Side by Side is CAFOD’s quarterly magazine. Our regular feature, Question Time, is your chance to debate the issues that matter and join others fighting poverty and injustice around the world. The question we’re asking in January’s issue is:
“Why is it so difficult to rebuild Haiti when so much money was donated?”
CAFOD’s Robert Cruickshank kick-starts the debate:
CAFOD, our partners and other agencies prevented the lives of hundreds of thousands of people becoming worse by providing basic services such as shelter, health, water and sanitation, and education. We are now providing permanent housing and sanitation for thousands of Haiti’s poorest citizens.
But rebuilding Haiti is a complex proposition. Haiti has faced centuries of social and economic problems, including: the blockade of Haiti in the early years of independence; the extortionate compensation demanded by France in recognition of Haiti’s independence; Haiti’s reliance on a single crop – sugar – for much of its existence; the mismanagement of Haiti by its own elite throughout much of the 19th and 20th centuries; and Haiti’s exploitation by the West during Cold War era, resulting in lack of political stability, a lack of investment and a substantial brain drain.
After the earthquake struck in 2010, Port-au-Prince – a city built for 300,000 people – was inhabited by three million. The earthquake had a devastating impact on the Haitian government, around a quarter of all government employees in the capital were killed, and so the State could provide very few services.
The expenditure of money alone cannot fix Haiti’s economic situation. Even using the current neo liberal economic model, Haiti would need access to inward investment and a market for its products, neither of which it currently has. What comparative advantage could Haiti have? Agriculture, perhaps. But Haiti’s indigenous rice production has been largely destroyed by the fact the USA subsidises rice production in Arkansas, making it cheaper to grow rice in the USA and import this into Haiti than to grow and sell rice in Haiti.
The solution to Haiti’s problems lies beyond the scope of aid agencies to resolve. But we and our partners are campaigning for governments to spend money addressing the issues that make Haiti so poor: political instability; lack of investment; lack of access to international markets; and the undermining of Haiti’s agriculture through unfair competition.
What do you think? Have your say below.
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I understand the Pope may be visiting Cuba soon. If he dropped off in Haiti, it would help attract the media to that crucified country, perhaps. Let’s face it, in a world dominated by “sound-bite” journalism, only recurrent sound-bites can continue to focus attention on a particular part of the world. If the Pope managed to allude to the malign forces which have kept Haiti down-trodden, that would be even better than a simple courtesy call.
Has aid helped in Haiti? Here’s what Brendan Gormley from the Disasters Emergency Committee has to say: http://www.dec.org.uk/appeals/haiti-earthquake-appeal/haiti-has-aid-helped
Why does the U S A interfere in other countries to ensure its imperialist policies are continued?
It would be surprising if the US , following the examples of the UK, France etc etc, did not interfere with other countries, especially the poor and defenceless (see: Diego Suarez)
The issue is made more intractable now, since even most of the “good guys” (roughly= “liberals”) adopt, essentially, a simple/simplified version of Adam Smith, which asserts with all the force of a religious faith, that the “opening up” of the world to international capital is not just inevitable, but positively a “good thing”. That is, in the long run, the poor, benighted (generally, coloured…) peoples of the world, including Haiti , Iraq, Afghanistan etc, will benefit from “our” presence ( invasion by any other word will stink as foul) even if their children have to be employed at 6 years in industrial situations (chaining them to their carpet looms etc) – somewhat as children were employed in Dickens’ time in this country. If it was good enough for this great country, it’s good enough for them, eh? Our present comfort/luxury here as in the US etc depends now, as it has to a degree since the establishment of world trade, on the exploitation of “colonies”. The US is doing precisely what its ruling elite wants, which is to anaesthetise the people with material comforts ( consumerism) It is rare, and quite unfashionable for moral leaders – let’s face it, church leaders- to identify and confront this issue.
In practical terms, the US churches do almost nothing to counter the crass materialism which prompts imperial adventures, but actually tend to promote it,as we can see in the current ghastly comedy of the US presidential elections, where millionnaire Born Againers face each other with funds from Big Business and from the “Evangelicalist” lobbies.
A passionate response to this question from CAFOD’s Sarah Marsh: http://blog.cafod.org.uk/2012/01/11/haiti-applaud-the-successes/