Toronto Haiti Action Committee (THAC)

On my last trip to Haiti, the guest house where I stayed had some copies of Eyes of the Heart: Seeking a Path for the Poor in the Age of Globalization by Jean-Bertrand Aristide. I took some notes of some of my favourite passages when I read it:

From where we sit, the most staggaring statistics of all are those that reflect the polarization of this wealth. In 1960 the richest 20% of the world's population had 70% of the world's wealth, today they have 86% of the wealth. In 1960 the poorest 20% of the world's population had just 2.3% of the wealth of the world. Today this has shrunk to just barely 1%.

Imagine that the five fingers of your hand represented the world's population. The hand has $100 to share. Today the thumb, representing the richest 20% of the world's population has $86 for itself. The little finger has just $1. The thumb is accumulating wealth with breath-taking speed and never looking back. The little finger is sinking deeper into economic misery. The distance between them grows larger every day.

Behind this crisis of dollars there is a human crisis: among the poor, immeasurable human suffering; among the others, the powerful, the policy makers, a poverty of spirit which has made a religion of the market and its invisible hand. A crisis of imagination so profound that the only measure of value is profit, the only measure of human progress is economic growth.

We have not reached the consensus that to eat is a basic human right. This is an ethical crisis. This is a crisis of faith.

Many in the first world imagine the amount of money spent on aid to developing countries massive. In fact, it amounts to only .03% of the GNP of the industrialized nations. In 1995, the director of the U.S. aid agency defended his agency by testifying to his congress that 84 cents of every dollar of aid goes back into the U.S. economy in goods and services purchased.

I particularly like this passage:

How do these people survive? Why is suicide practically unheard of in Haiti? To understand we must move beyond statistics. To see the richness of the Haitian people we must examine cultural factors: wealth of humor, warmth of character, ease of laughter, dignity, solidarity. We have traditions in Haiti that allow us to share food when we can. We raise the child of a friend or relative who cannot. We work toether in a Konbit to bring in a crop, or build a neighbor's house in exchange for a meal shared at the end of the day. We can make one more place on a tap-tap that is already impossibly full. The majority of Haitians survive in a vast informal economy that remains beyond the statisticians, yet provides sustenance for 70% of the urban workforce. And then we still smile, and we still laugh. In Haiti we are rich in these.

Do not confuse democracy with the holding of elections every four or five years. Elections are the exam, testing the health of our system. Voter participation is the grade. But school is in session every day. Only the day-to-day participation of the people at all levels of governance can breathe life into democracy and create the possibility for people to play a significant role in shaping the state and the society that they want.

One of the most sobering parts of the book is that, written in 2000, Aristide talks a lot about his hopes for what might be possible when Haiti reaches its 200th anniversary in 2004. His words speak with great enthusiasm and vision. Unfortunately, the 2004 he had to deal with involved a coup which ushered in two years of tremendous violence for the Haitian people.