O'Reilly, Haiti, and voodoo

[alarcojon]

Did anyone see O'Really last night? I tuned in late, so I didn't see his spin on the Aristide thing, though I'm sure it was "fair and balanced". However, I did see some Inside Edition piece on voodoo from 1991 which he dredged up. Why? It seemed to me like a blatant attempt to demonize the Haitians as "backward" and "barbaric". Par for the course for O'Really...

[Brotherjohn]

1. Reminds me of a similar description of New Orleans Catholics I heard...

My wife was having dinner with some fundamentalist friends of her sister's. The subject somehow got to Catholicism, and New Orleans, and one woman said with authority that Catholics in New Orleans practiced Voodoo.

Now, my wife and I are both from New Orleans, and I was raised Catholic there, and I never personally encountered any Voodoo or Voodoo-related activities other than in the Marie Laveau Museum in the French Quarter (or other tourist-related spots). I guess maybe I missed it. Perhaps all those candles lit in the front of the church were for casting spells, and the priest hid the Voodoo dolls from all but the largest contributors.

Needless to say, my wife roundly denounced this woman's ignorance.

[forgethell]

2. I don't know about O'Really,

but there is something bad wrong with Haiti, and has been for decades. Voodoo sounds as logical as any other reason to me.

[alarcojon]

3. Excuse me, but why?

And my thread asks why O'Really chose to show this clip at this time. It could only seem to me to be encouraging people to think that "there is something bad wrong with Haiti". What does voodoo have to do with what is wrong with Haiti? Other places are as screwed up or worse, without voodoo. I just don't get the connection, or why O'Really wants to make one.

[forgethell]

5. I can't speak for Bill O'Reilly; however,

I don't need Bill, or anybody else, to tell me that Haiti is screwed up, possibly worse that any other place on Earth. If you can't see that, given the history of the place over the last few years, and the fact that people are suicidally desperate to get out of it, then I don't know if we have any common ground to discuss the matter.

As for voodoo, my comment was meant to indicate that, as a reason, it seems no more unlikely than some of the other theories that I have heard floated around over the net. I will not speculate, at this time, over why it is so screwed up, but, as an observation of fact, that it is is undeniable, at least to me.

[alarcojon]

6. We're misunderstanding each other

You say that I don't think anything is wrong with Haiti. I never said such a thing, nor do I believe it. The place is messed up. I am just asking what voodoo has to do with it. Why is voodoo "no more unlikely" than, say, the actions of our government, over a period of decades? Or other sociopolitical factors?

The link below has some useful analysis, both of how screwed up Haiti is and, more importantly why. No mention of voodoo.

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=21&ItemID=5064

[forgethell]

7. OK.

I don't think that it is the actions of our government. why then would Haiti be so much worse than,say, Cuba, where we have actively opposed the government? Or Palestine, where the people are 'occupied' and 'oppressed' by the 'Zionists'. Don't believe me? Just ask them. Or a number of other places, for that matter. what did we do in Haiti that was worse than in these places?? No, regardless of mistakes America may have made there, it is something the Haitians, or their leaders, have done. So now we are getting criticized for a 'coup' by the American Marines, denied of course. But say it's true, we would get the blame if he stayed, because the man is a certified tyrant.

What I am saying is that I don't know exactly what is wrong in Haiti, and I haven't seen the answer here. Maybe voodoo is the answer. We all approach life with a set of beliefs and attitudes that guides our decisions. For instance, I would say that predominatley on FreeRepublic it is guided by conservative Protestant Christianity with a heavy overlay of conservative Catholicism. on DU, I would say a secular outlook, heavily humanistic in tone is the dominat motif. In Haiti voodoo is very influential. Papa Doc was a voodoo practioner.

Hell, I don't know. I was originally being facetious. I guess not facetious enough, though

[swinney]

4. Voodoo

We have been living with it for 8 under Reagan and 3 under Draft Dodging Deserter.

[forgethell]

8. Was it chickens

or chicken hawks that * sacrified at the crossroads at midnight? Inquiring minds want to know.