Can we break the cycle?

I cannot claim complete originality in this piece although I was arguing the point with someone convinced that the only reason Haiti is so battered by the world and Mother Nature is because vodou is considered a national religion. (Research it...I am not applying a mere stereotypical bias).

http://www.spiceislandertalkshop.com/talkshop/messages/679987.html - Read Sir Hilary
Beckles article "The Hate and the Quake". If this link doesn't work... Google the article, it will pop up.

I can add only this to the thoughts on the issue - The inability of Haiti to assist itself is a reflection of many things....the reasons discussed by Sir Hilary speak for themselves but they do not weigh on my mind as much as the FAILURE of our Caribbean Civilisation to offer any tangible support over the years to a sister country spun from the same threads of slavery, economic dependency, colonialism, and the struggle for idenity as people. Shame on our leaders that would have read of Toussaint and quoted from his root/tree/struggle speech.

The Government gave a scholarship a couple years ago titled the "Toussaint L'Overture award"...what the hell have we done to warrant us...entitle us to use the name of that Revolutionary hero?

Can we give of our material selves...that may be challenging? But where are our voices...opinions and thoughts...

Where were our great orators when there were calls for reparations to be paid to Haiti by France...maybe they were championing the cause of Japan's whaling industry or the Cuban Five.

I am genuinely sympathetic towards Obama and his "Haiti we will not forsake you". He has inherited the culture of oppression of his predecessors and as a man with the blood of Africa running through his veins he has to possibly undertake to conduct himself with the same imperialistic mindset of "aiding with bread and water and medicine while we rape, ravage and exploit what meager resources they have. It cannot be easy to walk along that path in the name of national interest when you are aware prior concerns were based more on fears of Communism and the continuation of black oppression, especially since the Civil Rights movements were up and coming.

David Rudder sang 'Haiti, I'm sorry' over two decades...and we are still waiting to turn our heads and help restore the glory. Rather we are glued to the tube with Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Anderson Cooper.

BTW...did anyone think it strange how quickly these people were in Haiti...I think Gupta and Cooper were on the island the same night of the earthquake.