“Haitians,” says Duvalier in his soft whisper, “have a destiny to suffer.”
by Paul Fromm
In their revolution, Haitians massacred and committed genocide against the the White (French) settlers who had made this tropical land bloom and rich. Tens of thousands of Europeans were shot, hanged, hacked, raped, poisoned and burned alive.[The lowest estimate is 24,000, according to Thomas Ott, The Haitian Revolution, 1789-1804.] Haiti has been a poverty stricken, violent, degraded basket case ever since.
The following appeared in Time Magazine in 1965, slightly more honest and less politically correct times.
The forlorn, hate-filled little Caribbean Island
In the 1780s, its foreign trade approached $140 million a year, with vast profits from sugar, coffee, cocoa, cotton and indigo
In 1804, a former slave named Jean Jacques Dessalines proclaimed Haiti a free and independent nation and became its Governor General. “To draw up the charter of our independence,” he felt, “would require the skin of a white man as parchment, his skull as an inkwell, his blood as ink, and a bayonet as a pen.” Dessalines died by an assassin’s bullet within three years. His successor, Henri Christophe, cared little for charters, black or white. He proclaimed himself King, set up a ludicrous aristocracy (including such titles as the Duke of Marmelade and Count of Limonade), and ruled as a merciless despot until 1820, when his officers revolted, and he committed suicide by firing a silver bullet into his brain. …
No sooner had the Dominican Republic declared its independence in 1821 than it was invaded by neighboring Haiti, which occupied the country for 22 brutal years. The Haitians banned all foreign priests, severed papal relations, closed the University of Santo Domingo, and levied confiscatory taxes. …
Over the next century, dictator followed dictator in Haiti. By 1910, rebellions had ousted 13 of Haiti’s first 18 Presidents. Then, in the space of 47 months, one President was blown up in his palace, another was believed poisoned, three were deposed, and the last was grabbed by a mob and hacked into small pieces.
President Woodrow Wilson finally ordered U.S. Marines to occupy the country in 1915. They remained 19 years, and gave Haiti the only true peace it has ever known. Acting through puppet Presidents, they disarmed rebels and bandits, built roads, irrigation projects, sanitation facilities, and organized schools and hospitals. F.D.R. withdrew the marines in 1934, and Haiti returned to its old ways: nine governments in 20 years, the last headed by François (“Papa Doc”) Duvalier, 58, a onetime country physician who took office in 1957, proclaimed himself “President for life,” and ruled through voodoo mysticism and the strong-arm terror of his 5,000-man Tonton Macoute secret police. …
“Haitians,” says Duvalier in his soft whisper, “have a destiny to suffer.”
And if his people complain, they can pray, from a 63-page Catechism of the Revolution turned out by the Government Printing Office and circulating last week in Port-au-Prince. The Lord’s Prayer: “Our Doc who art in the National Palace for Life, hallowed be Thy name by present and future generations, Thy will be done at Port-au-Prince and in the provinces. Give us this day our new Haiti and never forgive the trespasses of the enemies of the Fatherland, who spit every day on our Country. Let them succumb to temptation and under the weight of their own venom. Deliver them not from any evil. Amen.” (Time, May 7, 1965)
The Province of Quebec has as its motto: “Je me souviens” (I remember). Indeed, let’s.