ZOMBIES

Capitalism Never Says “until Death Do Us Part”

ZOMBIES REALLY EXIST.

To find them you must travel to the western third of the island of Hispaniola. Here, you will find the country of Haiti. The first free black (Afro-Caribbean) republic in the world. A country that won its independence from France, then the most powerful country in Europe, by defeating Napoleon's Army in 1804. So while other West Indian nations were evolving under the careful eye of European land owners, Haiti pursued its own path. And having achieved independence at such an early date, Haiti has invented a culture that is unique in the world. A culture built through the syncretism of various African beliefs in conjunction with Native West Indian Taino and European influences. An all encompassing element of the culture is religion. Usually spelled "Voodoo" (though the actual pronunciation is closer to vodoun) these are actually the ceremonies in which practitioners are possessed by the loa, the spirits. As in all religions there exists a tension between good and evil. Most vodoun has little to do with sorcery and black magic. Zombies, however, are one of the exceptions.

ZOMBIES A GO-GO

by John Maxwell, September 26, 2004,

Haiti's history of haplessness began more than 200 years ago when a Jamaican runaway slave called Bouckman lit the spark that fired the Haitian revolution. Bouckman, despite being a giant of a man, a born leader and probably a Muslim (think terrorist) did not survive to see the fruits of the revolution. He was betrayed, captured and his head stuck on a pike to discourage the others -perhaps a primitive attempt at exorcising demonic ideas of freedom and liberty from the revolutionaries.

It didn't work. The Haitians went on to defeat the French colonial forces, then defeated a British expeditionary force and then defeated a French expeditionary army under Napoleon's brother-in-law, killing some 60,000 Frenchmen in the process.

Before that the Haitians had fought alongside the American revolutionaries to help them throw the British out of the American colonies. Haitian help was crucial in at least two battles in which British power was broken - at Savannah, Georgia and at Yorktown.

In addition to all that, the Haitian revolution made another massive contribution to the new American nation: in defeating France, the Haitians exhausted the French treasury to the point where Napoleon had to sell Louisiana to the US or risk losing it to the British. The Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the US.

So, if the Haitians contributed so much to American independence and development, why is it that in their extremity of grief and suffering, the United States treats the Haitians so meanly? Originally, when the scale of the current disaster became known, the United States, the richest country in the world, offered about US $60,000 for Haitian relief. Venezuela offered $1 million, Trinidad and Tobago earmarked US $5 million while the European Union pledged US$ 1.8 million. Somewhat abashed, the US raised its pledge to US $2 million. In the US itself, where the damage has been far less severe, the federal government alone is contributing more than $6 billion in hurricane relief.

Charity, of course, begins at home or perhaps, it is simply another case of Haitian haplessness. But it must be said, however discreetly, that the United States has had a great deal to do with the current Haitian propensity to catastrophe, by destroying Haitian governments, Haitian infrastructure economic and social, and by policies which have reduced Haiti almost to a desert.

The United States and Britain refused to recognize Haiti after it declared independence The US made recognition conditional on the former colonial power, France, recognizing Haiti's autonomy. At that time, of course, the United States was busy titrating the humanity of blacks and came to the conclusion that a black was 60% human and therefore not entitled to all the rights of Man. And Liberty was as dangerous then as socialism was in the twentieth century.

Three-fifths Human

Oddly, the French, the Americans and the Haitians had all been inspired by the Enlightenment and Tom Paine's codification of the Rights of man. But only the Haitian revolution recognized all those rights. In the US blacks and women, for instance, had to wait more than a century to reach the status guaranteed to Haitians. France and the US maintained slavery more than 50 years after Haiti abolished it.

With the British and the US playing hard-ball on the recognition question, France felt able to demand that the Haitians should pay cash for their freedom. In Jamaica and other British colonies, the state paid the slave-owners compensation. In Haiti the former slaves paid twice, in blood and in treasure. When they had trouble paying back the French the kindly American bankers came to Haiti's rescue. We will lend you the money to pay off your debt, they said, and Haiti achieved another first becoming the first Third world debtor nation.

That debt was eventually paid off more than a century later- the last payment was in 1947. In the meantime it had caused Haiti the most extreme distress, wrecked her infrastructure and destroyed her independence. What the metropolitan countries could not achieve by conquest, they achieved by compound interest.

Early in the last century, the Americans became a little dissatisfied with Haitian repayment of their debt, and that led to an immediate increase in Haitian haplessness. The US invaded, changed their constitution, took away their land, chopped down their trees to plant sisal, logwood, coffee and pineapple and destroyed the agricultural base of the country. After they left officially in 1935, however, the Americans bequeathed Haiti an armed force which was corrupt, cruel, ungovernable and in thrall to the US. It guaranteed that any Haitian President either obeyed Washington or went into exile. In 1947 Dumarsais Estimé, said to be a socialist, was deposed after a couple of years. That began a period of dictatorship distinguished chiefly by American support for the ruthless Duvalier and his inane son, Baby Doc.

During the US occupation (1915 to 1935) the Haitians tried to throw the occupiers out, only to be bombed and strafed in a eerie foretaste of the fascist bombing of Guernica during the Spanish civil war. Nobody made much of the Haitian version, because, after all, what were they but a bunch of "Niggers speaking French" as they were described by William Jennings Bryan, one of Colin Powell's predecessors as US Secretary of State. The Haitian resistance leader, Charlemagne Peralte, was like Bouckman, betrayed, murdered and his head exhibited to discourage the others.
History repeats itself in Haiti, but never as farce.

VOODOO QUEEN

New Orleans had been owned by the French from 1718 to 1762, then by the Spanish until 1803 when it became French again. It was then brought under the American flag through the Louisiana Purchase.

Voodoo had been present in the city before Laveau came upon the scene, but attempts had been made by the authorities to suppress it. In 1782, for example, the Spanish governor Bernardo Galvez forbade the importation of slaves from Martinique because of its people's belief in Voodoo. Additionally, Baron de Carondelet, Spanish governor in New Orleans from 1792 to 1797, fearing the continued spread of Voodoo and also the possibility of slave revolt, disallowed the import of slaves from Santo Domingo. Eventually, a slave revolt would expel European control in Haiti. However, when the Americans came to control New Orleans in 1803, the restriction on slave importation was canceled. Additionally, an influx of free immigrants from Saint Domingue brought 5,000 people, free and slave, to New Orleans from the start of American rule until 1810. Soon, Voodoo began to flourish in American New Orleans.

The French and the Spanish placed severe restrictions on Voodoo practice as well as the limited freedoms allowed for slaves in Colonial New Orleans. The slaves, most of whom had just been directly transported from the West Coast of Africa or the Caribbean, suffered extremely harsh treatment. When not working under the lash, they were confined in buildings or in chains. Following the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, conditions for slaves improved to some extent. Slaves were given Sunday as a day off from labor, and they also had other limited free time at night and on some religious holidays.

On Sundays the slaves were allowed to assemble at an open field near Orleans Street and Rampart Street behind the Quarter, an area which over time had many names -- Circus Public Square, Place des Negres, and even Beauregard Square after the Civil War, in honor of P.G.T. Beauregard, a Confederate general from New Orleans. But the locale's most famous title was Congo Plains (meaning the entire grounds), or Congo Square (meaning a smaller, more frequented portion of the field).

At Congo Square the slaves performed many traditional African dances, including the Bamboula, to the beat of primitive drums. They may have even performed some Voodoo rituals as well, including the worship of Damballa, the Snake god. Although some sources claim no Voodoo worship per se was held in Congo Square, it is clear that this area was a place reserved for the free expression of African culture and customs, especially dancing to the music of the drums. And although the historical record is cloudy, it is possible that some aspects of Voodoo ceremonies were performed there.

Saint Domingue (Haiti), the western part of the once-Spanish island called Hispanola where Columbus had landed, was a colony of France. It produced coffee and sugar under the sweat and blood of imported African slaves. These slaves were brutally treated, and they kept themselves alive only with the aid of their religion. The Yoruba tribe in western Africa was largely responsible for carrying the belief in Vodu to the new world. (Voodoo was also known as Vodu or Vodun.)

In Saint Domingue, the Voodoo priests (or "houngans") and the paid-priests (or "bokors") had used Voodoo charms and potions as a form of biological warfare against the French who enslaved them, even poisoning their food supply on occassion. The Voodoo priests also drugged slaves who had betrayed the cause of slave revolution with Voodoo concoctions from natural herbs and from animal parts and held them as slaves. This is possibly the origin of the zombie.

The zombie was a resurrected body without a soul -- a social outcast who served the will of the Voodoo master. Supposedly, the zombie was raised from the dead, without free will or a soul. However, one modern theory is that the zombie never really died but was the victim of a drug. This Voodoo concoction is believed to have consisted of carefully selected herbs and animal parts, especially from the puffer fish, which contains a neurotoxin that causes a type of paralysis in the nervous system. The Voodoo priest also knew how to apply an antidote which could "resurrect" the zombie, but keep him dazed enough to be easily controlled. Most people, however, did not have the "magical" knowledge of the Voodoo priest. They believed the zombie was actually the living dead, a soulless body returned from the grave. Historically, Voodoo priests used to induce zombiism as a punishment for criminals; additionally, bokors could make someone into a zombie for a fee.

This belief of zombies weaved its way to New Orleans from Haiti as well, although zombies were not known in the Yoruba tribe in Africa. The belief in actual zombies was not as strong in New Orleans as in Haiti, but the term Zombi as certainly used in rituals, as evidenced by Marie Laveau's snake whose name (spoken in a Caribbean French patois) was Li Grand Zombi.

HAITI HISTORY

The Middle Class

The middle class was essentially nonexistent during the nineteenth century. But at about the time of the United States occupation (1915-34), it became more defined. The creation of a professional military and the expansion of government services fostered the development of Haiti's middle class. Educational reform in the 1920s, an upsurge in black consciousness, and the wave of economic prosperity after World War II also contributed to the strengthening of the class. In the late 1980s, the middle class probably made up less than 5 percent of the total population, but it was growing, and it was becoming more politically powerful.
The mulatto elite dominated governments in the 1930s and the early 1940s and thwarted the political aspirations of the black middle class. President Dumarsais Estimé (1946-50) came to power with the aim of strengthening the middle class. The Duvalier government also claimed the allegiance of the black middle class, at least through the 1970s. During the Duvalier period, many in the middle class owed their economic security to the government. A number of individuals from this class, however, benefited from institutionalized corruption.
Some members of the middle class had acquired political power by the 1980s, but most continued to be culturally ambivalent and insecure. Class solidarity, identity, and traditions were all weak. The criteria for membership in the middle class included a nonmanual occupation, a moderate income, literacy, and a mastery of French. Middle-class Haitians sought upward mobility for themselves and their children, and they perceived education and urban residence as two essential keys to achieving higher status. Although they attempted to emulate the lifestyle of the upper class, middle-class Haitians resented the social preeminence and the color prejudice of the elite. Conflicts between the Franco Haitian and the Afro-Haitian cultural traditions were most common among the middle class.

The Tonton Makout Network

The Duvalier dynasty held power longer than any other regime in Haitian history. The duration of the dynasty enabled the thorough entrenchment of Duvalierist institutions and the development of a patronage system. One of the more important of these institutions was the VSN. After the VSN's dissolution, former tonton makout leaders remained at large, and some were politically active throughout the post-Duvalier period. The old makout networks also continued to function within the army. As of 1989, they were the main obstacle to free, fair, and popular elections in Haiti, and thet were the most significant threat to domestic security.

Through the VSN, the Duvalier regime had politicized rural Haiti. The VSN had expanded the president's influence to remote areas, and it had incorporated rural Haiti into a political system once limited almost exclusively to Port-au-Prince. The VSN had assured political control of the hinterlands, but it had given peasants no new voice in the political process. It had created a rural awareness of Port-au-Prince and events there, however, a consciousness of the national political system, and new political aspirations. The VSN had engendered a generalized disrespect for political institutions, and it had heightened expectations of profit from the political system.

Labour

Haiti's 1989 labor force was estimated at 2.8 million people. The economically active population (those over age ten), however, represented more than half of the country's total 6.1 million population. Forty-two percent of the official work force was female, ranking the country's female participation as one of the highest among developing countries. In rural areas, however, the role of women in production and commerce was apparently much greater than these statistics indicated.

The distribution of the labor force by economic sector from 1950 to 1987 reflected a shift from agriculture to services, with some growth in industry. Despite these changes, agriculture continued to dominate economic activity in the 1980s, employing 66 percent of the labor force; it was followed by services, 24 percent, and industry, 10 percent. Based on these figures, Haiti continued to be the most agrarian, and the least industrial, society in the Western Hemisphere. The country's employment of only 50,000 salaried workers in 1988 was further evidence of the traditional character of the work force.

Statistics on employment and the methodologies used to gather such data varied widely; most unemployment figures were only estimates. In 1987 the United States Department of Labor estimated that Haiti's unemployment rate was 49 percent. Other estimates ranged from 30 to 70 percent. Official unemployment was severe in Port-au-Prince, but comparatively low in rural areas, reflecting urban migration trends, rapid population growth, and the low number of skilled and semi-skilled workers.

Haiti established a labor code in 1961, but revised it in March 1984 to bring legislation more in line with standards set by the International Labour Office (ILO). Conformity with ILO guidelines was a prerequisite for certification under the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI--see Appendix B) enacted by the United States Congress in 1983.

Haiti's most fundamental labor law, the minimum wage, was also the most controversial. Low wage rates attracted foreign assembly operations. In 1989 the average minimum wage stood at the equivalent of US$3 a day, with some small variations for different types of assembly work. The minimum wage in the late 1980s was below the 1970 level in real terms, but assembly manufacturers and government officials refused to increase wages because they needed to remain competitive with other Caribbean countries. Labor laws included an array of provisions protecting workers in the areas of overtime, holidays, night-shift work, and sick leave. The government, however, did not universally enforce many of these provisions. The greatest number of workers' complaints came from assembly plants where seasonal layoffs were common.

The Upper and the Middle Classes

The system of public and private monopolies, including parastatals and import-substitution industries, developed under the Duvaliers. These industries generated great wealth for a handful of powerful families in Port-au-Prince, which resulted in politicized economic decision making. This elite sector saw itself threatened by the fall of the Duvalier regime. Under interim rule, volatile competition arose among certain business interests and military factions. Key members of the business community backed Duvalierist presidential candidates who were likely to protect the lucrative business privileges established under the old regime.

Intermediary classes (those between the wealthy elite and the impoverished masses) grew significantly during the Duvalier era. François Duvalier's political strategy of appealing to the black middle class created a new constituency for political patronage, government employment, and the rapid accumulation of wealth through the political system. The growth of the black middle class was closely linked to the Duvalier era, and it contributed to the tremendous growth of Port-au-Prince after the 1950s.
The long-standing tendencies toward the centralization of wealth and of power in Port-au-Prince greatly increased during the Duvalier era. The income gap between upper and lower income groups widened, and rural areas suffered accordingly. Growing rural-to-urban migration, primarily to Port-au-Prince, and emigration, especially to the United States, also had an impact on the political environment and on aspirations for change. The Duvalier era saw an unprecedented level of emigration to North America along with smaller waves of emigration to other Caribbean countries, Latin America, Europe, and Africa. Emigration had an important impact on Haitian politics. Emigrés maintained numerous fragmented political parties in exile. Emigration also caused huge sums of foreign currency to enter into the economy through remittances. It raised Haitians' consciousness of the outside world, and it led to easier upward social mobility for members of the new intermediary classes by alleviating competition for scarce jobs

VODOU AND HAITIAN POLITICS

Vodou and Haitian politics have influenced each other throughout the history of Haiti. The Haitian Revolution against France was empowered by Vodou - and it was the only successful slave revolt in west of the Atlantic, resulting in the first independent black republic in the Western Hemisphere!

Some Haitian administrations have persecuted Vodou, and in 1915-1934 the occupation of HaitiU.S. military made the eradication of Vodou a priority. Other Haitian administrations have tolerated Vodou, and still others, such as the murderous Duvalier dictatorships, subsidized and subverted the Vodou priesthood.

The United States political scene has sometimes been influenced by Vodou. Following the Haitian revolution the American government refused to recognized Haiti and organized a trade embargo, so great was the fear of rebellion and African religion among the U.S. African slave population. Later American administrations sought to suppress Vodou, and even recently affiliation with Vodou has been used to stigmatize Haitians when determining immigration, foreign aid, and public health policies.

Jesse Helms blocks reproductive health care for Haitian Vodouisants! Published Monday, March 15, 1999, in the Miami Herald: U.S. subsidizing witchcraft, Helms complains. Journalists quickly satirized the rabid Senator Helm's intolerance, and on March 23, 1999, Mat Honan wrote a piece carried on the MoJo Wire, titled Jesse Helms' Political Voodoo.

Three Protestant pastors were arrested at the historical site of Bois Caiman, Bwa Kayiman in Haitian Creole, for violating a court order banning them from the site, in order to avoid confrontations between Protestants and Vodouisants. The pastors had planned to "exorcise" the spirit of Haitian national hero, Houngan Boukman Dutty, from Bois Caiman, considered the birthplace of the Haitian Revolution. Bois Caiman was then declared a public trust by the Haitian government under President Rene Preval.

As the incident reverberated through Haiti, lines were drawn. On one side were the populist, pro-democracy organizations which were so severely persecuted under the Cedras military regime of 1991-1994. They have regenerated since the return of then-President Aristide in October 1994, and took the side of respect for the Vodouisant tradition. Allied with them were progressive international human rights professionals, and Vodouisants of all political affiliations. They pointed the finger of accusation at Protestant pastors and their right wing supporters, including the meddlesome American organization, the International Republican Institute (IRI). Haiti Progres, a progressive, left-of-center Haitian newspaper, has an English language editorial.

The De-Macoutization of Vodou is the most poignant issue facing Haitian Vodou today. Because the Vodou priesthood was protected, subsidized and later subverted by the dictatorships of Francois Duvalier and later his son Jean-Claude Duvalier, the feared Ton-Ton Macoutes and the Vodou clergy sometimes merged.

Slingshot! - the story of one pro-democracy Houngan's resistance against the military regime of 1991 - 1994.

"Antigang", by Johnson Aristide - a poem by one of the pro-democracy movement's most heroic activists; it uses Vodou imagery as it makes a plea for the victims and the perpetrators of human rights abuses.

Testimony of a Haitian Pro-Democracy Activist - the author above, Johnson Aristide, survived torture on three occasions, one of which he outlines here. by the

CLINTON’S VOODOO POLITICS

It turns out that in 1975 Bill and Hillary traveled to Haiti where a friend introduced them to Max Beauvoir, an influential Houngan, or Voodoo Priest. In Beauvoir's company, the young couple witnessed a ceremony in which two dazed and seemingly mindless people were animated by an unknown force.

On page 237 Clinton recalls the experience:

"The man proceeded to rub a burning torch all over his body and walk on hot coals without being burned. The woman, in a frenzy, screamed repeatedly, then grabbed a live chicken and bit its head off."

Taking pains to be sensitive, Clinton describes the zombie's behavior as a kind of religious ecstasy, but this explanation smacks of liberal expansiveness; a reader can’t help but to wonder if something more sinister was afoot.

Clinton is no stranger to Voodoo Zombies, and in My Life he cites the findings of Wade Davis, a Harvard professor who developed a pharmacological theory of zombiefication, and published a popular book on the subject. In The Serpent and The Rainbow Davis concluded that zombies were a kind of walking vegetable, bound by powerful poisons to serve the whims of secret societies, and Clinton seems to subscribe to this theory. See How are Zombies Made?

"I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE"

by Inez Wallace

The natives of Haiti maintain that today there are zombies working in the cane fields, around lonely houses on the island, and some say that these mysterious dead workers exist even in the most populated cities. One may know them because, except in rare instances, they never talk, and they stare always straight ahead of them. If one is not certain he will know if he offers the suspected one some salted food, for the zombie may not taste salt, or he will know at once that he is dead, and will make his living corpse return to the grave no matter where it is, and no one can stop it!

HAITI RELIGION

Folk belief includes zombies and witchcraft. Zombies are either spirits or people whose souls have been partially withdrawn from their bodies. Some Haitians resort to bokò, who are specialists in sorcery and magic. Haiti has several secret societies whose members practice sorcery

"Evidence suggests that zombification is a form of social sanction imposed by recognized corporate bodies--the poorly known and clandestine secret Bizango societies--as one means of maintaining order and control in local communities."

François Duvalier recruited voodoo specialists to serve as tonton makouts to help him control all aspects of Haitian life. Duvalier indicated that he retained power through sorcery, but because voodoo is essentially a family-based cult, Duvalier failed to politicize the religion to any great extent.

ZOMBIES

The voodoo religion involves belief in a supreme god (bon dieu) and a host of spirits called loa which are often identified with Catholic saints. These spirits are closely related to African gods and may represent natural phenomena — such as fire, water, or wind — or dead persons, including eminent ancestors

One belief unique to voodoo is the zombie. The creole word “zombi” is apparently derived from Nzambi, a West African deity but it only came into general use in 1929, after the publication of William B. Seabrook's The Magic Island

Haitian zombies were once normal people, but underwent zombification by a "bokor" or voodoo sorcerer, through spell or potion. The victim then dies and becomes a mindless automaton, incapable of remembering the past, unable to recognize loved ones and doomed to a life of miserable toil under the will of the zombie master.

HAITI SELLING OFF ZOMBIES

Psst . . . wanna buy a zombie? You can pick up some great deals on the undead from the Haitian government, which is trying to unload thousands of the walking corpses -- at less per head than you'd pay for a decent TV.

"Imagine having your very own slave who will mindlessly obey you, no matter what you order him or her to do," says a government spokesman.

"A zombie will work all day and all night if you want him to, everything from farm labor to house cleaning, and all you have to feed him is oat mush."

Haitian officials say they're turning to sales of the undead to relieve the critical over-supply of zombies, which is dragging down their failing economy even further. Haiti's upper- and middle- class population has shrunk to almost nothing, leaving hundreds of zombie servants unoccupied.

JAPANESE TV INTERVIEW ON ZOMBIES

A recent T.V. program here in Japan provided an interesting look at the

phenomenon of zombies in Haiti.  The president (I think that's what he

said) of the zombie-master's was the guest, and he had escorted a

Japanese film crew to meetings in Haiti with zombie-masters and several

zombies.  He had also enabled them to film and take samples of the

zombie powder, the rituals creating a zombie, feeding zombies, and other

"secrets" of the zombie society.

Videotapes of several "interviews" with zombies (they don't talk much,

but... actually, one did talk some, others didn't.) were reviewed by

Japanese psychiatrists.  They indicated that several people displayed

symptoms they recognized, although they said the symptoms could be the

result of drugs or of mental problems (physically based brain problems,

I think?).  They thought these people would be given medical treatment

in Japan.

The president said, in effect, that that is what the zombie-master

provides.  They feed the zombies, tell them what to do, and run their

lives.

An interesting part was the preparation of food for the zombies - rice,

bananas, and goat meat, steamed.  No salt is used, and the zombie master

making the food explained that salt is very dangerous to zombies.

The president said that the belief is that salt can turn a zombie to

stone.  He said he is sure that there is really some small amount of

salt in the food, but that zombie masters are careful to keep their

zombies away from salt as much as possible.

[my gloss - One of the psychiatrists had suggested some kind of mineral

deficiencies might be involved.  Wonder if salt "cures" some zombies?]

My impression was that while using flashy language ("killed" instead of

committed; "zombie" instead of "mentally ill"; "zombie master" instead

of "caseworker"; etc.), what the president (and the videos, etc.) were

pointing to was a kind of socially functional mental care system.

ZOMBIES

To make a zombie, a voodoo practitioner makes a potion that consists of mainly the poison of the pufferfish (one of the strongest nerve poisons known to man, the clinical drug norcuron has similar effects and is used during surgery) that is given to the intended victim. This causes severe neurological damage, primarily effecting the left side of the brain (the left side of the brain controls speech, memory and motor skills). The victim suddenly becomes lethargic, then slowly seems to die. In reality, the victim¹s respiration and pulse becomes so slow that it is nearly impossible to detect. The victim retains full awareness as he is taken to the hospital, then perhaps to the morgue and finally as they are buried alive. Then, at the voodoo practitioner¹s leisure does he come to retrieve the victim, now become a slave, as a commodity (at one time it was said that most of the slaves who worked in the sugar cane plantations of Haiti were zombies. One case in 1918 had a voodoo priest named Ti Joseph who ran a gang of laborers for the American Sugar Corporation, who took the money they received and fed the workers only unsalted porridge). A zombie will remain in a robot-like state indefinitely, until he tastes either salt or meat (so much for ‘The Night of the Living Dead’). Then the zombie becomes aware of their state, immediately returning to the grave. The reality behind the zombie has only been taken seriously by medical science within the last ten years, since the use of CAT scans of the brain, along with the confessions of voodoo priests, explaining their methods. Previous to that, zombies were considered mental defective by science or explained as stunts to try to confuse scientists.

ZOMBIS MAY NOT BE WHAT THEY’RE REPUTED TO BE

But in a paper in this week's The Lancet, two researchers, Professor Roland Littlewood of the department of anthropology and psychiatry at London's University College and Dr. Chavannes Douyon of the Polyclinique Medica in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, conclude many so-called zombies may in fact be individuals with psychiatric disorders or brain damage.

In their study, the researchers report on three individuals who were considered to be zombis by their families and neighbours. They found the first individual appeared to have a severe psychiatric condition called catatonic schizophrenia, which can make a person mute and immobile; the second to have brain damage and epilepsy, perhaps due to an episode of oxygen starvation of the brain; and the third individual, a severe learning disability, perhaps due to fetal-alcohol syndrome.

COULD TRACES OF PUFFER FISH TOXIN EXPLAIN THE SUPPOSED EXISTENCE OF HAITI'S ZOMBIES?

Luigi Garlaschelli unearths the evidence - for and against

Zombie fish eaters? Could traces of puffer fish toxin explain the supposed existence of Haiti's zombies? Luigi Garlaschelli unearths the evidence - for and against According to widespread Haitian beliefs, voodoo sorcerers (bokors) would administer a 'magic powder' to their victim. The victim would lapse into a state of such low metabolic activity that he (or she) might appear clinically dead. The poor soul would then be buried alive, only to be rescued hours later by the sorcerer who dug him up, fed him a hallucinogenic concoction, and sold him as a slave, often to sugar plantations. If by some lucky chance (the bokor's death, divine intervention etc) the zombie could free himself, he can still be spotted by his glassy eyes, limited speech capability, nasal voice and slow and 'goofy' movements. The existence of zombies is often taken for granted by Haitian people, and 'zombification' is still considered a crime in Haitian law: Article 264 forbids the administration of drugs that can induce apparent death. If the victim is buried thereafter, the crime is equated to homicide. But do zombies really exist, or is all this just superstition and legend? And if they do exist, are they misunderstood cases, or is there any pharmacological rationale for the activity of the bokor's magic drugs? What is the active molecule in the 'zombie powder'?

ZOMBIES AND P-ZOMBIES

There is another kind of zombie, however: the philosophical zombie. A philosophical zombie (p-zombie, for short) would be a human body without consciousness which would nevertheless behave like a human body with consciousness. To some philosophers (e.g., Daniel Dennett) this is a contradictory notion and thus an impossible conception. If it behaves like a person and is indistinguishable from a person, then it is a person. Other philosophers (e.g. Todd Moody and David Chalmers) argue that a p-zombie would be distinguishable from a person even though indistinguishable from a conscious person. It is distinguishable, say these philosophers, because it is stipulated that it is not conscious even though it is indistinguishable from a conscious being. In case you are wondering why philosophers would debate whether it is possible to conceive of a p-zombie, it is because some philosophers do not believe or do not want to believe that consciousness can be reduced to a set of materialistic functions. Important metaphysical and ethical issues seem to hinge on whether there can be p-zombies. Can machines be conscious? If we created a machine which was indistinguishable from a human person, would our artificial creation be a "person" with all the rights and duties of natural persons? To the p-zombie advocates, consciousness is more than brain processes and neurological functions. No adequate account of consciousness will ever be produced that is "reductionist," i.e., completely materialistic.

ZOMBIES ON THE WEB

Compiled by David Chalmers

Philosophical zombies

It is philosophical zombies that I'm most interested in here, since I'm a philosopher and they raise very interesting issues. The sort I'm most concerned with are zombies that are physically and behaviorally identical to a conscious human, but lack any conscious experience. As in this case-study of my own zombie twin, for example.

Most people doubt that zombies could exist in the actual world. (In philosophical terms, they are naturally impossible.) But many people think that they are at least logically possible - i.e. that the idea of zombie is internally consistent, and that there is at least a "possible world" where zombies exist. This logical possibility is sometimes used to draw strong conclusions about consciousness (e.g. in my book The Conscious Mind, and elsewhere).

Macron calls Haitian officials ‘total morons’ over PM sacking

POMPOUS PRICK COLONIALIST

By AFP
November 21, 2024


Macron has caused a stir with his comments about Haiti - Copyright AFP Joe Klamar

French President Emmanuel Macron accused Haiti’s transitional council of being “total morons” for dismissing the country’s prime minister, according to a video shot at the G20 summit in Brazil this week and shared on social media Thursday.

In the footage, the French leader is speaking on the sidelines of the G20 in Rio with an individual accusing Macron and France of “being responsible for the situation in Haiti”.

Haiti’s transitional council pushed out then-prime minister Garry Conille after just five months in office, a move Macron called “terrible” in the clip.

“They’re total morons,” said Macron referring to the transitional body, adding, “they never should have dismissed him.”

Condemning the remarks, Haiti’s Foreign Ministry said Thursday that French Ambassador Antoine Michon had been summoned following the “unacceptable comments.”

Haitian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Worship Jean-Victor Harvel Jean-Baptiste used the meeting to express “indignation” on behalf of the transitional council, which he said viewed the remarks as “an unfriendly and inappropriate gesture that must be rectified,” according to a statement from the ministry.

Haiti has suffered from decades of political instability.

But in recent months, the Caribbean country has seen a surge in violence with gangs now controlling 80 percent of the capital, Port-au-Prince.

The clip also shows the French president, who is on a multi-leg tour of Latin America with his most recent stop in Chile, blaming Haitians for “letting drug trafficking take over”.

“Quite frankly, it was the Haitians who killed Haiti,” the French president said in the clip.

Businessman Alix Didier Fils-Aime was sworn in as Haiti’s new prime minister on November 12, promising to restore security in the crisis-wracked country.

Haiti summons French ambassador after Macron's 'total morons' comment

French President Emmanuel Macron was caught on video on Thursday calling the Haitian transitional council "total morons" for sacking the embattled nation's prime minister, prompting Haiti's foreign minister to summon French Ambassador Antoine Michon to address the "unacceptable remarks".

Issued on: 22/11/2024 
By: NEWS WIRES
Video by: Charlotte HUGHES

01:21France's President Emmanuel Macron and First Lady Brigitte Macron greet Haiti's President of the transitional council Smith Augustin at the Elysee presidential palace in Paris, July 26, 2024. © Valentine Chapuis, AFP


French President Emmanuel Macron accused Haiti's transitional council of being "total morons" for dismissing the country's prime minister, according to a video shot at the G20 summit in Brazil this week and shared on social media Thursday.

In the footage, the French leader is speaking on the sidelines of the G20 in Rio with an individual accusing Macron and France of "being responsible for the situation in Haiti".

Haiti's transitional council pushed out then-prime minister Garry Conille after just five months in office, a move Macron called "terrible" in the clip.

"They're total morons," said Macron referring to the transitional body, adding, "they never should have dismissed him."


Condemning the remarks, Haiti's Foreign Ministry said Thursday that French Ambassador Antoine Michon had been summoned following the "unacceptable comments."

02:00



Haitian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Worship Jean-Victor Harvel Jean-Baptiste used the meeting to express "indignation" on behalf of the transitional council, which he said viewed the remarks as "an unfriendly and inappropriate gesture that must be rectified," according to a statement from the ministry.

Haiti has suffered from decades of political instability.

But in recent months, the Caribbean country has seen a surge in violence with gangs now controlling 80 percent of the capital, Port-au-Prince.

Read more  FRANCE 24 exclusive report in Haiti: The Iron Grip of the Gangs

The clip also shows the French president, who is on a multi-leg tour of Latin America with his most recent stop in Chile, blaming Haitians for "letting drug trafficking take over".

"Quite frankly, it was the Haitians who killed Haiti," the French president said in the clip.

Businessman Alix Didier Fils-Aime was sworn in as Haiti's new prime minister on November 12, promising to restore security in the crisis-wracked country.

(AFP)

Doctors Without Borders halts operations in Haiti's capital amid threats from police

The Precarious Precariat and the Garrison State

Gang violence leaves at least 150 dead in Haiti's capital this week, UN says

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HAITI, LE ZOMBIE AND UNITED FRUIT COMPANY 

SEE MY GOTHIC CAPITALISM

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THE FORCES OF IMPERIALISM

UN chief insists on special armed forces as Haiti spirals


A bullet's impact is seen on an armored police car in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2023. One of Haiti's gangs stormed a key part of the capital, Port-Au-Prince, and battled with police throughout the day, leaving at least three officers dead and another missing.

(AP Photo/Megan Janetsky) 

DÁNICA COTO
Mon, January 23, 2023

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — U.N. Secretary General António Guterres on Monday insisted on the deployment of an international specialized armed force to Haiti and called on governments to consider halting deportations as the country’s situation spirals.

The recommendations were issued as part of a report on the U.N. Integrated Office in Haiti, with Guterres noting that gang-related violence and human rights violations have reached a critical level.

“The people of Haiti are suffering the worst human rights and humanitarian emergency in decades,” he wrote.

Guterres noted that while last year’s gang-led siege at a main fuel terminal has ended, a special force is still needed to ensure that key infrastructure remains unobstructed and that people are able to safely vote in a general election whose date has not been set.

The number of reported killings soared by 35% last year compared with the previous year, with more than 2,100 slain. In addition, kidnappings more than doubled last year, with more than 1,350 victims.

Meanwhile, Haiti’s National Police is underfunded and under-resourced, with only some 9,700 active-duty officers in a country of more than 11 million people.

“There are also allegations that a significant number of national police…may be associated with gangs,” Guterres said.

In recent months, countries including Canada and the U.S. have offered training and resources including armored vehicles, but police remain largely outmatched by gangs whose power and territorial control have expanded since President Jovenel Moïse was slain at his private residence in July 2021.

Haiti also is struggling with a deadly cholera outbreak worsened by gang violence and a spike in the number of people who are starving as countries including the U.S. and the Dominican Republic have deported tens of thousands of Haitians in the past year.

The report was released a day before the U.N. Security Council is scheduled to meet and talk about Haiti.

Late last year, the council imposed sanctions on individuals and groups that threatened peace in Haiti, including a powerful gang leader, but it did not vote on the deployment of armed forces as requested by Haiti's top officials in October.

With no democratically elected institutions left in Haiti after the terms of the remaining 10 senators expired on Jan. 9, Prime Minister Ariel Henry has pledged that he is working to hold general elections as soon as possible.

Last week, Henry's administration published a decree with the names of the three members appointed to the High Transition Council, which will be responsible for choosing the provisional electoral council, the first step in preparing for elections. The decree stated that the council also will push economic and human rights reforms, create and execute a public security plan and establish milestones and deadlines for the transition period.

“We will move forward with all those who wish to do so,” Henry said earlier this month.

TWO HUNDRED YEARS AS U$ COLONY

As Haitian gangs expand control, cop's family is left shaken

A national policeman talks with his colleagues next to an armored police car in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2023. One of Haiti's gangs stormed a key part of the capital, Port-Au-Prince, and battled with police throughout the day, leaving at least three officers dead and another missing.

 (AP Photo/Megan Janetsky)

MEGAN JANETSKY
Sat, January 21, 2023

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Every day when Marie Carmel Daniel's husband put on his flak vest and walked out the door for another day of fighting Haiti's gangs, she wondered if he would come home that night.

Friday was the day her smiling spouse of 18 years, Ricken Staniclasse, didn't.

One of the country's nearly 200 gangs ambushed his police unit that morning, sending gunfire echoing through the streets in an unexpected area — a mansion-lined stretch of the country's capital, Port-au-Prince.

A gang led by Lionel Lazarre battled the police patrol under the sweltering Caribbean heat as officers desperately called for backup. But help never came, the country’s police union said.


The fighting killed three officers, hospitalized a fourth with bullet wounds and left the 44-year-old Staniclasse missing.

Daniel, meanwhile, was terrified for herself and their three children.

“My husband was fighting a lot with the gangs, and we don't know what could happen to us," Daniel, 43, said while curled up on her red couch surrounded by neighbors. “I can't sleep at the house anymore because I don't know what could happen to us.”

The firefight was just the latest example of how Haitian gangs have grown in power and expanded in reach, leaving much of the population terrorized.

While the United Nations estimates that 60% of Port-Au-Prince is controlled by the gangs, nowadays most Haitians on the street reckon that number is closer to 100%.

Haiti has struggled with endemic gang violence for years, but the country spiraled into lawlessness after the 2021 killing of former President Jovenel Moïse.

Powerful gangs have taken advantage of the political chaos and discontent with the current government led by Prime Minister Ariel Henry to further consolidate their control.

The government has failed to ease the violence, forcing many to flee their homes. News of rapes, kidnappings and ambushes on police have become the new norm.

Jolicoeur Allande Serge, director of the police unit that was attacked, said the Friday blitz in the Petion-Ville neighborhood was a sign of that. He noted that moving into upper class areas “benefits (the gangs') economic interests.”

Kidnappings and ransoms as high as $1 million have been a key part of the financing for such armed groups.

Meanwhile, police units struggle to keep up.

While Canada and the United States have sent armored vehicles and other supplies to Haiti, law enforcement officials say it is just a fraction of what they really need.

Tensions remained high Saturday, and in the afternoon Serge stood among a pack of armored trucks dented with bullet strikes. Officers holding automatic weapons, their faces covered by black masks, bustled about.

A group of 50 officers was returning to the area where they fought Friday night to try to break a gang blockade and search for the missing officer, Staniclasse.

“I lost three men ... We’re not scared. We’re frustrated because we don’t have enough equipment to fight,” Serge said as he watched a convoy of police trucks roll out from the station. “We need ammo, helmets, armored vehicles.”

Analysts expect the bloodshed to get worse, especially after Haiti’s final 10 elected officers ended their Senate terms in early January, leaving the parliament and presidency unfilled because the government has failed to hold elections.

Critics say that has turned Haiti into a “de-facto dictatorship.”

Meanwhile, people like Marie Carmel Daniel feel hope drain for their country. Daniel said her husband always hoped he could help clean up his city. Together, they built a home and a life together. Their 11-year-old son dreamed of following in his father’s footsteps.

“He loved people, he loved to help people,” she said of her husband.

But two years ago, violence began to get so bad in their neighborhood that they applied for a visa to migrate to the United States, hoping to join an exodus of people leaving Haiti. They never got a reply.

“I don't know if he's alive or dead, but I'm worried," she said. “If we were able to leave the country, my husband would be alive.”

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GOTHIC CAPITALISM

JD Vance’s Slanders Are Far From the Worst Thing the US Has Done to Haitians

After years of strenuously ignoring the country’s agony, Secretary of State Antony Blinken finally visited Haiti last week. For five hours.

Amy Wilentz

THE NATION

 September 11, 2024

A five-hour tour: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken walks with Multinational Security Support Mission Commander Godfrey Otunge and Haitian National Police General Director Rameau Normal (L) in Port Au Prince, Haiti, on September 5, 2024.

(Photo by Roberto Schmidt / POOL / AFP via Getty Images)

It took a lot of unearned courage—some might call it chutzpah, or even balls—for Secretary of State Antony Blinken to fly down to Haiti, arguably the biggest mess US foreign policy has created anywhere in the world (though there are many contenders for that position), merely to reassert the administration’s commitment to the still-evolving government there. Yet Blinken’s lightning visit last week could nonetheless be considered a success. Nothing bad happened; another $45 million in US humanitarian assistance was promised.

Blinken is the highest-ranking American official to visit the country since 2015. Though the US policy in Haiti since the fall of the Duvalier dynasty in 1986 has been to establish a secure electoral democracy in the island nation, there has not been an election of any kind there since 2016—after which the two governments that the United States maneuvered into office failed ever to hold a vote.

The current prime minister, Garry Conille, is the latest in the series of US-backed leaders. He took over in June from the criminally negligent, impotent, overlong reign of the unelected Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who was finally hustled out of Haiti during a gang uprising this past spring and then was not permitted to return to Haitian territory.

One of the hallmarks of US policy in Haiti over the years has been to make demands that create conditions for future political failure, and then blame Haitian dysfunction for that inevitable collapse. Yet it is that very policy that encourages that dysfunction. Conille’s racketty-packetty house of a government, stuffed with rivalrous Haitian political factions essentially imposed on Haiti by the US and CARICOM (the 20-nation Caribbean economic coalition), has shown itself so far incapable of arriving at consensus, much less of leading the country to elections. Even within the factions represented, there are unbreachable fissures.

In spite of this very open fractiousness, and with the trademark casual American refusal to recognize real Haitian problems, Blinken told reporters in Port-au-Prince last week that the US “appreciates Haiti’s leaders putting aside their differences working together to put the country on a path for free and fair elections.” Meanwhile, Conille’s bifurcated government hobbles on, crippled for now by internecine squabbling over power—as could have been (and, in fact, was) predicted.

While the government squabbles, the country’s forces of order have tried to calm the streets. But power no longer resides with them; it hasn’t since the quasi-occupation of Haiti in 2004 by the United Nations mission there, which comprised some 5000 military officers and civilian staff and advisers. Neither the Haitian National Police, nor the small, rather ragtag Haitian Army, nor the painfully undermanned replacement for the UN occupation—a 400-person Kenyan police detail sent in to deal with Haiti’s security problems—seems capable of countering the volatile and violent gangs that now rule the Haitian capital, making the chance of free or fair elections slim indeed. Still, under Conille the Haitian police—fortified recently by a shipment to the Kenyan force of 24 armored vehicles from the US—have at least begun to engage with the gangs, and have even managed to claw back some small areas of the capital from their grasp.

Conille himself had to show up to receive Blinken: the United States is still Haiti’s “best friend” in terms of humanitarian aid and other support, but Haiti’s status as a test tube for ruinous US experiments in democracy is not gaining the Americans any popularity, and Conille did not make a big occasion out of the visit. Neither did Blinken, who traveled through Port-au-Prince via convoys of armored cars from one location secured by US forces to another. A five-hour visit, from landing to takeoff.

With more than 300,000 Haitians, including thousands of babies and children, still displaced by the 2010 earthquake and years of intensifying gang activity, and living in total precarity— no sanitation, clean water, or healthcare; vast food insecurity; and often without work, shelter, or school—Haitians from the top of the social ladder to the bottom feel as if all the US money that’s gone into stabilizing the country in recent years has been wasted. Or, as Haitians say, “it’s like throwing water on the sand.” In 2023 alone, the US provided Haiti with $380 million in financial assistance—not an unusual figure for the perpetually strapped country. In the decade after the earthquake, the international community as a whole furnished some $13 billion in aid.

But there is no sign that over the many decades of assistance the Haitian people have moved forward economically. Instead many Haitians—and most foreign economic analysts—believe that much of this aid has gone to reinforce and enrich corrupt governments and their business friends, rather than to provide social programs and development for the population. Several of these friends were also darlings of Bill and Hillary Clinton, and benefited from their valuable support.

The Biden administration’s policy of forcible deportation of Haitian refugees from US borders back to Port-au-Prince—more than 20,000 during his administration—has also not won the US president many admirers in Haiti, especially given the administration’s July 2023 decision to begin evacuating families of American personnel because of ongoing insecurity.

“Do not travel to Haiti due to kidnapping, crime, civil unrest, and poor health care infrastructure,” read the travel advisory from the State Department. “US citizens in Haiti should depart Haiti as soon as possible by commercial or other privately available transportation options, in light of the current security situation and infrastructure challenges.” At the time, private helicopters were landing regularly on hilltops to ferry US citizens and Haitians with money and travel papers to either the neighboring Dominican Republic or to Miami, while the State Department haggled with Haitian groups about how to help the country out of its quagmire.

Beyond the failure of its aid program and its political policies, the United States is also reviled for supporting the 13-year UN occupation that only ended in 2017. “The Blinken visit is just a repeat of the traditional American playbook,” says Daniel Foote, former US special envoy to Haiti:

“Three years ago, the Department of State disavowed any desire for another UN peacekeeping mission, apparently acknowledging the fact that Haitians despise UN operations because of past atrocities, massacres, and sexual exploitation of women and children. Plus [the UN force] reintroduced cholera into the country 120 years after it was originally eradicated. Now the US is going for another military intervention [the Kenyan police] that’s not been requested by anyone but the US puppets. The irony: Secretary Blinken does all this while saying the plan is Haitian-led.”

If the US record were not so terrible in Latin America generally, it would be astonishing how backward and destructive the economic and political attitude of the world’s richest, best-armed superpower has been toward this desperate neighbor. After all, throughout its history Haiti has remained reasonably friendly toward the United States: no popular front, no powerful Communist or socialist party, a weak and fractured left, with much of its potential for resistance destroyed at conception by the US Marines’ occupation of the country from 1915 to 1934.

When the murderous Duvalier dynasty fell from power in 1986, Ronald Reagan was in the White house, and Haiti has been one of the prime victims of the US’s long Reagan hangover. His administration hoped that the military-civilian junta they supported after Duvalier’s departure would ensure that Haiti’s multigenerational economic elite and the country’s political class—so welcoming of long-entrenched US business interests and of the American government—would continue to run the country, only now without the obstacles that the corrupt Duvaliers had been putting in their way.

Members of those business-inclined elites—blessed, as Duvalier fell, by Reagan’s foreign policy circles—were repeatedly summoned to negotiating tables by US diplomats in the ensuing years. Until recently they were also still running the country as a balkanized series of corrupt fiefdoms, deploying gang firepower and coercion when necessary. The dead hand of Reaganomics in Haiti also kept the state extremely weak, leaving this same coddled elite and its minions in charge of services that in many other places would have been nationalized: transport, communications, energy, healthcare, water delivery, and education. Even the lottery was in private hands. In economic spaces where profit was not high enough—for example, clinics and schools in the countryside—international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), mostly religious charities, arrived to provide a limited version of service that the Haitian government could not provide, or would not. Haiti is Reagan’s dream made flesh: an economy almost completely run by the private sector, with no regulation.

But now the gangs that this same elite traditionally manipulated for political and business ends have apparently escaped from its control. Equipped with military-style weapons and ammunition brought in clandestinely through Miami’s ports, these groups have morphed into seemingly independent criminal enterprises and drug-trafficking rings that, while still sometimes useful to what Haitians call the county’s “biznis mafya,” can no longer be relied on to obey that mafia’s every command.

These same gangs now run almost all of Port-au-Prince—and are spreading their reigns of terror into the nearby countryside. Already this year, more than 4,000 Haitians have been killed or injured in gang violence. Tens of thousands have been displaced from their homes, all of which are systematically looted, and often burned. Women have been attacked both in gang-run areas, where many have been forced into what amounts to sexual servitude and enforced gang participation, and in neighborhoods under assault, where gang rape is common as a tool of control. Schools have been closed, hospitals attacked, looted, and burned, churches targeted, and barely a police headquarters in the capital or its environs has been left untouched by arson and looting. Several of the country’s largest prisons, redoubts of starvation and criminality themselves, have been destroyed and their populations released into the streets, some to starve further, others to rejoin the gangs.

Only one hospital in all of Port-au-Prince—l’Hôpital Universitaire de la Paix—can be called functional. Medical supplies have been commandeered by the gangs, as has gasoline. Extortionist tolls are exacted from bus drivers and passengers and from individual drivers at important crossroads leading in and out of Port-au-Prince. The highways around the country are places of banditry and death where hardly anyone ventures. The ubiquitous market women who come down from the countryside to sell in the cities’ markets—the picturesque lifeblood of Haitian commerce—are under constant threat of robbery and physical attack. “The gangs,” said Monica Clesca, a Haitian political activist, “are waging a war against the population.”

All of this terror was boiling and churning in recent years, as Washington vacillated and hemmed and hawed and turned away from reasonable Haitian interlocutors, engaging instead with the usual suspects it had always trusted and could never seemingly do without. American and other international negotiators put off new democratic groups, with new ideas about grassroots control of the country and real democratic rule, and rejected their proposals pretty much wholesale, while the old guard plotted and planned.

Whatever else the Haitians and Americans are now each cooking up, the brief passage of Blinken through the Haitian landscape means at least that the US hasn’t turned away from the crisis, even if so far it has been inept at helping to solve it. You may mistrust the motivations behind your friend’s offers of help, but still, you don’t want him to abandon you. From the administration’s point of view, continuing US support of Conille and the Kenyan force may help ensure that the Haitian situation doesn’t deteriorate further, at least in the immediate future, i.e., before the November 5 elections. The last thing the Democratic Party wants to see are boatloads of Haitians arriving on Florida’s shores during the next few months.

Conille is probably the right man for this moment: clear-eyed, familiar with the international complex (he worked for the UN in various capacities from 2001 on, including in Haiti after the earthquake), able to talk as an equal with Blinken, but also connected through family to both the Haitian elite and to the small but still important middle class. Slow to anger and with a reputation for loyalty toward his underlings rather than dramatic firings and hirings, Conille has so far been free from the usual, and often well-founded, accusations of corruption… or drug-trafficking…. or participation in gang massacres…. or looting of government coffers that have been leveled against many of his predecessors.

In the wings, the threat of Trump looms. He’s long put Haiti into his infamous category of “shithole countries,” while just this week his running mate JD Vance accused “illegal Haitian immigrants” of “draining social services and generally causing chaos all over Springfield, Ohio.” Vance also accused the Haitians of abducting and eating their neighbors’ household pets. Such talk does not bode well for Haitian immigrants—or for the country’s limping attempts to get out from under the gangs and move toward democratic governance.

When people ask how Haiti can be “like that” when it is so close to the US, the proper response is that it’s “like that” precisely because it is so close to the US.

Ohio’s Haitian immigrant influx boosts economy, strains services and sparks social furor

Haitian immigrants are reshaping Ohio’s demographics, bringing economic benefits but also challenging local infrastructure and social concerns in cities like Springfield.

by The Haitian Times

Sep. 10, 2024

Courtesy of Springfield, Ohio town website

Overview:

Ohio is experiencing a surge in Haitian immigration, particularly in cities like Springfield, where the population has grown by nearly 25% in the last four years. This demographic shift is reshaping the local economy and community dynamics, with benefits for industries facing labor shortages, and challenges to infrastructure and services like healthcare and education.

Ohio, traditionally a political bellwether, is undergoing a significant demographic shift with major implications as Haitian immigrants settle there. In recent years, the state has experienced a surge in Haitian immigration, particularly in cities like Springfield, that is reshaping communities economically, socially and politically. The growth is also highlighting anti-immigrant views such as vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance’s false, racist claims.

As Ohio grapples with these changes, the coming months will be crucial in determining whether the state can successfully integrate its new residents. The situation in Springfield could provide key insights into how communities across the U.S. might handle similar challenges in the future, particularly regarding immigration, economic policy, and electoral dynamics.

Springfield surge benefits economy

A city of about 60,000 residents, Springfield was once a symbol of the Rust Belt’s economic decline. But its population has grown by nearly 25%, driven largely by Haitians looking for work and safety, over the past four years. The city is now experiencing renewed vibrancy and opportunities. However, the rapid change has also brought challenges, including a resurfacing of white supremacist views, that have sparked debates among its residents and far beyond.

On the economic front, local businesses have benefited from the new labor force. Industries that were once struggling to fill positions, especially in manufacturing, have welcomed the Haitian workforce. Jamie McGregor, CEO of McGregor Metal Plant, highlighted the importance of these workers.

“Without the Haitian associates that we have, we had trouble filling these positions,” McGregor said.
Infrastructure, services, cultural concerns raised

For local infrastructure, however, the demographic shift has created challenges. Springfield’s hospitals, for example, are spending up to $50,000 each month on translation services for non-English-speaking patients. In school, many new students require additional support such as English as a Second Language (ESL), further straining already limited resources.

Local government officials are concerned about the resulting pressure on essential services. Mayor Rob Rue has urged state and federal authorities to step in and provide additional support.

“Our community has a big heart, but it’s being overwhelmed,” Rue said.

For long-time residents, the rapid changes have sparked concerns about local culture, the increased strain on services and broader social impacts. In response, the Springfield chapter of the NAACP, led by President Denise Williams, has been facilitating discussions aimed at promoting understanding between the Haitian community and established residents.

“They are not going anywhere,” Williams said during a recent forum. “So how do we co-exist? As one people.”

Racist claims tied to politics on rise

In politics, as the 2024 elections approach in particular, the presence of Haitians has become a focal point in local, state and federal campaigns. Immigration was already a hot-button issue in political debates, but the Haitian community’s growing presence could affect voter turnout and influence, especially in Ohio’s swing districts.

Just one day before the anticipated first debate between presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, Vance tweeted a debunked, racist conspiracy theory about Haitians in Ohio harming pets and wild animals. Other Republican officials like Ted Cruz and Elon Musk repeated the falsehood, just one of several that have been circulating on social platforms in targeting Haitians.

“People are scared and have been calling me all day because of this,” Vilès Dorsainvil, a Haitian community leader, said that Monday afternoon.

Prior to Vance amplifying the false claims, a white supremacist had become active in Springfield in the weeks prior. They held an anti-Haitian march in August, delivered a “warning” to the city officials during a regular meeting and ratcheted up attacks posted from anonymous users on Springfield social channels.

“Our community is more heated than it’s ever been after this [Vance] comment,” said Williams, of the Springfield NAACP. “This is really getting out of hand. [It] is absolutely disturbing. This is a good town. We don’t want them [far-right extremists] to run people off.”

This article contains information first reported by Springfield News Sun, WHIO, and NPR.

GOTHIC CAPITALISM

The Horror of Accumulation and the Commodification of Humanity.

ABSTRACT:

This article is in six parts with appendices. All footnotes are at the end of the article

1 ZOMBIE CAPITALISM
In Haiti under American Imperialism, 1915-1935, the cult of the Zombie developed and under capitalism became a tool for creating a docile labouring class for work on American controlled sugar plantations. With the publication of the Magic Island by William Seabrook in 1929 American popular culture was introduced to the Zombie, and it quickly became a popular character in horror literature, news stories and movies.