samedi 25 décembre 2021

What It Means to See Jesus.-

A new book, at once skeptical and devotional, considers visions of Christ from the early days of Christianity to the present.


By Casey Cep
December 24, 2021

A young man once told me that he had seen the face of Jesus in the trunk of a chestnut tree, the bark moving as if it were flesh. An older woman told me that Christ had appeared to her in the afternoon light that poured through her hospital window. A father who was dying of lung cancer confided that he had looked up at a crucifix years ago in a church and watched as the body hanging there writhed and wriggled, coming alive before his eyes; it had been so terrifying that he had never previously told anyone.

I cherish such stories, and collect them the way others do rare works of art or first editions or vintage cars. Even secondhand stories will do, which is why I took so much pleasure from Robert Hudson’s “Seeing Jesus: Visionary Encounters from the First Century to the Present.” Images of Jesus are all around us, but Hudson’s book is about people who claim to have really seen Jesus, the way the disciples did in the days and years after his death—crucifixion wounds fresh, descending and ascending from heaven onto hilltops, blinding rays of lights all about him: the sort of psychologically upending seeing we do in our lives from time to time, as when we see our ex-husband and go ashen, or see our future wife and blush.

Hudson’s book is organized according to two taxonomies: types of seers (disciples, ascetics, mystics, trailblazers, and moderns) and types of seeing (appearances, apparitions, and visions). The first of these taxonomies is essentially a chronology, which starts with those who saw Christ shortly after his death and ends with contemporary seers. It’s less useful than the second taxonomy, which is borrowed from mystical studies and offers a way of organizing these kinds of sightings. What Hudson calls appearances are communal visions, with more than one person seeing the same image of Jesus at the same time; apparitions are when Jesus seems to be present in the physical world, as though anyone can see him, yet only the visionary actually does so; with visions, the visionary alone can see Jesus, and is fully aware that no one else can.

Hudson begins with early witnesses, those who saw the risen Christ in the years immediately following his resurrection: the apostle Thomas, who touched his crucifixion wounds; the disciples who met him while travelling, first Cleopas on the way to Emmaus and then Paul on the way to Damascus; and John of Patmos, whose apocalyptic writings appear in the Book of Revelation. These are all canonical accounts, familiar to anyone who has even cursorily read the New Testament. But Hudson follows them with accounts of slightly more obscure ascetics, such as Anthony of Egypt, one of the so-called Desert Fathers, whose monastic life included visions of Christ as light that banished the beasts and demons said to torment him; Martin of Tours, who went on to become the patron saint of conscientious objectors after dreaming of Jesus and leaving the Roman army in order to become a monk; and Jerome, whose life as a scholar was altered by a vision of Christ, after which he renounced secular literature.

The section on mystics centers on four fascinating figures, the most familiar of which is Francis of Assisi. The other three are women, known today for their drawings, music, and writing: Hildegard of Bingen, Julian of Norwich, and Margery Kempe. Here, Hudson more directly confronts the academic literature on visionary experiences, including the straightforwardly physiological explanations offered by some scholars. Oliver Sacks, for instance, in his account of Hildegard, describes the ecstatic, multisensory visions that she had of lights, stars, blazing fires, and human figures as “a shower of phosphenes in transit across the visual field, their passage being succeeded by a negative scotoma.” In layman’s terms, she suffered from migraines.

In addition to medical accounts, psychological explanations for such visions abound. Many of these explanations cite pareidolia, the tendency to impose meaning where there isn’t any—often by seeing faces in inanimate objects, such as a man in the moon. In this vein, and in the last few decades alone, Jesus has appeared in, among other things, apples, ice cream, grilled cheese, pancakes, potato chips, pizza, pierogis, pita bread, pretzels, fish sticks, Cheetos, and, perhaps most famously, a tortilla.

Hudson doesn’t bother with many of these culinary sightings, but he does convey the eagerness of Christians across the centuries for encounters with Jesus. And he has a knack for unearthing facts that animate the distant past—for example, the highest-earning athlete in world history likely isn’t Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods but Gaius Appuleius Diocles, a second-century Roman charioteer. Said fact is produced in service of an introduction to the hermits, anchorites, and stylites whose paradoxical celebrity attests to the fascination that the Christian world had for asceticism beginning in the fourth century.

The best chapters of “Seeing Jesus” are close considerations of single visionaries and close readings of the direct testimonies that they left behind, such as the four devoted to his quartet of medieval mystics—or the one focussed on John of Patmos, which is titled “Voom!” and begins, curiously enough, with a lesson on hermeneutics centered on “The Cat in the Hat.” Those stand in contrast to more hurried chapters, including one that contains a cursory account of Sojourner Truth’s visions, padded by boilerplate biography and stock political commentary, and another that, like a spiritual clown car, packs the lives of Emanuel Swedenborg, Jacob Boehme, George Fox, Mother Ann Lee, Public Universal Friend, Ignatius of Loyola, Teresa of Ávila, and John of the Cross into a dozen and a half pages.

“Seeing Jesus” is more devotional than analytical. Hudson calls it an “anecdotal history,” one that will “take each story of seeing Jesus at face value, neither believing nor disbelieving and claiming no more for them than the person claimed for himself or herself.” The book, with its study-group-like prose, will strike some secular readers as too credulous and some devout readers as too incredulous; it lacks the revelatory strangeness of something like “Visions and Appearances of Jesus,” the philosopher Phillip H. Wiebe’s clinical account of twenty-eight contemporary “encounter experiences.”

For more than thirty years, Hudson edited books for Zondervan, one of the Christian publishing divisions of HarperCollins, and “Seeing Jesus” is published by Broadleaf Books, an imprint owned by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Other denominations have publishing divisions, too; Zondervan, which publishes some three hundred books and Bibles every year, was started by two nephews of William B. Eerdmans, whose own independent Christian publishing company still exists. It is not always obvious from the best-seller lists that run in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, but Christian publishing is a billion-dollar business, with Zondervan selling some thirty million copies each of such titles as Hal Lindsey and Carole Carlson’s “The Late Great Planet Earth” and Rick Warren’s “The Purpose Driven Life.”

Hudson’s reluctance to legitimatize any or all of the visions that he has chosen to include is curious in a book with a markedly faithful tone, published by a religious press. He notes his own Christian faith, and confesses to yearning for a vision of Christ, yet he is skeptical of all such visions. He begins his book with a memory from childhood of a chalk artist—if not Esther Frye, then someone like her—who went around giving “chalk talks,” in which she used a handful of colors to draw and narrate stories from scripture on a chalkboard while also sharing her own testimony. As a young woman, the artist said, she had once prayed while looking at the trees in her back yard, only to have Christ’s face appear before her, blinding her to anything but his features, then hovering smaller and smaller in her field of vision for months after he’d first appeared. “I was gripped by her presentation but cautious,” Hudson remembers, “and the fact is, I didn’t believe her. And may God forgive me, I still don’t.”

Skepticism may well be the prudent response to such a presentation or any other visionary claim, but it sometimes makes “Seeing Jesus” a little tepid. Hudson seldom outright endorses and never outright debunks any of the visionaries in his book, even when his own characterizations of them seem to demand it, as with his description of the extravagant life style and scurrilous fund-raising tactics of televangelist Oral Roberts. Still, at its core, “Seeing Jesus” does have a theological conviction that may intrigue the doubters—and assuage the devout, since it comes directly from Christ. As Hudson writes in his epilogue, “Centuries of Christian thinkers—most of whom were not mystics—have told us that we see the face of Jesus every day, walking the streets of every city, in the face of every person.” He quotes Nicholas of Cusa, who wrote: “In all faces is seen the Face of faces, veiled, and in a riddle.” The riddle is the judgment that Jesus shares in the Gospel of Matthew, when he says that on Judgment Day the righteous will be separated from the unrighteous, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. They will be judged, Jesus says, according to how they treated the least of their brethren, for, as the German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer later explicated, “he comes in the form of the beggar, of the dissolute human child in ragged clothes, asking for help. He confronts you in every person that you meet. As long as there are people, Christ will walk the earth as your neighbor, as the one through whom God calls you, speaks to you, makes demands on you.”

Most Christians understand this to mean that if they were to see Jesus, he would not look like the man in Warner Sallman’s famous painting or the seated figure in Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper.” The visions of Jesus that Christians are explicitly told to look for are not supernatural or spectral but humble and human: we are commanded to look for Christ in the faces of one another. Even if Hudson isn’t sure what to make of all the visions in his book, he believes this, too, and ends “Seeing Jesus” with a story from the pandemic, when he meets a panhandler outside a café and cannot help but want to help him, partly because he has been thinking so much about what it means to see Christ.

After handing over a twenty dollar bill, Hudson asks the man his name: Josh, he says as he walks away—the Anglicized form of Yeshua, the Hebrew name of Jesus. “The skeptic in me says, ‘How’d you know it was him?’ ” Hudson writes, in the last lines of the book. “The mystic in me says, ‘How do you know it wasn’t?’ ”

lundi 13 décembre 2021

Children and the pandemic of COVID-19 in Haiti.- By MIC, (Media Institute of the Caribbean).

Haitian children with Debbie Harvey at the “Helping Haitian Angels” home for orphans.

Photo Courtesy: www.helpinghaitianangels.org

Haiti’s relatively tardy response to the COVID-19 pandemic has witnessed a stop-start and slow uptake of vaccines – under 1% of the population so far – low levels of testing nationwide and a general view that the country has escaped the worst effects of the pandemic.

 A December 2 report by the Ministry of Public Health and Population notes 25,638 confirmed infections, including 60 new cases with 750 deaths since record-keeping on the pandemic began.

 As at that date, 144,563 people were tested, 4,763 hospitalised and 21,746 patients recovered. Those most heavily affected by the virus were patients between the ages of 40 and 80+ with a near equal distribution of cases between men 52.6% and women 47.5%. The country’s case mortality rate has been recorded at 2.93%.

  Through it all, there is a general view that children have not been severely affected by the disease with nine deaths between January 31, 2020, and December 2, 2021. Children between the ages of 0 and 9 account for 564 cases and 13 deaths – 2.30% of all deaths. Among the 10 to 19 age group, there have been 1,098 infections with 9 deaths – or 0.82% of total fatalities.

 Childcare experts almost all agree that the epidemic has had little impact on the behaviour of children particularly since, nationally, the virus is being viewed as largely a concern related to other countries, affecting Haiti mainly through international travel.

 There has correspondingly been little to note regarding changes in crimes against children. For example, when asked about the effect of the coronavirus on cases of rape or incest observed in certain areas of Haiti, Police Commissioner Eddit Techler Sylvain responded that the presence of the virus has not been “scary” in Haiti.

“The corona is not scary in Haiti,” he said. “In the Haitian mentality people believe that Corona does not exist.”

 “At the start of 2020, at the beginning of the epidemic, there was a psychosis of fear linked to conflicting information and the media coverage of what was happening in Europe and the United States,” he said.

 “(At that time) the confinement decreed by the government created a tendency to panic without any factual justification on the ground,” Sylvain said. “Churches operated in private homes, schools were forced to suspend by order of the Ministry of National Education, but not because there was a problem.”

 He was also dismissive of any links between pandemic measures and changes in criminal behaviour, including acts of violence by and against children.

 “Apart from the economic consequences on certain sectors dependent on international trade, one cannot link social behaviour or deviance to the impact of the corona in Haiti,” the Police Commissioner said. “Only at the beginning was there a sort of panic over the media coverage of confusing and unclear information.”

 

Cyrus Sibert interviews Police Commissioner Eddit Sylvain and teacher Elvire Eugene. 

Attempts are however being made to safeguard the interests of children within the education system. The Ministry of National Education and Vocational Training (MENFP) has set up several distance education programmes. 

 This was achieved through the Global Coalition for Education, launched by UNESCO with the support of several states to develop the best solutions for distance education for children and young students most at risk. 

 Benefactors have included the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank and UNICEF.

 Most of it is conducted via a platform called PR@TIC which has been operational since April 24, 2020. It can be accessed free of charge via the MENFP's website or at the following address: http://pratic.menpf.gouv.ht/app/.

 However, given a high level of poverty, limited access to electricity is scarce, and the unavailability of online devices, only a limited number of economically enabled households have been able to access the service.

 There are also plans to develop broadcasting portals on radio and television to deliver distance education making use of the National Television of Haiti (TNH) and other private channels as well as radio stations in the capital and in the departments, through community radios. 

 The learning content will also be available on USB media in the relevant departments and technical directions for students.

 WhatsApp messaging has also long been employed as a way of keeping teachers in contact with students. The practice emerged in 2018 during disturbances. The platform was also deployed during several pandemic lockdown phases.

There however continue to be concerns directed at the very young. Elvire Eugene, Director of the “Institution Saint Enfant Jesus”, a school for children aged 3 to 6, has observed a disturbing level of complacency and a lack of awareness of the seriousness of the pandemic by both children and their parents.

 “Children take the coronavirus for a game,” she said. “Even when they are taught to put on a mask, they have difficulty in applying it on the face. A lot of times they put it under their chin saying they can't breathe.”

The educator has however noted an improvement in the way children wear masks - largely due to the awareness and education efforts of their parents. At school, she uses an audio cassette to repeat the instructions for wearing a mask.

 Eugene however noted that the most difficult measure is respecting social distancing protocols. She said that after each reminder, the children distance themselves from their classmates. But it only takes a few minutes for them to forget the instructions and start playing together, without any precaution.

 “Social distancing greatly affects young children. When they fail, they tend to regroup. They say it clearly, it saddens them not to be able to play with their school friends. It is painful for them to see their comrade and not be able to touch him,” she said.

 She goes on to say that since teachers have observed a tendency in children to wear their fingers and pencil in their mouths, she has demanded regular hand washing.

 At Institution Saint Enfant Jesus, there have been no reported cases of infection, though there have been situations where children have displayed some symptoms - fever, cough or flu-like symptoms. On such occasions, the children stay at home for two or three days before returning to class.

 Since Haiti is a country where these kinds of respiratory infections or fevers are common, and there has not been little specific testing, Eugene said she cannot consider these instances to be cases of coronavirus.

Ms Eugene also noted that the pandemic has had little or no impact on school performance. The level of stress observed in some children, she said, is rather due to the violence linked to the current political crisis and issues such as the shortage of fuel and the high cost of living.

 “Political tensions and the shortage of fuel have a greater impact on children than COVID-19.” she added.

This situation has been a source of great concern by teachers. Eugene noted one heart-breaking instance when a child told her that “with all these difficulties in life, the ups and downs of coming to school for lack of fuel, the high cost of living, the inability to buy enough to eat with 50 gourdes, God better take his life.”

She herself is less fearful of the death of children from the virus than because of political tension and dysfunctional state governance.

 “The children followed their parents’ advice and the instructions of their school as best they could, without really believing that corona represents a danger to their life,” she concluded.

 Orphaned children also confront similar challenges, including effective denial by parents, teachers and other adults of the threat COVID-19 poses. Debbie Harvey of “Helping Haitian Angels” says there is a view, even among the children, that the virus is “a problem of Americans.”

 Those in charge of the orphanage had to apply strict instructions in terms of social distance, hand washing, wearing of masks, quarantine for people with symptoms, temperature control, confinement, suspension in the event of suspicion of a symptomatic person.

Harvey insisted that when you take the time to educate children and explain a situation in detail, they respond better and cooperate effectively.

Even adults, teachers, and members of the community where the orphanage is located were sceptical of COVID-19 and refused to treat it as a real danger. “They kept saying, there is no COVID-19 in Haiti. It’s the disease of whites and those who travel to their country,” Harvey said.

The orphanage had to spend a lot in terms of time and resources, organising special classes to make everyone understand that this is a situation to be taken seriously.

Returning from the United States with a negative test, the teacher tested positive after a stay in Haiti. Which means, she contracted it in her work environment.

 Harvey observed a flu epidemic among children at an unusual time of year and decided to keep her case a secret for fear of being attacked by some members of the community who could accuse her of introducing this “white man's disease” into Haiti. Before quarantining herself in a hotel, she observed a large number of people with breathing difficulties and pain in the joints of the feet.

 Fortunately, no deaths have been recorded at this orphanage. People who were coughing had not been tested by the Ministry of Public Health. Sometimes she had to close the centre for a while.

 Her orphanage, which is among the three certified centres in the North of the country, is yet to receive specific COVID-19 visits or assistance from Haitian authorities.

 Haitians meanwhile remain largely unaware of the dangers of COVID-19. “Because everyone was repeating “virus, virus” “corona, corona” it caused anxiety in some children who at this time were extremely concerned with the lives of some American supporters who had visited the orphanage,” Harvey said.

 She is however convinced that “if you explain to the children what this is about, they can understand, not panic and cope better.”

 Harvey adds that among the more serious impacts of the virus is a periodic decline in attendance. She fears it may take a long time to see many of them return to school.

 She notes what she describes as “a trivialisation of death” among some children who continue to describe it as “an American issue.”

 Harvey however thinks that abandoned or orphaned children with latent trauma problems are very sensitive to the stress that the pandemic can cause – a phenomenon they do not quite believe exists, but which continues to impose itself on the population.


 Correspondent Cyrus Sibert interviews Debbie Harvey

Meanwhile, international agencies active in Haiti, such as the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Haiti confirm the low incidence of child fatalities from COVID-19 but note the worsening socio-economic conditions to which they are exposed.

 Jean Stenio Pierre, who head’s UNICEF’s office in the south of the country says while “children are not most at risk of losing their lives (from) COVID-19 … they no longer have access to the rights to education and development, as stated in the Convention on the Rights of the child (CDE).”

 “Children can no longer go to school nor play with their friends. Because of the coronavirus, they are forced to stay at home. They no longer have access to their playgrounds, their classrooms, or their friends,” he said.

 A July 9 report entitled “Haiti: Violence and pandemic leave one in three children in need of humanitarian assistance” UNICEF said it was alarmed by the dire humanitarian situation of children and families in Haiti, which has been rapidly deteriorating since the beginning of this year.

 “In the first three months of 2021 alone, the number of admissions of severely acute malnourished children in health facilities across Haiti has increased by 26 per cent compared to last year,” the report notes. “Nearly one-third of all children in Haiti -at least 1.5 million - are in urgent need of emergency relief due to the rising violence, constrained access to clean water, health and nutrition, disrupted education and protection services in times of COVID-19, as well as hurricanes.”

A recent report published by the US-headquartered Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child also notes these serious concerns. Dr Kathryn Adams, a specialist in the psychology of education is quoted in the report as saying that despite the country’s history of challenges.

 “Although Haiti … is no stranger to crisis,” she says. “The COVID-19 pandemic is different from the rest.”

 “The absence of normative, visible markers of crisis, such as casualties, burning tires, blocked roads, and material damage is causing Haitians, particularly children, to question why schools are closed and to feel hopeless about the future.

 This is a key outcome of the pandemic that threatens to upstage its impacts long after the threat of the virus recedes.

https://www.mediainstituteofthecaribbean.com/covid-relief-monitoring-hub

dimanche 21 novembre 2021

Avec l’Opinion : L’oligarchie haïtienne et sa sous culture arriérée de société esclavagiste.-


Changer Haïti, une mission impossible avec une élite de sous-culture arriérée, rétrograde et dégradante!

Lisez la version écrite et détaillée de cette analyse à l’adresse : https://reseaucitadelle.blogspot.com/2021/11/changer-haiti-une-mission-impossible.html

mercredi 17 novembre 2021

Letter to the editor : Maine law still keeps victims from holding Catholic Church accountable.-

Paul Kendrick  
(AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Re: Monday’s Maine Voices column:

Maine’s charitable immunity statute provides organizations such as the Catholic Church with immunity from civil lawsuits by victims of child sexual abuse.

The Catholic Church in Maine receives $55 million a year in revenues and owns approximately $140 million in assets.

Victims are denied access to depositions, discovery, a judge and a jury of their peers.

Victims must not be shut out of the legal process before they can even begin. The starting line must not be the finish line. Maine is one of only nine states that retains the charitable immunity defense.

The door recently opened by the Legislature and governor (L.D. 589) will just as quickly be closed unless further action is taken by the Legislature.

• Civil lawsuits by victims of child sexual abuse help expose pedophiles who have outrun the criminal statutes of limitation and remain anonymous.

• Civil lawsuits provide wounded victims with the means to procure financial reparations for their harms and injuries.

• Civil lawsuits provide opportunities for victims to demand non-monetary changes to systems and procedures that will better protect children.

Former Bishop Richard Malone founded the Catholic Foundation of Maine, a cleverly disguised nonprofit intended to shield assets from child sexual abuse lawsuits. The Catholic Foundation of Maine owns $29 million in liquid investments.

The Catholic Church is not the poor and struggling charity that legislators intended to protect 100 years ago when the charitable immunity statute was enacted.

Legislators must amend Maine’s charitable immunity statute so that nonprofits are no longer protected from civil liability for sex crimes against children.

Paul Kendrick
Freeport

dimanche 7 novembre 2021

Changer Haïti, une mission impossible avec une élite de sous-culture arriérée, rétrograde et dégradante!


[ Tenant compte de la théorie des sous-cultures, l’élite haïtienne, dominée aujourd’hui par des négrillons à peau claire appelés “mulâtres”, a-t-elle assez évolué pour sortir le pays du sous-développement, du système de Plantation et vers l'État-nation? ] 

Analysant les comportements contre-productifs de certains noirs des ghettos des grandes villes américaines, l'éminent  Professeur noir Thomas Sowell de l’University Stanford fait allusion à la théorie des sous-cultures qui est la résultante des mélanges des cultures de deux ou plusieurs peuples, qui ont cohabité à un moment de l’histoire.

 

Le professeur Sowell blâme certains libéraux américains (de gauche) qui vantent les comportements délinquants de certaines minorités au nom de la divergence culturelle. Preuve à l’appui, il a démontré l'engouement des noirs pour l’éducation depuis les ateliers d’esclavage (école clandestine), le caractère sacré de la famille (chez les noirs), le respect des anciens, la discipline dans les familles noires, la valorisation du travail, une pudeur dans la sexualité, le rôle central de la religion, la décence en milieu public donc contradictoire aux injures.

 

Selon Thomas Sowell, le comportement avilissant que nous observons dans certains quartiers noirs, en plus des conditions socio-économiques dégradantes, est le résultat d’une “sous-culture” développée dans les ateliers de production et dans des champs, durant l’esclavage. Ce n’est pas la culture des noirs, mais une “sous-culture”. 

 

Il est plutôt le résultat de la rencontre des esclaves noirs venus d’Afrique avec des crackers, ces peuples gaéliques venus d’Irlande et de l'Écosse au 16e siècle, pour servir comme engagés, serviteurs, commandeurs dans les ateliers de production. Ces gens vivaient au milieu des noirs, dans les plantations, dans les ateliers, développaient avec les esclaves une forme de proximité facilitant un syncrétisme global, une symbiose des sens au niveau des mœurs, des cultures, des tabous, des légendes, et même des rapports sexuels. Leur position de dominants par rapport aux esclaves noirs facilitait la diffusion de leur conception de la vie.

 

D'entrée de jeu, à la page 1 du livre “Black Rednecks and White Liberals”, le professeur Sowell écrit : “ More is involved here than a mere parallel between blacks and southern whites. What is involved is a common subculture that goes back for centuries, which has encompassed everything from ways of talking to attitudes toward education, violence, and ex-and which originated not in the South, but in those parts of the British Isles from which white Southerners came. That culture long ago died out where it originated in Britain, while surviving in the American South. Then it largely died out among both white and black Southerners, while still today in the poorest and worst of the urban black ghettos.” 

(Black Rednecks and White Liberals, Thomas Sowell, Encounter Books, New York, 2005)

 

Traduction : “ Il s'agit ici de bien plus qu'un simple parallèle entre les Noirs et les Blancs du Sud. Il s'agit d'une sous-culture commune qui remonte à des siècles, qui englobe tout, des manières de parler aux attitudes envers l'éducation, la violence, le sexe et qui n'est pas originaire du Sud, mais de certaines parties des îles britanniques d'où les blancs, les sudistes sont originaires. Cette culture s'est éteinte il y a longtemps là où elle est originaire, de Grande-Bretagne, tout en survivant dans le sud des États-Unis. Ensuite, elle s'est éteinte en grande partie parmi les Sudistes blancs et noirs, pourtant il existe encore aujourd'hui dans le plus pauvre et le pire des ghettos urbains noirs. ”

 

 

A la page 2 dudit livre, l’auteur nous dit que souvent certaines cultures et/ou langues survivent dans des territoires où elles sont transplantées et certains de leurs caractères originaux y résistent après qu’ils ont disparu ou évolué dans leur pays d'origine. Exemples, le français de Québec, l’espagnol du Mexique, les dialectes allemands en Europe de l’Est, l’orthodoxie religieuse…. Il conclut en signalant que ce sujet n’est pas une curiosité intellectuelle, mais a une importance capitale vu l'influence que peuvent avoir des sous-cultures sur l'évolution économique et les rapports socioculturels d’un pays.

 

Ce texte ne vise pas à analyser le mode de vie de ce peuple gaélique originaire d’Irlande ou d’Écosse, communément appelé “Crackers” et développé dans le livre “Cracker culture” du professeur Grady Mc Whiney, University of Alabama Presse, 1988. Mais de mettre en évidence l’influence négative que peut avoir une sous-culture héritée de la cohabitation de petits-blancs racistes et des nègres venus d’Afrique dans les ateliers esclavagistes de Saint-Domingue, sur l’avenir d’Haïti.

 

En effet, cette analyse du professeur Sowell fait penser à Haïti. Un pays fondé sur une construction sociale esclavagiste, sur une terre peuplée de petits blancs arriérés, illettrés, venus de la paysannerie française où ils subissaient l’exclusion et les mépris des nobles, pour se livrer à la piraterie, à la contrebande des flibustiers et des boucaniers; qui ensuite ont joué un rôle de commandeur dans un rapport de domination raciste sur des noirs, eux aussi venus des tribus Africaines. 

 

Imaginer un paysan français au 16e siècle. C’est un ignorant. En ce temps-là, les français avaient peur de se baigner parce qu'ils croyaient que l’eau pourrait s’infiltrer dans leur corps et leur causer la mort. C’est d’ailleurs la raison pour laquelle la France est très avancée dans la fabrication des parfums, car il fallait combattre les mauvaises odeurs corporelles. A Paris, on jetait des excréments humains par la fenêtre, dans la rue. Tous les français n'étaient pas Montaigne ou Rabelais. 

 

En ce sens, Saint-Domingue qui est devenue aujourd’hui Haïti était peuplée de petits blancs de la paysannerie française, avec tout ce que cela implique en termes d’ignorance et de barbarie.  

« Pour la plupart, c'étaient des aventuriers en délicatesse avec la justice ou les bonnes mœurs. Jeunes gens sans principes, paresseux et libertins, fripons ou scélérats côtoyaient moines et prêtres défroqués, officiers réformés, remerciés ou cassés, laquais et banqueroutiers, jeunes gens travailleurs désireux de faire fortune facile, ouvriers et marchands cupides ou véreux. Beaucoup d’entre eux s’adonnaient à leurs vices. Tyranniques envers leurs esclaves, injustes, adroits fripons et fiers de l'être, avares, débauchés, cruels ils pratiquaient à l’occasion le proxénétisme. Peu nombreux étaient les “moutons France” (nouveaux débarqués) qui réussissaient à demeurer honnêtes. »  

(Le livre “Le collier de servitude” du Docteur Frantz TARDO-DINO, Éd.Caraïbéenne, 1985, page 81)

 

D’ailleurs, en matière médicale, les “médecins” noirs étaient plus compétents que ces blancs arriérés. "l'étendue de leurs connaissances en phytologie, leurs fréquents succès autorisent à leur donner ce titre (de médecin). Les colons, aux débuts de l’esclavage, se faisaient même traiter par certains d’entre eux.” (plus ou moins sorciers et prêtres)

“Les guérisseurs noirs étaient renommés pour leur connaissance très approfondie des simples”.   

“ils ont plus de connaissances que les blancs qui s’y appliquent toute leur vie” “dans les maux vénériens, ils réussissent beaucoup mieux que nous.” 

(Témoignages du livre “Voyages du Chevalier des Marchais) cités dans “Le collier de servitude” Op.Cit., pages 234-235.)

 

Et c’est dans ce livre sur les conditions sanitaires des esclaves aux Antilles qu’on trouve la réponse à cette question : 

Tenant compte de la théorie des sous-cultures, l’élite haïtienne dominée par des négrillons à peau claire appelés “mulâtres”, a-t-elle assez évolué pour sortir le pays du sous-développement, du système de Plantation et vers l'État-nation?

 

Si les petits blancs de Saint-Domingue étaient des paysans arriérés, le pire, c’est qu’ils étaient en position de domination. Ce sont eux qui étaient en contact direct avec les esclaves dans les ateliers et les plantations. Leur position de pouvoir avait préséance sur le savoir des esclaves. Pour preuve, suite à “l'épidémie d'empoisonnement” provoquée par la campagne de Makandal qui contaminait les puits et les aliments, par crainte, les colons réclamèrent l'interdiction pour les noirs d’exercer la médecine. Ce qui fut faite, le 1er février 1743, par une ordonnance royale.

 

De par leur position de pouvoir et de domination raciale, les petits blancs, même arriérés, faisaient la loi. Il est évident que toutes les conditions étaient réunies pour qu’une sous-culture de petits-blancs-arriérés-et-nègre puisse se développer à Saint-Domingue?

 

Et, sur ce point, le Docteur TARDO-DINO a rapporté certains faits importants dans son livre : «...le créole était orgueilleux, prétentieux, impatient, inconstant, jouisseur, peu empressé à payer ses dettes. Il adorait ses enfants qui se transformaient en tyrans domestiques. Thibaud de Chanvallon (créole lui-même) les excusait en mettant en cause “l’influence reçue de la chaleur et du climat, de l’habitude de commander dès leur enfance à des esclaves et d'être obéis, la faiblesse générale de leurs parents pour eux et la liberté qu’inspirent les mœurs du pays.”», pages 77 -78 (le terme créole désigne tout ce qui est né aux Antilles) 

 

Des enfants de femmes esclaves, élevés par eux-mêmes dans les cases, parce que leur mère noire n’avait aucun droit de les réprimer, de leur enseigner les “bonnes manières” ni de les éduquer, vu qu’elle était considérée inférieure socialement. Maman était une chose, un bien meuble, elle n'était pas une personne. En conséquence, ces négrillons de peau claire, même enfants, commandaient et exigeaient d'être obéis, même quand leur père, colon blanc raciste, les traitait de “sale nègre”, les abandonnant à leur sort durant tout leur jeune enfance.

 

Même les enfants nés de mère et de père blancs n’ont pas eu un traitement différent.

Car, « La société blanche antillaise avait pour principale caractéristique la fréquence des familles nombreuses de dix, douze voire vingt enfants qui dès leur naissance étaient abandonnés aux soins d’une troupe d’esclaves domestiques. Idolâtrés par leurs parents qui cédaient au moindre de leur caprice, habitués à voir infliger des châtiments “dont le caractère le moins révoltant est la barbarie” (de Wimpffen), ignorant la modestie, la bonté, l’indulgence, la justice, ils devenaient rapidement des féroces tyrans. Les premiers mots que la bouche du jeune créole bégayera contiendront l’ordre de “déchirer à coups de fouet” le sein de sa nourrice. » page 80

 

C’est dans cette ambiance qu’est fondée la société esclavagiste, le socle social de la société haïtienne après 1804. Les esclaves arrivés d'Afrique y ont ajouté un peu de leurs us et coutumes - même clandestinement. Ce sont ces négrillons à peau claire qu’on appelle mulâtres, produits dans ces conditions de mépris, qui prétendent imposer leur “vision” depuis l’assassinat de l’Empereur Jean-Jacques Dessalines en 1806. C’est sous le leadership de cette classe dirigeante que nous croupissons, attendons le changement en Haïti.

 

Certes, les gens peuvent évoluer. Les cultures et les groupes sociaux peuvent se moderniser. Mais, il faut d’abord prendre conscience de ses faiblesses, se montrer humble, accepter l'intégration de gens évolués et développer une volonté de réformer.

 

A la page 258, Professeur Sowell explique l'évolution des Ecossais. Ils ont pris conscience et ont développé une classe d’intellectuels qui a produit le philosophe David Hume, l'économiste Adams Smith, le chimiste Joseph Black, l'architecte Robert Adam, l'ingénieur James Watt, Sir Walter Scott en littérature, John Stuart Mill en économie, philosophie et science politique. Ce peuple gaélique que les Anglais s’amusèrent à ridiculiser pour leur incapacité à parler leur langue, brille dans le monde grâce à une prise de conscience humblement réfléchie et un effort national pour sortir de l'archaïsme. En médecine, les écossais brillent non seulement en Grande Bretagne mais aussi en Russie où l'Impératrice Catherine la Grande eut un écossais comme médecin personnel. Les premières écoles de médecine en Amérique ont été fondées par des écossais; l’Écosse a établi les standards mondiaux en matière de construction navale. En 1871, plus de la moitié des bateaux construits par l'Angleterre étaient de fabrication écossaise. Ils ont construit des Universités de renoms et dépassé ceux de qui, ils avaient appris. 

 

Mais en Haïti, ce n’est pas le cas. “L'élite la plus répugnante" - comme Bill Clinton les appelait - reste confinée dans son arrogance, sa vantardise, ses caractères féroce, rapace et vaniteux, l’immoralité de toute sorte qui la rend infréquentable. La marque de fabrique de leur sous-culture est leur emportement à injurier les gens de la façon la plus triviale, à minimiser le savoir, le savoir-faire et l'expérience. Elle résiste au changement, exclut la diaspora qui risque de la démasquer grâce à un vécu en société moderne et industrialisée. Elle a peur de la concurrence et ne peut survivre que grâce à une société de rente, dans laquelle la compétence n’a pas d’importance, mais les accointances. 


“En Haiti, la fixation des règles du système politique repose précisément sur cette dimension. Dans quelle mesure ceux de la diaspora seront-ils écartés de ce système, non seulement comme personnes, mais comme porteurs de règles, de normes, de modèles de comportement?” 

(André Corten, “L’État faible, Haiti et République Dominicaine”, Éd. Mémoire d’Encrier, 2011, page 157)

 

Même les gens qui leur sont proches, ont de graves difficultés à leur faire comprendre qu’il est venu le temps d'évoluer. Cette élite l’a prouvé en 2014, par le blocage suivi d’expulsion du Premier Laurent Lamothe qui leur réclamait une nouvelle approche basée sur l’implication sociale de l’entreprise et leur imposait des Conseils de Ministres en direct sur les médias, permettant au peuple de suivre et d'évaluer la gouvernance de son pays. Le 7 juillet 2021, elle vient d’assassiner le Président Jovenel Moïse qui leur parlait de construction de barrage hydraulique et d'électrification du pays. Si elle envoie ses enfants étudier dans les grandes universités du monde, c’est pour mieux faire la même chose.  

 

Sur ce point il est important de rappeler qu’à Saint-Domingue il y a eu des mulâtres évolués. Certains avaient même milité au sein de la société des amis des noirs en France. En 1802, quand Napoléon décida de rétablir l’esclavage, nombreux mulâtres évolués résistaient et continuaient à répondre les valuers de la République dans la Caraibe et dans toute l’Amerique Latine. 

(Nicolas Rey, “Quand la revolution, aux Amériques était nègre…”,Éd. Karthala, 2005). 


Plus d’un n’avait aucun problème de marcher sous le commandement de Toussaint Louverture ou de Dessalines. D’ailleurs, plusieurs de ces mulâtres sont tombés au Pont-rouge avec Dessalines; d’autres ont été fusillés après l’assassinat de l’Empereur. Des mulâtres évolués à partir des idées progressistes de Voltaire ont été combattus systématiquement par leurs pairs arriérés, rétrogrades et obligés de s’exiler. Donc, à un certain moment, la sous-culture dépasse un groupe ethnique spécifique. Elle devient une conception rétrograde de la vie capable de se reproduire dans certains compartiments de la société. C’est ce que nous observons actuellement à Pétion-ville. Elle prend la forme d’une mafia criminelle composée des personnalités à peau claire et/ou noire, résistant au changement, donc solidaires dans la reproduction de ladite sous-culture arriérée, rétrograde et dégradante.

.

 

Cette classe de sous-culture rétrograde est incapable de changer Haïti; elle ne peut pas moderniser ce pays. 

 

Leur domination dépend de la soumission des intellectuels qui n’osent pas faire les diagnostics   et leur dire les quatre vérités, préférant chercher des boucs-émissaires, accuser des chefs d’État, des ministres de tous les problèmes de la République. Ils misent sur l’ignorance des jeunes et adoptent l'obscurantisme comme police d’assurance afin que le statu quo ante reste inchangé.

 

Mais, la bonne nouvelle, il y a des révoltés comme nous qui décident de dénoncer les vraies causes, afin que nul n’en prétexte cause d'ignorance.  

 

 Cyrus Sibert,

#LeReCit @reseaucitadelle

reseaucitadelle@yahoo.fr

07 Novembre 2021

WhatsApp : + 509 3686 9669

 

P.S.: J’ai insisté sur le qualificatif “Négrillon à peau claire” parce que c’est de cette manière que les petits blancs percevaient les enfants des négresses dans la société coloniale. C’est encore le cas aujourd’hui en Amérique du Nord et en Europe, le mulâtre orgueilleux et complexé d'Haïti est un nègre à peau claire.