Korean Job Discussion Forums

[On the other hand]

[NovaKart]

I read about this too. Pat Robertson is referring to Dutty Boukman who was a vodoun priest and he performed a ceremony to drive the French out, was later executed, and this led to the Haitian Revolution.

Haiti is actually mostly a Christian nation but many people also practice Voodoo/Vodou however you want to spell it.

I guess we should expect an evangelical Christian to be religiously intolerant but to make such an asinine statement during a tragedy is really putting his foot in his mouth.

[mattwhy]

Has Pat Robertson ever "had it" to begin with? When a school board in Pennsylvania chose to teach actual science in their classrooms, he spouted this gem:

"I'd like to say to the good citizens of Dover: If there is a disaster in your area, don't turn to God, you just rejected him from your city. And don't wonder why he hasn't helped you when problems begin, if they begin. I'm not saying they will, but if they do, just remember, you just voted God out of your city. And if that's the case, don't ask for his help because he might not be there."

[Marc Ravalomanana]

Robertson has a well-established pattern of gloating over mass deaths. It's what he does. I'm finding it hard to be shocked.

Robertson also claims he can leg press 2000 lbs.--this at age 79!

[Manner of Speaking]

I thought he was dead?

[Fox]

Didn't he also say God told him who would win the presidential election, but that he was keeping it a secret because he didn't want to be made fun of? How can people seriously follow this guy?

[Reggie]

Poor Pat. I thought you were going to say he had finally lost his virginity.

[djsmnc]

Whether they believe it or think it's abhorrent, I think a lot of people enjoy hearing stuff like this every time a disaster happens because it always gets a lot of media attention

[Julius]

The Haitian ambassador claims that South america was freed by Bolivar as a result of the Haitian uprising against the French...and that the US acquired Louisiana cheaply as a result.

Now that may have some merit, but isn't it equivalent to claiming that we all owe Julius caesar a debt of gratitude for defeating the Egyptians because if he hadn't the path of world history would have been different?

Bolivar would simply have docked at a different port and the US would've defeated the French anyway.

[Gopher]

Speechless.

[Adventurer]

Maybe, Robertson is doing this just for money. Who knows? I remember Robert Tilton, in Texas, had to quit the Tele-evangelist business because he was exposed as a fraud. I think it's rich to say 50,000 people died because of some alleged pact with a devil.

[Olivencia]

Yes Robertson is seriously wrong but I was wondering why (and not because of the earthquake) the Dominican Republic seems to be better off economically and in other areas as well.

[Gopher]

Why would you take Pat Robertson's "analysis" at face value -- especially when he places the Haitian rebellion and independence wars and Napoleon III in the same event?

The Dominican Republic suffered extreme instability from independence into 1930 (something like 30 presidents in 30 years at one point in its history), whereupon a strongman named Rafael Trujillo became probably Latin America's most brutal dictator ever. He hanged some enemies on meat hooks while still alive; he fed others to the sharks; one American foreign service officer compared him to Count Dracula in one cable. Dominicans finally assassinated him in summer 1961. Then the nation cascaded into chaos between 1961 and 1965. When it became bad enough that it looked as if Fidel Castro might be positioning himself to exploit it and assist exiled Dominican communists seize power (he was using Cuba and Venezuela as staging areas), the Johnson administration intervened and restored order.

Eventually another, this time more benevolent, dictator held power through, I believe, sometime in the 1990s. The Dominican Republic is currently relatively stable and it may have finally found permanent stability. Who knows? This notwithstanding, Pat Robertson certainly does not.

Pat Roberston, if there is any method at all to his madness, is surely looking at the Dominican Republic as a Catholic nation and Haiti as a nation constructed by former slaves, where vodoo, for example, and other non-Christian religions, remain in practice. And this must be what informed his thinking when he said this.

[Ya-ta Boy]

[Sector7G]

Hey, it was an honest mistake on Pat's part. He thought they said Hades.