font><h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4><b>Baron Samedi
Walks Again! <br><br>
<br>
</i></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=5 color="#990000">
Boojum Hunting in the Caribbean
</b></font></h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>By JOHN
MAXWELL <br><br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=6 color="#990000">W</font>
<font face="Verdana" size=2>hen Thor Heyerdahl crossed the Atlantic from
Africa to the Caribbean nearly 40 years ago, he was shocked by -- of all
things -- a garbage dump in the middle of the ocean.<br><br>
In the area known as the Doldrums (wonderful word), Heyerdahl's papyrus
raft Ra II was surrounded for days by a wilderness of plastic rubbish
from all over the world. The Age of Plastic has bequeathed countless
conveniences to humanity as well as new forms of cancer and enormous
collections of litter on land, at sea and even in space.<br><br>
Since Heyerdahl's observations, we now know that every ocean in the world
has its own garbage dump. The largest by far is the so-called North
Pacific Garbage Patch, an area covering most of the North Pacific from
Alaska to Japan -- twice the size of the continental United States and
discovered only in 1997. The gyres are not easily discerned, because most
of the plastic rubbish has been macerated by marine forces and is
composed of small particles that float just below the surface, killing
fish that mistake it for food.<br><br>
The Atlantic gyre, like all others, has formed at the confluence of
various ocean currents, an area of slackwater circulating majestically,
slowly and almost imperceptibly until you pick up -- on a Jamaican or
Haitian beach -- soft drink containers thrown into the Congo or the
Niger.<br><br>
There is another less well-known gyre in the North Caribbean which has
quite different effects from the other garbage patches.<br><br>
This area of existential discombobulation is much more dangerous than its
kin. It is, first of all, not composed of material fragments but of
abstractions, strange apparitions that do not poison fish or litter
beaches, but poison minds and litter brave new policies with the toxic
detritus of ancient ignorance, hysteria and unreasonable
beliefs.<br><br>
It is a place where ancient racist libels still hang around, driving US
politicians to distraction and the Bible. It is the place where
apparitions like Pat Robertson, Roger Noriega, Otto Reich and Luigi
Einaudi flourish and have their being, sustained by vicious fables
invented 500 years ago to justify human slavery, revised and updated
periodically to deal with black rebellion against slavery, colonialism
and used today to frighten and confuse US soldiers and
journalists.<br><br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2 color="#990000"><b>Baron Samedi walks
again<br><br>
</b></font><font face="Verdana" size=2>When I was about 12 years old, I
borrowed a book from the Institute of Jamaica's Junior Centre library. It
was part of a donation by the Carnegie Foundation and was almost brand
new.<br><br>
I cannot remember the name or author, but the book was obviously written
to sell millions by frightening the wits out of its American
readers.<br><br>
I had, up to that time, heard nothing about Haiti or their religious
system, Vodun. The novel was populated by zombies -- the living dead --
as well as other evil spirits presided over by the sulphurous presence of
Baron Samedi who seemed to be in charge of everything in Haiti, from
cooking to current affairs. If my memory is reliable there were
incredible scenes of 'demoniac possession' mostly among the epically
bloodthirsty natives but not sparing the fairest flowers of Nordic
pulchritude and chastity.<br><br>
Since the book was written in the first half of the twentieth century,
indecencies were suggested rather than made plain, and even bloodshed was
a lot less indiscriminate than, say, the latest dancehall invocation
against homosexuals. What was clear was that the narrative was intended
to make your skin creep; in my case it certainly succeeded.<br><br>
The novel was not unusual for American colonial narratives of the time.
Non-Europeans could be trusted as far as the front gate, being consumed
by lust and crazed by the need to spill blood.<br><br>
And the 'black magic' was integral to cultures that were brutish,
repellent and totally merciless.<br><br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2 color="#990000"><b>The Devil in the
Flesh<br><br>
</b></font><font face="Verdana" size=2>A few years ago TIME magazine,
quite seriously, printed what it said was
<a href="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,952208-2,00.html">
a recipe for creating zombies</a>. The process was not difficult, if one
was not squeamish. It involved, among other things, the flowers of the
Datura bush. <br><br>
So, I was not surprised by the most recent eructations of Pat (Napoleon
III) Robertson, a semi-literate quack who seems to have a hotline to
Satan himself and is always willing to explain the latest demonic
manifestations. Nor was I really surprised to learn that the US Army was
so terrified of unarmed, starving and wounded Haitians that it needed
about 10 soldiers to protect one aid person.<br><br>
Others were not so intimidated by the Haitians.<br><br>
Partners in Health, a Boston-based NGO led by Paul Farmer, was running
several field hospitals from its headquarters in Cange, in Haiti's
Central Plateau. Tiny Iceland (facing bankruptcy) had search-and-rescue
teams on the ground in Port-au-Prince within 48 hours of the earthquake.
Andri Magnason, a friend in Iceland, sent me the following:<br><br>
</font>
<dl>
<dd>"There is an Icelandic team of 20 rescue workers in
Port-au-Prince and Leogane. They have saved a few lives with their
special equipment. They have not seen the violence that has been in the
news; on the contrary, they see only gratitude and goodwill and
cooperation -- no hostility -- and they have even seen some hope. Strange
how the world media wants to paint things black, while they could pick up
many stories of human dignity from the ruins."<br><br>
</dl>And, of course, the Cubans ("We Never Closed") had more
than 400 medical professionals on the ground before the earthquake and
doubled that number with their graduating class of 400 Haitian doctors.
Doctors Without Borders complained that the US military was preventing
medical assistance reaching those who needed it most.<br><br>
The real problem, as I see it, is that the US has scared itself silly
with the policy garbage bequeathed by Thomas Jefferson and refined by the
like of William Jennings Bryan, Reich, Noriega, Einaudi and their sainted
mentors, Joe McCarthy, Strom Thurmond and Jesse Helms.<br><br>
If the US Army had thought to drop water, nothing more, they could have
saved many lives. Some people drank their own urine. Others, less
knowledgeable, may have died of thirst.<br><br>
The late Hedi Annabi -- the UN's man in Haiti -- died in the earthquake.
He was clearly another who thought Haitians were all terrorists and his
way of preparing for democracy involved the UN mission -- MINUSTAH --
making periodic forays into the slums to slaughter members of Fanmi
Lavalas.<br><br>
The UN secretary general is even more clueless, tolerating René Préval's
de-legitimising Fanmi Lavalas and appointing Bill Clinton as his
representative in Haiti. Clinton was the man who restored Aristide in
1994 to stem the flood of refugees into Miami Beach and then broke every
promise he made and pressured and blackmailed the Haitians by shutting
down essential foreign aid.<br><br>
So, I must confess that my blood ran cold when Barack Obama proved even
more clueless than Ban Ki-Moon by appointing Haiti's worst enemy, George
Bush, to join Clinton to raise funds for Haitian relief. If there is
anyone who believes in Haitian zombies and bogeymen, it is Bush. As far
as Ban Ki-Moon, Clinton and Bush are concerned, the Haitians are only
good for mindless 'jobs' in foreign-owned sweatshops.<br><br>
What is so tragic about the loss of life since the earthquake is that,
were it not for the boojums, zombies and Baron Samedi, so much more could
have been done.<br><br>
If you don't believe me, read the following:<br><br>
<dl>
<dd>"However, away from the glare of the international media, a team
of Cuban doctors has been working among the quake-affected. The Cuban
government offered its medical expertise to the governments of Pakistan
and India immediately after the magnitude of the destruction caused by
the quake was known. The Indian government did not even acknowledge the
offer. Pakistan, where the scale of disaster was humongous, was quick to
accept the offer. The first Cuban medical team was in Pakistan on October
14, six days after the earthquake." (Frontline Vol:22 Iss:26 URL:
<a href="http://www.flonnet.com/fl2226/stories/20051230000606300">
http://www.flonnet.com/fl2226/stories/20051230000606300</a>.
htm)<br><br>
</dl>In short order, the Cubans had established 19 field hospitals
staffed by more than 700 doctors -- half of them women -- working 12-hour
shifts.<br><br>
This was in Pakistan in 2005.<br><br>
Pakistan is 14,000 miles from Cuba and the Cubans were working in foreign
conditions, in fierce cold, in a country with whom Cuba had no diplomatic
relations.<br><br>
There are now more than 25,000 Cuban doctors working outside their
country and an almost equal number of teachers.<br><br>
If you think that boojums are a figment of my imagination, consider this:
Three weeks ago the US government identified Cuba as one of the countries
exporting terrorism.<br><br>
John Maxwell </b>writes for the
<a href="http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/columns/">Jamaica Observer</a>,
where this article originally appeared. <br><br>
Copyright © 2010 John Maxwell<br><br>
<br><br>
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