A Global Network for Enlightening Peace Activism - Humanity Unites Brilliance
It's Not Too Late To Change!
Date: Mon, 8 Oct 2007 22:45:57 -0400
Columbus Day - As Rape Rules Africa and American Churches Embrace Violent "Christian" Video Games
by Thom Hartmann
"Gold is most excellent; gold constitutes treasure; and he who has it does all he wants in the world, and can even lift souls up to Paradise."
-- Christopher Columbus, 1503 letter to the king and queen of Spain.
"Christopher Columbus not only opened the door to a New World, but also set an example for us all by showing what monumental feats can be accomplished through perseverance and faith."
--George H.W. Bush, 1989 speech
If you fly over the country of Haiti on the island of Hispaniola, the island on which Columbus landed, it looks like somebody took a blowtorch and burned away anything green. Even the ocean around the port capital of Port au Prince is choked for miles with the brown of human sewage and eroded topsoil. From the air, it looks like a lava flow spilling out into the sea.
The history of this small island is, in many ways, a microcosm for what's happening in the whole world.
When Columbus first landed on Hispaniola in 1492, virtually the entire island was covered by lush forest. The Taino "Indians" who loved there had an apparently idyllic life prior to Columbus, from the reports left to us by literate members of Columbus's crew such as Miguel Cuneo.
When Columbus and his crew arrived on their second visit to Hispaniola, however, they took captive about two thousand local villagers who had come out to greet them. Cuneo wrote: "When our caravels. where to leave for Spain, we gathered.one thousand six hundred male and female persons of those Indians, and these we embarked in our caravels on February 17, 1495.For those who remained, we let it be known (to the Spaniards who manned the island's fort) in the vicinity that anyone who wanted to take some of them could do so, to the amount desired, which was done."
Cuneo further notes that he himself took a beautiful teenage Carib girl as his personal slave, a gift from Columbus himself, but that when he attempted to have sex with her, she "resisted with all her strength." So, in his own words, he "thrashed her mercilessly and raped her."
While Columbus once referred to the Taino Indians as cannibals, a story made up by Columbus - which is to this day still taught in some US schools - to help justify his slaughter and enslavement of these people. He wrote to the Spanish monarchs in 1493: "It is possible, with the name of the Holy Trinity, to sell all the slaves which it is possible to sell.Here there are so many of these slaves, and also brazilwood, that although they are living things they are as good as gold."
Columbus and his men also used the Taino as sex slaves: it was a common reward for Columbus' men for him to present them with local women to rape. As he began exporting Taino as slaves to other parts of the world, the sex-slave trade became an important part of the business, as Columbus wrote to a friend in 1500: "A hundred castellanoes (a Spanish coin) are as easily obtained for a woman as for a farm, and it is very general and there are plenty of dealers who go about looking for girls; those from nine to ten (years old) are now in demand."
However, the Taino turned out not to be particularly good workers in the plantations that the Spaniards and later the French established on
Hispaniola: they resented their lands and children being taken, and attempted to fight back against the invaders. Since the Taino where obviously standing in the way of Spain's progress, Columbus sought to impose discipline on them. For even a minor offense, an Indian's nose or ear was cut off, se he could go back to his village to impress the people with the brutality the Spanish were capable of. Columbus attacked them with dogs, skewered them with pikes, and shot them.
Eventually, life for the Taino became so unbearable that, as Pedro de Cordoba wrote to King Ferdinand in a 1517 letter, "As a result of the sufferings and hard labor they endured, the Indians choose and have chosen suicide. Occasionally a hundred have committed mass suicide. The women, exhausted by labor, have shunned conception and childbirth. Many, when pregnant, have taken something to abort and have aborted. Others after delivery have killed their children with their own hands, so as not to leave them in such oppressive slavery."
Eventually, Columbus and later his brother Bartholomew Columbus who he left in charge of the island, simply resorted to wiping out the Taino altogether. Prior to Columbus' arrival, some scholars place the population of Haiti/Hispaniola (now at 16 million) at around 1.5 to 3 million people. By 1496, it was down to 1.1 million, according to a census done by Bartholomew Columbus. By 1516, the indigenous population was 12,000, and according to Las Casas (who were there) by 1542 fewer than 200 natives were alive. By 1555, every single one was dead.
This wasn't just the story of Hispaniola; the same has been done to indigenous peoples worldwide. Slavery, apartheid, and the entire concept of conservative Darwinian Economics, have been used to justify continued suffering by masses of human beings.
Dr. Jack Forbes, Professor of Native American Studies at the University of California at Davis and author of the brilliant book "Columbus and Other Cannibals," uses the Native American word wétiko (pronounced WET-ee-ko) to describe the collection of beliefs that would produce behavior like that of Columbus. Wétiko literally means "cannibal," and Forbes uses it quite intentionally to describe these standards of culture: we "eat" (consume) other humans by destroying them, destroying their lands, taking their natural resources, and consuming their life-force by enslaving them either physically or economically. The story of Columbus and the Taino is just one example.
We live in a culture that includes the principle that if somebody else has something we need, and they won't give it to us, and we have the means to kill them to get it, it's not unreasonable to go get it, using whatever force we need to.
In the United States, the first "Indian war" in New England was the "Pequot War of 1636," in which colonists surrounded the largest of the Pequot villages, set it afire as the sun began to rise, and then performed their duty: they shot everybody-men, women, children, and the elderly-who tried to escape. As Puritan colonist William Bradford described the scene: "It was a fearful sight to see them thus frying in the fire and the streams of blood quenching the same, and horrible was the stink and scent thereof; but the victory seemed a sweet sacrifice, and they [the colonists] gave praise therof to God, who had wrought so wonderfully..."
The Narragansetts, up to that point "friends" of the colonists, were so shocked by this example of European-style warfare that they refused further alliances with the whites. Captain John Underhill ridiculed the Narragansetts for their unwillingness to engage in genocide, saying Narragansett wars with other tribes were "more for pastime, than to conquer and subdue enemies."
In that, Underhill was correct: the Narragansett form of war, like that of most indigenous Older Culture peoples, and almost all Native American tribes, does not have extermination of the opponent as a goal. After all, neighbors are necessary to trade with, to maintain a strong gene pool through intermarriage, and to insure cultural diversity. Most tribes wouldn't even want the lands of others, because they would have concerns about violating or entering the sacred or spirit-filled areas of the other tribes. Even the killing of "enemies" is not most often the goal of tribal "wars": It's most often to fight to some pre-determined measure of "victory" such as seizing a staff, crossing a particular line, or the first wounding or surrender of the opponent.
This wétiko type of theft and warfare is practiced daily by farmers and ranchers worldwide against wolves, coyotes, insects, animals and trees of the rainforest; and against indigenous tribes living in the jungles and rainforests. It is our way of life. It comes out of our foundational cultural notions.
So it should not surprise us that with the doubling of the world's population over the past 37 years has come an explosion of violence and brutality, and as the United States runs low on oil, we are now fighting wars in oil-rich parts of the world. It shouldn't surprise us that our churches are using violent "kill the infidels" video games to lure in children, while in parts of Africa contaminated by our culture and rich in oil (Congo) rape has become so widespread as to make the front page of yesterday's New York Times.
These are all dimensions, after all, our history, which we celebrate on Columbus Day. But if we wake up, and we help the world wake up, it need not be our future.
Excerpted and slightly edited from "The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight: The Fate of the World and What We Can Do Before It's Too Late." Hartmann's most recent book is Cracking The Code: How to Win Hearts, Change Minds, and Restore America's Original Vision.
www.thomhartmann.com
Columbus Day - As Rape Rules Africa and American Churches Embrace Violent "Christian" Video Games
by Thom Hartmann
"Gold is most excellent; gold constitutes treasure; and he who has it does all he wants in the world, and can even lift souls up to Paradise."
-- Christopher Columbus, 1503 letter to the king and queen of Spain.
"Christopher Columbus not only opened the door to a New World, but also set an example for us all by showing what monumental feats can be accomplished through perseverance and faith."
--George H.W. Bush, 1989 speech
If you fly over the country of Haiti on the island of Hispaniola, the island on which Columbus landed, it looks like somebody took a blowtorch and burned away anything green. Even the ocean around the port capital of Port au Prince is choked for miles with the brown of human sewage and eroded topsoil. From the air, it looks like a lava flow spilling out into the sea.
The history of this small island is, in many ways, a microcosm for what's happening in the whole world.
When Columbus first landed on Hispaniola in 1492, virtually the entire island was covered by lush forest. The Taino "Indians" who loved there had an apparently idyllic life prior to Columbus, from the reports left to us by literate members of Columbus's crew such as Miguel Cuneo.
When Columbus and his crew arrived on their second visit to Hispaniola, however, they took captive about two thousand local villagers who had come out to greet them. Cuneo wrote: "When our caravels. where to leave for Spain, we gathered.one thousand six hundred male and female persons of those Indians, and these we embarked in our caravels on February 17, 1495.For those who remained, we let it be known (to the Spaniards who manned the island's fort) in the vicinity that anyone who wanted to take some of them could do so, to the amount desired, which was done."
Cuneo further notes that he himself took a beautiful teenage Carib girl as his personal slave, a gift from Columbus himself, but that when he attempted to have sex with her, she "resisted with all her strength." So, in his own words, he "thrashed her mercilessly and raped her."
While Columbus once referred to the Taino Indians as cannibals, a story made up by Columbus - which is to this day still taught in some US schools - to help justify his slaughter and enslavement of these people. He wrote to the Spanish monarchs in 1493: "It is possible, with the name of the Holy Trinity, to sell all the slaves which it is possible to sell.Here there are so many of these slaves, and also brazilwood, that although they are living things they are as good as gold."
Columbus and his men also used the Taino as sex slaves: it was a common reward for Columbus' men for him to present them with local women to rape. As he began exporting Taino as slaves to other parts of the world, the sex-slave trade became an important part of the business, as Columbus wrote to a friend in 1500: "A hundred castellanoes (a Spanish coin) are as easily obtained for a woman as for a farm, and it is very general and there are plenty of dealers who go about looking for girls; those from nine to ten (years old) are now in demand."
However, the Taino turned out not to be particularly good workers in the plantations that the Spaniards and later the French established on
Hispaniola: they resented their lands and children being taken, and attempted to fight back against the invaders. Since the Taino where obviously standing in the way of Spain's progress, Columbus sought to impose discipline on them. For even a minor offense, an Indian's nose or ear was cut off, se he could go back to his village to impress the people with the brutality the Spanish were capable of. Columbus attacked them with dogs, skewered them with pikes, and shot them.
Eventually, life for the Taino became so unbearable that, as Pedro de Cordoba wrote to King Ferdinand in a 1517 letter, "As a result of the sufferings and hard labor they endured, the Indians choose and have chosen suicide. Occasionally a hundred have committed mass suicide. The women, exhausted by labor, have shunned conception and childbirth. Many, when pregnant, have taken something to abort and have aborted. Others after delivery have killed their children with their own hands, so as not to leave them in such oppressive slavery."
Eventually, Columbus and later his brother Bartholomew Columbus who he left in charge of the island, simply resorted to wiping out the Taino altogether. Prior to Columbus' arrival, some scholars place the population of Haiti/Hispaniola (now at 16 million) at around 1.5 to 3 million people. By 1496, it was down to 1.1 million, according to a census done by Bartholomew Columbus. By 1516, the indigenous population was 12,000, and according to Las Casas (who were there) by 1542 fewer than 200 natives were alive. By 1555, every single one was dead.
This wasn't just the story of Hispaniola; the same has been done to indigenous peoples worldwide. Slavery, apartheid, and the entire concept of conservative Darwinian Economics, have been used to justify continued suffering by masses of human beings.
Dr. Jack Forbes, Professor of Native American Studies at the University of California at Davis and author of the brilliant book "Columbus and Other Cannibals," uses the Native American word wétiko (pronounced WET-ee-ko) to describe the collection of beliefs that would produce behavior like that of Columbus. Wétiko literally means "cannibal," and Forbes uses it quite intentionally to describe these standards of culture: we "eat" (consume) other humans by destroying them, destroying their lands, taking their natural resources, and consuming their life-force by enslaving them either physically or economically. The story of Columbus and the Taino is just one example.
We live in a culture that includes the principle that if somebody else has something we need, and they won't give it to us, and we have the means to kill them to get it, it's not unreasonable to go get it, using whatever force we need to.
In the United States, the first "Indian war" in New England was the "Pequot War of 1636," in which colonists surrounded the largest of the Pequot villages, set it afire as the sun began to rise, and then performed their duty: they shot everybody-men, women, children, and the elderly-who tried to escape. As Puritan colonist William Bradford described the scene: "It was a fearful sight to see them thus frying in the fire and the streams of blood quenching the same, and horrible was the stink and scent thereof; but the victory seemed a sweet sacrifice, and they [the colonists] gave praise therof to God, who had wrought so wonderfully..."
The Narragansetts, up to that point "friends" of the colonists, were so shocked by this example of European-style warfare that they refused further alliances with the whites. Captain John Underhill ridiculed the Narragansetts for their unwillingness to engage in genocide, saying Narragansett wars with other tribes were "more for pastime, than to conquer and subdue enemies."
In that, Underhill was correct: the Narragansett form of war, like that of most indigenous Older Culture peoples, and almost all Native American tribes, does not have extermination of the opponent as a goal. After all, neighbors are necessary to trade with, to maintain a strong gene pool through intermarriage, and to insure cultural diversity. Most tribes wouldn't even want the lands of others, because they would have concerns about violating or entering the sacred or spirit-filled areas of the other tribes. Even the killing of "enemies" is not most often the goal of tribal "wars": It's most often to fight to some pre-determined measure of "victory" such as seizing a staff, crossing a particular line, or the first wounding or surrender of the opponent.
This wétiko type of theft and warfare is practiced daily by farmers and ranchers worldwide against wolves, coyotes, insects, animals and trees of the rainforest; and against indigenous tribes living in the jungles and rainforests. It is our way of life. It comes out of our foundational cultural notions.
So it should not surprise us that with the doubling of the world's population over the past 37 years has come an explosion of violence and brutality, and as the United States runs low on oil, we are now fighting wars in oil-rich parts of the world. It shouldn't surprise us that our churches are using violent "kill the infidels" video games to lure in children, while in parts of Africa contaminated by our culture and rich in oil (Congo) rape has become so widespread as to make the front page of yesterday's New York Times.
These are all dimensions, after all, our history, which we celebrate on Columbus Day. But if we wake up, and we help the world wake up, it need not be our future.
Excerpted and slightly edited from "The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight: The Fate of the World and What We Can Do Before It's Too Late." Hartmann's most recent book is Cracking The Code: How to Win Hearts, Change Minds, and Restore America's Original Vision.
www.thomhartmann.com
Tags: 'the, ancient, book-, for, hartmann's, hours, last, looking, of, please
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by dawnbutt on
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What a tragic terrifying account of what man can do to man and believe they are right in so doing.
Love and blessings
Dawn
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Permalink Reply by Alana Lea on -
Thank you for this timely post, reminding us of the true story behind Columbus Day. I really appreciate and affirm the ending statement "...if we wake up, and we help the world wake up, it need not be our future..." in reference to the corruption behind us.
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Permalink Reply by Sharon Godelieve on -
It is sad to read this. It is 9:11pm and very unpleasant to read. I wished I didn't fall on your document, which I didn't read entirely due to the negativity even if it had happen, I don't want to extend my energy to this burning fire. I am going to meditate to get my energies in a better place.
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Permalink Reply by Sharon Godelieve on
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May I add. Do you have any positive suggestions to solve the problem as you have been thinking about it? Thanks.
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Permalink Reply by Alana Lea on
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I feel that celebrating Columbus Day needs to be recreated as a day of honoring first nations peoples instead of perpetuating the glorification of brutality. During the years that I was involved in multicultural education in schools, I made a point to honor the little known of the Taino people on that day. Very few people know the truth about Columbus, so celebrate and honor him as if he had been a hero.
Once we know the truth, we can then make a choice to change direction, and not play out the same old scenes in new settings. While it can't undo the past, awareness can open the way to healing, compassion and offer a new perspective for the stories we tell our children, and the values those stories perpetuate.
And, there's always the chance that the heart will be softened by the truth, so much so that the direction and tone of one's life could change. It could even lead people to becoming champions for the Earth, for her people of all races and conditions. It can breed humanitarians.
Thankfully, this is the case in the world I see around me - people who face the truth full on and infuse their prayers into their actions, doing whatever tiny or grand thing they can, to plant peace and kindness.
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Permalink Reply by Sharon Godelieve on
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Ah I prefer the way you express yourself now. Yes, indeed I really do not want to celebrate Christoph Columbus anymore and I did not know about those events. If somebody wants to know the truth about the United States and war, just go and look at all the names with dates of the wars we had on Iowa Jim monument next to Arlington's National Cemetary. It is astonishing. I also would like to draw your attention to the fact that war history has been given to children since school exists and I sure do not see any changes in the methods of solving government's problem or conflicts. The strong and more powerfull impose their will and/or ideas by knowledge or tricks or forceful methods including war. I do not know the solution because the leaders of powerful countries have an excellent knowledge and communication skills, however, instead of using it for the good of all, they are using it for personal gain. I always thought that with communication knowledge conflicts would be resolved peacefully. This is not the case. What can I say? We have to become more evolved spiritually and learn more about love, wisdom, etc....
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Permalink Reply by Alana Lea on
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Sharon, I'd also like to point out that the first post in this stream is not me expressing myself, but rather a quote of an article by Thom Hartmann, that was posted by one of our members in Ireland. I encourage the opening of these topics so that we can do exactly what we did right here - open our minds and hearts to learn, so that we can change.
While there are a few enlightened politicians out there, it is up to us to be the change, to write and teach the real and new history. There are a number of educators on this site who do just that. But we can teach peace with our own actions and willingness to harmonize opposites.
Truth simply sharpens our tool to sculpt a new future for our children...
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Permalink Reply by Tracy Harper on
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Dear Sharon,
It was not my intent to upset you personally when I posted the article by the amazing peace maker- Thom Hartmaan, it was Columbus Day in America... & therefore
I wished to throw light on a little known fact. I am sad that you could not finish reading it, as it's author is one of the major gurus in the world of ecology & earth- healing... If you manage to get hold of any of his books, you will find that he has many wonderful solutions to most of the major problems we face today. I urge you to step out of your bubble & read the end of the item, as it asks us to wake up! Only through awakening (however painful), will we find relief from our obvious shock at the real truth about the Columbus legacy.
As an active peace pilgrim myself -(I work daily with survivors of the genocide happening in Darfur as I speak) & as the great great great grandchild of an Arawak Indian (native South American from Guyana) I felt it appropriate to post this insightful article. I firmly believe that if we are to have peace- there must be remembering.. only then can we have forgiving... & with this in place, we can begin healing.
Shying away from the truth might serve us in the short term, but with all due respect, short term = short sightedness. I strive for an eternal peace. This I believe is our true destiny & is the only meaningful legacy we can leave the generations to come.
I sincerely wish you & yours a peaceful 2008. I am extremely hopeful for you, as you are already part of a wonderfully active community here...I've found that on this peace portal site- we do not shy away from the truth.
Sharon my dear fellow member, the prayer I send you at this very moment is.... 'May you be happy... May you cease to be fearful.... May you live in safety... May you be at peace...
Love & Light
From Tracy
XXXXXXXXX
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Permalink Reply by Sharon Godelieve on
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Thank you for your loving prayers Tracy. Sorry but I don't think that I shy away. I just do not want to read unpleasant things as I really know what can go on on this planet, all too well. I was a psychotherapist (I am always a healer) and worked with really hurting people and I was not affected. This is because I knew that they would be better after our session and yes very rarely it doesn't work out, but that is also in God's hands. I worked with raped abused children, as well as grown ups. I worked with juvenile "killers" with a Police Officer sitting with me. I worked with nurses to fortify them and enable them to do their job differently as they would see children die. Children that they became found of, etc... Differently obviously means not hurting, but still being able to love and care for the children. This is not taught in nursing school yet. I worked with drug addicts, with achololics, etc... not to mention them all. Believe me at the end of our sessions, I would hear: This is the first time I feel clean (says a 28 year old married women who was molested for a few years as a child by family members) (I worked with her husband, her lover, her lover's other girlfriend which was her friend and she didn't know it, his wife and his son. All this whilst maintaining confidentiality and knowing what was going on before they opened their mouth to speek). Going into the negative just to remember isn't my thing. Going into the negative and transforming it right then and there, that is my thing. It is a very beautiful thing when you get the person out of their pain and see them physically change. My first 32yr old raped women, well after our 2 or 3 hour session, I told her to go and look into a mirroir, which she did. You could see her eyes shine with beauty and her body fellt her finally wellbeing. It is a gift to see them become different and that they are aware/conscious of their personal transformation. Yes, these transformation lasted. I worked with employees of the Europeen Commission that went to Kosovo war to help out the victims, believe me they needed personal transformation of the mental registration of what they experienced and saw there, even if it was to go back and help out. I do not believe in spreading negative images into the World Consciousness. I believe in tranforming the unfortunate existing negativity of the One World Consciousness into positive energy. It can be done and I have and am doing it. Every time someone has a negative thought whether real or imaged it increases the worldwide negativity. The oppoisite is also valid. The mind does not know the difference between reality and an imagined image. I really accept your prayers they warm my heart, because it sure feels good to receive your Love and Light. Thanks Tracy. You can check my website to know some of my trainings: www.wellsoflife.com You are definitely a Light Being.
Love and blessings to you and your love ones. Sharon
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