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The Tsunami in a World Context
On December 26, 2004, an earthquake measuring 9 on the Richter
Scale caused one of the most devastating tsunamis in recorded
history. The tsunami pummeled eight countries in Asia and five
in Africa, killing more than 150,000 people, injuring half a
million, and leaving over five million homeless.
This catastrophe touched all of us, calling us to reflect on
the value of life and the responsibility we share in protecting it.
Did every country suffer to the same degree?
Natural disasters never affect all places in the same way.
When a disaster hits a wealthy country, the results are
usually not as devastating as when one hits a poorer nation.
For example, Iran suffered an earthquake of 6.8 on the Richter
Scale in 2003 that killed 30,000 people. The same year, a much more
violent earthquake of 8.0 struck Japan; not a single death was
recorded.
Can this be chalked up to chance? We don't think so! Countries
like Japan invest incredible amounts of resources to design and
construct buildings that are resistant to seismic activity. This
kind of technology isn't available in poorer countries. Is the
life of a Japanese person more valuable than that of someone from
Thailand?
Of course not. Nevertheless, the technology developed by Japan
and the United States that can predict tsunamis and other natural
disasters isn't available in developing countries.
With this in mind, the United Nations' Development Program has
declared that we should no longer focus so much on the natural
disasters themselves, now that the human race has demonstrated
its capability to avoid the great majority of loss of human life
to causes like earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, tornadoes, and
typhoons.
We should focus on the inequality among humans that makes such
loss of life the norm in poorer countries. Poverty, social
disorganization (local and international), and the lack of
education, adequate housing, and health care are the real
reasons that these natural phenomena become "disasters." What we
need, then, to avoid catastrophes like the one we saw on December
26, is to work at eliminating poverty.
International aid in a larger context
To date, the world has promised over $4 billion in aid to the
countries affected by the tsunami. Though this number represents the world's desire to express its
solidarity with the people of the devastated areas, the fact is
that the poverty of the region will make it difficult for the aid
to reach the places that need it most. The aid, despite its symbolic
value, will be insufficient to resolve the structural problems that
caused such poverty in the first place.
One of the problems is the burden that foreign debt puts on these
poor countries. Every year the poor nations of the world send the
wealthy North over $230 billion in principal and interest (often
mostly interest) on loans.
According to the latest figures from
the World Bank, five of the countries devastated by the tsunami
have foreign debt ballooning above $300 billion, and the payments
that come with it are frightening: more than $23 billion annually.
That is to say, these countries are paying almost six times the
amount promised them in tsunami aid. Still, requests to cancel the
foreign debt of these countries have not been taken seriously.
So, even though it's important to recognize altruistic gestures in
an age of so much individualism, it's also necessary to contextualize
the aid donations by comparing them with other levels of spending
worldwide.
For example, if we compare the $4 billion promised by the world
to help tsunami victims with the military budget of the United
States – nearly $500 billion a year –
leaves us with little doubt
about where international priorities lie.
Del dicho al hecho hay un gran trecho.
From the word to the deed is a great distance.
-Dominican saying
Another worry expressed by the United Nations is that nations who
have promised a large amount of aid will actually fork over a much
smaller sum. After the earthquake in Iran, many wealthy nations
collectively promised to send $1.1 billion in aid. Only $170 million
ended up arriving, that is, 15 percent of the promised amount. And
after Hurricane Mitch in 1998, rich governments promised $3.5 billion
in donations, and the IMF and World Bank committed $5.2 billion more.
Only 30 percent of that money ever arrived.
If history is any example, most of the promised tsunami aid will
not arrive, and what small percentage does will come trickling in
late.
The end of human disasters
When we recognize that nature produces phenomena that we humans
make into disasters, we come to understand that we hold the power
to prevent these disasters as well – in terms of lives lost to
phenomena like tsunamis or hurricanes.
What we need to do is make our technology work for us, and by
"us," we mean everybody. But it doesn't happen like that in a
market economy – neoliberal governments put technology to work for
corporate profits. For example, when we're talking about stock
market quotes, messages from the West reach Asia in a matter of
seconds. Yet the organization in the United States that monitors
the oceans couldn't let Asian and African countries know about the
tsunami threat in time.
We grieve with the families who lost loved ones. Yet we hope that
something positive can come out of this great human tragedy.
We hope this catastrophe can help the world realize the
responsibilities that wealthy nations have to share their
technology with the world to make sure that the kind of death
toll experienced in December's tsunami is never seen again.
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MSA completes six-university campaign: students say NO to violence against women
We live in a culture of violence, and universities are hardly
removed from that reality. Violence against women is a problem
that is rarely denounced or confronted in the universities. We
are all aware of the prevalence of sexual harassment against
women in the academic setting, harassment that comes from male
students and professors alike.
The Movimiento Sin Aula ("Beyond-the-Classroom Movement," or MSA),
in an effort to seek answers to the problems that face Dominican
youth, recently carried out a six-university campaign for no violence
against women in Santo Domingo.
The administrations, student bodies, and faculties of the
various universities showed their support and hospitality in
welcoming the MSA to their campuses throughout the closing months
of 2004.
This latest initiative by the student-run MSA is another example
of the group's commitment to raising consciousness about the
gravity of the problem of violence against women. Their actions
in the six universities were directed at fighting for the defense
of women's human rights.
The gist of the campaign
The MSA organized and facilitated activities around the theme
of domestic violence for one day at each university. They
performed short skits, hung artistic murals, handed out
informational flyers and documents, and presented research
papers. They hosted viewings of films and documentaries and
facilitated several conversation groups on topics such as:
"Gender and Identity," "Gender and Health," "Gender and the
Economy," "Gender in Politics," and "Gender and Culture"
at various times and places throughout the day.
In addition, the MSA took advantage of this campaign to study
current student perceptions about gender violence. After every
campus visit, they held workshops that introduced participants
to the study of gender and violence, and to the MSA's work and
mission.
On the International Day of No Violence Against Women, MSA
members took part in a large demonstration outside the offices
of Congress to protest the bill that would strip Law 24-97 of
much of its power. Law 24-97 is the first law in the Dominican
Republic to punish perpetrators of domestic violence.
The closing ceremony of the MSA campaign took place later that
evening in the auditorium of the Instituto Tecnológico (INTEC)
with a concert held by Luis "El Terror" Diaz.
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Land redistribution laws and rural development in Venezuela
On January 10 Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez
announced a new law that seeks to regulate the ownership and use of
rural land. This progressive strategy has the objective of
eliminating latifundios, or large estates.
The law is crucial for Venezuela, a country where 80 percent
of the land is owned by 5 percent of the population and 70
percent of food supplies have to be imported.
Reminding the nation that the Venezuelan Constitution
prohibits latifundios, Chávez declared, "Now that
the revolution – a Democratic revolution – has been
brought about and is here to stay, we have to first
face and then conquer this problem. The fight against
the latifundio is essential within the Bolivarian struggle."
For any nation, control of food supply is a fundamental
prerequisite for sovereignty and independence. The people
of Venezuela recognized the significance of the
anti-latifundio law. Attending the ceremony of the passing
of the law were thousands of peasants who are ready to begin
cultivating fields that have been fallow for decades.
As a way to support this process, the Venezuelan state has
created many opportunities for its citizens: lines of credit
through the Banco de Desarrollo Economico y Social (Bank
for Economic and Social Development), credit to obtain farm
equipment and other machinery, gifts or loans of machinery
to peasant cooperatives, technical assistance to take
advantage of the terrain and proper growing seasons, courses
on the formation of cooperatives, use of silos to preserve
harvests, and inclusion in the food distribution networks,
including the Mercal local market network, among other
opportunities.
It is a great challenge to stand up to the Venezuelan
oligarchy that through the years has opposed any initiative
that would benefit the masses. For this reason, it is vital
that the nation get international support in this important
step forward.
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