Saskia Sassen Brings Back the Social and Historical to Haiti’s Disaster
January 21, 2010 by SocProf and tagged Economy, Global Governance, Globalization, Neocolonialism, Risk Society
Why oh why doesn’t Saskia Sassen have her own blog? *SocProf laments* If she did, I wouldn’t have to go to that vile place to read her columns! And what a great column it is, bringing back some context to the Haiti situation, relating it to the rise and triumph of neoliberal globalization. After all, it is only stupidity, racism and ignorance of history that allow some people comment on the fact that Haiti shares the island with the Dominican Republic and they’re not in the same awful situation, so there. Such ignoramuses should be made to read Mario Vargas Llosa’s book The Feast of the Goat to get a sense of how the DR is different from Haiti.
There is indeed no way the situation in Haiti can be understood without referring back to structural adjustment programs that have strangled so many countries of the Global South as well as the debt crisis (thoroughly explained in Noreen Hertz’s book The Debt Threat: How Debt Is Destroying the Developing World…and Threatening Us All). Haiti perfectly illustrates the mechanisms of neocolonialism and how Western countries (in this case, mainly France and the US) managed to keep a tight leash on their former colonies through the mechanisms of global governance (and let’s not forget that Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier got to enjoy some nice time on the French Riviera after his ousting).
What is the solution to the debt crisis? According to Sassen,
And please let us be spared the argument that Haitians will never learn responsibility if the debt is simply canceled. the debt crisis was largely caused by the global institutions and banks in search of place to unload the cash they were flushed with in the 60s and the 70s. Quite often, Western-sponsored dictatorships in the Global South engaged in debt in order to either enrich cronies of various sorts or provide some development as carrots against their dictatorial sticks. When the countries returned to democratic governance in the 1980s, these governments were left with mountains of debt and the consequences of tyrannical rule (see Argentina or Brazil, for instance). They were left with no choice but to submit to the dictates of the IMF with devastating consequences.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I gotta go dig up that Globalizations article Sassen mentions.
Posted in Economy, Global Governance, Globalization, Neo-Colonialism, Poverty, Racism, Risk Society | No Comments »
