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United NationsEducational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization
CourierTHE UNESCO September 2010
ISSN 1993-8616
Rebirthfor Haiti
At one with Haiti
by Wole Soyinka
Haitian renaissance
by MarieLaurence JocelynLassègue
Not from zero
by Michèle Oriol
The Haitian press: A turning point
by Roberson Alphonse
The four pillars of Haitian
reconstruction
by Alex Dupuy
Street university
by Jacky Lumarque
UNESCO in action
by Mehdi Benchelah
Archives : René Depestre
par Jasmina Šopova
Diversity
Many sacred sites around the world are meetingplaces for biological diversity and culturaldiversity. UNESCO works to promote recognitionof their importance in safeguarding theenvironment and cultures.
The Organization has a key role in twointernational years celebrated in 2010:
The International Year of Biodiversity, aimingto raise awareness and encourage action topromote the safeguarding of the variety ofanimal and plant species in the world and theirenvironmentwww.cbd.int/2010/welcomeandThe International Year for the Rapprochement
of Cultures, designed to promote respect fordifferent cultures and break down the barriersbetween them.www.unesco.org/fr/rapprochement-of-cultures
An international conference on the theme ofCultural and Biological Diversity was held inMontreal (Canada from 8th to 10th June 2010). Read more: www.cbd.int/meetings/icbcd
Read:
Caldecott, Julian; Miles, Lera. World atlas of
great apes and their conservation, Berkeley,Calif., University of California Press, 2005
Investing in cultural diversity and intercultural
dialogue (UNESCO World Report 2009)http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0018/001852/185202e.pdf
Convention on the Protection and Promotion of
the Diversity of Cultural Expressions
Information kithttp://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001495/149502E.pdf
What is Intangible Cultural Heritage?
http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/doc/src/01851-EN.pdf
Other UNESCO publications:
http://publishing.unesco.org/results.aspx?page=1&theme=3#english
Photo: Rock art, Anbangbang gallery in Kakadu nationalpark (Australia), UNESCO World Heritage site since 1981.Kakadu rock art recounts 40,000 years of history.© Our Place the World Heritage Collection
Editorial by Irina Bokova, Director General of UNESCO 5
DOSSIER
At one with Haiti by Wole Soyinka 8
Responsibility, the link between freedom and solidarity
by Bernard Hadjadj 11
Culture, cradle of the Haitian renaissance
by Marie-Laurence Jocelyn-Lassègue 13
Haiti’s new start will not be from zero by Michèle Oriol 15
Building a new Haiti by Nancy Roc 19
The Haitian press: A turning point by Roberson Alphonse 23
A common search for greater humanity by Raoul Peck 25
The Haitian economy’s vicious circle by Gérald Chéry 27
Culture and development: two sides of the coin by Antonio Vigilante 29
The four pillars of Haitian reconstruction by Alex Dupuy 31
Street university interview with Jacky Lumarque by Jean O’Sullivan 34
Reform instead of petition by Jean Coulanges 36
UNESCO in action by Mehdi BenchelahTraining brings concrete contribution to reconstruction 38Emergency syllabus for schools 39
Archives
Kêbé l’Inesko Fò 41
Between utopia and reality
interview with René Depestre by Jasmina Šopova 44
TOPICS
FocusEducation at risk – the impact of the financial crisis
by Samer Al-Samarrai 47
We’re breaking our promise to teach all the world’s children
by Kevin Watkins 49
PortraitGhani Alani: Calligraphy is the link between man and the letter
by Bassam Mansour 51
ForesightGender Equality
interview with Sam Nujoma by Hans d’Orville and Clare Stark 53
T H E U N E S C O C O U R I E R . S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 0 . 3
United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization
Sculpture in the National Art Centre, Port-au-Prince, Haiti. L
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CourierTHE UNESCO September 2010
The UNESCO Courier is published by the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
7, place de Fontenoy
75352 Paris 07 SP, France
www.unesco.org/courier
Editor in Chief: Jasmina Šopova
Editors:
Arabic: Bassam Mansour assisted by Zaina Dufour
Chinese: Weiny Cauhape
English: Cathy Nolan
Portuguese: Ana Lúcia Guimarães
Russian: Katerina Markelova
Spanish: Luisa Futoransky and Francisco Vicente-Sandoval
Intern: Noémie Antony
Photo: Danica Bijeljac and Fiona Ryan
PDF Layout: Baseline Arts Ltd, Oxford
Printing: UNESCO – CLD
General inquiries, reprint and reproduction rights
Fiona Ryan
+ 33 (0)1 45 68 15 88
Articles and photos credited UNESCO may be reproduced
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Articles express the opinions of the authors and do not
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Photographs belonging to UNESCO may be reproduced
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and photographer's name. For high resolution, please
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Boundaries on maps do not imply official endorsement
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of the countries and territories concerned.
This issue was published with the support of the
UNESCO Office of Strategic Planning.
4 . T H E U N E S C O C O U R I E R . S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 0
Bad weather. Cap-Haitien L
IN THIS ISSUEHaiti is contemplating its future lucidly, beyondthe ruins. In the aftermath of the 12 January 2010disaster, the Haitians expressing their views in thisissue of the Courier are not indulging inlamentations. They look at the past the better toanalyze their country’s present situation and toconsider what should come next. If they accuseHaiti of lacking vision, of falling prey tosuperstition or the trap of victimhood, this is onlyto clear the ground for reconstruction. Along withthe other international experts who participated inthe forum “Rebuilding the social, cultural andintellectual fabric of Haiti” organized by UNESCOlast 24 March, they are expecting the internationalcommunity to assist them in a more responsible
way than in the past. But above all Haitians arerelying on themselves.
“The very soil on which both the seeds oftyranny and resistance were sown,” in the words ofWole Soyinka, 1986 winner of the Nobel Prize forliterature, Haiti is preparing its refoundation. Therebuilding needed is not only political, economicand social, it is also intellectual, emotional andmoral. To this end, Haiti must draw particularly oneducation, which must be reinvented, and onculture, its essential vital force. On the internationalscale, these domains fall into UNESCO’s fields ofcompetence; immediately after the disaster theOrganization pledged its support for Haiti’s recovery. Jasmina Šopova
T H E U N E S C O C O U R I E R . S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 0 . 5
A whole country is tending to its wounds. Itwas still dealing with the aftermath of hurricaneswhen a terrible earthquake struck. On 12 January2010, Haiti sank into a state of despair ascountless lives lay buried under the rubble,countless houses were destroyed, libraries andmuseums flattened, schools demolished, thebrand new Quisqueya University was in ruins,Port-au-Prince cathedral reduced to dust –images that will remain etched in our mindsforever.
Haiti has been in mourning since the yearbegan. But, like René Depestre’s “innocent birds”that “…learn once more how to sing among thesilent,” allowing “healing tenderness” to workupon “the mind’s most piercing wound”1, hopewas already rising from the ashes when I visitedthe country, barely two months after the disaster.I wanted to let the people of Haiti know theycould count on UNESCO for support, and tostudy, with the Government, the best ways ourOrganization could provide assistance.
There are times when it is difficult to findhope without help. And we extended our handto this devastated island. At the InternationalDonors’ Conference for Haiti in New York on 31March, $10 billion were pledged in the mid-termto get the country back on its feet.
At the meeting, President René Prévallaunched an appeal for aid to get the educationsystem running again. UNESCO responded withtraining workshops on post-earthquake
construction, emergency education,psychological and social counselling in schools(see pages 38–40). These are just a few of theinitial projects that we supported, largelythrough a fund-raising drive launched just twodays after the disaster, on 14 January.
Culture as bedrock
Almost at the same time as the New Yorkconference, UNESCO joined with Haiti’s Ministerof Culture and Communication to lay thefoundations for the International CoordinationCommittee for Haitian Culture (ICC). The ideaarose at an international meeting at UNESCOheadquarters on 16 February to study the stateof cultural and heritage sites in Haiti after theearthquake.
The ICC is chaired by the Haitian Minister forCulture and Communication, Marie-LaurenceJocelyn Lassègue, and was set up to coordinateinitiatives concerning Haitian culture and tomobilize the necessary resources. In July, thecommittee met to draft a “road map”.Recommendations include making an inventoryof the capital, Port-au-Prince, and of Jacmel,nominated for inscription on the World HeritageList; identifying the most vulnerable expressionsof intangible cultural heritage; arranging for theprotection of archives, books and other culturalartefacts; and gathering data and developingmethodological techniques for the culturalindustries.
1. Intempéries 99, a poem by
René Depestre, renowned
Haitian writer, born in Jacmel
on 29 August 1926 and a
former UNESCO staff member.
Editorialby Irina Bokova
Irina Bokova, Director-General
of UNESCO, and Marie-
Laurence Jocelyn-Lassègue,
Haitian Minister
of Culture and
Communication.
Port-au-Prince, March 2010. I
There are times when it is difficult tofind hopewithout help.And weextended ourhand to thisdevastatedisland.
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Catalyst for a new era
As the distinguished Malian writer and ethnologist Amadou Hampâté Bâ believed, a country withoutpoets, storytellers, musicians, painters, singers and artists would surely die of cold.
Haiti will certainly not die, because its painters started painting again, its poets started creating, itssingers composing, its writers writing, and stories started circulating, very soon after the disaster of
12 January 2010.We were tempted to flee, to take refuge in imagination and create wondrous worlds, as weknow how to do so well. But after the earthquake, we changed. The clean slate is now thecatalyst for a new era. It encourages the revival of mental attitudes aimed at building aconcrete future, with the help of our creativity and imagination, of course, exacerbated bythe constant connection to suffering.
Mimi Barthélémy, Haitian storytellerUNESCO, 24 March 2010
To ensure implementation of the ICC’srecommendations, I decided to set up anInternational Donors’ Committee, which willmeet early in 2011 to study the first projectproposals.
To date, UNESCO has invested about$450,000 from its regular budget in actionsconcerning Haiti’s culture, including a project tosafeguard the National History Park in the northof the island, which has a symbolic importancefor the country. This World Heritage site includesthe Citadel, Palace of Sans Souci and the Ramiersbuildings, dating back to the early 19th century,when the first Black Republic declaredindependence.
Donations are already starting to come in,like that from a Buddhist institution in theRepublic of Korea, to support theatre in therefugee camps in Port-au-Prince. I am veryattached to this project because it uses thecathartic effects of theatre to sow the seeds ofhope in even the most barren soil (see box).
And, because I believe that culture also actsas a catalyst and motor for growth in society, Ithink that development cannot be conceivedwithout it. This reality is beginning to gainacceptance – culture is finally penetrating the“inner circle” of economics and finance. As proof,it figures in the Joint Post-Disaster NeedsAssessment Programme launched in Port-au-Prince on 18 February.
‘Poto mitans’ of the future
Immediately after the earthquake UNESCOobtained satellite images in order to draw up adetailed risk assessment map for Haiti’s culturalheritage. This project, to be carried out incollaboration with the European Space Agency,is one of a series of science initiatives. Obviously,the first and most urgent deals with water.Already last January, UNESCO’s InternationalHydrological Programme (IHP) began drafting aplan of action for managing the country’s waterresources. In the longer term, we have prepared
“Culture is theresource thatsociety needsto move fromtoday totomorrow”Arjun Appadurai, Indian sociologist
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a proposal aimed to create a Haitian scienceand technology institute for the prevention ofnatural disasters, which will evaluate naturallyoccurring risks, design and implement actionplans for their mitigation, and provideeducation and training in disaster prevention,while raising public awareness.
Indeed, public awareness and access toinformation are prime concerns of UNESCO,which has already provided emergency aid tosafeguard Haiti’s endangered documentaryheritage. The Organization is also setting up amobile multimedia unit, to enable thoseaffected, especially young people, to learn touse new tools for communication. I feel that thisinitiative will have positive effects not just interms of access to information, but also onsocial cohesion within the refugee camps.
A huge amount of work also awaits us in thesocial sciences, which, alongside education,culture, the natural sciences andcommunication, are pillars (‘Potos mitans’ in thebeautiful Creole language) of the restorationand rebuilding of Haiti. The whole fabric ofHaitian society has to be woven together againif the island is to be reborn. And the history of acountry is not written onto doubtful ‘cleanslates’ of the past. It is written in the continuityof noise and fury, as well as achievements andwisdom.
This is why, on 24 March, I held a Forum onHaiti, bringing together writers, journalists,policy-makers and international experts.Under the aegis of UNESCO they discussed thepaths that Haiti should take towardssustainable development. This special issue ofthe UNESCO Courier is a reflection of theirdebates, and shows the central role thatculture and education have to play in thereconstruction of the country. �
Public awareness and accessto information are primeconcerns of UNESCO, whichhas already providedemergency aid to safeguardHaiti’s endangereddocumentary heritage.
A good laugh can nourish a person for months
A theatrical project supported by UNESCO with the Haitian streettheatre troupe Zhovie aims to give displaced people in Port-au-Prince a moment of joy and solace, and to help relieve their fearsafter the 12 January 2010 earthquake that left many of them withnothing. Zhovie gave the first performance of the play “Zonbi Lage”on 11 April in Acra camp, which shelters some 20,000 people inmakeshift tents and shacks on Delmas Avenue, a main thoroughfarein Port-au-Prince.
“The purpose of this theatre production is to provide atherapeutic experience for the earthquake victims, particularly youngpeople,” explains Jean Joseph, a Zhovie player who teachesphilosophy in a senior high school in the capital. “If we want to helpthe survivors, it’s not enough to give them food. Mental health countsas much as physical health. We, the actors, have to help thesedepressed, desperate people and try to revive their hopes. A positivememory, a good laugh, can nourish a person for months,” says theamateur thespian.
Zhovie, founded in 2004, is a street theatre troupe of 14 actors andthree percussionists. Its show, “Zombi Lage”, evokes the quakethrough texts written by Haitian author Frankétienne, nominated aUNESCO Artist for Peace in March 2010. Characters on stage includeBaron Samedi, Voodoo divinity of the dead, and the zombie, a living-dead slave.
The theatre troupe is now much in demand and UNESCO isplanning to sponsor a series of performances in other camps fordisplaced persons. – M.B.
Scene from ‘Zombi Lage’. Acra Camp, 11 April 2010. L
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“When a habitation dies, a warehouse of
memory perishes with it,” says Wole
Soyinka, winner of the Nobel Prize for
literature. He calls for restoring the spirit of
Haiti, a country fallen prey to political
contradictions and the victim of blind
forces of nature.
At onewith Haiti
by Wole Soyinka
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If ever there was an ill-starred island, it is thatisle once known as Hispaniola, whose westernhalf is named Haiti, a land of profoundcontradictions that symbolize at once the loftiestaspiration of the human spirit – freedom - and itseternal adversary, tyranny. Even the spirituality ofthe African continent that sustained its peoplesthrough generations of human degradation hasnot escaped a tyrannical conversion. Voodoobecame part of the negative face of folklore,turned into an agency of superstitious andpolitical terror that shrouded the nation in anopaque, diabolical subjugation, meat and drinkto the cinematic arts. Now it would appear themuch abused mystic forces of Nature haveturned palpably brutal, joined in the spiral ofreprisals and left a people stunned into acondition that evokes that very image of dread –the zombie, or the living dead. All too painfully,the process of resuscitation lumbers on.
‘When a book is lost,’ goes a familiar Africansaying, ‘it can be replaced. When a village elderdies, however, an entire library has vanished’.Societies steeped in the tradition of the griot,and other oral custodians of a people’s heritage,may be forgiven this touch of hyperbole.Nonetheless it is a sentiment that is based ontruth. Elders have died in Haiti, so have youth.
So have habitations. The scale of destructionprovokes a variation on that African saying,instructing us that when a habitation dies, awarehouse of memory perishes with it. Such aloss is the world’s, however, not merely that ofthe stricken locality.
More than physical libraries have been lost inHaiti! Yes indeed, those also, and the records, thephysical structures, the priceless archives thatguard a people’s history have ended in rubble,mush and ashes. In addition to these however, sohave the venerated spots and landmarks, thepatina of ancestry on familiar walls, thecommunal spaces such as market squares,arbours, ageless trees under whose shade acommunity is renewed as the griot spins outnarratives of a people’s antecedents and society’scoming-in-being, where knowledge of identitypasses from the old and is embedded in theyoung. These are the palpable threads in thefabric of continuity of our species, linkinggeneration to generation. For Haiti, much of thisis entombed in the insatiable maw of Nature.Even cobbled pathways, evocative of time past,the mementoes and monuments of bothtriumphant and hostile faces of history have notbeen spared. Heritage transcends meremonuments however. The very soil on whichboth the seeds of tyranny and resistance weresown, the earth that is soaked in the blood ofdespots and martyrs alike are part of a people’snarrative, all eloquent chapters, annotations andbookmarks that line the daily passages of apeople even as they pursue their most mundaneactivities. These have been crushed, mangledinto indecipherable mounds, shorn of theircommunal associations. The bulldozer has beenaccorded the last word. Hallowed spaces ofLegend have become one with earthworks, theguaranteed bequest of a blind catastrophe.
How often has the world of letters beenmoved, irrespective of race, to indulge in thecelebration of the victory of Haitian resistanceunder General Desallines1 over the forces of re-enslavement dispatched by Napoleon Bonapartein his imperial obsessions! Haiti tested andshredded the claims of Europe as the nursery ofthe Age of Enlightenment. Beyond the clash ofarms, however, Haiti proved the manifestation ofa people’s supreme will that resulted in theestablishment of the first independent blackrepublic on the globe, an event whose heroes –such as Toussaint Louverture2 – have beenrhapsodized by poets and dramatists,
Heritagetranscendsmeremonumentshowever. Thevery soil onwhich both theseeds oftyranny andresistance weresown, the earththat is soakedin the blood ofdespots andmartyrs alikeare part of apeople’snarrative.
Fallen statue of Toussaint
Louverture, hero of the
Haitian revolution, outside
presidential palace,
Port-au-Prince. J
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immortalized in statuaries, on canvases, muralsand tapestries from impassioned brushes,weavers and carvers. They range from schooledmasters of the arts in formal galleries to theroadside, ‘naive’ painters all the way from Harlemto South Africa! But these figures are thesurvivors across time, today we are confrontedby the needs of survivors in present time, thedirect heirs of that proud history, the livingrepositories of their attainment, and inspirationof our creativity.
Their burden is now ours, their agony ours,the hope of their survival ours. If we fail them, wedeny them, we endorse the victory of blindNature over human resilience andresourcefulness and thus, we fail ourselves. Wemaster Fate only when we disperse the stench ofdeath and anguish with the magic wand of faithin the future, planting a kiss of life on the faces oforphans, the wounded, and the bereaved.
Haiti casts a net of historic evocations that istotally disproportionate to her size, at once anaspiration and a warning. Haiti embodies boththe glory and tragedy of the black race. Neverbefore, however, have her people confronted achallenge of such dimensions – and opportunity.Haiti exists beyond mere symbol, being, for itstime, a unique testing ground of human destinyin the eternal struggle between domination andliberty, between power and freedom. Haiti is alesson, not merely for the African world but forhumanity. Nature has thus dealt a cruel, nearirreparable blow, firstly to the African peopleseverywhere, but more widely to a worldcommunity wherever freedom is valued, andhistory, heritage and memory are understood asthe cohering fabric of communal existence.
Thus, Haiti cannot be permitted to die,stagnate, or degenerate. Opportunitiessometimes exact a costly price, and this, Haiti haspaid several times over, in one fell swoop! Now isthe time to milk that opportunity in turn andassist her own visionaries to recreate Haitiansociety morally, socially and intellectually. Muchhas been done, and we salute the humaneresponse of the world. But we cannot becomplacent. We do not know how much of Haiti’shumanity — which is ours — is still, even now,roaming directionless, foraging with canines androdents for food, crouched under crude shelters,mothers with the future cradled in their arms,starving, listless, with large bewildered eyes in
mute appeal to unseen, would-be providers. Asthe healers of the world rush to the aid of thewounded and the traumatized, reviving hospitalsand clinics, ferrying drugs and nourishment,writers, artists and intellectuals must join handsfor the restoration of the mind. Libraries must bere-stocked, galleries replenished, and schoolsresuscitated. Writers can help by donating theirsand other books, painters their canvases,architects their skills, and teachers all forms ofinstructional aid. It is clear – Haiti will never againbe the same island we once knew, nor Port-au-Prince exude her faintly decadent redolence of atroubled past. Nonetheless, we can recreate fromits rubble a totally new and vibrant social entitythat becomes a beacon of universal solidarity, anaffirmation of the human spirit, an enduringoutpost of a mother continent whose stolenchildren wiped out the ignominy of enslavementand transformed a mere labour stockade into acitadel of defiance, and a vision of liberty. �
1. Jean-Jacques Dessalines
(1758-1806), a leader of the
Haitian revolution, was Haiti’s
first emperor (1804-1806)
under the name Jacques I
2. Toussaint Louverture (1743-
1803), emblematic figure of
the Haitian revolution and
governor of Saint-Domingue
(Haiti’s former name)
As the healers of the world rush to the aid of thewounded and the traumatized, reviving hospitalsand clinics, ferrying drugs and nourishment, writers,artists and intellectuals must join hands for therestoration of the mind.
Wole Soyinka (Nigeria), Nobel Prize in
Literature 1986, is a member of the High Panel
on Peace and Dialogue among Cultures
created in 2010 by the Director-General of
UNESCO, Irina Bokova.
The novelist and playwright is the founder
of two theatrical groups, the 1960 Masks and
Orisun Theatre.
He is currently emeritus professor at
Obafemi Awolowo University, emeritus
member of the Black Mountain Institute at the
University of Nevada (USA), and professor in
residence at Loyola Marymount University in
Los Angeles, California.
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“Attacked, ostracized, coveted,subjected to gunboat diplomacy, divided,militarized, battered.” This is the image theHaitian historian and diplomat DantesBellegarde paints of his country, adding“Haiti’s independence, endlesslythreatened throughout its tumultuousand chaotic history, is still something of amiracle.”
Indeed, the first black republic hassuffered considerable pressure from bothwithin and without, which has made for aturbulent trajectory. Ostracized by thesuperpowers, who couldn’t accept theemancipation of this black Tom Thumb,Haiti has faced tyrannical regimesfounded upon the exclusion of thepeople, held in a state of utter destitutionand despair.
The superpowers adopted a toughstance, whether it was Francewithdrawing precious financial resourcesfrom the fledgling nation, or the 19 yearsof American occupation at the start of the
20th century. And the long night ofslavery left deep and lasting scars on thesocial and financial life of Haitians. Themaster-slave relationship and the riftbetween the bô lan mè people (thoseliving by the sea) and the gwo soulyé(peasant farmers) are examples ofschisms that persisted beyond the end ofslavery, and still, more than two centuriesafter independence, undermine thestructure of Haitian society.
But how does one really escape fromslavery? Once the exuberance of freedomhas worn off, how does one constructliberty? Because it needs substance, sothat “the trials of liberty do not becomeinsupportable,” as the Greek-born Frenchphilosopher, Cornélius Castoriadis, hasemphasised, before going on to explainthat “that only happens when onemanages to do nothing with thatfreedom.”
The great Toussaint Louverture and,after him, the founding fathers of theHaitian Republic, may have won thefundamental battle for humanism, but itwould seem they failed when it came toimplementing a new social charter.
Freedom
Very soon after independence, the oldrelationships of servitude werereproduced. The farmer-generals took theplace of the colonials, the former slaveswere subjected to forced labour, confinedto the plantation, remaining aneu logou,i.e. denied any freedom of speech, theright to deliberate or to be inventive.Marronage, which was once celebrated asan act of resistance against theoppression of slavery, was, from the timeof the first (1801) constitution, seen as aform of vagrancy and punished withsevere penalties. This agrarian militarism(caporalisme agraire) was in force right upuntil 1904, a century after Haitianindependence! The peasants, who hadfought for freedom, were sidelined fromessential debates on how to break withthe colonial past.
It is easy to understand how the verystructure of the master-slave relationshipcould make it difficult to use the law toconstruct freedom, considering howmuch it saps the Caribbean spirit anddislocates family structures. Indeed, thefather figure becomes devalued as soonas his place is usurped by the master, andthis destabilises the rule of law – themenacing figure of the master, who is“beyond the law”, becomes a symbol of
Since Haiti became independent
in 1804, a succession of
traumatic events has marked the
country’s history, complicating
the task of building freedom. The
irresponsible attitudes of
superpowers and national
political leaders have left the
country at an impasse. The only
way out is through responsible
action and solidarity on a global
scale.
Jacmel carnival figure symbolizing
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Responsibility, the link between freedomand solidarity
by Bernard Hadjadj
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violence and confusion, in opposition tothat of father, who upholds order. “Thewords of the father are in accordance withthe law […] whereas the words of themaster are just an echo of themselves,”wrote the French psychoanalyst, JacquesAndré, in L’Inceste focal dans la famille noireantillaise (1987).
It is in these conditions of political andpsychological violence that Haitian libertyserved its apprenticeship. But, to escapefrom slavery means overcoming one’snegative self-image and finding the lightof true liberation inside oneself, not byrepeating patterns of dominanceinherited from the plantation. It meansrediscovering self-esteem.
Just a few years ago, in 2004, theHaitian writer, René Depestre, in a letter tohis compatriot, Carl Fombrun, spoke ofanother form of slavery to which thepeople are still subjected: “Let us abolishthis internal slavery that the theologies ofbarbarism impose on the wretchedconsciousness of Haiti,” he writes. “Let usmake un unprecedented effort torediscover a sense of responsibility, toconfront the row of zeros that twocenturies of incompetence have allowedto accumulate to the left of our zombie-like immobility.”
Responsibility
Depending on the way a societyorganizes its politics and beliefs, it caneither favour or hinder a sense ofresponsibility in its members. Politically,military dictators and populist totalitarianleaders in Haiti have often posed assupreme saviours, believing themselves tobe charged with a divine mission. Andwhen the leader is seen as a Living God,the people have nothing more to say.
Meanwhile, Protestant churches, asthe Haitian ethnologist Charles-PoissetRomain notes, have encouragedsupernatural explanations forunderdevelopment. “Is the Church not toblame for encouraging and preachingfatalism, and of training quitters, ratherthan vicars?” he writes in Le Protestantismedans la société haïtienne (1986). Butfatalism leads to inaction and an attitudeof spectator, rather than critic, of what ishappening.
Then there is voodoo, whose lavé tètinitiation rite is emblematic. It consists ofintroducing into the head of the initiate aLoa, a kind of guardian angel, a protectingspirit. According to the Frenchanthropologist Roger Bastide, it is “not the
physical head of the individual, but hisintelligence, his sensitivity, his psycho-physical life; it is the spirit, in a word, inrelation to the soul.” If there is indeed akind of doubling involved, one might wellwonder who commands his actions. If acrime is committed, who is guilty?
One often hears Haitians say: sé pa fôtmwin (it’s not my fault), sé pa mwin mêm(it’s not me, myself), sé de m’yé (I am two),etc. Responsibility, which is a necessarycondition for any form of freedom, thenbecomes a totally relative category. Theprinciple of reparation associated withjustice is violated, opening the door toimpunity. And it can easily be seen thatthis pair – violence-impunity –impregnates the psychology of theHaitian masses through and through.
“Any reform of minds has to come viathe acceptance of our collective failure,”writes the Haitian educationalist RogerPéreira, in his article, “Haïti or the trial offreedom” (2001). “We are all part of theproblem; it is on this condition alone thatwe can all be part of its solutions.”
Solidarity
Also, although responsibility is above all apersonal matter, it must be understood,following the Israeli philosopher MartinBuber, that every human being can onlydefine himself as I when in contact withthou. Every individual I is part of the I-thoudyad that underlies the world ofrelationships. Relationships are bydefinition interdependent.
If there is one precursor to thedevelopment of solidarity betweenbeings, it is freedom, in the Arendtian1
sense, i.e. merging with politics, this publicspace where ‘living together’ is forgedthrough dialogue. Freedom can only bepracticed in society, by giving expressionto concern for the other whether close ordistant, and a concern for the generalinterest.
Freedom and responsibility cannot bedissociated and can only be expressedfully through solidarity, without which wewould be reduced to what the Frenchphilosopher, Jean-Claude Michéa called
monadic egos, without a soul. A worldthat is not interdependent would abolishhumans.
More than ever, during the terribletimes that Haiti has been living throughsince the earthquake of 12 January 2010,the central question of responsibility israised – both that of Haitians and that ofthe international community – and ofnational and global solidarity. UNESCO, inits function as intellectual watchdog anddisseminator of ideas and ethical values,will have a role to play alongside Haitiansin introducing the principle ofresponsibility wherever there is dialoguein Haiti, and notably in education. It is amatter of accompanying the physicalreconstruction of the country with a socialand civil reconstruction founded uponeducation and culture. �
1. Hannah Arendt (1906-1975), German-born,
naturalized American professor of political theory.
“To those who see no more than ratiocination in the re-examination of the past
suggested in this article, one may reply that it is the sine qua non of an
openness towards the future. It is not a matter of seeking ghosts of a past that
some may think has gone forever, but, as the French philosopher Emmanuel
Lévinas, wrote, of “reviving the radicalism of a memory which, through the
passage of time, inscribes a permanent and fertile tension between past and
future, between the particular and the universal.” – B.H.
A staff member of UNESCO, Bernard
Hadjadj has a PhD in the socio-
economics of human resources. After
spending 10 years conducting
research in social science, he joined
the French Ministry for Cooperation
and, for ten years, held posts as Head
of cooperation and cultural action in
Haiti, Benin and Djibouti. African and
Haitian by adoption, he has proved it
through well-researched and
sensitive testimonials in two books: :
L’Afrique en marge (1998) and L’An
prochain à Port-au-Prince : Sortir de
l’esclavage (2007).
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Using culture to reconstruct Haiti – is this “a challenge? an anomaly? or a threat?” toparaphrase the expression used by the blackAmerican historian Rayford Logan after theunexpected emergence of the new nation-stateof Haiti in 1804.
Neither anomaly nor threat, but certainly achallenge, because after a historic two hundredyears of existence, with periods of advance andregression, sometimes provoked from within,sometimes from outside, the task in hand today,since the 12 January 2010 disaster, is no less than aradical rebirth of Haiti. And, after the hundreds ofthousands of deaths and innumerable collapsedbuildings, what is left that can serve as cradle forthis renaissance? What remains are Haiti’s culturalresources. At the height of the Americanoccupation of Haiti, with a paternalistic butwelcome vehemence, Dr Jean Price Mars, writingin his landmark book Ainsi parla l'Oncle, publishedin 1928 [translated as So Spoke the Uncle in 1983],reminded us that it is these resources that give lifeto our country and enable it to survive.
The time has come to reaffirm that the endgoal of development is the happiness of thepeople, and to recognize that culture is anessential element in our country’s development.Not an accessory or a luxury, accessible only tothe elite, but the very stuff that weaves societytogether, gives it strength and helps fosterwellbeing, in tandem with the economy.
A hotbed of artistic activity, Haiti does not take
full advantage of its cultural resources to further
its development. The new cultural action plan,
aimed particularly at young people, calls for
raising awareness of vectors of creativity and
promoting them.
Culture, cradle of theHaitian renaissance
by Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lassègue
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Jacmel carnival figuresymbolizing liberationfrom slavery.
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Plan of action for culture
Because of her conviction that culture can play amajor part in the process of renovation andrestructuring of Haiti, the Minister of Culture andCommunication has called for the integration offour themes in the nation’s Plan of Action forReconstruction and Development – institutionalstrengthening; economic development; identity,citizenship and social cohesion; regionalintegration and international cooperation.
Institutional strengthening implies theestablishment of partnership agreementsbetween various ministries, with a view toencouraging the creation of infrastructuresaround cultural goods and services, as well asrespecting specific heritage characteristics whendeveloping given sites.
The Minister is aware that the cultural andcreative industries can make a significantcontribution to our GDP, and this is why sheplans to set up a ‘creativity fund’ aimed at artists,craftspeople and cultural enterprises, as well asestablishing a mechanism in favour ofprofessional training and the promotion ofcultural entrepreneurship, with the ultimate goalof integrating cultural factors with economicdevelopment.
The sense of identity and citizenship neededfor social cohesion can only emerge whenknowledge and skills are valued and passed onfrom generation to generation. It is thereforenecessary to create the right conditions for the
Haitian people to accept who they are and tocontinue to renew and nourish their traditions.Haitian culture derives its strength fromcreativity (in art, theatre, dance, music, etc.). Thismeans that measures are needed, targetingyoung people especially and in cooperationwith the Ministry of Education, to raiseawareness and to encourage vectors forcreativity.
Haitian creativity is responsible for a greatdiversity of national culture, which is recognisedthe world over, especially in the Caribbean.There are many examples of Haitian culture’smajor influence in other countries in the region,as part of a constant flow of exchanges. Today,these exchanges need to be given extraimpetus, with a deliberate policy of regionalintegration and international cooperationthrough culture. A strengthened culturalpresence on the regional and international stagewill help to improve the image of our countryabroad, while reassuring our compatriots in thediaspora, our international partners andpotential investors.
An Observatory for Haitian culture
To encourage greater coherence in publicinvolvement in culture, the Ministry of Cultureintends to bring together national andinternational artists and culture professionals, aswell as foreign friends and policy-makers, at anational Forum on Haitian culture. This Forumwill provide an opportunity to meet and identifythe main priorities and lines of action. Theprogramme will be monitored and evaluated onthe basis of a series of indicators, data andstatistics, drawn up in cooperation with UNESCO.
Given the nature of its mandate, the Organi -zation can play a leading role in supporting Haition its long path to renovation and reconstruction,especially in the cultural and artistic fields.I believe that the project for a Haitian CulturalObservatory, to which we are particularlyattached, would constitute an ideal andsustainable vehicle for developing this role. �
A militant feminist,
Marie-Laurence Jocelyn
Lassègue was named Haiti’s
Minister of Culture and
Communication in November
2009. She held the position
previously from 1991 to 1993, after
having worked as a teacher and
journalist. From 2006 to November
2009, she was also Minister for
Women’s Affairs and Women’s
Rights.
It is thereforenecessary tocreate the rightconditions forthe Haitianpeople to acceptwho they areand to continueto renew andnourish theirtraditions.
André Eugène, one of
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In Port-au-Prince on 12 January, after the secondtremor had ended, I was waiting, anxiously, for thethird. That’s when I heard shouting. It was comingfrom the Després and Pacot Hills. There were criesfrom every street in the Bas Peu de Chose quarter:Jesus! Jesus! Mary! Armageddon!
For the next three nights, all these people –crowded in the streets to escape the crumbled
houses that hid the bodies of their loved ones –prayed to Jesus, chanted prayers, read the Bible.Revelation 6: “And I saw when he opened the sixthseal, and there was a great earthquake; […] andevery mountain and island were moved out of theirplaces.” Revelation 16: “For they are the spirits ofdevils, working miracles, which go forth unto thekings of the earth and of the whole world […]
Animism, voodoo and fundamentalist Christian beliefs prevent a
number of Haitians from taking their destiny into their own hands.
Superstition has contributed to the country’s fall into the trap of
victimhood. A rational analysis of Haiti’s past and its present situation is
the key to salvation.
by Michèle Oriol
This Haitian couple, starting
over, have already planted
trees in front of their
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Haiti’s new start willnot be from zero
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And he gathered them together into a place calledin the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. […] And therewere voices, and thunders, and lightning; and therewas a great earthquake, such as was not since menwere upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, andso great. And the great city was divided into threeparts, and the cities of the nations fell […] Andevery island fled away, and the mountains were notfound.”
Everything was interpreted as a sign: if thechurches had collapsed, if the Palais National hadgone up in smoke, it was because the politicianshad shown themselves unworthy of God.Revelation 18 (9-10): “And the kings of the earth,who committed fornication and lived wantonlywith her, shall weep and wail over her, when theylook upon the smoke of her burning, standing afaroff for the fear of her torment, saying, Woe, woe, thegreat city, Babylon, the strong city! For in one houris thy judgment come.”
I saw people using their bare hands to pulltheir brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers orneighbours out of the rubble. I saw dead bodiesbeing shovelled up with bulldozers, tipped intoskips and buried in common graves, dug intorefuse dumps. I saw an endless column of peoplefiling up the hills to Pétion-Ville and Kenscoff,leaving the lower quarters to the looters. Thisunnamed thing, this goudougoudou drove tensof thousands of terrified Haitians out to theprovinces, to the Dominican Republic, USA orCanada. Revelation 6 (15): “And the kings of theearth, and the princes, and the chief captains, andthe rich, and the strong, and every bondman andfreeman, hid themselves in the caves and in therocks of the mountains.”
And ever since, by word of mouth, on theradio and television, in gatherings of believers, allone can hear are inspired voices declaring theend of a 25-year cycle, ending in 2011, with thetotal destruction of Haiti! Revelation 11(14): “Thesecond Woe is past: behold, the third Woe comethquickly.”
We are in the kingdom of deep-seated fears,which sometimes reverberate through an entiresociety and demand an explanation.
An eternalvictim does notsee himself asmaster of hisown destiny
Behold these shreds and cinders of your race,
This child and mother heaped in common
wreck, These scattered limbs beneath
the marble shafts—
A hundred thousand whom the earth
devours,
Who, torn and bloody, palpitating yet,
Entombed beneath their hospitable roofs,
In racking torment end their stricken lives.
To those expiring murmurs of distress,
To that appalling spectacle of woe,
Will ye reply: “You do but illustrate
The Iron laws that chain the will of God”?
Say ye, o’er that yet quivering mass of flesh:
“God is avenged: the wage of sin is death”?
What crime, what sin, had those young
hearts conceived
That lie, bleeding and torn, on mother’s
breast?
Did fallen Lisbon deeper drink of vice
Than London, Paris, or sunlit Madrid?
“Poem on the Lisbon Disaster”
Voltaire
Women praying in front of
a statue repainted for the
visit of Pope John Paul II,
Port-au-Prince cathedral,
1982. I
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( bottom right), destroyed
by the 1755 earthquake and
preserved in its ruined state,
resembles the Port-au-
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buildings were destroyed. Under the ruins of theRoyal Palace, the 70,000 books and pricelessarchives of the national library lay in fragments.
We are told that the very pragmatic PrimeMinister, Sebastião de Melo, Marquis of Pombal,simply said: “What now? Bury the dead and feedthe living.” And he immediately sent troops toput out the flames and gather the bodies,publicly hanged looters as a warning, andprevented able-bodied inhabitants from leavingthe city … Barely a year later the city had beencleaned up and reconstruction could begin.
This catastrophe shook all of Europe andeven influenced Enlightenment philosophers.Humanity felt alone in the Universe. It was nolonger possible to speak of Providence withoutthinking of Lisbon.
How will the 2010 earthquake change Haitian
thinking?
For an animist society, an earthquake is not anatural phenomenon, but the result of somemalicious intervention. Biblical references, withinthe context of Protestant fundamentalistchurches and integrated by Voodooists andCatholics, only exacerbate the trauma sufferedby the people. This phenomenon has aconsiderable hold over people’s minds. Thosewho are imagining a Haitian nation should thinkabout this.
Haiti was considered to be the poorestcountry in the Northern hemisphere; now it seesitself as the unluckiest, even cursed. We havelong been subject to incessant victimisation byour leaders, but also by many Haitian and foreignintellectuals. Victimhood is the greatest trapbefore us today. In our very fragile institutionalcontext, the world’s kindness and generosity
In eight days I did not see a single uniformedperson in the streets. Not a Haitian policeman, nora soldier from the United Nations StabilizationMission in Haiti. It was four weeks before the Headof State addressed the nation. The State seemedto have collapsed along with its symbolicbuildings. Even today, we are still waiting fordecisions and directives that never come.
Another time, another place – a detour
through history
On 1 November 1755, at 9.40 a.m., that is, on themorning of the Catholic All Saints Day, a terribleearthquake struck Lisbon, devastating it in thespace of a few minutes. And then an enormoustsunami engulfed the centre of the city. What thesea spared was devoured by fire. A quarter of theinhabitants lost their lives and most of the
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may undermine our capacity to look afterourselves. We must banish victimhood andrediscover our self-esteem. An eternal victimdoes not see himself as master of his owndestiny.
Over these past decades, as Haitianinstitutions gradually started to go under, as theeconomy floundered, as the spectre of civil warloomed closer and closer, as the State lost itssovereignty – as much the fault of interventionsby armies of foreigners as of uncoordinatedinternational aid – our identity crisis onlydeepened. And we were entirely focused on thepast, so confused was the present, while thefuture seemed a dead-end.
But what have we inherited from this past?The images of Toussaint Louverture and Jean-Jacques Dessalines, these two former semi-illiterate slaves who were able to lead Haititowards independence, to establish a republic,create a nation and thus remain a source ofpride. But also, and especially, a sinister refrainwhich is constantly being beaten out: for 200years, all Haitian Heads of State have beendespots, murderers and corrupt; for 200 years,the administration has been a mess; for 200years, the country has been torn apart by civilwars and social inequalities.
Trying to start from zero again
This denigration of the past is harmful for thefuture. And it is not innocuous: it lets those inpower off the hook and, with them, theinternational community that supports them. Wecover our ancestors with curses in order to cast apuritanical veil over what is happening under ournoses today, namely, an increase in the rate ofpopulation growth that the economy cannotsupport and that politicians ignore; adehumanising form of urbanisation, born of thedestruction of the peasant economy; thetrivialisation of the impact of the presence offoreign armed forces; and an ecological disasterthat is largely the responsibility of timberexporting companies.
The capital had become a monster, with overtwo million inhabitants. The population doubledevery ten years between 1970 and 1990. Ittripled between 1990 and 2000. And as a result,62% of its housing was built between 1995 and2000.
In other words, it was not our ancestors whobuilt the houses in Port-au-Prince that killed over200,000 people. The responsibility for thesebuildings lies with Haiti’s present-day politiciansand the countless foreign aid missions, which, for
the past 16 years, have been sharing power withour leaders.
Rather than condemn the past, why notstudy recent history and the present day? Sincethe Americans arrived under the flag of theUnited Nations, in 1994, political authority hasbeen, at best, ambiguous: we are neither atrusteeship, nor entirely independent.Governments on artificial life-support succeedone another, leading the State towards abottomless precipice. So the question of politicalpower clearly needs to be posed, as it is centralto reconstruction.
Wanting to restructure the Haitian stateseems like a dream of starting from zero again.The Haitian state has existed for 206 years. It isnot a matter of restructuring it, but, on thecontrary, of creating links between the past andthe present, reconnecting with history andconsidering what it has to teach us. This is theway to return meaning to the lives of the Haitianpeople, and with it a sense of dignity and selfesteem. �
A Haitian sociologist and anthropologist,
Michèle Oriol one of the creators of the
Foundation for Iconographic and
Documentary Research in Port-au-Prince. She
is a member of the Haitian National
Committee for the Memory of the World, a
UNESCO programme devoted to the
preservation and dissemination of archive
holdings and library collections around the
world. An independent consultant for a range
of national and international institutions, she
has contributed to many rural development
and environmental protection projects and
has directed an international research team on
the Haitian property situation. She lectures on
family sociology at the Faculty of Human
Sciences at the Haitian State University.
We cover our ancestors with curses in order to cast apuritanical veil over what is happening under ournoses today.
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We are going to have to accept that it will beimpossible to reconstitute the social, cultural andintellectual fabric of Haiti. Contrary to what hassometimes been claimed – that the social, culturaland intellectual fabric of Haiti was torn apart on 12 January 2010 – it was in tatters long before thisfateful day.
Twenty years of populism had alreadypolarized Haitian society, deepening the classdivide and accelerating a brain drain that hasbegun under the François Duvalier regime. “Over83% of the best qualified workforce produced in
Haiti ends up by leaving the country to liveabroad,” says the World Bank, adding that the USAis the preferred destination for the great majorityof expatriate professionals. Canada is another.
Following the 12 January earthquake, thishaemorrhaging out of the country has alreadyincreased and could well get worse if concreteand urgent action is not taken very soon. Withunemployment running at 90%, Haiti’s economywas already in the red long before the earthquake.It would be better not to dwell on the figures here,to avoid even more self-flagellation.
Brain drain, cultural destitution, social decay, irresponsibility,
corruption – these are key words in this harshly critical portrait
of Haitian reality, followed by proposals for rebuilding a new
Haiti founded on science, intelligence, competence, humanism
and humility.
byNancy Roc
Building a new Haiti
Desperate gesture.
Port-au-Prince,
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As a country, Haiti is lagging behind in everything.The world’s first black Republic has become thepariah of the American continent – a country that has never been able to lift itself tonation status and which is, today, more than ever,dependent on international charity. Charity, andnot aid for sustainable development, which,instead of helping our country get on its feet, has,for the past 20 years, dragged it into the darkdepths of misery. Of course, Haitians are the first toblame for their social decadence, but donorsshould also accept their share of the responsibility.And that is why the next governments need tomake enlightened choices and turn to the Haitiandiaspora, which provides three times more moneyeach year than the international community – $1.8 billion compared to $500 million, respectively.
Successive governments since 1986 haveclaimed that Haitian culture is our greatest asset.Yet nothing has been done to show this cultureoff. If it were not for the vitality and talent of ourartists and creators, this culture would alsoprobably be moribund today. How is it that, inthe 21st century, Haiti does not have a singletheatre worthy of the name? Last August, thecapital’s only cinema announced that it wasclosing, seriously threatening the survival of
Haiti’s nascent film industry. The National Theatreand National School of Arts buildings have longbeen ruins, or used for political ends far removedform any artistic vocation. Even if Haitian cultureis still alive, there is absolutely nowhere that itcan be appreciated. The destitution of Haitianculture is shameful: not a single theatre orcinema, no museum fit for the country’s art, localpublishing enterprises with no resources, nonewspapers or magazines, no cultural radiostation, no cultural policy, no real school of art.What has happened to the country that seducedFrench Culture Minister and intellectual André Malraux.
All is not lost
The time has come to “reshuffle the cards” and allmay not be lost. In its Plan of Action for Recoveryand Development presented to the United Nationson 31 March, the Haitian government recognises,for the first time, that culture is “an element whosemarginalisation has, for many years, led to thefailure of development support programmes inalmost all countries.” Obviously, this presupposesthat the State sends clear signals that it is willing tohelp to make the cultural sector economically bothviable and enviable.
Haitians try to leave
Port-au-Prince by boat. L
It is worth noting that while Haitians arequick to blame the inefficiency of the State, it isalso hard to believe that not a singleorganisation, company or businessman in Haiti isinterested in investing more in culture. LastAugust, in an article entitled “The case for a realtheatre in Haiti”, published in the Le Matinnewspaper and reprinted in the CourrierInternational under the headline “The Show isOver”1, I tried to attract the Haitian public’sattention to the economic potential of theculture sector. In 2007 alone, culture brought inalmost $25 billion in taxes to Canada’s Federal,provincial and municipal government coffers.That is almost three times more than the $7.9billion invested in culture and the arts by thesethree levels of government put together2. But tounderstand and strive towards this, mediocrityhas to be abandoned. When will we see realHaitian patrons and philanthropists with a senseof social commitment and dignity? When will wesee less philistine entrepreneurs? Why is it that,for several years, the biggest sports and culturalevents in Haiti have mainly been sponsored byforeign mobile phone companies? What doesthis say about the vision of Haitian businessmen?These questions are still unanswered.
In intellectual terms, too, Haiti raises someunsettling questions. How has this State with noidea of being a nation become a country withoutgovernment? It seems to us that the motto of“everyone for themselves”, together with a veryjealous mistrust of its neighbours, can find its rootsin the country’s history, where the State has neverreally embodied anything of any value. Haiti’s elitehas never worked for the development of thecountry or the common good. First, because itlooks down, disparagingly, on the “illiteratemasses” and also because of its greed for power.And the lingering odour of slavery in Haitiansociety has not encouraged a sense ofresponsibility, at any level of society. Theexpression “sé pa fot moin” (it’s not my fault) hasbecome a national slogan.
But if Haiti is not responsible... obviously,someone else is. It is only a short step betweencalling on foreign organisations to intervene andthen immediately denouncing the “interference”of foreigners in Haitian life. The bankruptcy of thecountry’s elite can be seen in the followingobservation: for 200 years, as the Haitiansociologist, Laënnec Hurbon, put it “the feeling ofbeing a citizen of this country has not been clear.The mentality of the citizen has not evolvedmuch.” The question of skin colour, often utilizedby political parties in power, has widened thesocial divide in a society of apartheid and has nothelped Haitians to find consensus around thenotion of “living together”. And, becausepopulism has exacerbated contempt forintellectuals, they have been relieved of their
social responsibilities. The global success of DanyLafferière, Frankétienne, Lionel Trouillot, GaryVictor, Yanick Lahens, Louis Philippe Dalembert,to name but a few, proves that our writers areable to conquer the world. What is more, some ofthem took part in the “new social contractmovement” launched in 2004 by the Haitianpolitical collective known as the “Group of 184”,which called on the Haitian people “to rise to thechallenge of overcoming the historical obstaclesthat have hindered Haitian unity, blockeddevelopment and, even today, led to the political,social and economic decline of our country.” But,once its “political leaders” abandoned themovement, so did they.
Identity: one or many?
According to the Cameroonian sociologist, AxelleKabou, “every society is, in the first and finalanalysis, responsible for the entirety of its history,without exclusion.” It is therefore necessary thatour intellectuals urgently raise the issue of Haitianidentity. What, really, is it today? Is there one Haitior are there only fragments of a Haitian identityscattered across the world? Can we speak of acommon Haitian stock that holds true for allHaitians living in Haiti, the Dominican Republic,Miami, Boston, New York, Paris and Montreal?What is the best way to structure reflection on thequestion and come up with different approaches?
In the light of these points, which are only themain strands of the problems inherent in thetattered social, cultural and intellectual fabric ofHaiti, how to mobilise social knowledge and skillsin order to revitalise Haiti today?
I certainly do not claim to have THE answer tosuch a complex question, given the context I havejust outlined. Nevertheless, it does seem possibleto set out some proposals, some of which arealready being implemented.
The role of the diaspora
Recently, Amos Cincir, my colleague at thenewspaper, Le Nouvelliste, wrote: “the country isfacing a significant exodus, especially of its elite.No less than 10,000 Haitians, among the bestqualified, have been leaving the island every yearsince 2000. But illegal migration often ends intragedy, with 1000 would-be emigrants dyingevery year on the high seas. Those who dosucceed in leaving become the breadwinners forthe families who stay behind. Almost 40% ofHaitian homes depend on money sent homefrom the diaspora. In 2008, family moneytransfers reached $1.8 billion, or almost one thirdof gross domestic product. Unfortunately, withthe global economic crisis, this source of incomeis also decreasing, falling by at least 30% between2008 and 2009. This hemorrhaging of manpowerand minds is just as much a catastrophe as asecond earthquake. Because the Haitians who are
Successivegovernmentssince 1986 haveclaimed thatHaitian cultureis our greatestasset. Yetnothing hasbeen done toshow thisculture off. If itwere not for thevitality andtalent of ourartists andcreators, thisculture wouldalso probablybe moribundtoday.
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leaving are those who represent the best hope forrebuilding the country.”
This exodus unfortunately only adds to the83% of professionals already exiled from Haiti. Soit is clear that there can be no reconstruction orreestablishment of Haiti without the active andsustained participation of the Haitian diaspora.The Prime Minister, Jean Max Bellerive, and theminister for ex-patriot Haitians, Edwin Paraison,clearly accepted this principle at the MontrealConference on 25 January this year, and duringthe “Rebuilding Haiti – Horizon 2030” symposiumheld at the École Polytechnique in Montreal bythe Study and Action Group for a New Haiti(GRAHN), on 4 and 5 March. But we also knowthat Haitians in Haiti have always been reticentwhen it comes to their compatriots abroad. Theconstitution of the Republic does not allow dualnationality, and this has forced the majority ofthe best Haitian brains, often against theirwishes, to opt for the nationality of theiradoptive country. Even so, without its diaspora,Haiti would have disappeared long ago.
Projects that UNESCO can support
The reconstruction of Haiti today has to be basedupon a mixture of science, intelligence,competence, humanism and humility, too, inorder to build a fairer and more equal society. Inother words, Haitians need to design and build acompletely different country, with the primeobjective being the common good. To do this, itwill be indispensable to include the diaspora andall the Haitian social networks.
The symposium on “Rebuilding Haiti –Horizon 2030”, which attracted over 600participants from Haiti and the four corners ofthe its diaspora, clearly showed that Haitian menand women can make concrete proposals to thebodies concerned with the reconstruction oftheir country, using ideas derived from aparticipatory approach, as well as the expertiseand sensitivities available, both on the island andabroad.
Some 45 preliminary proposals3 came out ofthis historic conference.
Some education projects are alreadyunderway, including establishing a permanentstructure for those in the diaspora working ineducation and for friends of Haiti; a distancelearning structure capable, in the long term ofturning into an open or distance learninguniversity, covering the entire country; aninternship programme for Haitian students inenterprises where members of the diasporaoccupy senior positions; skill sharing networks inthe disapora, aimed at knowledge transfer andeconomic development.
Concerning culture, GRAHN suggests, amongother initiatives, the creation of a fund forheritage conservation and the development of
cultural enterprises across the country, as well aslaunching a programme of travelling exhibitionsand other methods for disseminating cultureusing new technologies.
Here, then, are a few projects that UNESCOcould support. I would also like to act asspokesperson for artists and young Haitians byasking UNESCO to help my country to findpartners to fund a real multi-purpose theatrevenue in Haiti.
Finally, it goes without saying that a new Haitimust absolutely rid itself of the demons ofcorruption at all levels. Let us not forget thewords of the French journalist, Edwy Plenel: “Onceexposed, financial corruption can be combatedand sanctioned. The corruption of ideas is moreinsidious, more subtle and, in this respect, moreinherently dangerous”.4 �
This article is an extract of Nancy Roc’s
presentation at the Forum on “Rebuilding the
social, cultural and intellectual fabric of Haiti” held
by UNESCO, on 24 March 2010. The entire text
delivered at UNESCO headquarters, as well as an
audio-visual recording, are available at:
www.unesco.org/new/fr/media-services/single-
view/news/unesco_forum_on_haiti/back/18256
1. See the article:
www.courrierinternational.com
/article/2009/09/03/le-
spectacle-est-termine
2. Michel Girard, “La culture
rapporte gros aux
gouvernements”, La Presse,
Montréal, 24 September 2008.
3. For further information see
the GRAHN conference
summary: www.haiti-
grahn.net/public/?s=194
4. Edwy Plenel, Secrets de
jeunesse, Stock, 2001.
Nancy Roc is a freelance journalist and
campaigner for human rights. She is a member
of the Professional Federation of Quebec
Journalists (FPJQ), and was awarded its North
South Prize in 2008. She has worked for CBC,
Radio Canada, TV5, and was the first Haitian
woman to become a CNN World Report
correspondent. She was cultural attaché for
the Haitian Delegation to UNESCO, from 1991
to 1994, and, on her return to Haiti, was
appointed Director of the Press office of the
Prime Minister, Smarck Michel, but resigned six
months later and returned to being a freelance
journalist. She currently hosts the Metropolis
broadcasts out of Montreal,
(www.metropolis.metropolehaiti.com).
Thereconstructionof Haiti todayhas to be basedupon a mixtureof science,intelligence,competence,humanism andhumility, too, inorder to build afairer and moreequal society.
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in Haiti, with its high rate of illiteracy, 94% of thepopulation owns a radio, according to a survey bythe French agency, Médiascom. But the FM band issaturated – there are already over 40 stations in thecapital – and the government agency that looks atapplications for frequencies is no longer awardinglicenses. Competition is high for advertisingrevenue and the “top” stations, like Métropole,Vision 2000, Caraïbes, Ginen, Signal and Kiskeyahave grabbed the lion’s share. Many others, lackingthe necessary financial resources, broadcasttechnically poor programmes, often put togetherby completely untrained staff. These stations are nomore than sounding boards, devoting a significantpart of air time to petty politics, in the form ofaccusations, indiscretions, slander, and clanquarrels. The same holds for the dozen or sotelevision channels that have sprung up in the pastthree years.
Articulate, objective and rigorous criticalthinking is the prerogative of a few seasonedjournalists. The two daily papers, Le Nouvelliste andLe Matin, both of which started at the end of the19th century, are still sentinels, despite theirmodest circulation (20,000 copies per edition) andvery limited distribution outside the capital.
The Haitian press has not developed thenecessary detachment to help unite the Haitianpeople. It has not marshalled the human resourcesto rise to the huge challenges facing the country:threat of earthquakes, urgent need forredevelopment, environmentally damaging energy
production, education, reorganisation of theeconomy and production, showcasing thecountry’s art and culture. And this was the situationfor the Haitian media well before the earthquake of12 January 2010.
As with many other sectors of society, the mediawere severely affected by the earthquake. Twomonths on, most have resumed production, but withthe same old programme schedules and no sign ofany new commitment regarding the new challengesposed by the catastrophe. However, Le Nouvellisteand Le Matin have announced that they will be moreexacting, even militant, and that they will use thetragedy as an opportunity for a “spring clean”.
Critical thinking stifled
I am not here to put my predecessors on trial. Manyof them paid with their lives for the right I now
The Haitian press:
A turning point
A certain degree of freedom of expression
characterizes Haitian media. But the media must
take a hard look at itself and rid itself of triviality so
that it can act as a mobilizing force.
byRobersonAlphonse
The Haitianpress has to giveresponsiblefreedom a try.
T H E U N E S C O C O U R I E R . S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 0 . 2 3
Critical thinking stifled:
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enjoy to practise my vocation with a certain degreeof freedom. I am simply questioning certainpositions that have been adopted, some of whichverge on fanaticism, reinforcing existing rifts,exacerbating political and social tensions andfostering a mistrust of the press.
This failure of the media is part of a widercontext, where Haitian society has ceased to bedemanding, to reward merit, to have highambitions. It cannot seem to escape thedebilitating status quo it has been stuck in for thepast decades. Learning, which for a long timeunderwrote political power, has not been usedjudiciously. On the contrary, Haiti is one of the fewcountries where knowledge is divisive. Meanwhile,a magical-religious perception of science createsthe most incredible situations. And, for many of mycompatriots, the death of the 200,000 or so victimsof 12 January was not because building regulationswere flouted, but because of God! This was God’sdecision, they say. The churches are constantly full.The priests are rubbing their hands.
Meanwhile, popular – not to say trivial –entertainment still makes up the bulk of certainradio stations, also overrun with advertisements forimported products. Where are the real issues? “It’snot what the public wants to hear,” you will be told.And so, critical thinking continues to be stifled.
Reinventing the press
Now, even more than in the past, there is an urgentneed to work towards a paradigm shift ininformation and to organize a States-General of thepress. This major change of direction – theinvention of a modern press, which is professional,courageous, ambitious, freed from the grip ofpolitical power and the financial establishment – iseasier said than done. But it must be done. It will bea long and arduous process, requiring a responsiblepartnership between State, regulatory bodies, andindependent media stakeholders.
Before the earthquake, two different schools ofthought clashed on the need or not to have a lawregulating the press. Those who favour legislationdream of regulatory bodies like the French HigherCouncil for Radio and Television. Those who areagainst, having endured the Duvalier dictatorships,see dictatorial tendencies and backlash in anyattempt to introduce norms. The belief that we cando everything without standards or constraints is aform of atavism for us, in Haiti, and is an enormoushandicap.
First of all the Haitian press has to remodelitself, before trying to mobilise social andintellectual resources. In the short term, I think weneed to design training programmes for journalists.The support of UNESCO, which has long-standinglinks to the Haitian Association of Journalists, willonce again be welcome. The Ministry of Education,the Ministry of Culture and Communication,journalists’ associations and newspaper publishers’associations, will have to work together to decideon the curricula. And, besides training, we alsoneed to address another vexing question: payingprofessional journalists a decent wage. Today, ajournalist’s basic salary is 100 Euros a month.
The challenge, in the world of communications,as in other sectors, is enormous. Nevertheless, Ibelieve in the future of my country and in thefuture of a new press. I believe that a newintellectual, financial and political elite will emergefrom the ruins. A responsible elite that is committedto building a different kind of citizenship, anothersense of community, a new meaning for the wordHaitian. The Haitian press, once it has beenremodelled, will play a leading role. To borrow afriend’s expression, it has to “give responsiblefreedom a try”, to make a clear-cut distinctionbetween the intellectual elite and Haitian politics –in other words, to help the people to choose theirleaders carefully. If this is not done, we will onceagain fail to get to the heart of the matter. We mustact now. �
Roberson Alphonse is a journalist on the daily Le Nouvelliste (Haiti), news
editor at Radio Magik 9 and chairman of the Commission on continuing
education for the Association of Haitian Journalists (AJH).
Come down to earth,
journalists! L
I believe in thefuture of mycountry and in the future of a new press. I believe that a newintellectual,financial andpolitical elitewill emergefrom the ruins
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Let us forget the idea right from the start thatthe Haitian people are defeated, resigned, orhelpless. Let us not see Haiti as a disaster victim.The world can and must learn lessons from therecent tragedy in this country of 10 millioninhabitants, and from its lengthy history, in orderto attempt the radical change that is neededmore than ever in the current internationalcontext.
What is this context? Cut-backs and morecut-backs. Rich nations heavily in debt.Questionable, or non-existent, proposals forgetting out of the crisis. Flagrant inequalities inwealthy societies. The socially excluded left bythe wayside. Unemployment, bankruptcies,suicides, misery, questions of identity – these arejust a few of the most conspicuous symptoms ofthe lack of options for the future.
The real difference between the richest andthe poorest nations – and it is considerable – liesin the fact that the former have the material,intellectual and structural resources to changethe situation. On condition that they want to.Because what is manifestly missing is thepolitical will. And perhaps the capacity to musterthe forces. We have to accept that the world isnot functioning as it should and provideourselves with the means to make a radicalchange.
Daily life in
Port-au-Prince,
January 2010.
The absence of vision is Haiti’s most serious
problem. The country has been receiving the
wrong kind of aid for so long. Yet the latest
tragedy could be a catalyst for national and
international energies.
A commonsearch forgreaterhumanity
by Raoul Peck
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An accumulation of failures
A radical change has to be made, considering thefailures that have characterized the last 60 years:there has been the failure of most developmentpolicies; the failure of structural adjustment,which was supposed to improve the economies ofdeveloping countries sustainably; the failure, sofar, of the UN in conflict situations; the failure ofthe European Union as a counter to the financialfrenzy of capitalism; failure of the majorideological blocs, unable to provide any responsebeyond their hegemonic needs and interests;failure of the non-aligned countries’ promises topropose a viable alternative to the deadlydichotomy of the Cold War; failure of theinternational Left, and in particular socialdemocracy, which has been unable tocounterbalance global disequilibrium; and, finally,the failure of the progressive Left in ourdeveloping countries, so often cornered with theirbacks against the wall, abandoned by theirWestern allies, who are too preoccupied with theirown political survival.
This accumulation of failures makes me think thatthe real way out, for Haiti, can only come fromitself. Why, yet again, should we trust this apparentwillingness to “aid” Haiti today? Why should weadhere blindly to hastily-drafted scenarios, oftendrawn up far from our shores? Several Haitianorganizations and movements have denouncedthe procedure adopted to draft Haiti's “Action Planfor Reconstruction and Development”, from whichHaitian social and civil stakeholders were almosttotally excluded. I add my voice to theirs,deploring this forced march, which does not allowus to play an active role in reshaping our country.
Turn the current paradigm around
What we are calling for is a little more humilityand self-criticism. In an article dated 20 March2010, Jonathan Katz (Associated Press) wrotethat, on 10 March, former U.S. President Bill
Former Haitian Minister of Culture (1995-1997), Raoul Peck is also a film-
maker, author of L’homme sur les quais, Lumumba, L’affaire Villemin,
Sometimes in April, L’école du pouvoir.
After spending part of his childhood in Congo, he went to school in
France and the USA. He went on to study engineering and economics in
Germany, before entering the Berlin Academy of Film and Television,
where his career started.
Two days before the earthquake in Port-au-Prince, the city where he
was born, he was appointed, by presidential decree, head of La Fémis
École Nationale Supérieure des métiers de l’image et du son in Paris.
Clinton - now U.N. special envoy to Haiti –“publicly apologized this month for championingpolicies that destroyed Haiti's rice production.”He declared before the American Senate’sForeign Affairs commission that “It may havebeen good for some of my farmers in Arkansas,[the state Mr Clinton comes from] but it has notworked. It was a mistake.”
Indeed, thirty years ago, Haiti imported just19% of its food and exported rice and coffee. In1986, the Haitian President, Jean-BertrandAristide was forced, by Bill Clinton and theInternational Monetary Fund (IMF) amongothers, to drop our trade barriers on the pretextof structural adjustment. Today, again accordingto Jonathan Katz, six pounds of rice fromRiceland Foods of Arkansas, incontestably thelargest rice producer in the world, sold for $3.80,while the same quantity of Haitian-produced ricesold for $5.12.
Also, let us not forget that the reason we aremourning so many dead in Port-au-Prince isprecisely because tens of thousands of peasants,with no resources, no means of production,unable to compete with Western imports, had tomove there to look for work.
Everything is related. The so-called remediesof yesterday and the disasters of today. Thepoverty of the one creates the wealth of theother, and vice versa. Our destinies are linked bycommon problems, to which international aidalone cannot provide the solution. We need amore global view.
Tragedy and mourning such as Haiti iscurrently living through can enable us to turn thecurrent paradigm around. Haiti could become anew model for intervention. And this is as urgentfor countries of the South as it is for Westerncities, where inequalities are also continuing togrow. The sooner we start this process of radicalchange, the sooner we will be able to jointogether in a common quest for more humanity,justice, equality and – why not? – happiness.
Is this an ambitious, utopian project? I do notthink so. Despite all its failures, humanity hasdemonstrated a great capacity for kindness,creativity and courage – both individually andcollectively. �
Under foreign influence,
Haitian rice production was
destroyed in the 1990s. L
We have to accept that the world is not functioning as it should and provide ourselves with the means tomake a radical change.
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It is not possible to build the economyof a country without first drafting aneconomic policy and having anadministration that is capable of takingresponsibility for it. Yet Haiti has neither.The economy is synonymous with theidea of progress, which we do not haveeither. And there is the rub. The ordinaryHaitian citizen does not regard himselfas an engineer helping to build hiscountry. He is waiting for progress tocome from outside. For him, prosperitylies in God’s hands.
We do not allow ourselves to buildour own country, to change our reality.We vacillate over the right path to taketo rebuild our economy. We remainstuck in a mire of uncertainty, notknowing what to do.
The 12 January 2010 disaster isforcing us to take a close look at ourimmobility. We can no longer put offchanges in the way the economy is run– still very much dependent on external
rents from resources. With just a fewsources of income, mostly from coffeeproduction, this type of “rentier”economy benefits only a tiny minorityof the population and excludes the vastmajority. The entire political life of Haitiis organised around income fromrenting resources, and strives to protectthe few elected representatives whooppose any attempt to diversify, inorder to preserve their own privileges.And, to do this, they will stop at nothingto occupy important political posts.
Haitian households are locked into avicious circle, enduring extremehardship. They have to save for at leastten years before they have enoughmoney to start building a house andthen spend the rest of their lives tryingto finish it. It is almost impossible to geta loan in Haiti. The country’s wholeeconomy is based on savings, whichleads to cash collateral (i.e. credit equalto the amount the borrower has in his
savings account) and, as a result, theaberration of investing uniquely withwealth that has already been acquired.
This situation highlights theabsence of a monetary policy or creditsystem that is open to the needs ofordinary people, in a country where thegovernment is mainly concerned withthe interests of those with income fromexternal rents. This also explains theemergence of government substitutes,in the forms of NGOs, the internationalcommunity and … God! – all supposedto look after the needs of the people.
No salvation without credit
Haiti will never get back on its feetwithout adopting an economy based oncredit. If the 200,000 families that fellvictim to the earthquake are ever to buya home again, they will have to be ableto get a mortgage that they can pay offover 15 or 20 years. And, given thatmost households cannot raise the
The Haitian economy’svicious circleThe prevailing immobility is sustaining an obsolete economy that
condemns Haiti to poverty and blocks progress. Rather than waiting
for God to help them, Haitians should abolish the “rentier” system that paralyzes
the country.
by Gérald Chéry
T H E U N E S C O C O U R I E R . S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 0 . 2 7
Haitians have to save money for ten years tostart building a house.© Jocelyne Beroard
obligatory 30% of the total purchaseprice stipulated by law, their job shouldstand as guarantee for the loan.
Also, if loans are given toearthquake victims, then they should beavailable to everyone. The whole creditsystem has to be generalised and madeaccessible to all, including, and aboveall, to enterprises, so that they can growand provide jobs and thus enablefamilies to repay their loans.
Loans, then, should be based on thefuture employment of borrowers, inother words, on their skills, whichimplies that they should be able toreceive training matched to the needsof the market. The overall volume ofcredits and investments will thusdepend on the capacity of theworkforce to be competitive on worldmarkets, and not on savings or foreignaid.
The credit economy is not matter ofthe good will of political leaders orindividuals, but is a fundamental factorin the productive apparatus of a nation.If the State does not have a policy thatlends credibility to the variouseconomic stakeholders, then thecountry will continue to flounder in thesame problems it has always had.
To make the reconstruction of Haitipossible, it is essential that the Stateaccepts to run an economy that is basedon the needs of all social groups andnot just an elite living on private incomefrom external rents.
Managing loans and gifts
The extraordinary solidarity shown bythe international community towardsHaiti translates as donations and loansthat will, above all, be used to rebuildurban areas. Construction companies willshare the funds between them. And thedonors will be satisfied if the programmeis completed with a minimum ofcorruption.
But, with the exception of Port-au-Prince, the impact of this aid on thenational economy will be minimal andtransient, if the decision is made toimport building materials on a massivescale. Once the money has run out, theState will have its buildings, a fewfamilies will have homes, whileeveryone else will be left to fend forthemselves. The ‘rentier’ economy willhave traversed a brief period ofprosperity, while the problems offinancing production and ofemployment will remain unresolved.
The mismanagement of naturaldisasters in the past six years speaksvolumes on this subject.
In order to get the full benefit ofoutside aid and build the foundationsfor a new economy, the country’sleaders should appeal to internationalinstitutions temporarily to exonerateHaiti from certain rules regulatinginternational commerce. They shouldalso encourage setting up a first wave ofindustries related to building (steel andcement works, electrical equipment,etc) and fitting out homes (appliances,sanitary ware, decorating supplies),which are sectors that have not beenpromoted in the past because of thelack of demand. Emphasis should alsobe put on training, because it is onlywith qualified workers and competitiveproducts that the country will be able topay off its external debt.
Other changes will be necessary toboost employment in Haiti, such asdecentralisation and local development;social security reforms which encourageworkers to choose careers in industry;reforms in economic policy that enablethe release of internal capital;facilitation of public-privatepartnerships to stimulate thedevelopment of industry and to supportthe State in sectors of the economywhere its presence is ineffectual;university reforms to train moreprofessionals and supply theadministration with new ideas oneconomic and social change. �
Gérald Chéry, economist, is a
member of the Haitian National
Commission for Public Procurement.
2 8 . T H E U N E S C O C O U R I E R . S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 0
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The relationship between culture anddevelopment is the subject of a debatethat is far from exhausted. Let us definethe two concepts. What do we mean byculture? As the French-Lebanese writerAmin Maalouf said, the culturalendowment of an individual or acommunity is composed of a verticaldimension, which we inherit fromancestors and traditions, and a horizontalone, shaped by our times and ourcontemporaries. And what aboutdevelopment? It requires more than adecent standard of living and politicalfreedom, as the 2004 HumanDevelopment Report from the UnitedNations Development Programme
(UNDP) reminds us. Cultural liberty is nowrecognized as a human right and animportant aspect of human development.
There is however no clearrelationship between culture anddevelopment. Waves of culturaldeterminism emerge recurrently,attributing the failures of growth and
democratization to inherent flaws incultural traits. To fight such dangeroustheories, we should consider that cultureis not uniquely critical in determining ourlives and identities. Gender, class,profession, politics, human and materialresources are also hugely important.Cultures evolve, hence a society's culturemay determine very little of its futuredevelopment. In short, I believe there isno grand cultural theory ofdevelopment.
Haitian people and artists possess aformidable creativity that creates magic,poetry, paintings, and music and “allowsexploration of the eternity of theunknown”, to borrow an expression from
T H E U N E S C O C O U R I E R . S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 0 . 2 9
Cultural determinism can
lead to dangerous theories
that the failures of growth
and democratization are
due to inherent flaws in
cultural traits. The concept
of cultural identity must be
demythologized for
culture to be an asset in
social development.
Culture and development: two sides of the coin
by Antonio Vigilante
The cultural and creativitycapital should bechannelled throughincentives and policiesaiming to strengthenpeople’s social capital.
National Art Centre, Port-au-Prince, after the 12
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Bolivian writer Eduardo Scott Moreno.Yet, in the words of one of his characters,a Haitian intellectual in the novel LaDoncella del Baron Cemeterio (TheServant of Baron Cimetière1),“notwithstanding this, I see no social andpolitical future”.
The obvious contradiction indicatesthat culture alone is not necessarily acrucial factor of development, especiallyif interpreted only as individualisticartistic creativity and expression. Culturecan however be a potentially powerfulasset, which if appropriately stimulatedand encouraged also by public policies,can lead to an enhanced social capital forreconstruction.
Another storm
Haiti represents the perfect storm2 ofdevelopment challenges, broughtabout by two major causes: alienationof the population and lack oflegitimate, functioning institutions. Atthe centre of the storm is the lack of alegitimate, valid social contractbetween the government and citizens.The recent natural disasters havetragically aggravated the consequencesof such a storm and the Haitian people’ssuffering.
It is now generally acknowledgedthat what Haiti needs more thanreconstruction is “re-foundation”. Thisgreat challenge requiresaccommodating cultural identity andfacilitating evolution, while avoidingmaking it a myth, since it can hardly beachieved without significanttransformational changes in politicalleadership, institutional capacity andsocial movements and without a sharedunderstanding of what constitutes thenational sustainable development goal.The cultural and creativity capitalshould be channelled throughincentives and policies aiming tostrengthen people’s social capital, i.e.the value, mechanisms, trust andinteractions that enable themaximisation of the country’sdevelopment potential.
The Action Plan for nationaldevelopment prepared by theGovernment points to some promisingpaths, such as decentralization,territorial poles of development andinvestments in culture. Understandably,those who wrote it were focused onpeople’s suffering, and had despair andurgency in mind. But for a vision to
come true it cannot be determined top-down, as it is the case for the Plan.
The first re-foundational task istherefore to create a national politicalleadership capable of usingdecentralization as a vehicle for people’sgenuine participation in determininglocal and national priorities. Thisleadership must be able to deviseimplementation and political andfinancial accountability systems thatallow Haitian citizens to be engagedactors and not just supposed“beneficiaries”.
I believe that the opportunity aheadfor Haiti is to make a fresh start bydefining a vision, a national economicand social project with which all citizenscan identify, for which their culture andcreativity can serve as an essential toollinked to all domains of life. �
Antonio Vigilante (Italy), is the
director of the United Nations and
UNDP office in Brussels (Belgium). He
was formerly UN Resident
Coordinator and UNDP Resident
Representative in Egypt, Bulgaria and
Bolivia; he has carried out other UN
assignments in New York, Barbados,
Ethiopia, Honduras and Bolivia.
1. Baron Cimetière is a Voodoo spirit of death, like
Baron La Croix and Baron Samedi.
2. “The Perfect Storm” is the title of a novel by American
writer Sebastian Junger and its film version by German
director Wolfgang Petersen. The expression refers to a
combination of circumstances that aggravate a
situation catastrophically.
3 0 . T H E U N E S C O C O U R I E R . S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 0
In the 1970s, Haiti
imported 10% of the
food it needed; now
that figure stands at
60%. The state has
handed over
responsibility to non-
governmental
organizations, which
provide up to 80% of
public services.
What is wrong?
Painting by Haitian artist
Préfète Duffaut.L
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Long before the magnitude 7.0earthquake struck Haiti on January 12and leveled the metropolitan capitalcity of Port-au-Prince and itssurrounding areas, that city was alreadya disaster in the making. In 1950, Port-au-Prince had a population of 150,000.It reached 732,000 by 1982 andbetween 2 and 3 million by 2008. Theproblem, however, is that the city’sinfrastructure did not expandcommensurably with this phenomenalgrowth in population. What fewservices were provided were poorly
administered or primarily served theneeds of the wealthier districts orsuburbs. Consider, for example, thatonly about 28 percent of Haitians haveaccess to health care, 54 percent topotable water, and 30 percent tosanitation services. In short, the Haitianstate long ago abdicated itsresponsibilities to the majority ofHaitian citizens, both urban and rural,and at least since the Duvalier era hasdeferred to bilateral and multilateral aiddonors and nongovernmentalorganizations (NGOs) to provide
services to the population. More NGOsper capita operate in Haiti than in anyother country in the world, and theyprovide 70 percent of health care and80 percent of public services in ruralareas. This, in turn, has reinforced thestate’s laisser-aller practices and led tothe near total privatization of basicservices. Unfortunately the turn todemocratic rule has not changed thatbasic reality.
Estimates put the death toll at 250to 300,000. The Inter-AmericanDevelopment Bank (IDB) estimates thetotal damage and losses caused by theearthquake at between $8 and $13billion, thereby making it the costliestdisaster in recent recorded history.More than 1.3 million people have beenrendered homeless, and only 50 to 60percent of them have received someemergency shelter. Haitian geologistshad warned of the probability of anearthquake for years, but, as withprevious massive destruction and loss oflives caused by hurricanes and tropicalstorms (in 2004 and 2008), thegovernment took no measures toprepare for that eventuality. Thecapacity of the Haitian state to respondto a crisis of this magnitude (or even toless severe ones) is nonexistentprimarily because of shortsightedpractices and policies that alwaysprioritized the interests of the few.Along with Bolivia, Haiti has the highestincome inequality in the hemisphere.The richest 10 percent of the populationcontrol 47 percent of national income,and 2 percent hold 26 percent of thenation’s wealth. By contrast, the poorest20 percent receive 1.1 percent ofnational income; 76 percent of thepopulation live on less than US$2/day,and more than half live on less thanUS$1/day.
The dominant economic andpolitical classes of Haiti did not createthese conditions alone but did so inclose partnership with foreigngovernments and economic actors withlong-standing interests in Haiti,principally those of the advancedcountries (the United States, Canada,and France) and their internationalfinancial institutions (the World Bank,the International Monetary Fund, andthe Inter-American Development Bank).These institutions pursued a twofoldstrategy that succeeded in transformingHaiti into a supplier of the cheapest
The four pillarsof Haitianreconstruction
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and long term that calls fordecentralizing power, population, andindustry from Port-au-Prince, andinvesting billions of dollars ininfrastructure, construction, tourism,environmental protection, governmentservices, and agriculture.
No doubt, many of therecommendations of the plan must beincluded in any meaningfulreconstruction of the shatteredeconomy. But, given the government’sincapacity to take effective action afterthe devastations caused by hurricanesand tropical storms in 2008, it isdoubtful it will do anything differentthis time around, especially since itsmandate will soon expire. Theinternational community issued its voteof no confidence on the government byinsisting that an Interim DevelopmentAgency and a Multi-Donors Trust Fundbe created and administered by asteering committee comprised of 17voting members. Of those 17 members,eight will be representatives from theprincipal international donorcommunity (i.e., the United States,Canada, France, Brazil, the EuropeanUnion, the IDB, the World Bank, and theUnited Nations), one from the CARICOM[Caribbean Community], one from otherfinancial donors, and seven from Haiti..It is clear, then, that the representativesfrom the international community willhave a majority vote in what is being
labor for foreign and domestic investorsin the export assembly industry and oneof the largest importers of U.S. food inthe hemisphere. These outcomes wereachieved through a series of “structuraladjustment” policies that maintainedwages low, dismantled all obstacles tofree trade, removed tariffs andquantitative restrictions on imports,offered tax incentives to themanufacturing industries on theirprofits and exports, privatized publicenterprises, reduced public-sectoremployment, and curbed socialspending to reduce fiscal deficits.
At the same time, reducing tariffsand quantitative restrictions on foodimports since the 1980s was detrimentalto agriculture. Whereas in the 1970sHaiti imported at most 10 percent of itsfood needs, currently it imports nearly60 percent and is spending 80 percentof its export revenues to pay for it. Haitiwent from being self-sufficient in theproduction of rice, sugar, poultry, andpork to become the fourth-largestimporter of rice from the United Statesin the world and the largest importer offoodstuffs from the United States in theCaribbean. Trade liberalization, then,essentially meant transferring wealthfrom Haitian to U.S. farmers and the fewfirms in Haiti that control food imports.As the economy continued to decline,Haiti became increasingly dependenton remittances from its emigrants,which in 2008 represented 20 percent ofHaiti’s gross domestic product.
Pressure is mounting on bilateraland multilateral aid donors to cancelHaiti’s debt. In 2009, the internationalfinancial institutions cancelled US$1.2billion of Haiti’s debt, but anotherUS$1.2 billion remains. The UnitedStates and the IMF said that they wouldwork again with the other multilateraland bilateral aid donors to provide debtrelief to Haiti. However, as significant asthese measures are, they do not changethese institutions’ overall policies orrepair the damage their policies havedone to the Haitian economy over thepast four decades.
International community again takes
charge of Haiti’s fate
What, then, needs to be done? Newparliamentary elections were scheduledfor February and March of this year, butthey have been postponed. PresidentPréval and Edmund Mulet, the new UNMission chief in Haiti, have renewedtheir demands for elections to be heldas soon as possible. Presidentialelections were to be held also inNovember, but it is unclear when theywill be scheduled. In the meantime, thegovernment released the “Action Planfor the Reconstruction and NationalDevelopment of Haiti,” also known asthe “Post-Disaster Needs Assessment”(PDNA) plan drafted with members ofthe international agencies and financialinstitutions. The plan estimates the costof reconstruction at $11.5 billion, andlays out a vision for the short, medium,
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presented as a Haitian developmentand reconstruction plan.
What’s more, whereas the PDNA isvague on the specific industrial andagricultural policies it proposes, theinternational community had alreadydecided what they will be long beforethe earthquake. In 2009, UN Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon commissionedformer World Bank economist PaulCollier to lay out a development plan forHaiti, and appointed former USPresident Bill Clinton to spearhead it. Ina language similar to the PDNA’s,Collier’s report calls for decentralizinginvestments, building road andcommunication networks, and creatingclusters of industrial and agriculturalproduction in different parts of thecountry. The latter, however, consistessentially of establishing free-tradezones for garment production beyondthe two that currently exist in Port-au-Prince and Ouanaminthe, and similarclusters for the production and exportof selected agricultural products.
Rethinking the paradigms
From my perspective, then, if Haiti is tobe rebuilt on a different foundation thatprioritizes the needs and interests of theimpoverished majority, it will benecessary to rethink the paradigms thathave become a doxy for the majorpowers and accepted uncritically byHaiti’s compliant governments. Such arethinking has been taking placeamong rural and urban grassroots
organizations and various sectors of civilsociety that have been systematicallyignored and marginalized in theformulation of the official plan. Thealternative agenda
1. Reject or renegotiate all the differentversions of the structural adjustmentpolicies of the international financialinstitutions.
2. Launch an immediate large-scale andnational public works project torebuild and expand Haiti’sinfrastructure, communication,transportation, public schools, publichealth facilities, and public housing.
3. Prioritize Haiti’s food security andsovereignty by subsidizingproduction for the local market, andpromote the development of smalland medium-size industries that usedomestic inputs to produceconsumer and durable goods for thenational market, and, whereappropriate, for export, such as, forexample, handicraft production.
4. Protect the rights of all workers,including the right to form tradeunions, the right to collectivebargaining, the right to strike, and theright to a living wage.
It is obvious that these goals cannot beimplemented all at once or immediately,but they must serve as the basis for a
large-scale popular mobilization to holdthe government to account and torenegotiate Haiti’s relations with theinternational community. One can alsohope that the next time around, amobilized population will not surrenderits fate to false prophets. �
Professor of Sociology at Wesleyan
University (USA), Alex Dupuy has
published broadly on social,
economic, and political
developments in Haiti and the
Caribbean. He is the author of Haiti in
the World Economy: Class, Race, and
Underdevelopment Since 1700 (1989),
Haiti in the New World Order: The
Limits of the Democratic Revolution
(1997), The Prophet and Power: Jean-
Bertrand Aristide, the International
Community, and Haiti (2007).
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EduInfo is the Education
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and brings together news,
features and latest
publications. More:
http://www.unesco.org/en/edu
cation/eduinfo-newsletter/
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Ten days after the earthquake, which killed 17
students and staff at Quisqueya University,
you had organized a volunteer system. How
did this begin?
First the medical students set up in a tent on theparking lot. They were supervised initially bytheir teachers, then by a team of Slovak doctorswho arrived with medicine and equipmentlooking for somewhere to work. Then thestudents set up a mobile clinic. After that camefresh water distribution points. The engineeringand environmental students went out into thestreets, helped people organize themselves intocommittees to manage the improvised camps aswell as introducing work on zoning, sanitationand waste management. The university becamea giant volunteering machine!
Eleven more tents went up. Educationstudents were given a crash course in
psychosocial support and put it into practicealmost at once again on the streets. They alsobecame involved in running art therapyworkshops for children at the weekends, 150 at atime, in one of the tents. I said to them: “Thestreet is your university now”.
At the weekend students gathered with theirteachers to formalize the non-formal educationthey had been getting during the week, or to puttheory on the practice. We are working on asystem to give them academic credits for thiswork. It changed the paradigm of education forthem. They realised that further educationdoesn’t have to be one-way, that it doesn’t haveto take place within four walls with an all-knowing teacher dispensing knowledge. With thevolunteering initiative, knowledge is acquired inthe street and the teacher accompanies theprocess. We are de-institutionalising knowledge.
A new model of education has emerged from the ruins of Haiti’s Quisqueya University,
which was entirely destroyed by the earthquake on 12 January 2010. Driven by skills-
based volunteering and emphasizing partnerships, it was initiated by rector Jacky
Lumarque. These are excerpts from an interview he gave to Jean O’Sullivan of EduInfo.
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Were students able to continue studying?
We wired up one of the tents. We call it “thedigital tent”. Videoconferences were held withsister universities in Montreal and Paris forstudents doing master’s degrees. We are lookinginto online classes to enable students who havealmost finished their courses to graduate.
What is the next step?
Given that 400 to 500 new students were notable to begin the second semester that was dueto begin at the end of January. We are nowgiving them a basic grounding or foundationcourse of 15 weeks’ general education combinedwith short courses in basic management,logistics, first aid, risk prevention, communityorganization, etc.
The big challenge is to get the university upand running in a sustainable way by setting up asystem of sponsorship by which donors supportindividual students to the tune of $200 a month.This enables them to meet their basic livingexpenses while they continue volunteering, butalso to pay tuition costs and thus contribute tothe running and staffing of the university. We
badly need this sponsorship as we are a privateuniversity and get nothing from the state
Has the earthquake changed your view of
what needs to be done to rebuild Haiti’s
education system?
Completely. In the light of the devastation of theeducation system, I have redrafted proposals fora National Education Pact for the HaitianGovernment. Today the question is not so muchgetting pupils “back into school” as to get allHaitian children into school – including the 25per cent of five-to-eleven-year-olds who did notattend school before the earthquake hit. I haveconsulted a wide cross-section of parents,teachers, students, and education NGOs on thisissue. The education budget is currently 9 percent of Haiti’s GDP. I would like to see it rise to 25per cent in 2015 and 30 per cent in 2025. Theobjective would be 100 per cent enrolment, freeeducation, textbooks, materials and a hot mealdaily for each child. Accelerated teacher trainingis essential for this to work. The proposals areambitious but we can’t afford to have a two-speed system any more. �
Jacky Lumarque a mathematician, has been the rector of Quisqueya University since 2006. The
university was founded in 1990 by professors in partnership with a group of Haitian businesses. A
former head of the financial management firm Capital Consult, he is currently serving as chairperson
of the Presidential Commission for Education in Haiti.
Jacky Lumarque, rector of
Quisqueya University,
shows UNESCO Director-
General Irina Bokova, (to his
left) around the ravaged
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Since Toussaint Louverture in 1801, every Haitiangovernment, with the exception of that ofAlexandre Pétion (1806 – 1818) has had a politicaland administrative body responsible for education.Article 19 of the Constitution of 1805, signed byEmperor Jean Jacques Dessalines, made educationa matter of State concern. King Henry I, betterknown as King Henry Christophe – who formed aseparatist government in the north of the country(1807 – 1820), while the south was under thecontrol of Alexandre Pétion – was ahead of histime with regard to education, including highereducation, and in the practice of arts and crafts.
All constitutions from 1843 to 1987 confirmthe right of every Haitian child, boy or girl, to basiceducation that is “free and common to all citizens,”as a priority and an obligation. However, thecountry has never been able to implement aneducation system that follows the cardinal valuesset out in the Convention on the Rights of theChild. And, long before 12 January, it was obviousthat the education system needed to beoverhauled.
Instead of instilling a respect for human rightsand basic freedoms, Haitian schools have tendedto perpetuate a society based on inequality andinjustice. A society comprised of individuals with
On paper, quality education has been a
priority in Haiti for 200 years. In reality, the
system is stagnating and helps sustain a
society based on inequality and injustice.
A new ideological choice is necessary.
Reform insteadof repetition
by Jean Coulanges©
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by reforming, for example, the inspectionsystem. We have to do everything we can toensure that the Haitian government’s efforts toset up a national educational system arerespected, without taking sides. Existingcurricula must also be revised so that they arebetter adapted to the needs of industry, toenvironmental concerns and citizenship values.Meanwhile, resources have to be allocated forhigher education reforms. There is a pressingneed to establish adequate infrastructure, whileupgrading teachers’ career prospects so that theyearn a decent living.
Any overhaul of the Haitian education systemhas to favour the emergence of a new generationof citizen-producers who are able continuouslyto improve physical conditions in Haiti and tocreate wealth, while helping the country’scultural, moral and spiritual values to flourish.The new education system must be capable offostering a national consciousness, a sense ofresponsibility and a community spirit byincorporating in its content the facts of Haitianreality �
no sense of national conscience, scant regard fortheir fellow citizens and who exclude anddehumanize others. Our system has been unableto eradicate the defects of the country’s colonialheritage.
Haiti has become a backward country, slippingfurther into illiteracy and poverty every day.
A catastrophic state of affairs
Just one university, a few teacher traininginstitutes and a single college offering basic andcontinuous training for those working ineducation. Out of 60,000 teachers, just 10.64 %have basic professional qualifications. Teachersare also recruited from other professions, with nospecific pedagogical training. Worse still, someteachers have had no higher education at all. Buteven when teachers are qualified, theireffectiveness is limited by having to teach over40 hours of lessons a week.
Another influence on the quality ofeducation is the dilapidated state of schoolbuildings, which often do not comply withofficial norms.
Access to primary education can hardly becalled free, as about 82 % of schools belong tothe private sector (according to a 2003 census ofschools).
Secondary education has been waiting forreforms since 1980, but virtually no studies onthe subject have been conducted. Meanwhile,reforms of higher education in general and of theHaiti State University in particular have beenstagnating since 1997. Research and publicationsare very rare, apart from student dissertations.
How did this situation come about? The mainreason is a lack of vision. The State educationbudget is small, with government manipulatedby an old-fashioned oligarchy with little ambition.A serious problem of governance and corruptionis an added complication. The Ministry ofEducation has no real control over the system andcertain projects hardly get off the ground.
The country’s political instability also has anegative impact on education. Ministers havevery little time to draft, revise and implement aproper national education policy. Over the past162 years, there have been 216 successiveEducation ministers – an average of 9.4 months inoffice per person. This situation is responsible foran almost total lack of continuity in the sector.
A new ideological choice
How to overhaul this system without gettingstuck in the same vicious circles, with the samecauses producing the same effects? We need tomake a new ideological choice, one thatconsiders quality education as a prerequisite to aflourishing society. We have to establish othermechanisms of governance, leaving partypolitics and vote-catching considerations aside,
Jean Coulanges is Secretary-General of the
Haitian National Commission to UNESCO. Acting
as agencies of consultation, liaison and
information, and mobilizing and coordinating
partnerships with the civil society, the National
Commissions make also substantial contributions
in the advancement of UNESCO’s objectives and
in the implementation of its programme. Having
joined the UNESCO in 1946 November 18th, Haiti
is one of the oldest member states of the
organization.
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Child in poor district of
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Holding a spade, Jean Sprumont works withvigorous gestures. After a few minutes, in thecourtyard cluttered with sieves and moulds forconcrete blocks, a crater of cement, sand andwater has taken form. Showing the greyish paste,Sprumont speaks in Creole to the 15 Haitianconstruction workers attending the trainingcourse in earthquake-resistant methods: “Sa sebéton kalité. Kalité do kibon pouli é lyben brasé”(This is good concrete. It has the right quantity ofwater and it is well mixed).
Jean Sprumont stands out among thetrainers. The Belgian project manager has beenliving in Haiti for 44 years. He was in Port-au-Prince on 12 January and saw entire buildingscollapse in a few seconds. “The city was builtusing concrete in a completely haphazard way,”he says bitterly. “We saw the tragic result.”According to Sprumont, “It was buildings thatkilled people. Too much water and the presenceof clay and loam in the concrete caused thecollapse of more than 50 % of the buildings inPort-au-Prince during the tremors.”
To correct bad construction habits thatamplified the disaster’s magnitude, the technicaltraining centre at Camp Perrin, near Les Cayes insouthwest Haiti, has set up a ten-day intensivetraining course for Haitian masons, steel fixersand foremen, in partnership with UNESCO. “It’s agood training course, but you can’t learn
How to use earthquake-resistant methods in building
– this is what Haitian masons are learning from the
pilot project in Camp-Perrin, southwest Haiti, which
UNESCO launched in March 2010. The project will
train some 500 masons in techniques that will help
save many lives in case of an earthquake.
Trainingbringsconcretecontribution toreconstruction
by Mehdi Benchelah French-Algerian journalist
UNESCOin action
everything about earthquake-resistantconstruction in ten days,” points out HébertMontuma, who runs the centre.
Michel Raoul, 40-year-old mason from CampPerrin, is attending this training course so he can“avoid repeating the same mistakes they made inthe past. But the problem is often caused by theowner. He tells us, “Protect me for the cement” (donot spend too much on the cement). But insteadof protecting him, this can kill him.”
This is why, says Montuma, “Besides thetechniques we are teaching here, we have to makebuilders aware that when they are working on asite, it is their duty to be professional and ethical.”
The third group of builders will soon begintaking the course (with 10 to 15 participants persession). The project will train a total of about 500masons in techniques that will help save manylives in case of an earthquake. To train amaximum number of builders and pass on theskills more effectively, the best students in eachgroup are encouraged to become trainersthemselves.
At the end of the training project, a book inFrench and Creole containing explanationsillustrated with diagrams will be published anddistributed to building professionals around thecountry. �
Camp-Perrin – March 2010
Children in Port au Prince began
returning to school three
months after the deadly
earthquake on 12 January 2010.
But their normal lessons were replaced by aspecial syllabus developed by UNESCO and theHaitian Ministry of Education to take intoaccount the trauma and disruption experiencedby both children and teachers.
Developed by UNESCO and the HaitianMinistry of Education and Professional Training ata seminar held on 25 and 26 March, the syllabuswill be followed by some 600,000 pupils in bothpublic and private education
“We have given priority to main objectives,”declared Jackson Pleteau, Head of SecondaryEducation at the Ministry. “We defined a corpusof knowledge that pupils must master tocomplete the year. We also envisage deferringcertain subjects to next year.”
Under the new syllabus, education will beresumed in stages starting with psychosocialactivities, such as singing, dancing and creativeexpression, to help children cope with theextreme stress they experienced as a result of theearthquake. They will also learn aboutearthquakes as a natural phenomenon. Regularlessons will resume a few weeks later. TheMinistry of Education foresees an acceleratedprogramme over 18 weeks to allow pupils tocomplete the school year that ends in August.UNESCO will post this syllabus on line to make itavailable to all teachers in Haiti.
Emergencysyllabus forschools
Some 38,000 pupils and students died in
the 12 January earthquake, which also
killed 1,300 teachers and education
personnel. The Ministry of Education was
destroyed along with 4,000 schools
– or close to 80 % of educational
establishments in the Port-au-Prince area.
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Clearing the rubble in
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However, only a few schools have been ableto open their doors so far and very few childrenhave turned up for classes.
In most places, rubble is still being clearedand tent classrooms are being set up toaccommodate pupils safely. Such is the case ofthe co-educational Thérèse Rouchon School inthe Turgeau neighbourhood. Still visible amongthe debris are wooden benches, exam papersand the blackboard with notes from the lastlesson given a few hours before tragedy struck.
Sainte Marie des Anges, a school in theelegant Paco neighbourhood, has fared littlebetter. The boys’ building is completelydestroyed, while cracks and gaping holes in thefacade of the girls’ brick building mean that itcannot be used either.
The Principal, Pastor Franck Petit, had a largehangar built with wooden partitions. The schoolre-opened but the return to class has beendifficult for the children who turned up. “Theyhave reacted in different ways,” said Pastor Petit.“Some cried and refused to enter the building,afraid they might get buried alive.” He had toexplain that the new wooden school rooms weresafe. “Several children,” he adds, “cried while wehoisted the flag, possibly in mourning for arelative, a mother, a sister, we don’t know. It isvery hard, for both pupils and teachers.”
Some 38,000 pupils and students died in the12 January earthquake, which also killed 1,300teachers and education personnel. The Ministryof Education was destroyed along with 4,000schools – or close to 80 % of educationalestablishments in the Port-au-Prince area. �
Psychological support
Overcoming the trauma of the earthquake and restoring faith in the future: these were the objectives of a three-day training course at the end of April 2010 for secondary schooleducation administrators in Haiti, organized by the Haitian Ministry of National Educationand UNESCO. These administrators will beresponsible for training teachers in the field, so that they in turn can pass on thisknowledge to schoolchildren.
This type of psychosocial support aims at preventing and easing the mental after-effects of catastrophes or violent events. This concept is based on team-buildingtechniques, role playing and discussionsbetween pupils and their teachers.
The seminar was attended by 40 inspectors,principals and teachers. The course alsoincluded training on earthquake phenomena,risk prevention and survival techniques.
The course was organized by UNESCO,with the support of Quisqueya University inPort-au-Prince. It is the first psychosocialtraining course for young people in secondary schools.
Ultimately, all secondary pupils in thewestern Department which includes Port-au-Prince, i.e. approximately 110,000 adolescents,will benefit from this support programme,which will be extended to the entire country in the long term.
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When Haiti became one of UNESCO’s firstmembers, the rate of illiteracy in the country wasover 80%, in some areas even well over 90%. Thiscomprised not only the inability to read andwrite, but also ignorance of basic scientificprinciples concerning agriculture, conservation ofresources and hygiene. Haiti’s president of thetime, Dumarsais Estimé, proposed to UNESCO tosupport Haiti in increasing the fundamentaleducation of its population. Julian Huxley,
UNESCO’s first Director-General, who had justdeclared that basic education is an essential partof “the wider and fuller human understanding towhich UNESCO is dedicated”, accepted theproposition and UNESCO started a pilot projecton basic education, the first of its kind, in 1947.
In April 1948, UNESCO sent a survey team toHaiti headed by the Swiss anthropologist AlfredMetraux. The site chosen by the Haitiangovernment for the new Pilot project was the
The first UNESCO basic
education pilot project in
Haiti was established in
rural Marbial, in the
Gosseline valley, in
southern Haiti. I
Kêbé l’Inesko Fò!By Julia Pohle, from UNESCO Archives
As one of the first member states, Haiti joined UNESCO on
November 18, 1946. Soon after, UNESCO launched its first pilot
project in basic education in the country. The objective was to
reduce illiteracy. The project was almost scrapped; the local
population saved it.
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rural section of Marbial, in the valley of theGosseline River in the south of Haiti. Thepopulation of the valley had been estimated atabout 30,000 peasants, living scattered over thesteep mountains in isolated shacks. Theconditions found by the team on their arrivalwere at their worst. The valley was over-populated, the illiterate peasants could hardly live
on the scanty crops they grew on the eroding soiland they suffered from tropical diseases likemalaria. Because of sickness and the fact thatmany children would have to walk two hours toattend school, less than 500 pupils wereregistered in the three schools serving the valley,and only half of them actually attended thelessons.
Besides these problems, there was atremendous language barrier to education.Although the official language of Haiti wasFrench, Marbial’s people only spoke Creole andtextbooks in this language were not availablesince there was no agreement on which of thefour methods of spelling Creole should beadopted. Teachers were using 50-year-old Frenchtextbooks from which pupils had to memorizepassages, without any real understanding of thelanguage. To resolve this problem, UNESCOinvited Robert Hall, an American professor whohad done research on Creole in the United States.
Article about the Marbial
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Market in Marbial. L
Once arrived in Haiti, Dr. Hall established analphabet so that the preparation of basictextbooks in Creole could go ahead.
Discouraged by conditions in the valley andthe hopelessness of the Marbial peasants,Metraux returned to UNESCO, giving a verypessimistic report concerning the success of thepilot project. Nevertheless, he disagreed whenFrederick Rex, an American fundamentaleducation specialist, visited Marbial valley somemonth later and judged the undertakingimpossible, recommending that UNESCOabandon the project. Writing to UNESCO, Dr.Metraux insisted: “We cannot pull out from Haiti[…] we cannot abandon these people. If we do,we shall break their spirit completely […]Whatever has been done in the field ofeducation will collapse. This will be a completedisaster […] The UNESCO Pilot Project is anexperience which is worth all our energy.”
At that point, the peasants of Marbial,hearing the rumours that UNESCO mightabandon them, joined the efforts.Demonstrating with huge picket signs reading“Kêbé l’Inesko Fò! “ – which in Creole means“Support UNESCO hard” – they sprang intoaction. Within a few months, their co-operativesturned the trail to the only village of the area intoa road and built up an ‘UNESCO-centre’ as well asa community-centre, which helped the people ofthe valley to break out of their isolation. Thepeasants dug latrines and a well for drinkingwater in order to erase one of the mostdangerous sources of disease. Theyreconstructed the Marbial market on higher anddrier ground and constructed a small open-airslaughter house.
Also in education, there was remarkableprogress in these first years: An emergencyfeeding programme for school children wasintroduced, giving a substantial lunch to 400children weekly. Until September 1948, teneducation centres were created, teaching oldand young in the Valley to read and write inCreole. Soon a local newspaper of two pagesappeared, handwritten and illustrated withsimple drawings, through the initiative of a fewmembers of the co-operatives.
Despite the peasants’ efforts, UNESCO sawitself confronted with an immense challenge:raising the social and economic level of thecommunity through education and at the sametime training Haitian teachers and workers sothat the project might become self-supportingas rapidly as possible. It was soon obvious that allprogress in the valley would depend on theimprovement of agricultures. That is the reasonwhy Conrad J. Opper, appointed as Director tothe pilot project in 1950, asked the UnitedNations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)to join in the Marbial project. Mr. Opper
reported: “There is no possible doubt that aproject in Fundamental Education in the Marbialarea which is not based on soil regeneration isunrealistic and doomed to failure.” The WorldHealth Organization (WHO) also took an activepart in the project, sending a doctor and a nurseto the valley. It further helped to open a newhospital in Marbial, thus giving the valley its firstdispensary facilities.
During this perhaps unspectacular, but steadydevelopment, Mr. Opper and its team tried tokeep in the background as much as possible,placing the project in the hand of the people itwas intended to help. This policy proved sosuccessful, that in August 1950 the Marbialpeople formed a regional committee of localleaders to advise the UNESCO staff. The commoneffort of different UN agencies helped the Marbialvalley to improve the living conditions of itspeasants. But when the pilot project succeeded, itdid it thanks to the Haitian people. �
Julia Pohle works for the UNESCO archives
(www.unesco.org/archives/fre/index.html)
The example of the Marbial valley pilot project is just one example of
UNESCO’s work in Haiti in the field of education, culture, science and
communication. There is clear continuity from this early vision to
UNESCO’s contribution at the beginning of the 21st century. Original
documents, publications and correspondence files about the Marbial
valley project and UNESCO’s work in Haiti are available in the
UNESCO Archives. Contact : [email protected]
UNESCOArchives
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Further info:
Basic education: a first in Haiti. In: , The New Courier, n° 2, UNESCO, April 2003.
Mende (Tibor): Things are looking up in the'forgotten valley’, The New Courier, n° V, 1, UNESCO, 1952.
The Haiti pilot project: phase one, 1947-1949.UNESCO 1951 (including the Agreement betweenthe Haitian Government and UNESCO)
The Lesson of Marbial Valley. In: The UNESCOCourier n. III. 12, UNESCO 1951
Jean François, Emmanuel: Service de l'expérience -témoin d'éducation de base de Marbial: Haïti –Rapports mensuels, UNESCO 1950/1951
The Story of the Haiti 'Pilot Project'. In: The UNESCO Courier: supplement, UNESCO n. II. 5,UNESCO 1949
The Rebirth of a valley: how the peasants ofMarbial helped make the Haiti Pilot Project asuccess. In: The UNESCO Courier: supplement,UNESCO n. II. 5, UNESCO 1949
Your life as an adult and as a poet
began with what you later called
"a triple badge of rebellion": proud
négritude, impassioned surrealism, and
the idea of revolution. Today only the
surrealism part seems to have survived.
It's a long story. When André Bretoncame to Haiti at the end of 1945, his visitcoincided with an exhibition of theCuban painter Wifredo Lam's paintingsand a series of lectures given by theMartinique poet Aimé Césaire. Thisreally fired the imagination of us youngHaitian artists and writers. At that timewe knew nothing about what washappening in the surrealist movementin France. For young people combatingPresident Elie Lescot's dreadfuldictatorship, surrealism was the
lifeblood of revolt. Contact with Bretonhad a contagious effect on us. After hisfirst lecture in a Port-au-Prince cinema,we brought out a special issue of ournew magazine La Ruche as a tribute tohim. We went to prison for our painsand the magazine was banned. WhatBreton discovered in Haiti, and made usdiscover too, was that surrealism wasn'tjust an aesthetic doctrine butsomething that could be part of apeople's way of looking at the world;that there was a kind of grassrootssurrealism. This restored our self-confidence. We saw that this sense ofwonder we had secretly been a bitashamed of and associated with a kindof underdevelopment was actually ourweapon. Breton told us that in France
UNESCOArchives
René Depestre: Between utopia and realityIn this interview published in the UNESCO Courier in December 1997, the French-
Haitian author René Depestre discusses his career in an interview with Jasmina
Šopova. He reiterates his rejection of totalitarian ideology and his commitment to
global citizenship, founded on solidarity and mutual respect.
"we launched surrealism as a movementbased on intellectual foundations, youin Haiti learned all about it in the cradle."In other words, surrealism wassomething inherent in the Caribbean.Voodoo, a product of Franco-Africansyncretism, is an example of religioussurrealism. The behaviour of the voodoogods is supremely surrealist.
So surrealism for you is much more
than a literary movement.
Much more. Many European writers,starting with the German Romanticsand even before that, had a surrealistapproach. I'm sure if you looked closelyat Egyptian, Japanese or Chineseculture, you'd find surrealist elementsthere too. For one, surrealism is a way of
4 4 . T H E U N E S C O C O U R I E R . S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 0
René Depestre at UNESCO
in 2006, for the 50th
anniversary of the first
international congress of
black writers and artists
organized in Paris. I
injecting the supernatural into everydaylife. You find it everywhere. But somepeople, like Haitians or Brazilians,display it more boldly than others.
How do you explain the emergence of
the Duvaliers in a society imbued
with a sense of the magical?
The magical has even marked Haitianpolitics. Our history has thrown updictators who practised a kind of tragicperversion of magic. This is how the"Tonton Macoute" which is a folkconcept, an incarnation of evil, a kind ofNazi, a Haitian SS-man came to exist.Haitian folklore is a tug-of-war betweengood and evil. The elder Duvalier, "PapaDoc," used the forces of black magic toplunge the country into a totalitariansurrealism. But there's more to it thanthis demoniacal aspect. From theDecember morning in 1492 whenChristopher Columbus discovered Haitiand was transfixed by what he saw, thehistoric, baroque tale of Haiti cannot beseparated from American wondrousrealism. A sense of the wondrous (SouthAmerican magic realism) has becomepart and parcel of Haitians' view of theworld and the sustenance of their thirdof the island of Hispaniola, where thebest and the worst rub shoulders likethe dearest of friends, when they arenot locked in terrible combat.
You have celebrated the communist
utopia in your poems.
The Marxist utopia, with all its lies andrepressive nightmares, took over mywork and my life as a poet until themoment I broke with Stalinism. Afterliving in places which had a huge"strategic" importance in the turmoil ofour century Moscow, Prague, Beijing,Hanoi and Havana I realized that whatwas meant by "socialist revolution" inthose places was not the opposite of theHaitian terror regime, but another formof the same perversion. Instead ofpromoting the heritage of the rights ofman and the citizen, "the revolution"defiled the autonomy of women andmen and carried out, at their expense,the most amazing hijack of ideals anddreams in all human history.
What has become of the "revolutionary
ideal" which drew you from Haiti to
Europe and then on to Cuba?
I ardently believed in revolution. For me itbecame a kind of natural state, like
breathing, walking or swimming. And itnearly destroyed my integrity as a citizenand a writer. The ideal of revolutionseriously impoverished my personal storeof poetry and tenderness which, when Iwas twenty, made me think of my futurework as a state of wonder and onenesswith the world. It made my literary careerthat of a writer who performedpsychological and intellectualsomersaults and sudden existentialabout-turns a kind of carnival ofuncertainties and inconsistencies, adriftin the furious currents of the century'spassions and ideals. The treasure islandsinvented by the utopias and mythologiesof revolution went up in smoke with thegreat dreams of our youth uniting theidea of transforming the world (Karl Marx)with that of changing life (ArthurRimbaud).
The word "utopia" as used by Marxists
has a pejorative meaning for you. But
doesn't the world need utopias?
Octavio Paz has defined utopias as "thedreams of reason." We're just emergingfrom a terrible nightmare of reason. Thenineteenth century, a critical age if everthere was one, gave birth to the idea of arevolutionary utopia. But the totallylegitimate dream of earlier philosophersdid not turn into the majortransformation of human lives they hadhoped for, nor into unprecedentedprogress for humankind. The generousaspirations of critical thought imposed onus, under the bogus label of "realsocialism," an absolutism the like of whichwe had never seen before. In saying this Ido not wish to denigrate the idea ofutopia as such. Old age reminds me these
days that I don't have much time left andthat I must hasten to express things I'vekept to myself all my life. And hopefullyexpress them with grace and maturity. So,in a way, I'm summing up my life'snomadic journey. And all self-criticismleads one to utopia. But hardenedobserver that I am, I deeply distrust ahistorical concept that this century'srevolutions have debased. In place of thenotion of realpolitik, which is at the rootof most of the woes of people andsocieties and which still flourishes to anextraordinary degree in government, Ioffer the notion “realutopia”.
Could you explain what you mean by
“realutopia”:?
It's an aesthetic concept which enablesme to unite the various parts of myFranco-Haitian creole-ness as a writer.Doctors and physiologists call synergythe links between several elements whichcombine in a single function and acommon effect. The idea of realutopialeads me to a kind of aesthetic andliterary synergy which points in a singledirection the multitude of experiencesthat I owe to magical reality, to négritude,to sun-kissed eroticism and to the creolefantasizing of Haitians, which is thesurrealism of the humbled and the hurt.
So you haven't entirely turned your
back on négritude?
I've always mistrusted the idea ofnégritude because I did not think it waspossible to constitute an anthropologywhich is the exact opposite of the onewhich devalued us and downgraded usas "Blacks". You can't just transfer to aBlack context what is said and done in
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Who could promote this global public-
spiritedness?
I see the bold imagination of poets andwriters at the forefront of the valuesshared by the world's cultures. Our works,each with its own strictly aestheticidentity, should help scientists andpoliticians to revamp our old ideas aboutgood and evil, to revive a sense of thesacred which is being lost and to devise amore balanced relationship betweenNorth and South, and East and West. Thiswould be in a new world order where thenecessary rules of commerce, temperedby a new sense of meaning and newideals, could express a fresh balancebetween nature and history. To advancefurther without risking disaster, the spiritof the market should now be endowedwith certain ethical features, such asmeaning, laws of citizenship and an art ofliving together based on mutual respectand sympathy between the world'speoples and societies. �
Personalities mentioned in the text:
André Breton, French surrealist poet
Wilfredo Lam, Cuban surrealist
painter
Aimé Césaire, surrealist poet from
Martinique
Elie Lescot, president of Haiti from
1941 to 1946
François Duvalier, nicknamed Papa
Doc, president of Haiti from 1957 to
1971
Karl Marx, German philosopher,
economist and social activist
Arthur Rimbaud, 19th century French
poet
Octavio Paz, Mexican writer, Nobel
prize winner in 1990
Joseph Arthur de Gobineau (1816-
1882), French diplomat and author,
notably of “Essay on the Inequality of
the Human Races”
Jean-Paul Sartre, French philosopher
who in his preface to a 1948 anthology
of black poetry described négritude as
“anti-racist racism”
terms of Whites. Aimé Césaire referred tothis phenomenon as turning Gobineauupside down. I realized we had to createour own aesthetic and ideology withoutfalling into "anti-racist racism." That's whyI said goodbye to négritude at the sametime as I dropped Marxism. I've only stuckwith surrealism, which is still one of myworking tools. I use both ends of the toolthe scholarly and the popular. But Imistrust surrealism too. Breton leanedtowards the occult, trying to linksurrealism with certain cabbalistic andTalmudic traditions, a shadowy area inthe history of thought - but no lessinteresting for that - which are theequivalent of looking for thephilosopher's stone. I don't go along withthat at all. I've rejected the ideals of myyouth and today I work with the tragicexperiences which in my case they led to.
How do you see the world these days?
The idea of revolution has been buriedand history marches on, with its media-fed procession of horrors and marvels.The myth of a great consummation of thebody and the mind died of natural causesin a big Soviet-style bed. The corpse is stillwarm and already the spark oftotalitarianism has reappeared in theshape of religious fundamentalism. Allkinds of ethno-nationalist savagery,supposedly under the banner of acampaign to renew faithless societies, arebuilding monuments to obscurantism,terrorism and new banditry by the state.On the borders of the West, the idea of afundamentalist utopia has taken theplace of a revolutionary one.
How can literature inspire people to
embark on the adventure of a new
renaissance?
The answer to that is shaped by a contextof fundamentalist horrors, interethnicmassacres and racist and nationalistviolence. It's one of a planet completelyruled by market forces. Thanks to therational instruments of the rule of law anddemocracy, the institution of the markethas survived all attacks on it. But mostpeople now think the democracy of themarket, its basis and the way it works,needs to be overhauled. Or else life insociety is going to become a greatplanet-wide casino. So it's in the interestsof the victorious marketplace to dosomething about the chaotic andaggressive conditions in which theglobalization of human affairs is takingplace. Bold steps should be taken tomake good use of the world's heritage ofdemocratic experience, the rich store ofrules of citizenship and the art of livingtogether which is to be found in Westerncivil societies, the most developed andexperienced in terms of law, liberties,justice and solidarity. We should be ableto turn the current haphazard process ofglobalization into an unprecedentedImmunization of relations betweenindividuals and nation-states. Theinternational civil society which isgrowing up amid disorder anduncertainty needs the oxygen of world-wide public-spiritedness and the idea ofsolidarity that will be conducive to fairdistribution of the values and principleswhich are now the shared property of theglobal village.
4 6 . T H E U N E S C O C O U R I E R . S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 0
Boy participating in the carnival in
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After a decade of encouragingadvances, progress towards theEducation for All goals could stall, oreven be thrown into reverse, as povertyrises, economic growth slows andpressure mounts on governmentbudgets. The 2010 Education for AllGlobal Monitoring Report argues thaturgent action must be taken to avertthat danger. Even before the globaleconomic crisis hit, many of the poorestcountries had already been underpressure from sharp rises ininternational food prices. The lethalcocktail of high food prices andeconomic recession has left a deepimprint on the lives of millions ofvulnerable people. It has also worsenedthe economic environment forachieving the 2015 developmenttargets, including the Education for Allgoals.
Growing malnutrition anddeteriorating prospects for reducingextreme poverty have far-reachingconsequences for education. Hungerundermines cognitive development andcan lead to irreversible losses ineducation achievement. According tothe Food and Agricultural Organizationof the United Nations, high food pricesleft an additional 175 million peoplemalnourished in 2007 and 2008.Increased malnutrition among pre-school and primary school age childrenhas been reported from severalcountries, including Guatemala. Andrising food prices have hadconsequences for household spendingon education. In Bangladesh, forexample, about a third of poorhouseholds in one survey reportedcutting spending on education to copewith rising food prices.
By 2010, it is estimated that theeconomic recession will have edgedanother 90 million people into extremepoverty. More poverty means parentshave less to spend on children’seducation and in some cases this canpush children out of school and intoemployment. For example, in theDemocratic Republic of Congo risingunemployment in the copper miningsector has reportedly forced householdsto withdraw their children from school.
Economic slowdown threatens
education financing
The importance of economic growth foreducation financing is not widelyrecognized. In sub-Saharan Africa,government spending on primaryeducation rose by 29% from 2000 to2005. These increases were instrumentalin the progress the region has made inprimary education. Around three-quarters of the increase was directlyattributable to economic growth.
Deteriorating economic prospectsmay therefore hurt public educationspending, translating into fewerclassrooms built, fewer qualifiedteachers recruited and more childrenout of school.
What does the economic slowdownmean for education financing in sub-Saharan Africa, home to just under halfthe planet’s out-of-school children?Estimating levels of future governmentrevenue with economic growthforecasts conducted before and afterthe onset of the crisis provides aninsight into the impact of the crisis. Onescenario estimates a potential loss intotal education spending of $4.6 billionper year in 2009 and 2010. While only anestimate, these figures illustrate thebudget pressures that many countriesface as a result of the global slowdown.
Rich countries have responded tothe financial crisis by investing heavilyin programmes aimed at restoringeconomic growth, protectingvulnerable citizens and maintainingvital social infrastructure. Education hasfrequently been a priority: the AmericanRecovery and Reconstruction Act makesavailable an estimated US$130 billionfor education-related expenditure.Programmes of this kind have led torising levels of public debt in many richcountries.
T H E U N E S C O C O U R I E R . S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 0 . 4 7
Education at Risk – the impact of thefinancial crisisby Samer Al-Samarrai
While many of the world’s banks are showing healthy
signs of recovery after one of the biggest global
economic crises of the last century, the aftereffects are
still being felt in some of the world’s poorest countries.
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In contrast, the space low-incomecountries have had to respond to theeconomic downturn has been muchmore limited. In many of the world’spoorest countries, tax revenue ratios arelikely to decline or remain stagnant, andincreasing government borrowing isunlikely to be a viable option. For manylow-income African countries, thatmeans turning to international aid.
The education finance gap
Even before the global downturn, recenttrends in aid for education were givingrise for concern. Though here had been arise in aid to education during the firsthalf of the decade, overall commitmentsto education have recently stagnated. In2007, reported commitments stood atUS$12.1 billion, around the same level asin 2004. Basic education remains an areaof particular concern. While aidcommitments rose sharply during thefirst half of the decade, the period since2004 has been marked by a standstillpunctuated by episodes of steepdecline. In real terms, the US$4.3 billionreported in 2007 represented a cut of22%, or about US$1.2 billion, from its2006 level. The decline in commitmentsto basic education was far greater thanthat for education as a whole.
The financial crisis is putting aidbudgets under pressure. Some donorcountries, notably Ireland, have been hithard by the crisis and plans announcedin 2009 will see the aid budget cut by22%, reversing a rapid expansion.However, in others, such as the UnitedKingdom, the United States and Japan,commitments have been made tomaintain or increase levels of aid.
The 2010 Global Monitoring Reportestimates that greater prioritization ofeducation in national budgets andannual aid commitments of US$16billion a year will be required to achieveuniversal primary education, developearly childhood education programmesand act to reduce the number of adultilliterates (a staggering 759 millionadults worldwide– or 16% of the globaladult population) by 2015 in the world’spoor countries. Current aid to basiceducation for forty-six low-incomecountries – around US$2.7 billion – fallsshort of what is required.
While this price tag appearsconsiderable, it represents only afraction – about 2% – of the amountmobilized to rescue just four major
banks in the United Kingdom and theUnited States. Of course, governmentspoint out that securing the financialassets and balance sheets of banksrepresents an investment. But the sameis true of international aid for education,which is an investment in povertyreduction, shared prosperity and a moreequitable pattern of globalization.
As UNESCO’s Director-General, IrinaBokova, states in the foreword to the2010 Global Monitoring Report, “Inresponse to the financial crisis and itsaftermath, governments urgently needto create mechanisms to protect thepoor and vulnerable. They must alsoseize the opportunity to build societiesthat combat inequality, so that all maybenefit and prosper. Education is at thefront line.” �
Samer Al-Samarrai, is an economist
specialised in education and the senior
Policy Analyst for the Education For All
Global Monitoring Report 2010.
‘You think about your children whenyou lose your job.
That’s the first thing that came intomy mind – when school starts, howam I going to buy the uniform, theexercise books and all that.
The food, you know how expensivethat is now…
The children depend on me, I’m a single mother.’
Kenia Valle, Managua (Nicaragua)
4 8 . T H E U N E S C O C O U R I E R . S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 0
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The day starts early at the primaryschool in Aqualaar, a village in Kenya’sarid northeast. By 5 a.m., when thechildren arrive, their teacher, IbrahimHussein, 18, is waiting by his blackboardto give a lesson on arithmetic.
‘School’ in Aqualaar is a sandy patchof ground under an acacia tree. Mr.Hussein’s blackboard hangs from thebranches. There are no desks or chairs.But around 30 children sit listening withrapt attention, following the lesson byscratching numbers with sticks in thesand.
Classes start before dawn for areason. By 8 o’clock the children willhave started their day jobs. The boys willbe out herding goats and cattle withtheir parents. The girls will be collectingwater with their mothers from a stream10 kilometers away. But they’ll be backat 5 p.m. for another two-hour class.
Welcome to the world of educationfor ethnic Somali pastoralists in Garissa.This is one of the most disadvantagedareas in Kenya. Fewer than one in threechildren make it through primaryschool. And just 10 percent of Somaligirls finish their teenage years withmore than two years of education.
Lacking support from thegovernment, parents are taking mattersinto their own hands. The villagers payMr. Hussein, a high school graduate, asmall fee to teach their children. Andthey make time for their kids to attendhis classes. For Khadija Ali, whosedaughter Fatima, 7, and son Hassan, 9,attend the school, the choices arestraightforward: “Of course it’s hard. Butan education will give my children abetter life and chances that I never had.”
If only governments around theworld demonstrated the same resolveand sense of urgency. Ten years ago, at aglobal conference in Dakar, Senegal,they pledged to make sure that by 2015all of the world’s children were getting abasic education. They are not deliveringon that promise.
Less than five years from that targetdate, school registers tell their ownstory. The world’s economy isincreasingly based on knowledge and
S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 0 . 4 9
We’re breaking ourpromise to teach allthe world’s childrenby Kevin Watkins
At the World Education Forum in Dakar (Senegal)
in 2000, States pledged to provide the world’s
children with basic education within 15 years.
Five years from the deadline, 72 million
school-age children are still excluded.
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skills, but 72 million children of primaryschool age are not in school. Millionsmore drop out before finishing primaryschool. And many who do finish schoollack basic literacy and numeracy skills –a testimony to the poor education theyhave received.
Of course, it’s not all bad news. Someof the world’s poorest countries havemade extraordinary advances ineducation. But as any school kid will tellyou, a promise is a promise – and thepromise of education for all will bebroken if we carry on as we are. Newfigures released this week by UNESCOshow that, on current trends, 56 millionchildren will still be out of school in 2015.
Changing these trends should be atthe top of the international agenda.Governments in developing countriesneed to take the lead by putting inplace the policies and investmentsneeded to reach the mostdisadvantaged children.
Obstacles in the road
Too often, those with the most to gainare the last in line when it comes topublic education. In urban slums fromManila to Nairobi, the absence of decent
public schools means that some of theworld’s poorest families have to pay fora private education that is often second-rate – and many can’t pay.
Disadvantages in education don’toperate in isolation, of course. They arelinked to wider problems of poverty anddiscrimination against girls and women.In Pakistan, girls from poor ruralbackgrounds average just two years inschool – less than one-third of thenational average.
It’s not just governments indeveloping countries that need to uptheir performance grades. Donorcountries are failing to keep their promiseto the world’s school children. Ensuringthat all kids get a basic education willrequire dedicating an extra $13 billion ayear from now to 2015. Yet after severalyears of stagnation, aid commitments forbasic education were cut last year.
Contrasts with health care are striking.Global funds for AIDS and immunizationhave served as a focal point for politicalattention, attracting finance and increasingthe flow of aid to those who need it.
The Fast Track Initiative, a globalframework operating under theauspices of the World Bank, was meant
to play a similar role in education.Instead it has overseen a low level offinancing and long bureaucratic delays,with some countries waiting two orthree years for support.
Of course, there are many obstaclesto delivering on the promise ofeducation for all, including shortages ofschools and teachers, deeply ingrainedprejudices, discrimination against girls,grinding poverty and inadequateteaching. But such barriers can bebroken down — by fairer publicspending, targeted support for the mostdisadvantaged, and policies that attract,train and retain effective teachers.
Good schools are a potent weaponin the fight against poverty, socialprejudice and extremism. They are aninvestment in economic growth,shared prosperity and security. It istime for governments to put educationwhere it belongs: at the heart of thenational and international policyagenda. �
Kevin Watkins is director of the 2010
Education for All Global Monitoring
Report, published by UNESCO, released
on Jan. 19.
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“I was born with a pen in my hand,” hesays. “I don’t remember any specificmoment when I tried calligraphy for thefirst time,” he adds. “There were a lot ofreeds growing in the neighbourhoodwhere I was born, the kind used to makepens.” Ghani Alani started working at anearly age. “My first job was with therailway company in Baghdad. I wouldclean the coaches during the day, andthen go home and study in the evenings,”he explains. “On Friday, the day of rest, Ispent my time studying and practisingcalligraphy.”
“My teacher was called HachemMohamed, better known as Baghdadi.He was a pupil of one of the greatestmasters of calligraphy, whose lineagegoes right back to the Abbasid tradition,twelve centuries ago. I was thirteenwhen I first met him. For three years Isubmerged myself in the study ofwriting. Once I had finished the firstphase of study, the second seemedeasier. Forming one letter leads tomaking two, and these two letters go onto make a word, and then a sentence.”
But this master of calligraphy was nothappy just teaching him how to form theletters with his pen; he also encouragedhim to see the link between man andletter. “Calligraphy has something to dowith the soul,” he feels. The calligrapher’spen is an extension of his arm, of hiswhole being. “My master never told mehow to trace my letters. Instead, he drewmy attention to the link between thebody and the letter. ‘Our hands,’ he said,‘are different, and their size affects theletters, so the letter is a reflection of theman.’
“I learned this art from Hachem alBaghdadi, just as he, in turn, hadinherited it from the founders of the
Ghani Alani: “Calligraphy is the linkbetween man and theletter”Interview by Bassam Mansour, UNESCO
“In the beginning, there was Baghdad,” says Ghani Alani,
as he evokes the role his city has played in the history of
Arabic and Islamic calligraphy. It was the starting point
for the other styles and different schools. But he
recognises that the art of calligraphy has also developed
in other great capitals of the Arab-Islamic world, from
Andalusia to Bukhara.
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Baghdad School. One day, he presentedme with a diploma, which none of hisother pupils had ever received. When acalligraphy master gives a certificate likethis, he authorises his pupil to sign hisworks with his own name. The diplomabecomes an ‘official’ paper, recognisingthat the pupil has truly attained expertstatus.” The document reads: “When itbecame apparent that the recipient ofthis magnificent certificate hadassimilated the rules of Arabic calligraphy,had explored all the forms of this art andhad excelled at them, I awarded him theright to affix his signature beneath hisbeautiful writing …”
Ghani Alani left Baghdad for Paris in1967. “In Paris, I followed postgraduatestudies in law and received a doctorate,”he explained. “I wanted calligraphy toremain a hobby, but my passion got thebetter of me. The lawyer hung up hisrobes and made a sharpened reed thetool of his trade. When the Dean of theFaculty of Law handed us our degreecertificates, he said: ‘today you are readyto start studying law.’ What he meant wasthat our studies had given us the meansto think. In the end, that is exactly whatMaster Hachem al Baghdadi had told usabout calligraphy.”
“Once I had finished with Law, I wentto the Art Institute in Baghdad, followingthe wishes of my teacher, Hachem alBaghdadi,” he explains. “In my first year atthe Institute, a great Turkish master ofIslamic illumination, Hamad al Amidi, hadbeen invited. His teachings were veryimportant for me. Indeed, I now practiceboth calligraphy and illumination, whichis unusual.”
“From the outset, I tried to grasp theessence of writing in Arab civilisation.Starting with my own experience, Iworked on the ideas of unity andcontinuity that calligraphy is able toexpress. It is rather like a river that theother arts feed into, like tributaries.”
For Ghani Alani, calligraphy did notdevelop in Arab civilization – as is oftenthought – because pictorial representationwas forbidden. “This hypothesis is false,” heinsists. “There are drawings in Islamiccivilization, particularly in Turkey and Iran.And calligraphy can incorporate figurativeimages. The climax of calligraphy in Arabcivilization is more because it is a societybased on the word, and has been sincepre-Islamic times, when poetry was theonly art and the poet was the pride of hisclan. And where there is the word, there iswriting….”
5 2 . T H E U N E S C O C O U R I E R . S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 0
Explaining the formal origins ofcalligraphy, he says “the straight line andthe curve are found in every style ofwriting in the world and always havebeen, from pictograms to ideograms via‘phonetic’ writing, which gave cuneiformscript its syllabic structure. Since theinvention of cuneiform, scripts have usedthe straight line and the curve. There areseveral illustrations in Mesopotamianwriting, like the inscription of the CodexHammurabi, where the characteristic ofthe letters is their straightness, contraryto what was usual at the time.”
Ghani Alani also gives us his opinionon Kufic writing. “I have never thought ofKufic script as being straight. Those whocall it straight are making a majormistake, saying that all straight andangular writing can be called Kufic. Thetruth is quite different. This script can betraced back to before the building ofKufa, the town that gives it its name,during the Mu’aalaqat era (the sevenmost beautiful poems of the pre-Islamicera are inscribed in the entrance to theKaaba, in Mecca). I, myself, prefer todescribe this script as angular. It is truethat the Kufi trend broughtimprovements and led to it being usedmore widely, both in manuscripts and in
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President Nujoma, you are known as a
veteran freedom fighter in the struggle
of African nations for independence.
You are also a proponent of gender
equality and we would like to hear
your insights this subject.
Gender equality is a matter of urgency,particularly in the developing countries.In the past, women and men adhered tospecific gender roles, but now, withmodern day information technology, allthat has changed. Women are now doinga lot of the jobs that only men used to do,but much more still remains to be done.We need more skilled men and woman inorder to fully reap the benefits of ourcountry’s natural resources. It is obvious
architecture. The School of Baghdad thencreated cursive script, which takesseveral forms, thuluth, diwani and naskhiwhich was used for printing.”
Although Ghani Alani cites theexample of the Mu’allaqats, there aredoubts about the very existence of thesefamous poems. “There will always besomeone who doubts the veracity ofthese Mu’allaqats,” he explains. “But it iscertain that, since the pre-Islamic era,there have been texts written using theArabic alphabet. Documents, treatiesand agreements have been found,inscribed on stone tablets dating back towell before the Islamic period. And, insome archaeological sites, texts havebeen found inscribed on stone, the mostfamous being at Mada’in Saleh,” in SaudiArabia. (This site is inscribed on theUNESCO World Heritage List.)
Ghani Alani has been living in Parisfor over 40 years. Speaking of hisrelationship with the West, he confidesthat “I live in Europe, and the exchangethat I have had with western society hasbeen very productive, in bothdirections. And this, despite thedifference between Arab and Westernways of thinking. Arab thought is basedon the verb, whereas Western thought isbased on the image. But the verbincludes the image. The best example ofthis is poetry, which the ancients called‘the register of the Arabs’.”
Receiving the UNESCO-Sharjahprize for Arab culture means a greatdeal to him. “Above all, it is a fullrecognition of calligraphy as an art, onewhich is part of the soul of Arabcivilization, and forms the skeleton ofthis culture. But what is even moreimportant is that the prize has beenawarded to me as an Iraqi artist. Thisenables me to show another side ofIraq, unlike the images of war andviolence that have filled our screens.” �
Ghani Alani and Polish publisher and
academic Anna Parzymies were the
laureates of the 2009 UNESCO-Sharjah
Prize for Arab Culture. The prize was
created in 1998 at the initiative of the
United Arab Emirates. Every year it
honours two people – one from an Arab
state, the other not – who have
contributed to the development and
promotion of Arab culture.
Contact for more information: Jeannette
Tchilinguirian
Gender Equality - A DevelopmentImperativeAfrican elder statesman Sam Nujoma is revered as
the man who led the Republic of Namibia to its
independence in 1990 and served as its President for
15 years. His promotion of gender parity is a less well-
known aspect of his freedom fighting. In this interview,
he explains to Hans d’Orville and Clare Stark how he sees
the role of women in his country and internationally
T H E U N E S C O C O U R I E R . S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 0 . 5 3
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that everybody must contribute in orderto ensure the eradication of poverty
What was the role of women in your
country’s liberation struggle?
Women played a key role in theliberation struggle. We had battalions ofwomen, and they were often tougherthan the men. In order to promote theeconomic development of the country,we, in the South West Africa’s People’sOrganization (SWAPO) party, decidedthat women should be represented by50% in the SWAPO Party Congress. OurSecretary-General is a woman,Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana. She is also theMinister of Justice.
President Sam Nujoma at
UNESCO in 2004. J
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Is the same also true for the
Government of Namibia? Are you also
working to have 50% of women in
ministerial positions?
That is what we are planning, but we arenot there yet. Women make up 22% ofour national assembly at present. Wehave to fulfill our obligation to both theSouth African Development Community(SADEC), our regional, economicgrouping, and to the African Union,which have both stipulated that womenshould make up 50% of the governmentby 2015.
Are you proposing that additional
funds be reserved in the national
budget for gender equality in order
to promote women’s participation?
I don’t think that there is a need toenlarge the national budget to employwomen in the government, but I dothink that more funding is needed toensure that all children, both boys andgirls, in every district of the SWAPOparty are introduced to the computer sothat they will be better equipped tosucceed in this globalized world.
Education is key to development. Atthe time of independence, the quality ofeducation that you received was basedon the color of your skin and you ethnicbackground, with of course the whitesreceiving the best education. Thissystem was imposed by the apartheidregime so we had to dismantle all ofthat after independence. The currentPrime Minister, H.E. Nahas Angula, whowas then Minister of Education, Culture,Youth and Sport in 1990 when Namibia
achieved independence, wasresponsible for reforming the educationsystem in Namibia, and now, thanks tohim, we have a very good educationsystem in Namibia.
Do you think that the development
projects taking place in Namibia now
are sufficiently reaching out to
women?
Women in Namibia are encouraged toparticipate in all aspects of the country’sdevelopment.
How do you feel in terms of gender
equality in the multilateral system?
Are you satisfied, or do you think that
current trends should continue?
In the multilateral system, I wouldventure to say that at least 85% of allUN specialized agencies should be ledby women, as they are more apt to beable to address issues that focus onpromoting human-centereddevelopment. �
Hans d’Orville is Assistant Director-
General for Strategic Planning.
Clare Stark is Assistant Programme
Specialist, Office of the Assistant Director-
General for Strategic Planning.
This column, launched by UNESCO’sBureau of Strategic Planning, focuses onfuture-oriented issues and aims to informboth the general public and theOrganization’s Member States. It presentsideas and opinions that can enrichUNESCO’s reflection, programmes andaction in its various fields of competence.
The number of women holding leadership positions in the United
Nations system has increased recently. Irina Bokova of Bulgaria was
elected as Director-General of UNESCO in October. The World Health
Organization (WHO) is headed by Margaret Chan, the World Population
Fund (WFP) by Thoraya Obaid, the United Nations Children's Fund
(UNICEF) by Ann Margaret Veneman, the World Food Programme (WFP)
by Josette Sheeran and the United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP) by Helen Clark.
5 4 . T H E U N E S C O C O U R I E R . S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 0
UNESCO’s World Network of
Biosphere Reserves acquired 13 newsites in June 2010. It now has 564 sitesin 109 countries.
Biosphere Reserves are areasdesignated under UNESCO's Man andthe Biosphere (MAB) Programme toserve as places to test differentapproaches to integrated managementof terrestrial, freshwater, coastal andmarine resources and biodiversity.Biosphere Reserves are thus sites forexperimenting with and learning aboutsustainable development.
List:
Complete List of Biosphere Reserves
(2010)
http://www.unesco.org/mab/doc/brs/BRList2010.pdf
Map:
World Map of Biosphere Reserves
(2009)
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0018/001848/184853M.pdf
UNESCO Strategy on climate change
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0016/001627/162715e.pdf
International Conference of Island
and Coastal Biosphere Reserves
(Final Report)http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0018/001871/187131e.pdf
Oxapampa-Ashaninka-Yanesha, in Peru’s
Amazonian high forest region, was desingated
a Biosphere Reserve in June 2010. I
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5 6 . T H E U N E S C O C O U R I E R . S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 0
The Intergovernmental OceanographicCommission (IOC) celebrates its 50thanniversary this year. Its main mission isto promote international cooperationrelated to oceans and coastal regions.
www.ioc-unesco.org
El Niño in November 1997 and La Niña inMarch 1999. Images of the Pacific Oceanshowing different sea levels and illustrating theinteractions between the ocean and theatmosphere that affect the climate. ©
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