Rick McDaniel

50 – Where Improvements Have Taken Place

2012-01-16T08:35:00.000-08:00

Any analysis of conditions in the developing world will necessarily focus on the difficulties which persist throughout the region. The disparity between conditions in developed and under-developed nations is simply too stark to ignore. But nor can we ignore the fact that the trillions of dollars in bilateral aid transferred from north to south have not brought about significant improvements in poverty reduction in those countries.

Looking at the factors which banks and other credit rating agencies use to evaluate the strength of economies, then the situation throughout the south has only become worse in the past twenty-five years, the time I have been working in their field. At first glance, it is a very dispiriting situation. The reason I still have some optimism about what is happening in the countries where I have worked is because my focus has not been on government-funded programs but rather on the work of the non-governmental sector.

It is not difficult to see that improvements have taken place in the south, but it is intriguing to note where they’ve taken place. Many of the most significant ones have been brought about not at the national level in developing countries, but at the community level. The improvements which have occurred in education, in food production, in immunization have largely been community-based.

And in fact, it is improvements such as these–improvements in the quality of life at the community level–which are most important to ordinary men and women. Generally people are not particularly concerned about their nation’s current international credit rating. What they care about is the quality of their lives: Are their children healthy? Do they have reasonable access to a decent standard of living, to food and shelter? These are the things that matter.

And it turns out that the majority of resources and money which has gone to promote this kind of development has come from the people of the South themselves. They’ve been the ones who have identified the needs of their communities and have sought effective ways to address those needs. It doesn’t take large amounts of money in order to bring about significant improvements in the way people live.

Many of the difficulties which ordinary citizens of the South face are matters which small, locally based cooperatives or Non-Governmental Organizations are quite capable of dealing with: improving nutrition, improving sanitation, providing basic health care and primary education, insuring that people have adequate housing and access to safe drinking water. These are the areas which are most likely to have the greatest impact on the lives of ordinary people.

Obviously there are major challenges facing many developing nations which are beyond the capacity of its citizenry alone to address. However, the reality for people living in places like Maquiteria is that they are used to the failure of their governments, local, region, and national, to respond to their needs. So they have time and again found ways of working collectively at the community level to seek ways to improve living conditions and the quality of their lives.

49 - Mixed Messages

2012-01-08T09:41:00.000-08:00

There are two main sources from which the general public derives its impressions about the developing world. The first is the news media and the second is advertising from agencies, both governmental and private, working in the development field. And these sources send mixed messages.

The news media tend to focus on issues which have dramatic content–disasters, political or social violence, extreme conditions of poverty or hardship. Local news sources, such as community newspapers or radio programs, may include stories about the work of volunteers who have gone to work in developing countries, but even these tend to emphasize the hardships the volunteers face. Stories on improvements in conditions don’t have the same editorial appeal and so are less frequently aired.

Governmental aid organizations try to stress their accomplishments, in order to provide evidence that international aid dollars are being used effectively. At the same time, they need to emphasize that current assistance programs are still necessary. So they try to balance positive imagery and stories with stories and imagery that continues to draw attention to the disparity in development between countries like Canada and nations in the Third World. The CIDA web site, for example, cites several indicators of progress over the past forty years, including: improvements in life expectancy; reduction in child mortality rates; the fact that, despite population growth, average incomes have doubled; and the fact that literacy rates have risen to 82 percent—the highest percentage in history. They then report that more than 1 billion people still struggle to survive on less than a dollar a day; that HIV and AIDS are wiping out an entire generation in some parts of Africa; and that every minute, another women dies during pregnancy or childbirth.

Non-governmental organizations and private aid programs, such as child-sponsorship programs, also need to strike a balance, but their emphasis is often more on need than on accomplishment. The images chosen by these organizations are ones which, they hope, will encourage donations or sponsorships. Child-sponsorship programs, in particular, focus on imagery depicting children in desperate circumstances. On the other hand, these same organizations need to demonstrate the effectiveness of their programs.

There have been very forceful critiques which have questioned the effectiveness of international aid; Dambisa Moyo’s Dead Aid is a provocative example. Ms. Moyo’s thesis is that aid to Africa has not only been ineffective, it has actually been detrimental to development on that continent. She asserts that African nations would fare better if their governments had to acquire development revenue from international credit markets; to do so they would need to address the inefficiencies and questionable financial practices of the past. It is difficult to find fault with the examples she provides, but they are selective and focus only on bi-lateral (government to government) projects. Even in Africa there have been improvements in the quality of life of many individuals at the community level over the past twenty-five years.

So it is understandable that the question is asked. Have things improved or haven’t they? And the answer remains: it depends upon where one looks and what criteria one uses to measure improvement.

48 - Better or Worse?

2011-12-17T10:43:00.001-08:00

Economically, throughout the developing world, if what one looks at are the standard indicators that banks and credit rating agencies use, then virtually all developing countries are worse off now than they were in 1985, when I began working for the YMCA.

Indebtedness remains a major impediment to development. As the year 2000 approached, the eight richest nations in the world–the G8–promised to cancel $100 billion of the debt owed by 52 of the world’s poorest countries, but by 2003 in fact only $18 billion had been cancelled and this for just four countries. In 2005, the issue of debt forgiveness was once more placed on the agenda of the G8 meetings held in Gleneagles, Scotland. Even though that meeting was disrupted by the Al-qaeda attack on London, a statement on debt forgiveness was issued; however, it focussed on only 18 of the more than 60 nations which require attention.

Political violence throughout the developing world, if anything, seems to be on the rise. Not just in the Middle East, but also in Asia, the Pacific, Africa, and Latin America. Again, just considering what took place in the year 2002, Hindu fundamentalists in Gujarat province in India killed over 1000 Muslims; Maoist rebels in Nepal slaughtered 129 police officers, soldiers, and civilians; in Nigeria, Moslems angered by the staging of the Miss World pageant went on a rampage which left 250 people dead and thousands homeless; in Africa, as civil war finally came to an end in the Democratic Republic of Congo, it broke out in Côte d’Ivoire; civil and political violence continued in Zimbabwe and broke out in the Central African Republic; Al-qaeda suicide bombings expanded to Tunisia and Kenya; the President of Colombia had to declare a large part of his nation a war zone; and in Peru, Sindero Luminoso, a Maoist terror group which it was thought had been effectively brought under control back in 1992, once more emerged.

All of this would suggest that conditions in developing countries are continuing to deteriorate. And yet the United Nations, International Aid agencies such as CIDA–the Canadian International Development Agency–and some Non-Governmental Organizations point to a wide spectrum of improvements which have taken place in developing countries during this same twenty year period: improvements in food production and nutrition, improvements in efforts to ensure that all children–in particular girls–have access to education. And as girls become better educated, these groups point to a range of positive consequences: The children of a woman who has had as little as four years of education are more than twice as likely to survive infancy as are the children of women who can’t read or write. So as the education of girls improves, there has also been a reduction in infant mortality rates. Many childhood diseases have been controlled. Approximately 80% of the world’s children have been immunised against the six major infectious diseases, and other diseases, like smallpox, have been eliminated. Because more children are surviving infancy and early childhood, globally the birth rate has also begun to come down.

Is this evidence of actual improvements in developing countries or is it just “spin”?

47 – AIDS and Africa

2011-12-11T09:17:00.000-08:00

There are questions which seem like they should be easier to answer than in fact they are. One frequently raised about developing countries is whether there are any signs of improvement in them. Usually the questioner is wondering about the funding from foreign aid programs like Canada’s, or donations made by individuals to charitable organizations working in developing nations. The questioner wants to know whether these have made a difference or not. They want to know if there have been any discernable signs of improvement in the so-called Third World over the last twenty or thirty or however many years.

All the questioner wants is a simple yes or no. Either things are getting better or they aren’t. But the only honest answer that can be given is: It depends. It depends upon what one is looking at. It depends upon the criteria one is using to measure improvement. It depends upon what one means by things “getting better.”

In the twenty-seven year period since I began working in this field in 1985, developing countries have suffered many devastating set-backs.

One of the most dramatic has been the AIDS epidemic in Africa.

The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is the virus which causes AIDS. It is most commonly passed through either sexual contact or through blood-to-blood contact, for example through the shared use of intravenous needles. However, women can also pass the virus to their children during pregnancy, delivery, and breast-feeding. Although not all individuals with HIV develop AIDS, a majority of them will within seven to ten years.

AIDS is an acronym for “Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome.” The immune systems of people with AIDS are weakened–become deficient–and are therefore unable to fight infections which are more easily controlled in healthy individuals. Individuals with AIDS are subject to what are called “opportunistic infections.” That means the infections are caused by organisms which do not affect people with healthy immune systems but take the “opportunity” to flourish in persons with HIV.

The HIV virus appears to have originated in African chimpanzees and crossed over to the human population early in the 20th century, probably through blood to blood contact associated with hunting. The disease spread slowly and did not receive public attention until it was found in the United States in the 1980s. By that time, the disease had a larger base in the African continent than elsewhere.

Today, there are nearly 40 million individuals living with HIV or AIDS; of these, 25 million are in Sub-Sahara Africa. In 2009 around 1.3 million people in Sub-Sahara Africa died from AIDS and another 1.8 million people became infected with HIV.

Poverty is a factor in the impact that AIDS is having in Africa; individuals suffering from malnutrition are more susceptible to infection, and, once infected, succumb more quickly. Warfare is another factor, particularly where rape is used as a weapon of intimidation.

AIDS is spreading more rapidly in Latin America and the Caribbean than anywhere outside of Sub-Sahara Africa and South-East Asia. The primary means of transmission in those regions is heterosexual activity, and as a result 40% of HIV infected persons in the Caribbean are women. Haiti and the Dominican Republic are the most severely affected areas, accounting for 85% of all infections. In 2005, UNICEF projected that there would soon be 56,000 children orphaned in the Dominican Republic because of the disease.

46 - International Aid and Bangladesh

2011-12-05T05:14:00.001-08:00

It can seem petty to criticize the international aid efforts of North American and European nations. Several aid organizations, for example, have challenged the conclusions reached by Dambisa Moyo in her book, Dead Aid, in which she documents the failure of bilateral aid programs to alleviate poverty in Africa. While Moyo does tend to overstate her position, it is difficult to argue with her basic premise. She came to the same conclusion that the Canadian Senate came to in 2007 in its assessment of the effectiveness of Canada’s aid programs in Africa. Both determined that the impact of the aid Africa has received as been negligible in improving conditions in that continent. [It should be noted that both Moyo and the Senate focused on government-to-government aid programs].

There are several reasons why aid programs can be ineffective. The example of Bangladesh during the 1980s, to consider one of many similar situations, can be used to demonstrate how the best intentioned aid programs can have significant unforeseen consequences.

Bangladesh, previously East Pakistan, achieved independence from Pakistan in 1971, but was almost immediately overcome by civil strife, including a series of military coups. Some degree of stability was finally achieved when the army, under the leadership of General H. M. Ershad, took control of the government from 1982 until 1991.

About half of the gross domestic product of Bangladesh is based in agriculture. It remains a predominantly rural society, with 80% of the labor force involved in agriculture related activities. But the country has remained poor with a current (2010) per capita Gross National Product of approximately $1,700.

From 1973 through 1987, nearly a quarter of all the foreign aid Bangladesh received was in the form of long-term relief assistance, specifically food supplies, grains which had been sent from developed nations, like the United States, which had large grain surpluses. In point of fact, the grain was not given free of charge to the people of Bangladesh; rather it was sold to the Bengali government, although at reduced prices. And the immediate benefit was more to the advantage of the donor nation than the recipient; the grain surplus in the US was reduced, helping to maintain the price of grain in that country at relatively high levels.

The benefit to the Bengalis was more questionable. Once the government had purchased the grain, it had responsibility for distributing it. And they had particular priorities. About three-quarters of the grain went to members of the government, civil service, the police, the military, and the urban working class. Only 22% of the grain went to the 80% of the country’s population which were the rural poor, although they were the people suffering most acutely from malnutrition.

Further, the foreign grain shipment not only didn’t benefit the rural population, it even undercut the prices which Bengali farmers could charge for their own crops. And since the main grain shipped from the US was wheat, the aid also had the effect of promoting the consumption of a product that wasn’t–and never would be–produced locally.

Instead of promoting food self-reliance, the food aid program to Bangladesh weakened the local agriculture industry and created a dependency on foreign food sources.

45 – Aid Effectiveness

2011-11-24T09:44:00.001-08:00

International aid is not just a matter between governments. Throughout the western industrialized nations there are numerous charitable organizations also working to assist people in developing countries.

The familiar UNICEF Halloween campaign, for example, began in 1950 when a priest in Pennsylvania suggested to his Sunday school students that instead of asking for candy when they went Trick-or-Treating, they ask for small change to support UNICEF. Those first students raised $17. By the 1960s, which the United Nations declared to be the Decade of Development, students in schools throughout the United States were being encouraged to take small orange-colored milk cartons with coin slots cut into them around on Halloween night. And to encourage those students, educational materials were produced, including posters which showed pictures of hungry children in developing countries, pictures of people living in “the huts and villages” which President Kennedy had spoken of in his inaugural address.

They were the same kind of pictures one still sees today in television ads asking people to sponsor a child in a developing country. In fact, most people would see little difference between the images used in 1961 and those used in 2011.

More fifty years have passed since the United Nations declared the 1960s to be the “Decade of Development”–but for all too many people living in developing nations, conditions not only haven’t improved–they’ve actually deteriorated.

Of course, nations like Canada continue to provide “development assistance” to countries like the Dominican Republic.

In the period between 1961 and 1984, trillions of dollars in aid were transferred from countries like Canada and the United States to lesser developed nations. But much of that aid had been political and often had strings attached to it. In many cases, the funds never actually left the donor country. They went to corporations within the donor country in order to fund large-scale development projects such as the construction of hydro-electric dams, highway systems, sewage-treatment programs, huge irrigation projects and so on. Even scholarships to bring overseas students to universities in the donor country were considered foreign aid.

Those contracts were certainly beneficial to the corporations and universities which received them–but one has to question how much benefit they were to the nations of the South. The justification for this type of project-funding had been that it would create an infrastructure which would contribute to the economic stability of Southern nations and lay the groundwork for future development.

If the projects were judged by how well they achieved their expressed goals, then they were not very successful at all. Developing countries are generally less stabile economically today than they were even twenty years ago.

Dominicans in 1984 were significantly worse off than they’d been in the 70s, and–if one examines the economic criteria which banks and other credit rating agencies use–they’re even worse off today. In 1984, after the structural adjustments imposed by the International Monetary Fund, there were three Dominican pesos to the US dollar; today the exchange rate is 38 pesos to the US dollar.

44 - The IMF

2011-11-19T11:18:00.001-08:00

In development literature, the policies of the International Monetary Fund [IMF] are routinely castigated. It is the ogre in the story, imposing draconian regulations on sovereign nations in exchange for making loans which only plunge those nations further into debt. But the IMF has historically played an important role in world affairs.

Both the IMF and the World Bank arose out of the economic chaos following the Second World War. The incentive behind the establishment of these institutions was a desire to avoid an international economic crisis similar to the Depression of the 1930s. To determine how to best avoid that possibility, the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference was held at Bretton Woods in New Hampshire in 1944. Its goal was to develop institutions which would help nations in their reconstruction efforts after the war. The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (the World Bank) was designed to provide long-term capital to nations requiring assistance, and a second institution, the International Monetary Fund, was intended to provide short term assistance to countries in crisis situations. The IMF, as its name implies, is a fund from which nations could take short-term loans in order to cope with temporary financial difficulties, specifically balance of payments difficulties.

Because the IMF’s sole purpose was to overcome short-term difficulties, it has traditionally insisted that borrowing countries adapt measures which the IMF believes would correct those difficulties. These might include currency devaluation, increased taxes, reduction of government spending in areas such as education and health, and so on. These are the “structural adjustments” which had had such a powerful impact on the lives of individuals living in developing countries.

During the 1970s when many developing countries were seeking to modernize, they were reluctant to draw too heavily from either of these institutions because of the conditions they insisted upon before granting loans. But when the debt crisis emerged in the 1980s, developing nations continued to require manufactured goods which they had to purchase from more developed nations, and they still needed capital to continue the process of industrialization. However the income they received for their exports–still primarily commodity products–were slumping and tariffs placed on their manufactured goods made them prohibitively expensive. Further, the commercial banks, which had previously encouraged them to borrow money, were now reluctant to make further loans. As a result, many developing nations had more money going out of the country than they were bringing in. That is a “balance of payments deficit.”

Since IMF had been designed specifically to assist countries to overcome things such as balance of payments deficits, it became the institution to which countries like the Dominican Republic turned in the 1980s. The IMF formula was to organize the banks which had outstanding loans in the petitioning country; it even arranged for further loans provided that certain conditions–the structural adjustments –were met.

When the IMF was established in 1944, there were 45 member nations; today there are 184. These nations contribute to funds—their “quota” based on their economic strength.

43 – The Third World Debt Crisis

2011-11-12T07:58:00.000-08:00

In the 1980s, Brazil was the ranked the world’s eighth largest economy (Canada was number seven). It had a trade surplus which was only surpassed by those of Japan and West Germany. It appeared poised to become a major economic force and had been a preferred customer of the northern banks seeking to unload petro-dollars. But when interest rates started to go up, Brazil’s economy went into a dive. During 1987 and 1988, inflation was running at 20% a month; consumer prices between 1985 and 1990 rose 22,000%.

The government tried a variety of means to respond to the situation. The currency was devalued, and a wage and price freeze was put into effect. Measures such as these halted inflation for a while, but then forces within the country began to resist them. When cattle ranchers found that the prices they could charge for their beef were frozen, they withheld their livestock from the market, and Brazil–the world’s second largest producer of cattle–had to import meat. These pressures forced the government to allow prices to rise again, and soon inflation was running at about 600% a year.

Finally, in 1987, the Brazilian government determined, as Mexico had, that it could no longer afford to pay the interest due on their foreign debt, and those payments were suspended. Now pressure came from outside the country–from creditors. The loans were eventually renegotiated, and Brazil agreed to resume making payments but in order to do so had to borrow further money–a plan US bankers agreed to, although it didn’t appear to make much sense, because their only other option would have been to declare the debt uncollectible. So, the Brazilian debt continued to increase as they borrowed more money in order to make interest payments on old loans.

That is how the Third World debt crisis came about.

That debt probably remains the single greatest factor hindering development in most Southern countries today–a debt so large that many nations can’t even meet their interest payments, let alone have any real hope of ever being able to pay it off.

Just like Brazil, nation after nation in the Third World has had to borrow money in order to make their debt payments to commercial banks. But now those banks are unwilling to incur further debt from developing countries, so nations have to turn to the International Monetary Fund–an international institution set up to assist nations in crisis.

The IMF will loan money to developing countries, but usually only if the borrowing countries agree to certain conditions. These are the “structural adjustments” I mentioned earlier. Borrowing countries are expected to demonstrate what the IMF considers fiscal responsibility. So they might be required to devalue their currencies and allow interest rates to go up, although this usually results in higher unemployment. Then the IMF might insist on reductions in government spending, reductions in food subsidies for the poor, health services, and so on. The type of conditions which resulted in the 1984 Santo Domingo riots.

42 – The Impact of “Petro-Dollars”

2011-11-07T04:01:00.000-08:00

When the price of oil went up in the 1970s, OPEC nations acquired large revenues. They deposited much of these so-called “petro-dollars” in Western commercial banks. Those banks then found themselves with unexpectedly large cash reserves. Banks prefer not to have large cash reserves, because they have to pay interest on them. The way banks make a profit is by loaning out the money they have on deposit and charging the borrowers a higher rate of interest than they pay their depositors. If they were to avoid going broke, the banks had to seek new loan customers.

Their usual customers, the private business sector in the North, were experiencing a recession–because of the hike in oil prices–and were reluctant to increase their debt. So the banks turned their attention to the Third World.

Under other circumstances, many of these nations wouldn’t have been considered credit worthy, but at this point the banks were desperate for customers. They couldn’t afford to continue paying interest to their depositors unless they found customers to whom they could loan that deposited money.

And the interest rates they offered were very attractive. In certain cases, the rate of interest was fixed so that the real, or actual, rate paid would be adjusted by the current level of inflation. That meant that if the interest rate was, for example, 10% and the inflation rate was 8%, then the actual rate of interest charged would be 10 minus 8, or 2%. This arrangement even resulted, at times, in negative rates of interest. For the purposes of example, assume that the interest rate is still 10%, but now the inflation rate has jumped to 12%. In that case, the actual interest would be 10 minus 12, or a negative 2%. In order words, the borrowing country would receive a 2% credit from the bank for having the loan.

Banks provided other incentives for developing countries to take out loans as well, including paying bribes to public officials. But then in 1981, it all came to an end.

In an effort to control domestic inflation, the United States raised interest rates. When a country with as much economic influence as the US raises interest rates, other countries have to follow, because investors are going to put their money where they will received the highest return. If you can earn more money in the United States, because of high interest rates, than you can in Canada, you’ll take your money out of Canada and invest it in the US. The only way to prevent this is for Canada to raise its own interest rates.

That’s what occurred. A chain reaction was set off around the world, and interest rates began climbing. Developing countries found their debt service, the payment due on interest and principle, skyrocketing. In 1975, the debt service of the Third World was collectively around $26 billion. By 1982, after the rise in interest rates, the debt service jumped to more than $133 billion. Many developing nations found themselves with such enormous debt burdens they weren’t able to pay the interest due on those loans.

Mexico was the first nation to default. In 1982, the Mexican government declared a moratorium; they temporarily stopped their debt service payments. This made banking institutions nervous, but the Mexican situation was considered an anomaly–until Brazil also defaulted on their debt payments.

41 - OPEC

2011-10-29T06:51:00.001-07:00

When the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries [OPEC] was established in 1960, the founding member nations included Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela. Later Nigeria, Algeria, Libya, Indonesia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates also joined. There are still significant oil producing and exporting nations—Canada included—which do not belong to OPEC.

Before these countries began working collectively, they competed with one another for oil sales, a situation which was to the benefit of petroleum-importing countries, the industrially developed nations of the North. Working together, OPEC members were able to set stable prices, which, in turn, benefited the primary producers; however, the union has not always been a happy one.

The way in which OPEC operates is to control the amount of petroleum available on world markets; members agree to productions quotas which exert tremendous influence over the price of oil. The first time that OPEC demonstrated the full extent of its strength was in 1973, when, in response to the West’s support of Israel during the Yom Kippur War, OPEC was able to almost triple the price of oil. It went from $10.79/barrel [US] to $29.43/barrel. The profits from this oil revenue significantly increased the per capita GNP of the member countries, although often without improving the actual quality of life of the citizenry.

The impact of the hike in petroleum prices had an immediate impact on industrialized nations, and a global recession resulted. Then in the 1980s, oil prices came down as importing countries, such as the United States, found alternate sources for petroleum (notably Canada, the North Sea and Mexico) and made modest efforts to reduce their oil consumption.

Considering the way in which industrialized nations had exploited other countries for their resources in the past, it is natural that the petroleum producing nations would take steps to control the value of their product. Still, OPEC members have not always been successful at working together. Their unity was weakened, for example, during the Iran-Iraq War which raged between 1980 and 1988. And in 1995, when OPEC attempted to establish a base price of $21/barrel for petroleum, some members exceeded their assigned quotas and as a result of that overproduction, the price fell well below $21.

OPEC members control 80% of the world’s proven petroleum reserves and continue to exercise an enormous influence on the petroleum market. In spite of which, conditions for the average citizen of OPEC member nations have not improved significantly. In terms of the United Nations Quality of Life Index, Saudi Arabia is ranked 77th; Iran 101st; Algeria 108th; Indonesia 111th; and Nigeria 151st out of 177.

Instability in the Middle East still has the capacity to cause major swings in the price of oil. When I was writing the 80/20 video series in the summer of 2005, the price of oil had gone as high as $70, which was then considered exorbitant. As I was outlining this series of essays (in spring of 2011), civil war was raging in Libya, and the price of oil was over $100 a barrel.

40 – Foreign Exchange

2011-10-24T03:46:00.001-07:00

To understand the conditions which led to the Third World Debt Crisis, one needs to understand the mechanics behind Foreign Exchange.

“Foreign exchange” is the means or the ability to purchase materials, goods, or services from another country. If a Canadian, for example, places an order over the internet to buy something from a company in the United States, they will be asked to pay for it in US dollars–that’s the foreign exchange.

There are basically three ways to acquire foreign exchange. The first is to purchase it. The way one does that over the internet is to put it on a credit card. The credit card company will convert the Canadian dollars into US dollars by purchasing them. The monthly statement will tell the card holder what that purchase rate–the exchange rate–was. It is relatively easy for a Canadian to purchase US dollars. However, it is more difficult for someone using a less stable currency, one from a developing country for example, to find a source which will exchange that currency for either US or Canadian dollars.

A second method is to earn it. Developing nations which were not able to buy foreign currency could earn it by continuing to sell the commodity products that richer nations desired. So the Dominican Republic in the 1970s, pursuing the example we’ve been using, continued to produce sugar in order to acquire the money needed to pay for the developments occurring in that country during the Balaguer years.

But the prices earned by agricultural commodities on world markets fluctuate a great deal, while the price of manufactured goods can generally be expected to rise. It took six times as much sugar to buy one tractor in 1983 than it had in 1979.

If one can’t buy foreign exchange, and one does not have the ability to earn it, then there is a third way to acquire it. It can be borrowed. And during the 70s, that’s what countries like the Dominican Republic did. This eventually led to the debt crisis which they have never really resolved, and which, to some extent, they continue to suffer from today. More immediately, it led to events like the 1984 riots in Santo Domingo. But at the time the money was borrowed, it seemed like a good idea.

Countries always borrow money. That’s what bonds are, for example–a nation’s way of borrowing money from its citizens in order to pay for government operations. And most countries probably had their borrowing under control until about 1973. That’s when the price of oil went up. That single event changed the global economic situation.

What happened was that the petroleum exporting countries recognized they produced a commodity upon which the rest of the world depended. So they formed the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries–OPEC–and working together they were able to raise the price of oil world-wide. This had immediate repercussions throughout the world economy. Other nations–especially the industrially developed nations–went into recession as their fuel costs rose.

39 – “Development” Aid

2011-10-03T06:58:00.000-07:00

International development assistance has always been political. Between 1946 and 1959, most US aid went to the nations of Europe under the Marshall Plan, which called for the rebuilding of European nations, in large part in order to discourage the rise of Communism. The former enemy nation of Germany was a major recipient of that funding. Latin American countries which had been allies of the US during the war received less than 2% of US aid. When this issue was raised, the Latin Americans were bluntly told that US priorities lay elsewhere.

When a new focus on helping lesser developed nations arose in the 60s, European nations tended to focus their aid on their former colonies. Much US aid in this period went to countries in the Western Hemisphere as an extension of the Monroe Doctrine, which essentially asserts US opposition to any European involvement in the Americas. Other US aid went to countries which they feared might fall prey to Communism or to countries where the United States had strategic interests.

From the point of view of policy makers, this was simply common sense. But unfortunately it also meant that often the poorest and most needy countries–countries which had no particular strategic or economic value–were the countries least likely to receive aid.

An even more serious problem with the concept of foreign aid was the assumptions upon which it was based–in particular, the assumptions which donor nations made about what qualified as “development.”

“Development” isn’t necessarily a very clear concept. After all, all countries are developing to some extent. Conditions are not the same today in Canada as they were ten years ago; hopefully they’ve improved slightly. That’s evidence of development.

The term “developing countries” generally refers to countries which are still developing their capacity to ensure that their citizens have reasonable access to a decent standard of living and the satisfaction of basic human needs. If that definition of development is accepted, then it must also be accepted that there isn’t necessarily one single formula for achieving development which can be universally applied. The way in which an agricultural community would seek to achieve these ends is different from the way an industrialized community would do so.

But with the advent of international development assistance, donor nations, in effect, held up a particular model of development as the norm. The assumption was that non-industrialized nations must necessarily be “under-developed.” And because the economies of most Third World nations at that time were based on agriculture and commodity production, it was assumed that the cure for their poverty would be found through expanding their capacity for industrialization.

Of course, aid was provided to help developing nations improve their agricultural potential, but real development, it was believed, would only be achieved through “modernization”–which meant developing an industrial base.

In order to do that, developing nations would require machinery, expertise, and so forth, which were only available from the richer nations. Third World nations received some of these in the form of international development assistance. But that assistance had at least two catches.

First, it allowed someone else–the donor country–to define the course of development in the recipient nation. This is a variation on the point I made earlier that all too often developing countries have had less control over their own sovereignty than wealthier nations have had. Aid was available but only for the types of development approved of by the donor nations.

The second catch was that assistance was only intended to help poorer nations get started on the road to development. After an initial aid investment, the recipient countries were expected to assume responsibility for continuing that development from their own resources.

This resulted in transfers of technology which seemed promising for a short time, but then fell through when the recipient nations were unable to maintain them. Development seminars in the 1980s were filled with stories of imported farm machinery throughout Africa which was left to rust in the sun because the local population didn’t have the capacity to provide the required maintenance or to purchase spare parts.

Nations, like the Dominican Republic, which in the 1970s made a commitment to modernization, were required to find ways of raising money to continue the process of industrializing. Until they were able to meet their own needs internally, they would have to continue purchasing machinery, industrial equipment, expertise, medicines, petroleum, and so forth from more developed nations. And in order to do that, they required what’s called “foreign exchange.”

38 – The Advent of International Aid

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Historically, the idea that richer countries should provide financial aid to poorer countries is a fairly recent one. The concept would have been incomprehensible to the colonizing powers of the 18th and 19th centuries. From their point of view, colonies existed in order to benefit the colonizing power. That’s why nations colonized other regions. They expected to benefit from it. The colonized territory provided needed raw materials–food, minerals, lumber, perhaps slaves–and served as a market for manufactured goods.

After the Second World War, however, a different attitude began to become common. Colonization was no longer considered justifiable, and more and more former colonies achieved independence. Of course, once they achieved that independence it was also expected that they would look after their own affairs. But it became clear by the 1960s that–after centuries of colonial administration–many developing nations simply did not have adequate local expertise or resources to do this. Industrially developed nations, such as the United States, which had prospered after the war, felt a new sense of responsibility to assist countries which were not as fortunate.

In his famous 1961 inaugural speech, US President John Kennedy spoke directly to the people of the Third World:

To those people in the huts and villages of half the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period is required, not because the Communists may be doing it, not because we seek their votes, but because it is right. If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.

Kennedy’s inaugural speech was one of the great speeches of the 20th century, although fear of Communism was probably a greater motivator than the president admitted. And, in fact, during his administration the world almost came to nuclear war over the issue of the Soviet Union and Cuba. The same president who had made a pledge to the “people in the huts and villages of half the globe” later addressed not only the American people but also the citizens of Cuba:

I want to say a few words to the captive people of Cuba, to whom this speech is being directly carried by special radio facilities. I speak to you as a friend, as one who knows of your deep attachment to your fatherland, as one who shares your aspirations for liberty and justice for all. And I have watched and the American people have watched with deep sorrow how your nationalist revolution was betrayed . . . and how your fatherland fell under foreign domination. Now your leaders are no longer Cuban leaders inspired by Cuban ideals. They are puppets and agents of an international conspiracy which has turned Cuba against your friends and neighbours in the Americas. . . .

One of the factors which led Kennedy’s successor, Lyndon Johnson, to authorize the 1965 invasion of the Dominican Republic was a fear that the country might succumb to a Cuban-style revolution.

37 – The Reversals of the 80s

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On the Monday after the Easter Weekend in 1984, citizens of the Dominican Republic woke to find that the cost of basic food items, such as rice, had doubled over night. This was the result of “structural adjustments” which had been implemented because of an agreement reached between the Dominican government and the International Monetary Fund [IMF]. The government knew the price hikes weren’t going to be popular, but they really didn’t have any option. They were broke and the only source they could go to in order to borrow the money they needed to continue operating was the IMF. The situation was so bad that they would have had to have agreed to just about any conditions the IMF imposed in order to obtain that loan.

The impact of the price hikes on low-income Dominicans, however, was immediate and profound. Many found they could no longer afford to provide their families even a modest diet. The poor of Santo Domingo took to the streets, and police responded with force. Seventy-two hours after the protests began, 112 persons—including children—were dead; hundreds more were wounded; and approximately 5000 were imprisoned by security forces.

Similar confrontations were taking place throughout the developing world. In 1986, food riots broke out in Zambia when the price of maize went up. In 1988, Nigerians rioted over increases in fuel costs. In 1989, protests in Venezuela over rising food costs resulted in a police action that left 1000 persons dead and another 2000 injured or in jail. That same year hyper-inflation in Argentina resulted in public violence and looting.

In spite of decades of international development assistance and literally trillions of dollars in aid transfers, the people of the so-called Third World were by and large worse off by the 1980s than they’d been before those aid programs had begun. If the 1970s had been a time of promise for developing nations, the 80s was clearly the decade of reversal.

So far in this series of reflections, I have identified several characteristics which many developing countries have in common. For example, most had been—at one time or another—colonies or occupied territories. As such their resources had been developed not to meet the needs of their own populations but rather those of the colonizing power; thus, their economies tended to be based on commodity production–on producing the raw materials or food products which the colonizers wanted.

It has also been demonstrated that in the late 1960s and early 1970s, conditions in many of these countries appeared to be improving. Several developing nations–including the Dominican Republic–seemed on the brink of significant economic development.

That promise was never realized however. Instead, by the mid-1980s most developing nations shared yet another characteristic in common: enormous and virtually unpayable external debt loads. In 1984, the year of the protests in the Dominican Republic, the collective debt of developing countries was so large that the total amount of foreign aid these nations received that year was $31 billion less than they paid in the interest on their debt. In others words, in net terms, during 1984 more money–$31 billion dollars more–went from poor countries to rich countries rather than the other way around. By 1992, that figure had risen to $100 billion. $100 billion more a year went from poor countries to rich countries rather than the other way around.

International aid, of course, is supposed to help poorer countries. That is why it’s provided. And yet ironically, some of the factors that contributed to the massive debt which developing countries incurred in the 1980s can be traced back to the assumptions on which international development assistance had been based.

36 - The Balaguer Years

2011-09-12T05:44:00.001-07:00

Trujillo held the office of President of the Dominican Republic twice, the first time from 1930 to 1938 and the second time from 1942 to 1952. From 1952, there was an elected President who served under him, and he retained power as the National Benefactor.

The Dominican president at the time of Trujillo’s assassination was Joaquín Balaguer, a man who outwardly seemed very different from the flamboyant dictator. He was soft-spoken, a published poet, and a lifelong and somewhat fastidious bachelor. He had been Vice President under Trujillo’s brother, Hector, who had been elected President in 1957. Bowing to pressure from outside the country, Trujillo forced his brother to resign the presidency in 1960, raising Balaguer to a position which was by that time had little real power.

The Trujillo family underestimated Balaguer and assumed that Rafael’s son Ramfis would follow his father as the strong man of the country. But Ramfis’ viciousness alienated the population, and he was into forced exile.

Balaguer quickly consolidated his presidency once Ramfis Trujillo was exiled and sought to gain the support of the populace by making a number of reforms. These, however, pleased neither the public (for whom they were too modest) nor the oligarchy (for whom they were too radical). When elections were held, Balaguer lost the presidency to Juan Bosch.

Bosch held office for only seven months, before he was overthrown by the military, and the country entered a period of Civil War. Fearing something that something similar to the Cuban revolution was taking place in the Dominican Republic, US President Lyndon Johnson sent 42,000 U.S. marines to support conservative forces. Before the US Forces left, they ensured that free and open elections returned Balaguer to office.

The “Balaguer Years” (or the Twelve Years) refer to the period from 1966 until 1978; he later returned as president from 1986-1996.

In many ways, Balaguer was an effective president, although a ruthless one, and the political assassinations and disappearances common during the Trujillo years continued under his presidency. While he never rivaled Trujillo’s ruthlessness, he had no scruple about having political rivals jailed or interfering with the press.

There were signs of economic growth in the Dominican Republic during the Balaguer Years, in addition some modest social reforms were introduced. During the 1970s, an expansive public works program was active throughout the country. New construction efforts included roads, bridges, schools, housing projects, hospitals, dams, libraries, museums, theatres, parks, sports complexes, and public buildings. Under Balaguer’s leadership, the Dominican Republic appeared to be moving toward prosperity.

Nor was it alone. In fact, the late 1960s and early 1970s were a time of growth in many developing countries. Several seemed on the brink of significant economic development. Construction projects like those which were taking place in the Dominican Republic were common throughout the so-called Third World. One of those Third World nations, Brazil, was the world’s eighth largest economy, right behind Canada.

In the mid-1970s, things were looking pretty good in countries like the Dominican Republic and Brazil. . . . And then the price of oil went up.

35 – The Trujillo Era

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The rise of Trujillo in the Dominican Republic after the United States military departed in 1924 introduces a third characteristic common in the history of developing countries. Because–either as occupied territories or as colonies–they had little experience of self-government, it has often been the case that local dictatorships came about after the occupying powers left. Trujillo was a spectacular example of such a dictator, but there have been many since him, throughout Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East–right down to the present day. Africa, in particular, has suffered from this type of leadership.

Trujillo’s personal wealth was linked with the sugar industry. When the second European war broke out, once again the world faced sugar shortages. Sugar became an extremely valuable commodity. And in 1952, Trujillo personally took control of the industry in the Dominican Republic in order to pay for his government and his luxurious lifestyle.

Trujillo described himself as the “benefactor” of his country. All homes were, to all intents and purposes, required to have a photo of the “benefactor” displayed, often adjacent to religious images such as crucifixes or portraits of the Virgin Mary. Dissent was not tolerated; individuals considered to be unloyal disappeared into the prisons of the country.

Still an opposition movement, inspired in part by the Castro’s success in Cuba, did develop. Three of most significant participants in that movement were four sisters – Minerva, Patria, Teresa, and Dedé Mirabel. The sisters came from the well-to-do class, the class which was traditionally most loyal to Trujillo because it profited from his regime. The activism of these young attractive women quickly made them folk heroes. Minerva was known to have resisted Trujillo’s sexual advances, something few Dominican women would have had the courage to do.

Both Minerva and Teresa were arrested for their involvement in revolutionary activity and tortured while in prison. Eventually three of the sisters (excluding Dedé) were assassinated on November 25—the day now recognized internationally as the Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

The death of the Mirabel sisters proved to be the catalyst which resulted in Trujillo’s assassination in 1961. Then the Dominicans elected a moderate socialist, Juan Bosch, president; the United States reacted by occupying country for a second time. They then presided over democratic elections before departing. And to ensure that the Dominicans didn’t make the error of re-electing the socialist, the occupying forces gave their support to Joaquin Balaguer.

Balaguer had served under Trujillo in several functions and eventually, in 1960, became nominal president of the country, although he had little real power. After Trujillo’s assassination, Balaguer continued as president and made efforts to liberalize the government. But his changes were too radical for the former dictator’s supporters and too cautious for social activists. Consequently, he was unable to retain control of the government and was forced to surrender office in 1962. He was given asylum in the United States, where he remained until he was returned to the presidency after the American occupation of 1965.

34 – Dominican History

2011-08-29T04:04:00.000-07:00

I ended my brief review of colonization in the Caribbean with the growth of the sugar empires and mentioned that sugar was an important element in the history of the Dominican Republic, although it had not always been.

The history of the Dominican Republic is fascinating but baroquely complex.

Dominicans are justly proud of their history. Throughout the country, one frequently sees images of the three men who are considered to be the fathers of the nation–Juan Pablo Duarte, Francisco del Rosario Sanchez, and Ramón Mella. They liberated the country from its occupying power in 1844. That power, however, wasn’t Spain, as many tourists might expect, but Haiti, which had taken control of the Spanish portion of the island in 1795.

After achieving liberation from Haiti, there was a period of chaos in the Dominican Republic which eventually provoked the citizens of the country to ask Spain to take them back as a colony. Spain did so, but ruled so poorly that it provoked further revolutionaries to take up arms in 1865, winning the country its second independence.

Technically the Dominican Republic has remained independent ever since. But by the beginning of the 20th century, the country was in serious debt to external banks, many of them in Europe. This raised concern in the United States that certain European nations would be tempted to resort to “gunboat diplomacy” and attempt to take control of the Dominican Republic in order to ensure its debts were paid. So, in 1916, the US invoked the Monroe Doctrine to justify invading the country in order to prevent European powers from doing so. That pre-emptive occupation lasted for eight years.

Compared to what England and France were doing in their colonies during this same period, the US occupation of the Dominican Republic was almost benign, but, Dominicans still had little control over their own resources or destinies. One of the first things the US did was remove the tariffs on food imports which had been established to protect Dominican farmers. This opened the country to cheap US farm products but devastated local farming. Then legislation was enacted to expropriate communal lands and the lands of small farmers. That land was needed for sugar production.

The Dominican Republic had been a major center for sugar production around the turn of the 17th century, but by the time of the Haitian occupation, their primary industry was raising cattle. In fact, in the early 19th century, the cattle population was forty-times that of the human population.

But World War I had ruined the European sugar beet industry, and sugar had become a valuable crop once more. Under the terms of the occupation it was easy for more than half the sugar mills in the Dominican Republic to come under the control of US corporations, but these mills required massive land holdings in order to be profitable. During the US occupation, those holdings grew to ten times what they had been. And 98% of the sugar they produced was exported back to the United States.

Not everyone was happy with the occupation, of course. Dispossessed landholders and others sought to fight the US occupiers and the sugar monopoly. The Americans considered these people terrorists, and in order to keep them under control, the US helped the Dominican government create the Guardia Nacional–which was trained by US military officials as a “counter-insurgency” force. The Guardia Nacional was headed by Rafael Trujillo. And when the US occupancy came to an end, Trujillo used his position in the Guardia to take control of the country and establish the first totalitarian state in the Americas.

33 - The Inca

2011-08-22T04:52:00.000-07:00

One can understand—if not sympathize with—the European powers’ rationalization for colonizing cultures which they deemed “primitive.” However, many of the cultures which the Spanish came upon in the New World were very advanced. The Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan, when Cortez arrived was four times larger than London. The Inca empire at the beginning of the 16th century was one of the marvels of human history. It extended from the northern border of what is now Ecuador down to what is now Central Chile, roughly the same distance as between Halifax and Victoria. The estimated population of the Inca Empire was more than 12 million persons.

The Inca Empire was itself originally established by conquest. There were peoples representing twenty separate language groups in the Empire at the beginning of the 16th century. But once territory had been added to the empire, the people in those territories were allowed to remain agriculturally and socially self-reliant.

The Inca were primarily farmers (although they also had great skill in construction), and they developed advanced agricultural techniques. They carefully organized their crops to suit the varied conditions of their land, raising corn in those areas with longer growing seasons and potatoes in areas with shorter seasons. They had a sophisticated understanding of hydraulics, and the system of irrigation and terrace farming they employed allowed them to cultivate forty percent more land than is being farmed in the region today. The empire fed itself, and it is said that no one went hungry under Inca rule.

Then in 1532, Spanish conquistadors, under the leadership of Francisco and Hernando Pizarro, were attracted to the area because of its mineral wealth, in particular its gold and silver. The story of the ransom of the Inca emperor, Atahualpa, gives some idea of just how extensive that wealth was.

Atahualpa was captured by Francisco Pizarro and he sought to regain his freedom by offering to fill his cell with gold higher than a man could reach. And, in fact, he did so, although the Pizarro brothers still didn’t release him. Instead, Atahualpa was executed for being a polygamist and idolater. The gold ransom was divided among the Spaniards and Hernando was sent back to Spain to deliver the Emperor Charles’ share of the treasure. Charles’s portion alone was so spectacular that it encouraged a new wave of Spanish conquistadors to flock to the Americas.

Once subject to Spain, the formerly agricultural Inca were forced to work in mines and live in urban centers around those mines. One of the most productive of these sites was the fabulous silver mine at Potosi (now in Bolivia), which was discovered in 1545. The silver shipped from this mine was greater than all the European reserves of the day. But by 1635, its resources were exhausted.

These precious metals were harvested not for the benefit of the local population, but for the Spanish. The silver and gold were shipped back to Spain–more than 200 tons of gold by 1660 and 17,600 tons of silver. Once the mines were no longer productive, the area was left to its own resources. Its traditional agricultural patterns had been destroyed; the population had been devastated; the mineral wealth was gone.

An area which had once been rich, productive, and self-reliant was now reduced to poverty.

32 - The Impact of Colonialism and post-Colonial Imperialism on Mesoamerica

2011-08-15T06:21:00.000-07:00

Early in the conquest of the New World, Spain moved their attention from the Caribbean Islands to what is now known as Central America. They were drawn there by the regions’s gold and silver deposits. The first conquistadors arrived in Mexico in 1519. By 1524 they had defeated the Aztecs and had pushed their way south into what are now Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras.

When the mineral wealth of these regions was exhausted, Spain recognized the tremendous agricultural potential of the region and large estates were built on lands expropriated from native peoples, who were then enslaved to work the estates.

After acquiring independence from Spain in 1821, the economic history of Central America was tied to two products neither of which was native to the region: coffee and bananas.

By the First World War, coffee was the region’s primary source of foreign exchange. 85% of Guatemala’s exports were coffee; 80% of El Salvador’s. As the market for coffee increased, the estates were enlarged, again by dispossessing the native population. As in Africa, the best agricultural lands were used for raising export crops, leaving the native population only the less fertile areas in which to produce food for themselves.

In 1899, several US-based companies merged to form the United Fruit Company, one of the first multinational corporations in history. They acquired huge tracts of land in Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, as well as further south in Colombia and Venezuela. The land was used for banana production, and bananas became the basis of the economy in countries like Honduras and Guatemala, earning them the title of “banana republics.” The United Fruit Company plantations were run as independent states, providing little economic benefit to the countries where they were located; the profits went back to Northern investors. Company towns were established, where specialists from North America lived in luxury with their families. They imported their clothing and vehicles from the US; motion pictures, newspapers, and even food was brought to them from “home.” The local population did the labor and lived in poverty while the American managers and the government officials they paid lived lives of luxury.

United Fruit had millions of acres of land which were reserved for future use. But when the Arbenz government in Guatemala sought to provide land for peasants by expropriating areas owned by, but not cultivated by, the United Fruit Company, a CIA-backed coup ousted the government in 1954. A military state was then established which reigned for 20 years, during which time 100,000 persons were killed or “disappeared.”

In Honduras, the national railway was built not to serve the needs of the citizens but rather to facilitate the transportation of bananas to costal ports. The country’s capital, Tegucigalpa, still isn’t on the national railway. By 1980, the descendants of the United Fruit Company owned 20% of the arable land in the country. Honduras remains the poorest and least developed nation in Central America. It is estimated that as much as three-quarters of rural children in the nation suffer some form of malnutrition, and yet Honduras continues to export bananas, coffee, sugar, oranges, and even beef for American hamburgers.

31- African Independence

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Independence for many African nations came during the 1960s and 70s, a period of tremendous economic growth globally. The newly independent nations sought to take advantage of the opportunities for economic expansion by modernizing. The assumption was that if they became more industrialized, they would become more developed. However, in order to get started, they needed foreign exchange in order to purchase the goods and services required for the transition.

There were really only two means for them to acquire that foreign exchange. The first was to earn it by continuing to produce and sell the commodity products other countries desired. So even after achieving independence, African nations continued to produce export crops in order to earn the money they needed in order to buy manufactured goods, oil, medicine, as well as military and industrial equipment.

Unfortunately the prices earned by agricultural products go into decline whenever there is a surplus available, while the price of manufactured goods and oil can generally be expected to rise regardless of circumstances. Therefore the purchasing power of commodity exporting nations tends to fall over time. In 1975, a metric tonne of coffee purchased 29 barrels of oil; by 1983, a metric tonne of coffee only purchased 8½ barrels of oil.

Unable to earn adequate foreign exchange by exporting commodities, many African nations took out foreign loans during the 1960s and 70s in order to promote development and to enable them to begin to meet some of their own manufacturing needs. At the time the loans were made, the interest rates were very reasonable. But as commodity prices continued to fall and the costs of oil and manufactured goods rose, so too did interest rates. In the end, the nations of sub-Sahara Africa found themselves with enormous debt burdens which continue to stifle future development even today.

Often the only way in which the African nations were able to raise funds to meet their debt payments was by producing more and more export crops, at times at the cost of depriving themselves of food for local consumption. An often cited example is the case of Senegal. From 1969 to 1974, Senegal suffered one of the worst droughts and famines in modern history. Livestock died in the millions; hundreds of thousands of Senegalese peasants were forced to become refugees. However, throughout this period, large estates in Senegal continued to grow and export fresh vegetables to Europe. And when the price of green beans in Europe fell too low to make importing them from Senegal profitable, the crop was destroyed rather than being used for local consumption.

Another example comes from the 1983-84 drought in Ethiopia and the Sahel region of East Africa, which moved the people of the world to undertake one of the largest fund-raising efforts for famine relief ever attempted. Ironically, during that same period, cotton exports from the Sahel actually increased. There were productive farms in the region at the time, but they were producing cotton for export rather than food for local consumption.

30 - The Colonization of Africa

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Colonization took different forms in different parts of the world. The way colonization was pursued in Africa was very different from the way it was pursued in the Americas. Justified in large part by both racism and a narrow interpretation of Christian scripture, the actions of the European powers in Africa were such that the impact of colonialism on that continent was so devastating it still has repercussions today.

As early as the 15th century, the Portuguese had established trading posts along the coast of West Africa. Although, as with the Spanish in the Americas, the Portuguese were seeking mineral wealth they quickly discovered that an even greater profit could be made in the slave trade. The original African slaves were purchased from the North African Berbers and were taken to work sugar plantations on Portuguese estates on the island of Sao Tome located in the elbow of Africa.

Slaves remained the primary source of African trade throughout the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, but with the general worldwide abolition of slavery in the 19th century, other ways were sought to exploit the continent. The lead was taken by Belgium in the late 1800s. They established trading relations with the people of what was then called the Congo (now Zaire). Following the Belgian model, other European nations rushed to claim their spheres of interest as well.

To avoid the type of open conflict with one another which had occurred with the colonization of the Americas, the European powers decided to take a more civilized approach to the apportioning of Africa. Representatives met in Berlin in 1885 and arbitrarily divided the continent into territories. France, England, Portugal, Germany, and Belgium all claimed lands and established borders which defined the limits of their possessions. These later became the territorial boundaries of the African nations, although these European borders cut across traditional tribal lands and even included rival tribes within the same political jurisdictions. This resulted in the inter-tribal conflicts which occurred in African nations throughout the 20th century, such as those between the Ibo and Yoruba in Nigeria, the Acholi and Buganda in Uganda, and the Hutu and Tutsi in Rwanda.

Africa had some of the most productive farmlands in the world. These lands were, in large part, what attracted Europeans to places such as Zimbabwe (formerly called Rhodesia) and Kenya. The settlers came in order to farm. They appropriated the best lands from the native population and developed estates which produced crops primarily for foreign consumption: cotton, tea, coffee. The labor on these estates was provided by native Africans, reduced to the status of serfs.

Once again, the pattern of development which occurred in Africa during the colonial period was designed to benefit the colonizing power rather than the local populations. And, insofar as they profited the nations of Europe, those models of growth and development appeared to be successful. However they had not brought prosperity to the local populations. After African nations achieved independence, the hope was that these patterns would change. But they didn’t.

29 - The Triangle Trade Route

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The profit from the sugar islands of the Caribbean financed the British industrial revolution. A “triangle trade route” developed, in which ships carrying sugar or cotton and other raw materials from the New World brought these back to England, where they were sold at a profit, processed by manufacturers and sold again at a greater profit. Manufactured goods were then loaded onto these same ships and traded along the African coast for slaves. The slaves were transported to the Caribbean, sold (realizing another profit) the ships were once more loaded up with sugar and agricultural products, returned to England and so on.

Africa and the Caribbean islands provided the labor and the raw materials for this trade. But, of course, it was the British who retained the profits. And already we see two very different kinds of national economies evolving – one based on manufacturing and the other based on commodity production.

Then in the mid-19th century, the British sugar trade came under stiff competition from India, Brazil, and the Spanish islands. As a result, plantation owners could no longer afford to maintain large slave holdings. So in 1834, slavery was abolished throughout the British Empire. This meant plantation owners were no longer responsible for feeding or maintaining their former slaves, who now had to seek wage employment on these same plantations or work small farms on marginal land. The best farmlands, naturally, remained under the control of Europeans.

The economy of the Caribbean islands remains primarily agricultural even today, although light manufacturing, mining, and petroleum are becoming stronger. Ironically, not one of the islands is self-sufficient in food production. Most manufactured goods, of course, have to be imported.

That’s the legacy of colonialism in the Caribbean.

Earlier in this series of reflections, I had suggested that one of the primary characteristics of developing countries is their lack of control over their own sovereignty. Colonies, of course, have no sovereignty at all. Colonized areas were not developed to meet even the basic needs of the people who lived there. Rather, like Crusoe’s Friday, they were developed to be “useful, handy, and helpful” for the colonial powers: to provide raw materials, food, and a profit for their colonial masters.

Of course, eventually all of these territories achieved independence. But even after official independence, structures were left in place by the former colonial powers which determined the course of the economic development of the newly independent countries.

The history of each nation is unique, but we have already seen that some common patterns exist. The first is that most of these countries were controlled by external powers. The second is that the resources of these nations were developed not to meet the needs of the local population but to service the occupying power. Colonies were developed to supply the commodities needed by countries whose economies were based on manufacturing. And even after gaining independence, the economies of most developing countries remained based in commodity production.

For many years in the Dominican Republic, that commodity was sugar – although it hadn’t always been.

28 - The “Discovery” of the New World

2011-07-18T05:55:00.000-07:00

The first land that Columbus, or at least one of his crew, sighted on his famous voyage was one of the Bahama Islands; the details of the incident gives some insight into the Grand Admiral’s character. The King and Queen of Spain, who had sponsored the voyage, had promised a lifetime pension to the first person to sight land in the journey west. That person was a lookout on the Pinta, one of the three vessels under Columbus’s command. It was the middle of the night, and the Captain of the Pinta fired a cannon to signal Columbus, who was on the Santa Maria. When the event was reported later, however, Columbus asserted that he had seen a light coming from the island two hours earlier and thus he claimed the pension for himself.

During that first voyage, he then proceeded south and east along the north coast of Cuba, and onto Hispaniola (now shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti). He claimed all of these lands for Spain, under the mistaken impression that Cuba was the mainland of Asia and that Hispaniola was Japan.

As the exploration of the New World continued, the Spanish retained control of the larger islands of the Caribbean but ignored the smaller ones as they turned their attention to conquering what is now Central and South America.

The remainder of the islands were fought over and divided between other European powers. The Dutch took control of some (now the Netherlands Antilles) but France and England took control of most of the others.

When Columbus arrived, these islands were populated by the Arawak and Carib peoples; the Taino on Hispaniola were part of the Arawak language group. There were as many as 5 million people on Hispaniola alone, but within 100 years, almost the entire indigenous population of the Caribbean was eradicated. This was due in large part to disease.

The islands were valuable to their European masters because of their agricultural productivity. Both bananas and coffee, neither of which are native to the region, grew well on the islands. Then in the 17th century, the Dutch introduced another non-native crop: sugar. With the development of sugar plantations, the islands became even more valuable. Sugar was a luxury item in the 1600’s. It was so rare that European pharmacies sold it by the gram. When it was discovered that sugar cane flourished in what were now known as the West Indies, there was a flourish of European interest in sugar cultivation. Following the Dutch example, the British established plantations in Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad, St. Kitts, and the other small islands.

These plantations required large amounts of labor, and because the native populations of the islands had been eliminated, Europe had to seek that labor elsewhere. They found it in Africa. Slaves from the West Coast of Africa were transported to the sugar islands. The slave plantations of the West Indies soon became the most valuable possessions of the British Empire. Before the end of the 17th century, tiny St. Kitt’s, with a total area of 67 square miles, was valued more than all of British North America, because it produced sugar.

27 – What We Can Learn from “Robinson Crusoe”

2011-07-11T04:24:00.000-07:00

Works of fiction can provide insight into the perspectives of different generations and different cultures. One way to get an insight into the way in which Europeans of the 16th and 17th Centuries thought about colonization is to examine the book Robinson Crusoe, published by Daniel Defoe in 1719–a book which some people consider the first novel in the English language.

Many people know the story of Robinson Crusoe, even if they haven’t read it. Crusoe is an Englishman who is shipwrecked on an uninhabited island off the coast of South America. He is stranded on this island for more than 20 years, and, for most of that time, he is entirely on his own. But about half way through the book he finds a single human footprint in the sand and discovers that the island is visited from time to time by a tribe of cannibals who bring their prisoners there to be consumed. Eventually, Crusoe rescues one of these prisoners and makes him his servant. The name of that servant is also well-known and is still sometimes used as a synonym for an “assistant”: Friday. Crusoe gives him this name because Friday was day on which he had saved his life.

Many generations of Europeans and North Americans have read Defoe’s account of Crusoe’s naming of Friday without questioning it. And yet presumably the man had a name before Crusoe started calling him “Friday.” Certainly none of Defoe’s readers in the 18th century would have questioned Crusoe’s right to “name” Friday, any more than they would have questioned the right of Crusoe to treat Friday as he describes:

I made him know his name should be Friday, which was the day I sav’d his life. I called him so for the memory of the time. I likewise taught him to say Master, and then let him know that was to be my name; I likewise taught him to say, YES, and NO, and to know the meaning of them.

Crusoe, of course, is the “outsider” in this encounter–he is the “foreigner”–and yet he never doubts his right to make Friday his servant; he never doubts his right to give Friday a name, or to teach Friday to speak English, even though it would probably make more sense for Crusoe to learn Friday’s language which was, after all, the language of the local population.

Then Crusoe “civilizes” Friday, for example, by teaching him to wear clothes:

It is true he went awkwardly in these things at first; wearing the drawers was very awkward to him, and the sleeves of the wastcoat gall’d his shoulders and the inside of his arms; but a little easing them where he complain’d they hurt him, and using himself to them, at length he took to them very well.

And he educates Friday:

I was greatly delighted with him, and made it my business to teach him everything that was proper to make him useful, handy, and helpful.

And, finally, he converts Friday to Christianity.

Now neither Defoe, nor his readers doubted that Crusoe not only had the right but even had the responsibility to treat Friday this way. Friday was, after all, a savage. He needed to be civilized; he needed to be taught European values; he needed to be trained to be useful, handy, and helpful: meaning useful, handy, and helpful to Crusoe.

Quite unconsciously and unintentionally, Defoe gives us a fairly accurate portrait of a colonized native: deprived of his own land–made a servant in the land that was once his own–taught a foreign language, given a new name, forced to adopt new cultural values, and converted to a new religion. All, of course, for his own good.

None of this is exaggerated. In fact, colonization was often far more brutal than this fictional account, as we can see by examining what actually occurred on the islands off the coast of South America where Crusoe was stranded–the islands of the Caribbean.

And that brings us back to Christopher Columbus.

26 – Colonization

2011-07-04T10:38:00.000-07:00

The majority of nations in the world today can be categorized as lesser-developed countries, in the sense that they are generally less economically developed than the industrially stronger nations of Europe and North America, that they have more difficulty ensuring that all their citizens have access to a reasonable standard of living and the satisfaction of basic human needs.

Lesser Developed nations make up what is sometimes called the “Majority World.” And it is hard to make generalizations about a group of countries which includes nations as diverse as Bhutan, Honduras, and the Sudan. But there are some characteristics that most lesser developed nations do have in common. For example, most of them were, at one time or another, European colonies.

Colonization is one of those issues which we look at differently today than it was looked upon in the past.

European colonial expansion began in the 15th century and continued into the 20th. Essentially it amounted to the nations of Europe racing one another around the globe in order to lay claim to the various territories they came upon, even though virtually all of those territories were already occupied and had viable social structures in place. North and South America, the Caribbean, most of Africa and South-East Asia, the pacific nations, were all taken from the people who originally lived there and made colonies of England, France, or Spain, Portugal, Germany, the Netherlands, or Belgium.

On the one hand, colonization took place because of the economic competition between European powers and the military might those nations had compared to the territories to which they laid claim. But it is also important to recognize that these nations looked at the world in a particular way. As I have pointed out in earlier postings, eras have perspectives or points of view just as people and cultures do, and the perspective of the nations of Europe in the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries was very different from ours today.

European colonists made assumptions about their cultural and religious superiority to the peoples they encountered elsewhere in the world. It seemed self-evident that their technological superiority alone proved them to be superior to those they conquered—even when some of those societies, such as the Aztec in Mexico, were themselves very culturally evolved.

Specifically in relation to the Spanish conquest of the Aztec, the Spanish also believed they had moral superiority. The Aztec practiced human sacrifice; the Spanish were members of the one true, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. They had a moral responsibility to put an end to the barbaric heathen practices of the Aztec and to convert them to Christianity.

The assumptions of moral and racial superiority was taken for granted by the European conquerors along with the belief that in the “natural order of things” lesser peoples were intended to serve them. Slavery was defended in this way, as was the exploitation of the wealth of the lands “discovered” by the European explorers.

Today we look at things very differently. But our point of view is, historically, a fairly recent one.

25 – Balancing Accounts

2011-06-27T04:16:00.000-07:00

I was recently given a Kindle. It was a generous gift, but I wasn’t sure I would enjoy using it. I’m old enough to still prefer the feel of books, especially hard-covered ones. But as I explored the options I had for downloading material, I discovered that I could purchase, for only $1.99, fifteen novels by Sax Rohmer which would then be transferred wirelessly to the Kindle. The fact that it could be done in a matter of seconds still amazes me.

I had been considered a slow reader in grade school. At the end of fourth grade, a note was sent home to my parents warning them that I was falling behind my peers. My mother was worried by this, and, when she noticed that I was watching the Boris Karloff movie, “The Mask of Fu Manchu,” on television one day, she told me she had another book by the man who had written the novel the film was based upon. It was Rohmer’s “The Yellow Claw,” and it was the first extended piece of writing I ever attempted. After that, I became absorbed in Rohmer’s novels, and even in my early years at university, I would search used book stores for titles I did not have.

However, reading “The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu” on my Kindle, I was struck—and I should have expected to be—by the incredible racism and even the sexism of the novel. I felt that discomfort I sometime feel when seeing a favorite old Monty Python sketch which by current standards is no longer “politically correct.” Community standards change. My standards had changed.

On the one hand, I want to maintain that individuals in the past should not be judged by contemporary standards; they were, after all, the products of certain cultural assumptions, the standards of their era, their class, their background. On the other hand, I can’t ignore the fact that those standards are simply no longer viable.

There are people who become defensive when former Culture Heroes are judged by contemporary standards of behavior. Christopher Columbus is just one such figure. Their defenders argue that it is inappropriate to apply contemporary standards to our assessment of the events of the past. But it isn’t that simple.

While it is true that we cannot expect persons in the past to have been free of the prevailing cultural milieu in which they lived, we also cannot ignore the inequities and injustices which were inherent in most cultures (and still are). To fail to recognize this would leave no opportunity for improvements in cultural institutions.

History, as the common saying goes, is written by the victors. Those victors naturally view events from a particular perspective. But even in their own time, that perspective wasn’t universal. There have always been competing perspectives. If the Taino people had been able to write the story of the encounter with Columbus and his fleet, there is no doubt that the story would be very different from the one my classmates and I were given in grade school.

In looking at history, our goal is not to debunk but to balance accounts. We do that by recognizing that while there were prevailing social norms, those norms were never universal. There is always another side to every tale told.

24 - Columbus

2011-06-20T06:43:00.000-07:00

Before we can consider how best to deal with the poverty and injustices common in so many developing countries, we need to understand the structures responsible for creating these. And we need to understand how these structures came about. We will find the answers to those questions in the history of these nations.

The Dominican Republic has a very telling history.

Early in this series of postings, I described some of the preparations which the Dominican government had made in order to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the New World, what they officially referred to as the 500th anniversary of the “Discovery and First Evangelization of the Americas.” In a more recent posting, I demonstrated that people inevitably view things from a culturally-conditioned point of view, or perspective, which is the product not only of where they live but also when they live. For example, today, many people look at events such as Columbus’s arrival in the Americas in a more critical fashion than previous generations had.

When I was a child, Columbus was presented as a hero. That was still pretty much the case when my children were in school; there was even a “Sesame Street” routine about him—counting to three, for the three boats in his first fleet. As my grandchildren go through school, I see that that adulation is beginning to be moderated.

Without a doubt, Columbus’s first voyage demonstrated tremendous courage, and no one can deny that his arrival in this hemisphere altered the course of the development of human history. But the story I was given in school was, frankly, bowdlerized. Our text books told the story exclusively from the perspective of Europeans. When these same events are looked at more objectively, or from the perspective of the native communities living in the New World before Columbus arrived, the consequences of that encounter take on a very different appearance.

For centuries, Columbus has been a cultural icon to many people in North America. So criticisms of the “Grand Admiral” can seem almost heretical. But the fact is that he was a man of a particular time and culture, and while some of the things he did after landing in the Americas were considered reasonable at the time, they were barbaric by contemporary standards.

In school, I was not informed, for example, that in order to pay for his voyage Columbus captured 1200 members of the Taino population on the island of Hispaniola–where the countries of the Dominican Republic and Haiti are now located–and transported them back to Spain to be sold as slaves. Nor was I told how other Taino were forced to work in the mines and plantations which Columbus and his family established on the island, that natives who could not produce gold when it was demanded were punished by having their hands cut off.

By 1496, the Grand Admiral’s men had either killed or exported as slaves one third of the original population of Hispaniola. Within fifty years of the arrival of the Europeans, the Taino people were extinct.

23 - Population Density Vrs. Resource Consumption

2011-06-13T04:43:00.000-07:00

The whole issue of point of view is one we need to be conscious of and concerned about because it affects the way we interpret events occurring throughout the world.

It isn’t enough to recognize the links of interdependence that bind the nations of this planet together, we also need to recognize that we are viewing those links from a particular perspective, and not an objective one. Our perspective is inevitably coloured by our national and personal values and ambitions. Just as the residents of other nations view those links from their perspectives.

Recognizing that the links, that the connections, exist is the necessary first step in bringing about change. But our efforts to bring about that change will be fruitless unless we also keep in mind the way our particular perspectives will inevitably distort our understanding of those connections.

Population issues are an example of an area where the point of view of people in the developing world differs significantly from that of people in more developed nations.

As I pointed out in an earlier, many people in countries like Canada consider over-population to be a major problem in developing countries. The assumption is made that over-population is one of the primary causes of poverty in those nations. That opinion, however, represents a specific point of view, a specific way of looking at the issue of population. And it leaves out of consideration factors such as population density, resource consumption, and family structure.

When population density figures (the number of persons per square kilometre in a nation) are examined, there does not appear to be a direct relationship between poverty and population. The density of countries such as the Dominican Republic (183 persons per sq. km), China (136), Guatemala (134), and Uganda (115) are significantly high than Canada’s (3) or even the United States’ (30). But the densities of those countries are dwarfed by nations like Great Britain (243), Japan (337), Belgium (339), or the Netherlands (395), not to mention Monaco with a density of 16,620 persons per sq, km.

If over-population caused poverty, countries like Canada would be sending foreign aid to Tokyo and the Hague rather than to Africa.

There is nothing inherently wrong with having a large population. The issue is whether the nation has the resources needed to support its population. Likewise, the issue is not so much whether the Earth is over-populated as it is whether the Earth has the necessary resources to support its human population.

And it happens that, globally, humankind already produces enough food (primarily in the form of cereal grains) to feed more people than are currently alive. In spite of that, we not only have large numbers of people in the developing world suffering from severe malnutrition, there are hungry people in Canada and the United States.

The issue then, is not whether we have adequate food production. The issue is one of accessibility to food.

Further, if one considers the examples I provided in that earlier posting (that the average North American annually consumes 30 times what the average citizen of India consumes), it could be argued the real over-population problem is in the North rather than in the South.

Today many Canadians look at children as economic liabilities. But in other countries, children may be seen not as liabilities but as economic assets. They add to the family’s economic security rather than take away from it.

A similar situation existed in Canada in the mid-nineteenth century. At that time, the average Canadian family had to have six children in order to be confident there would be one son who would survive to adulthood and assume financial responsibility for the family. Canadian children even in the early 20th century were needed as labour to work on farms or to otherwise help contribute to their family’s income. As a result, large families were common because they were necessary in order to ensure survival.

Today, Canadian families are much smaller. But it isn’t because Canadians can’t afford to have more children; families are small because Canadians don’t need to have more children.

And it has been the case throughout the globe that, wherever basic income and health requirements have been met, the birth-rate has stabilized and slowed down.

22 - Enculturated Point of View

2011-06-06T05:37:00.000-07:00

The contrasting perspectives I discussed in my last posting brings us to an important and complex issue.

The reason US commentators felt the way they did about Jean Chrétien’s remarks in 2001 was because–quite naturally–they viewed them from a particular national and cultural perspective or point of view. In a similar way, both Palestinians and Israelis view events in the Middle East from perspectives not only different from one another but often from those of people in other countries as well.

Although we may think we do, none of us looks at the world objectively. We view the world from a particular perspective. And that’s a very visceral thing. It affects not only how we interpret current affairs, it affects things as basic as what we feel comfortable or uncomfortable eating.

In the Congo some thirty different species of caterpillars are eaten. In Botswana, caterpillars are so popular they are processed and canned. Certain tribes in the Amazon also eat caterpillar grubs. Termites are another popular food in Africa. Grasshoppers, crickets, and locust have been eaten in many countries; in Japan, candied grasshoppers are served as hors d’oeuvres. In Belize, a large local rat–the gibnut–is considered a delicacy and, because it was once served to the Queen of England, is known as the “Royal Gibnut.”

The average North American, however, presented with a plate of white worms would in all likelihood lose their appetite. But there is nothing natural in that squeamishness. It is only the result of conditioning. People in all regions are trained and conditioned by local custom to see certain foods as desirable or others as not.

This is a pretty basic example of an enculturated point view. And this perspective–this point of view–is such an intimate part of each us that, usually, we are not even aware of it. It is simply the way we see things, the way we look at the world. And people inevitably come to believe that their particular point of view is the normal or correct way of viewing things. One considers all other points of view, insofar as they differ from one’s own, to be either wrong or at least inadequate.

And yet no one is born with a particular set of tastes or a particular point of view; these are things people acquire. They are the product of conditioning, of training, the product of a series of factors over which we have no control–our culture, heritage, family, the education system we've passed through, the contemporary popular culture surrounding us, the television programs and movies we watch, the books we read, the music, the lyrics of the songs, we listen to. Had any of these–or a multitude of other experiences or influences–been different, then one’s “normal” way of seeing things would also be very different. Had one been raised somewhere else, one might seek out canned caterpillars.

Cultures and nations have points of view as well. That is partly what distinguishes them from one another. This should be fairly obvious in Canada; all one has to do is compare the Quebec point of view on certain issues with the point of view of most English Canadians and one has a pretty clear example of the differences which can exist between cultural perspectives.

But the situation becomes even more extreme when we leave Canada. Clearly, there are often differences between the Anglophone and the Francophone points of view. But those differences are minor compared to the differences between either of them and the points of view of a wide variety of cultures existing in different parts of the world. Compare, for example, the point of view of either an English or a French Canadian with that of a fundamentalist Muslim living in Iran or a Communist Party member living in North Korea.

21 - Northern Lifestyles

2011-05-30T04:18:00.001-07:00

One of the common criticisms raised by North Americans and Europeans about Developing Countries is that they don’t have effective population controls, that their birth-rates are too high, resulting in over-population which–it could be argued–is a root cause of poverty. Analysts in developing countries, on the other hand, point out that the real problem isn’t found in population figures, but rather in patterns of consumption. These are two very different ways of looking at the issue of resource distribution.

It is difficult to argue with the proposition that the planet is over populated. And developing countries are aware of the problem. China, for example, which is the world’s most populous country, has instituted its famous (or “infamous”) “one child” policy in an attempt to control its own population growth.

It is not alone in seeking ways to control population. And, in fact, in most nations where there has been an improvement in child health and a reduction in infant mortality rates, the birthrates have naturally started to fall.

Still, the point that Southern analysts make needs to be considered and not dismissed out of hand. Is the root cause of poverty over-population or resource consumption?

The average North American consumes thirty times what someone in India consumes each year. The United States, which only has 5% of the world’s people, consumes about one third of all global resources and also produces about half of the world’s annual hazardous waste. North Americans–Canadians and the citizens of the US–consume more than 30% of the world’s energy and still resist serious efforts at conservation.

Essentially, the life-style enjoyed by residents of the world’s rich nations–the life-style many of residents of the North are not even satisfied with–has been purchased at the expense of the world’s poorer nations. And this may be one of the greatest threats to the world’s security today.

But when the Prime Minister of Canada made similar remarks in his televised year-end interview in 2001, a number of commentators in the United States took offense. Jean Chrétien was speaking about the factors which he believed had led to the growth of global terrorism, including the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. And to the US commentators, it sounded as if he were blaming the victims. He wasn’t, of course, but it is understandable why it would be hard for many Americans to understand that.

His point was that in a world with the type of glaring disparities as we see around us today, it is inevitable that people will become resentful if they feel excluded from access to what they might consider their fair share of the world’s wealth. Conversely, those who have worked to acquire a certain lifestyle will become protective of what they believe is their due.

It is almost impossible for someone living in Canada or the US to believe that the lifestyle they have achieved can be considered anything other than their right. In such a situation, they may dismiss the feelings of other individuals (even individuals within those countries) as nothing more than envy.

But what looks like envy from one perspective may look like the desire for justice from another.

20 - Interdependence

2011-05-24T04:35:00.000-07:00

One frequently hears it said that nations like Canada should look after their own people and not worry about what is happening in other countries. That way of thinking is, frankly, naïve. Canada does not exist in isolation. We are inextricably linked with all the other nations on this planet. And it is to our detriment to ignore that reality.

There are numerous ways in which the nations of the world are interdependent. Northern Nations are linked medically with Southern Countries, and they are linked environmentally. And, of course, they are linked economically.

Although I have spend the majority of my career in international development working with the Dominican Republic, it had never occurred to me that the people of the small fishing community of Cap Pelé in my home province of New Brunswick would be particularly concerned about the value of the Dominican peso. But in 2003, while developing the 80/20 scripts, I happened to see an item on CBC news about the herring fishery which provided one more example of how extensive global interdependence was.

The herring fishery is an important part of the local economy in Cap Pelé, and the primary market for the herring caught is in the Dominican Republic and Haiti where smoked herring is popular. But in the late spring of 2003, the peso went into rapid decline, falling to a low of 50 pesos to the US dollar. At the same time, the Canadian dollar went up in value. That combination of a high Canadian dollar and a weak Dominican peso made the herring too expensive for Dominicans to purchase, and warehouses in New Brunswick were unable to move their stock.

We live in a global economy. What happens to the Dominican peso affects Canadians; just as what happens to the Indonesian rain forest affects us or (as the SARS outbreak demonstrated) what happens to the Chinese healthcare system affects us. And of course, we all now recognize the ways in which political events in others countries can affect our security here in North America. The events of September 11, 2001, have made us all–Americans and Canadians–realize that we live in a very unstable world.

It wasn’t that the world suddenly became more unstable that September; rather, we who live in North America simply could no longer ignore how unstable things had been for a long while. Again, no doubt many complex factors have contributed to this instability. But one major component brings us back to basic economics. A global economic system has evolved which appears to benefit a minority of the world’s population at the expense of the majority. And that inequity must inevitably result in resentment.

The small portion of the world’s population who live in places like the US, Canada, and Europe own, control, and consume the majority of the world’s annual resources, leaving only a fraction of those resources for the Earth’s majority, even when those resources–such as commodity products like petroleum, strategic minerals, coffee and other food items–originate in developing countries.

And our interventions in the histories of these nations, as I described in an earlier posting, have left long-lasting resentments in many countries, even countries which we currently consider our allies. How much stronger must those resentments be in countries which we cannot consider our allies.

19 – Environmental Concerns

2011-05-16T04:59:00.000-07:00

Industrially Developed Nations–rich nations–are concerned enough about the environmental choices poor countries make that they’ve taken steps such as using satellite imaging systems to monitor the amount of rain forest being cut down in the Amazon each year. It was 18,000 square kilometres in 2001. In 2002, it had gone up to 26,000 square kilometres. Throughout the tropical world, rain forest is currently being eliminated at a rate which would result in its complete eradication within a hundred years if steps aren’t taken to prevent that from occurring.

The elimination of rain forest has already resulted in the extinction of many animal and plant species, reducing the planet’s bio-diversity. And it has also been identified as contributing to climate change because the destruction of rain forest releases carbon into the atmosphere, increasing the tendency towards global warming.

Of course, rain forest destruction is only one of several factors contributing to climate change. Industrial emissions and transportation emissions release hundreds of thousands of tons of CO² and other gases into the atmosphere every day. The result is that the Earth’s atmosphere is getting thicker, retaining heat–in the same way that a greenhouse retains heat–which is why these gases are called “greenhouse” gases.

This isn’t an issue that one nation or even a group of nations can address effectively. Control of greenhouse gases is something that it is essential for all nations to address. And a failure to do so will have an inevitable impact on Canada. Environmentalists have suggested that potential effects might include droughts which could result in the development of desert-like conditions in the Canadian Prairie provinces; also the spread of diseases which had previously been found only in warmer climate–such as the West Nile virus which has already appeared in Canada. A rise in sea-level as a result of melting polar ice could have a devastating impact on the coastline of the Maritime Provinces.

Only fringe conservative groups seriously question the reality of Global Warming, and one suspects that even their denials are wilful. And yet at Climate Change Conferences, Developed Nations have refused to curb their own output of greenhouse gases unless Developing Nations make similar commitments. To act unilaterally, they argue, would put them at an economic disadvantage.

So the representatives from Northern Nations recognize that concern about environmental issues links both Developed and Developing Nations. However, their primary concern appears to be not the impact environmental policy will have on the well being of the planet but the impact that policy might have on local economic output. The fact, of course, is that Northern Polluters bear much more responsibility for the current global situation, and they also have greater technological capacity to address the issues.

Canada, lamentably, is the world’s greediest consumer of energy per capita – 96,000 kilowatt hours per person per annum (compared with 48,000 for the European Union).

Both governments and industry are complicit in the continued damage being done to the environment, and neither are being held to account. It is for that reason that there is an intriguing effort to have “Ecocide”—extensive damage to the ecosystem of a particular region—declared an “International Crime Against Peace.” As such, corporations—and their directors—could be charged with “ecocide” and would be tried in the International Criminal Court.

To learn more about the campaign, visit its website at: http://www.thisisecocide.com.

18 – Health Issues

2011-05-09T06:37:00.000-07:00

I wrote earlier that the question I am posed most frequently during my speaking engagements is why people who live in more developed countries should care about what conditions are like in less developed countries. And, perhaps the most basic reason is simply that we are already connected with those countries in many ways. Consumers in more developed nations, for example, are involved in an interdependent trading relationship with lesser developed nations which appears to be benefiting us more than it is them.

There are, of course, many complex reasons for the extent of the poverty common throughout the developing world. But, at least at one level, the cause of that poverty is pretty simple. Lesser developed countries still make up a majority of the world’s population; and yet people who live in more developed nations like Canada or the United States (who make up less than 20% of the global population) own, control, or consume the majority of the of the world’s annual wealth.

Of course, it is natural for people to be motivated by self-interest, so it’s hard for many people to be too concerned with what’s happening in other countries as long as the situation is benefiting them. We, the residents of the North, won’t really become concerned until we understand that what happens in other nations has a direct impact upon us, on our lifestyles and expectations. And that is not something which might occur sometime in the future. That is something taking place right at this moment.

Consider the impact that the SARS outbreak had on the city of Toronto in the Spring and Summer of 2003.

SARS is an acronym for “Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.” It is a viral respiratory illness which can result in death. As far as we can tell, the first outbreak of SARS occurred in the Guangdong province of China in November of 2002. Local officials didn’t have the financial resources to respond appropriately, or even to adequately monitor the outbreak of the new disease. And as it began to spread, the Chinese government made the unfortunate decision to try to conceal the extent of the problem.

The first Toronto case was a 78-year-old woman who had returned from a visit to Hong Kong. She went into the hospital on March 7, 2003. All the other cases of SARS which occurred in Toronto that summer can be traced back to this single individual.

By March 25th there were 27 suspected cases in the city, and four weeks later, the World Health Organization was concerned enough that they issued a travel advisory on Toronto. That advisory had an immediate impact on tourism. Conventions and conferences were cancelled. Hotel occupancy rates were cut in half. The situation for the hospitality industry was so severe that the president of the Greater Toronto Hotel Association predicted it would take years for their members to recover from the losses. Investment and security firms estimated that the disease cost Canada $30 million a day.

It has become a cliché to talk about how the world is shrinking, and there is a tendency to dismiss clichés. But the rapid spread of SARS demonstrates just how accurate that cliché is.

Even more dramatic than SARS has been the spread of the AIDS virus. In the 1980s when world attention was first drawn to AIDS, it was believed the disease primarily affected homosexual men and, for some reason, people from Haiti. Today the disease has been found in every nation on the planet, and most newly infected individuals are heterosexual women. The AIDS epidemic is so severe that a CIA report produced for the Clinton administration in the United States identified it as a “national security” issue.

So medical conditions in lesser developed nations can have a powerful impact far beyond their borders. And so too can environmental decisions made in those countries.

17 – Child Labor

2011-05-02T05:36:00.000-07:00

The issue of cocoa harvesting raises the matter of child labor—which is a much more complicated issue than it may appear to be at first.

Much of the clothing we stock at Cultures Boutique, the YMCA’s fair trade gift and clothing store in Fredericton, carries two labels. One identifies the article as a fair trade product. The other attests that no child labor was used in the production of the item.

While it is important to insure products do not make use of exploitive child labor, Fair Trade principles do not prohibit child labor per se.

Many young North American children are encouraged to take employment which earns them less than the official minimum age. Baby-sitting is an example. It is generally considered that such work provides not only a useful service but also “builds character.”

Children can also have household obligations. In farming families, those responsibilities may include caring for livestock, working during harvests, and so on.

The issue in developing countries is not that children should be prohibited from contributing to the economic well-being of their families, but that in doing so they are not deprived of those basic rights due to all children and young people. Non-exploitive conditions will allow the child to work without interfering with his or her ability to attend school and will allow adequate time for play and other social activities. Working conditions must also be appropriate; they must not put physical or psychological strain on the child.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is based on four core principles: 1) non-discrimination, 2) ensuring the best interests of the child, 3) the right to life, survival and development, 4) and respect for the views of the child. For much of the world, the right to life, survival and development also requires that children contribute to the economic stability of their families. And as long as they do so in a manner which is non-exploitive and guarantees that the other principles are respected, such work is reasonable.

Article 32 of the convention defines exploitive child labor as any work which “is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child's education, or to be harmful to the child's health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development.” UNICEF estimates that nearly 160 million children between the ages of 5 to 14 are currently engaged in some form of labor which contravenes the convention. And the horrors of the conditions under which some of these children labor have been well publicized.

The campaign to eliminate child labor is rooted in a basic recognition that children have the right to be children and should not be exploited. However, if the campaign is not tempered, it can have dangerous and unexpected consequences. In one carefully document case, when legislation was passed in the United States to deter the importation of clothing produced by child labor, some 50,000 children in Bangladesh lost their jobs in the garment industry. According to UNICEF, many of those children then had to resort to much more dangerous ways of earning a living, including entering into prostitution.

Those who seek to abolish child labor would serve those children better if they worked to insure that any labor children are involved in is humane, safe, and allows freedom for other childhood activities including both education and play. It must also be recognized that child labor cannot be dealt with independently. A genuine desire to curtail child labor must include a commitment to promote development in Southern Nations so that the families of these children have access to a reasonable standard of living and the satisfaction of basic human needs.

16 - Chocolate

2011-04-25T04:33:00.001-07:00

Chocolate is another food we depend upon other countries to produce for us.

Although there is evidence that the consumption of chocolate in Canada is declining, demand for it is still increasing in the United States. Americans spend $13 billion annually on chocolate, consuming an average of 12 lbs per person per year. The British are even more fond of it, consuming an average of 17.5 lbs per person per year.

Chocolate is made from cocoa, a crop which originated in Central and South America; however, the major cocoa-exporting countries today are in West Africa. Côte d’Ivoire is the world’s largest exporter, and Ghana the second largest. Nigeria and the Cameroons are also major cocoa exporters, as is the Dominican Republic.

In both Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, cocoa is primarily grown by small hold farmers. The average cocoa farm in Ghana is only two acres. There are some 600,000 cocoa farmers in the country. But cocoa only provides these farmers a supplemental income. It is estimated that at the price they are paid for their product, it would cost a Ghanaian farmer two days work in order to purchase enough food to feed his family for a single day.

The farmers raise their own food and grow cocoa as a cash crop in order to pay for other needs. It is unlikely that those needs would include chocolate, which is far too expensive for them to be able to afford. So most cocoa farmers never taste the product for which they provide the raw material.

At the beginning of the 21st century, the farming of cocoa in Côte d’Ivoire received a lot of media scrutiny because it was associated with slavery. Because the prices earned for cocoa are so low, some of the larger plantation owners felt that the only way they could make a profit was by cutting wage costs through the use of forced labour. Thousands of young boys from the neighbouring country of Mali were sold into slavery to work the cocoa plantations of Côte d’Ivoire.

The US government has long had legislation forbidding the importation of products which have been produced—in whole or in part—by slave labor. And in 2001, there was an effort in the United States House of Representatives to require chocolate manufacturers to introduce a labelling system which would assure consumers that the products they purchased were not contributing to slave labour.

The cocoa industry successfully lobbied to have the proposed legislation stymied, but in response to public opinion they initiated the Harkin-Engel Protocol in which they pledged they would work to end child labor and forced labor in cocoa harvesting by 2005. In fact the International Labor Organization asserted that in 2005 some 200,000 children were still engaged in cocoa harvesting in Côte d’Ivoire, of whom about 6% were deemed to have been trafficked for the purposes of forced labor. In 2006 the funding for an industry sponsored “verification work group” was discontinued.

The examples of coffee, sugar and cocoa demonstrate some of the hidden costs behind the products we buy in North America–costs many people would rather not know about. But it’s only because of conditions such as these that the prices for these commodities, or items such as sportswear, remain as low as they do.

15 - Sugar

2011-04-18T09:06:00.000-07:00

Sugar, like coffee, is another food Canadians take for granted and expect to have at “reasonable prices.” Unlike coffee, sugar can be produced in Canada, but the Canadian sugar beet industry accounts for only about 10% of the sugar processed in this country. 90% of the sugar we use comes from sugar cane which originates in Southern countries. At one time, for example, sugar was the primary export product of the Dominican Republic. And for much of the 20th century, the history of the Dominican Republic was dominated by the country’s sugar industry. The sugar we purchased in my childhood home in Indiana was marketed under the label “Dominicana.”

Sugar cane production was central to the economic development of many Caribbean nations until the 19th century, when European sugar beet farmers were able to produce a less expensive product. During the First World War, however, the sugar beet industry in Europe was ruined, and sugar cane once more became one of the world’s most lucrative crops. Large areas of the Dominican Republic were turned over to sugar production at that time. But cutting cane is hard and dangerous work, and the wages are notoriously low, so few Dominicans were willing to work in the cane fields. Therefore another source of labour had to be found, and it came from the neighbouring country of Haiti.

The political and economic situation in Haiti has been dire for so long that thousands of Haitians annually enter the Dominican Republic illegally seeking to improve their living conditions, just as Dominicans seek to improve their lives by emigrating to Puerto Rico. Some of these Haitians sought work in the Dominican cane fields, but still others were forced to harvest sugar cane. Because of the language and racial differences between the two nations, Haitians are easily identified. And as recently as the end of the 20th century, some of the illegal migrants caught by Dominican authorities were forced to work in state owned cane fields.

For both those who sought labour in the Dominican cane fields, as well as those forced into that labour, the conditions in which they worked approached those of slavery. Armed guards prevented workers from attempting to escape. The Haitian migrants were housed in camps called bateys without access to secure water sources, electricity, schools or medical facilities. Only pit latrines were available for sanitation. Sugar is no longer a particularly important part of the Dominican economy; but the bateys still exist, and almost all of the sugar produced in the Dominican Republic today is harvested by the Haitians who live in them.

When I was first working with the YMCA of the Dominican Republic in the 1980s and 90s, the situation was far more extreme than it is today. The work day was commonly twelve hours long, and children, cutting cane with machetes, routinely worked alongside their parents. It was piece work; workers were not paid an hourly wage. The rate was approximately $3 [US] per ton. A veteran cane cutter could harvest about 1.5 tons a day. Even adults rarely earned more than $5 [US] a day. And instead of being given cash for their work, cutters were often paid in vouchers which could only be redeemed for cash every two weeks. Labourers who could not afford to wait the two weeks to redeem these vouchers exchanged them for goods at company stores in the bateys for less than their face value. Further, out of these meagre earnings, workers had to pay their expenses–which included purchasing their own gear as well paying the transportation costs to have the cane picked up by trucks and taken to weighing stations.

That was part of the hidden cost of sugar that my family in Indiana was never aware of.

14 – Foods and Products We Take for Granted

2011-04-11T05:02:00.001-07:00

Canada’s favourite fruit is not the home-grown apple but rather the imported banana. By weight, Canadians eat more bananas than any other fruit and, of course, not one of them was grown here.

There are many imported foods which Canadians take for granted. There are foods we consume every day in this country even though they cannot be grown here; besides bananas, these include citrus fruit, coffee, tea, and cocoa. Other foods–rice and sugar, for example–are only grown in limited amounts. And still other foods–fresh fruits and vegetables–are only seasonally available in Canada and must be imported at other times of the year.

But even though these products are not grown in Canada or are only seasonally available, Canadians still expect to have them all year round. And what’s more, they expect to have them at a certain price. Canadians drink a lot of coffee, for example. In fact, one coffee chain has become a national institution. But although coffee cannot be grown in Canada, Canadians still expect it to be “reasonably priced.” At the time of writing, a visit to a local grocery store revealed that coffee ranged in price from about $3.00 a pound to over $6.00.

Coffee is a tropical crop; it comes from developing countries. About two-thirds of world’s supply originates in Central and South America where it is primarily grown by small-scale farmers who can be paid as little as five cents a pound for their crop. Consumers are told that it is by keeping the price of production down that coffee remains affordable. But in fact the price paid to the primary producer may be only 2% of the market value of the commodity.

A similar argument is made about the cost of producing clothing. Much of the clothing sold in Canada is now manufactured off-shore. In particular, many trendy name-brands are produced in workshops located in the developing world. The directors of these clothing companies believe their products would be less popular if the workers who produced the clothing were paid a union-scale wage in Canada. And they may be right. If those workers were better paid, the price of the clothing would no doubt be higher. The way the manufacturer keeps the cost down is by having the items made elsewhere, somewhere where the price of labour is less expensive than it is in Canada.

Many multinational corporations have moved their operations to locations throughout the developing world in order to take advantage of lower labour costs, relaxed environmental standards, and tax breaks. So now a wide-range of products are produced in the South which at one time would have been made in places like Canada or the United States, something which has not made unionized workers in those countries very happy.

From the corporations’ point of view, however, it just makes good economic sense to move their factories overseas. After all, the cost of living in most developing countries isn’t as high as it is in North America, something that is used as a justification for the lower wages paid. But the fact is that in most overseas garment factories, the salaries are not adequate to meet the workers’ needs even in terms of the local economy, and the working conditions have been revealed time and time again not to meet basic human rights guidelines.

A pair of high quality athletic shoes can cost as much as $250 a pair. But the total cost of the labour which produced those shoes may be only $10. So only four percent of the price reflects the amount paid to the individuals who made the shoes–the individuals who are directly responsible for the quality of the shoes.

These are some of the hidden costs of the products we take for granted.

13 - The Other Side of the Wall

2011-03-30T06:30:00.000-07:00

If, when we peak around the wall, we do so honestly, we will discover that to some extent the envious tourists I wrote of at the beginning of this series are right. There are many positive things about countries like the Dominican Republic: vibrant and attractive cultural institutions, creative individuals, successful entrepreneurial efforts. People in the Dominican Republic have just as much opportunity to live meaningful, constructive lives as do people in Canada. In fact, they often seem to have a lot more fun than Canadians do.

There are a lot of things on the other side of the wall. There are people very much like people in Canada, working to support their families, sending their children to school, arguing about politics, going to church. Dominicans have just as much national pride as Canadians do—some have much more. They take as much pleasure–and have as much anxiety–in watching their children grow up. They find satisfaction in work, in sports, in personal relationships, just as Canadians do.

But the majority of them–along with the populations of people living in other developing countries–are also very conscious that they have no hope of ever attaining the same level of material comfort and wealth the average Canadian takes for granted. That is something they simply cannot reasonably aspire to. That is what drives some of them to chance that precarious voyage to Puerto Rico.

Why that is the case has been the subject of the three video series I produced in the past and remains the subject of this blog: Why is there this great discrepancy in opportunities between developed and developing countries?

The way I have previously chosen to try to answer these questions is to begin with an examination of what conditions are like in developing countries and how those conditions came about. That includes a historical analysis, but it also necessarily means looking at the interdependence of nations–at the way in which choices made by people living in more developed countries have an impact on lesser developed countries. It is only after this type of analysis that we will be in a position to search for options that might bring about positive change. And while most of the steps that need to be taken—as in the matter of addressing major environmental issues—are outside the control of individuals, we will also find options available to individuals.

The material to be examined has never been easy to deal with. The issues are complex and the conditions described are often bleak. And it has to be recognized from the beginning that any possible solutions to the current global situation will necessarily be costly, not only to the people of the developing world, but to us as well–the minority of the world’s population living in more developed nations.

So that naturally leads to the topic I am most frequently confronted with during my speaking engagements—the question I am most often asked: Why should we care at all? What difference does it make to people who don’t live in developing countries what conditions in those countries are like?

12 - Sovereignty

2011-03-28T04:33:00.000-07:00

Popular opinion is right. Countries like the Dominican Republic and Haiti are “not like us”–they are not like Canada or the United States. They have significantly more poverty. They frequently, but not always, have less democratic, more repressive governments than most contemporary Northern nations have had to deal with.

But they are also different because they have had less control over their own sovereignty, their own destinies, than the more developed nations of the north have had.

It might be argued that in the contemporary world of globalization, multinational corporations, and free trade agreements, no country has real sovereignty any longer. But the situation for developing countries is clearly more pronounced. Other–stronger, richer–countries still feel they have the right or authority to intervene in Lesser Developed Countries when they disapprove of the current leadership. The United States, in particular, has had a history of such interference, actively brokering the collapse of governments which they disapproved of (Arbenz in Guatemala in 1954, Lumumba in the Congo in 1961, Allende in Chile in 1973). Often the administrations which the US then supported were precisely those undemocratic and repressive governments mentioned above—for example, the government of Mobuto Sese Seko in the Congo or that of Agosto Pinochet in Chile, who instituted a reign of terror comparable to those of the Duvaliers in Haiti and Trujillo in the Dominican Republic.

Similar interventions continue to occur, such as the US and British decision to attack Iraq as part of the so-called War on Terror in order to unseat Saddam Hussein. Regardless of whether Hussein was a dangerous leader or not, the justification for the war (weapons of mass destruction) was specious and the predictions that the Americans and their allies would be welcomed as “liberators” were wholly inaccurate.

There has not only been political interference in the nations of the developing world; just as disruptive are the examples of the loss of financial sovereignty.

Because of their economic vulnerability, countries like the Dominican Republic have had, from time to time, to agree to what international creditors call “structural adjustments” imposed upon them by external institutions such as the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund. Structural adjustments are internal changes that have to be brought about in a country before its government is able to borrow the money needed to continue operating. One of the structural adjustments imposed on the Dominicans in 1997 was the privatization of power generation. The immediate impact of this was a 51% increase in the cost of electricity to consumers, but there was no corresponding improvement in electrical service. In fact, the country began to suffer from almost daily blackouts.

But perhaps the most significant way in which these countries are different “from us” is that they are discounted in our discourse. In fact, our attitude seems to be to keep them out of sight and out of mind.

Certainly judging from the popular media one would not assume that countries such as these make up the majority of the world’s population, that–in effect–their lifestyles are the actual “norm” for the planet. That’s a fact that people in more developed countries don’t want to face too directly. It could make us very uncomfortable. So–as with the decision of the Dominican government to build a wall in order to conceal Maquiteria in 1992–we prefer to have the barriers, the blinders, up.

One of the intents of this series of reflections is to peek behind those walls.

11 - Haiti

2011-03-21T07:03:00.000-07:00

While some Dominicans flee to Puerto Rico in order to improve their opportunities in life, many Haitians seek entry into the Dominican Republic. Compared to conditions in Haiti, the Dominican Republic is, indeed, a paradise.

Haiti’s status as the “least developed nation in the Western Hemisphere” is due to a combination of external and internal historical circumstances which have been devastating to the population of the country. At one time, however, it had been the most valuable territory in the French Empire.

The island of Hispaniola was originally populated by the Arawak people who called their land Quisqueya. Within a few decades of being colonized by the Spanish, the Arawak population was decimated by forced labor and disease. The Spanish interest in the island waned after its small gold reserves were exhausted, and in the 17th century they ceded the western third of the island to France as part of the Treaty of Ryswick.

When the sugar industry developed in the Caribbean, France imported enormous numbers of African slaves to Haiti to work the plantations. Conditions were so extreme that slaves seldom lived more than five years after being put to work in the cane fields; attempts to escape were met with a cruelty excessive even by the standards of the time. In the 18th century, sugar profits from Haiti made it France’s most important colony.

Inspired by the principles of both the revolutions in the American Colonies and in France, the huge slave population in Haiti rose up in the only successful slave revolution in history. In 1803, Haiti became the first independent nation in Latin America. Relations between Haiti and its neighbors, however, were strained, especially during the period when slavery was still active throughout most of the Americas. And the nations of Europe collectively shunned the new country, demanding that it pay reparations to France for loss of property. Local Haitian rulers in collusion with the Europeans used the little wealth left in the country to make those payments.

Then — foreshadowing a trend which would have such a negative impact on the nations of Latin America and Africa many decades later — bankers in the US loaned money to Haiti for development purposes. But when interest rates rose, the Haitians were unable to service their debt and ceased payment. In retaliation, US marines were sent to take control of the country. The US occupied Haiti until 1934, justifying the occupation on the grounds that black persons were incapable of governing themselves because the race had “an inherent tendency towards a savage lifestyle and an inability to be civilized” [then US Secretary of State, Robert Lansing].

Before the US military forces left, they the backed the presidency of “Papa Doc” Duvalier, whose rule was even more despotic than Trujillo’s in the Dominican Republic.

“Papa Doc” was followed by his son, Jean-Claude, known as “Baby Doc.” The Duvaliers isolated Haiti from the rest of the world and exploited the wealth of the country for themselves. They showed little interest in promoting the welfare of their citizens. They amassed great personal wealth, while the nation fell into greater and greater debt. The majority impoverished population in Haiti worked small-hold farms or lived in urban slums. The country’s forests were destroyed to make charcoal. Water ways were polluted and disease spread easily. Haiti was one of the first countries to be ravaged by AIDS.

“Baby Doc” was just as vicious as his father had been and was eventually forced from office by a public uprising. But even after he went into exile, his secret police force – the infamous Tonton-Macoutes – continued to terrorize the population. A military coup in 1988 put one of the Duvaliers’ advisors, Prosper Avril, into the presidency.

External pressures forced a return to civilian government in 1990, and Jean-Bertrand Aristide, an activist Catholic priest, was elected to office. He was a supporter of Liberation Theology with its “preferential option for the poor.” But both the Vatican and the small wealthy elite of Haiti were uncomfortable with Aristide’s political agenda, and within a few months another coup occurred.

Since Aristide’s fall, industrial elements in the North have contributed to the on-going exploitation of Haitian peoples by moving factories there to take advantage of the low wages and slack environmental regulations available.

The enormous national debt incurred by Haiti as a nation was never used for the benefit of the people but rather for the personal benefit of a few.

10 - Repressive and Corrupt Governments

2011-03-14T06:37:00.001-07:00

After poverty, probably the second most common image North Americans and Europeans have of developing countries is of repressive and corrupt governments. Both the Dominican Republic and Haiti have had their share of these. Papa Doc Duvalier and his son, Jean Claude (“Baby Doc”), ruthlessly governed Haiti using a combination of the Voodoo religion and simple terror from 1957 until 1986. The Dominican Republic’s Rafael Trujillo is considered by some historians to have been the last absolute dictator in Latin American.

Trujillo controlled the Dominican Republic from 1930 until his assassination in 1961. At the time of his death, he was one of the ten richest men in the world. He was supported in his position by the Western industrialized powers (the first world nations), as, sadly, many dictators and rulers in developing countries have been. One of Franklin Roosevelt’s cabinet members is said to have remarked of Trujillo: “He’s a son-of-a-bitch, but he’s our son-of-a-bitch.” US officials were well aware that Trujillo maintained control of the country by an unscrupulous use of violence, intimidation, assassination, and torture, but they continued to support him because it was considered expedient for US interests to do so.

His excesses, however, eventually brought about his downfall. On the evening of May 30, 1961, members of his own military waited in a car on the coastal highway east of Santo Domingo and ambushed Trujillo as he was being driven to his house in San Cristobal. The assassination was supposed to have led to a coup which did not materialize. Trujillo’s son, Ramfis, assumed control of the government and tracked down most of the conspirators as well as their families, all of whom were imprisoned and brutally tortured. When it was clear that the general population was not going to support his government, Ramfis had the six remaining conspirators tied to trees on his estate, cut into pieces while still alive, and then fed to sharks. The following day, Ramfis was escorted off the island by the US military, and he was given asylum in Europe. This was also considered the expedient thing to do.

A period of political instability followed, and then a popular writer, Juan Bosch, was democratically elected president. Bosch was a moderate socialist, an advocate for land reform and civil liberties. But this made him too radical for traditionalists, and he was overthrown by the military. By 1965, the country was on the brink of civil war. Two army factions sought control of the country; one (called the “Loyalists”) was comprised of older officers from the Trujillo era. The other (called the “Constitutionists”) was led by a group of younger officers who sought to return Bosch to office. The pro-Bosch faction had the support of much of the population of the country, especially in the city of Santo Domingo. The leader of the Constitutionalist forces, Colonel Francisco Caamaño Deñó provided civilians with weapons and they successfully routed Loyalist forces.

Frightened that a Cuban-style revolution was occurring in the Dominican Republic, US President Lyndon Johnson sent Marines to Santo Domingo on April 28, 1965, and the Constitutionists were defeated. It was neither the first nor the last time that the US would take upon itself the right to determine the appropriate government for another country.

9 - Poverty

2011-03-07T06:33:00.000-08:00

In stark contrast to the images promoted by the tourism industry, the images and concepts the popular media associate with the term Third World are generally bleak: poverty, political instability, and natural disasters.

Probably the first thing that comes to most people’s minds when they think of developing countries is poverty. And clearly communities like Maquiteria in the Dominican Republic are poor. But poverty and wealth are always relative. Conditions in Maquiteria might actually look pretty good to people who live across the border in the neighbouring country of Haiti.

Nations are rich or poor for pretty much the same reason people are. It basically depends upon how much money they generate. This can be measured by what is called the Per Capita Gross National Product of a nation. That is a figure which is calculated by dividing the annual wealth generated by a country by its population. What the number doesn’t describe is how that wealth is distributed. So there can be countries in which, although there is a fairly high Per Capita GNP, the majority of the population remains poor because the nation’s wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few (some Middle Eastern nations might be examples of this). Still, as a rough way of measuring the comparative wealth of nations, Per Capita GNP is a useful tool.

Canada’s per capita gross national product for the year 2002, for example, was calculated at around $32,546 (US) dollars, which makes it one of the world’s stronger economies. It is less than Japan (at $38,984) but better than New Zealand ($25,942). The per capita gross national product of the Dominican Republic, on the other hand, is only a fraction of Canada’s, at $2,370.

But the per capita gross national product of Haiti was only $455. And it is important to keep in mind that that does not mean that $455 was the average income in the country. There are people in Haiti who, by any standard applied, are wealthy. In fact, Haiti has a greater percentage of millionaires per population than any other country in the Caribbean or Latin America. There are more than 10,000 millionaires in this country of less than 8 million people.

But the vast majority of Haitians live in absolute poverty, with an estimated income of less than $250 a year.

The amount and the distribution of wealth in a nation inevitably affect the overall quality of life in that nation—which, it will be remembered, was one of the reasons some Dominicans braved the dangers of the crossing to Puerto Rico in hopes of improving. A low GNP affects things such as health care, education, life expectancy and so on.

The life expectancy of a Canadian at birth is 80 years; the life expectancy of a Dominican is seven years less, at 73 years. And it is less primarily because the country is poorer–because Dominicans don’t eat as well as Canadians, because they don’t have as much access to medical care as we do, and so on.

But the life expectancy of a Haitian at birth is only 49 years.

8 - Is China a "Developing Country"?

2011-02-23T10:07:00.000-08:00

In a state visit to the United States last January, Chinese President Hu Jintao referred to his country as a “Developing Country.” India, likewise, continues to be described as a Developing Country although it is a nuclear power, has its own satellite system, and produces more motion pictures annually than does the United States.

If China and India are Developing Countries, they are certainly not “developing” in the same way as countries like the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

A series of television advertisements commissioned last year by a group of Chinese industrial associations touted that products “made in China” were actually made with assistance from the global community – clothing designed in France, “made in China”; software from California used in MP3 players, “made in China.” The intent of the campaign was to reduce the negative association the North American public has with products coming from China (especially after the number of recalled toy products two years previous). It was an attempt at a preemptive strike against potential trade barriers.

China’s position in the global economy has undergone a significant change in recent years. When I began working with the YMCA in 1984, China and India were still identified as “Third World” nations and there was concern about them, in particular, because they account for more than one third of the Earth’s population.

Today that concern has been replaced in some quarters with fear, especially about China’s growing economic strength. China is now the world’s third largest economy, displacing Germany from that position. The US remains the largest economy, followed by Japan. And China’s economic growth is grounded in its manufacturing sector.

Canada, after the US, has become China’s second largest trading partner. Canadian exports include chemicals, metals, industrial and agricultural machinery, lumber and wood products. However, Canada’s balance of trade with China has steadily worsened over the last twelve years. Figures from Statistics Canada for 1997 show that Canadian exports to China amounted to $2.4 billion compared to $6.3 billion in imports, for a negative trade balance of $3.9 billion. Ten years later, exports had only risen to $7.7 billion, while imports had sky-rocketed to $34.5 billion, for a difference of $26.8 billion.

On the other hand, the Canadian fisheries minister last year was successful in promoting Canadian seal products (banned in Europe) in China. Seal fur is clearly a luxury item, and it is instructive that China has become affluent enough to be a consumer of such products.

As a result of its exports, China is estimated to have amassed nearly $20 trillion in foreign reserves, 70% of which are in US dollars. The enormous holdings China has make some nervous that China could impact the value of the US dollar, depending upon their decision to retain or sell US currency. The threat probably isn’t very great because if China did move to lessen the value of the dollar, they would reduce the value of their own holdings.

China’s manufacturing industry remains highly dependent upon commodity imports. China has relatively small petroleum reserves and has to bring oil in from countries like Iran and the Sudan. It is their demand for energy resources which may pose the greatest economic threat to countries like the US, since both nations will be seeking to maintain their own import levels.

But a greater threat is ecological. China quite rightly believes that its citizens have a right to a standard of living equivalent to that enjoyed by citizens of North America and Europe, whose privileges have largely been purchased at the expense of the rest of the world. But the fact remains that the environmental cost for China to come even close to that standard of living is one which the planet cannot afford. A figure quoted by the "New Internationalist" magazine points out that in order to generate every dollar of Gross Domestic Product, China uses three times more energy than the global average.

The situation poses not only economic and environmental challenges, but ethical challenges as well.

7 - Cultural Differences and Stereotyping

2011-02-17T11:12:00.000-08:00

There is no general agreement on an appropriate collective term for the group of nations which had formerly been called the “Third World,” and perhaps there shouldn’t be. The term Third World has fallen into disfavour first because it appears to imply a ranking (third being inferior to one or two), and because it came to imply a certain level of poverty and under-development which cannot accurately now be attributed to all of the original non-aligned nations. But the reality remains that there is a group of countries which shares certain qualities previously associated with the term “Third World,” and therefore some way of designating them remains useful.

Alternate terms have included “Southern Countries” [excluding, of course, places like New Zealand and Australia], the “Majority World” [although China, which has 20% of the world’s population and is the largest nation on the planet, no longer fits easily into the same grouping as the other nations], and Developing Countries [which implies what?—that other countries aren’t developing?]. Probably the last is the least inappropriate, but even that term has acquired a number of connotations which are worrisome. I will use it but will also continue to use the more familiar “Third World” as well.

There are many different and conflicting stereotyped images associated with Developing Countries. In Child Sponsorship ads, the people of the Developing Countries are portrayed as so overwhelmed by poverty that they are unable to care even for their own children. In tourism brochures, smiling dark-skinned locals are portrayed happily serving drinks to lighter complexioned tourists.

In any series of reflections on Developing Countries, it is difficult to avoid falling, from time to time, into stereotypes. The effort to define similarities that distinguish one group from another must necessarily become guilty of simplification and distortion. Within the YMCA network, this is an issue we address in particular as we prepare young people to take part in overseas placements. The orientation material we provide them suggests that when attempting to understand people who live in different cultures, there are two extremes that should be avoided. The first is to minimize cultural differences and attempt to emphasize only the similarities that exist between cultures. The other is to over-emphasize those cultural differences.

Clearly there are historical and cultural differences not only between nations but also groups within those nations (this is a point I will come back to later, but a very simple example can be found by comparing the differences between the points of view of English and French Canadians). However, behind all these differences, all human beings share a set of basic needs and motivations. Many cultural differences are the result of finding different solutions to these common needs.

One of the challenges people of one culture have when considering another culture is to avoid falling into the temptation of judging whether one set of solutions is necessarily superior to another. This is easy to do with customs such as which side of the road to drive on; it is more difficult to do when considering political systems or issues such as the place of religion within society or gender roles.

6 - The “Third World”

2011-02-15T03:15:00.000-08:00

The Dominican Republic is a “Developing Country,” what is still at times called a “Third World” country. Although the term “Third World” remains in common usage, many people feel it is no longer quite politically correct.

Originally the term had not been intended to rank countries so much as to make a distinction between the two superpowers of the Cold War (along with their allies) and the rest of the world. The term was coined by French demographer and historian, Alfred Sauvy, in an article published in France in 1952. Sauvy was making a play on words. There is an older term–tiers etat–used in reference to French society during the period before the Revolution. The term referred to those marginalized individuals in society who did not have the privileges of either the nobility or the clergy. In creating the term “Third World,” Sauvy was making a distinction between two industrialized worlds–one capitalist and the other communist–and a “third world” which was, at the time, primarily agricultural and also clearly marginalized. Similar to the relationship between tiers etat and their social superiors in 18th century France, these nations lacked many of the comforts and privileges the residents of the industrialized world took for granted.

The term was later adopted by many African, Asian, and Latin American countries at the United Nations in order to distinguish themselves from the two super-power blocs. Some of these countries also defined themselves as “non-aligned,” in the sense of not being aligned with either of the super powers.

The United States and her allies–which included Canada, Western Europe, Australia, Japan and so on–were the “First World.” The Soviet bloc nations were the “Second World.” Everything else was the “Third World.”

That everything else turned out to be most of the people on the planet. It included all the countries of Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East (except for Israel), the Indian Sub-continent, most of Asia, and the Pacific rim (except for Australia and New Zealand). In all, those nations accounted for over 75% of the world’s population.

A lot of things have changed since the 1950s. The Soviet bloc, of course, no longer exists, and there is only one superpower left (although China may be evolving into a superpower). So the term “Third World” is passé. But the term did serve–and I believe continues to serve–a very important function. It stressed that, at least from the point of view of people living in the First and Second Worlds–the less than 25% of the world’s population fortunate enough to live in countries like the United States, Canada, France, or even Russia–from their perspective, these “Third World” countries are somehow different. They are not like “us.”

How those countries differ “from us” is a central topic of these essays, as well as why they differ from us. In order to understand the challenges developing countries face, we need to understand not only the conditions that exist in those nations but also how those conditions came about.

5 - Santo Domingo

2011-01-31T04:09:00.000-08:00

Beaches are the primary tourist draw to the Dominican Republic. But the capital city, Santo Domingo, also attracts visitors because of its history. Santo Domingo is the first and oldest European city in all of the Americas. It is the location of the first Cathedral in the Americas, the first university, and the first European hospital. There is a Dominican saying which notes wryly that the country has the first of everything and the second of nothing.

Santo Domingo is also the site of the controversial Faro a Colon, or Columbus Lighthouse, the gigantic pyramid-like structure built to house what may or may not be the remains of Christopher Columbus. There is some dispute about that because Seville, Spain, claims they actually have Columbus buried in their cathedral.

The Faro appears to have been designed more for monumental scale than for aesthetics. As a structure, it has all the grace of a Soviet-style apartment complex. It is laid out in the form of a cross, and lights along the roof can cast its outline on the clouds above the city at night. A center beacon shoots out a column of light so bright and powerful that it can be seen as far away as Venezuela. The lights are impressive, but they are seldom turned on because electrical generation in the country is expensive and unreliable.

On the other side of the street, running along the north side of the park where the Faro is located, there is a wall. Locals refer to it as the “Wall of Shame.” It was constructed in the early 1990s as part of the “beautification project” undertaken by the Dominican Government in preparation for the 500th anniversary of Columbus’s arrival on the island.

The Dominican government had unfulfilled hopes that large numbers of tourists would come to the country for that anniversary. The purpose of the “beautification” program was to spruce the city up for those visitors. The wall, as well as the row of new apartment buildings which went up alongside the highway, was intended to conceal the neighboring community of Maquiteria.

Maquiteria is a barrio. The word means “neighborhood” in Spanish but has also often had the connotation of a lower income area. The people of Maquiteria live in small, concrete block homes, crowded together in an area where there is little access to running water or electrical service. Some homes appear to be constructed from scrap materials.

In 1992 the Dominican government wanted to protect the sensibilities of tourists who might drive by Maquiteria and be offended by what they saw as they made their way to visit Columbus’s tomb. So the land adjacent to the site of the Faro was expropriated in order to make room for both the wall and the new apartment complexes which would act as a visual barrier.

Other expropriations in preparation for the Columbus anniversary took place throughout Santo Domingo. Between 1986 and 1992, it is estimated that more than 30,000 families–perhaps as many as 180,000 people–lost their homes to the “urban-renewal” program.

Communities like Maquiteria are not anomalies—they are the global norm. It is in communities like Maquiteria that most of the people on this planet are born, pass their lives, and die. It is in communities like Maquiteria that most human activity in the world takes place; here we find human beings being both noble and crass; here we find people seeking, finding, losing love or dignity or a sense of purpose in their lives.

And yet it also communities like Maquiteria which we prefer to keep hidden behind walls.

4 - Tourism

2011-01-24T04:29:00.000-08:00

Although I’ve begun these reflections by contrasting the difference in perception between visitors and residents of Southern Countries, it is not my intention to criticize tourism per se. I simply wish to note that tourists often do not have an opportunity to get a sense of the actual conditions prevalent in the countries they visit—any more than visitors to Canada would necessarily be conscious of social problems in our country.

The estimate is that on average some 400,000 Canadians travel to the Dominican Republic each winter. This is a sizeable group, but one whose experience of the country is often very limited. While a few may seek adventure holidays or even political-awareness holidays, most visitors have moderate incomes and make financial sacrifices in order to have an experience they hope will be refreshing and reinvigorating. It is unreasonable to expect them to do a social analysis of conditions prevalent in the country they visit. But it is also unreasonable to expect them to be very knowledgeable about the conditions in those countries simply because they spent a couple of weeks there.

Tourism has become the world’s largest industry, and many assume that it must necessarily make a significant contribution to the economies of the countries visited, thus benefiting the residents of those countries. That is just not the case. The reality is that many of the tours arranged for visitors to Southern countries are “all-inclusive packages” in which perhaps 80% of the traveler’s fees go to northern-based airlines, hotel chains, and other international companies rather than to locally based businesses and workers.

The all-inclusive package also means that the visitor has little direct contact with the population of the visited country. Resorts are often isolated and contain within their walls all the goods and services their customers require. Visits to local markets are done by bus excursion under supervised conditions. Patrons can even be warned that it is “dangerous” for them to leave the precinct of the resort area.

Tourism certainly has the potential to benefit Southern nations, but unfortunately that potential, by and large, has not been realized. As a result, tourism ministries in countries which are popular winter vacation destinations have even complained about the detrimental effects of tourism: increased local crime, begging, substance abuse, prostitution, and greater economic disparity. Many low-income communities have lost land, water, and access to public places in order to benefit tourists. Even tours marketed as “ecological” are often destructive of wildlife habitats.

Some years ago, in an attempt to combat the negative impacts that tourism can have on host communities and environments, a number of non-governmental organizations advocated what they called “Culturally and Environmentally Appropriate Travel and Tourism.” This would have been a tourism designed specifically to conserve and protect natural resources, respect local cultures, and benefit the residents in the communities visited by supporting local business and workers, choosing locally owned and operated accommodations, transportation, and guides. It would have been roughly the equivalent of a “fair trade” product for the tourism industry.

I don’t see much evidence that this effort has been successful. Today the idea of “eco-friendly tourism” has been appropriated as a marketing term. There may be examples of “culturally and environmentally” friendly packaged tours, but the consumer should be advised that simply calling something “environmentally responsible” does not ensure the product actually is so.

On the other hand, it is a relatively easy thing to make use of local guides, accommodations, and eating establishments. It is at least worthwhile keeping in mind that one’s choices as a tourist are broader than simply the destination one chooses to visit.

3 – Fleeing Paradise

2011-01-17T06:36:00.000-08:00

In 2004, I had just begun outlining the scripts for the video series “80/20”, when an event was reported in the world media which prompted me to change the opening program and begin the series by reflecting on the difference between the way tourists and residents view countries like the Dominican Republic.

On July 29th of that year, 86 Dominicans boarded a small wooden boat that had been hired to take them to the neighbouring island of Puerto Rico, which is only 100 miles away. Two days later, before reaching its destination, the boat’s small engine gave out. Its captain then hailed another migrant boat, boarded it, and left his passengers without food or water. The abandoned passengers drifted for two weeks, during which time nursing mothers were forced to provide breast-milk to feed the others. There was even talk of eating parts of the bodies of those who died. In the end, only 31 survived this ordeal, drifting back to the country they had tried to leave. 55 others died.

They were not alone in their efforts to leave the Dominican Republic. In the 10 months prior to that attempt, more than 7,000 Dominicans had been caught and detained while trying to enter Puerto Rico illegally. It is impossible to estimate how many more avoided detection, or how many others may have died in their efforts to make the crossing.

The allure of Puerto Rico is that it is a territory of the United States and has a relatively high standard of living. Although the per capita median income in Puerto Rico is lower than that of any of the U S states, it is still significantly higher than that of other Caribbean countries, including the Dominican Republic. Dominicans are drawn to Puerto Rico by the hope of finding better employment opportunities and even by the possibility of eventually being able to get to the mainland of the United States.

In a situation similar to that of Mexican emigrants seeking entry to the United States by means of local guides called coyotes, Dominicans make arrangements with a network of sailors who offer transport in small wooden boats known as “yolas.” The boats are often overcrowded and lack appropriate safety equipment. The 100 mile trip should take a little more than 24 hours to complete, but the waters are treacherous. The Puerto Rico trench, which lies between the two islands, is a geologically active area. Wave activity can capsize the small boats or wash passengers overboard. There have been records of shark attacks. Boats may have inadequate navigational equipment, and crews can become lost. Even short term delays can be dangerous because passengers may not have adequate provisions, especially water, to survive much longer than a few days.

These risks are well documented. Newspaper accounts of the horrors of the trip are common in both the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. And yet Dominicans continue to try to make the trip.

Obviously the experience these individuals have of the Dominican Republic must be very different from that of the tourists who flock to visit their country.

2 - A Tropical Paradise

2011-01-10T03:17:00.000-08:00

For the majority of my career, my work was focused on the Dominican Republic, a small Caribbean nation which shares the island of Hispañiola with Haiti. It is also a major tourist destination for Canadian and US citizens seeking relief from the rigors of winter and is considered by many to be a Tropical Paradise.

There is a saying in the Dominican tourism industry that the country can offer visitors the five S’s–sun, sea, sand, song, and sex. Many of the tourists who visit the country are simply looking for a beach holiday. Others come hoping for romantic encounters; many are willing to pay for such encounters.

Tourists brochures promote the Dominican Republic with photographs of 15th Century Colonial Spanish architecture, pristine beaches with attractive female and male models in swimwear, colorful meringue bands, smiling dark-skinned Dominicans posing by small, brightly colored houses which, if not what one is used to seeing in North America, still have a certain charm.

A lot of tourists who come to the country stay at resorts where all their needs and desires are catered to. Meals–and alcohol–are provided; the beaches are not crowded and are free of litter; visitors can purchase souvenirs in the resort gift shop or have their hair braided and beaded on the beach by pretty girls who speak a little English with cute Latin accents. The weather tends to be pleasant; the water is warm and inviting; the rum, beer, and cigars (or so I am told) are excellent.

And when it is time for the visitors to return home, many may feel perhaps more than just a little envious of the people lucky enough to live in this tropical paradise all year round. Often friends and acquaintances have remarked to me how lucky I was to have the opportunity to work in such a beautiful country. They also occasionally expressed surprise that I considered the Dominican Republic a developing country. Their experience had not left them with a sense that the Dominican people had any significant difficulties.

The experience travelers have of the Dominican Republic is often very different from the experience Dominicans have of their own country. For example, the beaches where the tourists relax usually are not public. They belong to the resorts, so Dominicans are unable to make use of them. It is a fairly common experience in countries such as the Dominican Republic that when resort complexes are built, they deprive local residents of access to what previously may have been public recreation areas. It is small but significant point.

Of course the guests at these resorts wouldn’t necessarily be aware of this. In fact, since those guests are often encouraged not to leave the resort boundaries, they may not have a very clear idea of how the lucky natives live at all.

The contrast between the tourist’s view and the resident’s view is the starting point for this series of essays. I have learned that it is not enough to present information about countries like the Dominican Republic; it is also necessary to overcome popular misconceptions about these nations brought back by well-meaning and often intelligent people who visit them without necessarily seeing them

1 - Introduction

2011-01-04T04:58:00.000-08:00

I began this blog in 2009 as a way of keeping Canadian YMCAs which were partnered with the YMCA of Honduras informed about the ongoing situation in that country. In the summer of 2010, the blog was interrupted when I was bed ridden by a broken femur and stopped posting regular updates. As a new year begins, it seems appropriate to resume postings with a new focus.

In the time that I have worked in International Development with the YMCA, I have released a number of video series for use in schools and universities. The first of these, with the ungainly title “An Introduction to Development Education,” originally consisted of four parts brought out in 1988. They were produced in cooperation with Fundy Cable in Fredericton; technical assistance was provided by Andrew Baxter, supplemented with “out takes” from programs shot in Central America and Africa by Norman Richard of the New Brunswick Department of Agriculture. Another four episodes were added the following year; the technical crew for three of those programs consisted of Marty Williams and three interns, Lyn Insley, Nancy McFarland, and Jack Malley. The episode on the International Debt Crisis was made in cooperation with Bob Miller and Atlantic Mediaworks. Only two of those later episodes went into distribution, but the resulting six part series received wide distribution not only in Canada but, thanks to YMCA Canada, around the world. The script for the program on debt was circulated as a briefing document to members of CIDA’s “Speakers’ Bureau.”

By 1996, world circumstances had changed significantly, and I brought out a three part series, again in cooperation with Fundy Cable, in which I updated the material in the earlier programs. This time technical assistance was provided by Steve Currie.

Finally, in 2006, I had an opportunity to release a five part series in cooperation with Connell Smith of Rowan Ridge Production and Gretchen Kelbaugh of Story First Productions. That series, entitled “80/20”, was distributed by the Canadian Learning Company.

The title of the final series referred to the situation that still existed at the end of the last century in which the 20% of the Earth’s population that lived in what were considered “developed” countries owned, consumed, or controlled nearly 80% of the Earth’s resources, leaving only 20% of those resources available to the four-fifths of the world’s population living in lesser developed countries.

Five years later, the material in that last series is also dated. China, for example, is now the world’s third largest economy and can no longer be considered a “developing” economy, although it is still referred to as an “emerging economy.” In fact, China is now a “donor nation” and one of the major sources for aid to African nations. Other countries have demonstrated significant advances as well—Brazil, for example, has gone from being indebted to the International Monetary Fund to being a contributor.

Each of those series was intended to be an introduction to the issues, but they also provided me a forum in which I was able to put forward my understanding of what conditions around the world were, how those conditions came about, and how I felt those conditions should be addressed. As is to be expected, my perspective at the beginning of my career in this field was more naïve than I hope I am now, although I also hope that I have not succumbed to a tired and exhausted cynicism.

I chose the video format originally because it seemed the most likely to receive effective distribution. The challenge, however, is that difficult topics needed to be condensed and simplified in order to be presented in this medium. That has some advantages – one is compelled to find ways of making those topics clear – but it also has the disadvantage of not allowing one to delve as deeply into the issues as one might like.

I cannot foresee issuing another series of videos, but I would like to have another kick at the can, and I would like to take advantage of the fact that I am coming to the end of my career and therefore am freer to be frank about certain topics than I was in the past.

Therefore, I am going to use this blog to publish a series of reflections on international development issues. The essays will follow the sequence I used in the “80/20” series and, like that series, will use countries where I have worked as examples simply because I have a better understanding of current circumstances in those nations than in others. Like the video series, these reflections are intended as an introduction to the issues, but they will also be an expression of my current perspective, in particular, on directions I believe need to be taken if the issues raised can ever be addressed effectively.

Who Is in Control in Honduras?

2010-09-02T06:40:00.000-07:00

The enduring question about Honduras, following the 2009 coup and the subsequent election of Porfirio Lobo as president, is where power actually resides in the country. The power behind the coup was less that of the military or any of the political parties than it was that of the financial elite of the nation who resisted the modest movements made by one of their own – then President Manuel Zelaya – to establish a more equitable situation in the nation. Currently, it does not appear that President Lobo has much more control of these forces than his predecessor had. In June, Lobo announced that his newly elected government was already the target of threats and that he believed opponents were in the process of orchestrating another coup to oust him.

This month teachers are now on strike in the country, protesting government plans to privatize the education system. They are also demanding that the government make good on nearly $195 million [US] owed to their pension fund. Other workers have come out in support of the teachers and are demanding that Zelaya’s intentions to increase the minimum wage in the country be honored. Police response to the demonstrations has become more aggressive, and on August 20th, several protestors were wounded in their confrontation with authorities.

The United States has decided to back the government of Porfiro Lobo, and, last June, Hillary Clinton urged the Organization of American States to readmit Honduras. At the same time, both the US and European governments encouraged Lobo to proceed with a Truth Commission which is to examine the events that followed the coup and to ensure the protection of human rights in Honduras.

The OAS responded to the request from Secretary Clinton by releasing a report in which they said the Honduran government had made significant steps in the restoration of democratic processes in the country and in guaranteeing the protection of human rights. As a result of that report, several Latin American nations (Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama, and Peru) have reestablish diplomatic relations with Honduras

Other human rights monitoring agencies, both within and without Honduras, are less certain about the protections being afforded citizens in that country. In particular, international attention has been drawn to the murders of some nine journalists since January, all of whom had been critical of the coup. The most recent of these was Israel Zelaya Diaz, a radio commentator. No arrests have yet been made in response to these killings.

It is possible that President Lobo does hope that his Truth Commission will be successful, and members of the government may be sincere in a desire to address human rights abuses. The question is whether the government has the power to bring about real change.

Current evidence suggests that the real power in the country is in the hands of businessmen who have even been able to command military forces to come to their aid in certain situations – reminiscent of the military’s collusion with anti-Zelaya forces in the 2009 coup. [See the July 2010 issue of Envio for specific examples.]

The forces which disapproved of the directions in which Zelaya was going will doubtless continue to resist any liberalization undertaken by any of the political parties in Honduras. Journalists have been targeted because there is a desire that the media not demonstrate any criticisms of the current state of affairs or question the motives behind the 2009 coup.

The US continues to support Lobo because they fear the spread of “authoritarian democracies” like that in Venezuela. Lobo needs the support of the US, but he will only continue to receive it if he is able address human rights and other grave issues in the country. The question remains whether his government has the strength to resist the conservative forces which had ousted Zelaya.

International Youth Day Proclamation from Honduras

2010-08-19T03:49:00.000-07:00

August 12th is recognized globally as the United Nations’ International Youth Day. To mark Youth Day, the Platform for Action in Support of Youth Rights in Honduras issued the following proclamation:

The Platform for Action in Support of the Youth Rights in Honduras provides a venue for youth participation and engagement based on clear ideological principles, these include: fighting for the rights of young men and women in Honduras; and, in terms of the commemoration of the International Youth Day, we must make it clear that this day is more than a celebration, it is an opportunity to denounce and to declare our opposition to those continued violations of their rights to which young men and women are subjected.

This year on August 12 we cannot forget those brave young persons - ISIS OBED MURILLO , PEDRO MAGDIEL [see blog for October 15, 2009], JONATHAN OSORIO, WALTER TROCHEZ - and many other companions who were killed at the hands of the oppressive forces of the state; their deaths have not put an end to our continued campaign for the fulfillment of the ideals to which these young people were committed.

Therefore, on this International Day of Youth we declare the following:

We denounce the continued violation of human rights to which young men and women are daily subjected, and we urgently call upon the pertinent authorities to overcome their indifference at a time when our young people are falling into even worse conditions.

We demand that an explanation be given for each of the extrajudicial deaths which took place during the time of the Military Coup.

We strongly condemn the repression which students have been subjected to at various institutions in the country denying them the right to association and to demonstrate freely; as well, we ask that the “autonomy” of the National Autonomous University of Honduras be respected; and we plead for free and quality education all.

We demand that every young man and woman be allowed freedom of expression, and we demand an end to the repeated threats against our companion, Héctor Soto, and guarantees for his personal safety. [Héctor Soto is the director of the Grupo Sociedad Civil – GSC (Civil Society Group). He has been subject to threats and intimidation as a result of his efforts to promote Human Rights in Honduras. [See: http://www.frontlinedefenders.org/node/12937]

We call all young Hondurans to take part in the process of rebuilding our beloved country and never to forget that the future of this nation is in their hands; we call upon them to be constant in the struggle and not to act with deceit, and to make it clear that youth are not the PROBLEM, they are the SOLUTION.

Mexican Glass

2010-08-13T10:46:00.001-07:00

During our buying trip to Oaxaca, our driver and guide, Benito Hernandez, and his Canadian wife, Suzanne Barbezat, suggested we visit a high end gift shop which sold glassware. Mexican glassware is distinctive and admired around the world, and although it was not one of the product lines we had expected to bring to Cultures, we were so impressed with the pieces we saw at the gift shop that we decided to pay a visit to the studio from which they had come.

The glassware included both decorative and functional pieces. The heavy tableware particularly attracted our attention; the decorative pieces were spectacular but outside our price range.

The product came from the Xa Quixe glassworks which is located in an industrial park in Etla, west of Oaxaca. It was established 2002 by a Oaxacan industrial engineer, Salime Harp, who has had a wide experience in glass manufacturing, including time she spent at “Urban Glass” in New York. Her business partner is the glass artist, Christian Thornton, a shaved-head and tattooed American.

Thornton welcomed us to his studio, but before he showed us his samples, he wanted to be certain we knew about the workshop’s commitment to sustainable development and social responsibility. He is a consultant on the design and construction of energy-saving ovens and furnaces; Xa Quixe glass is composed of 95% recycled material. The company is establishing workshops in small communities to promote employment training.

Xa Quixe is also involved in the construction and design of energy saving ecological ovens and furnaces and provides consultation in environmentally friendly glass manufacture.

Their business goal is to “produce glass with original designs of the highest quality while at the same time being committed to environmental and social guidelines unique to the world of glass.” Their mission statement declares their intention to “create a business which operates according to the ideals of self-sustainability, which will provide a successful model of a network with unlimited growth and uses, with social and environmental responsibility.

Harp and Thornton’s original idea had been to produce decorative pieces as well as supporting the Oaxacan economy by providing local mezcal producers with unique custom-made bottles which would draw attention to their product on store shelves. Mezcal is the organic tequila produced in the Oaxaca region famous for the worm included in the bottle.

Xa Quixe now produces a range of bottles and other containers, decorative tableware, vases, water and wine glasses and paperweights. They have been recognized by the Mexican Government for their contribution to the community where they are located and have received government grants to expand their program.

Xa Quixe makes use of lead-free recycled glass, which results in a high quality product which comes both in a range of colors as well as clear.

One of the characteristic features found in a lot of Mexican glass are the bubbles produced when blowing the molten glass. Crushed recycled glass is melted, then a pipe is used to blow the molten glass into shape. Because the process is done by hand, no two pieces will be exactly the same. As result, although the glasses form a set, each piece is unique.

Backstrap Weavers of Jalieza

2010-07-29T05:31:00.000-07:00

The Telares de Cintura Jalieza [Backstrap Weavers of Jalieza] is a cooperative of women weavers who live in the community of Santo Tomás Jalieza. They spin and dye cotton by hand and use traditional “backstrap” or “cintura [belt]” looms, a technique which has been used by Native American peoples in the region for almost 3000 years. One end of the “loom” is tied to a tree or some other stable point. The women work, seated on the ground, with the other end of the loom attached to a belt that passes around their backs. The Maya people traditionally believed that the backstrap loom was the gift of one of their goddesses, Ixchel—who was also the goddess of childbirth.

The Telares de Cintura cooperative was formed in 1940, when a new highway linked Jalieza with Oaxaca. Prior to the highway, the weavers had brought their products to the markets in neighboring communities. However, as traffic began to pass through Jalieza, the women established a local market in their own community. They officially established their cooperative in 1962, and, within one year, they had acquired an open air workspace.

There are currently 28 members in the cooperative, ranging in age from 20 to 70. The women do most of their work at home, but each also puts in time at the cooperative market in the city center where they daily demonstrate their weaving techniques and display their wares for both locals and tourists.

The women weave brilliantly colored cloth which is used to make a wide range of products, including: handbags, bracelets, change purses, backpacks, wallets, and table mats

Jalieza is south of Oaxaca City, between Tilcajete (where we purchased the alebrijes) and Ocotlán (where we purchased ceramics). We first visited the cooperative market on April 9. It was a Friday, and all of the stalls in the cooperative were full; there was an inevitable similarity between the products of individual weavers. And the quantity of material available made the idea of selecting specific items for our store daunting.

That first day we did not purchase anything from the craftspeople we visited. We spent the day familiarizing ourselves with the range of products available, taking photographs which we were able to review at our leisure in the evening.

The following Tuesday, April 13, we returned to Jalieza. The market mid-week was not as busy as on Friday and only about a quarter of the stalls were displaying product. This was fortunate for us, because once the women understand we are buying product for a store, they started quoting wholesale prices but also insisted that we buy at least something from each stall.

Because the women sell similar products, we tried to choose a specific product from each—belts from one weaver, change purses from another, friendship bracelets from a third. The cooperative had established standardized pricing, so there no economic advantage in choosing one weaver over another. And the quality of work was uniformly good.

Six Months After the Earthquake in Haiti

2010-07-22T05:04:00.000-07:00

The earthquake that struck off the coast of Haiti on January 12th of this year was a major disaster. It is estimated to have caused 220,000 deaths primarily in the Haitian capital city, Port-au-Prince, injured another 300,000 persons, and left more than a million people homeless. 60% of the Haitian government’s infrastructure was destroyed. An estimated one million children were left orphaned, and over 30,000 survivors suffered medical amputations.

Canadian news media marked the sixth anniversary of the earthquake by reporting on how poorly reconstruction was proceeding in that country. That is true, but it is not the only story.

While reconstruction is still pending, there have been some successes with relief efforts. Although it took several months to accomplish, most people who lost their homes in the quake now have temporary shelter. The 1300 tent cities set up throughout Port-au-Prince currently house one and a half million persons. However, only 11,000 latrines were built, far too few to meet the needs of the people in the camps.

Doctors without Borders have suggested that access to medical care may even be better than it was before the quake. But considering the state of health care in Haiti before the earthquake, that is not much to be proud of.

Something that wasn’t given a lot of media coverage in the north was the way in which Haitians in other parts of the country responded to the people affected by the quake. An initial food distribution program was in place before foreign food donations arrived. And when the foreign food supplies did arrive, as is commonly the case in these situations, they had the unintended effect of driving down the value of Haitian-grown food.

Also, in the days following the earthquake, nearly 700,000 residents of Port-au-Prince fled the city because of hunger and were cared for by their fellow citizens in rural areas – the same rural areas whose farm produce has now been affected by the food shipments.

For many Haitians, these examples demonstrate that, as welcome as foreign aid is, the people of Haiti are not wholly helpless. And now their fears are that the reconstruction priorities in their country will be defined by the international community rather than by the people themselves.

That may be the case, but to date not much significant reconstruction has occurred at all. Those living in the UN camps are no closer to having permanent dwelling places. The population is naturally frustrated and there have been angry demonstrations denouncing the government’s inactivity.

Another matter which did not get much coverage in the northern media is that one of the things hampering the Haitian government is the failure of nations like Canada to fulfill their pledges of country-to-country relief funds. Canada along with the United States joined with other nations in promising over $5 billion in aid to Haiti. The only countries which have kept that pledge so far are Australia, Brazil, Estonia, and Norway. All the other nations – including Canada – have still not made good their pledge, even though Canadian tax payers footed the bill so that our Governor General could pay an official visit to the country where she was born.

The funds that have gone into the relief efforts taking place now come primarily from Non-Governmental Organizations and Faith Communities, of which some 9000 are currently working in Haiti, up from the 4000 which had been operating in the country before the earthquake. But with little inter-organizational cooperation, those relief efforts are proceeding piecemeal.

One of the ironies of the world response to the earthquake was that while donor nations were unable to get supplies to people in need for several days, they were able almost immediately to provide military personnel – including 20,000 US Marines – to “keep order in the streets.” 126 ships were used to deploy the Marines, but only one hospital ship was sent. And according Camille Chalmers, the director of a nonprofit umbrella group working in Haiti, those military vessels actually blocked the arrival of aid shipments from other Caribbean countries and France.

The situation in Haiti is one more example of the way in which well-intentioned efforts have dangerous consequences, and of the selective way in which the news media decide which aspects of a complex situation to focus upon.

Mujeres Artesanias de las Regiones de Oaxaca

2010-07-15T11:22:00.001-07:00

When George Fry of the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design first encouraged me to visit Oaxaca, he also advised me to pay a visit to MARO – The Mujeres Artesanias de las Regiones de Oaxaca [Regional Association of Craftswomen of Oaxaca]. He felt their products were particularly suited to our fair trade store, Cultures Boutique in Fredericton.

MARO is a collective of 150 women artisans. Their showroom is located on Cinco de Mayo Street, northeast of the town square, or zócalo, and, as it happened, only a few blocks down the street from the hotel where we were staying.

We met with Señora Rosario Martinez, who manages the store. She provided us some background information about MARO, explaining that it was founded in 1992 by María Aurora Martinez Rios. Government-funded programs to assist artisans had come to an end, and there were many women artisans who still needed assistance with the business aspects of their work (writing contracts, issuing invoices, arranging for shipping and the like). MARO was set up to help them.

The English-language pamphlet they provided us emphasizes the collective’s commitment to maintaining traditional craft techniques. The women members of MARO are talented, canny, and ambitious.

They are not a demure lot; some of the pieces they create are pretty racy. One of the items we were specifically looking for were nativity sets for Christmas. On the second floor, we found a wide selection; however, in the same room there were also a number of nude figures in pre-Colombian style engaged in explicit sexual acts Some of the positions would have required the woman to have the flexibility of a Chinese acrobat. There was also the depiction of a circle of nude women observing another give birth.

Many of the craftswomen we met during our time in Oaxaca, including the elderly Guillermina Aguilar, had wicked senses of humor. In Guillermina’s studio, we found a collection of what she called “Women of the Night.” They are women figures posed provocatively in scanty garments; even more of a surprise was a collection of female figures garbed as nuns undressing as if to bathe, leaving them bare-breasted and wearing improbable white thongs. When I asked her whose idea they were, she grinned broadly and told me that they were her son’s idea, and they are very popular. “Son para los hombres,” she laughs. “They are for the men. But the men get disappointed because they are only clay and not flesh!” It was easy for me to imagine her, or someone like here, making the pieces we found at MARO, giggling as they shaped the connecting parts and fitted them together.

MARO products include clothing, traditional Mexican decorations, novelty pieces, seasonal items, basketwork, metal work, table linens, bed spreads, handbags, several styles of glazed and unglazed pottery, toys, jewelry, candles, dried flowers, and wood carvings – including a number of the popular skeleton figures which are used to celebrate of the Day of the Dead.

One Year After the Coup in Honduras

2010-07-08T05:10:00.000-07:00

Just a little more than a year has passed since the military coup in Honduras which removed then-president Manuel Zelaya from office. That was the event which motivated me to begin this blog. In those first postings, I expressed concern about the violations of human rights which were taking place during the months following the coup. I also wrote about how important it would be for whatever government came into office following the coup to deal with those acts.

Unfortunately, current events in Honduras are not encouraging.

Porfirio “Pepe” Lobo, who became President of Honduras last January, has said that he wants his government to be one of “conciliation.” Assuming that he is genuine in that desire, it is not one necessarily shared by other members of his party.

Lobo claims to have received threats of another coup. He said that he was told to keep his pajamas ready, a reference to the fact that Zelaya was seized by the military at night, was not allowed to change clothing, and was exiled to Costa Rica in his night wear. These threats presumably come not from supporters of Zelaya but from members of the conservative elites in Honduras which are resistant to any steps to conciliation with opposition forces.

There are forces in Honduras which remain vocal in their anger at the coup and the loss of an opportunity to begin the process of bringing about constitutional change. On the anniversary of the coup (June 28), protesters blocked bridges and major highways to express dissatisfaction with the current administration.

One of the things fueling the anger of these protesters was the amnesty Lobo issued when coming into office. The amnesty applied to all those – on both sides – involved in the coup. However, human rights groups have expressed concern about the amnesty because, in effect, it legitimized the coup. It is also a regional concern because a failure to condemn the coup provides a precedent which can be harmful to democratically elected governments both in Honduras and elsewhere.

In response to the alleged human rights violations that occurred in the months following the coup, Lobo established a “Truth Commission” to investigate matters, but its focus is only on events which took place before he came into office and portions of its findings may be kept secret for ten years on the grounds of “national security.”

Limiting the commission’s mandate to matters which took place prior to Lobo’s presidency implies that the situation has been regularized since he assumed office. However Human Rights Watch has alleged that there is evidence of a continuation of abuses since last January, including incidents of sexual intimidation, rape, torture, and homicide. Journalists have also been targeted, and nine have been killed in Honduras this year, making Honduras one of the most dangerous countries in the world for media personnel.

Human rights groups in Honduras have so little confidence in the government’s Truth Commission that they have established a separate commission.

There is a clear social division in Honduras. The small elite classes, which control both of the national parties, are opposed to any form of “conciliation.” Even the Supreme Court, in defiance of Lobo’s directions, has dismissed members of the judiciary who had opposed the coup. On the other hand, the June 28 protests (although the numbers were not as great as previous protests) demonstrate that there is significant dissatisfaction with current conditions in the country.

That dissatisfaction extends beyond the boarders of Honduras. Questions remain about the validity of an election held by a de facto government put in place as a result of a military coup. Consequently, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Mexico, Nicaragua and Venezuela still do not recognize the Lobo government.

Manuel Zelaya, meanwhile, is now living in the Dominican Republic.

Hojalata

2010-06-30T04:19:00.000-07:00

On the hillside north of Oaxaca, overlooking the city, is the neighborhood of Xochimilco. The Pan-American Highway – locally known as the Calzada Niños Heroes – runs through the region. Several major hotels are located here, including the Fortin Plaza and the Hotel Victoria. Tourists come up Garcia Vigil Street from the center of town in order to see the remains of a former aqueduct which, centuries ago, had brought water to the city from the mountain streams. The aqueduct is no longer used, but its arches have been adapted by residents in a variety of interesting ways. One archway leads into a park, two others now serve as door of a house and a restaurant, and through a fourth a street runs.

The neighborhood is also the home of several artisans who make items out of tin. The Spanish term is for this trade is hojalata [ho-ha-la-ta]. It is a craft tradition which goes back to the 16th century. The pre-Colombian inhabitants of the region had worked in a number of soft metals, including gold and silver, but it was the Spanish who introduced tin work and working with alloyed metals.

At the suggestion of our driver and guide, Benito Hernandez, we visited the house of Victor Leyva [shown in the photo with Elaine Peters, the store manager of Cultures]. His house was easy to find; painted pink, it stands out on the street. We knock on the door and are invited in. After passing through the main courtyard, around which the family lives, we go down a set of stairs into a rear courtyard. The stairway is protected by plastic sheeting, and we have to duck our heads to pass under it. It is in the back that Victor’s workshop is located. We find him at work there with his assistant, Luz Maria Reyes Cruz. Victor is tracing designs on a sheet of tin while Luz decorates a finished box with color. Scraps of tin litter the tables; a large roll of tin sheeting is awaiting use.

There are only a few pieces displayed on the walls, but Luz and Victor are soon unpacking boxes of stored items. They show us picture frames, boxes both single and nested, nativity scenes, mirrors, candle holders and candelabra (including one designed for the celebration of Hanukah), a monstrance for the display of the host in a Catholic church, Christmas tree ornaments, small figurines – tin soldiers, roosters – tableware, lanterns, masks and other wall decorations. The tin pieces include a lot of filigree work. Some of it is painted and some pieces are not (some of the boxes, for example).

Victor’s great-grandfather, Margarito, began the family tradition, so Victor is a member of the fourth generation of his family to pursue this craft. Victor started work in tin, apprenticing with his cousin, Alfonso Santiago Leyva (their mothers are sisters). Alfonso was one of the first tin smiths in Oaxaca to decorate his work with color. Originally aniline paints were used, but now the family prefers to use automobile paints because of their sheen and the way they adhere to metal.

Textiles from Oaxaca and Teotitlán

2010-06-24T06:57:00.001-07:00

The community of Teotitlán de Valle, east of Oaxaca City, is famous for its textiles and is a popular destination for tour buses in the region. Weavers produce yard goods, rugs, wall-hangings, table runners, bedspreads, tablecloths. Finished products include belts, backpacks, and handbags.

Visitors to Teotitlán are invited into workshops where demonstrations may be provided on the entire weaving process, from carding the wool, through the dying process, and finally work on the loom.

We followed the eastern valley towards Teotitlán and Mitla. As we pass out of town, I noticed several compounds with deep pits in the yards. This is where clay is excavated to form bricks. In the distance, to the north as we drove east, we saw rain falling on the hills which were shaded in darkening hues of blue and grey and lit up by bright patches of sunlight. To the south, one of the softly round green hills has its face sheared off as if by a single blow from an enormous blade. Our driver and guide, Benito Hernandez explained that it was a limestone quarry.

As we passed through Santa María de Tule, we stopped to admire the famous ahuehuete tree, claimed to be not world’s tallest or oldest tree, but the widest. Hundreds of house sparrows nest in it, singing loudly. This is one of the most frequently visited sites in the region.

Our first stop in Teotitlán was at the central market where the various weavers (tejedors) display their products. Each had a small stall a few feet wide and perhaps twice as deep. They all call to passersby, inviting them to enter and take a look at their wares. Crowded together as they are, it is difficult to distinguish one from another at first.

Benito then suggested we visit the workshop of a tejedor who doesn’t have a market stall—Francisco Ruiz [shown in the photograph]. We drove to his house and were invited in to the courtyard. Chickens strutted about the yard between the area of the looms and the display room. The home, workshop, and display room surrounded this courtyard. Over the walls of the house, one could see the hills rising in the distance.

The quality of Francisco’s work is apparent. He uses a higher thread count than most weavers, and his use of natural dyes is particularly effective. He dilutes the bright red cochineal dye commonly used by weavers to produce softer earth-tones. As we left his display room, we were introduced to his 80 year old father, Isaac, who was working at one of the looms. Francisco and his wife, Maria de Lourdes, are training their son, also named Isaac, to carry on the tradition.

Francisco’s work is relatively expensive, but we purchased several rugs for Cultures.

We are also visited the workshop of Raúl Chavez Sosa and his wife, Beatriz Bautista Lazo. Their son, Gaspar, told me that he is the fourth generation to work in the tailler. They export rugs to the US, Vancouver in Canada, and even to Israel. We found more rugs here, some men’s shirts, as well as ponchos and pull-overs.

Like Franciso, Raúl exclusively makes use of natural dyes.

Oaxacan Embroidery

2010-06-17T05:33:00.000-07:00

Mexican clothing is notable for both the richness of its colors and the decorative motifs which are commonly used. Much of the clothing is homemade, and women take pride in their sewing abilities. In Oaxaca and elsewhere in Mexico, delicate hand embroidery is used on both clothing and domestic items. Although embroidery is more frequently found on women’s clothing, men’s shirts as well can be elaborately decorated. The challenging smocking around the yoke of women’s clothing is known in Spanish as “hazme se puedes” or “make me if you can.” These bands of small human figures run along the bottom of the yoke of a dress from which the remainder of the garment hangs loosely.

The clothing itself is usually white cotton, and the embroidery can also be white, or the craftsperson can make use of multiple colored threads. Traditionally, the neckline, sleeves, and front of blouses and dresses are given particular attention.

Most of the crafts produced in the Oaxaca region are “cottage crafts” in the sense that the artisans work from their homes. Often an open courtyard is surrounded by the living quarters, a workshop, and possibly a display room. Embroidery and other types of needlework, in particular, is a craft which women have practiced in the spare time they have from household duties. For many generations, it has provided women with extra income for their families and for their own expenses.

Several families in the communities of San Juan Chilcateca and San Antonio Castillo Velasco have acquired reputations for their skills with embroidery. The popular garments known as “wedding dresses” [in the sense of something to be worn to a wedding rather than necessarily referring to a bridal gown] come from San Antonio; these items are also known as Vestidos de San Antonio. These pieces are often elaborately decorated with floral imagery and other natural designs, such as animal motifs.

Much of the embroidered clothing carried at Cultures comes from Santo Tomás Jalieza. We were directed to the shops of two vendors - Emelia Hernandez and Erasto Mendoza - by members of a back-strap weavers’ cooperative we were visiting in that community.

Jalieza is located on the road running south from Oaxaca, between Tilcajete and Ocotlan. The Mendoza family of Jalieza is noted for the quality of work they put into mens’ garments.

Other embroidered pieces at Cultures come from members of the Mujeres Artesanas de las Regiones de Oaxaca – a cooperative for women artisans.

The prices for embroidered clothing vary depending upon how elaborate the needlework is. Some pieces decorated for special events can take up to a month to complete. Most seamstresses work from designs they first sketch on paper. Shirts, blouses, and dresses are usually made in pieces and embroidered before being sewn together to complete the finished garment.

While there are families in which various members work on pieces of the same garment simultaneously, most of the better known embroiderers object to piecemeal work, insisting that the completed garment must reflect the vision and talents of a single individual.

Ceramics in Oaxaca

2010-06-14T05:03:00.000-07:00

Several kinds of ceramics are produced in the Oaxaca region. Specific communities specialize in particular styles. In Santa Maria Atzompa, green glazed and multi-color glazed ceramics are produced as well as traditional painted and unpainted terracotta figures. Black ceramic pottery is made in San Bartolo Coyotepec, while painted red ceramics are the specialty in Ocotlán de Morelos.Ocotlán is south of Oaxaca City past the community of San Martín Tilcajete, where the alebrijes are carved.

The median strip on the way out of Oaxaca is filled with bougainvillea shrubs in a range of colors from yellow through orange and red to a rich purple. The highway passes large plots of agave cactus (the raw material for mescal) and roadside fruit-stands selling watermelon and pineapple. There is a tree called the guaje with large seed pods and a distinctive odor from which the region derives its name—originally, Huaxyacac, or land of the guajes.

A large market is held in Ocotlán every Friday; we began our tour there, following trucks into town carrying cattle to be sold. The market has an extensive display of regional crafts and an even larger selection of fresh produce: mounds of chilies, tomatoes, onions, potatoes, cauliflower, bags of corn, nuts, vegetables we don’t recognize, fresh fruit—especially mangoes and pineapple but also strawberries—and bags of chalk. Corn is boiled with chalk and ash to make tortilla flour. One section of the market is dedicated to live poultry—chickens, turkeys, guinea hens.

At the parking lot where we had left the car, there are public washrooms. For three pesos, you are handed a few sheets of toilet paper and allowed access.

It is in Ocotlán that we met the four Aguilar sisters—Guillermina, Josefina, Irene, and Concepción.

Concepción’s workshop is on the outskirts of the city, but her three sisters have workshops adjacent to one another on the street leading to the town square and market.

The sisters are the daughters of Jesús Aguilar and Isaura Alcántara. Pottery had been a common craft tradition in Ocotlán for many years, but the work was primarily utilitarian: tableware, pots, water jugs, and vases. Jesús and Isaura began creating muñecas—figurines, usually of women, engaged in ordinary daily activities such as carrying out household chores, nursing babies, working in the market, arranging flowers, praying, and dancing. The figures were dressed in the brightly colored traditional costumes of the region.

The four daughters continued the tradition, and they now have pieces on display in several museums in the United States, including the International Folk Art Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and the San Antonio Art Museum.

The sisters all use a similar technique. They flatten a mount of clay into a sheet from which a rectangle is cut. The rectangle is formed into a cylinder; this cylinder can be closed off at one end and then formed into a face, or it can be formed into the body of the figure. The arms are made separately. The artist needs to work quickly, while the clay is still moist. The figure is then put in the oven for up to 16 hours before being painted.

At Cultures, we carry products from all four sisters.

Alebrijes

2010-06-03T05:03:00.000-07:00

Alebrijes are vividly painted fanciful wood carvings popular throughout Mexico. A number of workshops in the communities around Oaxaca - in particular, San Antonio Arrazola and San Martín Tilcajete - produce these.

This is a relatively new tradition, only dating back to the 1930s. The term alebrije originated with Pedro Linares, a carver from Arrazola who lived in Mexico City at the time and created dream-inspired “monsters” of wood and papier-mâché. His work attracted the attention of the famous Mexican muralist, Diego Rivera, and his wife, Freda Kahlo, who has since become a folk heroine in Mexican culture and is the subject of numerous pieces of folk-art including alebrijes.

Linares showed his work to other carvers in Arrazola, where a more realistic carving tradition already existed. Soon other crafts people were following Linares’ example.

For Linares, alebrijes were imaginary beasts, often clawed and with threatening teeth. But more gentle alebrijes have developed over time. While carvers continue to produce dragons and other fantasy figures, they also produce recognizable animal forms, flowers, cacti, boxes, and even small whimsically painted pieces of furniture.

In the 1950s, a farmer in San Martín Tilcajete, Zenén Fuentes, took up woodcarving in his spare time as a way of supplementing his income. He made carvings of farm animals and religious figures. His son, Epifanio, developed the carving into an art form. Epifanio established a reputation in the United States and well as in Mexico for his pieces.

Zeny started carving wood 27 years ago, at the age of seven. By the time he was fourteen years old, he had become so skilled that he was invited to the United States to give demonstrations of carving. He is married to Reyna Piña Ramírz, and today their children are also carrying on the family tradition. Six people currently work in Zeny’s studio. His brothers and some cousins are also woodcarvers.

Cedar and zompantle wood can be used for the manufacture of alebrijes, but the preferred wood is copal, which is white in color and easily painted. The artist does not work from a model but allows his imagination and the shape of the particular piece of wood determine the subject to be carved. Like most alebrije manufacturers, Zeny begins the carving by shaping the raw wood with a machete. The finished carving is dried in the sun and sanded before being painted. The Fuentes also freeze their work before painting it, to ensure that any organisms in the wood are destroyed.

The painting is the distinguishing feature of alebrijes. Over a bright base, overlaying designs cover the figures; at times hypodermic syringes are used to put dots of color on the pieces. It can take as long as a month to paint some of the larger and more elaborate carvings.

As the popularity of alebrijes grew in the 1980s, copal trees came close to becoming an endangered species. Zeny’s father, Epifanio, was a pioneer in the move to environmentally responsible wood harvesting and reforestation.

The alebrijes at Cultures come from Zeny’s workshop and the workshop of his cousin, Florencio Fuentes and his wife Paula Sánchez Gómez (shown in the photograph).

Youth Security in Guatemala

2010-05-19T08:43:00.000-07:00

[The International Program of the YMCA of Sarnia Lambton is one of the Canadian partners engaged with the YMCA (ACJ) of Guatemala. This is one of the Y partnerships whose CIDA funding will end next year. In order to be able to continue supporting the work of the Guatemalan Y, the YMCA of Sarnia-Lambton and Chatham Kent is investigating the possibility of operating a fair trade gift and clothing store modeled on Fredericton’s Cultures Boutique. The following article describing the challenges facing the ACJ of Guatemala originally appeared in “¿Que Pasa?” – published by the International Department of the YMCAs of Quebec and edited by Benni Hodkin]

The ACJ/YMCA of Guatemala offers youth positive alternatives to the violence of youth street gangs. Such work has been perceived as a threat to existing youth gangs and might have led to the August 10, 2008, murders of three ACJ volunteer youth leaders in Amatitlan and other acts of violence targeting youth in Guatemala.

In the aftermath of these brutal killings, the World Alliance of YMCAs launched an appeal to support the efforts of the ACJ of Guatemala in providing financial and psychological support to the families of the victims and other Youth Leaders. The YMCAs of Quebec as well as the YMCA of Sarnia-Lambton and Chatham-Kent contributed to this appeal.

As a result of the violence in Guatemala, the ACJ has made ensuring security for their Youth Leaders and participants a priority. It plans to improve the lighting in its Amatitlan Center and surrounding areas, to repair the ACJ’s protective wall, and to meet with the authorities responsible for security in the municipality to seek support for its violence prevention program.

YMCAs from around the world have written to officials in Guatemala requesting a thorough investigation of these murders and have urged the government to promote public policies that respect, protect, and defend the lives of young people. Amnesty International drew attention to these murders in its “Urgent Appeals.” As a result, representatives of the ACJ de Guatemala were invited to meet with the Minister of the Interior, who assured them that everything possible will be done to find and prosecute those responsible.

In February of last year, a meeting was held of the Meso-American sub-region of the Latin American and Caribbean Alliance of YMCAs [LACA] at the YMCA of Guatemala’s Camp Chichoj. During that meeting, over fifty people shared a very emotional experience when the ACJ de Guatemala youth presented their beautiful outdoor mural in remembrance of the three ACJ youth leaders who were murdered in August 2008. They explained that while the images honor the lives of the three victims, they also represent their vision for a better future.

In 2009, the Government of Canada developed a new action plan to make its international aid more targeted. Therefore the Canadian International Development Agency [CIDA] is concentrating 80% of its bilateral (country to country) aid on a group of twenty countries of focus.

With the new list, Guatemala is no longer considered a priority country for CIDA funding.

While CIDA will no longer be a funding partner for Guatemala as of 2011, the partnership with the YMCAs of Quebec and the YMCA of Sarnia-Lambton and Chatham-Kent will continue. The Canadian YMCAs will continue their fundraising efforts to support the youth programs of the ACJ of Guatemala and will help them seek other funding sources for their important work.

Oaxacan Crafts

2010-05-17T09:13:00.000-07:00

In April, staff from Cultures Boutique traveled to Oaxaca in southern Mexico to seek new product lines.

Cultures is the fair trade gift store operated by the International and Social Development Department of the Fredericton YMCA. Funds raised at Cultures are used to support the Fredericton Y’s international development program, in particular its involvement in the regional partnership between the YMCAs of Canada East [Quebec through Newfoundland] and the YMCA [ACJ] of Honduras. All the products sold at Cultures meet three guidelines: 1) the primary producers are paid fairly within the terms of the local economy; 2) working conditions adhere to the International Labor Organization’s guidelines; 3) raw materials have been harvested in an environmentally responsible manner.

Several years ago, the former director of the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design – George Fry – suggested that we consider importing items from Oaxaca. He believed that the range of products available in that city and its surrounding communities was suitable to the feel of our boutique.

The state of Oaxaca is recognized as a major center of folk art and crafts in Mexico. It is a rich source for pottery, weaving, woodcarving, metal work, jewelry, candles, basketry, and clothing. Individual communities around the capital city, Oaxaca, have established reputations for specific craft traditions. Teotitlán is known for textiles; Coyotepec and Atzompa for ceramics; Tilcajete and Jalieza for woodcarving. Some of the families engaged in these traditions have been working at them since the 19th century.

In addition to its rich craft tradition, Oaxaca is a popular tourist destination. The region has a rich historical heritage. The predecessors of the current Zapotec people (the primary indigenous group in the state) were monumental builders, and the archaeological sites of Monte Alban and Mitla attract tourists from around the world. There are also many examples of colonial architecture, including the baroque Templo de Santo Domingo, begun in the 16th century.

Oaxacan dining is so exquisite that it is said when Porforio Diaz was exiled to Paris from Mexico, he lamented than he would be condemned to eating French food instead of the cuisine of Oaxaca.

The vitality of the city is most evident in the zócalo, the town square. Day or night it is packed: vendors offer wooden fans, decorated tooth-picks, bark paintings, textiles, puppets and other toys, wooden spoons, clay plates, cookies, jewelry, chicklets, tablecloths, roses. There are Indian women in traditional clothing bearing large bundles or platters on their heads. There are families and children with five-foot long cylindrical balloons. Young women in city uniforms and wearing protective face masks pick up garbage; one has the feeling that what little litter there is is accidental; the streets are almost always clean. There are professional stage performances, and a wide range of street performers, clowns, mimes, musicians, drummers, and jugglers with flaming poles and torches. There are a dozen or more shoe-shine stands, a sundries store under the rotunda of the band stand, people selling water, and tortilla vendors.

Over the next few weeks, I will be describing the crafts and the artisans whose work are now carried at Cultures.

We want to thank Benito Hernandez (shown in the photo above with Elaine Peters of Cultures) for his assistance during our trip. His knowledge of the region helped us locate treasures we probably would not have found otherwise. Anyone considering a trip to Oaxaca would be well advised to contact Benito at: www.discover-oaxaca.com

Have Things Returned to "Normal" in Honduras?

2010-05-13T10:10:00.000-07:00

Violence has not abated in Hondurans since the election of Porfirio Lobo as president.

A continuing conflict between peasant farmers in the Aguán Valley of Honduras and large landholders, for example, has resulted in several deaths since the elections. Miguel Alonso Oliva, a member of the United Campesino Movement of the Aguán [MUCA], was shot by a private security guard on April 1. Antonio Cardoza and José Carías, directors of a local cooperative, were killed the previous month. In January and February, thirteen other deaths occurred and another eighteen members of MUCA have been placed in detention.

MUCA has been resisting efforts to remove campesinos from the lands they have been occupying and which they claim had been illegally expropriated by local landowners. The landowners have called upon the Honduran Security Forces to protect their property. The primary landowner is Miguel Facussé, an associate of Roberto Micheletti, who was appointed de facto president of Honduras after military coup of last June.

The fertile Aguán Valley is in the Department (State) of Colón on the Caribbean Coast. The previous Honduran government, that of ousted President Manuel Zelaya, had agreed to look into claims by the MUCA that land used for traditional collective farming had been expropriated in contravention of regulations in the Honduran Agrarian Reform Law. It was a significant step on Zelaya’s part, whose father had been convicted of being involved in the 1975 Los Horcones massacre in which fifteen people died in a conflict over peasant access to land.

Zelaya’s conciliatory attitude towards the campesinos was one further example of what his critics saw as an inclination to “communism.” The fear that Zelaya was moving towards the left was a major factor behind the coup which removed him from office last June.

There is little evidence that conditions in Honduras have improved significantly since Porfirio Lobo became president in January. In their April report, the Americas’ Policy Group of the Canadian Council for International Cooperation described this situation in these terms:

“Despite the Honduran authorities’ attempt to present Honduras as getting back to ‘normal’ following the transfer of power, the country remains deeply divided. It is also clear that Honduras remains a country in a democratic crisis. Honduras is still governed by those who backed the coup, and no significant measures have been put in place to sanction or remedy the failings of institutions that played a role in the coup d’état and its aftermath. Serious human rights violations, including attacks on social leaders, have yet to subside. Impunity remains widespread.”

Lobo’s idea of returning things to normal included issuing an amnesty for all of those involved in the coup which removed Zelaya from office. As the Americas’ Policy Group document stresses, the amnesty subverts justice and raises concerns for other countries in a region where democracy has often been fragile. In effect, the amnesty validates the coup and sends “a highly troubling message to other countries that coups do not have to be reversed; that presidents can be removed from power by force and replaced.”

In the first blog I wrote on this site, I expressed the hope that any government following the coup would make an effort to hold accountable police and military officials not only engaged in the coup itself but also guilty of gross violations of human rights in the months following the coup. I reported a story of a young woman who was involved in the resistance to the coup who had been raped by four policemen. A recent article in Envio magazine, published by the University of Nicaragua, has revealed that this woman along with other members of her family were kidnapped in February by individuals in police uniform; she and her sister-in-law were raped in front of the male members of their family who were tied to trees. The rapists told her this was because she had reported them previously and warned her that if they came for her a third time, she would be killed.

So far the perpetrators of this crime still have not been charged. We can only hope that isn’t evidence of things having returned to normal in Honduras.

Ludoteca Program of the Honduran YMCA

2010-05-05T11:49:00.000-07:00

The Ludoteca is one of the most impressive programs operated by the YMCA of Honduras. It is located in Colonia San Francisco, one of the poor hillside communities surrounding the valley in which most of Tegucigalpa nestles. It is a community of steep, narrow, unpaved, and heavily runneled streets common to the hillside barrios. Few people drive here; one sees them walking down to the paved areas to catch public transport; even the four-wheel drive which brought me to the community struggled on these slopes.

It is not a safe area. The director of the Ludoteca program, Nadia Osorto, has had her salary cheque taken from her at knife point. The popular “Cultural Nights” which the Ludoteca offers used to be held in a fenced-in playground which is a ten minute walk from the Center. Now, however, the Cultural Nights are held in the street directly in front of the Ludoteca because it has been determined that it is too dangerous for the children to make the ten minute walk after dark.

A “Ludoteca” is a play-center for children. It is a location where young people and children can gather to interact, take part in various recreational and social events, and play in a safe and supportive environment. The YMCA Ludoteca in San Francisco has five rooms, none of them large. But they have had gatherings of 80 or more in the front space (where I find a group of teenagers meeting to plan a soccer tournament during my visit) and as many as 40 small children have crowded into the playroom set aside for them.

There is a crafts area. During my visit, a small group of pre-teens were turning 3-litre plastic pop bottles (a format common in Honduras—taller and narrower than the 2-litre bottles common in Canada) into Easter Baskets. The bottom is cut off to serve as the basket proper. Then a strip is cut from the long side of the bottle; a hand-held paper-punch is used to perforate this, and then yarn is woven through the holes to form a cross-stitch pattern. This decorated strip is attached to the basket as a handle.

Even impressive than the Ludoteca itself is what they call the “Mobile Ludoteca.” Nadia and few volunteers place a couple of Frisbees and some lightweight crafts material in a backpack, and they walk to neighborhoods which are too far away for the children to come to the center. Here they offer programs on the street corners. There is no regular schedule. Whenever they show up in an area, it is a wonderful surprise to the children who crowd around them.

There are some computers at the Ludoteca and IT courses are offered.

The Honduran YMCA recognizes that there is an important connection between the opportunity for children to play and their education. And it is because of this understanding that they are committed to ensuring that all children, wherever they live, have not only the right but also the opportunity to play.

Security at Pearson Airport

2010-04-26T06:19:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday, April 21, I was returning to Canada from Mexico. Because we needed to clear immigration and customs in Toronto, we also had to pass through security at Pearson Airport in order to make our connecting flight back to the Maritimes.

At approximately 6:30 pm, we took our places in one of the three lines passing through the doors leading to the concealed security area. None of the lines were moving very quickly, but ours was completely stalled. A man by the door, who could see what was happening, announced that the belt on which carry-on items were to be placed was not moving. After perhaps ten minutes, the observer added, “The guys in suits have just arrived. That’s never a good thing, when the guys in suits show up.” A little later, he told us with surprise, “They’re wanding everybody! Even if they get a green light on the metal detector.”

A snail, moving at its reputed pace, would have left all of us behind as it charged forward. By the time I got to the door, I counted nine people in front of me. It took more than thirty minutes for those nine people to clear security. Not only was everyone wanded, they were also frisked. Shoes were checked. One man, who appeared to be in his late 60s, was made to take off his shoes and his feet were frisked. Another man, whose hair was clipped so short that one could see the skin over his skull, had his scalp checked.

It was ludicrous.

And, sure enough, three men in suits stood back from the process, observing it with a detachment that one associates with Nazi officers in World War II movies overseeing soldiers carrying out absurd orders.

The young woman feeding trays into the x-ray machine remarked to one of her colleagues, in a distressed tone, “Everyone is mad at us, but I don’t know what to tell them!”

An explanation would have been nice – a statement to the effect that there was as security alert (although the need for heightened security for domestic flights in Canada seems improbable) or even, as one person in line supposed, that a training session was going on (although that would have been entirely inexcusable).

But the fact is that no explanation – as welcome as it would have been at the time – would have been adequate to the situation. Security checks such as this one – in which every single person passes through a metal detector, is wanded, and then frisked as well – are both useless and inappropriate. Had anything been discovered during these searches, it would have been announced in the news, but no such news release was issued. The only news about Pearson airport was that a man seeking to increase his height on the 20th had been questioned because of the inserts in his shoes.

Nothing was accomplished other than that almost everyone flying at that time was inconvenienced, treated without appropriate courtesy or respect, and quite possibly some missed their scheduled flights.

These were not reasonable security precautions.

Whenever the flying public is subject to procedures of this type, it is a victory for those terrorists whose actions are intended to disrupt our lives. And, if not the security agents at the gate, most certainly their supervisors become, for all intents and purposes, accomplices in that disruption.

Report from YMCA of Haiti

2010-03-18T04:32:00.000-07:00

[The following report comes from Gwenael Apollon, General Secretary of the YMCA d’Haiti.]

Two months after the earthquake, the tent cities are multiplying, as food, water, and other necessary items continue to be distributed. Many quickly realized that they must get closer to the areas where distribution occurred. On the other hand it is now known that the Haitian government will present a master plan to the international community at the end of this month to outline the priorities and how it would like to go about resolving the myriad problems that it is confronting. Meanwhile areas are being prepared by the United Nations to provide better organized tent cities and more appropriate services to the people. It appears that the government will attempt to move people from inappropriate places to these new areas.

National officials are talking about elections but many others would like to see children get back to school instead and millions more would like the opportunity to work and regain their lost capacity for buying their own food and necessities.

The only certainty here is history. For example, last week it was not for the sake of the tent cities’ inhabitants that it didn’t rain. This happens every year; the rainy season doesn’t usually start until April. This small window of relief gave the aid organizations the necessary time to distribute more tarps and tents in the tent cities and elsewhere before the rains do come.

The US Hospital boat left last Tuesday after providing emergency health care to hundreds. Soon other providers of food, health, and security will also depart and huge holes will be seen as the needs grow.

Will the people go to vote so a few can claim to have saved the tiny bit of democracy that characterizes the Haitian system of governance? Or will civil unrest augmented by frustration build up because of unsatisfied needs? The answers to questions like these will remain unknown until the adult population reorganizes itself around the new social parameters created by the forced migration.

Last Friday March 12th,2010, the YMCA d’Haiti witnessed the most fruitful year of its history with the approval of the “Proposals for the 90 days plan” presented by Miguel Blasco (of the Latin American and Caribbean Alliance of YMCAs) to the “Haiti Partners Support Group” made up of representatives from partner YMCAs around the world. As the result of the approval, our community organization will soon start the reconstruction of the Youth Center in Port-au-Prince and the reinforcement of its organizational capacity to address the new challenges created by the earthquake as well as the old ones that existed prior to the tragedy.

As the plan starts to unfold and until the month ends, we will rebuild, we will hire deputy Directors, we will address our transport needs and we will report our progress. This week will see us launching the construction of the Konbit Youth Centre, finalizing the recruitment of the communication specialist as a Deputy Director and preparing a one-week medical visit to Montreal for the week of March 21st to March 28th, 2010.

We will try to meet Quebec YMCA members and other potential partners for YMCA d’Haiti. We are also in close contact with the YMCA of the Bahamas for a 40’ container of toilet and hygienic products.

Demonstrations Continue in Tegucigalpa

2010-03-11T05:23:00.000-08:00

There may be a new government in Honduras, and the US Secretary of State – Hillary Clinton – may be encouraging other member nations of the Organization of American States to recognize that government, but public demonstrations continue.

On February 25th, around 10,000 of supporters of former president Manuel Zelaya – who had been removed from office by the military coup last June – poured into the streets of Tegucigalpa to protest the continued abuses of human rights occurring since Porfirio Lobo was elected President last November. Protesters also called for reform to the nation’s constitution in order to guarantee the protection of rights. It was Zelaya’s attempt to establish a constituent assembly to review the constitution which provoked the coup; factions resistant to change in Honduras claimed that Zelaya was following the example of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, who had won a constitutional referendum in February 2009 which allowed him to stand for re-election indefinitely.

Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch [http://www.hrw.org] has raised concerns about the continued violations of human rights which have occurred since Lobo took office in January. Human Rights Watch has called upon the Attorney General of Honduras to investigate reports they have received that members of the Frente Nacional de Resistencia Popular [National Front for Popular Resistance] are still the targets of violence. FNRP is a coalition of labor and social groups which opposed the military coup and called for a boycott of November elections. Human Rights Watch states that the reports of murder, rape, kidnapping, and torture of FNRP members are “credible.”

Although Lobo had said during the election campaign that he would work for “national reconciliation and unity,” there is little evidence that he has made efforts to mend relations with Zelaya’s supporters or those who opposed the de facto government of Roberto Micheletti which was installed after the coup. Nor has the new government taken steps to hold accountable the perpetrators of extensive human rights abuses which took place during Micheletti’s administration. On the contrary, Lobo issued an amnesty absolving the organizers of the coup and their supporters as well as the military and police forces.

The Inter-American Commission for Human Rights expressed reservations about the terms of this amnesty. They suggest that such amnesties are often used as a way of avoiding having to investigate criminal activities and amount to a failure of governments to protect the rights of their citizens. The IACHR is an autonomous body of the Organization of American States.

The press release issued by Human Rights Watch points out that there is good evidence that similar types of abuses are continuing today. They site several examples, including: on February 2nd, the kidnapping and beating of cameraman who had been with Zelaya during the time he was given sanctuary in the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa; on February 4th the murder of Vanessa Zepeda, a member of the Social Security Union.

In January, Amnesty International issued a statement saying that "If President Lobo wants to restore the rule of law and confidence in his government, he must ensure the abuses of the past seven months are dealt with quickly and effectively." So far he has not done so.

The YMCA in Haiti

2010-03-04T04:35:00.000-08:00

[As world focus turns from Haiti to Chile, the YMCA in Haiti continues its efforts to rebuild. This report comes from Benni Hodken of the YMCAs of Quebec, which work with the Haitian Y.]

On January 12, 2010, a 7.3 earthquake rocked Port-au Prince, the densely populated capitol city of Haiti. Buildings, including the substantial presidential palace in the heart of the city, collapsed. Chaos and terror ensued as people tried to escape crumbling buildings, to find family, friends, and a safe place to rest. While Haitians were trying to rescue survivors from the ruins – digging with their hands, pulling out the dead, and praying for help – the international community was trying to get emergency aide in.

Communication lines were cut; people around the world were desperate for word from family and friends in Haiti. We at the Y were also trying contact our partner YMCA in Haiti and its Secretary General, Gwenael Apollon. We knew that there would have been young people and children at the Y in Port-au-Prince at the time the earthquake struck.

On January 13 we received news that Gwenael and his family were safe. Gwenael described the situation like this: “What has happened here in Haiti is a true tragedy! Indeed, since Tuesday, January 12th, Haitians are living a nightmare. They are lying in the streets because most have suddenly lost everything. The sight of this is hard beyond measure. Many lives are lost and most of the existing infrastructures are gone or need to be destroyed because they are too damaged and have become a danger to the public.”

In the following days, as communication were re-established with Gwenael, we learned that the Y building in Port-au-Prince (the Konbit Youth Centre) had collapsed, but that the staff and youth leaders were able to get everyone out of the building with only a few scratches and bruises to contend with.

This was good news from a place that had had little in the way of good news to give in that first week. As the days went by, we learned that two people associated with the Y were missing, and they continue to remain so. We have also heard of Y volunteers and participants losing their homes and, in some cases, family members. No one in Port-au-Prince was left untouched by the earthquake.

On January 15, the World Alliance of YMCAs launched an appeal for support for the Haitian people and the YMCA of Haiti. As of February, over $400,000 has been raised by the World Alliance; Canadian YMCAs have raised over $50,000 and the YMCAs of Quebec over $5,500 from private donations. The funds will go to support the emergency response efforts of the YMCA of Haiti and to help with the reconstruction of the Konbit Youth Centre, in Port-au-Prince, as well as repair work needed for YMCA buildings in Kenscoff.

Emergency response was organized through LACA (the Latin American and Caribbean Alliance of YMCAs). On January 23, a convoy of vehicles bringing aide from the Dominican Republic traveled by land to Port-au-Prince to the site where the Konbit Centre had stood. Twelve employees and volunteers of the YMCA of the Dominican Republic (including it General Secretary, Andres Fortunato) with the assistance of Gwenael, a team of volunteers and employees of the YMCA of Haiti, and six local policemen distributed 425 boxes of food and basic goods to the families in the communities where the YMCA works.

Gwenael Apollon described the arrival of the aid: “As soon as the truck arrived, 62 persons present from the collective YMCAs started to work as one to unload the truck. Indeed, our crisis committee members, friends and youth group members forgot for this period of time whether we had personal problems such as having a friend or family member still buried under the debris caused by the earthquake or if we have no house to sleep in when night comes.”

As well, thirty-five boxes were distributed to two orphanages in Port-au-Prince and on January 28, fifty boxes were distributed to families in Camp-Perrin.

A Support Group for the YMCA of Haiti has been organized consisting of the YMCA of Haiti, the YMCA of the Dominican Republic, the Latin American and Caribbean Alliance of YMCAs, YMCA Canada (through the YMCAs of Québec), YMCA of the USA, Y Care International, and the World Alliance of YMCAs. This group will help with the relief and reconstruction plan of the YMCA of Haiti, including supporting its emergency relief work in the communities where it works, the reconstruction and reparation of centres, and the gathering and administration of resources needed for the realization of the plan.

Since the YMCA office in Port-au-Prince was destroyed, a temporary office space has been rented in Petionville. What materials (files etc) could be rescued from the rubble of the Konbit centre will be stored there. The office will be a temporary communications and organizing centre for the YMCA’s relief and reconstruction work.

On February 8, the YMCA of the Dominican Republic started work on preparing a second convoy of supplies for Haiti. The YMCA of Haiti awaits some large tents, which will be used as mobile YMCA activity centers until the Konbit YMCA centre is rebuilt. These tents will be set up in the tent cities of Port-au-Prince to offer families and children a safe and friendly place to share their stories, to express their sorrow and fears, or simply to chat with friends and have some fun. YMCA volunteers will organize activities for the children and youth to relieve some of the boredom resulting from the confinement and lack of resources within the tent cities. In this way, the YMCA can continue to serve the community and give its youth leaders and volunteers a concrete and focused role in aiding in the recovery process.

Meanwhile, the YMCA’s Kenscoff centre is being used as a temporary camp area for some of the many people left homeless by this disaster. YMCA volunteers are on site to help with the camp. Some food boxes have been delivered to the people and activities will be organized to help the children and youth living there.

Gwenael, the Y staff and volunteers have shown tremendous strength and courage throughout these tragic times. Despite their personal losses, they have rallied all their strength and resources to reach out and give support and hope to the Haitian community. It is heartening to see the outpouring of concern, aid and solidarity that the Y community around the world has shown for the YMCA and people of Haiti, as well as the incredible world response to this catastrophe.

Daily the Haitian people are demonstrating their immense spirit and resiliency. If there can be any positive side to this disaster, may it be that they are given the support and resources to rebuild their lives and nation according to their own plan and not one dictated by foreign interests.

Donations to the work of the Y in Haiti can be made through www.canadon.org by clicking on “Make a Donation”. In the Messages/Instructions field, please write “Aid for the YMCA of Haiti” so that your donation will be used to this end and will also be matched by the federal government.

After the Relief Phase Comes Reconstruction

2010-02-25T11:50:00.000-08:00

As Andres Fortunato pointed out in his report posted on this blog last week, Haiti is the poorest and least developed nation in the American Hemisphere. In addition, this vulnerable Caribbean nation has faced numerous recent challenges even before the earthquake of January 12th. Since 2007, the country has survived four hurricanes, two collapsed schools, a food crisis that toppled the government, and the worldwide economic crisis.

One of the reasons that the death toll following the earthquake was so high – now over 230,000 confirmed deaths – is that many of the victims lived in the extensive shanty towns of Port-au-Prince. The houses in these areas are often flimsily built – simple wood construction with a corrugated tin roof on which one often sees an old tire or concrete block to keep it from rattling in the wind. The more substantial buildings in these communities are made of concrete block. A few are on a concrete slab, but others just sit on the ground. These structures were not able to withstand the impact of the quake which had powerful enough to topple the Presidential Palace.

Andres described the tent cities in which people now live; they remain without adequate shelter; access to clean water and food is still difficult. The immediate concern is to rebuild housing before the May rains and the beginning of hurricane season later in the year. The funds currently being sent to Haiti are being used for emergency relief, but we have to keep in mind that there will also be need for longer term development and reconstruction assistance.

The usual pattern of response to a natural disaster is that there is an immediate generosity which is global in scope. Both governments and individuals in nations around the world respond open-handedly. These relief funds are used to ensure that people in the affected region are safe, are fed, have access to water and so on. In the past, there have been examples when these initial relief funds were so generous they couldn’t all be used. A few months after the Tsunami struck Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and Thailand in 2004, Doctors Without Borders asked people to stop sending money to Tsunami Relief because they were unable to use all the funds they had received. Other organizations continued to collect funds, but didn’t guarantee that those funds would necessarily be used in the affected areas. Many disaster relief agencies, for example, do not accept country-specific funding.

I have no problem with this. Often more money is available immediately after a disaster than can be used effectively. And it is the nature of relief organizations to direct funds to areas of greatest need; if funds, in the tsunami example, could not be used effectively in Indonesia, they should have been redirected to areas where they could be used (in that instance, in Darfur).

But in addition to this type of immediate relief assistance, Haiti is also going to need development assistance for some time to come.

To understand how important long-term development assistance is, consider another major city which was devastated by a natural disaster in 2005. As with Haiti, there was an immediate international outpouring of generosity, some 70 nations sent funds to help the initial relief effort. A year later, not a lot of international attention was being paid to the city any longer, however a majority of the people in the affected area still lacked access to safe drinking water; 18 months later, half the affected homes still lacked electricity; two years later some 200,000 people were still displaced, and three years later about a third of the regional hospitals remain closed. Things did slowly improve, and this year the city won the Super Bowl. The city described, of course, is New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

It is useful to consider this example, because if reconstruction was that daunting a task in New Orleans, a city in the richest country in the world, how much more difficult and challenging is the reconstruction of Port-au-Prince likely to be?

The people of Haiti will continue to need assistance – not just immediate relief funds, but long-term development assistance – for years to come.

Conditions in Haiti

2010-02-22T09:54:00.000-08:00

The following report on conditions in Haiti was written by my long-time friend, Andres Fortunato of the YMCA of the Dominican Republic. The original Spanish document has been translated into English by Silke Brabander, chair of the Fredericton YMCA’s International Committee

As the month following the worst natural disaster on the planet came to an end, the victims find themselves with many questions that remain unanswered at this time. The poorest nation of the American hemisphere, historically forgotten by the powerful countries, has had to go through a tremendous tragedy to get the world’s attention, reminding the world of its existence, and reminding them that they need all the help possible to be able to overcome their hardships of poverty and under-development.

One month after the fateful January 12 earthquake, which took the lives of over 200,000 Haitians, the uncertainty is taking control over 1,200,000 victims who remain homeless and who are currently living clustered in tents across Port-au-Prince and its surroundings, where hundreds of “Tent Cities” have been set up, some of which are housing up to 8,000 people.

Even in the Tent Cities, the social inequality that has touched Haitians throughout history is present. Tents of all classes exist: on the one hand, there are large, roomy, sophisticated tents, while on the other hand, the less fortunate make do with taking refuge in make-shift shelters they’ve put together themselves, or in very small tents shared by about 10 people, both day and night, while the coming rains make their lives even more uncomfortable, adding to their misery.

The fear of an epidemic outbreak looms over Port-au-Prince, as the absence of hygiene in these areas, where so many families have no access to sanitary means, no privacy to go to the washroom, and the appearance of rats, cockroaches, flies and mosquitoes everywhere have added to the stench and accumulation of garbage, creating a perfect environment for an outbreak of various diseases.

The Republic of Haiti has received a tremendous amount of in-kind and financial donations. International solidarity and support is visible, and trucks and containers of food, medical equipment, and medicine can be seen across the city, the airport, and along the border with the Dominican Republic. Among the ongoing efforts of numerous NGOs working to support the victims as much as possible, the presence of food and medicine shipments from the International YMCA has particularly stood out. However, many are still not seeing the donations and are going hungry, and this could trigger mass protests, which could further increase the level of chaos in this unfortunate country.

On February 11, the first protest was staged by the victims in front of the improvised (make-shift) government palace, near the Port-au-Prince international airport. The protesters demanded the ousting of president Preval for his lack of support to the victims; this was likely the beginning of what everyone fears – mass protests becoming uncontrollable and creating even more problems and nightmares for the Haitian people.

THE FACE OF THE EARTHQUAKE VICTIMS

The earthquake so severely hit the Haitian nation that not even the wealthy could avoid its impact. Among some of those who died during the earthquake were Joseph Serge, Archbishop of Port-au-Prince; Hubert de Ronceray, political leader; Mirian Merlet, feminist leader; Mirna Narcisse Theodore, Minister of Women’s Affairs; Michel Gaillard, politician and university professor; Hedi Annabi, head of the UN’s MINUSTAH Stabilization Mission in Haiti; and Georges and Mireille Anglades, who were a well-known married couple among intellectual circles.

THE RESCUED

The 135 people rescued from the rubble set a precedent for this type of catastrophe: three days after the earthquake, on January 15, an 18-month old girl found near the bodies of her parents was rescued; on that same day, three more people were rescued from the debris of a supermarket. On the 17th, the 62-year old owner of the famous Montana Hotel was found alive thanks to a text message she was able to send from her cell phone; on the 19th, an elderly woman was rescued from the remains of the cathedral by Mexican firefighters. A miraculous rescue took place when a 23-day old baby named Elisabeth was found alive in her house after surviving without food or water; that same day, another girl, 11 years old, was rescued from her house by her neighbours. On the 22nd, Israeli rescue workers saved 22-year old Emmanuel Buso from a building near the presidential palace; on the 23rd, a 25-year old was rescued from the rubble of a store called Napolitan, saying that he survived by drinking soft drinks. And the last survivor rescued was 16-year old Darline, thanks to a passer-by who heard her voice and quickly went to notify Red Cross relief workers.

Over the last 20 years, Haiti has survived many natural disasters. In November 1994, Hurricane Gordon left 2,000 dead; in 1998, Hurricane George left 147 dead and 168,000 victims; in May 2004, the floods caused by several days of rain left more than 3,000 dead, and in September of that same year, Tropical Storm Jeanne left more than 2,000 dead and 30,000 victims. In July of 2005, Hurricane Dennis caused 51 deaths and 1,500 injured. And in 2008, numerous tropical storms left over 1,000 dead, and thousands who were never found.

Haitian authorities have decided to rebuild the city in the same place it has always been; millions of tons of rubble will have to be removed before beginning the process of reconstruction – which will result in a long and winding process for hundreds and thousands of Haitian families. There is still much to be seen in Haiti – the years to come will write its final history.

Update on Honduras

2010-02-10T06:37:00.000-08:00

It now appears that no action will be taken to hold those responsible for the June coup in Honduras accountable either for their actions in deposing a democratically elected president or for the large number of documented human rights abuses which took place during the period of the de facto government which ruled the country until elections last November.

Former president, Manuel Zelaya, and his family are now living in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. One of his successor’s first acts was to accompany him from the Brazilian embassy (where he had been secluded for four months) to the airport for the flight that would carry him into exile in the Caribbean nation.

The new president, Porfirio Lobo, is now faced with the challenge of having his election ratified by the rest of the world. Although Canada and the United States have accepted the election results of last November, many other nations still do not on the grounds that an election carried out under an unlawful regime cannot be accepted as legitimate.

It is not just a matter of his personal status that is of concern to Lobo. He also needs the global community to accept his government so that the flow of both international aid and tourism will resume. The plight of Honduras has, of course, been eclipsed by the situation in Haiti; however, Honduras remains one of the poorest nations in the Western Hemisphere and remains in desperate need of assistance from more developed nations. As for tourism, although a travel advisory warning Canadians not to visit Honduras has been lifted, the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade still notes that “Travelers should exercise a high degree of caution in Honduras due to an increase in violent crime as well as recent political unrest.”

Throughout the period between the coup and the election, Lobo tried to distance himself from the coup. Now he is positioning himself to be seen as a reconciling force in the country. His new cabinet has members from other political parties in addition to members from his own National Party. Two of the cabinet members are supporters of Zelaya. He has also welcomed representatives from the Organization of American States [OAS] who will oversee a “truth commission” to gather information about the coup and its aftermath.

The population still remains polarized between those who supported Zelaya and those who supported the coup. That polarization reflects an economic divide in the country. Although a member of the traditional elite ruling class, Zelaya had shown liberal tendencies in the later years of his presidency and came to be seen as working to improve conditions for the poor. He put an end to school tuition fees, raised the minimum wage, and provided women access to previously prohibited birth-control methods. His opponents, on the other hand, portrayed him as a dangerous socialist seeking to position himself as a dictator.

In addition to those who actually supported Zelaya there is also a substantial portion of the population who remain angered that the military was able to remove him from office in the first coup to occur in Central America since the end of the cold war.

The Honduran Supreme Court, which was appointed by a panel made up of members of the traditional ruling parties, has exonerated the members of the de facto government and of the military for their involvement in the coup. This amnesty in itself demonstrates to many Hondurans the need for significant social change in their country.

A Report from the YMCA of Haiti

2010-02-04T10:42:00.000-08:00

[The report comes from the Executive Director of the Haitian YMCA - Gwenael Apollon; I have edited it for purposes of clarity. - RBM]

Context

Twenty days after the tragedy, the overall situation in Haiti remains chaotic for the poorest. The earth has not shaken for the last two days. Everybody sleeps, eats, and does everything else outside. Those who are fortunate sleep in their yard or in their friends’ yard; they live uncomfortably but decency. Others survive in the streets, parks, and every other open space. The migration movement is estimated at 1.5 million of which 1.2 million have gone from Port-au-Prince to other cities within Haiti and the remaining 300,000 have left the country. Food is starting to be rare and expensive in small regions that have no capacity to absorb this large migrant population. I just witnessed this in Camp-Perrin. The social fabric is changing right before my eyes, so will the security of many areas previously considered to be safe even in times of trouble. 4600 prisoners have escaped from the national prison in Port-au-Prince. Nevertheless, right now I observe a general calm and an attitude of resignation: people are mourning and some continue to bury their dead, while many, almost like zombies, give the impression of sleep-walking. However, I am unable to stop thinking of the moment when people will awaken after mourning, and I do not feel comfortable, knowing that at any time situations in my country can change, and this can happen violently! I predict serious troubles and a grave time ahead. This feeling is so strong, that I can almost touch it.

The Situation of the YMCA in Haiti

This two-day journey to Camp-Perrin was a blessing. The village is 99% intact, even if people are crowded in their shacks. I think its distance from the epicenter and the nature of the soil which is rocky as well as the abundance of vegetation [which prevents erosion] helped, as well as the small residential constructions rather than larger heavy ones.

I distributed 50 boxes of food (from the load received from the YMCA of the Dominican Republic YMCA) to staff and members there and this went well. However, I was happily surprised to witness the progress the Y Youth Center has made. I knew they had recently moved to a bigger place, which the National Office supported, and which I had seen pictures of, but I did not know that it was so well designed. The youth also impressed me with the healing show they put together to honor my presence and that of Ery Saint Germain. The later is an influential community member who supports the YMCA. One of the performers in the show was a student who survived the collapse of the University where he was studying in Port-au-Prince. He recited a 10 minute poem he had written on the occasion without hesitation, with proper grammar and syntax while alternating Creole, French and English.

While I was in Camp-Perrin making this long overdue assessment and visiting YMCA staff and volunteers, I received copies of numerous reports of the work which my good friend Roger Hawkins is doing for the YMCA of Haiti and the Haitian people in obtaining tents.

As general Secretary of YMCA of Haiti, I think the YMCA in its entirety must use all resources and funds collected around this tragedy to help Haitian people while strengthening the YMCA in Haiti. Know that I will be fighting with all my energy to prevent the YMCA being seen, like many organizations, as one which steps in with expedient remedy and then leaves to address the next tragedy with no concrete actions left behind.

In Port-au-Prince, what is left of our Office and main Youth Center remains under debris twenty days after the event. This is not a good image for the community, after all we have done to keep it up since 2001 and especially since our last distribution of food and toiletry items on Sunday January, 24th, 2010. One of the objectives was to start the process of moving out today. I sent to all and especially to members of the Haiti support group a plan and a budget to this effect. That document (entitled “YMCA Haiti Action Plan”) detailed few actions that the YMCA of Haiti should undertake in the short term in order to be able to operate and answer calls for actions.

I have written to Oxfam Quebec-Haiti, asking for a station to work from. I am also constantly on the phone with other NGOs for same. As I am anxiously waiting for their response, the YMCA Haiti is in no longer able to respond to its employees and youth members and carry out its core obligations and responsibilities. The YMCA of Haiti exists because I am putting all my personal resources in it.

Conclusion

I thank you for the notes, e-mail copies and conference calls that I allow me to participate in this great endeavor of a large organization coming together to rescue one of its smallest members in despair. I also acknowledge and thank immensely all friends outside the YMCA family for their help, support, prayers and wishes.

Porfirio Lobo Inaugurated in Honduras

2010-01-28T11:19:00.000-08:00

Porfirio (“Pepe”) Lobo became President of Honduras on Wednesday of this week. As soon as he was inaugurated, he signed a decree declaring an amnesty for all parties involved in the military coup which removed his predecessor, Manuel Zelaya, from office last June. Lobo had said that his next act as president would be to accompany Zelaya from the Brazilian embassy, where he had been residing, to the airport for a flight to the Dominican Republic where he is to move, at the invitation of Dominican President, Lionel Fernandez.

Lobo is a member of the conservative National Party. It was the National Party, under President Ricardo Maduro, which had taken an aggressive law and order stance at the turn of the century, resulting in the extra-judicial executions of large numbers of young people suspected of gang involvement or criminal activity.

In response to the street executions of young people, the Honduran YMCA, along with the British Save the Children Program, worked to have legislation passed in Honduras guaranteeing the protection of the human rights of youth. That legislation was passed during Zelaya’s term of office. Lobo is known to be a strong law and order advocate and has suggested that Honduras should return to the use of the death penalty.

To ease Lobo’s transition to the presidency, the National Congress issued amnesties not only for Zelaya but also for the military officials whose actions constituted the coup which removed him from office. The Supreme Court had also asserted that charges brought against the military officials involved in the coup held no merit.

The president of the de facto government which ruled after the coup, Roberto Micheletti, did not attend Lobo’s inauguration ceremony, claiming his health did not permit it. Micheletti and his family are also protected under the terms of the amnesty.

While most international governments have now accepted Lobo’s election, a few nations – notably Brazil and Venezuela – still do not on the grounds that doing so would amount to legitimizing the coup.

US officials have stated that the Honduran people have a right to elect their government and therefore accept the election results. There are still questions about the actual percentage of individuals who took part in the elections. The Honduran government officials claim that more than 80% of the electorate took part. Grassroots organizations believe a much smaller number of persons – as little as 22% of the electorate – voted.

The President of El Salvador did not attend Lobo’s inauguration because technically Micheletti was still president, and El Salvador did not recognize the validity of the de facto government. However, El Salvador has announced it will normalize relations with Honduras now that Lobo is in office.

Within Honduras, there remains disagreement about the amnesties for Micheletti and the military figures involved in the coup. While there people who see this as an opportunity to move past the events of the last six months, many others object that the perpetrators of the coup have gotten away with criminal behavior, not only in carrying out the coup but also the many human rights abuses (assaults, sexual assaults, destruction of property, rape, and homicide) which occurred in the period following the coup.

A Honduran Perspective on Elections in that Country

2010-01-18T05:14:00.000-08:00

The author of this piece is a former General Secretary of the Honduran YMCA [ACJ]. He sent this letter, dated December 30, 2009, to various members of the International YMCA Community.

My thanks to Tania Sanchez for her assistance in translating it:

As you all know, 2009 was a critical year in Honduras. One event during the crisis was the elections for the president, members of congress, and municipal mayors. I have been asked for my opinion concerning developments in the country and in reply, I have written this article in which I express my view about many of the events which contributed to this national crisis. I also give my opinion about the elections of November 27, because there are some who believe these have been or will be the solution to the national problem.

I must tell you that the article does not intend to provide solutions to the current situation; that is an issue I will leave aside for another time.

A fraternal hug and best wishes for 2010. A.

"Elections in Honduras: prolongation of the national crisis"

The groups responsible for the coup in Honduras gambled that supporting the elections was the best and only way of resolving the problems which had arisen since June 28. Elections were held, but is the national problem resolved? Obviously not. Elections in Honduras were held, but the crisis continues. Instead of the elections resolving the crisis; the crisis continued throughout the elections. Why did the election fail to resolve but rather prolonged this crisis?

A member of the traditional elite class [Porfirio Lobo] from the most conservative party in the country has become President of the Republic (actually no one knows if it is most conservative because all of them are…!). Although possibly in the political imagination of Lobo, governing Honduras means to face the scourge of poverty, this will not be done from a structural perspective. Tackling the causes of social, economic and legal inequality will be postponed. The coup provides Señor Lobo a lesson in governance: in Honduras any hint of significant structural change will not be allowed. Therefore the elections in Honduras will prolong the system of inequality and poverty. Honduras with its "authorities" will aim to establish a compensatory type of Government (we can only hope that they will at least do it well). They will address poverty and inequality only superficially.

What those who in power have to learn to do is to acknowledge "the other". The elections have exacerbated the existence of the two Hondurases: that of the "well off" (for some actually, for others only apparently) and that of the "bitter", "anti-social", "the ‘wall writers’", "vandals" (so viewed by the participants in the coup). To the discomfort of those in power, this second sector is already considered by social analysts in the country as an expression of social movements throughout Honduras. The "winners" of the elections (not only Porfirio Lobo and his party, but the five traditional parties and their members) seem unaware of the importance of this social movement and have shown no signs of entering either an honest or dishonest dialog with them. On the contrary, they are entirely unfamiliar with this other Honduras. This will result in serious governance problems in the country. The total ignorance "of the other" which leads to high levels of poor governance also produces high levels of marginalization, destruction, and repression. The greatest effect of ignorance of the "other" is one’s own destruction.

Honduras, after the elections, must now direct much of its energy to convincing the world of the need for the country to be accepted in all international scenarios. This implies that the Honduras’ foreign policy will not be focused on bringing the country into the global community in a proactive way; instead it must struggle to be accepted internationally.

The electoral democratic system in Honduras, from a perspective of institutional credibility, collective confidence, and the fight against corruption, continues to be suspect. A detailed review of voter behavior and their low levels of participation over the last 24 years (1981-2005) demonstrates that increasingly more Hondurans no longer believe in the tool of liberal, indirect and representative democracy. We moved from a level of 21% non-participation in 1981 to almost 50% in 2005 (according to my findings in the official databases, the presidential nonparticipation rate reached 55 %). In general, as a country, we have been walking away from the ballot box to electoral indifference for the simple reason that elections have not addressed the major national problems. Increasingly the political system has lost its credibility. Favoritism, opportunism and other corruptions have replaced civic duty. In general youth and other citizens do not see in the political parties a real alternative to their expectations. However, the officials asserted that in 2009 the nonparticipation rate was reduced to only 20%. A tremendous success!

However, an analysis of their own data reflects a coarse manipulation of statistical information. They have made data collection not an exercise of information for the citizens and the international community, but as a means of promoting a media propaganda campaign in order to appear as the big winners. It is clear that for the powerful sectors, the great enemy in this process were not their opponents in the other political parties, since in the end, they are indistinguishable (by the way this is one of great learnings of this conflict, that now many more Hondurans see this clearly); their real enemy were the factors which resisted the coup, advocating a civic and dignified nonparticipation.

The most complex issue is that it is quite unlikely that 2.1 million Hondurans actually voted. It is possible but very unlikely. An indication of how unlikely is that to have accommodated that many people, they would have had to vote every 4.2 minutes without stopping in every polling station in the country, without exception. This from 7: 00 a.m. to 5 p.m. without any rest or interruption. We must keep in mind that in Honduras there are three elections: one for the president, one for members of congress, and one for local mayor. And each vote requires a separate ballot. In the case of the members of the congress, the ballot presents all the candidates. The fact is that voting in Honduras (depending on the degree of security during the elections, the voter’s schooling and physical health) is not a quick exercise.

But what makes it even more unlikely is that there was no security nor a collective mood for the elections in Honduras. Although it is true that a lot of people exercised their right to vote, it is also true that many people did not. The opposition sectors to the coup d ' état claim, according to their information, that the percentage of nonparticipation in Honduras actually ranged between 60% and 65%.

What the powerful sectors and the coup leaders in Honduras present as a counter argument to what I have said above is that Hondurans turned out to vote in numbers because their democracy was threatened. It was, they claim, a vote against the resistance to the coup and its actions, against Hugo Chávez and 21st century socialism. They argue that we Hondurans have demonstrated to the world our love and deep attachment to our current political system. They claim that Hondurans never before had felt so threatened, hence we voted in large numbers.

The truth of this situation is that there are two diametrically opposite and irreconcilable versions about what happened during the last elections. This contradiction is not simple, and bearing in mind that in a real democracy the winners and the defeated come together in reconciliation, Honduras now has a major democratic problem. This is why I said at the beginning, that these elections did not resolve but instead intensified the national problem.

In conclusion, the elections in Honduras will not help to solve the problems of poverty and inequality in Honduras. Nor will they contribute to the establishment of a real democracy, where dissent is recognized a necessary element. This does not put us in the best position in the international arena and will only increase suspicion our democratic system.

The Situation in Honduras

2010-01-11T07:00:00.000-08:00

Porfirio Lobo is scheduled to be inaugurated President of Honduras on January 27. The validity of his election, however, is still be questioned by many nations as well as human rights groups. Now the de facto government of Roberto Micheletti (which came to power after the sitting president, Manuel Zelaya, was removed by a military coup in June) is taking steps to try to legitimize the results of last November’s election and Lobo’s administration.

Legal steps have been taken to charge the perpetrators of the June 28th coup with “abuse of power.” The charge was issued by the Honduran Attorney General, but the Supreme Court must agree to the charges before they proceed. Since the Court backed the coup, this seems unlikely.

The charges are not related to the coup itself, which the Attorney General maintains was legitimate and necessary. Rather the charges relate to the fact that President Manuel Zelaya was exiled. It was in forcing Zelaya to go to Costa Rica, the charge state, that the military exceeded their authority.

Zelaya’s response to this new situation were published in the Christian Science Monitor: "Today, using a new stratagem, the attorney general who has equal or more responsibility as the soldiers, is presenting accusations . . . to achieve impunity for the soldiers by accusing them of minor crimes.”

Micheletti, meanwhile, has gone on record to claim that his life is in jeopardy. He has stated that he believes Hugo Chavez of Venezuela is behind a plot to assassinate Michelette once his term in office expires. Micheletti has been under pressure from the international community to step down before Lobo’s inauguration in order to allow Zelaya to complete his term before the new administration takes office. Micheletti has refused to do so, and Zelaya remains in sanctuary in the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa.

Meanwhile there is continued evidence of on-going abuses of power in Honduras. Several people have forwarded an article to me by Joseph Shansky, which can be found at:

http://j-shansky.net/2010/01/01/killing-activists-in-honduras-2/

Shansky reports on the increase in killings occurring in the country. The targets of these executions, he writes, include: “Members of the Popular Resistance against the coup. Their friends and family. People who provide the Resistance with food and shelter. Teachers, students, and ordinary citizens who simply recognize the fallacy of an un-elected regime taking over their country. All associated with the Resistance have faced constant and growing repercussions for their courage in protesting the coup.”

Shansky records the details of specific killings in his article and goes on to note: “In this climate of fierce repression, citizens can no longer depend on authorities for the most basic protective rights, and those fearful for their lives cannot report to the police. Complaints they file, such as those of Santos and Walter, could soon become signatures to their own death letters. Many believe with good reason that the killings are state-sponsored. At the very least, they are the result of new conditions which allow for the widespread deterioration of state protection.”

Porfirio Lobo Faces Challenges

2009-12-21T06:50:00.000-08:00

The president-elect of Honduras, Porfirio (“Pepe”) Lobo, is faced with a number of challenges he must address before taking office. Chief among these is the fact that many countries still refuse to recognize the validity of the election he won because it was held under the auspices of a de facto government which had taken control of the country after a military coup in June ousted the then sitting president, Manuel Zelaya.

There were no external observers present for the election which is estimated to have only drawn 30% of eligible voters.

Since the election, Lobo has visited other countries in the region trying to win their approval of the election results. However, members of SICA (the Central American Parliament or Sistema de la Integración Centroamericana) as well the members of the regional trading block continue to insist that Zelaya be returned to office to complete his elected term before Lobo is inaugurated next month.

On December 2nd, the Honduras congress voted not to return Zelaya to office, and the de facto president, Roberto Micheletti, has stated that he will not step down until Lobo takes office.

The Honduran Congress has charged Zelaya with treason for trying to begin a process which would have allowed for constitutional change in that country. If he leaves the Brazilian embassy where he has taken asylum, he could be arrested and tried on those grounds. Micheletti has also raised an alarm that if Zelaya were allowed to leave the country, he may try to mount an armed invasion of Honduras. The possibility of such an invasion is unlikely, and the charge has been raised to justify not offering Zelaya amnesty.

Until the political situation is resolved, international aid to Honduras remains in jeopardy. Recognizing the difficulties he will inherit when he assumes office, Lobo has expressed his opinion that Micheletti should resign and has expressed a willingness to meet with Zelaya. Lobo has also called upon Micheletti to allow Zelaya to leave the Brazilian embassy without danger of arrest. Lobo has also discussed an amnesty for all individuals involved in the June 28th coup.

Meanwhile there has been a report on the Honduran news network, El Libertador, which suggests that old-style death squads which had once been common in the country, may once more active. The report states that on the evening of Sunday, December 6, individuals in a white vehicle without license plates opened fire on five persons who were associated with the popular resistance against the de facto government which came into power after the coup.

“José Luna, a sub-inspector of the Preventative Policía responded to questions about the killings by saying ‘Whenever there are murders, there are people who say the victims were good people.’ He added that the police are tracking those responsible for the massacre. So far, however, they have not been able to locate the vehicle described in the incident.

“During the last few weeks, double cabin pick-ups with no plates have taken on the task of intimidating members of the Popular Resistance Against the Coup d'etat. Reporters of this publication have also complained of being followed and observed by vehicles with similar characteristics, and human rights organizations are also been aware of such anomalies.”

A Spanish language report on the events can be found at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNNbzYQdhsA&feature=player_embedded

Coffee Advertising

2009-12-14T04:55:00.000-08:00

A recent advertisement for a Canadian coffee chain touts the benefits of a foundation it has created for the purpose of improving coffee production. It asserts that it will help coffee producers become better businessmen and implies that its efforts will improve the quality of life of those producers. The advertisement is careful not to use the term “fair trade” nor does it speak directly about improving the income of coffee producers.

The “Fair Trade” movement began in the 1960s, when a number of NGOs, concerned about inequities in global trading relationships, developed the concept of an “Alternative Trade Movement.” Their hope was that this movement would help balance the terms of trade between wealthy and poorer countries. The idea was based on a handful of early experiments, such as the work of the Mennonite Central Committee in the United States which first imported needlework from Puerto Rico in 1946. This eventually led to the development of the chain of SelfHelp stores, later known as “10,000 Villages.”

The approach taken by these pioneers was to reduce the number of links in the distribution chain. By doing so, the primary producers received a fairer share of the market value of their products. The goal of the Alternative Trade Movement was to treat artisans and farmers in developing countries as equal partners able to set their own prices at what they considered a fair exchange for their labor within the context of the local economy. Alternative Trade Suppliers tended to be collectives which were organized to insure that primary producers benefited directly and fairly from their work.

As the Alternative Trade Movement gained momentum, the idea of a set of “fair trade” principles evolved. While there is still no universally accepted set of guidelines, in general these guidelines ensure that:

• Primary producers receive a fair wage in terms of the local economy;
• Revenues are distributed equitably among members of cooperatives and other collectives;
• Commodity products are guaranteed a minimum price regardless of world market prices;
• Workers are involved in the decision making processes and leadership positions of their cooperatives and organizations and have the right to collective bargaining;
• Exploitive child labour is prohibited;
• Working conditions comply with International Labour Organization [ILO] guidelines;
• Raw materials are gathered in environmentally sustainable manner;
• Operations are open to public accountability and monitored by independent local bodies;
• In some cases, a “social premium” is paid from revenues to local cooperatives or NGOs for community and collective projects;
• In order to ensure stability, contracts are long term trade relationships between Alternative Trading Organizations.

The flagship of the Fair Trade movement has been coffee. A well organized information campaign has helped consumers understand the benefit of supporting Fair Trade coffee production. Fair Trade also tends to produce a better product.

The idea of Fair Trade coffee has become so mainstream that it is now good marketing for coffee companies to align their products with the Fair Trade movement even when their products do not meet Fair Trade requirements. Improving the quality of coffee or teaching farmers better business practices do not, in themselves, constitute Fair Trade.

When a coffee advertisement talks about the benefits of their programs but does not actually use the term “Fair Trade,” the chances are the product is not Fair Trade.

Conflicting Reactions to Honduran Election

2009-12-08T09:42:00.000-08:00

The validity of the election of Porfirio Lobo as president of Honduras is still being questioned by the governments of certain Latin American nations. Brazil has announced that they believe it inappropriate to recognize the results of an election held by an “illegitimate government.” They were referring to the government which was established after President Manuel Zelaya was put out of office by a military coup on June 28. Zelaya was exiled to Costa Rica by the military but managed to return to Honduras secretly and has taken sanctuary in the Brazilian embassy.

Following Lobo’s election, the Honduran congress voted not to return Zelaya to office for the remaining days of his term. The protests which had been occurring almost daily since the coup have largely come to an end. It is now incumbent upon the president-elect to begin a healing process in his country. Lobo has promised this would be one his priorities once he is inaugurated in January.

Lobo inherits a volatile situation. Honduras has been ostracized by much of the international community. Aid payments have been suspended, and the country has lost its place in the Organization of American States.

Zelaya, meanwhile, remains in residence in the Brazilian embassy and has stated that he will continue there as long as the government of Brazil permits him. He has also expressed a willingness to meet with Lobo.

The United States, which had earlier made Zelaya’s return to office a condition before they would recognize the election results, have reversed that decision. However, while they have recognized Lobo’s election, the US State Department has also issued a statement to the effect that the election itself was not a “sufficient step” in the restoration of democracy in Honduras.

In addition to questions about the legitimacy of the electoral process, human rights agencies are concerned about the many violations of rights for which the post-coup government was responsible. Javier Zúñiga of Amnesty International, for example, reported: “There are dozens of people in Honduras still suffering the effects of the abuses carried out in the past five months. Failure to punish those responsible and to fix the malfunctioning system would open the door for more abuses in the future.”

Amnesty International has documented arbitrary arrests of demonstrators by police and military, indiscriminate and unnecessary use of tear gas, ill treatment of detainees in custody at times resulting in death, violence against women, harassment of activists, journalists, lawyers and judges, excessive use of force, arbitrary arrests and illegal raids.

However, Canadian Minister of State, Peter Kent, stated that “we are encouraged by reports from civil society organizations that there was a strong turnout for the elections, that they appear to have been run freely and fairly, and that there was no major violence." A number of human rights workers from Canada, including members of the British Columbia Teachers' Federation and the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation, dispute Kent’s statement.

In a report they released on December 3rd, Irene Lanzinger (President of the BC Teacher’s Federation) reported: "‘We witnessed tear gas used on peaceful protesters, citizens being chased through the streets by police in riot gear. . . . ’ Delegates photographed protestors who had been beaten by police. ‘While standing peacefully outside of our hotel [in San Pedro Sula] we were also tear-gassed by the police’ said Lanzinger.

“The delegation also witnessed strong military and police presence inside of polling stations, unmarked cars patrolling the streets in the days leading up to the elections, and several raids and detentions. ‘These events contributed to a climate of fear in which citizens did not feel free to participate in the elections, contrary to Mr. Kent’s report,’ said Jackie McVicar, member of the Atlantic Region Solidarity Network.”

As a result of their observations, the Canadian delegation has expressed disappointment with Kent’s statement and has asked him to identify which “civil society organizations” he was referring to.

Honduran Congress Votes Against Zelaya

2009-12-03T06:08:00.000-08:00

Yesterday (December 2nd) the Honduran Congress voted 111 to 14 against reinstating ousted President Manuel Zelaya. Reinstatement of Zelaya had been a condition many other nations had demanded before they would recognize the validity of the November 29th presidential election won by Porfirio Lobo of the conservative National Party.

The vote was held as part of an agreement brokered by the US in an effort to resolve the political crisis in Honduras that followed the June 28th military coup which removed Zelaya from office. The coup perpetrators claimed Zelaya was attempting to change the country’s constitution in order to extend his term as president. In fact, Zelaya was only holding a citizen survey to determine if there were public support for a future referendum question on the constitution.

When Lobo was asked whether he felt Zelaya should be returned to complete the few remaining weeks of his elected term, the president-elect avoided the issue by saying it was a matter for Congress to decide. However, he would have been confident that it would be difficult for Congress to vote other than they did. To have done so would have be an admission on their part that the coup they had supported was illegal.

Meanwhile human rights workers and observers who had gone to Honduras to scrutinize the elections now report having seen “the fear, repression, intimidation, bribery and outright brutality of the government security forces” [Lisa Sullivan of School of Americas Watch]. In San Pedro Sula, for example, a peaceful demonstration on election day was disrupted by police using water trucks and tear gas.

Since the coup of June 28th there has been a brutal crack down on human rights and civil liberties in Honduras. Just prior to the election, police invaded the homes of several individuals thought to be supporters of Zelaya. Human rights workers worried that these tactics would discourage people from participating in the election. Zelaya called upon his supporters to boycott the election.

Media sources in Honduras stated that 60% of eligible voters cast ballots in the election. Foreign observers, on the other hand, reported empty polling stations and, in poorer areas of the country, turn-outs of only 25%.

While the Honduran Congress and President-elect are hoping that as a result of the November 29th election the world will believe that democracy has returned to the Central American nation, critics continue to question the validity of that election. People like Lisa Sullivan worry that Honduras may return to conditions it had been hoped were a thing of the past: “--fear and repression and deaths and disappearances. We know the litany all too well. . . . ”

Prior to the election most countries, including the United States, had stated that they would not be able to give credit to elections held by a de facto government installed by a military coup. However, in the weeks immediately prior to the election, the US modified its stance, claiming it would be inappropriate to deprive Hondurans of the right to vote for their new president. A number of Latin American nations, led by Brazil, however, still refuse to recognize the new government.

While most European nations chose to recognize the election results, they also continued to call for a reconciliation of the parties in Honduras before aid transfers will be resumed.

Porfirio Lobo Elected in Honduras

2009-11-30T09:22:00.000-08:00

As expected, National Party candidate Porfirio (“Pepe”) Lobo won the presidential election in Honduras, claiming 56% of the votes cast. The new president is scheduled to take office January 27. Until that time, the country’s leadership remains in turmoil. The previously elected president, Manuel Zelaya, had been removed from office by a military coup on June 28. In the interim, the de facto president has been Liberal Party member, Roberto Micheletti. Micheletti stepped down as president for a week during the election in order to try to win international support for the election process in Honduras.

Initially many nations had expressed their intention not to recognize the election results if Zelaya were not first returned to office. However, after the situation in the country remained unresolved, the United States and some other nations have softened their original stand, now asserting that it is important to respect the democratic wishes of the Honduran population. Canada has not yet announced whether it will recognize the election results, but a coalition of human rights groups, faith communities, and NGOs have petitioned the Canadian government not to do so.

“The June coup d’état in Honduras—which overthrew a legitimately elected President—represents the most serious crisis in recent years for democratic governance in the hemisphere,” said Gerry Barr, President CEO of the Canadian Council for International Cooperation (CCIC). “In the short term, Canada must call unequivocally for a return to constitutional order, and back up this position with sanctions. In the longer term, Canada must stay the course to strengthen forces for democracy in the country, particularly the critical role played by civil society organizations and human rights groups.”

Many Latin American nations, led by Brazil, have stated that they will not recognize the election results arguing that to do so would legitimize the coup, which was the first in Central America in 21 years.

The Honduran Congress is voting tomorrow (Tuesday, December 1) on whether Zelaya should be returned to office to serve out the remainder of his term before Lobo is inaugurated. If they vote to do so, it will amount to an admission that the coup had been illegal.

Lobo, like Zelaya, is a member of the elite ruling families who have governed Honduras since it achieved independence. He has been married three times and has eleven recognized children. Lobo did not take personally take part in the events which led to the coup, however his party did vote to ratify the coup. The National Party is a conservative party, and Lobo is expected to follow the tough law-and-order example provided by the last National Party President, Ricardo Maduro, whose commitment to reducing crime in the country resulted in police and military squads executing young people on the streets who were expected of gang activity. It was that activity which led to the work of the Honduran YMCA in successfully lobbying to have a law passed in the country which recognized the human rights of children and youth.

In his victory address, Lobo pledged to work to unify the country which has been torn apart by the coup. He also hinted that criminal charges levied against Zelaya by the congress would be rescinded.

Although Zelaya’s supporters had called for a boycott of the elections, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal claims 61% of registered voters cast ballots. Zelaya’s supporters claim only 35% of registered voters cast ballots. The United Nations did not send electoral observers, so there has been no external estimate of the percentage of voters who took part in the election. However, reporters from European media suggested that voter turn-out was low in poorer parts of the country and high in the wealthier areas, where Zelaya’s strongest opponents were based.

Security forces used batons and tear gas to break up a demonstration on Sunday in the industrial center of the nation, San Pedro Sula. Also just before the election, police raided the offices of several pro-Zelaya organizations claiming they were looking for evidence that these groups intended to attack polling centers.

YMCA Peace Medallion

2009-11-23T04:25:00.000-08:00

As YMCA Peace Week for 2009 begins, I would like to recognize the contribution that a Fredericton YMCA volunteer, Carole Cronkhite, has made to national Peace Week observances in Canada.

The focus of Peace Week for many years now has been the presentation, in local communities of the YMCA Peace Medallion. Although I was the person to suggest awarding such a medallion, I recognize that ideas such as this do not arise in a vacuum.

There were four other people present at the 1987 meeting at which I put forward the idea: Bob Vokey (from Y Canada), May Khoury [now Whalen] who was the chair of the Fredericton YMCA’s volunteer International Committee, Carole, and Lucie El-Khoury, a friend of May’s, but no relation.

The original request from YMCA Canada had been that the International Committee of the Fredericton Y design a poster for Peace Week and develop a couple of activity suggestions. Lucie and Carole were both artists, Lucie specialized in visual arts, and it was her magnificent paper sculpture of a dove alighting on the globe that we would use as the basis of that year’s poster. Carole is Canada’s first fully trained female pewtersmith.

The idea of the medallion arose after Bob talked about the general malaise with regard to international development that was affecting not only the Y but most other international NGOs as well. The point he reiterated several times was that people felt disempowered; they felt that individual effort was neither effective nor desired.

As I listened to him, I thought of an elderly couple in New Brunswick, Jim and Kay Bedell, who had walked from the province to a Disarmament Conference at the United Nations in order to draw attention to an issue they felt was important. [For the whole story, see the Fredericton YMCA webstie; follow the links to Peace Week.]

I made the suggestion of instituting an award which would recognize people such as the Bedells. Looking back, I think one reason I specifically suggested a medallion was because Carole was at the meeting, because I knew that with her assistance we would be able to produce the medallions.

Carole used Lucie’s design as the model for the image on the medallion, and since that first year, every YMCA peace medallion awarded in Canada, the United States, or Mexico has been hand-made by Carole.

Overtime, both Carole and I have watched with pride as the Peace Medallion became a more and more important element in Canadian YMCA Culture. The medallion, for example, was featured in the national poster designed to celebrate the 150th anniversary of YMCA activity in Canada.

However, as is natural with such things, the medallion and its place within the YMCA has evolved. It is very much a national activity now, and my contribution to it has been negligible. This year marks the 25th anniversary of the celebration of Peace Week in Canada, and YMCA Canada is talking about “rebranding” the medallion. This may mean that Carole’s hand-made medallions will be a thing of the past. I think that would be a shame.

But whatever happens, I hope Carole will always take pride in the contribution she has made to the national movement for the past 22 years.

Honduran Congress to Vote on Zelaya's Return December 2

2009-11-19T06:18:00.001-08:00

One of the elements in the agreement which had supposedly been reached between the opposing parties in the current situation in Honduras was that the national congress would vote on whether or not to return ousted president Manuel (“Mel”) Zelaya to his office. The Congress, which had backed the coup which deposed Zelaya and declared Roberto Micheletti president in his stead, has now announced that the vote will take place on December 2nd. This is three days after the National Presidential Elections scheduled for Sunday, November 29.

Zelaya, who has taken refuge in the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa, has expressed the opinion that the Congress has no intention of reinstating him. To do so would amount, on their part, to an admission that the coup of June 28th was illegal.

Zelaya and Micheletti are members of the Liberal Party, whose candidate for president (Elvin Santos) is believed to be trailing in the polls to National Party candidate, Porfirio (“Pepe”) Lobo. Zelaya has said that he is now waiting for the results of the election and will see whether the results will help him return to office for the last few weeks before the new president is inaugurated in January.

Meanwhile, US State Department officials seem to be moderating their stand on the coup. Previously the Obama government had declared that they would not consider the results of the election valid unless Zelaya were first returned to office. Now the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affiars, Craig Kelly, has said: “Nobody has the right to remove the right of voting from the Honduran people and their right to choose their leaders.”

The coup which removed Zelaya from office has been condemned by governments around the world; Honduras was expelled from the Organization of America States as a result of the coup. IMF loans have been frozen; bi-lateral aid programs have been suspended. The Honduran population has actively and vociferously demonstrated against the coup. Still the Micheletti government remains intransigent.

The government has had to respond with force to the public protests, and reports of the excesses used by army and police officials have been chilling. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has documented violations of human rights and civil liberties, including the excessive use of force against demonstrators, torture, sexual harassment, rape and abuse of men, unlawful detention, physical assaults, and death threats against journalists who have raised questions about the coup. Media outlets critical of the de facto government have been forced to close.

A Honduran Human Rights organization working with the families of detained or “disappeared” individuals recorded 21 extrajudicial executions in the period between June 28 and last August. In addition, they identified 3,033 arbitrary detentions for the same period, as well as 818 beatings.

The popular resistance to the coup in Honduras includes people who both support and do not support Zelaya as an individual; however, the public is unified in its opposition to the coup. It is universally believed that changes of government brought about by the intervention of the military are unacceptable.

Honduras Sitatuaton Remain Unresolved

2009-11-16T03:44:00.000-08:00

The Honduran elections are less than two weeks away, and the crisis over the presidency of the country still hasn’t been resolved. Nor is it clear whether the international community will recognize the validity of those election results.

Last week, in an attempt to resolve the crisis, representatives from Chile and the United States met with both sides of the dispute—ousted president Manuel Zelaya and Roberto Micheletti who had been selected to act as president after the June 28th coup which removed Zelaya from office. Through their efforts, an apparent agreement had been worked out. But no sooner had that agreement been signed, than both sides issued conflicting interpretations of its terms. Last week, United States Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Craig Kelly, flew to Tegucigalpa to try to save the agreement. Kelly returned the US on Wednesday without having succeeded.

Zelaya has now written a letter to President Barak Obama of the United States in which he declares that he will not support the election scheduled for Sunday, November 29, and that he is asking his supporters to do likewise.

Micheletti meanwhile has dissolved his cabinet in order to prepare for a new “Unity Government” in which he would remain as president. According to Micheletti this fulfills the terms of the agreement. Zelaya disagrees.

The agreement called for the Honduran congress to hold a vote on whether Zelaya should be reinstated as president. The congress has not yet held that vote, claiming it needs a recommendation from the nation’s Supreme Court first. As a consequence of this delay, Zelaya states that the accord has been violated.

The agreement had also called for a national unity government with supporters from both Micheletti’s and Zelaya’s camps (they are both members of the Liberal Party) as well as representatives from the conservative National Party, which is currently ahead in National Polls. This unity government would oversee the election. By paving the way to what she claims will be such a Unity Government, Micheletti’s negotiator, Vilma Morales (who is former president of the Supreme Court), insists that the terms of the agreement have been met. “Un trato es un trato. A deal is a deal,” she announced. “The deal is not broken because one side [Zelaya’s] refused to comply with the terms.”

Morales has asked the international community and, in particular, the Organization of American States and the United States, to fulfill their part of the agreement, wherein they had said they would respect any agreement reached between the parties and recognize the results of the November 29 election.

According to a CNN report, Zelaya stated in his letter to Obama that he will not cooperate with any further attempts to negotiate his return to office, because such attempts have only served to legitimize the coup. In effect, he is claiming that he is the only president of Honduras and that he does not need to be re-instated. “In my position as president elected by the Honduran people,” he wrote, “I reaffirm my decision that from this date forward, no matter what, I will not accept any agreement to return to the presidency.”

No Real Agreement in Honduras Yet

2009-11-09T06:19:00.000-08:00

After pressure was applied by the US government, the two sides in the disputed presidency in Honduras appeared to have come to an agreement last week which it had been hoped would put an end to the political crisis in that country. Manuel (“Mel”) Zelaya was deposed by a coup on June 28, after which Roberto Micheletti was declared president. After being exiled to Costa Rica, Zelaya managed to return to Honduras covertly and has been residing in the Brazilian embassy. In spite of the agreement signed by both Micheletti and Zelaya, Zelaya remains in the Brazilian embassy.

Meanwhile Micheletti has moved unilaterally to form what he calls a “Unity Government,” in which he will remain president. The previous cabinet was dissolved, Micheletti announced, so that a “reconciliation” cabinet could be formed. The new cabinet, which has not yet been named, is to have representation not only from political parties but also from civil society organizations. In this way, Michelette hopes to gain support from the many factions in the country which have protested the coup. Zelaya’s response is that Micheletti, who had not been elected president, does not have the authority to form the new government.

The agreement reached last week had called for the Honduran congress, which had supported the coup, to reverse its position and vote to return Zelaya to the presidency for the few remaining weeks remaining in his mandate. In exchange, the International Community would recognize the results of the presidential election scheduled for the last Sunday of this month.

There has been persistent public opposition to the coup from the very first, and, in spite of strict measures taken by the Micheletti government, public demonstrations have continued unrelentingly. Not all of the protestors were supporters of Zelaya, but they were united in their opposition to the way in which he had been removed from office. And many were hopeful that Zelaya’s attempt to form a Constituent Assembly to review the country’s constitution—which was the reason for the coup—offered hope that significant social change might occur in Honduras.

Micheletti stated that the decision on whether Zelaya will be returned to office or not should be left to a free vote of the Congress after consultation with the Supreme Court (both institutions had previously ratified the coup). The Congress has delayed making the vote, claiming that they need to review the reports from the Court and other official bodies. Micheletti announced his new Unity Government without waiting the vote.

The majority party in the Congress is the Liberal, which was Zelaya’s party, although after taking office, some of his actions alienated him from the leadership of that party. They are also Micheletti’s party. The primary opposition party is the conservative National Party. In the current election campaign, their presidential candidate, Porfirio (“Pepe”) Lobo leads in opinion polls. Therefore, they have an interest in ensuring that the international community will recognize the results of the November 29 election. On the other hand, they are worried that if the members of Congress vote for Zelaya to return to office they may alienate the business community, one of their primary sources of support.

Lobo was the National Party candidate who ran against Zelaya in the 2005 elections, losing narrowly, in part, because the business community was worried about his previous association with the Honduran Communist Party. But any left-leaning tendencies he may have had in the past seem to have evaporated. In 2005, his campaign maintained the tough law-and-order stance of the previous president, also from the National Party, Ricardo Maduro. Lobo’s campaign had suggested he would take even a stronger stand that Maduro had; he had intended to reinstitute the death penalty, for example.

Lobo received 46% of the popular vote in 2005; Zelaya polled almost 50%.

Coup Legacy

2009-11-05T04:39:00.000-08:00

Regardless of whether Roberto Micheletti’s term as President of Honduras comes to an end by the return of ousted president, Manuel Zelaya, or as a result of the national election, his presidency will go into the history books as one of the shortest in the history of the nation. It will also be a presidency that will have much to account for.

One of the most disturbing aspects of the current situation in Honduras is that it has demonstrated just how easily hard fought for rights can be lost. Micheletti’s de facto government has been criticized by both national governments as well as by relief, development, and human rights organizations for its violation of human rights in that country. A recent Amnesty International bulletin, for example, drew attention to the limitations put on freedom of expression after the government censored three popular programs broadcast by Radio Cadena Voices, a station which provided a vehicle for women and young people in the nation to express their opinions.

The government justified the action by claiming the programs cast discredit on the electoral process. The Presidential election is scheduled for November 29, although much of the international community has stated that the results of that election will be called into question if Zelaya is not returned to office before they take place.

The de facto government currently controls much of the national media, and they have promoted a propaganda campaign which has demonized Zelaya and downplayed the human rights abuses which have occurred. The government also issued a decree in which makes “statements that offend public officials or question government decisions” illegal.

Public demonstrations continued almost without a break since the June 28 coup, and there have been frequent clashes between the demonstrators and the police. National security forces have been accused of a gang rape of a woman in San Pedro Sula during a protest march and other acts of sexual intimidation intended to discourage women from participating in the protests. They have also been suspected of involvement in the death a pro-Zelaya and YMCA volunteer, Pedro Magdiel, near the Nicaraguan border.

Human Rights Watch has issued a statement calling on prosecutors in the human rights unit of the Honduras Attorney General’s office “to investigate army and police abuses in Honduras and to overturn a decree by the de facto government that severely restricts freedoms of speech and assembly.” Human Rights Watch also called upon “the international community to oppose any amnesty for human rights violations as part of the transition back to democratic rule.”

There are prosecutors in Honduras who have attempted to investigate the activities of military forces, but their efforts have been hampered by restraints put upon them by the Office of the Attorney General. A Human Rights Watch release, for example, discusses the investigation of the death of YMCA volunteer killed during the public demonstration on July 6: “. . . prosecutors investigating the death of Isis Obed Murillo . . . say their superiors have asked for a new round of ballistics tests, after the first tests demonstrated that the shots that killed Obed Murillo came from an area on the runway where army troops were stationed. Prosecutors had also found over 150 shell casings matching the type of ammunition that the army used that day. The unit’s findings contradicted not only the army’s claims but also those of the government’s human rights ombudsman, Ramón Custodio, who said the army only used rubber bullets during the demonstration.”

Rifts Already Appearing in Honduran Accord

2009-11-03T04:36:00.000-08:00

On Thursday of last week, the two claimants to the presidency of Honduras, Roberto Micheletti and Manuel (“Mel”) Zelaya, signed an agreement which was promoted as a way to resolve the political crisis in that country. The agreement called for the establishment of a “National Unity” government and a return to a "strengthened democracy” in Honduras. However the agreement is already showing signs of unraveling.

The agreement had stipulated that the Honduran Congress, with the support of the national Supreme Court, would be asked to vote on whether Zelaya should be returned to the post from which he had been removed by the June 28 coup. If those two bodies did vote to do so, it would, in effect, be an admission on their part that they had made an error in previously supporting the coup.

In a report issued by the Americas Policy Group, a telephone conversation with Zelaya is referenced in which he states it is his understanding that the signatories had agreed to request the Supreme Court and Congress to make this admission. Zelaya stated that the Honduran Congress should be asked to reverse the situation, that they should be told: “Sirs, with all respect, return to the State of Law and (abandon) illegality."

The Micheletti government, however, disagrees with that interpretation of the agreement and has announced that it does not intend to make any recommendation to the Congress about how it should vote on the matter of Zelaya’s return to office. Given the virulence with which the government has attacked Zelaya over the last four months, even calling into question his mental health, it is understandable that it would be difficult for them to reverse their previous stands.

Two factors have put pressure on the de facto government to take some kind of action. The first is the persistent public protests of the coup which has provoked Micheletti’s government to impose tight restrictions on the population, including curfews and censorship of media sources which have been critical of the coup. The second, and more powerful, factor was international condemnation of the coup. The United States had revoked the visas of individuals associated with the coup; the Organization of American States unanimously condemned the coup, sanctions have been imposed on the country; and there has been a declaration from the international community that if the situation is not resolved, the national elections scheduled for November 29 will be called into question.

Meanwhile, a committee of international representatives has been established to monitor the steps being taken to form the National Government of Reconciliation called for in the agreement. As reported yesterday, the committee includes representatives from both Chile (former president Ricardo Lagos) and the US (Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, who is the daughter of Nicaraguan and Mexican immigrants to the United States). These two are scheduled to meet with representatives of Micheletti and Zelaya today (November 3). The four committee members will be accompanied by the Secretary of Political Affairs for the Organization of American States, Victor Rico of Bolivia.

Will the “National Reconciliation” in Honduras Bring Genuine Reconciliation?

2009-11-02T10:01:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend, news came from Honduras that an agreement for a “National Unity and Reconciliation Government and the Strengthening of Democrary” was signed by both de fact president, Roberto Micheletti, and deposed president, Manuel (“Mel”) Zelaya. The agreement falls short of being a guarantee that Zelaya will return to office to complete the last few weeks of his presidency, but it does look as if things are moving in that direction.

Representatives from the United States and Chile have been assigned the responsibility of monitoring a power-sharing arrangement brokered by US mediators. The two representatives (former Chilean president, Ricardo Lagos, and US Labor Secretary, Hilda Solis) are scheduled to arrive in Honduras tomorrow (Tuesday the 3rd).

The National Congress still needs to consult with the Supreme Court and then vote on whether or not to restore Zelaya to office. To do so, however, would amount to an admission that the coup of June 28 was illegal. The date for the Supreme Court’s consideration of the matter has not been set.

The de facto government hopes that these steps will be adequate to give legitimacy to the electoral process in the country. National elections are scheduled for the end of this month, and much of the international community has been made it clear that they will not recognize the election results unless the current state of crisis is resolved first.

The events of the last four months have been the result of a sequence of poor judgments. As Honduran writer, Alejandor Fernández, expressed it in an article published in the September issue of “Envio”: “ . . . everyone seems to be wrong. Mel Zelaya was wrong when he thought he could confront the most powerful forces of his own bloodline, counting on the supposed loyalty of the armed forces, whom he pampered to the extreme. The businessmen who backed the coup were wrong when they thought the situation would be worked out in a week. [Roman Catholic] Cardinal Rodríguez was wrong when he calculated that his voice would definitively shift the international community to the side of the coup leaders. Liberal candidate Elvin Santos was wrong when he thought that distancing himself from Zelaya would draw discontented Liberals [Zelaya’s party] to him. The army was wrong when it thought that having the media on its side would lead the population to cheer it, as in years past.” And no one was prepared for the depth of public anger over the coup.

It has largely been because of the daily demonstrations against the coup that the Micheletti government had to take action. But even if Zelaya is returned to office, there are still a number of issues which may not yet be resolved to the satisfaction of the Honduran population:

1) Will the restrictions on freedom of expression be lifted? This is essential as the country enters the last few weeks before National Elections.
2) Can the election be fully democratic? Independent candidate, Carlos Reyes, for example, has not been able to campaign. For a while he had been in hiding because of death threats; then he was injured in one of the public demonstrations and needed to be hospitalized.
3) Will those who abused their authority during the period of the de facto government be held accountable for their actions? This includes the soldiers accused of gang rape and the people responsible for the deaths of individuals like Pedro Magdiel (see posting for October 15).
4) Will steps be taken to revise the constitution? This is the issue which is most important for people in the street. Whether it is a realistic hope or not, the Hondurans hope that a revised constitution would move the country closed to an egalitarian society. Unfortunately, the agreement signed between Zelaya and Micheletti specifically states that no steps will be taken to establish a Constituent Assembly to reform the constitution.