"pact with the devil" my ass

in case you haven't heard, pat robertson claimed that the earthquake in haiti was a direct result of a pact the haitians made with the devil to win their freedom from the french back in 1791.

pat's words:
You know, Kristi, something happened a long time ago in Haiti and the people might not want to talk about it. They were under the heel of the French. Ah, you know, Napoleon III and whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said we will serve you if you'll get us free from the French. True story. And so the devil said, 'OK, it's a deal.' And ah they kicked the French out. You know, the Haitians revolted and got themselves free. But ever since, they have been cursed by by one thing after the other.

jezz louezz, pat. what the hell is the whatever of "napoleon iii and whatever"? the haitians were cruelly enslaved by the french. is cruel enslavement merely whatever to you?

point dos - pacts with the devil inevitably result in riches & fame on earth, punishment in the afterlife. haiti has experienced poverty and infamy. there's just a disconnect there. answer that, pat.

3) if the devil were on the side of the haitians, then surely god was on the side of the french. the evil, bloodthirsty, empire-building french. god chose them? really?

and this, if the haitians made a pact with the devil in the late 1700s to free themselves from oppression, then what of that other young country stretching its freedom-legs in the late 1700s? did the states of america also make such a lucifer-pact? or are some fights for freedom sponsored by god and some by the devil? eh... i've read the book of job. anything's possible at the supernatural level, i suppose, but these big players do tend towards a bit more consistency than switching sides in the span of a couple dozen years in similar situations geographically so close by.

oh, and pat - what about being compassionate and not judging? let's just say, for the sake of argument, that this earthquake is some sort of direct results of a pact with the devil. wouldn't this be a good time to show that compassion & acceptance christians are so famous for and thereby win countless lost souls back to the side of the light?

true story. heh. what a idot. c'mon pat. what are your sources for this true story? wikipedia?

the TRUTH is that to obtain freedom, the haitians made a pact with the french. a tenet of this pact was that the haitians pay the french 150 million gold francs, the equivalent of $21bill into today's money. in order to pay this debt, which took nearly 100 years, haiti had to borrow money from... france. jezz louezz. who is the "devil" in this scenario?



from a series of articles on the haitian revolution written by bob corbett, a professor retired from webster university and expert on haiti:
The colony of Saint-Domingue, geographically roughly the same land mass that is today Haiti, was the richest colony in the West Indies and probably the richest colony in the history of the world. Driven by slave labor and enabled by fertile soil and ideal climate, Saint-Domingue produced sugar, coffee, cocoa, indigo, tobacco, cotton, sisal as well as some fruits and vegetables for the motherland, France.

France enforced a system called the "exclusif" on Saint-Domingue. This required that Saint-Domingue sold 100% of her exports to France alone, and purchased 100% of her imports from France alone. The French merchants and crown set the prices for both imports and exports, and the prices were extraordinarily favorable to France and in no way competitive with world markets. It was virtually the same system as that which England had forced on its North American colonies and which finally sparked the independence movement in these colonies.

from the website of haiti action committee, an organization dedicated to the support of haitian democracy, based in san fransisco:
In 1825 France demanded that Haiti pay the French government 150 million gold francs to "compensate" French plantation slave-owners for their "financial losses" and in exchange for France's recognition of Haiti's independence. Years later, the amount was reduced to 90 million gold francs. The Haitian elite who had gained control of the country following independence, caved in to the pressure, seeing this ransom as an inevitable and necessary financial obligation if the country were to be allowed to live in peace and freedom and resume trade with its former colonizers. It took Haiti close to 100 years to pay off this debt and the debt was paid, not out of the money made by the elite through the export of raw goods, but rather on the backs of the Haitian people who continued to work the land.