KOMPA! MAGAZINE

[DJ REY]

The typical beliefs that characterize that time period and which are still dominant in Haitian thinking have to do with sickness, death and sexuality.
In Haiti sickness and death rarely occur due to natural causes; Aids, Heart attack, Cholera, Tuberculosis just to name a few. For example Tuberculosis can be treated by transferring it to a roaster, a well organized "manje loa" (offering food to the spirits) can guarantee success in the area of economics, politics and even matters of love. One can steal the soul of another and keep it in a bottle.(extract from The Gods of voodoo).
Although the power of bad spirits do exist, one can consider the true relation between Voodoo curses and sudden cardiac death in Haiti. This will be our focus in this article.

What is Voodoo death?
Dr Cannon a famous pathologist in the 1940 era writes:

“In records of anthropologists and others who have lived with primitive people in widely scattered parts of the world is the testimony that when subjected to spells or sorcery or the use of ‘black magic,’ men may be brought to death. Among the natives of South America and Africa, Australia, New Zealand and the islands of the Pacific, as well as among the Negroes of Haiti, “Voodoo” death has been reported by apparently competent observers. The phenomenon is so extraordinary and so foreign to the experience of civilized people that it seems incredible; certainly if it is authentic it deserves careful consideration. I propose to recite instances of this mode of death, to inquire whether reports of the phenomenon are trustworthy, and to examine a possible explanation of it if it should prove to be real.”

But his expertize was done when medicine was still on his infancy that is why Doctor Reynold Ducasse writes:
People will argue that ‘Voodoo death’ is out there because people believe in the power of Voodoo; therefore, it is endowed with reality. And, they say, it is not just the ‘primitive people’ who believe that invisible spirits lurk around, often as the agents of evil. Fairly civilized, highly educated people often share also in those beliefs. Besides, the news out of Harvard University is that ‘Voodoo death may be real,’ which lends institutional, if not scientific credibility to the people’s credulity. Physicians must therefore be sensitive to the cultural background of the people they come in contact with, if anything, for the sake of communication and the ability to interact ethically with their clients.

“Cardiologists, on the other hand, know that apparently healthy and energetic people do, sometimes, drop dead without warning. They are also keenly aware that structural or genetic abnormalities of the heart or of the cardiovascular system can remain silent or undiagnosed until a stress supervenes and triggers a cascade of physiologic and pathologic responses ending in sudden death. The identification of these hidden or silent pathologies in the general population is indeed a daily concern for the cardiologist.

What is in fact sudden Cardiac death?
The American Heart association says Sudden cardiac death (also called sudden arrest) is death resulting from an abrupt loss of heart function (cardiac arrest). The victim may or may not have diagnosed heart disease. The time and mode of death are unexpected. It occurs within minutes after symptoms appear. The most common underlying reason for patients to die suddenly from cardiac arrest is coronary heart disease (fatty buildups in the arteries that supply blood to the heart muscle). All known heart diseases and Heart failure can lead to cardiac arrest and sudden cardiac death. Most of the cardiac arrests that lead to sudden death occur when the electrical impulses in the diseased heart become rapid (ventricular tachycardia) or chaotic (ventricular fibrillation) or both.
When sudden death occurs in young adults, other heart abnormalities are more likely causes. Adrenaline released during intense physical or athletic activity often acts as a trigger for sudden death when these abnormalities are present. Under certain conditions, various heart medications and other drugs — as well as illegal drug abuse — can lead to abnormal heart rhythms that cause sudden death.

What's happening in Haiti?
In Haiti Sudden death is often associated with voodoo curses or other unnatural causes. It is almost inconceivable for a young individual or adult to be alive today and die the next day in my homeland without any association whatsoever with spirit curses or a love affair that went sour. Keep in mind that our diet while being very tasty can be our worse enemy considering the amount of salt an oil added to our food. Our beloved gratin (crunchy residue of cooked food that remain in the bottom of a food container) and fritay (deep fried food) consumed almost daily by the population will eventually lead to plaque buildup in our coronary artery which overtime may caused a Heart attack. The accumulation of toxins and impurities in the vascular system can create lesions, stiffness and blockage of circulation. Improper exercise, accumulation of mental stress, lack of exercise and poor flexibility also exacerbate the condition. Disruption of biological rhythms through improper daily routine can disturb many physiological processes and depress the body's natural healing and balancing ability. All these factors can play a role in hypertension. Again remember that Heart failure secondary to hypertension is in fact in direct relation to our unhealthy diet and poor nutrition. Furthermore the huge amount of untreated diabetes, rheumatic fever, rheumatic valve, coronary artery, congenital heart disease and the huge amount of dilated cardiomyopathy are among the causes of cardiac death in Haiti the poorest country in the Western hemisphere.

Not to undermine the power of Black magic, voodoo curses and bad spirit but we, Rey Heart Care Foundation, think population education can help dissolve the myth related to Sudden cardiac death in Haiti a country of 10.5 million people service by only 16 non invasive cardiologists with no Interventional Lab or Cardiac Catheterization laboratory.

For the average Haitian citizen, lifestyle changes are no easy task. Severe lack of information, unawareness, and poor socio-economic circumstances do not allow the people in Haiti the luxury to be concerned about heart health until it is too late. But by educate our people now, offering free blood pressure screening, blood work, electro and echocardiogram and by creating a patient cardiac database in the country while awaiting the construction of the first Cardiac Care Center we think more and more people will take care of themselves and their Heart.

Reynald Dorsainvil RCSA, RCIS, CTAE


Click here for Dr Snyder's assessment on Haiti.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wth2F7cOB4o

This is our goal for a better Haiti, visit us on the web at www.reyheartcarefoundation.org or email us at reycare@gmail.com for help and suggestions.


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Rey Heart Care Foundation for Haiti.

[MINGOLOVE]

Great Topic, DJ Rey!

Just yesterday I was listening to a radio station in haiti where the journalists was interviewing a "chef seksyon" in the area surrounding Saint Louis du Sud; the interviewee said that people in the area do not believe in cholera as a true disease caused by contaminated water supplies, uncooked meats, fruits and vegetables, and other bacteria. They believe there is a "POUD KOLERA" out there that other Haitians used to kill their ennemies.

Most of our Haitian brothers and sisters in the motherland are so supertitious that they seem to associate every death with voodoo.

Sometimes someone might die from a cardiac arrest or a brain hemorrhage, they blame it of voodoo. People die in car accident, they blame it on voodoo.

Another cause of a lot of sudden deaths in Haiti that people tend to associated with voodoo is OVERDOSE. Usually when people have a headache, toothache, or stomach ache, if pills are not available or if they cannot afford to buy pills, some or most people boil leaves of different medicinal plants and drink the tea as a pain reliever. But the scarry thing is those people don't have any medical knowledge, therefore they do not know how many leave to put and how much water to add. very often they end up putting too many leaves (or sometimes two different leaves that can have adverse effects on the sick person health or heart rate) and the results are often fatal.

But since, they cannot provide a medical explanation for that and there is no autopsy to reveal the true cause of the death, people blame it on voodoo.

I remember after the earthquake, a lot of voodoo priests were attacked because some poeple believe that the voodoo loas caused the earthquake

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The views/opinions that I express on KM are strictly and solely those of MINGOLOVE, the HMEI personality, and should not be associated in any way with my membership in any other fields nor be held against me in any matter not related to entertainment.

[CAP - PORT MARGOT]

Superstition is one thing, stupidity and arrogance se sa pep la genyen. Moun yo ki ap di ou ke se Cholera liye, yo KALIFYE pou sa. Ki sa ou konnen pase yo pou ou demanti yo a?

Believe in something is one thing, not listening because you think you know better is another. Nou gen ARROGANCE sa nan san nou menm, se Independence lan ki fe nou sa. Nou fe bagay lot pep pa't JANM panse fe, sa fe ETRANJE PA KA DI NOU ANYEN.

Remember how Preval wanted to direct the NGO's in Haiti? Yon bagay ke yon qualified committee with EXPERIENCE in such things should have been in charge of.

Arrogance, stupidity and mostly ignorance ap kokobe yo. Just watch out for yourself. As someone living int he Diaspora, yo te ka di le se ou menm ki pote disease la nan katye sa epi ki tuye yon neg, paske ou tap blage fanm li (maybe you simply said hello to her).
One should always be extra careful and armed in a land like this, paske ignorance ap fe moun yo pedu la rezon ANYTIME.

[KREOLA]

CAP - PORT MARGOT wrote:

Superstition is one thing, stupidity and arrogance se sa pep la genyen. Moun yo ki ap di ou ke se Cholera liye, yo KALIFYE pou sa. Ki sa ou konnen pase yo pou ou demanti yo a? Believe in something is one thing, not listening because you think you know better is another. Nou gen ARROGANCE sa nan san nou menm, se Independence lan ki fe nou sa. Nou fe bagay lot pep pa't JANM panse fe, sa fe ETRANJE PA KA DI NOU ANYEN. Remember how Preval wanted to direct the NGO's in Haiti? Yon bagay ke yon qualified committee with EXPERIENCE in such things should have been in charge of. Arrogance, stupidity and mostly ignorance ap kokobe yo. Just watch out for yourself. As someone living int he Diaspora, yo te ka di le se ou menm ki pote disease la nan katye sa epi ki tuye yon neg, paske ou tap blage fanm li (maybe you simply said hello to her). One should always be extra careful and armed in a land like this, paske ignorance ap fe moun yo pedu la rezon ANYTIME.

Ala neg bien paler Your response was well put together
Koze depi yon moun mouri, se voodoo oubienn manjer yo manjer moun nan mwen bouke ave'l! Sometimes, It makes me wonder...Maybe our nation should never die of natural causes
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If it don't make $$... Then it don't make sense!

[MINGOLOVE]

Quote:

Arrogance, stupidity and mostly ignorance ap kokobe yo. Just watch out for yourself. As someone living int he Diaspora, yo te ka di le se ou menm ki pote disease la nan katye sa epi ki tuye yon neg, paske ou tap blage fanm li (maybe you simply said hello to her).

IGNORANCE, IGNORANCE, IGNORANCE TO THE FULLEST. The less educated in Haiti, and even some of those who have a certain level of education, often look into voodoo to find answers to what they cannot understand.
Pou ti peyizan an, latè pa tounen, se soley la ki mache. Ti peyizan an panse ke lè lapli pa tonbe se lot moun ki mare li.
Since some of them do not belive in medical and scientific findings, they are often skeptikal that cholera is cause by contaminate dwater and foods.
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The views/opinions that I express on KM are strictly and solely those of MINGOLOVE, the HMEI personality, and should not be associated in any way with my membership in any other fields nor be held against me in any matter not related to entertainment.

[FANMKONESE]

In the meantime dj reyos ou konnen haitain se bet ki mechant pa bliye METE TI KI LI KI'W sous ou nan koze rey foundation sa......

May the lord be with you my brother...See you tomorrow.....10:30 ta pan
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Personally, I am always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught."

--Winston Churchill

[SIROMYEL]

I have been following this subject and since I see that everyone seems to be going along the same path here, let me try to offer another point of view.

Yes there are people in Haiti who die of natural causes whose deaths have been wrongly attributed to curses or spells.

But we cannot deny the reality that in fact, in Haiti, people do die as a result of those things.


THE PROBLEM IS IN HAITI... IT IS HARD TO DIFFERENTIATE BETWEEN THE TWO.

And yes, Education can help at times, but not always.

Not because we are in the States and have a little education, must we forget that we come from a deeply spiritual and mystical country. A lot of thngs that make no sense elsewhere, happen in our country.

And it has nothng to do with the ignorance of our country men. Some of our people might not be very educated in the intellectual sense, but there are some things that they are very keen about that we can only dream of understanding.

In every country and every religion and across the education spectrum, spiritual people often seek a spiritual explanation to a lot of thngs that happen.

Haiti is not the exception, whether they are vaudouizans, or christian, or muslim, or hindu.
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A man who has taken possession of his own mind may take possession of anything else to which he is justly entitled_ Carnegie