I’ve previously written concerning the real nature of Haiti’s “curse” and Christian responsibility in the wake of this disaster, but it’s time for us to move beyond talk and take action.  For everyone who has already become involved, sending recovery kits and making financial contributions, I thank you and commend your actions.  However, as Richard Kim points out, our charity simply isn’t good enough:

But it’s also time to stop having a conversation about charity and start having a conversation about justice–about recovery, responsibility and fairness. What the world should be pondering instead is: What is Haiti owed?

Haiti’s vulnerability to natural disasters, its food shortages, poverty, deforestation and lack of infrastructure, are not accidental. To say that it is the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere is to miss the point; Haiti was made poor–by France, the United States, Great Britain, other Western powers and by the IMF and the World Bank.

Our culpability in the repeated failures of the economy and government in Haiti are apparent with only a basic historical knowledge of the country’s two centuries as an independent republic.  Oppressive foreign aid programs, including loans that have lined the pockets of corrupt dictators (a fact we conveniently ignored for the sake of “national interest”), continued to keep Haiti politically and economically impoverished.  Now it appears that our political leaders and bureaucrats are prepared to repeat the same failed policies in the wake of the earthquake.  Kim explains how the International Monetary Fund intends to take a business-as-usual approach to the plight of Haiti:

Now, in its attempts to help Haiti, the IMF is pursuing the same kinds of policies that made Haiti a geography of precariousness even before the quake. To great fanfare, the IMF announced a new $100 million loan to Haiti on Thursday. In one crucial way, the loan is a good thing; Haiti is in dire straits and needs a massive cash infusion. But the new loan was made through the IMF’s extended credit facility, to which Haiti already has $165 million in debt. Debt relief activists tell me that these loans came with conditions, including raising prices for electricity, refusing pay increases to all public employees except those making minimum wage and keeping inflation low. They say that the new loans would impose these same conditions. In other words, in the face of this latest tragedy, the IMF is still using crisis and debt as leverage to compel neoliberal reforms.

Seeing the failure of these policies prior to the full force of nature’s destructive power, it is a sign of poor judgment to think that taking the same direction will have any positive effect on Haiti.  Yet, every bit as deplorable is the fact that it’s a sign of complete moral and ethical failure on our part as citizens of the developing world to continue to ignore the real plight of our neighbors as we profit from their misfortune.  It is time for each of us become agents of ethics and work to bring about change.

Right now Congresswomen Maxine Waters (D -CA) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) are circulating a letter that will be presented to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner urging him to use the full leverage of the U.S. government to bring about debt cancellation on the part of the IMF and other international agencies carrying outstanding loans to Haiti. Currently over 50 members of Congress have agreed to sign this letter, but you can help by urging your own representative to sign as well.  With the help of the Jubilee USA Network, an outreach of over 75 religious denominations and communities seeking debt relief the underdeveloped nations, you can send an email to your representative urging her/him to join the petition.  While you’re at it, you can also visit here to sign a citizens petition that Jubilee USA will present to Secretary Geithner urging him to support debt cancellation for Haiti.  The deadline for this is February 2, so please consider responding to this action quickly.

And regardless of deadlines, you can offer your voice in support of H.R. 4405, the Jubilee Act for Responsible Lending and Expanded Debt Cancellation of 2009.  Sponsored by Congresswoman Waters, this bill is an effort to build on the earlier success of H.R. 2634, which was filed in the previous congress, and passed the House of Representatives before becoming bogged down in the Senate.  (Avelino Maestas offers a more in depth look at these bills at Huffington Post.)   H.R. 4405 has been introduced and currently awaits consideration in the House Committee on Financial Services.  You can help spur this bill to the floor by writing letters or sending emails to committee chair Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA) and ranking member Congressman Spencer Bachus (R-AL), as well as other members of the committee.

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It’s time to change the way we behave as citizens of the wealthier minority within or world, and as a nation with a history that is checkered at best.  I’ve made my case for our responsibility to Haiti based on how that checkered past has harmed Haiti over the years.  And while I will be the first to admit that we can’t be held individually responsible for the racism and imperialism of our country’s past, we can become responsible from this moment forward for our country’s just, peaceful, and equitable policies toward our neighbors beyond our borders.  I can’t encourage you enough to join with me in making a difference for our nation and our world.

Cross posted at the Xenia Institute.

We’ve all watched and listened in horror to the unbelievable destruction in Haiti. Granting that a 7.0 magnitude earthquake is a devastating force, we should all be asking the question as to why the estimated death toll has skyrocketed to over 100,000 dead with countless other injuries. The greatest tragedy in Haiti has not been the earthquake itself, but the absolute lack of basic government services to support the population and insure safe living conditions for the people. This is a byproduct of rampant political instability in the country, an irony considering that it is one of the oldest republics in the Americas, gaining its independence in 1804 (that’s just 21 years after our recognized independence in 1783), and we seem to believe that democracy is the answer to any country’s political woes.

This political instability finds its source in the oppressive policies of the developed nations of the world. In order to finally gain recognition as an independent nation, Haiti had to pay “reparations” to France for the property it “stole” when it won its war of independence. Estimated at roughly $21 billion in today’s dollars, this debt wasn’t paid off until the middle of the 20 century. th To make matters worse, the U.S. refused to recognize the nation of Haiti until the end of our own Civil War, because it was a republic founded by a slave revolt. For sixty years we led an economic boycott against Haiti, effectively crippling its economy as it paid up to 80% of government revenues to France in order to service its ridiculous debt. This double whammy of debt and neglect kept Haiti from educating its people, building a safe and effective infrastructure, and developing its economy, all of which would have decreased the death toll and expedited recovery efforts.

This Sunday I preached on Paul’s image of all believers as the body of Christ – we are many members that form one body. If we truly believe this to be the case, we have to ask why we have allowed this part of our body in Haiti to be abandoned and destroyed. And if we honestly believe that they are part of the one body in which we share, we have to do more than simply write checks to aid in the recovery. It’s time to make amends for our 200 year history of being poor neighbors to Haiti by writing our congressmen and asking them to support debt forgiveness on U.S. loans made to this country. And it’s also time to ask forgiveness for our part as a nation in helping make this disaster the terrible tragedy it has become.

Jesus never promised us that the Christian walk would be an easy one.

Clint

From this catastrophe, which follows so many others, we should make sure that it is a chance to get Haiti once and for all out of the curse it seems to have been stuck with for such a long time.

If not Pat Robertson’s absurd theological stretches, then what exactly is this “curse” that haunts Haiti? While Sarkozy’s statement almost comes across sounding like an innocuous little raincloud that hovers over this unassuming island republic, the reality is much more devastating.  To better understand the structural problems that have plagued Haiti, a brief history lesson is in order.  This commentary at the Center for International Policy sheds some light on the early history of the republic:

Economic Justice in Haiti Requires Debt Restitution  |  CIP Americas Program

Haiti won its independence from France in 1804, through a bloody 12-year war, becoming the second independent country in the Americas and the only nation in history born of a successful slave revolt. But world powers forced Haiti to pay a second price for entrance into the international community. They refused to recognize Haiti’s independence, while French warships remained off its coasts, threatening to invade and reinstitute slavery.

After 21 years of resisting, Haiti capitulated to France‘s terms: in exchange for diplomatic recognition, Haiti’s government agreed to compensate French plantation owners for their loss of “property,” including the freed slaves; compensation to be paid with a loan from a designated French bank. The debt was ten times Haiti’s total 1825 revenue and twice what the United States paid France in 1803 for the Louisiana Purchase, which contained seventy-four times more land.

The debt was a crushing burden on Haiti’s economy. The government was forced to redirect all economic activity to repay it. A huge percentage of government revenues—80% in some years—went to debt service, at the expense of investment in education, healthcare, and infrastructure. The tax code and other laws channeled private and public enterprise to export crops such as tropical hardwoods and sugar, which brought in foreign currency for the bank but left the mountainsides barren, the soil depleted, and the population hungry.

While this may allow those of us in the United States to savor the irony of Sarkozy’s statement given France’s role in the economic crippling of the fledgling nation, we would be well reminded of our own interference in the affairs of foreign nations; especially those in the Caribbean which have often been considered playthings in our own private “U.S. lake.”  The Haiti Action Committee reminds us of our own complicity in the destruction of the early Haitian economy:

The United States led a worldwide boycott against Haiti and refused to recognize the new nation until 1864, fearing that its freedom would pose a danger to the U.S. system of slavery.

Instead of playing linguistic games that offhandedly attribute Haiti’s woes to some ambiguous “curse,” it’s time for us living in economically powerful nations to own our role in putting the hex on this underdeveloped and economically declining nation.*  While Sarkozy’s intentions, along with the rest of the industrialized world, are no doubt for the good, the time for addressing the real issue is long overdue.  We are quick to be the saviors of the disaster-ridden, rushing in with our recovery and relief money, but we never pause for a moment to consider how our history of plundering underdeveloped nations has exacerbated the present crisis.  And for all of our hurry to be the heroes today, tomorrow we will forget this sad affair, never addressing the ongoing systemic imperialism and economic oppression that will continue to leave Haiti ripe for the next disaster.  After all, it’s just Haiti’s “curse” …

* According to the CIA World Factbook 80% of Haitians live in poverty, with over half of the population in abject poverty.

Cross posted at the Xenia Institute.

By the time this is published, I may be one of the last people remaining on the planet who has yet to commend or eviscerate you for your selection to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.  In spite of that, I hope you will accept my heartfelt congratulations on your receipt of this great honor.  While others choose to question or even denigrate your selection on the grounds that you have yet to demonstrate your commitment to peace through sweeping accomplishments or an extensive span of intentionality and engagement, I consider your multilateral and dialogical approach to statesmanship worthy of both accolade and emulation.  Your enlightened leadership in this respect confers great benefit not only to our national self-interest, but also to the global common good.

I am further appreciative of the manner in which you received this honor.  While the temptation to bask in the glow of international recognition presented itself, you shunned self-aggrandizement in favor of furthering the cause of dialogue, mutuality, and respect.  The announcement on behalf of the Norwegian Nobel Committee clearly disclosed their hope that this award would strengthen your vision of international solidarity, and you have chosen to accept it as a means to further that goal, instead of as an end in itself.  For all of these things, Mr. President, I commend you.

Yet in spite of my admiration for your globally oriented approach to diplomacy and governance, I feel compelled to speak on behalf of those who today cannot share in Alfred Nobel’s vision of “fraternity between nations.”  The absence of any specific reference to the peoples of Iraq and Afghanistan in your acceptance announcement casts a conspicuous and disappointing shadow across an otherwise inspiring response.  Further clouding this moment, the one presidential responsibility you chose to lift up by title was your position as commander of U.S. military forces.  While the irony of this was palpable, to do so in the same breath that you offer only an oblique and implied reference to the ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq was truly in poor form.

Constrained by their status as occupied nations, neither Iraq nor Afghanistan may truly benefit from your vision of multilateralism.  They are at best patron states reliant upon U.S. military presence and subject to U.S. guidance, or at worst occupied territories only one step removed from the status of puppet-states.  In either case, or by any other scenario in between, these nations can never truly be partners in a conversation of equals.  Until they are released from the custody of military occupation, the peoples of Afghanistan and Iraq remain excluded from the possibility and hope for a just peace.

Given your own acknowledgement of the momentum this award offers to the cause of international peace and diplomacy, I urge you to avert any impending inertia by expediently withdrawing our military forces from Iraq and Afghanistan.  If we as a nation are to uphold the values and virtues you have extolled throughout your presidential tenure and during your preceding election campaign, we must act to end this injustice and reinstate these nations to their rightful place as equals at the global table.

I write this with my full support for your timely and necessary global vision, and with my continued prayers that your leadership may be just, moral, and equitable.

Respectfully yours,

Clint Collins

Cross posted at the Xenia Institute.

The events in the wake of the disputed Iranian elections have the world all a “Twitter.”  Literally.  News coming out of Tehran has returned the message based service from the passé of yesterday’s killer app to the forefront of the political sublime.  And of course, the debate begins: what role has Twitter played in the political unrest in Iran?  Various news agencies have speculated over the role of Twitter and other technologies in the unfolding Iranian drama.

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The “Obama Effect”

This is such a multi-faceted catch phrase that it’s hard to pin it down.  Whether it relates to the effect Barack Obama may have had on African American test scores, the progression of the civil rights movement, or even the current cultural milieu, these words have been tossed around from the moment Obama became a figure on the national stage.  The latest evolution of the “Obama effect” is to speculate on the foreign policy ramifications of the 44^th president.

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And while you’re at it, if you’d like to check out my other daily news updates, you can link to them all right here:

• News for June 17
• News for June 18
• News for June 19

Did they play  Barack Obama’s speech to the Muslim world in the prison corridors of Abu Ghraib, Bagram air base, Guantanamo or the dozens of secret sites where we hold thousands of Muslims around the world? Did it echo off the walls of the crowded morgues filled with the mutilated bodies of the Muslim dead in Baghdad or Kabul? Was it broadcast from the tops of minarets in the villages and towns decimated by U.S. iron fragmentation bombs? Was it heard in the squalid refugee camps of Gaza, where 1.5 million Palestinians live in the world’s largest ghetto?

What do words of peace and cooperation mean from us when we torture—yes, we still torture—only Muslims? What do these words mean when we sanction Israel’s brutal air assaults on Lebanon and Gaza, assaults that demolished thousands of homes and left hundreds dead and injured? How does it look for Obama to call for democracy and human rights from Egypt, where we lavishly fund and support the despotic regime of Hosni Mubarak, one of the longest-reigning dictators in the Middle East?

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News that the first Guantánamo detainee has arrived in the U.S. will undoubtedly restart a debate that has been simmering on the back burner for a few weeks now.  The arrival of Ahmed Ghailani to stand trial in Manhattan for the 1998 bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Tanzania and Kenya marks the first test of public resolve to keep terror suspects out of the United States.  That resolve is apparent in polling data concerning national opinions on the proposal to close the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay.

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Memorial Day has always been a time of remembrance for me, and those memories run deep.  As a child, I would help members of the local Veterans of Foreign Wars post place flags on the headstones of all the veterans buried in the two cemeteries in my little hometown of Centralia, Missouri.  Both my father and grandfather were members of the post, having served in Vietnam and in Europe during World War II.  Today, memory fails me as to whether I began helping with the flags because of a conscious decision on my part or because I provided a young set of legs to assist an aging group of war vets, but after many years of walking the rows of headstones I’ve found it has had a profound impact on my thoughts…

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