From: Human Rights Coordinator Date: 04 Oct 92 09:34 PDT Subject: COLUMBUS: THE ROOTS OF 'THE JOURNEY' /SERIES/ Message-ID: <1563600214@igc.apc.org> I thought people in this conference might be interested in this series of articles from the Inter Press Service. Debra Guzman (hrcoord@igc.apc.org) /* Written 12:04 am Oct 4, 1992 by newsdesk in cdp:ips.englibrary */ Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved. Permission to re- print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'. Title: COLUMBUS: THE ROOTS OF 'THE JOURNEY' /SERIES/ an inter press service feature by jan van beek and frans bieckmann palos de la frontera, spain oct 1 (ips) -- it was from the harbour of this small town in the south of spain that christopher columbus sailed on august 3, 1492 with the three-ship convoy that invaded the 'new world'. palos de la frontera's role in the voyage being commemorated this year was pivotal. here columbus found shelter after his proposals for the expedition had been rejected by the king of portugal. here he met the friends who would put him in contact with the spanish rulers, ferdinand and isabella. and it was palos de la frontera which provided the sailors and departure point for the voyage undertaken by the 'nina', 'pinta' and 'santa maria'. events of 500 years ago are recorded everywhere in what is today a small town situated in idyllic spanish countryside, scripted on tiles on street corners. but back in those days columbus encountered scepticism and doubt. julio izquierdo labrado, the town historian and secretary, recalls that columbus arrived at palos in may 1492 with royal decrees obliging the town to equip two ships for his expedition. those two ships, the fast caravels 'pinta' and 'nina', were to be under the command of two of palos' most powerful men, martin alonso pinzon and his brother vicente yanez. ''you can imagine how columbus must have felt,'' says labrado. ''for six years he had been imploring the king of portugal for support. he had been rejected as an unreliable dreamer. then for six years he tried to convince the spanish rulers. bishop hernando de talavera and his royal commission also rejected his plans. ''already on his way to offer his services to the french king he was called back by queen isabella. in spring 1492 he got his contract, laid down in the 'capitulaciones de santa fe', but when he began to equip his expedition in palos, nobody wanted to go with him.'' born in 1452 in the italian port of genoa, columbus was wedded to the sea from an early age, commanding cargo boats and caravels, navigating the mediterranean. turkish armies had occupied the eastern part of the roman empire, christian byzantium, in 1453. commerce was paralysed. (more/ips) columbus: the roots of 'the journey' /series/(2) columbus: the roots (2) spice, silk, fur and silver trading routes through the bosphorus to the black sea and the river don, through the persian gulf to the syrian harbours, were all blocked. fascinated by the seductive flavours and mysterious origins of the products from the orient, europeans were desperate to find a way to the source. columbus learned of the far east from marco polo's account, published in 'il milione', the book of a million miracles, one of the first bestsellers ever (100 hand-written copies). the state of science at the end of the 15th century was such that it was generally known -- although the church was reluctant to acknowledge -- that the earth was round. columbus was therefore sure that he could reach the far east by sailing west. he petitioned the portuguese court of king john the second for support ''to discover in the west, in south-western direction near the equator, big pieces of land, islands and mainland, rich in gold and silver, pearls, jewels and numerous people''. along this route he would reach ''india, the big island cipangu (as japan was then known), and the kingdoms of the great khan (china).'' but a royal commission set up by the king rejected the proposal in 1485. burdened by debt and his wife having died, columbus left portugal with his son, five-year-old diego. arriving here, he was befriended by abbot juan perez, a confessor of queen isabella, and astronomer antonio de marchena at the franciscan monastery, 'la rabida'. unlike portugal, fifteenth-century spain was ready for columbus' ideas. europe was feverishly building nations. isabella had obtained absolute power in castilla in 1468 and had enlarged the empire by marrying her cousin ferdinand, the crown prince of aragon. their daughter joan, 'the insane', would marry philip of habsburg and give birth to charles the fifth, the first european monarch. in 1474, isabella declared herself queen of castilla, triggering a civil war involving king alphonse of portugal. peace was re-established between the two countries in 1479 with the signing of the treaty of alcacovas. portugal acquired the right to navigate over the atlantic to the coasts of africa and rule over the azores, madeira, and the cape verde islands. spain kept the canary islands, but had to stop piracy against portuguese merchant-ships. castilian ships were not allowed to sail south of the 28th latitude. with the route to the south out of bounds, spain had to look westwards. columbus needed what is now the equivalent of two million u.s. dollars for his journey. queen isabella and king ferdinand, weakened by war, could give him only half the amount. (more/ips) columbus: the roots of 'the journey' /series/(3-e) columbus: the roots (3) columbus' franciscan friends from the monastery at la rabida convinced the pinzon brothers to provide a portion of the outstanding sum. that left a deficit which the navigator himself undertook to meet in part. but columbus was heavily indebted. exploring financing possibilities in italy, whose bankers had stepped into the vacuum created in spain after the inquisition eradicated many jewish financiers, columbus struck a deal with juanoto berardi, a slave trader with offices in seville. in return for loans, columbus promised to supply slaves from the lands he would reach. he returned from his first voyage with a few arawaks, but more as curiosity items than to trade. ''in the name of the holy trinity,'' columbus wrote to the sovereigns, ''we can send from here all the slaves that can be sold ... if your majesties so commanded, the entire population could be shipped to castile or be enslaved on the island ... since these people are totally ignorant of martial arts.'' three hundred of the 500 slaves survived the first voyage. those who did survive eventually succumbed to a variety of european diseases. columbus' second voyage was meant to be the beginning of a real trade in order to repay his debts to berardi. under orders from the spanish crown berardi bought a ship for columbus' second trip which was undertaken with a total of 17 vessels and 1,500 sailors. they sailed off in 1493. in april of the next year, de torres returned early with 1,000 caribbean slaves. columbus had ordered him to hand them over to berardi, but the arawaks' condition was miserable. columbus had a similar plan for his third journey. but by then there was such criticism of the trading in the frail arawaks that queen isabella signed a decree prohibiting their sale. when columbus refused to heed the decree, the monarchs sent a personal emissary to stop him. the navigator and his brother bartholomew were eventually returned to spain in chains. there, isabella pardoned him. columbus died in 1506, bitter and isolated. (end/ips/ip-ce/jb-fb) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - From: Human Rights Coordinator Date: 04 Oct 92 09:36 PDT Subject: COLUMBUS: THE ISLE TIME FORGOT /SER Message-ID: <1563600215@igc.apc.org> /* Written 12:04 am Oct 4, 1992 by newsdesk in cdp:ips.englibrary */ Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved. Permission to re- print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'. Title: COLUMBUS: THE ISLE TIME FORGOT /SERIES/ an inter press service feature by jan van beek and frans bieckmann cockburn town, san salvador oct 1 (ips) -- seven caribbean islands claim to be the first spot on which columbus set foot at 8 pm on october 12, 1492. the compelling case of this 60 square mile territory on the outer fringes of the 700-island bahamas island chain was given official endorsement in 1926 when the colonial government changed its name from watling's island to san salvador: the saviour. the arawaks, original inhabitants of the island, called it guanahani. columbus landed here after a 35-day journey. today 400 people live on san salvador, mainly descendants of african slaves owned by loyalists in the united states. they were given land here after the american war of independence as reward for keeping faith in the british crown. a white cross erected on long beach is said to mark the spot on which columbus first set foot. there are other monuments. on the east coast, in the middle of nowhere, stands a pile of stones and a marble globe, placed there a century ago by the u.s. daily, 'the chicago tribune'. a few miles north of the white cross an expedition imitating columbus' journey also left a commemorating tablet. an english pirate, watling, had used san salvador as a base from which to rob spanish caravels en route to spain. watling himself perished in the sea off the coast of peru: his former castle lies in ruins here. other islands scoff at san salvador's claim. a century ago present-day cat island was called san salvador: it is now reclaiming its old name. inhabitants of gran turk, rum cay, mayaguana and the caicos also claim that the first european footprints were made on their beaches. recently samana cay joined in: with the help of computers, the prestigious american monthly 'the national geographic' has identified this deserted coral island as the place. the guru of san salvador, dr donald gerase, director of the bahamas field institute, a research centre on the flora, fauna and archaeology of the entire archipelago, states the case soberly. (more/ips) columbus: the isle time forgot /series/(2) columbus: the isle (2) ''you never can tell with hundred per cent certainty,'' he says, ''but (columbus') description of what he saw on october 12, 1492 fits only this island.'' columbus had described the island as being positioned north- south, with a sizeable lake in the middle, surrounded by a reef forming ''a natural harbour large enough to shelter all the ships of christianity.'' on the northern side he had discovered a small peninsula which became an island at high tide. he was himself carried from his ship to the northside of the island and back in just one afternoon. ''anyone who compares the description columbus gave in his log with the actual shape of those seven islands can reach only one conclusion: the former guanahani is the present-day san salvador,'' says gerase. the 12 characteristics mentioned in columbus' log all fit san salvador. gerase cites the discovery on san salvador of a former arawak settlement at which glass beads and a spanish coin from 1472 were found. these were among the gifts columbus handed out to natives. he asserts that research carried out on cat island turned up no evidence that the spanish were there 500 years ago. san salvador's strong claim to fame has been of dubious benefit. ''the world doesn't give a damn what happens here,'' says bert delvaux, chairman of the people's committee for the quincentenary of san salvador. ''they don't need us anymore so now they don't even want to know were the island is.'' driving on queen's highway, which was built around the island in colonial days, there is evidence of ambitious projects started to bring prosperity to san salvador but abandoned for one reason or another. ''the forgotten island,'' bert delvaux calls his native soil, ''forgotten and damned.'' carefully manoeuvring his blue and yellow toyota through potholes and puddles, past old cars hinting at better days, delvaux crosses the landing strips of the small airport where the united states had built a tracking station for the gemini project, in preparation for the lunar expedition. in 1968 the base was closed. barracks built for 350 men are in disrepair. towards the north the british royal airforce base is also abandoned. a navy base built by washington to track soviet submarines in the caribbean has also been left to rot. (more/ips) columbus: the isle time forgot /series/(3-e) columbus: the isle (3) united estates, the biggest village, houses half of the island's population, mostly in wooden shacks. meaningful employment is hard to find. the women hope that one day the giant french tourist agency, 'club mediteranee', will complete a promised holiday resort on the premises of the former u.s. air base. that would be a paradise for some, though ecologists are sceptical. only a few families reside on the eastern side, which faces europe. they have no electricity or potable water. villagers share an old horse that pulls a leaky boat onto the beach and leaves excrement on the highway. the beach is contaminated. beer cans. tar. bottles. deck chairs from pleasure boats. by contrast, the western -- or american -- side is a paradise for deep-sea divers. towards the south lie the ruins of watling's castle surrounded by beautiful roads leading nowhere. the capital, cockburn town, has 20 houses and six churches. there is plenty evidence of european, american and african influences on this island, but no trace of the original inhabitants. after columbus left on october 14, 1492 no one returned here until 1513. san salvador was deserted. some of the inhabitants had followed columbus; others had died. ''they gave the spaniards syphilis,'' says gerause, ''the spaniards gave them influenza, smallpox and so on. those who had followed the spaniards were put to work and died as well.'' on oct 11, the bahamas christian council will hold an ecumenical service on the beach at long bay. they expect that a u.s television network will stage a live talk show from the place, and at midnight there will be a fireworks display. then on oct 12 the bahamas quincentenary commission will hold an official ceremony there and a cruise ship from spain will dock. a local official of the roman catholic church, clifford fernander, says the date of columbus' landing is important, because it was ''the birth of christianity and civilisation.'' (end/ips/ip-ce/jb-fb) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - From: Human Rights Coordinator Date: 04 Oct 92 09:37 PDT Subject: COLUMBUS: HAITI'S TORTUOUS 500 YEAR Message-ID: <1563600216@igc.apc.org> /* Written 12:04 am Oct 4, 1992 by newsdesk in cdp:ips.englibrary */ Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved. Permission to re- print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'. Title: COLUMBUS: HAITI'S TORTUOUS 500 YEARS /SERIES/ an inter press service feature by jan van beek and frans bieckmann the first spanish settlement in the new world -- navidad: christmas. locked since then in a cycle of violence and poverty, the country has become a byword for underdevelopment: poorest nation in the western hemisphere, one of the poorest on earth. christopher columbus and his crew bounced into hispaniola, the island haiti shares with the dominican republic on his first voyage -- almost literally, one of his ships ran aground. on nov. 5, 1492, columbus glimpsed a bay, now called mole saint nicolas. he thought it was china, as cuba had to be japan. seven weeks later, just before christmas, the 'santa maria' ran aground on a reef near cap haitien. the keel ripped open. the ship was a total loss. with the help of the indians and their chief guanacagari, it was broken up. today, on the streets of this desperately poor city, colourful and noisy, the air unpleasant, the pace laid-back, there is no fondness for the memory of the explorer. ''there must be a reason that the countries that columbus first discovered are still extremely poor after 500 years,'' says claude, a young haitian. ''san salvador, with no means of existence; cuba, economically close to the edge; the dominican republic, for some time bankrupt; haiti, overwhelmed by garbage and totally pauperized.'' claude holds europeans responsible. he rejects the assertion that haiti gained independence some two centuries ago and thus its own people should be blamed. who committed genocide on the original population, the taino2dindians ? he asks. who dragged african slaves to the caribbean ? who evoked their violent feelings ? who stole the gold and exploited the natural resources ? who created the institutions, fashioned the leaders ? parts of columbus' wrecked vessel were used to build the first spanish settlement in the new world. forty-three crew members remained behind. when columbus returned on his second voyage, they were dead: guanacagari and his people had had enough of the spaniards' insatiable appetite for gold and women. (more/ips) columbus: haiti's tortuous 500 years /series/(2) columbus: haiti's (2) a detailed description of the way in which those first spanish settlers acted is supplied by father bartolome de las casas in his 'brief account of the destruction of the indies'. de las casas visited 'the indies' at the beginning of the 16th century. ''the great destruction, misery and extermination of these unfortunate people, began on the island hispaniola, where the christians first went ashore,'' he wrote. ''the spaniards took the wives and children from the indians and abused them. they ate all the indians' food...'' he wrote of how the spaniards made bets with each other about chopping someone in two with a single stroke of the sword, or splitting his head with a pike. they tore away new-born children from the breasts of their mothers and smashed their heads against rocks. thirteen indians at a time were hanged on the gallows, a ritual glorifying the saviour and his 12 apostles. claude studied all of this history. he teaches at a primary school a few hours a week, does some street-trade, and agitates in one of the small parties which supported jean bertrand aristide, the charismatic president forced to flee last year after a coup d'etat. this capital pulsates to the rhythm of the street trade and the mini-buses, colourful 'tap-taps' which carry passengers for a few centimes. elsewhere, garbage remains uncollected, buildings are in disrepair, sanitation standards are low -- evidence of decay abounds. gardens around the presidential palace and the park of the heroes of independence are well kept. mismanagement by political opportunists has squeezed haiti dry. only institutions of terror have been preserved. life expectancy is 50 years. there is a 77 percent illiteracy rate. estimates put the average income of the five and a half million inhabitants at 300 u.s. dollars a year, or 25 dollars a month. many haitians do not earn that amount in three years, so wide is the rich-poor divide. with their street trade -- three tomatoes and an onion here, some screws and nuts there, used slippers, an old transistor radio -- the poor haitian earns one gourde (25 cents u.s.) a day. haiti became a french colony when spain ceded the western part of the island of hispaniola in the 17th century. a slave uprising between 1791 and 1803 established an independent state in 1804. hostility between the black population and the mulattos continued throughtout the 19th century. in 1915, amid political turmoil, and influenced also by haiti's failure to pay its debts, u.s. marines invaded the country and ruled it until 1934. (more/ips) columbus: haiti's tortuous 500 years /series/(3-e) columbus: haiti's (3) mulatto presidents remained in power until 1946, when a black president, dusmarsais estime, was elected. power switched between despots several times until 1957 when francois duvalier, a rural physician, was elected president. his dictatorship, brutal in the extreme, continued until his death in 1971; his son, jean-claude, then 19, took on the mantle. haitians forced jean-claude to leave aboard a u.s. aircraft in february 1986, only to find that members of the government that replaced him were duvalierists in disguise. sham elections, a referendum for a new constitution, new elections, attempted elections, strikes and protest, coups and counter-coups kept haiti hovering on edge of an even deeper abyss throughout the rest of the 1980's. finally, presidential and legislative elections took place in december 1990. by a huge majority jean bertrand aristide, a 37- year-old priest whose ideas were moulded by liberation theology, was elected president. an attempt by old-style duvalierists to prevent his swearing in gave a harbinger of the mayhem to come. aristide, a product of the teeming slums, known as 'titid' to his multitude of followers, was eventually sworn in on february 7, 1991. by september that year he was ousted in a military coup and forced into exile. a brutal reign of terror against aristide supporters forced many to leave. the cycle of violence and poverty into which haiti has been locked for 500 years was continuing to turn. (end/ips/ip-ce/jb-fb) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - From: Human Rights Coordinator Date: 04 Oct 92 09:38 PDT Subject: COLUMBUS: 'SHOULD WE SALUTE OR EXEC Message-ID: <1563600217@igc.apc.org> /* Written 12:05 am Oct 4, 1992 by newsdesk in cdp:ips.englibrary */ Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved. Permission to re- print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'. Title: COLUMBUS: 'SHOULD WE SALUTE OR EXECUTE HIM ?' /SERIES/ an inter press service feature by jan van beek and frans bieckmann santo domingo, oct 1 (ips) -- on oct. 12 perhaps the most extravagant celebration of the columbus quincentenary is expected to take place in this capital. no expense has been spared by the government of the dominican republic, and particularly its octogenarian president, joaquin balaguer, who is blind, to make the unveiling of the gigantic 'el faro de colon' -- the lighthouse of columbus -- memorable. the pope, the king of spain, countless leaders, personalities of various types, were invited. work on el faro has been continuing for over 60 years, even after the interest of other benefactors in the region had waned. its design combines the styles of an egyptian pyramid and a mayan tomb. the structure is 300 metres long and 40 metres high. in its core the marble mausoleum of columbus, formerly kept in the cathedral of santo domingo, has been rebuilt by italian sculptors as eternal resting place for his bones. each day at sunset a requiem on the organ will help to ensure that the soul of the explorer remains peaceful. colourful beams of light will be directed hundreds of metres into the sky -- if there is sufficient electricity: power blackouts in the dominican republic last for 18 hours at times. there is no electricity in slums around the el faro de colon. elsewhere in the caribbean, among the people of other places which the explorer and his crew visited in the 15th century, the columbus-as-hero sentiment is hardly widespread. in february 1986, when haitians chased the despised dictator jean claude duvalier ('baby-doc') out of the country, they also knocked the statue of columbus at the boulevard of port-au-prince off its pedestal and flung it into the sea. in jamaica, a psychologist and radio announcer, leahcim semaj, did a mini-survey on his midnight-to-dusk show on 'radio jamaica' seeking responses to the question: ''should we salute or execute columbus ?'' ''for weeks i asked the same question and every night hundreds of people responded. they all signed columbus' death-verdict,'' he related. (more/ips) columbus: 'should we salute or execute him ?' /series/(2-e) columbus: 'should we' (2) le riverad, says cuba does not hold much store in the quincentenary either. in his apartment in the havana suburb of 'vedado', he has to contend with his smoker's cough and the noise of the hungarian buses penetrating through the windows. they are wide open because the airconditioning is off: there is no electricity. ''looking only at columbus, it is like looking at a microbe under a microscope,'' he says. columbus ''is just a very small part in an enormous, irreversible historical process. ''i do indeed serve as a member of the national committee for the quincentenary, but i'm not very interested in that subject. what did columbus discover ? i don't underestimate his importance, but i have my doubts''. le riverad says the caribbean was discovered by the indians. ''five thousand years ago, coming from the mainland, they discovered the fertile ground of the islands. it's better to say that by the voyages of columbus mankind came to know itself.'' in the museum of man, in santo domingo, an attempt to preserve indian culture has been made. the museum shows a touching image of the fragile culture of the taino indians from the arawaks clan, who came more than five thousand years before columbus from venezuela and florida, from the delta of the orinoco to the greater and lesser antilles. they were a hard2dworking and artistic people, skilled in making large canoes from mahogany tree trunks, which could carry more than 80 persons. nobody knows the exact number of tainos who lived on hispaniola, cuba and the rest of the caribean islands. a booklet from the spanish series 'biblioteca iberoamericana' estimates that they numbered between six and ten million. fifty years later only a few thousands were left. nowadays there are no lineal descendants from the tainos in san salvador, cuba, in haiti or in the dominican republic. they have disappeared. it was not just physical violence that eliminated the original population: besides their economic and social order, the europeans also brought diseases. forced employment in the gold and silver mines and the prospect of remaining in the mine shafts for seven or eight days were so terrifying that complete villages committed suicide before the tyrants could lay their hands on them..mdul/.mdnm/ ''we've got nothing to celebrate, just to lament,'' says leahcim semaj. ''more and more voices are heard demanding cancellation of the foreign debts as reparation for what europe took from us during those five hundred years. our sad history is our present reality. columbus is part of it, but only as a historical fact of no value.'' (end/ips/ip-ce/jb-fb)