<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><br><div><br><div>Begin forwarded message:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="4" color="#000000" style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>From: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="4" style="font: 14.0px Helvetica"><a href="mailto:leahgordon@aol.com">leahgordon@aol.com</a></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="4" color="#000000" style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>Date: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="4" style="font: 14.0px Helvetica">9 March 2010 00:20:17 PST (CA)</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="4" color="#000000" style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>To: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="4" style="font: 14.0px Helvetica"><a href="mailto:jcussans@gmail.com">jcussans@gmail.com</a></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="4" color="#000000" style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>Subject: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="4" style="font: 14.0px Helvetica"><b>Fault Lines: Haiti's Earthquake and Reconstruction,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Through the Eyes of Many, by Mark Schuller (The Huffington Post) (fwd)</b></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div> </div><font color="black" size="2" face="arial"> <br> <div style="font-family: arial,helvetica; font-size: 10pt; color: black;"> <div id="AOLMsgPart_1_b821a336-e4bc-4641-9485-ebedbdee95b8" style="margin: 0px; font-family: Tahoma,Verdana,Arial,Sans-Serif; font-size: 12px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> Fault Lines: Haiti's Earthquake and Reconstruction, Through the Eyes of Many <br> <br> <a href="http://otherstreams.blogspot.com/2010/03/fault-lines-haitis-earthquake-and.html" target="_blank">http://otherstreams.blogspot.com/2010/03/fault-lines-haitis-earthquake-and.html</a> <br> <br> Mark Schuller <br> Haiti scholar/solidarity activist <br> The Huffington Post <br> <br> First of all, my sympathies to those in Chile who have lost their <br> houses, their livelihoods, their family members, and their sense of <br> stability. <br> <br> Last weekend's earthquake was unquestionably damaging. <br> <br> At 8.8 on the Richter scale, it was also almost a hundred times more <br> powerful than January's quake in Haiti. <br> <br> Thankfully, its epicenter was farther from large urban centers than <br> the Haitian quake's was; also Chile has slowly recovered from its <br> violent coup d'état that ushered in a round of neoliberalism. (In <br> fact, Chile was its first laboratory - U. of Chicago economist Milton <br> Friedman was the official economic advisor to dictator Augusto <br> Pinochet just months after the coup). <br> <br> While Haiti fades from the headlines, the situation on the ground in <br> Haiti remains urgent, as only a third of the survivors have their <br> needs for a temporary dry shelter met. <br> <br> While it is absolutely true that Chile, like the U.S., has its share <br> of poverty and inequality, Haiti's development indicators are and were <br> much worse than Chile's. <br> <br> For example, Haiti's Gross Domestic Product per person was $428 in <br> 2005, while Chile's per capita GDP was $8,350 in 2007. <br> <br> Half of Haiti's people earn $1 per day or less, whereas only 2 percent <br> of Chile's citizens live under the "international poverty line" of <br> $1.25 per day. <br> <br> The latest figures for child mortality are instructive: 74 children <br> out of 1,000 die in Haiti whereas only nine do in Chile. <br> <br> For all these reasons, Haiti ranked 149th out of 182 countries on the <br> U.N.'s Human Development Index (HDI), whereas Chile ranked 44th. <br> <br> The explanations for these differences are many, but they cluster <br> around two major themes. <br> <br> The first theme -- much more widely researched, repeated, published, <br> spread, promoted, and believed by international agencies, mainstream <br> media, and most members of certain academic disciplines -- is that <br> Haiti's failures of development are because of an unbroken legacy of <br> dictators, Haiti's "kleptocracy" (Fatton, 2002; Rotberg, 2003). <br> <br> There is an implicit binary frame of a "good" civil society and a "bad" state. <br> <br> Missing from this discussion is the role of foreign actors. <br> <br> Another binary frame which talks past this first comes from Haiti <br> solidarity advocates and other scholars who have closer relationships <br> on the ground, that Haiti has been the victim of numerous occupations, <br> a usurious debt that France claimed in exchange for its recognition of <br> Haiti's independence, etc. <br> <br> Close observers of the last coup in Haiti would note that it was <br> France's Chirac, not Bush, that first called for Aristide to resign. <br> <br> Many believe that this is because of Aristide's demand that France pay <br> some $22 billion in reparations for this extortion. <br> <br> The problem with some variants of this analysis is that if we do not <br> acknowledge the role of Haiti's state we are powerless to respond to <br> softball questions from the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee <br> and others. <br> <br> The recent news item that the government of Haiti has begun taxing aid <br> coming into Haiti is a good case for the need for a more appropriate <br> frame of analysis, that most people within Haiti have, that <br> acknowledges three sets of actors: <br> <br> 1. the world system in all its guises, <br> 2. the elites and Haiti's state apparatus, <br> 3. and Haiti's people organized in social movements and what might <br> be called "civil society." <br> <br> Meanwhile, Haiti's crisis continues though it has faded from <br> mainstream media coverage. <br> <br> It has literally disappeared from the front page, even of progressive <br> websites like CommonDreams. <br> <br> We may be entering a world of "aid fatigue." <br> <br> Monday was the last day for donations to emergency relief efforts to <br> count on individuals' 2009 taxes. <br> <br> The funds raised - though small compared to the urgent and long-term <br> reconstruction needs -- are indeed generous. <br> <br> As of a month after the earthquake the estimate of aid donated is $600 <br> million for Haiti relief efforts (compare this to the $20 billion in <br> Wall Street bonuses). <br> <br> And yet, there are still an estimated 600,000 people today who are not <br> covered when the rainy seasons come. <br> <br> According to aid agencies' own estimates, only 35% of the needs for <br> tents and tarps in Port-au-Prince is being met -- and this up from 30% <br> a week and a half ago. <br> <br> While the rains haven't come yet, they surely will. <br> <br> I join many others in asking why this is, especially given this <br> outpouring of generosity. <br> <br> One problem -- lack of coordination -- appears to be on its way to <br> being resolved. The U.N. Office of the Special Envoy for Haiti has <br> created a website that allows donors, NGOs, and grassroots <br> organizations to coordinate their efforts. <br> <br> It does have a wiki function which means that the groups doing the <br> work can post what they are doing, and smaller, grassroots efforts are <br> invited to use this tool as well as the large NGOs. <br> <br> It behooves everyone who is offering aid to use this tool, a directory <br> of Civil Society Organizations: <a href="http://csohaiti.org/" target="_blank">http://csohaiti.org/</a> <br> <br> This is only a single tool, and it can't solve everything by itself. <br> <br> Still left to be addressed is the communication with the survivors <br> receiving the aid. <br> <br> More than a month and a half after the earthquake there are still many <br> people who do not know if the aid is trickling their way. <br> <br> Some people like my friend Lesley wonder whether this isn't part of <br> some big plan to wipe poor people out of Port-au-Prince altogether. <br> <br> Already the government is telling people to leave Champs-de-Mars, the <br> "National Mall" which houses the National Palace and return to their <br> neighborhoods (that presumably they left because aid was not <br> arriving). <br> <br> And donors and grassroots efforts alike seem to be telling people to <br> quit the city of Port-au-Prince. <br> <br> This is irresponsible for a couple of reasons. <br> <br> First, many Port-au-Prince residents, particularly the youth in the <br> shantytowns, grew up in Port-au-Prince. <br> <br> Half of the country's population is 15 or younger. <br> <br> Secondly, without quick and sustainable job creation, this migration <br> simply displaces the problem of food security into the remote rural <br> areas, already marginalized because of communications and physical <br> infrastructure. <br> <br> A second challenge we need to issue the NGOs that have been entrusted <br> by our government and generous citizens is to also answer some basic <br> questions about the aid they are delivering. <br> <br> Particularly in face of this aid fatigue, NGOs and other groups who <br> are collecting money must do things differently than they have in the <br> past. <br> <br> The first thing this particular NGO researcher and Haiti solidarity <br> activist would like to see immediately stop is what we community <br> organizers used to call "poverty pimping" or what could be called <br> lately "disaster voyeurism." <br> <br> The seemingly innocent "real world" depictions of the actually <br> existing poverty have real material consequences. <br> <br> True, a naked child with a distended belly or the overwhelming image <br> of a city in ruins might trigger generosity in the moment. <br> <br> But it does Haitian people, particularly the survivors, a disservice <br> in the short, medium, and long term. <br> <br> First and foremost it continues in the unbroken tradition since the <br> Haitian Revolution of reviling, "monkeying," belittling, <br> infantilizing, and further brutalizing Haitian people. <br> <br> Haiti's bad press is powerful: of 1200 people I polled in guest <br> lectures before I stopped this practice, only one had a positive first <br> impression of Haiti. <br> <br> This belief that Haiti is unfit to govern itself and is not deserving <br> of urgently needed aid may be contributing to a backlash, at the very <br> least a drying up of private donations. I hope not. <br> <br> At the very least this discourse has also justified several foreign occupations. <br> <br> Another reason this practice of framing Haiti within this poverty <br> voyeurism narrative is that it hides critical, life-saving information <br> about the plan on the ground, what exact aid will actually arrive in <br> Haiti and what its impact will be. <br> <br> In my first public post after the earthquake, before I went to Haiti, <br> I offered a list of questions for people to ask when considering <br> donating to Haiti. <br> <br> Given the proliferation of fundraising efforts, this is becoming even <br> more crucial. <br> <br> Before giving direct aid to Haiti or choosing a group to receive <br> funds, we need to do our homework. <br> <br> It is our responsibility to really think through these questions: <br> <br> 1. Who, exactly, is on the ground delivering aid in Port-au-Prince? <br> How do they select partners and leaders within these groups? <br> 2. What is the group's capacity to get aid to Haiti and directly to <br> the impacted groups? <br> 3. What relationships do they have with the community and community <br> groups? Who sets the priorities? Do they have long-term partnerships <br> or are they grasping at straws? <br> 4. What percent of funds will actually get to Haiti? What percent <br> is overhead? <br> 5. What is the plan? Does it address the current needs (medical <br> first, food, water and shelter)? <br> 6. Is it offering direct response or is it an "umbrella" group <br> funding local partners? How are local partners chosen? <br> <br> Until these questions are all answered it is frankly irresponsible to <br> collect funds. <br> <br> For those NGOs and mission groups collecting funds, it would be good <br> to include this information on the website to make it easier for <br> people who would like to contribute or organize fundraisers. <br> <br> Also in the interests of accountability it would be good to post the <br> organization's most recent 990 form required by U.S. law for all <br> nonprofit groups in order to maintain their tax-exempt status. <br> <br> This form -- already required by law to be furnished to all U.S. <br> taxpayers who ask for it -- lists the major sources of income and <br> expenses for the organization. <br> <br> I know this sounds harsh, especially to people who never think to <br> question their generosity. <br> <br> At a recent conference in New Orleans (more on this in a future post) <br> senior scholar in another field critiqued a 12-minute presentation <br> based on my previous post that an anthropologist who is "too close to <br> the field" could not be "scientific" or at least "methodical." <br> <br> My response to him and the audience is, like it or not, the data are <br> clear: neoliberalism has failed Haiti. <br> <br> All development indicators have seen a steady decline from 1980 to <br> 2007, as of the last data I methodically examined, except for two. <br> <br> These two indicators -- the incidence of HIV/AIDS and literacy -- are <br> exceptions precisely because they were mutual priorities of the <br> elected governments of Haiti and donor groups. <br> <br> Since the 1995 Dole Amendment, USAID was prevented from funding the <br> government of Haiti, a manifestation of a divided U.S. government and <br> the U.S. government's mistrust of Haiti's elected governments of <br> Aristide and Préval. <br> <br> However, because it was a priority, USAID was allowed to work with <br> Haiti's government on HIV/AIDS. <br> <br> Haiti's success in combating the disease is a ray of hope: in just <br> over a decade since 1993, the seroprevalence went from 6.2 percent to <br> about 3.2 percent. <br> <br> This political conflict added fuel to the already-hot fire of <br> neoliberalism, in the so-called "Washington Consensus" that donor <br> groups like the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, and <br> USAID imposed on countries in the Global South like Haiti. <br> <br> One major plank in neoliberalism is a distrust of states and a <br> preference for private-sector initiatives and the elusive concept of <br> "civil society." <br> <br> Since the 1980s, NGOs have proliferated in Haiti and elsewhere. <br> <br> The 1990s saw a tenfold increase in their numbers, from 6,000 <br> worldwide in 1990 to an estimated 60,000 by 1998 (Economist, cited in <br> Regan 2003:3). <br> <br> Currently, there are so many NGOs that we can't even guess at their <br> number (Riddell, 2007:53). <br> <br> This rise in the number of NGOs is matched with an increase in funding <br> through them. <br> <br> Globally, in 2005, it is estimated that NGOs channeled anywhere from <br> 3.7 to 7.8 billion U.S. dollars of "humanitarian assistance" <br> (Development Initiatives, 2006:47), and 24 billion in overall <br> development funding (Riddell, 2007:259). <br> <br> The pattern is true in Haiti, with only 74 NGOs out of an official <br> count of 343 being present before the dechoukaj, before the ouster of <br> foreign-supported dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier. <br> <br> Noted above, all of USAID funds go through NGOs. <br> <br> A senior U.N. official recently estimated that for all donors 90 <br> percent of aid goes directly to NGOs. <br> <br> Haitian researcher Sauveur Pierre Étienne called this situation an "Invasion." <br> <br> All this is to say, whereas NGOs may not have created this neoliberal <br> framework, they accepted in infusion of official government aid - <br> known in the field as "Overseas Development Assistance." <br> <br> Like it or not, the fact that NGOs accepted and continue to seek out <br> more of this aid to preside over the development system makes NGOs <br> accountable for its clear failure in Haiti. <br> <br> With all due respect to my conference discussant and a wave of <br> newly-minted Haiti "experts," the facts not only speak for themselves, <br> they shout. <br> <br> As a structure -- yes, there are notable exceptions -- NGOs have <br> failed Haiti, particularly the pèp la, Haiti's poor majority. <br> <br> Most pèp la I know are deeply suspicious of NGOs: their employees have <br> the biggest houses, biggest offices, biggest white SUVs, newest <br> computers, etc. <br> <br> Many people have commented on a steady rise in housing costs as a <br> direct result of occupying forces and NGOs paying inflated rents. <br> <br> NGOs have become the backbone of the middle class -- in fact, they are <br> becoming a new status group, an "NGO class" in the eyes of many. <br> <br> As my friend Télèfe said, "as long as the aid passes through the <br> bigwigs, we poor won't see a cent." <br> <br> I can almost hear people retort with the popular refrain: but what <br> about the failures of the Haitian state, the kleptocracy? <br> <br> With all due respect to certain members of the Senate Foreign <br> Relations Committee, that is not our affair and responsibility but <br> Haitian peoples' particularly the survivors. <br> <br> To enter a sovereign country's political sphere -- even or some would <br> say especially bringing aid -- is imperialist. <br> <br> One way out of this approach is to take the lead of the people who <br> have lived this long-term crisis, and adopt a more sophisticated, <br> nuanced solidarity, a tripartite analysis like the one discussed <br> above. <br> <br> Given the multitudes of perspectives, anyone offering easy answers, <br> especially now, should be suspect. But the long-term solution requires <br> a rebuilt, accountable, democratic, but functioning state that <br> receives donors' support. Partners in Health and the RFK Memorial <br> Center for Human Rights have published a report about the urgent need <br> for a rights-based approach to development that includes this basic <br> respect for the government of Haiti. An ad-hoc coalition of <br> Washington-based NGOs has made the same point. See the CEPR blog for <br> these and other reports. <br> <br> But the subject of reconstruction can wait for another blog. <br> <br> In the meantime, where are the tents? <br> <br> If Haiti hasn't erupted into violence, it is because despite the <br> racist misunderstandings of Haiti and Haiti's people, the survivors <br> have the dignity, determination, community orientation, and <br> togetherness that frankly we here in the U.S. need to learn. <br> <br> (One needs only to witness televised conflicts over the last snow <br> shovel at Wal-Mart to see what I'm talking about -- and if the <br> conflict involves African-Americans or people of darker hues, a <br> tagline like "looting"). <br> <br> I have more hope than ever that Haitian people will survive this <br> crisis because I have seen what Haitian people are accomplishing on <br> their own, together. <br> <br> For the moment at least, in my neighborhood at least, both political <br> and economic divisions have become the ancien régime. <br> <br> Every report back from the grassroots confirms this as well. <br> <br> By themselves, people on my block set up a medical clinic and an <br> information gathering apparatus under a tarp my Belgian roommate left. <br> <br> They somehow managed to connect to the internet, and have a team of <br> people listening to the radio. <br> <br> All I had to do was suggest a meeting and my neighbors drew up a map <br> of Christ-Roi, some 25,000 people, and went about / continued <br> collecting information about who was alive, who was dead; whose body <br> was still trapped, whose home was still standing; what the urgent <br> needs were, exactly how much water they had, exactly how much food, <br> who had a car, and who had buckets to transport water, etc. <br> <br> And with very minimal assistance from this blan, they did get the <br> water delivered and had lights at night. <br> <br> There are approaches to offer solidarity-based assistance to <br> survivors, who need to be directing this process. <br> <br> It is a very complex, difficult, heart-rending process that requires <br> humility, self-critique, dialogue, fostering long-term relationships, <br> and knowing our place. <br> <br> But it is possible. <br> <br> Flights to Haiti are scheduled to resume within the week. <br> <br> The overland route through the Dominican Republic has opened up and <br> there are grassroots efforts beginning to work. <br> <br> Last week there was a conference of scores of grassroots organizations <br> in Port-au-Prince coordinated by KONPAY to discuss strategy. <br> <br> In addition to her critical on-the-ground reporting, longtime Haiti <br> solidarity activist Beverly Bell has organized an effort called Other <br> Worlds, after the slogan of the World Social Forum. <br> <br> And after some fifty hours with three people and countless phone calls <br> and e-mails, donations for the grassroots groups in documentary film <br> Poto Mitan are finally going to Haiti through fiscal agent Lambi Fund. <br> <br> But it is the Haitian survivors who are the heroes of this story, <br> whose perspective needs to be central throughout this process. <br> <br> Their needs articulated (like tents, tarps, and/or more solid <br> makeshift homes, and food Haitian people would prepare themselves) <br> need to direct the aid that is coming. <br> <br> This difference in perspective, this fault line, is not merely an <br> intellectual concern. <br> <br> We who plan on standing by the side of Haitian people who are <br> rebuilding their country need to learn our place and to learn how to <br> offer this aid in the way that the survivors want. <br> <br> Hopefully, the fault lines will not grow throughout the reconstruction process. <br> <br> Mark Schuller is Assistant Professor of African American Studies and <br> Anthropology at York College, the City University of New York. In <br> addition to studying NGOs in Port-au-Prince since 2001, he is the <br> co-editor of Capitalizing on Catastrophe: Neoliberal Strategies in <br> Disaster Reconstruction. <br> <br> Works Cited <br> <br> * Development Initiatives. (2006). Global Humanitarian Assistance <br> 2006. London: Development Initiatives. <br> * Fatton, R., Jr. (2002). Haiti's Predatory Republic: the Unending <br> Transition to Democracy. Boudler, CO: Lynne Reiner Publishers. <br> * Regan, J., & (ICKL), I. C. K. L. (2003). ONG "altènatif" - zanmi <br> oswa ennmi lit radikal? Port-au-Prince: Institute Culturel Karl <br> Leveque. <br> * Riddell, R. (2007). Does Foreign Aid Really Work? Oxford: Oxford <br> University Press. <br> * Rotberg, R. (2003). Haiti's Turmoil: Politics and Policy Under <br> Aristide and Clinton. Cambridge, Mass: World Peace Foundation. <br> <br> More Books by Mark Schuller: <br> <br> * Homing Devices: The Poor as Targets of Public Housing Policy and Practice <br> <br> -- ----------x <br> Axé, <br> <br> Guilherme de Alarcon Pereira <br> Salvador - Bahia - Brazil <br> <a href="http://twitter.com/guialarcon" target="_blank">http://twitter.com/guialarcon</a> <br> <a href="http://br.linkedin.com/in/galarconp" target="_blank">http://br.linkedin.com/in/galarconp</a> <br> <a href="http://tinyurl.com/brazil4haiti" target="_blank">http://tinyurl.com/brazil4haiti</a> <br> +55 71 8802-0531 <br> <br> ---------------------------------------- <br> umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu <br> ----------------------------------------= <br> </div> <!-- end of AOLMsgPart_1_b821a336-e4bc-4641-9485-ebedbdee95b8 --> </div> </font></blockquote></div><br></body></html>