From: NativeNet@gnosys.svle.ma.us@tamvm1.tamu.edu
Subject: COLUMBUS: 'SHOULD WE SALUTE OR EXECUTE HIM ?' /SERIES/
Reply-To: Multiple recipients of list NAT-1492 <NAT-1492@TAMVM1.BITNET>
Organization: Texas A&M University
Date: Sat, 10 Oct 1992 23:01:08 GMT

Original-Sender: Human Rights Coordinator <hrcoord@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)