printThe excerpt is from my new, WND.COM column: “Haiti: Trade In Voodoo For Values”:
“… in all its self-serving displays, humanitarianism is, overwhelmingly, a Western affair; a Judeo-Christian thing. It’s as simple as all that. Liberals like Angelina Jolie will trace Western generosity to the founding of the United Nations, to the League of Nations, or to some other supra-national structure.
I suspect that what is at play in Haiti, and in countless locales around the undeveloped world, began with the revolutionary, universal, elaborate moral and legal injunctions encoded first in Exodus, Deuteronomy and Leviticus – and, thereafter, throughout the Hebrew Bible – to protect and do justice by the poor, the weak, the defenseless, the widow and the stranger. The people of Israel were enjoined to practice what Christians later perfected.
That stuff stuck.
A different set of beliefs animates Haitian society, and helps explain its helplessness and hopelessness. ‘Haiti is not a Catholic country, Haiti is a Voodoo country,’ Erol Josue told National Public Radio. Josue is a Voodoo priest in a country whose former president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, officially recognized Voodoo as a state religion.” …
The complete column is “Haiti: Trade In Voodoo For Values.”
And do read my libertarian manifesto, Broad Sides: One Woman’s Clash With A Corrupt Society.
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Update I (Jan. 22): Martin’s comment hereunder reminded me what I clean forgot: the Obamas’ very public giving. I’m also grateful to Martin for bringing to our attention the DIRECT injunction in the New Testament against showy charity. Martin quotes the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 6: “Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them.” How has this country forgotten something as foundational as that?
Self-righteousness has replaced righteousness and self-aggrandizement has supplanted simple goodness.
Update II (Jan. 23): CHILD SLAVERY still thrives in Haiti in the form of the “Restavec system.” Children are kept in grinding poverty and worked to the bone. In the West this would be considered perverse in the extreme; in Haiti owning a Restavek is a status symbol. CNN has done stories on Restavec children, but has never connected the dots, as the favorite phrase goes. The angle is, invariably one of, “Look how good I am [Dr. Gupta here]; I’m crying.” Coupled with, “This happens in the US too.
No it doesn’t. When a slave is discovered, usually in the home of immigrants who imported their bad habit, American society shames and punishes the offenders.
Update III (Jan. 24): SENEGAL DOES IT RIGHT. Senegal’s President Abdoulaye Wade has offered Haitian refugees a “parcels of land – even an entire region. It all depends on how many Haitians come. If it’s just a few individuals, then we will likely offer them housing or small pieces of land. If they come en masse we are ready to give them a region,’ he said.”
Wade “insisted that if a region is handed over it should be in a fertile area – not in the country’s parched deserts.”
Wade’s got the right idea, or at least the righteous one. He is offering Haitians a most generous chance at self-sufficiency; at working the land.
“Maimonides, the great medieval Jewish philosopher and codifier of Jewish law, holds that the most praiseworthy and effective means of fulfilling the commandment of Tzedakah [charity] is through offering an impoverished person a business partnership, a business loan or a job. … the Prime Minister and [former Finance Minister] of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, apparently understood this well. Speaking on the benefits of workfare reform in Israel, Netanyahu was once quoted in the press as saying that it is not enough to be a Thatcherite, a Jew should go even further and become a Maimonidite. [Excerpted from the monograph titled Judaism, Markets, and Capitalism: Separating Myth from Reality, by Corinne and Robert Sauer of the Jerusalem Institute for Market Studies, with which I am affiliated.]
[SNIP]
Will Haitians be tempted by a chance at an honest living when hand-outs abound?
This is the best article I’ve read in a long time, and quite encouraging. On the same note, I noticed that the strongest and most hopeful Haitians, the rescued and rescuers alike, were singing praises to the Lord.
Good thinking… (you might want to change that word to “uncertainty”
Pat Robertson’s “silly” statement about a pact with the devil had an ironic grain of truth. The Afro-Voodoo culture has doomed Haiti to be the hellhole of the Western Hemisphere – far, far worse than neighboring Dominican Republic or even Castroland. But it was not some magic of Satan, Pat – just the culture itself. Sadly, some of that residual culture has shown up in various inner city riots in America and most likely in South Africa as well.
Japan, China, Korea, and India have started to embrace the values of the Enlightenment and have started to prosper. It is the culture, more than acts of imaginary dieties, that gives prosperity. Witness the contrast between oil-less Israel and its oil rich but Islamically run neighbors.
Ilana,
Thank you for this little meditation on foreign aid, Jewish justice,
Christian charity and an essential difference between Western culture and random acts of paganism. I thought it was very good. No, I thought it was excellent! I hesitate to say one of your best, because you always have an eye (or heart?) for the more truthful or essential aspects of your topic provided you are given the time and/or energy to peruse them or deliberately turn them over in your mind.(Although there is rarely enough time, I am sure.)But I always read and enjoy your columns but this one was especially perceptive given the times. Thanks again.
[Thank YOU! Who do I write for? Certainly not for the Powers That Be, or those roaming the halls of power.]
Haiti, Africa, The United States..It’s all the same. The white man sweating and grunting to take care of those who won’t take care of themselves and gettng abused because he dosen’t do it fast enough.
The kernel of truth in the joke about the man is part of the creed in the canon of progressives. How the man came to such an attitude is understandable. How the West came to it I guess; anyone can do without gods but everyone must have his devil.
BTW, I’ve noticed it’s no longer voodoo, but vodou. Am I to gather voodoo has been absolved of its part in the distribution of misery on that island or, that it’s undergone a reformation?
Isn’t it interesting how values, or the lack thereof, have such a powerful influence on life, no matter where you may live. Haitian values place very little responsibility on the here and now and, as you say, saddle ancestors, ghosts and spirits with the responsibility for their current situation. Personally, I lay the blame on Haitian revolution of the late 1700s in the fact that the newly-freed slaves were in no way ready to govern themselves, and have proven over the last 200+ years that their advancement is mostly nil since that time. It is sad, but I hazard to say that it is nobody’s fault but their own, and finger-pointing in the U.S. by those who say we haven’t done enough leads me to respond: “Why are we responsible?”. Call me hard and cold. I can take it.
The New Testament verse “. . . for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities.” came to mind as I was reading your column. As much as some want to demonize Pat Robertson for what he said, what we worship and place value on is directly reflected in the resultant chaos or peace that governs a nation’s people. The chaos in Haiti clearly shows the wicked choices its government and many of the general population have made throughout the centuries –let’s not gloss this truth over to spare people’s feelings. That doesn’t solve the real problem. The most loving and compassionate thing people can do now for Haiti is to do what rescue personnel are currently doing, and then to hold out the light of truth that will ultimately set them free, while renouncing the evil that binds them.
This story ILana wrote on Haiti grabbed my attention. In particular, about how we see the elite, “pretty folk”, PUBLICLY giving their donations to the Haitians. Cameras wide open. Barak Obama and his wife made it crystal clear that they gave $15,000 (personal funds) to the Haitians. I reckon that Jeremiah Wright never taught the Obamas about what Christ said in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 6: “Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them”. He goes on to say, But when you give Alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing”. Thank you ILana for this article. ~Martin Berrow
Ilana,
I love your columns and always look forward to reading them. This one was great because it reveals the hypocrisy of the left, a subject that Yeshua addressed most vehemently, as well as the righteous way to give, another subject Yeshua was passionate about. Nevertheless, everyone that follows the Written Torah is persecuted by the left. Why is that? Jesus was persecuted because He put the Written Torah over the oral Torah, in obedience to Deuteronomy that we do not add or take away from the Lord’s Word. Rightly do you mention the Written Word of God, rather than Hillel, customs and deeds. The Lord Yeshua commanded His followers to obey God and His commandments in the Torah, so in a sense to be a disciple of Christ is to be a Jew, or at least a convert to the God of Israel with a heart to obey Him and His Torah. To be a light to the world is just to live the Torah. The darkness hates that.
Liberty was declared by the Lord. The enemy hates that.
We love the light and the liberty that comes with it.
Therefore the enemy hates us.
Continue to hold forth the light Ilana! It’s working! It makes the enemy enraged with anger! And the children of God rejoice!
“….the exhibitionism of cable news anchors,”, yup, that about sums up crisis “journalism”. Hilarious insight!
I heard a couple of DJs on a local radio station talking about Pat Robertson’s statements in a very disbelieving and derogatory way the other day- which was how I first heard of the statements. While most people I know feel the same way as the aforementioned DJs, I wondered whether there was some truth to what he said. I did a little research online about the history and religion of the Haitian people, and it did little to clear up my questions. Your column did, however. In a very general way, the Haitian people have embraced witchcraft and superstition- as opposed to the truth of the gospel. This, I believe, is much like how it has gone in most of Africa. I’m thinking here of Ethiopia- a country I believe in past eras was extremely wealthy and prosperous. Thanks for helping to clear up what was a feeling of ambiguity about the statements. As I previously stated, I felt there was some truth to what Pat Robertson said, but couldn’t really justify the feeling- you have stated my feelings completely.
The information I found on the revolutionary maroon who said the prayer referenced on Robertson’s website and on the prayer he was said to have said does not appear to me to have been an appeal to the Devil. It looks to me like it was spoken in ignorance, and was an appeal to a false god. I suppose an argument could be made that if you aren’t making an appeal to God, then the Devil is the only alternative, but I didn’t see a specific offer of fealty to the Devil. Thoughts?
Pat Robertson made a stupid statement, and gave the Enemies of Judaism/Christianity a weapon to make fun out of both religions. No one bothered to note that when he made the statement, the phone number scrolling across the screen was the number to pledge money to Haitian relief. It was part of an appeal message. In contrast, Pat has led probably hundreds of prayers dedicating this nation to God and the Progressives still keep winning elections. It is the culture that matters and one based on Judeo/Christianity is clearly better (Especially in disasters) than any other. One might note that where charities from Europe and the US are represented in Haiti, the Crescent Cross isn’t listed. Maybe I missed it. But I do remember that when Iran had their earthquake, they took our help but bitc-hed that a charity worker might mention that he/she was a Christian.
Thank you! Well said!!!!
Whether or not Pat Robertson “finds solace” in it, as a Bible-believing Christian, I find the Old Testament true, instructive, and valuable. The Old Testament gives much food for thought.
Those who resort to familiar spirits are condemned by God because they have not believed HIM and sought HIM. God’s wrath at being ignored, disobeyed and displaced by idols of any kind is a major Old Testament lesson.
God divided Israel because Solomon sinned by going after his wives’ pagan gods. The idolatry of all the kings in Samaria resulted in their eventual exile (II Kings 17).
II Kings 21 and II Chronicles 33 and 36 sum up the idolatry of most of Judah’s kings, Manasseh’s “last straw” wickedness: and resultant exile and fall of Jerusalem.
Jesus/Yeshua came to pay the penalty required for sin. Those who reject him do so at their spiritual peril. (John 3: 18.) The New Testament warns us that there is more of God’s wrath to come. (John 3:36)
I rejoice in I Corinthians 5:21, my only hope in escaping that wrath and final judgment.
Black people treat white people like gods: they blame them for everything that goes wrong with them and they keep pestering them for handouts.