To Quote Samuel Taylor Coleridge…

Water conservation is perhaps one of the most important challenges humanity faces in the coming century, but it is still one that is overlooked and taken for granted by those fortunate enough to have regular access to the benefits of a clean water supply. Clean drinking water, indoor pluming, bottled mineral water, (flavored or otherwise), year-round green lawns, swimming pools, corporate farms in the desert, artificial lakes, diverted rivers, hydraulic electric plants–these are the luxuries of the rich, of which almost everyone is in America and Europe is in comparison to rest of the world. The many ways modern, developed societies use water truly displays our ignorance, arrogance, and sheer non-appreciation for this most important of resources, which has led to a growing GLOBAL water crisis.

There is always someone who quips, “The Earth is around 70% water, how can we be having a water crisis?” Yes, there is a huge about of water on our planet, but only about 3% is fresh water, most of which is frozen in polar icecaps, leaving less than 1% easily, (depending on if you have the technology), accessible for human consumption. And consume it do we ever. Over 70% of human water usage is dedicated to agriculture, of which nearly half is wasted through inefficient irrigation, evaporation, etc. In order to maintain these wasteful practices, (something which America and China are particularly culpable), we divert rivers and drain lakes and wetlands–thus destroying valuable ecosystems. And whatever water we don’t use, we pollute with sewage and chemical runoff from our farms, factories, and very homes.

The global south has born the brunt of the water crisis, particularly in Africa and the Middle East where booming populations mixed with depleted traditional water sources, (such as underground aquifers, lakes, and rivers), have created a state of increased tension which has only exacerbated various conflicts. Unfortunately, in the rush for these countries to develop, they have adopted many of the water practices and suggestion of the global north, which, to be quite frank, is a terrible model for sustainable water use.

It it important to realize that water shortages affect the global north as well where the struggle over water rights have increased dramatically over the last 50 years. Think about the droughts which afflicted much of the western US between 1999 and 2004, or the water shortages which hit Los Angeles in 2009. Just the past Sunday this article came out regarding the water quality of Norman Oklahoma’s own Lake Thunderbird, which revealed that the city’s principle water source  has already been classified as a Sensitive Water Supply by the state.

Dr. Baxter Vieux, a civil engineering and environmental science professor at the University of Oklahoma, said the need to keep a pretty lawn is a big problem for the lake’s water quality. “There’s a culprit,” Vieux said. “And we’re all a little bit guilty.”

Vieux said residents and others dump about 20 tons of fertilizer in Lake Thunderbird each year. He said the fertilizer in run-off water causes algae to grow at an alarming rate, causing the lake’s water quality to drop and creating an environment where fish and other animals may not be able to get as much oxygen as they need.

But it’s not just Norman and its residents who are the problem. Several other cities, including Oklahoma City, lie within Lake Thunderbird’s watershed. Vieux said urban development in the Lake Thunderbird watershed is expected to double by 2030 as sprawl creeps into the outer limits of Norman, Midwest City and Oklahoma City. He said all the added impervious surfaces — things like concrete that don’t allow water to soak in — will cause the lake’s water quality to decrease further.

Those are some of the facts and figures human water habits, but what does it mean in terms of the quality of life, social justice, development and world politics? In regards to water issues in the global south many development organizations like to fund well-drilling projects, seeing it as a relatively cheap, quick, and simple way to provide easily accessible water to rural communities. Some of the benefits of well-drilling projects are the freeing up of time for village women, (who would otherwise spend a majority of their day fetching water), having a clean source of drinking water, (which cuts down on disease), and having a steady water source for irrigation of fields, (which results in better crops, more food and money). Sounds perfect, right?

Unfortunately there is a down side. For example, in Yemen development organizations drilled wells in villages and for local agriculture around the country. As this article points out, by encouraging well drilling for farming and western style crop irrigation instead of the traditional rainwater irrigation, Yemen has now exhausted its underground aquifers and, as a result, its drinking water supply. Similar situations have occurred around the world, where by becoming dependent on man-made water works, (such as wells, dams, artificial canals, etc), communities neglect traditional water conservation practices in favor of a quick, easy source.

The problem is that having this easy source of water also allow communities and agricultural practices to expand beyond the natural limits of the ecosystem.But what happens when the well-pump breaks, the river becomes polluted, the lake shrinks, or the aquifers run dry? Suddenly communities are faced with drought, disease, famine, (if they depend on sustenance agriculture), and a host of other problems. In urban areas the major problems become water rationing and increasing water prices–which then raises a human rights question. Should people have to pay for clean water? After all, we can not survive without water so is it ethical for companies, cities, governments, etc., to charge people for it and to deny water to other communities in need? It is these issues which lie at the heart of various water disputes, such as those between Oklahoma and Texas, Israel, Jordan and Lebanon, and the Central Asian states.

We, as a global community, need to start addressing water management seriously. Water conservation in the global north is pitifully low, while water sources in the global south are insufficient for their current needs–at least when using current day practices. Water management is a huge issue which extends into environmental conservation, human rights, security studies, meteorology, politics, global trade, agricultural practices, scientific development, even religion, (for example the Indus river is sacred for many Hindu religious traditions). Water literally affects every single living thing on this planet every day and it can not and should not be ignored.

It certainly gives you something to think about next time you have a drink….

16th Annual Norman Mardi Gras Parade

When: Saturday February 13th at 6:45 p.m.

Where: We step off from the Santa Fe Depot on Jones St (Norman) and go north, then east along the 100 & 200 blocks of Main to Crawford, south to Comanche, and back around for another loop.

What: Food pantry collection bins will be placed along the route and volunteers with Community Action will also collect during the parade.  Donations of canned meats and vegetables, soups and chili, pasta and sauce, cereal, and peanut butter and jelly are especially appreciated.

King & Queen of Mardi Gras: Senator John & Beth Sparks

Theme: “All You Need Is Love”

Food Drive sponsored by the Norman Mardi Gras Parade Committee: The 2010 Norman Mardi Gras Parade is dedicated to Norman’s non-profit and public agencies who better the lives of our children, families, elders, and animal friends.

For more information: Email at – NormanMardiGrasParade@gmail.com or call Ed Kearns at – 360.3279.

Share Your Heart Food Drive

Between January 30th and February 12th, please bring food donations to the Children’s Department of the Norman Public Library.  Your donation will benefit Norman families through the Community Action Agency Food Pantry.  The pantry serves over 100 families and the need is growing due to the current economic situation.  Donations of canned meats and vegetables, soups and chili, pasta and sauce, cereal, and peanut butter and jelly are especially appreciated.

A Call to Action for Justice in Haiti (and beyond)

Now that the metaphorical dust is settling on the disaster that has befallen Haiti, it is the time to begin remembering what we are already forgetting. Distracted by the commentary and wrangling surrounding the State of the Union Address, we’ve lost track of the tragedy of an estimated 150,000 dead (the U.N. confirming 111,481 based on bodies recovered as of January 24). While there is no doubt that we should acknowledge the economic problems here in our country, it would be a failure of nerve and moral courage to shift our focus inward upon ourselves on account of an arbitrary requirement that the President “shall from time to time give to Congress information of the State of the Union.” (Article II, Section 3, U.S. Constitution)

I’ve previously written concerning the real nature of Haiti’s “curse” and Christian responsibility in the wake of this disaster, but it’s time for us to move beyond talk and take action. For everyone who has already become involved, sending recovery kits and making financial contributions, I thank you and commend your actions. However, as Richard Kim points out, our charity simply isn’t good enough:

But it’s also time to stop having a conversation about charity and start having a conversation about justice–about recovery, responsibility and fairness. What the world should be pondering instead is: What is Haiti owed?

Haiti’s vulnerability to natural disasters, its food shortages, poverty, deforestation and lack of infrastructure, are not accidental. To say that it is the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere is to miss the point; Haiti was made poor–by France, the United States, Great Britain, other Western powers and by the IMF and the World Bank.

Our culpability in the repeated failures of the economy and government in Haiti are apparent with only a basic historical knowledge of the country’s two centuries as an independent republic. Oppressive foreign aid programs, including loans that have lined the pockets of corrupt dictators (a fact we conveniently ignored for the sake of “national interest”), continued to keep Haiti politically and economically impoverished. Now it appears that our political leaders and bureaucrats are prepared to repeat the same failed policies in the wake of the earthquake. Kim explains how the International Monetary Fund intends to take a business-as-usual approach to the plight of Haiti:

Now, in its attempts to help Haiti, the IMF is pursuing the same kinds of policies that made Haiti a geography of precariousness even before the quake. To great fanfare, the IMF announced a new $100 million loan to Haiti on Thursday. In one crucial way, the loan is a good thing; Haiti is in dire straits and needs a massive cash infusion. But the new loan was made through the IMF’s extended credit facility, to which Haiti already has $165 million in debt. Debt relief activists tell me that these loans came with conditions, including raising prices for electricity, refusing pay increases to all public employees except those making minimum wage and keeping inflation low. They say that the new loans would impose these same conditions. In other words, in the face of this latest tragedy, the IMF is still using crisis and debt as leverage to compel neoliberal reforms.

Seeing the failure of these policies prior to the full force of nature’s destructive power, it is a sign of poor judgment to think that taking the same direction will have any positive effect on Haiti. Yet, every bit as deplorable is the fact that it’s a sign of complete moral and ethical failure on our part as citizens of the developing world to continue to ignore the real plight of our neighbors as we profit from their misfortune. It is time for each of us become agents of ethics and work to bring about change.

Right now Congresswomen Maxine Waters (D -CA) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) are circulating a letter that will be presented to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner urging him to use the full leverage of the U.S. government to bring about debt cancellation on the part of the IMF and other international agencies carrying outstanding loans to Haiti. Currently over 50 members of Congress have agreed to sign this letter, but you can help by urging your own representative to sign as well. With the help of the Jubilee USA Network, an outreach of over 75 religious denominations and communities seeking debt relief the underdeveloped nations, you can send an email to your representative urging her/him to join the petition. While you’re at it, you can also visit here to sign a citizens petition that Jubilee USA will present to Secretary Geithner urging him to support debt cancellation for Haiti. The deadline for this is February 2, so please consider responding to this action quickly.

And regardless of deadlines, you can offer your voice in support of H.R. 4405, the Jubilee Act for Responsible Lending and Expanded Debt Cancellation of 2009. Sponsored by Congresswoman Waters, this bill is an effort to build on the earlier success of H.R. 2634, which was filed in the previous congress, and passed the House of Representatives before becoming bogged down in the Senate. (Avelino Maestas offers a more in depth look at these bills at Huffington Post.) H.R. 4405 has been introduced and currently awaits consideration in the House Committee on Financial Services. You can help spur this bill to the floor by writing letters or sending emails to committee chair Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA) and ranking member Congressman Spencer Bachus (R-AL), as well as other members of the committee.

————

It’s time to change the way we behave as citizens of the wealthier minority within or world, and as a nation with a history that is checkered at best. I’ve made my case for our responsibility to Haiti based on how that checkered past has harmed Haiti over the years. And while I will be the first to admit that we can’t be held individually responsible for the racism and imperialism of our country’s past, we can become responsible from this moment forward for our country’s just, peaceful, and equitable policies toward our neighbors beyond our borders. I can’t encourage you enough to join with me in making a difference for our nation and our world.

Poor People Breed

Analysis…

Just when you thought the worst politician in South Carolina was Governor Mark Sanford, Lieutenant Governor Andre Bauer steps in.  Speaking at a town hall meeting, Bauer made the following comment.

My grandmother was not a highly educated woman, but she told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals. You know why? Because they breed! You’re facilitating the problem if you give an animal or a person ample food supply. They will reproduce, especially ones that don’t think too much further than that.’

I guess things really could get worse.

Change.org | Speaking of knowing better, a politician who is likely vying for a gubernatorial nomination might want to avoid alienating his voters. The problem is not only that he compared people to animals (though that created a predictable stir), but that he also showed ignorance and insensitivity in terms of how he views all living things.

Lack of food does not automatically stop reproduction — in any species — though it can lead to the suffering of both mother and offspring … which leads to greater pressure on community resources. If you quit feeding stray animals, they starve to death, and/or move to another neighborhood (which may have solved Grandma’s problem, but doesn’t do much when you’re overseeing an entire state’s population). Ignoring the problem is not a solution.

Council of Conservative Citizens | The AP and others have published far-left editorials as “news items” calling Bauer every name in the book. Meanwhile, local news outlets in South Carolina are being flooded with online comments praising Bauer for the comment.

Daily Kos | It will be interesting to see see whether Bauer’s backwards pronouncements will help him in his bid to win the GOP gubernatorial primary in South Carolina. Hopefully, South Carolina’s Republican voters will reject Bauer’s nonsense, but if they don’t, this is the kind of thing that a strong Democratic candidate could build a campaign around.

Jack and Jill Politics | These are men who want one type of outcomes for a certain shade of child and another entirely for those more in need than ever. Whenever someone is referring to people as animals, well, you and I both know they are talkin’ about us.

At a time with South Carolinians are suffering and minorities are suffering disproportionately, these are cruel and calculating words designed to impress the elite — and the ignorant.

On the Web…

Feminism: Great for Marriage | Feministe

Turns out, though, that feminists and marriage-equality activists have already changed the face of marriage, and for the better. With women earning more than ever before, and being better-educated than ever before, marriages are more egalitarian. Housework is more often shared (although women still do the lion’s share). Couples who share housework have more sex. Men spend more time with their children than ever before. And everyone is happier and more stable because of it.

Your Right to Vote Does Not Overrule Anther’s Right to Exist | Womanist Musings

The right to vote does not mean:

You get to be consulted on every little thing

Very few of us live in a pure democracy (I would say none of us, but I know someone would pipe up proving me wrong). Quite simply because it doesn’t work. Seriously – you can’t have the whole country have a referendum on every little issue – you can’t even have the whole country have a referendum on an issue that is important to someone – everything is important to someone by definition.

We live in representative democracies for a reason. Not holding a referendum doesn’t make a decision illegitimate. Not holding a referendum doesn’t violate your right to vote. Not holding a referendum is not an act of oppression or violation of your rights.

The Dangerous Desire to Adopt Haitian Babies  | Racialicious

This week, I’ve been deeply disturbed at the swelling public desire to adopt Haitians. Haitian orphan babies. The very name is problematic. In our imagination, an orphan has no family, but the vast majority of “orphans” all over the world have living parents, and almost every single one has living extended relatives. And the children that need family care are, overwhelmingly, older children.

Haiti and the “Curse”

In the midst of the storm surrounding Pat Robertson and his comments about the “curse” upon Haiti, we might have missed the other imposition of the language of “curse” on that country.  In a statement on Thursday afternoon, French President Nicolas Sarkozy called for an international conference on the question of reconstruction aid for Haiti after associating the plight of country with a more ambiguous curse:

From this catastrophe, which follows so many others, we should make sure that it is a chance to get Haiti once and for all out of the curse it seems to have been stuck with for such a long time.

If not Pat Robertson’s absurd theological stretches, then what exactly is this “curse” that haunts Haiti?  While Sarkozy’s statement almost comes across sounding like an innocuous little raincloud that hovers over this unassuming island republic, the reality is much more devastating.  To better understand the structural problems that have plagued Haiti, a brief history lesson is in order.  This commentary at the Center for International Policy sheds some light on the early history of the republic:

Economic Justice in Haiti Requires Debt Restitution  |  CIP Americas Program

Haiti won its independence from France in 1804, through a bloody 12-year war, becoming the second independent country in the Americas and the only nation in history born of a successful slave revolt. But world powers forced Haiti to pay a second price for entrance into the international community. They refused to recognize Haiti’s independence, while French warships remained off its coasts, threatening to invade and reinstitute slavery.

After 21 years of resisting, Haiti capitulated to France‘s terms: in exchange for diplomatic recognition, Haiti’s government agreed to compensate French plantation owners for their loss of “property,” including the freed slaves; compensation to be paid with a loan from a designated French bank. The debt was ten times Haiti’s total 1825 revenue and twice what the United States paid France in 1803 for the Louisiana Purchase, which contained seventy-four times more land.

The debt was a crushing burden on Haiti’s economy. The government was forced to redirect all economic activity to repay it. A huge percentage of government revenues—80% in some years—went to debt service, at the expense of investment in education, healthcare, and infrastructure. The tax code and other laws channeled private and public enterprise to export crops such as tropical hardwoods and sugar, which brought in foreign currency for the bank but left the mountainsides barren, the soil depleted, and the population hungry.

While this may allow those of us in the United States to savor the irony of Sarkozy’s statement given France’s role in the economic crippling of the fledgling nation, we would be well reminded of our own interference in the affairs of foreign nations; especially those in the Caribbean which have often been considered playthings in our own private “U.S. lake.”  The Haiti Action Committee reminds us of our own complicity in the destruction of the early Haitian economy:

The United States led a worldwide boycott against Haiti and refused to recognize the new nation until 1864, fearing that its freedom would pose a danger to the U.S. system of slavery.

Instead of playing linguistic games that offhandedly attribute Haiti’s woes to some ambiguous “curse,” it’s time for us living in economically powerful nations to own our role in putting the hex on this underdeveloped and economically declining nation.*  While Sarkozy’s intentions, along with the rest of the industrialized world, are no doubt for the good, the time for addressing the real issue is long overdue.  We are quick to be the saviors of the disaster-ridden, rushing in with our recovery and relief money, but we never pause for a moment to consider how our history of plundering underdeveloped nations has exacerbated the present crisis.  And for all of our hurry to be the heroes today, tomorrow we will forget this sad affair, never addressing the ongoing systemic imperialism and economic oppression that will continue to leave Haiti ripe for the next disaster.  After all, it’s just Haiti’s “curse” …

* According to the CIA World Factbook 80% of Haitians live in poverty, with over half of the population in abject poverty.

Band Aids and Beyond

Analysis…

The Ethiopian government is asking for emergency aid of $285 million to feed 6.2 million people.  The country, faced with extreme drought and 4 years of bad harvests, is requesting donations from the international community.  A report titled Band Aids and Beyond calls on international donors to adopt a new approach that focuses on preparing communities to prevent and deal with disasters before they strike. The report also focuses on providing resources for communities, such as irrigation for crops, grain stores and wells.

Matthew Yglesias | I don’t think we should construe the existence of famine conditions in the Horn of Africa (there are problems beyond Ethiopia) as a reason not to send additional troops to Afghanistan. But I do think it’s a reminder that we shouldn’t look at individual elements of our foreign policy in isolation, or see the Afghanistan situation with tunnel-vision. Is there some reasonable calculus of risks in which it makes sense to spend tens of billions of dollars on prevent a situation of chaos in Central Asia but doesn’t make sense to spend a fraction of that in the Horn of Africa? Alternatively, if the US lacks the tools and skills to solve profound governance and economic problems in the Horn of Africa why do we have the needed skills and tools to solve the in Central Asia?

The Moderate Voice | The human race, generally, tends not to want to act in its long-term best interests, reacting to emergencies rather than proactively avoiding or planning for them. So, it’s anybody’s guess as to whether OxFam will be heeded. But the fact is that drought need not lead to famine, as tragically, it so often has in Ethiopia and elsewhere.

NPR Blogs | Ethiopia is asking for $285 million in emergency food aid for 6.2 million people facing famine. Oxfam says that the imported aid helps, but that the country needs longer-term investment in irrigation and well systems to avoid a food crisis every time drought strikes.

Shakesville | In the long term, Ethiopia needs “drought-resistant seeds and technical support to incorporate soil conservation and soil improvements on their small plots of land” and “more family planning services are needed so the population doesn’t double again in another 25 years.” The international director of Oxfam, Penny Lawrence, also notes: “If communities have irrigation for crops, grain stores, and wells to harvest rains then they can survive despite what the elements throw at them.”
So, Shakesville can go in one of two directions (or both): In support of providing immediate food aid (Americans: urge your congress people!), and in support of providing long-term tools.

News…

Fewer Americans See Solid Evidence of Global Warming  |  Pew Research Center

There has been a sharp decline over the past year in the percentage of Americans who say there is solid evidence that global temperatures are rising. And fewer also see global warming as a very serious problem – 35% say that today, down from 44% in April 2008.

For Some Parents, Shouting Is the New Spanking  |  NYTimes

Many in today’s pregnancy-flaunting, soccer-cheering, organic-snack-proffering generation of parents would never spank their children. We congratulate our toddlers for blowing their nose (“Good job!”), we friend our teenagers (literally and virtually), we spend hours teaching our elementary-school offspring how to understand their feelings. But, incongruously and with regularity, this is a generation that yells.

Does Military Service Turn Young Men into Sexual Predators?  |  AlterNet

A 2003 survey of female veterans from Vietnam through the Gulf War found that almost 8 in 10 had been sexually harassed during their military service, and 30 percent had been raped.
Yet for decades, in spite of the terrible numbers, the military has managed with astonishing success to get away with responding to grievances like Krause’s with silence, or denial, or by blaming “a few bad apples.” But when individual soldiers take the blame, the system gets off the hook.

‘Family values’ of Mexico drug gang  |  BBC

They decapitate, torture, and extort. Then they pray, and donate to charity.
The “Familia” cartel is perhaps the most extreme example of the paradoxical enemy which Mexico faces as it tries to defeat organised crime.
It is a fight which would be much easier if the cartels were simply maverick gangs on the fringe of society.
But they are, in many areas, part of society.

Not In My Back Yard, Thoughts on NIMBYism

I first heard the term “NIMBY” when I was working in homelessness three years ago.  It stands for “Not in my backyard” and is used to reference the hostility that comes from neighbors and local communities when plans are brought forth to open a facility that is considered by society to be necessary but nevertheless unsavory.  Examples include prisons, soup kitchens, HIV clinics, and homeless shelters.  To a lesser extent, other entities may encounter NIMBY issues as well, such as hospitals (who wants all those sirens?) and even Wal-Mart.  But, for the purpose of this blog, I am generally referencing NIMBYism as it relates to homeless services and agencies.  Here’s a good example of what I’m talking about from a 1992 New York Times article:

New York City’s plan to move 50 homeless families into the Cambridge House hotel on the Upper West Side has created a dilemma for residents torn between two cherished local traditions: progressive social compassion and folksy neighborhood charm. 

Since word of the plan flashed through the building late last week, residents have expressed outrage that they were not consulted, saying their building is in disrepair and cannot absorb an influx of needy residents. Some, fearing crime and chaos, have vowed to move out of an area that they say has become inundated with a surfeit of treatment centers, shelters and bedraggled people begging outside banks and stores. 

Part of me sympathizes with people who do not want their perfect urban/suburban lives disrupted by new entities and their clientele.  I grew up on the edge of Norman, OK and can’t imagine how my life would have changed if I had been told that the state was building a new prison half a mile away.  But, when I think about it, my life probably wouldn’t have changed that much because my parents would have moved.

 

But, the problem remains, if not your backyard, then whose?  Everywhere is someone’s backyard.  Unless of course, you can pay to live somewhere that backyards are never even threatened by these unsavory entities.  It seems like “out of sight, out of mind” applies to the homeless.  Volunteering at the local soup kitchen is a good thing, just as long as you have to drive into town to do it, not walk down the street.

 

Today I saw a former client of mine from my agency’s homeless youth drop-in.  I used to see her three times a week, when we were open for our drop-in, providing food, tokens, internet access, therapy and so many other services.  But, I didn’t see her on the street or even at Venice Beach where most of the homeless youth hang out.  Rather, she was my checker at a local grocery store.  When she called me by name, I was shocked.  I barely recognized her.  When I inquired how long she had been working there, she told me 5 months.  She and her girlfriend are about to move into an apartment from the transitional housing where they’ve been staying.  When I met them, they were living in a car.  It’s a major improvement. 

 

I say this not just to tell a nice story but because of the importance of having people in your backyard.  This young woman was able to find a good job because she was not isolated.  The store where she now works is located within one mile of and between two agencies where she received services. 

 

When I walked outside the store, there was a homeless man leaning up against the wall, using the shade from the awning to shield from the hot Los Angeles day.  At first glance he looks like a menace.  But, the only ostensible difference between him and my checker from inside the store is about eight months, three months that it took to get her on her feet and into a good program and the five months she has held down the job.

 

I am not suggesting that all homeless individuals can be checkers at grocery stores.  But, what I am suggesting is that while they are getting on their feet, it helps to be surrounded by society, not ghettoized into one place.  This concept is pervasive in social work.  One model of housing, called scattered-site housing, provides low-income housing throughout a city by only clumping a few units together.  That way, there is not a high concentration in any one location and people are more integrated into society. 

 

Institutions are easy to dislike.  They are large and nameless, faceless but for a logo.  It is much harder to dislike a human who lives next door.  Humans come with stories and faces.  They have real struggles and real difficulties.  Maybe we would all take better care of each other if our housing and indeed our lives weren’t so segregated.  It is much harder to keep all those clothes you don’t wear in your closet when you live next door to someone who needs them.  It is much harder to keep your pantry fully stocked when it’s your neighbor who is going hungry.

Nicaragua Journal | ‘Dirty Water of Imperialism’

The degree to which Nicaragua in the 1990s was obliged to yield its economic sovereignty to the international lending and donor community was brought home to met he day after the 1996 general election by an observer group, of which I was a member, with an individual heading one of those institutions in Nicaragua. When asked what he thought of the results of that election, he responded that either outcome would have been the same to him, since neither Aléman nor Ortega would have had many options concerning how to run the economy. After elaborating on that point, he then confided that his institution had an economic plan for Nicaragua and that he had arranged President-elect Aléman to come to his — the international bureaucrat’s — office to see it.

Thomas W. Walker, Nicaragua: Living in the Shadow of the Eagle

By Barbara Schwartz
Editorial Director
The Xenia Institute

Leave the United States and order a Coke, and you’ll probably find that it has a different taste. I drank one Coca-Cola during my eight days in Nicaragua, at a small restaurant (actually, it was a table set up on the front porch of a woman’s home in a Managua neighborhood), and enjoyed the taste of Coke made not with high fructose corn syrup but cane sugar.

I’m not much of a soda drinker; under normal circumstances I drink water. But in a place where most of the water is not readily drinkable, when you realize that the 20-oz. bottle of water you bought at the corner store has to last until your next trip to the store, which is three miles away and you’ll have to walk to get there, and it’s got to serve for everything — from quenching your thirst to brushing your teeth — you hunt around for other options. I ended up drinking a lot of Toña, one of two beers made in Nicaragua.

The pulperias — the small locally run corner stores — were stocked with both Coke and Pepsi, but I didn’t have the heart to drink one anyway. If you walk into a cantina and order one of these drinks, I was told, you don’t order them by name; you ask for some “dirty water of imperialism,” a reference to the political and economic hegemony the U.S. holds over the Western hemisphere and a good portion of the world.

In Nicaragua, the economic divide between the U.S. and the two-thirds world is palpable. Nicaragua is a country of stark economic division, with one of the highest degrees of income disparity in the world. It is the second-poorest country in the Western Hemisphere (after Haiti, according to the BBC), with the majority of its people living on less than $1 a day. In rural areas, electric service is spotty; if there’s running water, it’s not necessarily potable. The house we helped build, in the most rural sector of Chacraseca, was built with concrete blocks and included a concrete floor, but when you consider that the family had been living in a tiny shelter cobbled together out of salvaged tin tied to branches taken from the forest, that tiny concrete house seems almost palatial.

Our small group of builders reached that site every day after about a half-mile hike up a dirty path; the road, if you could call it that, was too bad — filled with deep ruts and sharp volcanic stones — for our van to make it all the way. Carts pulled by donkeys or oxen, however, didn’t have too much trouble.

A phrase I heard quite a bit during and after my experience in Nicaragua, especially by people who have made the journey themselves, is, “We may have material wealth, but they are rich in community.” But this division isn’t a natural one that keeps the U.S. on one side and Nicaragua on the other; it didn’t just shake out that way through a Guns, Germs and Steel history. Among other things, it’s national external debt, and it’s global economics.

Nicaragua’s external debt currently stands at about $6 million, reduced in the last few years from about $6 billions dollars after the nation entered the World Bank’s Highly Indebted Poor Countries program that canceled 80% of Nicaragua’s debt. This works out to about $1,000 for every person in Nicaragua. That original debt, though exacerbated by the civil war and environmental disasters like hurricanes and volcanic eruptions and from Nicaragua’s inability to pay the interest on those loans, came from bond payments, bank bankruptcies and structural adjustment programs imposed by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Witness for Peace says Nicaragua spends about 25% of its annual budget on paying its external debt. Health care and education get 14% and 11%, respectively. So the money that could go to into social programs that might help end the cycle of poverty instead go into debt repayment,

There is plenty of argument about whether global economic programs such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are helpful or harmful to the economies of countries in the two-thirds world. Structural adjustment programs, for example, provide money for needed national projects such as road and dam projects, but they come with conditions such as deregulation of prices and currency, the privatization of state industries and the elimination of trade barriers. Essentially, the country is required to take part in the neoliberal market system that rewards lending institutions and wealthier governments that lend the money, at the expense of the nation’s poor.

Vincent A. Gallagher, in his book The True Cost of Low Prices: The Violence of Globalization, details the downward economic spirals that indebted countries experience under these programs. For example:

The social impact of IMF-sponsored devaluation is usually brutal and immediate. Overnight the prices of food, drugs, fuel, public services and many other products increase sometimes 30 to 50 percent. In poor countries high school students, taxi drivers and people with no formal education come to realize that prices rise after the visits by IMF representatives are reported in the newspapers. Many people in the United States have no idea how the system works. Poor people know all about it because of the way it impacts their lives. The prices of everything go up. …

Increases in the cost of transportation can be devastating. For example workers living in a poor area may take three buses to get to work. With devaluation, transportation costs can go up five cents for each bus fare. So the cost to get to the job and back can go up thirty cents a day or more. If the workers were already living on less than a dollar a day, as over 1 billion people do, the devaluation can push them over the edge. It may now be better for them to go to the local garbage dump to collect paper, bottles, metal and plastic to sell for recycling. They may be able to find food at the dump.

During my brief visit to Nicaragua this summer, the exchange rate was 20 cordobas for each U.S. dollar. The $50 U.S. that I exchanged in Managua lasted the entire eight days, dribbling out of my pocket usually less than a dollar at a time. A souvenir magnet I would have paid $5 for in the U.S. cost me a quarter (which I paid with a U.S. coin; all my cordobas were in 50s and 100s, and the vendor couldn’t make change). And the Coke, the “dirty water of the imperialism”? About 18 cordobas, or a little less than a buck. As was the bottled (and clean, safe-to-drink) water, as was the beer.

So think about this: If you’re making about $2 a day, are you going to be able to fork over nearly 50% of that for a clean drink? Or will you take your chances with the contaminated well that may end up giving you cancer, diarrhea or a host of other health problems?

I’m not an economist; I can barely balance my own checkbook, and when I was in Nicaragua I never could get the hang of the exchange rate. My heart would jump at seeing the menu price for ice cream at 60 cordobas. I had the same experience in Nogales, México, on a BorderLinks experience, trying to plan a dinner for eight on a maquiladora salary and realizing that a gallon of milk would probably deplete most of what I had. Everyone talks about how cheap it is to go to Latin America; our houses are filled with stuff manufactured by factories or food grown in Latin America that we love because they’re so cheap and help us meet our personal budgets with ease. But that’s only because the dollar goes horrifically further than cordoba, the peso, the sole. But if everything you buy is based on the dollar, and all you get is 20 cordobas a day, how will you feed your family? For the first time in my life, I felt too wealthy. I was able to spend my cordobas like water and came home with just a few coins in my pocket because I wanted to make sure it stayed in the country and benefited someone there. But I didn’t feel blessed, I felt like something was terribly wrong with the world, and I was on the wrong side of that divide.

I can’t discount that the development programs by the IMF and World Bank have provided helped Nicaragua by providing some improvement of infrastructure and creation of new markets, new imports and investment. There is much more to this story that I have recounted and attempted to critique here, and I know that I will probably always lack the background to really understand the intricacies of global economics. So I have to fall back on my experience, and I know what I saw. And I can’t see how a system that takes away funds from health care and education and infrastructure, a system that’s geared toward bringing revenue to the investors at the expense of the people in the country being invested in, is one that I can give my blessing.

It’s colonialism in an economic form, imperialism through investment. And I really have to ask myself if I want to be on the side of the empire. It’s reframed my view of Coke and Pepsi and a number of things I take for granted. It’s not necessarily the products, but what they stand for — the hegemony of the neoliberal market and the toll it takes on two-thirds of the world.

A Census Worker’s Death

Analysis …

An Associated Press this weekend reported the details of a census worker’s slaying in Kentucky that have some bloggers and politicos worrying that it may signal a rising culture of anti-government violence. Bill Sparkman, a 51-year-old Census worker, was found on Sept. 12 hanging in a rural Kentucky cemetery, naked and gagged, bound with duct tape with the word “Fed” written on his chest. Authorities say that anti-government sentiment is a possibility in Sparkman’s killing, but there’s they also point to drug activity in the area may be linked to the crime. In blogs over the weekend, Sparkman’s death prompted discussion about the 2010 Census and ideological opposition to it.

The Huffington Post |  “Besides these issues, Bill Sparkman’s death spotlights the hot controversy surrounding the 2010 Census. In an April 2009 fundraising letter, GOP chair Michael Steele accused President Obama and ACORN — “the leftist, urban ‘community’ organization with a long history of promoting vote fraud” — of planning “to rig” the 2010 Census. Representative Michele Bachman (R, MN) declared in June that she would not complete her 2010 Census form. Bachman echoed her fear that ACORN would be part of the Census Bureau’s door-to-door information collection efforts. (ACORN’s contract to participate in Census taking has since been terminated.) Bachman’s stance sparked a viral protest among right wing and Libertarian advocates to boycott the Census. … For their part, a slew of Latino advocacy groups are boycotting the 2010 Census, too. The Mexican-American Political Association and The National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders, a group claiming to represent 20,000 evangelical churches in 34 states, urge undocumented immigrants not to fill out Census forms unless Congress passes “genuine immigration reform.”"

Michelle Malkin |  “A speculative rumor spread by the Associated Press that Sparkman may have been targeted because of his Census job — coupled with an unsubstantiated claim that “fed” was “scrawled” on his chest — was enough “evidence” for the nutroots to convict every outspoken conservative activist and advocate for limited government of a murder that has yet to be determined a murder.”

Tapped |  “It turns out Sparkman was a single father who recently survived cancer and earned a college degree through online correspondence courses. In addition to working a few days a month for the Census, he was a substitute teacher. One of Sparkman’s Western Governor’s University professors found his story so inspiring that Sparkman was asked to travel to Salt Lake City to address his graduating class. The local paper wrote a story about the event. “There are no failures,” Sparkman said in his speech, “just teaching moments.””

New American Media |  “What’s certain is that in our politically polarized moment, the Census count is no longer simply a routine exercise in democracy. It’s now part of the larger debate about government’s role in American life. Whatever the real circumstances behind Sparkman’s death, it’s generating a wide-ranging conversation about anti-government sentiment.”

Hillbilly Report |  “While it is probably best for more details to emerge before commenting further I will say this. When Nancy Pelosi commented on the hatred being spread in the guise of debate being dangerous and was excoriated for it, she may have hit the nail on the head. While government has it’s problems like anything else run by imperfect humans, it is neccessary and should be amounted some measure of respect. Even Thomas Jefferson called government a “necessary evil”. No matter what your belief on government this man definately did not deserve to have that vendetta taken out on him.”

No More Mister Nice Blog |  “At a certain point in a murder investigation, details about the crime ought to emerge that make certain scenarios more or less likely. What’s curious about the Bill Sparkman murder case is that the details fit two scenarios equally well. What does it mean when a right-wing assassination and a drug murder would look pretty much the same?”

News …

• Lack of health insurance cited in Ohio woman’s death from swine flu (Read more).
• Kenya begins giving “poverty tours” (Read more).
• Sen. Jim Inhofe brings God into his denial of climate change (Read more).
• The environmental politics of toilet paper (Read more).

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