Is voodoo a potential source of consolation to Haitis earthquake victims?
For all its challenges, Haiti remains a place of extraordinary human resourcefulness, a land where people having so little have found a way to adorn their lives with the imagination. Culturally it is arguably the most vibrant and extraordinary country in the Americas. In a time of tragedy and pain, the Haitian people, like people everywhere, will find comfort in faith, be it Christianity or the traditional religion of voodoo. All people in all cultures honor the dead, and the fact that the sheer scale of the disaster has precluded the possibility of proper ritual burials will be a source of concern and sadness to all Haitians. Perhaps in time some of this grief may be released in a ceremony of national remembrance that will honor all who have been lost. For now the rest of us, the entire global community, must do everything we can to support the living and facilitate the rebirth of a nation that has given so much to the world.
