Quality of International Aid in Haiti

Was the US using Haiti as an instrument for their own glorification? Food was brought swiftly and thrown from airplanes, but this method of distribution caused many injuries. While this distribution method looks dramatic and innovative in the movies, in real life injuries could have been avoided from safer methods of distribution. Water bottles still litter the streets of Haiti today, whereas water filters would have brought much less waste. This is a case where US intentions were benign, but relief efforts could have been much more fruitful in saving Haitian lives.

Humanitarian aid was largely due to American lives in Haiti. Mobilization for Americans was aided by the fact that there were Americans living in Haiti during the earthquake that were directly affected by the damage. Regardless of who these Americans are or what they believed in, Americans tend to identify with other Americans and mobilize for their safety. The problem with this is the tendency to hold American lives at a higher standard than any other lives. Of course, fewer American citizens were affected compared to Haitians, yet this was one of the main motivations for intervening. Aid would have been very different if all Haitians had been treated like American citizens. There should have been much more improvement in the last six years, given the amount of resources allocated for Haiti.

The American people were willing to donate, but the money did not make it to Haiti directly. According to NPR reporter Richard Knox, “A single penny of every dollar out of US aid goes to Haitian organizations.”  Aid was diverted from the Haitian government because of the decades of political turmoil and corruption. Haiti’s government was weak long before the earthquake hit. NGOs involved in aid were problematic because they directed the money in many different locations outside of Haiti. For example, some of the money was used for lobbying in order to receive even more aid for Haiti. While intentions were good, this money ended up cycling in economies far from Haiti’s borders.There were unprecedented amounts of humanitarian aid, yet in reality so little of it went to Haiti itself.

Levels of media coverage were directly correlated to the higher levels of aid in Port au Prince compared to other less recognized towns. Port au Prince has various hotels and resorts for tourists who are drawn to the extensive coastline and favorable climate Haiti has to offer. American journalists were attracted to cities such as Port au Prince for their economic value. Many Americans are likely to be familiar with the more developed parts of Haiti, and therefore, the media was attracted to these areas. Cities outside of Port au Prince were largely ignored and many are still in shambles today; the focus for aid was on areas with high levels of tourism.  Media coverage meant more efficient and effective means of aid; funds weren’t allocated to places where the media wasn’t active.

The US has a desire to help countries ravaged by natural disasters but shies away from conflict crises. For example, the Syrian refugee crisis in Europe has caused widespread fear in Americans and foreign policy has reflected this. President-elect Donald Trump wants to halt Syrian immigration completely. Because Syrian immigrants have been perceived as terrorists, the US government is hesitant in helping them. An environmental crisis such as an earthquake in Haiti is confined to a single area; Americans don’t see Haiti as a threat that could spread and affect Americans as well. America intervenes when there is no perceived threat to American citizens.

The short term effects of aid have long term consequences for Haiti. The immediate aid deterred business away from local vendors in Haiti’s already struggling economy. While immediate aid was very important in recovering Haiti, the US should have incorporated methods of strengthening local services so that they could reintegrate into a more stable life. The US took a top down approach, giving aid to NGOs, instead of strengthening Haiti from the bottom up. While the immediacy of the situation required swift help, aid continued in Haiti for a while. In that time, improvements should have been made to be sure that the help Haiti received was what they needed. There seemed to be little contact with the Haitian government and its people, who were most directly affected by the impact. Help for Haiti came quickly, but it did not come effectively.

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Richard Knox. “5 Years After Haiti’s Earthquake, Where Did the $13.5 Billion Go?” NPR. January 12, 2015. http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2015/01/12/376138864/5-years-after-haiti-s-earthquake-why-aren-t-things-better.

Environmental Degredation

Environmental degradation will create huge issues for the human race in the future. When resources we rely on to survive become less and less available, politics needs to be involved in order to prevent the degradation and protect the citizens of the world. However, it is a very difficult issue to approach and most people don’t put environmental degradation as a high priority issue. Some have decided to label it as a national security threat in an attempt to receive more funding and support for the issue but this may not be the best way to solve the problem. Since the department of defense is not properly equipped to deal with environmental degradation, the best way to handle this issue would be to create a department that works with scientists and other countries’ governments to preserve the resources we still have and find alternate renewable resources.

The department of defense is not accustomed to dealing with an issue like environmental degradation because it is used to working with violent threats. Although both issues can lead to humans dying, it does not mean they can be handled the same way. Threats of violence mean that there is a specific country or group of people that is the threat. They are the enemies. This means that our country is try to gain something from this interaction and the other party will lose. Environmental issues are the complete opposite. There is nothing we are specifically up against. The gain does not come in the near future. No one is losing. Violent threats and environmental threats are very different and need to be handled in entirely different ways.

Labeling an issue as national security catches people’s attention. It means that action needs to be taken fast so that the issue can be fixed and the citizens will be protected. However typical security issues are relatively short term. There is normally an end to the situation but with environmental degradation there is no end. It is an issue that will go on forever. As Ole Waever wrote, security issues are typically addressed as “threat, defense, and often state-centered solutions.” Rushing to find a solution will not be very effective. This issue requires a lot of attention and cannot be solved quickly. The department of defense is used to dealing with short-term problems, not long term. Having a fast state centered solution is the wrong approach to use.
The issue is not a national problem. Environmental degradation does not only occur in certain countries. Natural disasters do not care about borders. The world needs to work together to prevent environmental degradation. This makes it a global security issue because it is transnational. If one country continues to pollute a river it will affect all of the countries that the river runs through. It cannot be dealt with as only a national security issue. It requires many countries to work together. It is also possible to view it as a human security issue because the people are who are effected. They will feel insecure when they no longer have clean water or food. 

Environmental degradation should not be considered a threat to national security because the national security apparatuses are not equipped to deal with this type of issue. It needs to be handled in a completely different way from violent threats, it is long term problem that requires a long term solution, and it does not affect one country individually. The most successful way to deal with the problem will be to create a department that will work with other countries to prevent environmental degradation. It can include scientists who will attempt to find new ways to solve the problems and politicians who could work with the other countries. This will be much more effective. 

Women in Sierra Leone

The most important and most difficult aspect of the Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration program (DDR) is the latter, how to reintegrate affected soldiers back into society. This part of the program deals with psychosocial aspects and how soldiers will live once they have removed themselves from the conflict according to the DDR’s standards. In times of crisis, the most immediate reaction that comes to mind is to return society to the way it was. However, Sierra Leone’s society is not considered equal in terms of gender. Should normalization be prioritized over gender equality? Is Sierra Leone too fragile after such harsh conflict to initiate an extreme adjustment such as gender equality?

Women were able to raise themselves up in the ranks of the RUF rebel forces. They were expected to commit crimes against humanity, including the severance of limbs. The extremities of the situation in Sierra Leone called upon women to make a choice to join the combat or remain at home. Being capable of choice is an option more commonly delegated to males, who control politics, businesses, and most aspects of life. However, during the conflict women were given power that they had never experienced before and took control of their lives. The pride they felt for participating was not necessarily due to the destruction they caused, but the brief authority they were given in wartime.

In the short term, women face serious consequences after living in wartime. Depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder are extremely common in soldiers. According to World Psychiatric Association, women in particular are extremely prone to psychological distress, even more so than men. Levels of depression and other post-war symptoms depend on the degree of trauma as well as the accessibility to physical and emotional support. It may be possible that women are innately more inclined to heightened levels of emotional distress. However, I believe that it is due to the fact that women are not accustomed to the tragedies of war due to social gender constraints. Also, the levels of emotional distress they face during wartime may be more psychologically damaging than what men face. In addition to the horrors of war, many women doubled as sex slaves and servants. Women were treated with less respect, even when they proved to be just as capable in higher ranks as men. And despite all of this, many women felt that they were not supported by DDR programs, which made recovery and reintegration even more challenging.

Unlike women, child soldiers were involved in the DDR program. Children were conscripted at very young ages, given drugs, and forced to become spies or sex slaves.They are used by both the rebel forces and the government. Children had limited options for their future; many of their parents were killed during the conflict. Children were treated as victims in the DDR program, and in many cases were kidnapped or forced into becoming a child soldier. Others went willingly. A 7-year-old child cannot be expected to make sound decisions for themselves, but a grown woman can.

The lack of women involved in the DDR program not only perpetuated a life of feminine inferiority, it denied women accessibility to reintegration with society. The role women played in the war should not be misinterpreted or masked. Returning to a normal life meant taking away the power that war gave them; gender roles that curtailed females from participating in life outside the home were reinstated as the norm.

The DDR program is a start, but it had a few significant flaws that show the significant consequences of how society views women. International organizations such as the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone that funded these programs helped to portray women as the victim. Even in western culture, which played a large role in the international organization’s part of the Sierra Leone conflict, women were victimized instead of given adequate treatment. Even in an industrial society as developed as the US, the implication is that women are held to a different standard than men are. Women are viewed as less capable of killing, more likely to be the victim, and more comfortable in the realm of domestic responsibility. The policies of the DDR were adapted to this predisposition of feminine social constraints.

Srinivasa Murthy, Rashmi Lakshminarayana. “Mental health consequences of war: a brief review o f research findings.” World Psychiatry: Official Journal of the World Psychiatric Association, Feb 2006. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1472271/.

Theresa Stichick Betancourt, Sc.D., M.A., Ivelina Ivanova Borisova, Ed.M., Timothy Philip Williams, M.S.W., M.Sc., Robert T. Brennan, Ph.D., Ed.M. “Sierra Leone's Former Child Soldiers: A Follow-up Study of Psychosocial Adjustment and Community Reintegration.” US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health. August 13, 2010. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2921972/.