I am posting this video of a discussion by Dr. Paul Farmer and Fr. Gustavo Gutierrez when they launched their book, In The Company Of The Poor, in November, 2013. It is a book I will be reading right away. I invite you to join in the reading.
In The Company Of The Poor the video
In The Company Of The Poor book review
--kjl
Thursday, April 10, 2014
Thursday, March 6, 2014
A SERIOUS DISSENT TO CONSIDER
I want to pass along a three-year old news clipping for your consideration while the echoes of outcry about Crimea's domination by Russia are still reverberating. The instances of the US asserting dominion in and over Haiti in the past 200 years are numerous. As a nation, we have much to answer for both in our attempts to alleviate suffering and to dominate sovereignty in this small country. Is the US and its allies much different than Russia in this regard? Read and think. --kjl
Ricardo Seitenfus: Le système de prévention des litiges dans le cadre du système onusien n’est pas adapté au contexte haïtien. Haïti n’est pas unearticle . . . [continue in English]
Dissent
Al Jezeera
Haiti Libre story
Haiti Libre interview
Wikileaks article Guardian Dec. 2010
entretien Lundi 20 décembre 2010
«Haïti est la preuve de l’échec de l’aide internationale»
- Ricardo Seitenfus: «Pour rester ici, et ne pas être terrassé par ce que je vois, j’ai dû me créer un certain nombre de défenses psychologiques.» (Paolo Woods)
Diplômé de l’Institut de hautes études internationales de Genève, le Brésilien Ricardo Seitenfus a 62 ans. Depuis 2008, il représente l’Organisation des Etats américains en Haïti. Il dresse un véritable réquisitoire contre la présence internationale dans le pays.
Le Temps: Dix mille Casques bleus en Haïti. A votre sens, une présence contre-productive…
Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, Brazilian Ricardo Seitenfus 62. Since 2008, he is the Organization of American States in Haiti. It provides a real indictment against the international presence in the country
Time: Ten thousand peacekeepers Haïti. In your view, a counter-productive presence ...
Ricardo Seitenfus: The system of dispute prevention within the UN system is not adapted to the Haitian context. Haiti is not an international threat. We are not in a situation of civil war. Haiti is not Iraq or Afghanistan. Yet the Security Council, since lack of alternative, imposed peacekeepers since 2004, after the departure of President Aristide.Depuis 1990, we're here at our eighth UN mission. Haiti since 1986 and saw the departure of Jean-Claude Duvalier what I call a low-intensity conflict. We are faced with struggles for power among political actors who do not respect the democratic game. But it seems to me that Haiti, on the international stage, essentially pays for its proximity to the United States. Haiti has been the subject of negative attention from the international system. It was for the UN to freeze the power and transform Haitians into prisoners on their own island. Anxious boat people largely explain the decisions of the international community vis-à-vis Haiti. We want at any price for them to stay home.
- What prevents the normalization from Haiti?
- For two hundred years, the presence of foreign troops has alternated with that of dictators. It is force that defines international relations with Haiti and never dialogue. The original sin of Haiti, on the world stage, is its liberation. Haitians committed the unacceptable in 1804: a crime of lèse-majesté for a troubled world. The West is now a colonialist and racist slave world that bases its wealth on the exploitation of conquered lands. So the Haitian revolutionary model scared the great powers. The United States will recognize the independence of Haiti in 1865. France requires payment of a ransom to accept this reality. From the beginning, independence has compromised and impeded the country's development. The world has never known how to treat Haiti, so it ended up ignoring it. Its revolutionary independence began two hundred years of solitude on the international scene. Today, the UN blindly applies Chapter 7 of its charter, it deploys its troops to impose its peace operation. It solves nothing; it is imperialism. We want to make Haiti a capitalist country, an export platform for the U.S. market; it is absurd. Haiti must return to what it is, that is to say, a place still fundamentally imbued with customary law in an essentially agricultural country. The country is constantly described in terms of its violence. But without a state, the level of violence has not yet reached a fraction of that of Latin American countries. There are elements in this society that could prevent the violence from spreading without measure.
- Is not that a resignation of Haiti seen as an unassimilable nation whose only horizon is the return to traditional values?
- There is a part of Haiti that is modern, urban and touring abroad. The number of Haitians living outside their borders is estimated at 4 million. It is an open world. I would not dream of returning to the XVI century, in an agrarian society. Haiti, though, lives under the influence of international NGOs, universal charity. More than 90% of the education system and health are in private hands.The country has no public resources to run a minimally state system. UN fails to take account of cultural traits. Haiti summarize a peace operation is to make the economy of the real challenges that arise in the country. The problem is socio-economic. When the unemployment rate reached 80%, it is unbearable to deploy a stabilization mission. There is nothing to stabilize and everything to build.
- Haiti is one of the most subsidized countries in the world and yet the situation has only deteriorated since twenty-five years. Why?
- Emergency aid is effective. But when it becomes structural, when it replaces the state in all its functions, we arrive at a collective disempowerment. If there is evidence of the failure of international aid, it is Haiti. The country has become the Mecca. The January 12 earthquake and the cholera epidemic only accentuate this phenomenon. The international community has a sense of duty every day again it ended yesterday. Haiti fatigue begins to dawn. This small nation must surprise the universal consciousness with disasters more enormous. I hoped that in the distress of 12 January, the world would understand what it had done wrong with Haiti. Unfortunately, it has reinforced the same policy. Instead of making an assessment, we sent more troops. We must build roads, raising dams, participate in the organization of the State, the judicial system. The UN says it has no mandate for this. Its mandate in Haiti is to keep the peace of the cemetery.
- What role NGOs play in this bankruptcy?
- From the earthquake, Haiti has become a key intersection. For transnational NGOs, Haiti has turned into a place of forced passage. I would say even worse than that: a place for aid-workers' vocational training. The age of those who arrived after the earthquake is very low and they landed in Haiti without any experience. And Haiti, I can tell you, is not suitable for amateurs. After January 12, because of massive recruitment, professional quality has declined significantly. There is an evil or perverse relationship between the strength of NGOs and the weakness of the Haitian state. Some NGOs exist only because the misfortune of Haiti.
- What mistakes were made after the earthquake?
- Given the massive importation of consumer goods to feed the homeless, the situation of Haitian agriculture is still péjorée. The country offers a free field to all humanitarian experiences. It is unacceptable from the moral standpoint to consider Haiti as a laboratory. The reconstruction of Haiti and the promise that we dangled $11 billion attracts much interest. It seems that a lot of people come to Haiti, not for Haiti, but for doing business. For me, American aid is a shame, an insult to our consciousness. An example: the Haitian doctors that Cuba shape. More than 500 were educated in Havana. Almost half of them, when they should be in Haiti, are now working in the United States, Canada and France. The Cuban revolution is to finance the training of human resources for its capitalist neighbors ...
- We constantly described Haiti as the margin of the world, you rather feel the country as a concentrate our contemporary world ...
- This is the concentration of our tragedies and failures of international solidarity. We're not up to the challenge. The world press comes to Haiti and describes the chaos. The reaction of the public does not expect good things. For most, Haiti is one of the worst countries in the world. We must go to the Haitian culture, go to the terroir. I think there are too many doctors at the bedside and the majority of these doctors are economists. But in Haiti, we need anthropologists, sociologists, historians, political scientists and even theologians. Haiti is too complex for people who are in a hurry; cooperating in a hurry. Nobody takes the time or has the interest to understand what I might call the Haitian soul. Haitians have grasped us, the international community, as a cow to be milked.They want to take advantage of our presence and they do it with extraordinary skill. If we consider the Haitians only by the money we give, it's because we of the way we present ourselves.
- Beyond the acknowledgment of failure, what solutions do you propose?
- In two months, I will have completed a two-year mission in Haiti. To stay here and not be overwhelmed by what I see, I had to create a number of psychological defenses. I wanted to be an independent voice despite the weight of the organization I represent. I made my dissent public because I wanted to express my profound doubts and tell the world that this is enough of just playing with Haiti. January 12, taught me that there is a tremendous potential for solidarity in the world.Although do not forget that in the early days after the earthquake, it was the Haitians themselves, with bare hands, who tried to save their loved ones. Compassion has been very important in an emergency. But charity can not be the driving force in international relations. There should be autonomy, sovereignty, fair trade, respect for others. We need to think simultaneously of providing export opportunities for Haiti and also protect the family farming that is essential for the country.Haiti is the last untapped Caribbean paradise for tourism, with 1,700 kilometers of pristine coastline. We need to encourage cultural tourism and avoid paving the way to a new Eldorado of mass tourism. The lessons we give are ineffective for too long. Reconstruction and the accompaniment of a rich society are one of the last great human adventures. For the last 200 years, Haiti illuminated the history of humanity and the human rights. Haitians must now be given a chance to confirm their vision.
Time: Ten thousand peacekeepers Haïti. In your view, a counter-productive presence ...
Ricardo Seitenfus: The system of dispute prevention within the UN system is not adapted to the Haitian context. Haiti is not an international threat. We are not in a situation of civil war. Haiti is not Iraq or Afghanistan. Yet the Security Council, since lack of alternative, imposed peacekeepers since 2004, after the departure of President Aristide.Depuis 1990, we're here at our eighth UN mission. Haiti since 1986 and saw the departure of Jean-Claude Duvalier what I call a low-intensity conflict. We are faced with struggles for power among political actors who do not respect the democratic game. But it seems to me that Haiti, on the international stage, essentially pays for its proximity to the United States. Haiti has been the subject of negative attention from the international system. It was for the UN to freeze the power and transform Haitians into prisoners on their own island. Anxious boat people largely explain the decisions of the international community vis-à-vis Haiti. We want at any price for them to stay home.
- What prevents the normalization from Haiti?
- For two hundred years, the presence of foreign troops has alternated with that of dictators. It is force that defines international relations with Haiti and never dialogue. The original sin of Haiti, on the world stage, is its liberation. Haitians committed the unacceptable in 1804: a crime of lèse-majesté for a troubled world. The West is now a colonialist and racist slave world that bases its wealth on the exploitation of conquered lands. So the Haitian revolutionary model scared the great powers. The United States will recognize the independence of Haiti in 1865. France requires payment of a ransom to accept this reality. From the beginning, independence has compromised and impeded the country's development. The world has never known how to treat Haiti, so it ended up ignoring it. Its revolutionary independence began two hundred years of solitude on the international scene. Today, the UN blindly applies Chapter 7 of its charter, it deploys its troops to impose its peace operation. It solves nothing; it is imperialism. We want to make Haiti a capitalist country, an export platform for the U.S. market; it is absurd. Haiti must return to what it is, that is to say, a place still fundamentally imbued with customary law in an essentially agricultural country. The country is constantly described in terms of its violence. But without a state, the level of violence has not yet reached a fraction of that of Latin American countries. There are elements in this society that could prevent the violence from spreading without measure.
- Is not that a resignation of Haiti seen as an unassimilable nation whose only horizon is the return to traditional values?
- There is a part of Haiti that is modern, urban and touring abroad. The number of Haitians living outside their borders is estimated at 4 million. It is an open world. I would not dream of returning to the XVI century, in an agrarian society. Haiti, though, lives under the influence of international NGOs, universal charity. More than 90% of the education system and health are in private hands.The country has no public resources to run a minimally state system. UN fails to take account of cultural traits. Haiti summarize a peace operation is to make the economy of the real challenges that arise in the country. The problem is socio-economic. When the unemployment rate reached 80%, it is unbearable to deploy a stabilization mission. There is nothing to stabilize and everything to build.
- Haiti is one of the most subsidized countries in the world and yet the situation has only deteriorated since twenty-five years. Why?
- Emergency aid is effective. But when it becomes structural, when it replaces the state in all its functions, we arrive at a collective disempowerment. If there is evidence of the failure of international aid, it is Haiti. The country has become the Mecca. The January 12 earthquake and the cholera epidemic only accentuate this phenomenon. The international community has a sense of duty every day again it ended yesterday. Haiti fatigue begins to dawn. This small nation must surprise the universal consciousness with disasters more enormous. I hoped that in the distress of 12 January, the world would understand what it had done wrong with Haiti. Unfortunately, it has reinforced the same policy. Instead of making an assessment, we sent more troops. We must build roads, raising dams, participate in the organization of the State, the judicial system. The UN says it has no mandate for this. Its mandate in Haiti is to keep the peace of the cemetery.
- What role NGOs play in this bankruptcy?
- From the earthquake, Haiti has become a key intersection. For transnational NGOs, Haiti has turned into a place of forced passage. I would say even worse than that: a place for aid-workers' vocational training. The age of those who arrived after the earthquake is very low and they landed in Haiti without any experience. And Haiti, I can tell you, is not suitable for amateurs. After January 12, because of massive recruitment, professional quality has declined significantly. There is an evil or perverse relationship between the strength of NGOs and the weakness of the Haitian state. Some NGOs exist only because the misfortune of Haiti.
- What mistakes were made after the earthquake?
- Given the massive importation of consumer goods to feed the homeless, the situation of Haitian agriculture is still péjorée. The country offers a free field to all humanitarian experiences. It is unacceptable from the moral standpoint to consider Haiti as a laboratory. The reconstruction of Haiti and the promise that we dangled $11 billion attracts much interest. It seems that a lot of people come to Haiti, not for Haiti, but for doing business. For me, American aid is a shame, an insult to our consciousness. An example: the Haitian doctors that Cuba shape. More than 500 were educated in Havana. Almost half of them, when they should be in Haiti, are now working in the United States, Canada and France. The Cuban revolution is to finance the training of human resources for its capitalist neighbors ...
- We constantly described Haiti as the margin of the world, you rather feel the country as a concentrate our contemporary world ...
- This is the concentration of our tragedies and failures of international solidarity. We're not up to the challenge. The world press comes to Haiti and describes the chaos. The reaction of the public does not expect good things. For most, Haiti is one of the worst countries in the world. We must go to the Haitian culture, go to the terroir. I think there are too many doctors at the bedside and the majority of these doctors are economists. But in Haiti, we need anthropologists, sociologists, historians, political scientists and even theologians. Haiti is too complex for people who are in a hurry; cooperating in a hurry. Nobody takes the time or has the interest to understand what I might call the Haitian soul. Haitians have grasped us, the international community, as a cow to be milked.They want to take advantage of our presence and they do it with extraordinary skill. If we consider the Haitians only by the money we give, it's because we of the way we present ourselves.
- Beyond the acknowledgment of failure, what solutions do you propose?
- In two months, I will have completed a two-year mission in Haiti. To stay here and not be overwhelmed by what I see, I had to create a number of psychological defenses. I wanted to be an independent voice despite the weight of the organization I represent. I made my dissent public because I wanted to express my profound doubts and tell the world that this is enough of just playing with Haiti. January 12, taught me that there is a tremendous potential for solidarity in the world.Although do not forget that in the early days after the earthquake, it was the Haitians themselves, with bare hands, who tried to save their loved ones. Compassion has been very important in an emergency. But charity can not be the driving force in international relations. There should be autonomy, sovereignty, fair trade, respect for others. We need to think simultaneously of providing export opportunities for Haiti and also protect the family farming that is essential for the country.Haiti is the last untapped Caribbean paradise for tourism, with 1,700 kilometers of pristine coastline. We need to encourage cultural tourism and avoid paving the way to a new Eldorado of mass tourism. The lessons we give are ineffective for too long. Reconstruction and the accompaniment of a rich society are one of the last great human adventures. For the last 200 years, Haiti illuminated the history of humanity and the human rights. Haitians must now be given a chance to confirm their vision.
Dissent
Al Jezeera
Haiti Libre story
Haiti Libre interview
Wikileaks article Guardian Dec. 2010
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
KANAVAL 2014!!
The pre-Lenten festival in Haiti is a carnival of music. Here is a taste of this celebration.
Announcement for English speakers
Listen live!
A selection of this year's Kanaval hits starting with a personal favorite, Boukman Eksperyance, heard in concert last October at Petionville.
Enjoy!
--kjl
Haiti Kanaval 2014 Theme: "Tèt kole pou Ayiti Pi Djanm"
Announcement for English speakers
Listen live!
A selection of this year's Kanaval hits starting with a personal favorite, Boukman Eksperyance, heard in concert last October at Petionville.
Enjoy!
--kjl
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
REMEMBERING HAITI WHILE FREEZING
Here in Cleveland the month of February is making Haiti travelers long for the days of hot, sweaty weather and languid evenings on a veranda, cold drink in hand, watching the sun slide behind mountains. At least that certainly is true for me.
My time on Neil Van Dine's deck has provided beautiful, sustaining and body-warming memories. The gatherings on the porch at l'Ermitage cooling down in conversation with good friends are in my memory bank for withdrawal while cleaning snow off the car for the fifth time on a snowy day. There are many blessings from having Haiti in my heart. Warming memories and hopes are certainly at the top of the list while freezing in the wind when the temperature drops below zero.
In the past month or so two Haiti fundraisers were on my social calendar. They provided an opportunity to see two west-side Catholic congregations supporting projects for education and development in Haiti. The Blessed Trinity congregation sponsored a fundraiser at The Third Place Tavern. There a few of us from "the other side of the river" were warmly embraced by a large convivial crowd in a party atmosphere. A few weeks later Barb and I joined good friends from Forest Hill Church and Cleveland Heights at St. Michael's Woodside Hall in Broadview Heights for an elegant dinner dance organized by the Thea Bowman Center and the Haiti Outreach program.
Just as this goes out on the web, there is a group from the West Shore Unitarian Church finishing up a working visit to the Mouvman Peyizan Papay (
I hope we can get together soon with these friends and share our experiences, knowledge and appreciation for Haiti and the Haitians with whom we are partnering.
--kjl
Thursday, January 30, 2014
JUST LAND GOVERNANCE IN HAITI
The governance of land and other natural resources vital to life is a global problem with a history starting before history was written. The abuse of land and real property rights is a problem in the both developed counties and in the least developed countries. I have struggled with the governance of land in my own career as a "dirt" lawyer serving urban community development organizations. When my attention was turned to Haiti a few years ago, that country's historic land governance problems were at the top of the list of things I began to study. I found that land governance problems in Haiti and in poor Cleveland neighborhoods have some interesting similarities.
Take food security, for instance. In both rural Haiti and urban neighborhoods there are "food deserts." Recently, people in those places have started to grow good food for themselves within a few miles of where it is consumed. Forest Hill Church in Cleveland Heights, for instance, uses a bit of its land now to grow food crops to supplement the diets of people in their neighborhood who suffer from food insecurity part of every month. Urban gardening programs abound in this region and operate on a commercial scale in some instances.
In our visits to Haiti in the past two years, we saw post-secondary school agronomy education, agricultural experimental and demonstration farming, and the development of small villages committed to self-sustaining food production. Haitian agronomists are leading a renaissance of sustainable, small-scale farming in order to achieve a safe and secure food supply with high nutrition value for more of its people. The country cannot depend on the goodness of foreign powers to be trading partners in food products.
I would like to introduce readers to an excellent article on this topic written by Kysseline Cherestal, an attorney and senior policy analyst at ActionAid USA, an international agency advocating for the land rights of poor and marginalized people around the world. (She is the daughter of Dr. Kyss and Nicole Jean-Mary and Ralph Jean-Mary's sister.) Read her article.
Kysseline Cherestal
We dare not avoid the part of her article, and her subsequently published report for the anniversary of the earthquake, describing the misguided "help" from the US in grabbing land from subsistence farmers without fair compensation in order to score a quick and highly visible success in putting up an industrial park. US policy is complicit it the exploitation of landholders whose capacity to defend their rights and interests are miniscule compared to the power of politically dominant foreign companies looking for cheap production. It is also complicit in the use of agricultural policies that favor large corporate farms to the detriment of the internal food chain in Haiti and other poor countries. We need to pay more attention to our country's responsibility for injustice in land governance resulting from our policies even while we are acting in merciful generosity to provide earthquake relief.
A good start for anyone interested in this issue would be Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure in Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Scarcity. This report issued in 2012 by the UN is the work product of an international study and an attempt to generate discussion of this issue because it is so largely ignored at this time.
The Haiti Law Property Group published its Haiti Land Transaction Manual in 2012 to assist post-earthquake reconstruction programs deal with the difficult land tenure and transfer processes that held stopped many important building projects because it was impossible to get a clear title to the land. In an article earlier this month, Elizabeth Blake, a leading force in the Haiti Law Property Group and Senior Vice President of Habitat for Humanity, reported on the current success in construction in Port au Prince aided by the use of the Manual. She also said a second manual will be published in collaboration with the Haitian government later this year. This manual will focus on securing land rights, addressing ownership, leasehold, rent-to-own and other rights on public and private land. This is encouraging news.
Prime Minister, Laurent Lamothe, officially launched land reform in Haiti in 2012. The news report of this program outlined a monumental task of both technical and legislative work taking a decade to accomplish. Without this kind of reform, though, development and agricultural improvements will proceed at a very slow pace, if at all. Let's pray that the government can sustain its necessary leadership on this vital march toward more just land governance in Haiti.
I have corresponded with Kysseline about this blog posting and she urges North Americans to do three things: (1) call on the US Congress to pass the Assessing Progress in Haiti Act of 2013; (You can send a letter from this website to Senate Majority Leader, Reid, with a copy to Senator Sherrod Brown. http://cqrcengage.com/actionaid/app/sign-petition?2&engagementId=38938.) (2) We should also call on the US government to respect the commitments it made by endorsing the Voluntary Guidelines in 2012; (3) Finally, we should urge support of a Haitian community-led process for the implementation of the Guidelines in Haiti. The Government of Haiti also endorsed the Guidelines as a member of the Committee on World Food Security.
These initiatives are now are among the best tools to uphold the land rights and food security in Haiti.
These initiatives are now are among the best tools to uphold the land rights and food security in Haiti.
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
JUSTICE FOR GARMENT WORKERS IN HAITI
On January 11, 2010 the NPR News Hour ran this story (click on the link) describing a new hope for economic development of Haiti's garment industry. Political and social violence had been quelled, governmental stability was returning, and closed factories were opening and retooling for a new beginning. The Haitian garment industry was at the pinnacle of this hope and a major attraction for new investment from the US and other countries. Haiti had expectations of large-scale investment for its economy as well as for just wages and working conditions for its garment workers. It had the attention and leadership of US ex-President, Bill Clinton. As the Prime Minister said, Haiti was ready to move from misery to poverty. Better conditions were just around the corner. What could go wrong?
On January 12, the very next day after this optimistic report was aired, the earthquake hit. It was as if the nation's whole economy had a stroke. Jobs and the promise of jobs died in an instant. Haitians had no money to put into the broken economic system. The emergency distribution of relief further damaged the broken system for delivering food, goods and services.
Now, four years later, what has happened to the hopes and promises for development of a thriving and fair garment industry in that country?
As 2013 came to a close, a spate of reports on the conditions of Haiti's garment industry made for grim reading. Multiple watchdog agencies reported on illegal conditions -- wage theft, sexual harassment, and poor safety and sanitation standards that violated not only Haiti's laws but also the promises of manufacturing companies supplying big retailers in the US and other countries where Haiti-made apparel is sold. Brands like Gap, Gildan, Hanes, Kohl’s, Levi’s, Russell, Target, VF, and Walmart are buyers of garments from Haiti and they are well-aware of this law-breaking. Yet they continue with business as usual, profiting from the lower prices that they can obtain from factories that abuse and cheat Haiti's workers of legally owed wages.
One of the situations described with particular dismay is the new garment factory built after the earthquake in a new $224 million industrial park in Caracol, at place located in the northern part of Haiti far away from Port au Prince. This venture was controversial from the beginning because it took productive farming land away from subsistence farmers to put up a huge factory in a place with no social or civic structure to provide for health, safety, security or education for thousands of workers transplanted there. The industrial park was heralded as the centerpiece of US earthquake recovery efforts brought about under the leadership of President Bill Clinton. It turns out to be a leading practitioner of wage cheating and it fell short of other promises, such as the numbers to be employed and living conditions to be provided for workers.
The usual battalions of corporate public relations suits all responded promptly to the barrage of damning reports and corrections have been promised. (See the Fruit of the Loom statement below.) Indeed, the most promising thing for improvement of Haitian garment workers is the perseverance of those watchdog agencies who will surely keep the glare of public attention on the Haitian garment industry and its assurances. The fight for better working conditions and fair wages is very incremental and requires both persistence and resilience. Justice will not come like a bolt of lightening; it will take years.
Refusing to buy clothing made by exploited Haitian workers is not a solution that helps the workers. Haiti, after all, is not the only country whose garment workers are exploited for bigger profits and a few boycotts will not help poor Haitians. For most of them, being exploited at work is better than no job at all when there are malnourished children to feed, no other legal means of employment and 70% unemployment.
I will not presume to advise fellow consumers on how to behave. But we consumers do at least need to be aware of the unjust and broken system of which we are a critical part. We must support honest watchdog agencies in the role they play. We must encourage corporate giants to reduce their inhumanity, support government policies that protect the weak and wage-dependent from predatory business practices. We must consume with mindfulness of the role foreign factory workers have in the garment industry when we make purchases. We must humbly recognize ourselves as both part of the problem and part of the solution in this matter.
Notes:
1. Thanks to Diana Woodbridge for inspiring the research for this entry.
2. Workers Rights Consortium, Stealing From The Poor: Wage Theft In The Haitian Apparel Industry. [WRC is a group representing nearly 200 universities that monitors factories making college logo apparel.]
3. Better Work Haiti, Garment Industry 7th Biannual Report Under The Hope II Legislation.
[Better Work Haiti is an innovative partnership of the International Labour Organization and the International Finance Corporation that aims to improve working conditions and promote competitiveness in global supply chains. The US Congress passed the Haitian Hemispheric Opportunity through Partnership Encouragement (HOPE and HOPE II) Acts, which allowed for duty-free treatment for textiles, apparel and other goods from Haiti to the US. Better Work Haiti provides technical assistance for compliance by both the government of Haiti and the US with the provisions of the legislation, including protection of workers' rights to fair wages and safe, clean working conditions.]
4. Statement of Fruit of the Loom in response to reports that its suppliers in Haiti were violating the rights of Haitian garment workers.
We are greatly concerned about the recent report from the Workers Rights Consortium (WRC) regarding the issue of minimum wage compliance in the Haitian garment industry. It is our view that the clear intent of Haiti's minimum wage law is for production rates to be set in such a manner as to allow workers to earn at least 300 gourdes ($7.07 USD) for 8 hours of work in a day. Based on our independent investigation, we concur with the WRC that the garment industry in Haiti generally falls short of that standard.
Fruit of the Loom’s Code of Conduct
requires, at minimum, strict compliance with applicable laws. With
respect to the Haiti minimum wage regulations, we are committed to
ensuring that our Haitian suppliers come into compliance with the law of
Haiti. For purposes of measuring wage compliance, we will utilize the
standard that has been employed by the ILO/IFC Better Work Haiti
program. We plan to engage with the WRC and other relevant
stakeholders, including worker representatives in Haiti, to address this
issue. We recognize that remedies for past violations will be a topic
of this discussion.
For further information, please contact Stan Blankenship, Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility, at 270-781-6400.
--kjl
For further information, please contact Stan Blankenship, Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility, at 270-781-6400.
--kjl
Monday, January 6, 2014
THE GREAT DEBATE: PATRON OR PARTNER
Some members of the FHC Haiti 2013 team have published significant personal memories about the trip and its impact on their lives. Those can be seen in this previous post of videos. Here now is mine.
It was November 1, a national holiday in Haiti, and that morning as I was standing on the road in front of the headquarters of Haiti Outreach in Pignon waiting for my ride, a young man approached and introduced himself. We chatted briefly in Kreyol until he suggested we move under the shade of a tree and switch to English. He had something serious to talk about.
My new friend said he and his father, a minister, ran a school for poor children in their church. He showed me pictures of youngsters and of his family. He then proposed that I assist their work with money for food for the children at the school. His presentation was excellent, gracious and direct, qualities I could appreciate as a professional grant supplicant. I was also humbled by the fact that he was asking for my help in my language while I could not conduct a substantive conversation in either of the two languages he commanded.
I responded to his request that I had neither institutional nor personal resources at my disposal to provide for more than a meal or two for a group of children. Then I took the occasion to ask what the school could do to enable the children to be fed with resources of their own making, a more permanent solution. After all, I asked, is it not better to acquire the skill of fishing than to depend on the charity of others to get one's fish day by day?
His reply to me was quick and sure. It is not possible, he said, for starving people to learn how to fish or learn anything. One must survive first before one can develop capacities for future benefit. The children he was pleading for needed to be fed now or they would starve. This was indeed a strong response to my question. Of course, in the circumstances I had no way to verify how close the children were to starving; but in rural Haiti one can see malnourishment on all sides, even in the countryside where food is grown and sold. Since I had no intention of giving him money, asking for verification of the need and assurances of his management and accountability was impudent.
I sought instead to ask this eloquent and capable supplicant what kind of help would benefit Haiti the most, charity which satisfied the need of a moment or partnership in developing permanent capacity for healthy living within Haiti. Haiti, I suggested, would remain poor and dependent on outsiders until it developed the capacity to meet its most critical health and safety needs. I pointed to the nearby Haiti Outreach offices with its trucks and equipment, and asked if helping villages obtain and manage their own safe drinking water was not making permanent improvements in the lives of people.
My young friend's response was disheartening. He asserted that developing community owned and managed clean water sources was a hustle that only helped those who were on the organization's payroll. Americans who sent their money for this work were not helping Haiti's most needy, he said, but were instead enriching and enhancing only those who installed wells. This view was surely not that of the people across Haiti who are now getting clean water daily from a community owned and managed well or those community leaders I saw while I was there working to build their skills and capacities for managing a well of their own. I read the reports and saw for myself what community development for living water means in Haiti where half the population does not have it.
We had come to a point in our debate where we could only make variations on our respective themes. He was seeking an immediate grant of cash and my trust that it would be managed and used responsibly for the intended beneficiaries. I was advocating an investment in personal and community capacity building so that all those who benefited would take responsibility for sustaining and renewing what was used. We did not resolve our differences before we parted. I could not and would not accept the role of patron of one or two feasts for his kids and he could not and would not accept the idea of a partnership aimed at reducing the dependence of Haitians on foreign resources.
It is possible that neither of our positions in this debate provide a practical solution for chronic national poverty. He is not wrong to say that people have to eat to live and develop. I, on the other hand, don't see how people depending on begging alone can count on surviving. There needs to be a way to participate with communities in Haiti to advance their health, stability and wellbeing; participating not as patrons and beneficiaries, but collaborating as partners. I can't say that I know yet what that means for me as an individual. I am fairly sure that people in Haiti who would depend on me for money are in deep trouble. But is there something else that I have to offer as a partner in community? What resources can I offer? Am I open to receiving help in this partnership?
The debate along the road in Pignon is not over for me. For now, though, I am inclined to be a partner more than a patron. I can seek for justice with Haitians who see so little of it; I can remember that mercy is something both to give and to seek; and I can trust that, whether I realize it or not, something good will eventually come of my efforts. I'll need to keep my eyes open for a vision.
--kjl
It was November 1, a national holiday in Haiti, and that morning as I was standing on the road in front of the headquarters of Haiti Outreach in Pignon waiting for my ride, a young man approached and introduced himself. We chatted briefly in Kreyol until he suggested we move under the shade of a tree and switch to English. He had something serious to talk about.
My new friend said he and his father, a minister, ran a school for poor children in their church. He showed me pictures of youngsters and of his family. He then proposed that I assist their work with money for food for the children at the school. His presentation was excellent, gracious and direct, qualities I could appreciate as a professional grant supplicant. I was also humbled by the fact that he was asking for my help in my language while I could not conduct a substantive conversation in either of the two languages he commanded.
I responded to his request that I had neither institutional nor personal resources at my disposal to provide for more than a meal or two for a group of children. Then I took the occasion to ask what the school could do to enable the children to be fed with resources of their own making, a more permanent solution. After all, I asked, is it not better to acquire the skill of fishing than to depend on the charity of others to get one's fish day by day?
His reply to me was quick and sure. It is not possible, he said, for starving people to learn how to fish or learn anything. One must survive first before one can develop capacities for future benefit. The children he was pleading for needed to be fed now or they would starve. This was indeed a strong response to my question. Of course, in the circumstances I had no way to verify how close the children were to starving; but in rural Haiti one can see malnourishment on all sides, even in the countryside where food is grown and sold. Since I had no intention of giving him money, asking for verification of the need and assurances of his management and accountability was impudent.
I sought instead to ask this eloquent and capable supplicant what kind of help would benefit Haiti the most, charity which satisfied the need of a moment or partnership in developing permanent capacity for healthy living within Haiti. Haiti, I suggested, would remain poor and dependent on outsiders until it developed the capacity to meet its most critical health and safety needs. I pointed to the nearby Haiti Outreach offices with its trucks and equipment, and asked if helping villages obtain and manage their own safe drinking water was not making permanent improvements in the lives of people.
My young friend's response was disheartening. He asserted that developing community owned and managed clean water sources was a hustle that only helped those who were on the organization's payroll. Americans who sent their money for this work were not helping Haiti's most needy, he said, but were instead enriching and enhancing only those who installed wells. This view was surely not that of the people across Haiti who are now getting clean water daily from a community owned and managed well or those community leaders I saw while I was there working to build their skills and capacities for managing a well of their own. I read the reports and saw for myself what community development for living water means in Haiti where half the population does not have it.
We had come to a point in our debate where we could only make variations on our respective themes. He was seeking an immediate grant of cash and my trust that it would be managed and used responsibly for the intended beneficiaries. I was advocating an investment in personal and community capacity building so that all those who benefited would take responsibility for sustaining and renewing what was used. We did not resolve our differences before we parted. I could not and would not accept the role of patron of one or two feasts for his kids and he could not and would not accept the idea of a partnership aimed at reducing the dependence of Haitians on foreign resources.
It is possible that neither of our positions in this debate provide a practical solution for chronic national poverty. He is not wrong to say that people have to eat to live and develop. I, on the other hand, don't see how people depending on begging alone can count on surviving. There needs to be a way to participate with communities in Haiti to advance their health, stability and wellbeing; participating not as patrons and beneficiaries, but collaborating as partners. I can't say that I know yet what that means for me as an individual. I am fairly sure that people in Haiti who would depend on me for money are in deep trouble. But is there something else that I have to offer as a partner in community? What resources can I offer? Am I open to receiving help in this partnership?
The debate along the road in Pignon is not over for me. For now, though, I am inclined to be a partner more than a patron. I can seek for justice with Haitians who see so little of it; I can remember that mercy is something both to give and to seek; and I can trust that, whether I realize it or not, something good will eventually come of my efforts. I'll need to keep my eyes open for a vision.
--kjl
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