Tribute to Haiti - in their hour of tragedy

What Haiti needs

Haiti was stuck by an earthquake measuring "7.0-magnitude quake, Haiti's worst in two centuries, struck at 1653 local time (2153 GMT) on Tuesday, just 15km (10 miles) south-west of Port-au-Prince and close to the surface." More than 100,000 people are estimated to have been affected. Haiti has been through worse - and the Haitians have always pulled through. What Haiti needs is non-interference.

Sordid reactions

During an earlier segment with a reporter for Robertson's CBN News, the televangelist had questioned whether the earthquake in Haiti was a "blessing in disguise."

"They need to have ... a great turning to God," he concluded, adding that the earthquake may have been a direct consequence of their "Satanic pact".

"Something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it," Robertson said during a broadcast of The 700 Club on the Christian Broadcasting Network. (via US televangelist claims Haiti earthquake 'a blessing in disguise' | The Daily Telegraph).

What is it that Haiti did a 'long time ago' that made Pat Robertson, do rah-rah for this 'divine wrath'!

I know what Haiti did

Haiti was the world's first republic, set up by slaves - after a war of freedom. Haiti's, support for Simon Bolivar ended the Spanish Empire in South America. Most importantly, it forced the West to free all African slaves across the Europe and Americas. The second major 'crime' that the Haitians committed was that they rejected a 'liberating' Christianity - and continued with their voudou religion.

For all this, the West has not forgiven Haiti!

Messianic Rev.Pat Robertson

Pat Robertson, more than 40 years ago, founded the Christian Broadcast Network (CBN), which according to "Nielsen Media Research, The 700 Club, aired each weekday, has averaged 863,000 viewers in the last year" in the US alone. Some time earlier, Pat Robertson, had called for the assassination of Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela - for which he later duly apologized. I wonder if the West would forgive if any Iranian Ayatollah issued a fatwa against a Western leader, and later apologized! Even earlier, when the Israeli Prime Minister suffered a stroke, he pronounced that as 'punishment from God!' Especially malevolent, Rev.Robertson's God is, I must say!

In 1999, he signed a deal with Bank of Scotland, part of the Lloyd's Banking Group, later the HBOS, for a Internet-telephone-banking venture. When the deal was called off, Pat Robertson launched a scathing attack. "In Scotland, you can't believe how strong the homosexuals are," Mr Robertson said on his Virginia-based Christian Broadcasting Network and his 700 Club television show. Pat Robertson, coming in at NO.2, defeated George Bush in the 1988 Republican Party's US Presidential nomination race, at the Iowa caucuses. Robertson's 'message of moral regeneration' appealed to the Americans.

The Magna Carta sanctioned slavery. In various judgments, US Supreme Court, the ultimate arbiter of the US Constitution, upheld slavery. Vatican's, Council of Gangra, re-affirmed its faith in slavery. The administrators of the teachings of the “Lord of lords, and King of kings.” (Revelation 17: 14) at the Council Of Gangra, 325 AD, issued edicts approving slavery - as did many other Vatican edicts. Pat Robertson, is just one in a long line of such Christian leaders, to support slavery.

In a twisted way, Pat Robertson maybe right.

Talking of money, rich foreigners and expats, who are keeping Haiti in misery, have lost a lot more than Haitians have.

Tell Haiti you care

Send Haiti your best wishes, your moral support. If you live in a less exploitative society than before, or a more exploitative society, remember, it was Haiti that stuck the first blow. A blow that en-slaver's have not forgotten 200 years later. To Haiti, we owe whatever liberty, freedom we have - or aspire to.

I don't know how your money will help them. They may not need your money (I guess), but you should give them your moral support (I strongly suggest). Just send a <ding> to this post. Or ping it. Whatever you do, just make it loud enough that your voice can reach Haiti.

In their hour of tragedy.

The Crime Of Slavery - Buying & Selling People

"They bought them from other Africans. As someone said, you can't get much lower than someone who sells his brother." A reader's comment reg. slavery on my blog.

I agree it is low to sell one's own brother. Is that the lowest one can go to? What can be the lowest anyone go to? If there is a dispute for a position at the bottom of the moral cess pit, to answer this question ... I need help.

You see, I have a problem - honestly, I must blame my backward country and my backward education for this. We were taught that all humans were equals.

I was also told that this value of the individual makes the West different - and is enshrined in the Greco-Roman-Euro history, culture, literature, thinking, renaissance, enlightenment, religion, leadership ...

We were told that we from India did not consider others as brothers - and that was our problem.

So, in my warped thinking, a question rose!

Low To Sell - Lower Still To Buy, Trade, Legalize Slavery

Is it not lower to buy one's own brother - even lower than to sell. And to create laws, institutions, precedents to promote, popularize slavery?

Does the fact that a family member sells manifestly stolen 'goods' (in this case human beings) stolen from the family wealth, allow the buyer to buy 'stolen' goods. Is trade in 'stolen goods' acceptable if the robber happens to rob his own family? But then, if the skin is black or yellow or brown, I presume these rules do not apply.

"the inconvenient fact that the Arab world played at least as large a part in the slave trade as any Western power, for instance; or the uncomfortable truth that African chieftains were all too willing to sell other Africans to Western and Arab slave dealers. In the light of this, what are we to make of allegations that 'racism' lay at the heart of the slave trade?" From a book review of The Slave Trade By Jeremy Black, at The Social Affaits Unit.

Vatican Supported Slavery

When the followers of Mani (a teacher of Buddhist and Christian teachings) were rooting for the slaves to revolt and declare themselves free, administrators of the teachings of the "Lord of lords, and King of kings." (Revelation 17: 14) at the Council Of Gangra approved of slavery.

Jefferson Forgot

The Great White Chief in the Sky, Thomas Jefferson declared 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal' We can't hold his feet to the fire, if he forgot to add (possibly in the hurry to dine alone), as long as they are white.