15118: Leiderman: Calling for a Haiti Environmental Response Campaign (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Stuart M Leiderman <leidermn@cisunix.unh.edu>

Dear Group:

Today's posts have two items describing new initiatives being taken by
people who care about Haiti's future:

The first was a letter from Congresswoman Barbara Lee to her colleagues
concerning aid to Haiti: "I write to draw your attention to the
increasingly desperate situation in Haiti and the serious humanitarian
needs of the Haitian people.  The country faces enormous challenges on
all major fronts: socially, politically, and economically..."  She calls
for a Rural Roads Rehabilitation Program, a Reorganization of the Health
Sector, Potable Water and Sanitation, and a Basic Education Program,
together totalling almost US$150,000,000.

I think this is an insufficient and superficial response.  Society,
politics and economics are not the sum total of "enormous challenges on
all major fronts."  That's political rhetoric.  Congresswoman Lee makes
no request at all to respond to Haiti's environmental and land-use
crisis, especially the need for new forests, restored watersheds,
alternate energy supplies, and secure tenure for farmers and agricultural
communities who comprise a country's basic life support system and
I think its best path to self-determination.

Congresswoman Lee's program seems to be the easy way out, that is,
to spend lots of American money on Haiti's symptoms rather than
its problems.  It feels like a way to muscle American capital and
influence back into the country without first evaluating the work and
effectiveness of hundreds of goodwill programs, thousands of people and
millions of dollars of goods and supplies already brought down there
every year [a directory of programs is available upon request] and then
supplementing that effort in a holistic way that includes ecological
restoration.

Second, there is the announcement of a workshop being hosted by the
Inter-American Dialogue in Washington, DC. on Haiti: Ideas for
Political and Economic Development, "to examine the political, economic
and social gridlock that have gripped the country in recent years."
Again, there is no recognition of Haiti's environmental crisis as a
necessary agenda item.  This contrasts greatly from the recognition of
environmental crisis given by speakers during the emergency conference
on Haiti hosted by the Haiti Studies Program at the University of
Massachusetts-Boston a few years ago.

I have some ideas why certain politicians and policy people omit
environmental concerns from their agendas and programs:

--They may believe that ecology, ecological restoration, conservation,
pollution prevention and control are pursuits that are too technical for
public discussion, debate and decisionmaking.

--They may not want Haitians to learn that conventional economic
development that throws money at problems (rather than changing the
relationships among people who get the money and how they spend it)
invariably results in an environment that is more polluted and
health-hazardous for people and ecosystems rather than cleaner and safer
for them.

--They may not know how to restoring a country that is almost
completely devastated environmentally; or they may not want to know, or
they may be feigning ignorance.

--I suppose the most jaundiced explanation may be that all calls for
conventional American foreign aid to Haiti--roadbuilding, clinics,
chlorinated water, etc.--are coming from fear of the next wave of
refugees, i.e., it's cheaper to send money overseas than accommodate
more Haitian immigrants.

Readers may have additional explantions and experiences about the
apparent taboo on action to repair Haiti's environment.  Nonetheless,
there is still a need to drive an environmental wedge into the matter
of aid to Haiti.  I'd be happy to join a concerted campaign of "Haitian
Environmental Response" to make sure that the benefits of development
programs are sustainable, not just consumable.

Thanks,

Stuart Leiderman