Robert BuddanIRAQ HAS been at the centre of world news for two years. It has been the single most covered international event by the Jamaican media during this time and the one most talked about by Jamaicans.
I remember a phrase by a media scholar some years ago that the power of the media lies not just in telling people what to think but what to think about. If there is any indicator of how embedded we are in the Western media market for news, this is it. Our next international obsession will be whatever American foreign policy and the American media direct us to. This will, as usual, be at the cost of awareness of our own world in the Caribbean and the other continents that we call our ancestral homes. At a time when we should think about peace and goodwill to all, we should remember the state of this wider world.
The United Nations reminds us that there are 21 world crises, 19 of them in Africa, and most are about hunger, disease and homelessness. These kill more people than terrorism does, and indeed constitute an even more potent form of terrorism. At the last democratic presidential debate, Howard Dean had to call for the moderator and other candidates to pay more attention to American domestic problems after he had grown tired of the well trampled ground of Iraq. One smug Newsweek journalist said the reason the world media doesn't cover Africa more is because African governments harass journalists. My answer would be that Western journalists don't care about Africa or the poor. But start an American war and they come running.
My concern is that we in the Caribbean don't seem to care enough about Africa, Asia our own Caribbean countries and the wider Americas. More Jamaicans know about what has happened in Iraq over the last two years than they know about what has been happening in Haiti right next door. It took an American democratic candidate to make a cause of Haiti by saying that while the United States and Europe are bu.s.y finding ways to write off Iraq's debt, they should cancel or at least ameliorate Haiti's debt as well. After all Haiti, the poorest country in the western hemisphere, does not have the oil that Iraq has, has not sponsored international terrorism against the U.S. and is facing a virtual financial sanction because it will not bend to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
THE MISERABLE STATE
OF THE WORLD
The miserable state of world poverty is only matched by the miserly state of the rich countries. Jeffrey Sachs of the Earth Institute at Columbia University recently told the United Nations Indu.s.trial Development Organisation (UNIDO) that 20,000 people around the world die each day becau.s.e of poverty. The U.S will spend US$450 billion on its military this year but only US$10 billion on development assistance, a ration of 45:1. The U.S. has spent US$87 billion on the war in Iraq but only US$1 billion to combat AIDS. A major contributor to world hunger is unfair trade. The U.S. and Europe spend billions each year to protect their agricultural markets thu.s. dooming the farmers of agricultural nations to failure and poverty. World hunger is also cau.s.ed by onerou.s. debts. Debts are not cau.s.ed by political corruption, as the propaganda goes. A study by Jubilee 2000 has found that African countries that have received some debt relief spend more on education and health from what they save. Hunger is also cau.s.ed by IMF au.s.terity measures. Right next door in the Dominican Republic, people are demonstrating against such IMF measures.
Except for a few, the rich countries have failed to meet the UN target of the percentage of GDP they pledged to spend on international aid. This has moved presidential candidate Howard Dean to say that if he becomes president he will spend US$30 billion dollars on AIDS and hunger in the world in his first term. And, he will not make war, he will make peace. This is why the outcome of the next presidential elections matters to me and should matter to all of u.s.. It is a world issue. This is why democratic elections in the U.S. are more important to the world than democratic elections anywhere else in the world. It can make a difference between an American president who makes war and one who makes peace; one who respects the democracy of other countries and one who does not; and one who can make democracy fail for other people or one who will help democracy to succeed.
THE STATE OF THE CARIBBEAN
We do not have to look as far as Iraq to see the problems of violence and poverty. Haiti remains in crisis. It is timely for u.s. to turn our attention to that neighbour. On January 1, 2004, Haiti will begin to celebrate 200 years of independence. It is the first Black republic. It is ravaged by AIDS and lacks basic services like paved roads, running water and regular electricity. Up to 75 per cent of the population is unemployed or irregularly employed. Democratic stability remains a distant dream. The Government has been facing growing demonstrations since September. Calls are increasing for President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to step down. One reason is becau.s.e of unfair legislative elections in 2000 and another is the grinding persistent poverty.
Regardless of which government is in power, Haitians are simply desperate for better conditions. The country lacks friends who could help. International financial institutions are holding up funds until Haiti accepts the u.s.ual IMF programme for more au.s.terity. When such a poor country is called upon to accept more au.s.terity as its solution, we see how dogmatic and irrelevant the IMF is.
Alex Dupuy, a Haitian scholar residing in the U.S. says that Haitians should approach 2004 with an honest reflection on who they are and where the country is headed. The country should have, he said, a critical examination of what the Haitian revolution is all about. Another Haitian asked, how can we celebrate when people are dying? The demonstrations themselves have already cost at least 21 lives. Poverty causes much more.
Dupuy is right. Haiti mu.s.t accept its own failures and take responsibility for its future.
The Haitian way has not worked and refu.s.al to break the deadlock will only invite more misery and outside intervention. Neither France, Europe nor the United States gave Haiti a chance to succeed over its 200 years of independence. They u.s.ed it for what they could get. Aristide is asking France for US$21.7 billion in restitution and reparations. He shouldn't hold his breath.
TOUGH WARNING
The U.S. has issued the expected tough warning against the Haitian Government for repressing people's rights. Haiti could be the next country that the U.S. invades. When Bill Clinton sent troops into Haiti to restore Aristide in 1994, George Bu.s.h Snr said if he had still been president he would not have done so. The CIA has been waiting for the chance to topple Aristide and we know that George W. Bu.s.h likes to complete the designs of his father. In a year of presidential elections in the U.S. he might invade to play his patriotic trump card as the euphoria over Saddam's capture fades.
In 2004 I hope a democrat wins the U.S. presidential elections, Haiti will hold new legislative elections, our media will pay more attention to the Caribbean, and all of us will commit to our personal foreign policies to make ourselves more aware of world poverty. There are many international movements through which we can get information and act. Everybody deserves peace and goodwill whether they believe in Christmas or not.
* Robert Buddan lectures in the Department of Government, UWI, Mona. E-mail: Robert.Buddan@uwimona.edu.jm
