(1) Jean-Claude “Baby-Doc” Duvalier had returned to Haiti. His family apparently still has supporters–surprising to some, in view of the brutal legacy of the “Baby Doc” and his father, who proceeded him. Father and son dictators. I’m not sure what the return of “Baby Doc” means for Haiti. I’m pretty sure it is not good news. But it is undeniably BIG news.
(2) Which brings me to the second reason I was shocked this morning. The Ft. Lauderdale, Sun-Sentinel buried the story in a few short paragraphs on page 16A.
OK, I give the Sun-Sentinel the benefit of the doubt–maybe the news snuck up on their print deadline. But as of now (a day after the fact), the story is still way down on the queue on their web site. Come on–this is a big story. Way big. Huge, in fact. Wake up and assign a reporter, or two or three, or four to work on this story.
Time/CNN’s Headline asks “Who Let ‘Baby Doc’ Duvalier Back into Haiti?” I’ve got another question. Who is there to keep him out? Calling the situation in Haiti chaos is giving it credit for more law and order than actually exists.
A couple of years ago our Christian Men’s Breakfast group was honored with the visit from a Haitian minister, in the US, at the time, to raise funds for church building in Haiti. He relayed some remarks to us, in effect saying that Haiti was under a curse because of a voudou pact it’s leaders had made to get their independence a couple of centuries ago. I hadn’t thought too much about those remarks until recently, when I asked a friend who has some pretty direct connections to Haiti. He referred me to “Bois Caiman” and suggested a Google© search would shed some light on Haitian history, and the background of what our preacher guest had told us. I thought the matter is interesting—read this and judge for yourself.
