[Haiti-London-Konbit] Fwd: Fault Lines: Haiti's Earthquake and Reconstruction, Through the Eyes of Many, by Mark Schuller (The Huffington Post) (fwd)

[Haiti-London-Konbit]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: leahgordon at aol.com
> Date: 9 March 2010 00:20:17 PST (CA)
> To: jcussans at gmail.com
> Subject: Fault Lines: Haiti's Earthquake and Reconstruction,   
> Through the Eyes of Many, by Mark Schuller (The Huffington Post) (fwd)
>
>
> Fault Lines: Haiti's Earthquake and Reconstruction, Through the Eyes  
> of Many
>
> http://otherstreams.blogspot.com/2010/03/fault-lines-haitis-earthquake-and.html
>
> Mark Schuller
> Haiti scholar/solidarity activist
> The Huffington Post
>
> First of all, my sympathies to those in Chile who have lost their
> houses, their livelihoods, their family members, and their sense of
> stability.
>
> Last weekend's earthquake was unquestionably damaging.
>
> At 8.8 on the Richter scale, it was also almost a hundred times more
> powerful than January's quake in Haiti.
>
> Thankfully, its epicenter was farther from large urban centers than
> the Haitian quake's was; also Chile has slowly recovered from its
> violent coup d'état that ushered in a round of neoliberalism. (In
> fact, Chile was its first laboratory - U. of Chicago economist Milton
> Friedman was the official economic advisor to dictator Augusto
> Pinochet just months after the coup).
>
> While Haiti fades from the headlines, the situation on the ground in
> Haiti remains urgent, as only a third of the survivors have their
> needs for a temporary dry shelter met.
>
> While it is absolutely true that Chile, like the U.S., has its share
> of poverty and inequality, Haiti's development indicators are and were
> much worse than Chile's.
>
> For example, Haiti's Gross Domestic Product per person was $428 in
> 2005, while Chile's per capita GDP was $8,350 in 2007.
>
> Half of Haiti's people earn $1 per day or less, whereas only 2 percent
> of Chile's citizens live under the "international poverty line" of
> $1.25 per day.
>
> The latest figures for child mortality are instructive: 74 children
> out of 1,000 die in Haiti whereas only nine do in Chile.
>
> For all these reasons, Haiti ranked 149th out of 182 countries on the
> U.N.'s Human Development Index (HDI), whereas Chile ranked 44th.
>
> The explanations for these differences are many, but they cluster
> around two major themes.
>
> The first theme -- much more widely researched, repeated, published,
> spread, promoted, and believed by international agencies, mainstream
> media, and most members of certain academic disciplines -- is that
> Haiti's failures of development are because of an unbroken legacy of
> dictators, Haiti's "kleptocracy" (Fatton, 2002; Rotberg, 2003).
>
> There is an implicit binary frame of a "good" civil society and a  
> "bad" state.
>
> Missing from this discussion is the role of foreign actors.
>
> Another binary frame which talks past this first comes from Haiti
> solidarity advocates and other scholars who have closer relationships
> on the ground, that Haiti has been the victim of numerous occupations,
> a usurious debt that France claimed in exchange for its recognition of
> Haiti's independence, etc.
>
> Close observers of the last coup in Haiti would note that it was
> France's Chirac, not Bush, that first called for Aristide to resign.
>
> Many believe that this is because of Aristide's demand that France pay
> some $22 billion in reparations for this extortion.
>
> The problem with some variants of this analysis is that if we do not
> acknowledge the role of Haiti's state we are powerless to respond to
> softball questions from the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee
> and others.
>
> The recent news item that the government of Haiti has begun taxing aid
> coming into Haiti is a good case for the need for a more appropriate
> frame of analysis, that most people within Haiti have, that
> acknowledges three sets of actors:
>
>   1. the world system in all its guises,
>   2. the elites and Haiti's state apparatus,
>   3. and Haiti's people organized in social movements and what might
> be called "civil society."
>
> Meanwhile, Haiti's crisis continues though it has faded from
> mainstream media coverage.
>
> It has literally disappeared from the front page, even of progressive
> websites like CommonDreams.
>
> We may be entering a world of "aid fatigue."
>
> Monday was the last day for donations to emergency relief efforts to
> count on individuals' 2009 taxes.
>
> The funds raised - though small compared to the urgent and long-term
> reconstruction needs -- are indeed generous.
>
> As of a month after the earthquake the estimate of aid donated is $600
> million for Haiti relief efforts (compare this to the $20 billion in
> Wall Street bonuses).
>
> And yet, there are still an estimated 600,000 people today who are not
> covered when the rainy seasons come.
>
> According to aid agencies' own estimates, only 35% of the needs for
> tents and tarps in Port-au-Prince is being met -- and this up from 30%
> a week and a half ago.
>
> While the rains haven't come yet, they surely will.
>
> I join many others in asking why this is, especially given this
> outpouring of generosity.
>
> One problem -- lack of coordination -- appears to be on its way to
> being resolved. The U.N. Office of the Special Envoy for Haiti has
> created a website that allows donors, NGOs, and grassroots
> organizations to coordinate their efforts.
>
> It does have a wiki function which means that the groups doing the
> work can post what they are doing, and smaller, grassroots efforts are
> invited to use this tool as well as the large NGOs.
>
> It behooves everyone who is offering aid to use this tool, a directory
> of Civil Society Organizations: http://csohaiti.org/
>
> This is only a single tool, and it can't solve everything by itself.
>
> Still left to be addressed is the communication with the survivors
> receiving the aid.
>
> More than a month and a half after the earthquake there are still many
> people who do not know if the aid is trickling their way.
>
> Some people like my friend Lesley wonder whether this isn't part of
> some big plan to wipe poor people out of Port-au-Prince altogether.
>
> Already the government is telling people to leave Champs-de-Mars, the
> "National Mall" which houses the National Palace and return to their
> neighborhoods (that presumably they left because aid was not
> arriving).
>
> And donors and grassroots efforts alike seem to be telling people to
> quit the city of Port-au-Prince.
>
> This is irresponsible for a couple of reasons.
>
> First, many Port-au-Prince residents, particularly the youth in the
> shantytowns, grew up in Port-au-Prince.
>
> Half of the country's population is 15 or younger.
>
> Secondly, without quick and sustainable job creation, this migration
> simply displaces the problem of food security into the remote rural
> areas, already marginalized because of communications and physical
> infrastructure.
>
> A second challenge we need to issue the NGOs that have been entrusted
> by our government and generous citizens is to also answer some basic
> questions about the aid they are delivering.
>
> Particularly in face of this aid fatigue, NGOs and other groups who
> are collecting money must do things differently than they have in the
> past.
>
> The first thing this particular NGO researcher and Haiti solidarity
> activist would like to see immediately stop is what we community
> organizers used to call "poverty pimping" or what could be called
> lately "disaster voyeurism."
>
> The seemingly innocent "real world" depictions of the actually
> existing poverty have real material consequences.
>
> True, a naked child with a distended belly or the overwhelming image
> of a city in ruins might trigger generosity in the moment.
>
> But it does Haitian people, particularly the survivors, a disservice
> in the short, medium, and long term.
>
> First and foremost it continues in the unbroken tradition since the
> Haitian Revolution of reviling, "monkeying," belittling,
> infantilizing, and further brutalizing Haitian people.
>
> Haiti's bad press is powerful: of 1200 people I polled in guest
> lectures before I stopped this practice, only one had a positive first
> impression of Haiti.
>
> This belief that Haiti is unfit to govern itself and is not deserving
> of urgently needed aid may be contributing to a backlash, at the very
> least a drying up of private donations. I hope not.
>
> At the very least this discourse has also justified several foreign  
> occupations.
>
> Another reason this practice of framing Haiti within this poverty
> voyeurism narrative is that it hides critical, life-saving information
> about the plan on the ground, what exact aid will actually arrive in
> Haiti and what its impact will be.
>
> In my first public post after the earthquake, before I went to Haiti,
> I offered a list of questions for people to ask when considering
> donating to Haiti.
>
> Given the proliferation of fundraising efforts, this is becoming even
> more crucial.
>
> Before giving direct aid to Haiti or choosing a group to receive
> funds, we need to do our homework.
>
> It is our responsibility to really think through these questions:
>
>   1. Who, exactly, is on the ground delivering aid in Port-au-Prince?
> How do they select partners and leaders within these groups?
>   2. What is the group's capacity to get aid to Haiti and directly to
> the impacted groups?
>   3. What relationships do they have with the community and community
> groups? Who sets the priorities? Do they have long-term partnerships
> or are they grasping at straws?
>   4. What percent of funds will actually get to Haiti? What percent
> is overhead?
>   5. What is the plan? Does it address the current needs (medical
> first, food, water and shelter)?
>   6. Is it offering direct response or is it an "umbrella" group
> funding local partners? How are local partners chosen?
>
> Until these questions are all answered it is frankly irresponsible to
> collect funds.
>
> For those NGOs and mission groups collecting funds, it would be good
> to include this information on the website to make it easier for
> people who would like to contribute or organize fundraisers.
>
> Also in the interests of accountability it would be good to post the
> organization's most recent 990 form required by U.S. law for all
> nonprofit groups in order to maintain their tax-exempt status.
>
> This form -- already required by law to be furnished to all U.S.
> taxpayers who ask for it -- lists the major sources of income and
> expenses for the organization.
>
> I know this sounds harsh, especially to people who never think to
> question their generosity.
>
> At a recent conference in New Orleans (more on this in a future post)
> senior scholar in another field critiqued a 12-minute presentation
> based on my previous post that an anthropologist who is "too close to
> the field" could not be "scientific" or at least "methodical."
>
> My response to him and the audience is, like it or not, the data are
> clear: neoliberalism has failed Haiti.
>
> All development indicators have seen a steady decline from 1980 to
> 2007, as of the last data I methodically examined, except for two.
>
> These two indicators -- the incidence of HIV/AIDS and literacy -- are
> exceptions precisely because they were mutual priorities of the
> elected governments of Haiti and donor groups.
>
> Since the 1995 Dole Amendment, USAID was prevented from funding the
> government of Haiti, a manifestation of a divided U.S. government and
> the U.S. government's mistrust of Haiti's elected governments of
> Aristide and Préval.
>
> However, because it was a priority, USAID was allowed to work with
> Haiti's government on HIV/AIDS.
>
> Haiti's success in combating the disease is a ray of hope: in just
> over a decade since 1993, the seroprevalence went from 6.2 percent to
> about 3.2 percent.
>
> This political conflict added fuel to the already-hot fire of
> neoliberalism, in the so-called "Washington Consensus" that donor
> groups like the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, and
> USAID imposed on countries in the Global South like Haiti.
>
> One major plank in neoliberalism is a distrust of states and a
> preference for private-sector initiatives and the elusive concept of
> "civil society."
>
> Since the 1980s, NGOs have proliferated in Haiti and elsewhere.
>
> The 1990s saw a tenfold increase in their numbers, from 6,000
> worldwide in 1990 to an estimated 60,000 by 1998 (Economist, cited in
> Regan 2003:3).
>
> Currently, there are so many NGOs that we can't even guess at their
> number (Riddell, 2007:53).
>
> This rise in the number of NGOs is matched with an increase in funding
> through them.
>
> Globally, in 2005, it is estimated that NGOs channeled anywhere from
> 3.7 to 7.8 billion U.S. dollars of "humanitarian assistance"
> (Development Initiatives, 2006:47), and 24 billion in overall
> development funding (Riddell, 2007:259).
>
> The pattern is true in Haiti, with only 74 NGOs out of an official
> count of 343 being present before the dechoukaj, before the ouster of
> foreign-supported dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier.
>
> Noted above, all of USAID funds go through NGOs.
>
> A senior U.N. official recently estimated that for all donors 90
> percent of aid goes directly to NGOs.
>
> Haitian researcher Sauveur Pierre Étienne called this situation an  
> "Invasion."
>
> All this is to say, whereas NGOs may not have created this neoliberal
> framework, they accepted in infusion of official government aid -
> known in the field as "Overseas Development Assistance."
>
> Like it or not, the fact that NGOs accepted and continue to seek out
> more of this aid to preside over the development system makes NGOs
> accountable for its clear failure in Haiti.
>
> With all due respect to my conference discussant and a wave of
> newly-minted Haiti "experts," the facts not only speak for themselves,
> they shout.
>
> As a structure -- yes, there are notable exceptions -- NGOs have
> failed Haiti, particularly the pèp la, Haiti's poor majority.
>
> Most pèp la I know are deeply suspicious of NGOs: their employees have
> the biggest houses, biggest offices, biggest white SUVs, newest
> computers, etc.
>
> Many people have commented on a steady rise in housing costs as a
> direct result of occupying forces and NGOs paying inflated rents.
>
> NGOs have become the backbone of the middle class -- in fact, they are
> becoming a new status group, an "NGO class" in the eyes of many.
>
> As my friend Télèfe said, "as long as the aid passes through the
> bigwigs, we poor won't see a cent."
>
> I can almost hear people retort with the popular refrain: but what
> about the failures of the Haitian state, the kleptocracy?
>
> With all due respect to certain members of the Senate Foreign
> Relations Committee, that is not our affair and responsibility but
> Haitian peoples' particularly the survivors.
>
> To enter a sovereign country's political sphere -- even or some would
> say especially bringing aid -- is imperialist.
>
> One way out of this approach is to take the lead of the people who
> have lived this long-term crisis, and adopt a more sophisticated,
> nuanced solidarity, a tripartite analysis like the one discussed
> above.
>
> Given the multitudes of perspectives, anyone offering easy answers,
> especially now, should be suspect. But the long-term solution requires
> a rebuilt, accountable, democratic, but functioning state that
> receives donors' support. Partners in Health and the RFK Memorial
> Center for Human Rights have published a report about the urgent need
> for a rights-based approach to development that includes this basic
> respect for the government of Haiti. An ad-hoc coalition of
> Washington-based NGOs has made the same point. See the CEPR blog for
> these and other reports.
>
> But the subject of reconstruction can wait for another blog.
>
> In the meantime, where are the tents?
>
> If Haiti hasn't erupted into violence, it is because despite the
> racist misunderstandings of Haiti and Haiti's people, the survivors
> have the dignity, determination, community orientation, and
> togetherness that frankly we here in the U.S. need to learn.
>
> (One needs only to witness televised conflicts over the last snow
> shovel at Wal-Mart to see what I'm talking about -- and if the
> conflict involves African-Americans or people of darker hues, a
> tagline like "looting").
>
> I have more hope than ever that Haitian people will survive this
> crisis because I have seen what Haitian people are accomplishing on
> their own, together.
>
> For the moment at least, in my neighborhood at least, both political
> and economic divisions have become the ancien régime.
>
> Every report back from the grassroots confirms this as well.
>
> By themselves, people on my block set up a medical clinic and an
> information gathering apparatus under a tarp my Belgian roommate left.
>
> They somehow managed to connect to the internet, and have a team of
> people listening to the radio.
>
> All I had to do was suggest a meeting and my neighbors drew up a map
> of Christ-Roi, some 25,000 people, and went about / continued
> collecting information about who was alive, who was dead; whose body
> was still trapped, whose home was still standing; what the urgent
> needs were, exactly how much water they had, exactly how much food,
> who had a car, and who had buckets to transport water, etc.
>
> And with very minimal assistance from this blan, they did get the
> water delivered and had lights at night.
>
> There are approaches to offer solidarity-based assistance to
> survivors, who need to be directing this process.
>
> It is a very complex, difficult, heart-rending process that requires
> humility, self-critique, dialogue, fostering long-term relationships,
> and knowing our place.
>
> But it is possible.
>
> Flights to Haiti are scheduled to resume within the week.
>
> The overland route through the Dominican Republic has opened up and
> there are grassroots efforts beginning to work.
>
> Last week there was a conference of scores of grassroots organizations
> in Port-au-Prince coordinated by KONPAY to discuss strategy.
>
> In addition to her critical on-the-ground reporting, longtime Haiti
> solidarity activist Beverly Bell has organized an effort called Other
> Worlds, after the slogan of the World Social Forum.
>
> And after some fifty hours with three people and countless phone calls
> and e-mails, donations for the grassroots groups in documentary film
> Poto Mitan are finally going to Haiti through fiscal agent Lambi Fund.
>
> But it is the Haitian survivors who are the heroes of this story,
> whose perspective needs to be central throughout this process.
>
> Their needs articulated (like tents, tarps, and/or more solid
> makeshift homes, and food Haitian people would prepare themselves)
> need to direct the aid that is coming.
>
> This difference in perspective, this fault line, is not merely an
> intellectual concern.
>
> We who plan on standing by the side of Haitian people who are
> rebuilding their country need to learn our place and to learn how to
> offer this aid in the way that the survivors want.
>
> Hopefully, the fault lines will not grow throughout the  
> reconstruction process.
>
> Mark Schuller is Assistant Professor of African American Studies and
> Anthropology at York College, the City University of New York. In
> addition to studying NGOs in Port-au-Prince since 2001, he is the
> co-editor of Capitalizing on Catastrophe: Neoliberal Strategies in
> Disaster Reconstruction.
>
> Works Cited
>
>   * Development Initiatives. (2006). Global Humanitarian Assistance
> 2006. London: Development Initiatives.
>   * Fatton, R., Jr. (2002). Haiti's Predatory Republic: the Unending
> Transition to Democracy. Boudler, CO: Lynne Reiner Publishers.
>   * Regan, J., & (ICKL), I. C. K. L. (2003). ONG "altènatif" - zanmi
> oswa ennmi lit radikal? Port-au-Prince: Institute Culturel Karl
> Leveque.
>   * Riddell, R. (2007). Does Foreign Aid Really Work? Oxford: Oxford
> University Press.
>   * Rotberg, R. (2003). Haiti's Turmoil: Politics and Policy Under
> Aristide and Clinton. Cambridge, Mass: World Peace Foundation.
>
> More Books by Mark Schuller:
>
>   * Homing Devices: The Poor as Targets of Public Housing Policy and  
> Practice
>
> -- ----------x 
> Axé,
>
> Guilherme de Alarcon Pereira
> Salvador - Bahia - Brazil
> http://twitter.com/guialarcon
> http://br.linkedin.com/in/galarconp
> http://tinyurl.com/brazil4haiti
> +55 71 8802-0531
>
> ----------------------------------------
> umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu
> ----------------------------------------=

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