Democracy Now - Wesleyan Professor Alex Dupuy: Haiti Transformed into the "Republic of the NGOs"

[Derechos]

One year after the massive 7.0-magnitude earthquake that devastated Haiti, reconstruction efforts have barely begun. We speak with Alex Dupuy, a professor of sociology at Wesleyan University. "There is a dramatic power imbalance between the international community—under U.S. leadership—and Haiti. The former monopolizes economic and political power and calls all the shots," Dupuy writes. "This unequal relationship is reflected in the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission." The IHRC is co-chaired by Bill Clinton.

See link to listen to or read transcript of program - http://www.democracynow.org/2011/1/12/alex_dupuy_foreign_aid_keeps_haiti

[Judi Lynn]

1. This is so damned sad! From the interview:

~snip~
....And the problem here, as I see it, is that the strategies that they have devised for Haiti’s reconstruction are no different than the strategies that they had put in place in Haiti for the past three decades or more that have proven to have failed. Those strategies were based on a twofold strategy. One was to transform Haiti into a supplier of the cheapest labor in the region for the garment industry, for export primarily to the United States, and the other was to dismantle all protective tariffs against food imports and other imports into Haiti that resulted in the devastation of Haitian agriculture, to the point where Haiti went from being able to produce up to 80 percent of its food in the mid-1980s to now importing—to producing only 42 percent, and especially rice production, which is a major staple crop in Haiti, where Haiti used to have self-sufficiency in producing rice. Now it’s the largest—the fourth largest importer of U.S. rice in the world. And former President Clinton himself admitted in testimony to the Senate Foreign Committee that the strategies that he himself had pushed on Haiti have not worked. They have benefited his farmers in Arkansas, but they were detrimental to Haitian agricultural production, especially rice. Yet, it is—these are the same policies that are now being pushed again on Haiti by the Interim Haiti Commission, which he and Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive co-chair.

But I should point out that within the commission, even though there are equal numbers of Haitians and foreign members on the committee, that the foreign members of the committee call all the shots. And the Haitians have, in fact, openly complained that they are being excluded from meetings and from decision-making processes. Moreover, when the commission was being set up and the Action Plan for Reconstruction of Haiti was being developed, Haitian grassroots organizations, organizations from civil society that represented a cross-section of the Haitian population, were systematically sidelined. They were ignored. Their voices were ignored. And yet, they are the ones who have been proposing meaningful alternatives for a more progressive, more just, more equal reconstruction of Haiti. So the point that I was trying to make in the op-ed in the Washington Post was precisely that the objectives of the foreign community, so to speak, the international community, is not so much about Haiti as it is about helping their own firms, their own farmers, their own—you know, their own exporters and their own economies, rather than that of Haiti and the Haitian—and the needs, meeting the needs of the Haitian people.

The other point that I raised in the piece was that Haiti has now been transformed into what has been correctly called the "Republic of the NGOs." And this is a strategy that was started about, oh, three decades ago whereby foreign donors would systematically bypass the Haitian state and fund instead non-governmental organizations to provide services to the Haitian population, in effect rendering the state even weaker than it was before and making it less able to respond to the needs of its citizens. Now, the Haitian state has a long history of neglecting the needs of the majority of Haitians, but rather than working with the Haitian government and compelling it to respond to the needs of its citizens, in terms of healthcare, jobs, housing, education and so on, by bypassing the state and funding NGOs directly, it sapped even further the capacity of the state to face up to its responsibilities and weakening it even further. So, the point is that—the point I was trying to make is that the foreign community has a direct role to play, in collaboration with the Haitian elites, to create a situation in Haiti where the vast majority of the population continued to live in poverty, and their basic needs and their basic rights are being ignored. That was the point of the article.

Returning later today to see the interview video for myself, instead of scanning the transcript.

Thank you very much.

Recommend.

It explains why Clinton feels driven to bumble around in their country's affairs now: perhaps he's trying to undo the unfathomable destruction he wrought there during the 1990's.

[Derechos]

3. Listen to the Haitians

But I should point out that within the commission, even though there are equal numbers of Haitians and foreign members on the committee, that the foreign members of the committee call all the shots. And the Haitians have, in fact, openly complained that they are being excluded from meetings and from decision-making processes. Moreover, when the commission was being set up and the Action Plan for Reconstruction of Haiti was being developed, Haitian grassroots organizations, organizations from civil society that represented a cross-section of the Haitian population, were systematically sidelined. They were ignored. Their voices were ignored. And yet, they are the ones who have been proposing meaningful alternatives for a more progressive, more just, more equal reconstruction of Haiti.

[Bacchus39]

2. a lost cause?? any solutions being offerred up?? n/t

s

[Derechos]

4. Alex Dupuy

His washington Post op-ed referenced in interview - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/07/AR2011010703043.html

[Judi Lynn]

5. The problem is pinpointed immediately:

i]To understand the frustration, which can occasionally turn into violence, it is necessary to make some key distinctions. The laudable immediate humanitarian response to post-earthquake Haiti is one thing. The objectives of the international community - the United States, Canada, and France; the United Nations; and financial institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund - are quite another, and they're significantly more problematic. Their objectives and their policies first and foremost aim to benefit their own investors, farmers, manufacturers and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

It's an old pattern by now, isn't it?

They need help against the "helpers." The "helpers" are helping themselves, as usual.

[naaman fletcher]

6. I agree.

The NGO's should depart and leave it to the Cuban's and Venzeuelans. That will fix it.

[Bacchus39]

7. and Aristide can have another crack at it as well. lets go for it

USA and western countries out, ALBA in.