[Dialogue] Report to those who responded

[chagnon@comcast.net]

Jim, Bravo for The Nation piece/letter and for incorporating the responses you received.  I hope they publish it.  
Lucille Chagnon
Wilmington, DE


> Thanks to those of you who sent me your perspectives on the Naomi Klein article 
> I found so troubling. I feel I am much better informed and surer of what I 
> believe. As a result, I have sent the following summary letter to The Nation. It 
> may not get published but I am making other uses of it also, as the note 
> following it indicates.
> 
> Thanks again. Jim Rippey
> 
> =================================My letter========
> 
> After reading Naomi Klein's, The Rise of Disaster Capitalism (The Nation May 2), 
> I made inquiries, hoping that actual conditions weren't that bad. Unfortunately, 
> the responses tended to confirm the worst. But, beyond that, I learned there is 
> a lot of healthy, indigenous opposition to how the World Bank and well-funded, 
> powerful American business interests go about reconstruction efforts in areas 
> devastated by war or natural disasters.
> 
> The responses I got came mostly from individuals who have actually carried out 
> non-governmental rehabilitation and community development projects in various 
> parts of the world. One woman skimmed the article and declared "it is utterly 
> accurate and has been true for a long time. In some countries where I worked 
> there was at least contact between those highly paid consultants and ex-pats 
> like us. In other locations their gated communities and chauffeur driven 
> vehicles cut them off completely from any contact with the locals except for 
> their maids and menservants." Another said of the article: "unfortunately, it is 
> 100% true. However, in some Western countries (unlike yours) it is very hard for 
> politicians to champion and promote private companies."
> 
> A Middle Easterner who's held responsible positions described an offer from 
> America to turn a two lane road into a four lane highway. The offer insisted on 
> an expensive feasibility study and having a certain company do the job for a 
> high price. The offer was turned down. Later, thru contacts in the Arab Fund, 
> the country negotiated a loan to finance the project. A local company did the 
> work, native people got jobs, a lot of money was saved and the road was 
> well-built. However, my source added, foreign exploitation can't happen without 
> boot licking and cooperation of the locals. One respondent was sad that in many 
> locations, the institutional church was almost as bad as the quasi-governmental 
> organizations. In one place they claimed they were teaching farming skills. They 
> had locals doing the backbreaking work providing the "missionaries" with a 
> western diet, complete with broccoli and asparagus. However, she didn't think 
> the farm workers were learning anything useful they could take back to their 
> village.
> 
> A man in India wrote: "My own reaction to the article is that although it has a 
> lot of truth to it, I don't see the future being made through WB policy. It is 
> easy to set up these giant "boogie men" and then paint a picture of hopelessness 
> .... I feel that there are just too many other forces working on viable, 
> sustainable development to be stopped by these kinds of people. They have been 
> on the scene for decades and will be in the future, but the work of empowerment, 
> interchange, movement building etc. goes on. Great things are happening, there 
> are possibilities for change that just were not imagined 30 years ago." 
> 
> Another point of view: "One of the reasons there was virtually no (effective) 
> opposition to Wolfowitz' becoming head of the World Bank .... is that the World 
> Bank is simply the "aid" arm of the US neo-con controlled government. The IMF is 
> for the rest of the world, and while far from perfect, as is the UN, it at least 
> does some good in getting aid to populations that need it, even if sometimes 
> motivated by a post-colonialist paternalism. The World Bank might as well be 
> administered by the NSC for all of the humanitarian good it does." 
> 
> I, myself, was most troubled by a quote at the end of Klein's article: "A group 
> calling itself Thailand Tsunami Survivors and Supporters says that for 
> 'businessmen-politicians, the tsunami was the answer to their prayers, since it 
> literally wiped these coastal areas clean of the communities which had 
> previously stood in the way impeded their plans for resorts, hotels, casinos and 
> shrimp farms. To them, all these coastal areas are now open land!'" 
> 
> 
> None of the responses I got shed any light on this. So I did a Google search on 
> "Thailand Tsunami Survivors and Supporters" and I found the exact quote Klein 
> used. Despite Klein's disparaging characterization of it, the organization is 
> very much on the side of the displaced. The quote exposes the exploiters and is 
> contrasted with many examples of positive actions. Here's just one: "The voices 
> of the fisher folk who want to go back to their land is becoming very strong. 
> The Thai and English-language newspapers are filled with stories about fishing 
> communities fighting to be able to go back to the land they occupied before the 
> tsunami, and rebuild their communities. The issue has also come out in several 
> meetings organized by different ministries in the aftermath of the tsunami. So 
> the issue of land for these fishing communities is much more open.... it is also 
> not so easy for government organizations or private sector interests to evict, 
> relocate or deny these traditional communities their rights to the land they 
> have occupied for so long (but may not have formal title to)." 
> 
> 
> =========================================================================
> 
> Note to Jack in Bombay:  I appreciated your perspective re: indigenous counter 
> actions. But I was troubled by your final sentence where you wrote: "I feel the 
> despair expressed about WB, Religious Right, the Pope etc. etc. are finally not 
> very helpful. Local people are on the march and it will not be stopped; impeded, 
> yes, misunderstood, yes frustrated, yes, but what's new? We must keep our eyes 
> on the contradictions, and these large entities are not it."
> 
> My first reaction was that sounds like something Voltaire's Dr. Pangloss would 
> say. But then I realized you probably were facing an over full in-basket and 
> wrote hurriedly. For my part, I was naive to be unaware that so much of what I 
> thought were reasonably constructive relief efforts are too often displacing and 
> victimizing local people, people considered disposable. Nevertheless, I hadn't 
> approached my inquiry in despair. I was puzzled that you used the word.  And 
> then I remembered that in one of the responses I got, a colleague who has worked 
> extensively over seas had said, "I could rant on for a long time, but it is too, 
> too depressing."
> 
> When I read that, I took it to mean that when she thinks about it, she gets 
> upset again.  I don't believe she is reacting to a "boogie man."  I hope you 
> aren't suggesting that outrage and protest are inappropriate and "unhelpful."  
> For instance, closer to home, I'm much encouraged that, wonder of wonders, 
> outraged protests have forced DeLay and the House GOP leadership to back off and 
> rescind their gutting of House ethics rules.  
> 
> Therefore, what I'm sending to The Nation I will also send to my senators and 
> representative. And I'll ask them if these are the "values" the Religious Right 
> and the administration are bragging about. I hope Congress gets many such 
> protests. 
> 
> Again, thanks for the information you sent.   Please note that the overall tone 
> of what I've written in my summary is that, in various countries, there is 
> substantial opposition to exploitive policies and that good local alternatives 
> are developing. 
> 
> Jim Rippey in Bellevue, NE jimripsr at qwest.net 
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