Haiti's Disaster and Hollywood's AVATAR

February 5th, 2010

by Vishal Mangalwadi

The 9 million people of Haiti, largely of Afrcan descent, inhabit about 10,000 square miles of the paradise-like Caribbean island of Hispaniola. They constitute the only nation to gain its independence through a successful slave rebellion in 1804. Sadly, Haiti remains the poorest country in the Americas.

Its independence was inspired in part by the secular idealism of the French Revolution and biblical Christianity, but launched in a voodoo ceremony on August 14, 1791, that, according to oral tradition, included sacrificing a pig, drinking its blood and making a pact with the demonic supernatural.

In 200 years, none of its 32 coups, multiple dictatorships and democratic elections succeeded in building political freedoms. Lawlessness, insecurity, instability, and dependency permeate Haitian society. That makes it hard for their independence to realize either the economic potential witnessed during the colonial period or that of the Caribbean tourism we see today. This is what led French President Nicholas Sarkozy and Tele-evangelist Pat Robertson to describe Haiti as a land that appears to be under a curse. On January 12, 2010, Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, was devastated by an earthquake of 7.0 magnitude: as many as 200,000 people may have been killed, and now, more than a weeks later, 20,000 people are reported to be dying every day due to lack of food, water and medical care.

 

The Disaster: Natural or Cultural?

On October 17, 1989, an earthquake of 7.0 magnitude also struck the San Francisco Bay Area in the United States of America: only 63 people died. At that time the Bay Area had over 5 million residents; Port-au-Prince has less than a million.

Why this difference? The Bay Area was built on a culture of law, justice, freedom, which has created a social order that makes prosperity possible. Contrastingly, in spite of many wonderful exceptions mentioned below, Haitian society was built on a culture of immoral corruption, oppression, social mistrust and resultant poverty. Builders routinely disregard the rules for constructing safe buildings because political, bureaucratic and law enforcement institutions move on the wheels of bribery and fraud. Plainly, while Haiti’s earthquake was natural, its disaster is cultural. Thus, even though individuals need immediate relief, the only way to successfully rebuild Haiti is to transform its culture.

Can the Avatar Save Haiti from its Corruption?

In order to overcome its culture of corruption and poverty, Haiti needs many heroes like that of Jake, in Cameron’s movie Avatar. Jake was an outsider but, like Jesus Christ, he incarnated among a people in great need and became one of them. He chose to sacrifice his own life in order to save a vulnerable people that he dearly loved.

The Avatar’s hero is ideal, but its scriptwriter is naïve. The people of Haiti practice Voodoo spiritism because they understand and know reality better than Hollywood’s romantic idealists.

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