Rethinking Aid

The issue of land grabs remains a critical threat to human rights, forcing millions of people off the land to make way for large-scale industrial farms. Land grabs in Ethiopia are not only threatening to dislocate farmers but are doing so with significant financial aid from the United States. Take a moment to read the information below provided by our colleagues at the Oakland Institute and the Solidarity Movement for a New Ethiopia and take action.

Haitians, whether in Haiti or the diaspora, will always remember where they were on January 12, 2010, when tragedy shook us to our core. Devastating images emerged from Port-au-Prince after the earthquake that brought to mind cinematic depictions of the aftermath of a blitzkrieg. I had to constantly remind myself that an earthquake did this, not indiscriminate bombing. In the days that followed my heart wanted a seat on the next airplane to Haiti, but my mind grounded me on a simple fact: I had no medical training and my presence could not give the kind of help that was immediately needed. But I wanted to do something…

As we approach the second anniversary of Haiti's devastating earthquake, millions of "relief dollars" have yet to reach the people still affected by its aftermath. In fact, as Bill Quigley and Amber Ramanauskas explain, the recipients of aid have largely been big businesses and international NGOs.

For three decades the UN’s World Food Day on Oct. 16 has offered a ready-made opportunity to tackle hunger’s causes and solutions. Unfortunately, the conversation often focuses narrowly on ways to increase the food supply with purchased technologies originating far from farmers’ fields.

 The United Nation’s Stabilization Mission in Haiti, known by its French acronym MINUSTAH, has de facto controlled the island for more than seven years. Since the January 2010 earthquake, it has increased its force “in order to support immediate recovery, reconstruction and stability efforts.” Its work falls under a strict mandate of human rights, meant to ensure the protection of the Haitian people. 

The Nation Editor's Note: Frances Moore Lappé's essay below kicks off our forum on the food movement. Raj Patel, Vandana Shiva, Eric Schlosser, and Michael Pollan have contributed replies. [Links to those replies appear below.]

Rwanda is the first nation to sign the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP). The CAADP is one of the many weapons deployed in Africa's so-called Green Revolution, designed to produce better yields through investments in agriculture.

Nearly 30 years ago the world was shocked by images of famine and hunger in the Horn of Africa. Those images inspired a tremendous outpouring of generosity among ordinary people everywhere, and spurred a generation of activists working to end hunger. We learnt a lot from that experience, but not enough -- especially in the halls of power, whether those be in Washington, various European and African capitals or in places like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The same man-made policies inflicted on Ethioipa and other countries then, have been inflicted on Somalia and its neighbors now. As economist Amartya Sen has shown, many, if not almost all, famines are man-made.

Bev Bell, a long time Grassroots International ally, recently published the article below, which describes a Learning Exchange program between Brazil and Haiti, supported by Grassroots International. Bev has worked with Haitian social movements, including many of Grassroots International’s partners, for decades.  This piece describes the dynamic cross-border collaboration between partners in Haiti and Brazil. Jose Luis Patrola of the Landless Workers Movement puts it well: "We're not here to teach, we're here to learn." He also acknowledged the financial support provided by Grassroots that helped make the Haiti-Brazil learning exchange happen. Perhaps it’s largely true, as noted by Patrola, that social movements have forgotten the concept of internationalism.

Last year, significant international donors (including several nations and financial institutions) gathered at the United Nations headquarters in New York to discuss the massive reconstruction task ahead of them in post-earthquake Haiti. One year later, the situation on the ground in Haiti demonstrates their failure—both in terms of the lack of meaningful reconstruction, and by refusing to allow Haitians themselves to speak for their own development and sovereignty.