12 January 2010 earthquake, Culture, Haitian history, January 12 2010 Earthquake, News, Paganicon 2017, Thoughts about Vodou, Vodou

Nou la (we’re here)

January 12, 2017 By andezo

I don’t use this blog nearly enough. This year, I hope to change that. If there are specific topics that you might be interested in me posting about, please contact me (andezo at gmail dot com) and let me know! I’m collecting ideas to make this a much more regular space. Social media, which is useful for short-term and breaking news, is becoming increasingly less useful for talking about bigger subjects, and it’s time to return to the long form.

Today marks seven years from the major earthquake that killed many people in Haiti, including some of my own family members. Time continues its march forward. Some things change, some things don’t change. Haiti has (yet another) new president, but no less controversy. The US continues to meddle in Haitian affairs. The UN, which suddenly issued an apology for its causing the cholera epidemic post-earthquake (but most likely only because the outgoing secretary is thinking about a presidential run in Korea and wants to look good), sent more peacekeepers to the country this week, but didn’t bother to vaccinate them against cholera until a public outcry was made – and now only they are treated. (Nothing at all has been done for the Haitians who live where they are).

It’s heartbreaking and frustrating and rage-inducing to know what’s going on in Haiti (to be fair, we’ve got those feelings about places outside Haiti currently as well, don’t we?). It becomes a serious effort to stay focused and not let it get you into a pit of despair and anger that does nothing at all except feed on itself.

But that effort is important. It is perhaps even more important when the stakes are this high. Stay informed. Read from many sources. Check your sources. Check them again. Learn about what’s going on behind the clickbait and the headlines. Get out of your comfort zone. To borrow a phrase from the justice movements in the US: stay woke. Remind yourself and your world: we’re here. We’re not going anywhere. We will continue. Strength makes them see.

PS: I’ll be appearing at Paganicon 2017, and am also one of the sponsors of the Pagans of Color & Allies suite that will be open during the event. We’ll have Vodou programming among many other things. Join us if you can.

Haitian history, News, Thoughts about Vodou, Vodou

Happy Birthday, Haiti – See you soon!

January 1, 2016 By andezo

Another New Year’s Day is upon us, and it’s time for soup joumou. (Why? You can read about that in a previous New Year’s post, here.) You can also sing the Joumou rap with Haitian Jonas, here. These two things always make me smile.

What also makes me smile, is the knowledge that I’ll be in Haiti again in a week’s time. It’s been ten years, even before the quake that changed everything. Some things of course haven’t changed much – suspended government and a “president” ruling by emergency decree, MINUSTAH still not taking a damn bit of responsibility or concern for causing a cholera epidemic. But I’m sure others have. All the little kids in the lakou will be teenagers now. I won’t get to see my godmother (who died in the quake) or my maman hounyo (who died later), and a few other people who have passed. Coming home is well overdue, bittersweet, but good. See you soon, Ayiti.

And I’ll be back to post about it sooner than I did last year.

12 January 2010 earthquake, Haitian history, January 12 2010 Earthquake, Links, News

Five years on: m’pa pi mal

January 12, 2015 By andezo

It was five years ago today that everything changed for Haiti. How is it now? The idiom, m’pa pi mal, couldn’t be more appropriate. Though this is usually what you say in Kreyol to the question koman ou ye or “how are you,” it doesn’t exactly translate as “I’m fine.”

Literally translated, it means: “I’m not any worse.”

Good things have happened, and bad things have also happened, since that terrible afternoon. I can’t say that there is much change in the grief for me, beyond that its jagged shapes are now known rather than lurking and unknown. I don’t wake up from nightmares of bodies under concrete as often as I once did, but it still happens. And I was thousands of miles away at the time. I can’t even begin to imagine how much more intense these feelings are for those who were in Haiti five years ago today.

Five years on, there is still far too much to be done. For those who lost family or home, or often both – and for the 80,000 (!) people still living in “temporary” shelters, tonight will not be magically different from the last five years of nights. Other than a day on a calendar, it is no different and things must still change. There is so much to be done still, and the pace at which my country and the rest of the world has offered its assistance, yet again, is shameful. So too is the response of the United Nations (don’t even get me started) and of Haiti’s government itself. As if there weren’t enough problems with thousands of people needing somewhere safe to live, there is still much political disruption to contend with, including a (potential) return to dictatorship as early as tonight, if Haiti’s parliament can’t get its act together in time.

How do you know what’s happening, if you don’t have family you can call? Here’s an aggregation of various reports on what’s going on, good and bad, in the Land of Mountains. Be aware of context. I’m trying to avoid the worst of the “disaster porn,” but I want to make sure I cover different contexts and angles.

Today’s news from Haiti Libre – many articles here.

Today’s news from the Haitian Times (aggregated from many sources) here.

ABC: “Five Year Anniversary Approaches” video (from 2010) and story here.

Khaleej Times (United Arab Emirates): “Haiti Pays Tribute to Quake Tragedy’s Dead” article here.

Boston Globe: “Hope links Haiti, Boston 5 years after quake” article here.

Fusion: “Five years after the Haiti earthquake: protests, voodoo, and rock and roll” article here.

Khaleej Times (United Arab Emirates): “Haiti Pays Tribute to Quake Tragedy’s Dead” article here.

Miami Herald: “Tens of thousands still living in tents 5 years after Haiti earthquake” article here.

NBC: “What Does Haiti Have to Show…” video and story here.

Reuters: “Haitians learn to live with disaster upon disaster” article here.

For my Haitian family, I have nothing but love. I miss you every day, but especially today when some of us – far too many of us – went to the angels.

Haitian history, Sacrifice, Thoughts about Vodou, Vodou, Vodou 101

Sacrifices in Vodou (Excerpt from HAITIAN VODOU)

November 4, 2014 By andezo

A current trending topic among friends and colleagues is the discussion of sacrifice and its place in religious practice. Far more eloquent people than myself have said some excellent things. I’ve been asked to share my own thoughts, and I’d like to offer an excerpt on this topic from a book I wrote a couple of years ago as my response. It’s still as relevant now as it was then, or when I was asked to speak on a panel about the topic at PantheaCon last February. It’s a long read, but I think it will be helpful.

Excerpted from HAITIAN VODOU, Chapter 3: Sacrifices in Vodou

Getting back to Haitian Vodou, we address perhaps the largest confusion and/or controversy that outsiders to the tradition will confront: the nature of sacrifice, and particularly animal sacrifice. The Lwa of Haitian Vodou request, and are given, many things as offerings or gifts as part of their ceremonies and service. Some Lwa want special candles or tangible objects like perfume, mirrors, or drums. Some Lwa might demand various drinks, from cool water to fiery kleren (pronounced kleh-REN, a high-proof, raw rum). Still other Lwa want various kinds of foods including fruits, vegetables, fancy pastries, breads, candies, and specially prepared dinners. Very few of our Lwa are vegetarians, and most of our Lwa eat meat, just as most Vodouisants eat meat. Remember that the practice of vegetarianism, or other decisions about what to eat or not eat, are generally considered luxuries in a country where food shortages and famines are far too frequent.

12 January 2010 earthquake, Haitian history, January 12 2010 Earthquake, News, Vodou

Four years later

January 12, 2014 By andezo

It started with a text.

Hey there was just a bad earthquake in Haiti, is Mami Marie OK?

I was in the car that afternoon, waiting for my downstairs neighbor to come out of the appointment I’d driven her to. One of my initiate daughters, ti-Marie, pinged me with the text. Immediately I phoned my Vodou mother, Mambo Marie; I knew that she had returned from her trip to see the family in Port-au-Prince only a few hours before. I managed to catch her.

“I’ll call,” she said. “I’ll call you back.”

I turned on the car, and the radio news.

None of the news was good. A massive, shallow earthquake had hit near Leogane, right before dinnertime. The only thing the reporters seemed to know was that the airport was “damaged” and that there were reports that the cathedral – and the palace – The Palace? – had fallen down.

That was when the panic set in. The family lakou is in a neighborhood very close to the Palace. And if that big, fancy, well-built thing had fallen down…

My neighbor came out of the building. I drove home, went upstairs to the apartment I had two floors above hers, grabbed both my phones, and started making calls.