Let’s start with Haiti

Imagine that you live in a region that comprises Washington, DC, and Maryland (roughly the size of Haiti). Then imagine that you are one of many experiencing extreme poverty, lack of education, and other forms of deprivation. If that’s not bad enough, then imagine an earthquake of the magnitude that struck Haiti in January. Then picture 1.3 million people living in tents in the DC area.

With this thought exercise, Ray Offenheiser, President and CEO of Oxfam America, opened his talk on October 20 at the Elliott School of International Affairs of George Washington University. His presentation was titled “Let’s Start with Haiti: Making President Obama’s New Vision for Development Work.” It was sponsored by the Elliott School’s Culture in Global Affairs (CIGA) Program. Robert E. Maguire was moderator. Maguire is associate professor of international affairs at Trinity Washington University in DC; Chair of the Haiti Working Group of the United States Institute of Peace; and a Visiting Fellow with CIGA. To watch a video of this talk, click here.

Ray Offenheiser, President of Oxfam America; Photo credit: Oxfam America

After that stark opening, Offenheiser turned to considering President Obama’s new approach to international development in the context of Haiti. Speaking at the United Nations in September, President Obama argued that the United States needs to change the way it handles development aid. This speech proposed the first ever global development policy of the United States and offered the only major rethinking of the approach established in 1961 by President Kennedy to shape development during the Cold War.

In this new approach, Offenheiser explained, America is redefining development. Instead of controlling development through a focus on aid, it will take a comprehensive approach to sustainable development. America is now poised to focus on results, especially long-term results that support institutions rather than providing assistance in perpetuity. Broad-based economic growth is a goal through support to market infrastructure. Mutual accountability between the US government and partner countries is the new goal for bilateral aid relationships.

Offenheiser hailed Obama’s vision as breathtaking and most welcome in its emphasis on country ownership: countries must own the process of development, the investments, and the partnerships. The rationale is that poverty can only be solved by poor people and their governments, in partnership with other countries. In the past, too little attention was given to the hopes, dreams, and plans of people in developing countries. Aid projects were likely to be driven by earmarking in the US. From now on, aid will go toward investing more in country-designed ideas.

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Let’s Start with Haiti

Making President Obama’s New Vision for Development Work
A Presentation by Ray Offenheiser, President, Oxfam America

This talk will consider President Obama’s new approach to development and explore its impact on how international agencies, governments, and NGOs seek to assist Haiti. Drawing on experience in other countries, the speaker will also present Oxfam’s view on good development practice.

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Ideological dogmatism and United States policy toward Haiti

Guest post by Alex Dupuy

Testifying before the United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee on March 10, 2010, former US President Bill Clinton, who is now serving as Special Envoy to Haiti for the United Nations, said that the trade liberalization (aka neoliberal) policies he pushed in the 1990s and that compelled Haiti to remove tariffs on imported rice from the US “may have been good for some of my farmers in Arkansas, but it has not worked. It was a mistake… I had to live everyday with the consequences of the loss of capacity to produce a rice crop in Haiti to feed those people because of what I did.”

: Delivery of US rice to Haiti in February 2010
Credit: US Marine Corps, Creative Commons License on Flickr

Two weeks later, Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive appeared in front of the Haitian Senate to present the government’s post-earthquake recovery plan known as the Action Plan for the Reconstruction and National Development of Haiti. The Action Plan, originally conceived by the US State Department and co-chaired by former President Clinton and Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive, called for the creation of an Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC) charged with deciding on and implementing the programs and projects for the reconstruction of Haiti for 18 months after the Haitian Parliament ratifies it.

When questioned by members of the Haitian Senate that Haiti in effect surrendered its sovereignty to the IHRC, PM Bellerive responded candidly that “I hope you sense the dependency in this document. If you don’t sense it, you should tear it up. I am optimistic that in 18 months… we will be autonomous in our decisions. But right now I have to assume… that we are not.”

These admissions by high-ranking public officials representing the two sides of the international community-Haiti partnership express succinctly the dilemma that Haiti faces in rebuilding its shattered economy in the wake of the massive destruction caused by the January 12, 2010 earthquake.

As accurate as PM Bellerive’s statement about Haiti’s dependence on and subordination to the international community is, that did not originate with the creation of the IHRC, and it is not as temporary as Bellerive suggests. Rather than recounting the long history of foreign involvement and dominance in Haiti, we can consider the 1970s as having marked a major turning point in understanding the factors that created the conditions that existed on the eve of the earthquake and contributed to its devastating impact.

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Vodou healers fight hookworm

In Haiti, Vodou priests (houngans) and priestesses (mambos) use a wide variety of plant species to treat illnesses. About 20 plants are employed as a vermifuge–a medicine that expels intestinal worms.

A recent study screened 12 commonly-used plants used in Vodou treatments for intestinal parasites to detect their effectiveness against infective-stage larvae of a species of hookworm. Four of the 12 plants demonstrate inhibitory behavior against hookworm.

In rural Haiti, commercial deworming medicines are not widely available. If available, their price puts them out of reach of most people.

Vodou practitioners thus are providing valuable health care services for the poor. Additional research on the effectiveness of various plants used could help traditional healers improve their treatments and the health of their patients.

Image: “Hookworm,” from flickr user AJC1, licensed with Creative Commons.

Upcoming film screening

In honor of International Women’s Day, please join us for this upcoming event at the Elliott School of International Affairs:

Poto Mitan:

Haitian Women, Pillars of the Global Economy

a film screening

a panel discussion following the film with:

Mark Schuller
Co-producer and Co-director of Poto Mitan; Assistant Professor of African American Studies and Anthropology,
City University of New York

Julie Meyer
Director, Lambi Fund

Leigh Carter
Executive Director, Fonkoze USA

Monday, March 8, 2010
6:00 pm – 8:30 pm
Reception following

1957 E Street, NW
Harry Harding Auditorium, Room 213

RSVP here

Sponsored by the Global Women’s Forum and the Culture in Global Affairs Program of the Elliott School of International Affairs, The George Washington University

Risk, Suffering, and Response: A Panel on the Haiti Earthquake Crisis

In organizing this panel, I reached out to many people who in turn connected me with yet others. Many of the people I contacted were in Haiti at the time, just returning from Haiti, or on their way there and therefore could not join the panel. Some with close connections to the island have been personally affected by the tragedy and its toll on human life and therefore could not accept the invitation to participate.

My goal is to bring together experts on a range of topics relevant to the earthquake crisis in Haiti who can provide insights for more effective ongoing and future policies, programs and other activities. My hope is to support the people of Haiti in recovering and rebuilding and understanding of the Haitian context, Haitian values, and Haitian priorities.

The panel will be recorded and this will be posted on the Elliott School website next week.

Risk, Suffering, and Response: The Haiti Earthquake Crisis 2010

Monday, January 25, 2010
1957 E Street NW, Lindner Family Commons
12:00 p.m. – 2:00 pm

RSVP: anthropologyworks@gmail.com

Moderator: Barbara D. Miller, associate dean of faculty affairs, professor of anthropology and international affairs, The Elliott School of International Affairs, The George Washington University

Robert Maguire, Randolph Jennings senior fellow, United States Institute for Peace, Associate Professor of International Affairs, Trinity University, “Assessing Damage and Moving Forward”

Erica James, associate professor of anthropology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, “Dilemmas of Humanitarian Assistance in Haiti and in the Haitian Diaspora”

Julia Frank, associate clinical professor of psychiatry, The George Washington University, “Buffering the Emotional Impact of Disasters: How to Avoid Making Things Worse”

Drexel G. Woodson, associate research anthropologist, School of Anthropology / Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology, University of Arizona “Shaky Ground(s): Will the Earthquake Prompt Haitians and Foreigners to Negotiate a Pact for Sustainable Reconstruction?”

Kyrah Daniels, junior curator, National Museum of American History, “Haiti: Spirits Unbroken”

This panel is co-sponsored by the Culture in Global Affairs Program and the International Development Studies Program in the Elliott School of International Affairs and the Department of Global Health in the School of Public Health and Health Policy.

Recent sources on Haitian culture and social change

This list is intended to provide a guide to recent resources on culture and society in Haiti for people who wish to be better informed about the context in which the recent earthquake and its devastation are occurring. With apologies, most of the journal articles are not public access.

Furthermore, we really encourage everyone to visit InterAction’s Haiti response page, which includes a variety of ways to help out.

Benoît, C. 2007. “The politics of vodou: AIDS, access to health care and the use of culture in Haiti”. Anthropology in Action 143, 59-68.

Coreil, J. & Mayard, G. 2006. “Indigenization of illness support groups in Haiti”. Human Organization 652, 128-139.

Curci, S. 2008. “Mapping Haitian history: a photo essay”. Journal of Haitian Studies 142, 120-30.

Farmer, P. 2004. “An anthropology of structural violence.” Current Anthropology 453, 305-325.

Farmer, P. E. 2001. “The consumption of the poor: tuberculosis in the 21st century.” Ethnography 12, 183-216.

Farmer, Paul. 1992. AIDS and Accusation: Haiti and the Geography of Blame. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Farmer, P. E. 2008. “Mother courage and the future of war.” Social Analysis 522, 165-184.

Giafferi, N. 2004. The violence of relations in fieldwork: the Haitian example. Terrain 43, 123-40, 159.

Guilbaud, P., & Preston, M. 2006. “Healthcare assessment study in Les Cayes, Haiti: towards a framework for rural capacity development and analysis”. Journal of Haitian Studies 122, 48-69.

Hastings, A. 2007. “Eradicating global poverty: is it really achievable?” Journal of Haitian Studies 132, 120-134.

James, E. C. 2004. “The political economy of “trauma” in Haiti in the democratic era of insecurity”. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 282, 127-149.

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