 |
 |
||||
|
The situation in Haiti grows complicated ... fast. The cargo ship Sarine has a double-steel hull and is roughly 330 feet long. And now, pulled up to the quay in Port-au-Prince, the "grabbing box" from a huge off-load crane reaches down into the vessel's hold, and, like the hand of God, lifts another half-ton or so of rice out - hundreds of thousands of individual grains of rice. Then the loose rice is dumped into a white, V-shaped steel hopper whose nozzle sits inside a small hut on the Port-au-Prince waterfront. Using gravity, the hopper directs the rice into 25-kg (55-pound) white plastic bags, with blue stars on their fronts and the words "AMERICAN RICE" written on their sides. After that - using a sewing machine - the top of each bag is sealed. As I watch, over and over - bag after bag after bag - a man running the V-shaped hopper turns to me. He rubs his belly. "I'm hungry," he says in French. "Well," I respond, "why don't you take some rice for yourself? There's a lot." The man flashes a grin back, and shrugs. "Yes," he says, "that's possible. But I'm not that kind of hungry." The rice bags move from the factory along an assembly line to waiting trucks which will travel deeper into Haiti to feed a nation still suffering from hunger on a vast scale. But the economy of rice in Haiti says everything about the condition the country is in. The US government subsidizes and "donates" ton after ton of rice in Haiti and in so doing has through the last several decades completely undercut Haitian rice farmers and left them destitute and migrating into cities where they live in hovels that were destroyed by the quake. As recently as the early 1980s, Haiti was producing just about all of its own rice. Now more than 60 percent is imported from the US, making it the fourth largest recipient of American rice exports in the world. That was before the quake and now with donated rice coming in as well, Haiti is even more awash in rice while American agribusiness makes billions of dollars every year through generous government subsidies. There is perhaps some bitter irony here that the subsidies were promoted in large part by President Clinton to help his home state of Arkansas, the largest rice producing state in the US, thereby crippling a sector of the economy in Haiti where Clinton has worked so tirelessly to help with the recovery. "You might say it is a perfect metaphor for what is wrong with aid to Haiti," says Marc Cohen, a senior researcher for Oxfam, one of the largest non-government organizations (NGOs) in the world, which raised approximately $106 million for a three-year response in Haiti and finds itself struggling to deliver the aid effectively. "Instead of bringing subsidized rice in on ships from Miami, we could be helping Haiti grow rice in its own fields," adds Cohen, who worked for many years in Haiti with the International Food Policy Research Institute and studied the broad economic impact of US rice subsidies, or "Miami rice," as it is known here. by Donovan Webster, Jan 2012 In the meantime, rice distribution continues. People have to be fed. Men used to watch from above as women waited in line to collect rice. Only women were allowed to collect rice as officials say women are less aggressive in aid lines and distribute food more equitably. Like us I am sure the people of Haiti would like pasta, cakes, fruit, vegetables, juices, pizza, bread. Some can afford it. Most cannot. Who want sto eat rice and nothing but rice everyday? Black Economics |
Join
our Mailing List to the
|
| Home | Contact | Site Map | Terms | Advertise |
(C)
Black Economics 2005 - 2012
|
     |