[Radix] Poverty is a Vulnerability Multiplier

[bwisner at igc.org]

Dear George and others,

This is what I sent yesterday to a group of geographers. It might serve to begin a discussion on RADIX.

Cheers, BEN

************

Dear CESG colleagues,

First, thanks for recommendations of guidelines and other materials and lists of organizations that could use support.  In London at the moment, I am helping the Global Network of Civil Society for Disaster Reduction get concise distillations of good practice in early recovery and experiences with gender and disaster out to NGOs working in Haiti.  I have passed on some of the suggestions, and again, thanks.

Secondly, although it may seem too clinical or even heartless, for the sake of a better future for Haiti's people, and others likely to suffer in this way, I'd like to share some more academic reflections.  You may want to look at the questions I answered in discussion with a reporter at Salon.com (http://www.salon1999.com/news/haiti/index.html?story=/news/feature/2010/01/13/wisner).  One should be particularly mindful of the democracy question and the examples of governments and ruling parties outsted in Nicaragua (due in part to the corruption exposed following the 1970 earthquake that destroyed the capital) and Mexico (where the consensus of political observers is that state failure to cope with the 1985 earthquake in Mexico City was the beginning of the end for the PRI).  Neo-liberalism has weakened government in Haiti both before the coup against Aristide and after.  Haiti has been turned more and more into a low wage sweat shop for the clothing industry.  The UN and NGOs have taken on more and more state functions, while others have been privatized.  This follows more than a century of pariah status as the only successful slave rebellion in the Hemisphere.  Haiti did not finish paying compensation to France for assets seized in the revolution until 1883!  The recovery process has the potential to further entrench dependency and weak, ineffective goverance, or it could help to turn Haiti back toward self rule and democracy.  A highly politically aware population in Haiti will likely react with violence if the former takes place as it will almost without doubt be accompanied with massive corruption and misappropriation.  So the latter is the obvious choice, if donor nations use that opportunity not just to "build back better" in physical terms (schools, hospitals, etc.) but in terms of institutions.  The trouble is the last time democracy seemed to be developing a foothold, Bill Clinton was worried Aristide would become another Castro/ Haiti another Cuba.  Well, from what my study of Cuba's ability to protect human life in hurricanes suggests, I'd say we need lots of Cubas (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2001/nov/14/cuba.socialsciences).

With this in mind, I send the following reflection to Andrew Revkin's New York Times blog, DotEarth
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/14/pentagons-haiti-mission-a-model-for-new-security-role/
, in response to his question about the meaning of increasing militarization of disaster relief (also see Naomi Klein on this subject).

I would be very grateful for comments.

All the best,

BEN

Dr. Ben Wisner
Aon Benfield Hazard Research Centre, University College London;
Crisis States Programme, DESTIN, London School of Economics;
Environmental Studies Program, Oberlin College


-----Original Message-----
>From: George Kent <kent at hawaii.edu>
>Sent: Jan 15, 2010 9:10 PM
>To: radix at ecie.org
>Subject: [Radix] Poverty is a Vulnerability Multiplier
>
>What can Radix say about the tragic Haiti story? Many people blame the  
>deaths simply and directly on the earthquake, but I'd say it is  
>important to look into the hypothesis that poverty is a vulnerability  
>multiplier. Can appropriate comparisons be made to test/demonstrate  
>the proposition?
>
>Aloha, George
>
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