On Wednesday, we traveled to Cozumel, Mexico. According to the tour guide of our excursion (an ATV adventure through the jungle!), 90% of Cozumel residents work in tourism. He told us that there is no industry (outside of tourism), no factories, no agriculture. Trusty Wikipedia seems to confirm this:
"(Scuba) Diving and charter fishing comprise nearly all sources of income. There are more than 90 restaurants on the island and many hotels, some of which run dive operations, have swimming pools, private docks, and multiple dining facilities."
"All food and manufactured supplies are shipped to the island. Water is provided by a seawater desalinization facility located on the southern portion of the island."
Kind of makes you wonder what happens if tourists stop coming.
Everyone that we met on the island was extremely friendly and welcoming and we had a great day riding our ATVs, eating a large lunch, chatting with taxi drivers, and perusing the shops.
Our cab driver had a collection of patches from tourist firefighters, police officers and paramedics
Tons of jewelry shops offering lower prices than in the United States and the added benefit of being tax and duty free
Dynamic Systems theory recognizes that development occurs in rapidly changing, complex environments through interactions between biological/ecological and social/political/economic systems, mediated by technology. The dynamics systems approach, developed by the STEPS Centre, challenges conventional, linear forms of development that often seek to eliminate and control natural variability rather than respond or adapt to it. As I have discussed in previous posts, conventional forms of development (or humanitarian aid in the case of famine) tend to be narrow in scope, apolitical, and lack flexibility/adaptability in a constantly changing, politically and socially complex world. Conventional responses, if they are development-based, tend to focus on a singular path to development, often “progress,” “modernization,” or “economic growth.” Or they ignore the possibility of development and just provide emergency rations of food.
The STEPS centre, defines development as “change that contributes to reduced poverty, improved well being and social justice for marginalised women, men and children in developing countries.” Rather than a singular path to development, dynamics systems involves the concept of pathways - there are a variety of methods to achieving development and these pathways change for different individuals or groups and in different settings. Each individual or group, from the president to the ministry of agriculture to the urban shop owner to the most marginalized people in a society, has different standpoints and different priorities – they “frame” things differently – and the myriad of different potential framings, in combination with objective (or as objective as possible) social, technological and ecological realities are all important considerations.
From a working paper by the STEPS centre: “How, and in what circumstances, can dynamic, intertwined social, technological and ecological change contribute to processes and outcomes that are more resilient, sustainable and, socially just? How can multiple values and framings be dealt with in ways that support, rather than undermine, marginalized peoples’ own perspectives and priorities?”
More can be read about the STEPS centre and dynamics systems at their website, www.steps-centre.org.
How can we apply the concept of dynamics systems to famine? de Waal’s analysis of different famine situations in Africa – especially the importance that he places on political and institutional considerations – fit well into the concepts of dynamics systems. Throughout the book, he provides an analysis of different famines in Africa at different time points, within different political and social contexts. He challenges humanitarian aid organizations (and foreign governments) that ignore the complexities of the causes of famine, claiming the need to be apolitical or neutral, and repeat the same mistakes over and over again.
It seems to me that the concept of dynamics systems could be useful in famine situations in two ways. First is analyzing the complexities (political, economic, ecological) involved in the causes of famine(as de Waal does throughout Famine Crimes). What are the interactions between environmental conditions (drought, agriculture), political conditions(authoritarian governments, civil wars, humanitarian interventions), social conditions (marginalization, ethnic conflicts, gender issues), economic conditions (extreme poverty, lack of economic opportunity, food prices) that create famine? How do different groups within a society view these conditions and how are they affected? What solutions have been tried before in similar conditions? Why did they fail or succeed? Famines too often receive attention once they become emergency situations and food rations are the only option for relief. Once the drama is over, organizations move on to the next crisis situation, often with rubber-stamp solutions, regardless of the situation.
de Waal describes many countries in which early warning systems for famines are put into place. These warning systems often are managed and funded by foreign agencies, don't involve and are not made known to the public, and are technical in nature (they warn, for example, that the grain supply is low and grain needs to be imported). A new kind of early warning system, based on dynamic systems concepts, that takes into account all of the complexities of famine situations and managed by the public (community groups, local NGOs, etc) might be more useful in lessening the possibility of or the detrimental effects of famine. Humanitarian agencies, then, might have a place in working alongside communities and politicians to develop these warning systems - which will be different for each country and each context.
Secondly, once the causes and symptoms of famine are better understood by the public, by governments, and by humanitarian agencies, dynamics systems concepts could be used in shaping famine prevention/response policies. Responses should be highly dependent on context and several pathways to famine relief should be explored. Most of the responses depicted in Famine Crimes involved singular solutions, regardless of the economic, political, or ecological contexts which undoubtedly vary from country to country. These solutions were usually not designed to reach marginalized populations or affect people in a way that mattered to them beyond their immediate needs of not starving.
Recognizing and being frank about different priorities that are involved (governments wanting to stay in power, humanitarian organizations wanting to save people or promote their own cause, rural communities wanting to be able to maintain their livestock, urban residents wanting affordable maize flour) is important could lead to a myriad of possible solutions.
The STEPS Centre is currently carrying out research on environmental change and maize in Kenya (learn more here). From their website:
"This project takes maize as a window through which to explore differential responses to climate change, market uncertainties and land use changes over time. It traces different types of innovation and response proposed by various actors – public agricultural research institutions, donors, development agencies, private companies and farmers."
"Drought resistance for staple crops is the holy grail of plant breeding in the developing world, particularly in Africa, where limited irrigation constrains agricultural growth. This challenge becomes even more acute with the prospect of greater variability in rainfall patterns as a result of environmental change."
The research involves many different groups of stakeholders and addresses several different environmental and economic conditions. The project recognizes that some conditions, like drought or climate change and maybe even famine, can't necessarily be prevented or controlled but seeks to investigate and implement solutions involving processes that can be controlled. The idea of dynamic systems approaches (in my mind at least) is not to solve and/or end of all of the world's problems but to recognize the possibility of uncertainty and enable populations to adapt to change, be prepared for potential calamities, and exist in a constant state of learning, understanding, and responding. As de Waal makes evident, what has been done and what is being done is not working and, especially in situations where a political contract between governments and citizens cannot be established, the dynamics systems approach might provide a way forward.
Few of us can deny that when we think of famine in Africa – we think of emaciated, helpless people (especially children with “starvation bellies”) living in barren, dry deserts. These people are usually “traditional” Africans, wearing jewelry made out of bones and little clothing, not yet integrated into modern African society. This image, ingrained in our minds, is the result of "hegemony," a concept developed in the 1920s by an Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci. Hegemony refers to the integration of a certain set of values, beliefs, and morals into our thought process through socialization in our everyday lives. Hegemony also involves power dynamics. According to Peet and Hartwick, what we believe and think tends to be "supportive of the established order and its dominating classes" and hegemony "mystifies power relations, camouflages the causes of public issues and events, encourages fatalism and political passivity."
In the case of famine in Africa, because few of us will ever have the chance to travel to Africa and talk to those suffering from famine, we rely on the media to provide us with information about what famine looks like, how it is caused, and what is being done or should be done to address it. I searched YouTube to provide a more concrete example and found this video from New York Times reporter Jeffrey Gettleman on famine in Northern Kenya in September, 2009.
I was pretty impressed when I discovered that de Waal’s description of the portrayal of famine in the media (in a book written in 1997) still holds true in 2009. According to de Waal, most reporters go into famine situations with a pretty good idea of what famine looks like (thanks to hegemony) and their job is just to search for the right combination of elements to make the viewer feel involved and, of course, to evoke a response. Most reports are a sort of "fairy story" with a helpless victim in distress, a villain (often the weather) and a savior. In this video, we see the helpless people of the Turkana region – seemingly dying in front of our eyes, the representation of geography/weather as the villain (phrases such as "bone-dry desert" and "unforgiving landscape" are used) and the hero, World Vision.
In the last post, I mentioned James Ferguson’s book the Anti-Politics Machine in which he deconstructs a World Bank report about Lesotho. I’m going to attempt to deconstruct some of the elements of this video, applying some concepts from both Famine Crimes and the Anti-Politics Machine: Portrayal of famine sufferers as “traditional”
Modernization theory of development holds modern, Western countries as the ideal and assesses the development of other countries in terms of how far they have “advanced” in becoming like the West, socially and economically. One of the themes of note in the Lesotho World Bank report was the representation of Lesotho as aboriginal – “not yet incorporated into the modern world, so that it can be transformed by the roads and infrastructure, education.” Gettleman describes the Turkana as “some of Kenya’s most traditional people” who have “fought off modernity.” He also, for some reason, notes that they “still” scar their skin and wear feathers in their hair. The implication, to me at least, is that the lack of modernity in the lives of the Turkana and the persistence of their traditional practices play a role in their starvation.
Ferguson discussed the idea of a “less developed” country as “historically retarded” and one in which “poverty appears as a result of not yet having been introduced to the modern world.” Presenting conditions or lifestyles as traditional vs. modern makes it seemingly simple to solve the problem. If the Turkana people would just stop fighting off modernity, they would find all sorts of ways to earn a living and prosper and wouldn’t be suffering from famine. Interestingly, the Wikipedia entry on the Turkana notes that “in recent years, development aid programs have aimed at introducing fishing among the Turkana (a taboo in Turkana society) with varying success." Lack of consideration of politics
de Waal, describing famine in the 1980s in Kenya, attributes relentless impoverishment among pastoralists of northern Kenya to a history of displacement from their land, violent government attacks, restriction on movement, ethnic discrimination and other human rights abuses. The political contract that does exist between the Kenyan government and the people of Kenya has been exploited for political gains and is focused mostly in urban areas. During times of famine, the Kenyan government tends to provide food aid to their political allies and those who can keep them in power (the people of Turkana are neither of these). None of these issues are even hinted at in the overly simplified New York Times report – there is no mention of politics at all.
This video, by the Kenyan news agency NTV is from August 2009, just a month before the New York Times report. It begins the same, displaying the Turkana people forced to eat wild fruits. The report quickly transitions into discussing the government’s plans for an emergency response.
The New York Times report does not make any mention of this emergency program by the government, either because it never materialized (which should also be newsworthy) or because it worked with an apolitical humanitarian agency to create the report. The report simplifies the issue of famine to being caused by weather and traditional practices. Additionally, through hegemony, the report undermines and even makes negligible the Kenyan government’s responsibility to the people of Turkana in the eyes of viewers (politicians, aid workers, donors) across the globe.
Relationship between aid agencies and journalists
de Waal primarily focuses on the intimate, contractual relationship between the media and international agencies in Famine Crimes. He quotes George Alagiah of BBC television:
"Relief agencies depend on us for publicity and we need them to tell us where the stories are. There's an unspoken understanding between us, a sort of code. We try not to ask the question too bluntly: 'Where will we find the most starving babies?' And they never answer explicitly. We get the pictures just the same."
de Waal attributes this relationship to a few factors: the fear of journalists to venture into the unknown without being accompanied by an aid worker, laziness on the part of the journalist, and “knowing that the editor wants and ‘aid angle’ anyway and will not appreciate a complicated inquiry into local politics.” In the New York Times article, Gettleman points out a woman who has walked 15 miles to wait for food from World Vision – "one of the few aid agencies out here." The Turkana people are shown carrying bags of food donated by World Vision. The video becomes part news report, and part commercial for World Vision.
Gettleman’s report also mentions that World Vision helped build an irrigation project to grow corn in the desert but it has failed because there is no rain. This brings up the issue of accountability of aid agencies. Do the Turkana traditionally grow corn and do they want to? Is the land in the Turkana region suitable for growing corn? Why put money into an aid project that depends on rain in a region that has experienced years of droughts? The World Vision worker that Gettleman interviewed probably thought that an irrigation project was a great idea and because of the way it is presented in the report (as an obvious solution to the problem that unfortunately fell victim to the villainous weather) we, as the unknowing viewer, agree. According to de Waal, aid agencies tend to experience immunity from journalistic scrutiny about their competence and effectiveness and this is the key problem in the relationship between the two.
Exploitation of and lack of accountability to famine sufferers
I cringed when watching some of this report – it seemed so sensationalized and exploitative. The only time the people of Turkana get a chance to speak – they are portrayed as completely helpless, saying things like “the only thing I can do is to take her to get some help – to wait here until she dies.” Are they not angry at the situation? Are they happy with World Vision’s response? Has anyone asked them what they want or what they see as a solution to the problem? The World Vision worker does mention that, in speaking with the community, people are concerned about losing their livestock but the only solutions being presented are bags of food and irrigation projects. de Waal on lack of accountability of the media states that "Western journalists do not need to worry if they present famine victims in false, offensive, or degrading terms because they know that the people portrayed will not complain and have no recourse mechanisms." In all of this, none of the major players - the Kenyan government, World Vision, or the international media – are actually, legitimately accountable to the people suffering from starvation.
Famine Crimes was written in 1997 and it would have been nice to discover that his analyses no longer apply today. The fact that they do, though, shows how humanitarian agencies continue to perpetuate their own existence and are, at least partially, to blame for the continuation of famine in Africa.
Yesterday, we were in Labadee, Haiti (there was a good amount of effort spent quelling fears of getting cholera to passengers). According to documents by The Nation of Why Not, “although originally said to have been discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1942, it wasn’t until Royal Caribbean discovered it five centuries later that it became the secluded paradise that it is today” (really, you can’t make this stuff up). Labadee is on the northern coast of Haiti and is a private resort, leased by Royal Caribbean International. A few fun facts from the Wikipedia entry on Labadee (Wikipedia has become my favorite source because it is easy to get to in a short amount of time):
Royal Caribbean International has contributed the largest proportion of tourist revenue to Haiti since 1986, employing 300 locals, allowing another 200 to sell their wares on the premises, and paying the Haitian government US$6 per tourist
In 1991, a journalist revealed that passengers who disembarked at the location were not informed they were in Haiti.
In January 2010, just after the 2010 Haiti earthquake, Royal Caribbean decided to continue its luxury cruises to the private port. The corporation announced it would be donating US$1 million to fund relief efforts in Haiti, and to use cruise ships to ferry relief supplies and personnel.
The location is named after Marquis de La'Badie, a Frenchman who first settled the area in the 17th century. The spelling was changed to "Labadee" to make it easier for English-speakers to pronounce.
Unfortunately, there was a torrential downpour yesterday so we didn't get to do much and I didn’t get to take any pictures but a quick Google image search will give you a good idea of what it looks like.
Here are some other pictures from around the ship:
Discussing the definitions and theories of famine is important because these definitions shape and provide impetus for the response to famines. It seems to me that there is a spectrum of definitions. At one end of the spectrum is the definition first put forth by Thomas Malthus, a British scholar, in 1798. According to de Waal in Famine Crimes, “Malthus identified famine as a shortfall in the supply of food in a given area and, simultaneously, the death by starvation of a substantial proportion of the inhabitants.” Malthus, who is well known for his theories on population change, believed that famine was an inevitable response to population growth. As the population of a country or area increases, without corresponding increases in the supply of food, the supply of food will not be enough to feed everyone. Some people will starve and die and in this way, the population naturally controls itself.
This definition of famine, and subsequent similar definitions, were used as a form of discourse and taken on by governments as justification for neoliberal policies. “Discourse” is a postdevelopment concept, put forth by French philosopher Michel Foucault, and depicted in one of our course texts, Theories of Development by Richard Peet and Elaine Hartwick. According to Peet and Hartwick, discourses are rationalized statements or arguments made by those among us considered “experts." What is postulated by these experts is considered fact or objectively true. For example, in class we accept and write down what our professor tells us, because he/she is the professor and it is her job to tell us what is true and what isn't.
de Waal points out that there has never been any empirical evidence to support Malthus’ theory. The school of postdevelopment would argue that it was accepted as true and as a basis for policies because it was put forth by a scholar. once accpted, governments could then assume responsibility for addressing famines because of the discourse that it was inevitable and just a result of nature taking its course. This idea ties well into the neoliberal concept of market forces and that governments should intervene minimally, even during times of financial crises, because the market will eventually, and naturally, even itself out.
On the opposite end of the spectrum is Amartya’s Sen’s definition of famine, referenced by de Waal in Famine Crimes. In his Poverty and Famines, published in 1981, Sen stated that “starvation is the characteristic of some people not having enough food to eat. It is not the characteristic of there not being enough food to eat.” Sen’s thoughts can still be considered a form of discourse and can be used for justification for a different response to famine. Because famines can occur even when there is enough food, interventions should increase famine sufferers’ access to food. It becomes the duty of governments to ensure not only that a supply of food exists, but that it is available to every person. Interventions would involve job creation, lowering or subsidizing the price of food, or cash transfers for those who cannot afford to purchase food.
Somewhere between these two concepts, I believe, lies the definition of famine adopted by humanitarian agencies. According to de Waal and another postdevelopment writer, James Ferguson who wrote The Anti-Politics Machine, a book we covered in class, humanitarian agencies are, in practice and often by law, apolitical. They avoid and often ignore the political circumstances in a country when crafting their responses to crises of poverty and hunger. If these organizations held governments as solely responsible for addressing poverty or famine, they would have no way of justifying their own existence.
In The Anti-Politics Machine, Ferguson writes about development projects in Lesotho. In the first part of the book, he analyzes a World Bank report about Lesotho which creates a specific picture of conditions in the country that are vastly different from actual conditions. According to Ferguson, this picture is one “in which the colonial past is a blank, economic stagnation is due to government inaction and ‘development’ results from ‘development’ projects.” In regards to famine, the humanitarian definition is one that creates a space for humanitarian response - another example of the use of discourse. Famine is a result of government inaction and can be addressed only by emergency aid, managed by foreign institutions and governments. de Waal refer to this as “internationalizing responsibility” which “means giving an indefinitely wide array of people (theoretically the whole population of the globe, practically the concerned citizens of aid-giving countries) a stake in disasters and disaster relief.”
I am, for the purposes of trying to write succinctly, largely generalizing and theories regarding famine are a lot more complex than I am presenting them. The purpose of this post was to demonstrate that although famine is generally thought of as a lack of food, it is an extremely complex issue. The lack of attention to its complexity, which is one of the main ideas that de Waal is trying to deal with in Famine Crimes, has had deleterious consequences. I will be taking a closer look at these complexities – and what has been done to deal with them (or ignore them)– in later posts.
I apologize for the delay in posting, I set off yesterday on a seven day cruise (we will be stopping at Labadee in Haiti and Costa Maya and Cozumel in Mexico) and didn’t have time to sign up for access to internet. I am on what is apparently the largest cruise ship in the world, also known as “The Nation of Why Not.”
The irony of being in an environment of extreme excess while writing about famine is not lost on me. Nor is the fact that I am writing this while in the vicinity of a 24-hour all-you-can-eat buffet.
Painful irony of the day (I think I am going to make this a daily series): Last night at dinner, my sister and I complained because the huge basket of bread is carried around by the assistant waiter instead of left at your table. “Why do we have to wait for him to come around to eat bread, we’re so hungry!!”
Logistical note: I am paying $0.50/minute for wi-fi so I may not be able to include as many links as I would like to. I’m going to do my best though.
About Me: I'm Jen Sapitro, I am a MPH student in the International Health and Development Department at Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. This blog has been created as a final assignment for INHL 720, Development Theory. It will be my last (class-related) assignment at Tulane!
My experience working abroad has been focused in Kenya (some people say that I am studying Kenya Health and Development). Although I have traveled throughout the country, the majority of my time has been spent in Nairobi. I am, unfortunately, guilty of the urban bias that Alex de Waal discusses throughout the book (keep reading).
About the Assignment: The course, over the past eight weeks, has covered predominant theories and concepts of development. We started by asking "what is development?" (a question I admittedly am still not sure I am able to answer) and discussed the perspectives of different philosophers, theorists, authors and organizations. I will be discussing some of these theories and concepts, including neoliberalism, livelihoods, rights-based approaches, and postdevelopment in later posts.
My final assignment is based on the book Famine Crimes (click here for a preview of the first 18 pages) by Alex de Waal. The book is his analysis of the issue of famine in Africa, the failure to respond by African governments, and the perpetuation of famine by western donors and international, humanitarian organizations. I will be posting several entries that reflect and expand upon the main themes discussed in the book by applying concepts and theories presented in the course, through my own perspective.
About Famine Crimes (briefly): de Waal started writing Famine Crimes in an attempt to flesh out an assertion by Amartya Sen that countries in which citizens enjoy political freedoms (the freedom to vote freely and fairly, freedom of the press, freedom to protest, freedom of speech) do not experience famine. Sen argues that famines represent not a shortage of food but a lack of access, for social, political, or economic reasons, to food (more on defining famine in a later blog post).
One of the main themes in the book, building upon on Sen's ideas, is that famine is political and that both governments and humanitarian agencies enter into a political contract with the citizens of countries. By being elected and allowed into the country, governments and agencies take on the responsibility of preventing famine, which de Waal believes should be considered a "political scandal." Neither, he says, have held up their end of the contract. African politicians are the main culprits for creating and then not responding properly to famines. Western governments and agencies have, through neoliberal policies such as structural adjustment and disaster relief programs, undermined governments' accountability to those who (fairly or not fairly) elected them.
About the blog: I hope to post at the very least every other day but hopefully every day. I have some of my post topics in mind but hope that the shape of the blog will develop as I go. I will try to provide links to relevant concepts, people, websites, and media. I welcome any and all questions, suggestions, corrections and criticisms by e-mail at sapitroj@gmail.com or in the comments section!
