Writing Assignment: An Open Letter to David Brooks

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在你的署名《潜在悲剧》中，你试图讨论导致海地贫困问题的根本问题。你的文章中列出了一些“困难的真相”。第一点是人们不知道如何利用援助来减少贫困。然而，海地援助的历史性失败确实是一个困难，但并不一定表明没有正确的援助方式。你的第二点是，小额援助至关重要，但不足，我同意，并将在下文进一步讨论。然而，你认为海地的根本问题是“抗进步”文化和第三和第四点缺乏“地方主导的家长主义”，我不能再对此表示异议。我将从文化、历史和发展的角度来讨论海地的问题，以回应你的观点。海地的贫困问题是多层次造成的，不应简化为单一的事业。文化被认为是一种中性力量，由于社会条件和外国的干扰，可以从积极和消极两个方向加以解释和发展，但文化本身不应被指责助长贫穷，当然不应被称为“抗进步”。

Writing Assignment: An Open Letter to David Brooks

In your Op-Ed, “The Underlying Tragedy” published in New York Times, you attempted to discuss about the fundamental problem leading to Haiti’s problem of poverty. There are a few “difficult truths” listed in your article. The first point is that people don’t know how to use aid to reduce poverty. It is indeed a difficult from the historic failures of aid in Haiti, however, it does not necessarily suggest that there isn’t a right way of aid. Your second point is that micro-aid is vital but insufficient, with which I agree and will address further below. However, you owe the fundamental problem in Haiti to the “progress-resistant” culture and the lack of “locally led paternalism” in the third and fourth points, to which I cannot disagree more. I’ll discuss the problem in Haiti from the cultural, historical and developmental perspectives in response to your views. The poverty issue in Haiti has multi-layered caused, and should not be simplified to a singular cause. Culture is considered a neutral force that can be interpreted and developed in both positive and negative directions due to the social conditions and foreign interferences, but a culture itself is not to be blamed for fostering poverty and certainly shouldn’t be labeled as “progress-resistant”.

The culture of Haiti should be respected as a treasure for both the Haitians and the mankind. It has the richest and most dynamic culture in both South America and the world. When people think of the word “heritage”, they always have the impressions of material heritages such as relics, paintings, sculptures and handmade crafts. Indeed, Haiti also has its fair share of relics from the time of slavery and colonization. However, a considerable portion of the Haiti heritage is the intangible cultural heritage, including philosophical thoughts, folk tales, traditional customs, beliefs as well as techniques. The intangible cultural heritage of Haiti has had a significant influence on the local artists, inspiring the creative work such as paintings, literature and theater (Dayan, 1996). Even the Voodoo religion condemned by you in the article, as it “spreads the message that life is capricious and planning futile”, is part of that heritage. It is, however, not necessarily truth for the Voodoo philosophy to conflict with progress and development. Instead, these words can be interpreted in multiple ways. It may also refer to the optimistic attitudes of the Haiti towards life. If they want their own pace of development, it should be respected. However, it is rather ridiculous to consider that Haitians who are Voodoo believers do not want a better life and progress for their country through hard work.

The poverty problem in Haiti is not originated from the intrinsic problems, but rather an unfortunate history of the country in the past hundreds of years. When Haiti was a colony with sugar cane plantations as the major sector of economy, it was among the wealthiest in the world. However, revolutions in the country in the 19^th century had completed destructed the economy. The chaos along with several major military mobilizations has caused a mass in the country till the 1900s. As the news of the rebels and chaos spread to the US, president Wilson claimed that the anarchism state of Haiti will lead to the vulnerability of German invasions, and took over Haiti with US military forces (Renda, 2001). These actions had stabilized Haiti and prompted the tourism and economy of Haiti. However, during the US occupation, the Haitians were also prohibited from assuming any important roles in government service. Under the influence of the US government, Haiti opened its market to the US products. Agricultural products flew into the country with little or even no custom duties, which completely destroyed the local agricultural sector. Haiti used to be a self-sufficient country with agricultural produce, but it practically went bankrupt in the half century’s rule of the United States. Farmlands around the country were abandoned, farmers became refugees and crowded the slums of Port-au-Prince. It is obvious that such historical forces have been the dominant contributor to the situation in Haiti today. It is curious why anyone should overlook such obvious causes and blame the local culture instead.

The civil war and chaos continued in Haiti due to the ruined economy of the country, and domestic tension was only eased with the intervention of the UN peace corps. A democratic election was only resumed in 2006, then the earthquake in 2010 occurred, shaking the country into ruins once more. Although humanitarian assistance from the NGOs have been continuous since the earthquake, they have failed to eliminate the poverty problem in the country (Campbell, 2016). The advantage of the country is the rich local culture, which should not be considered an obstacle as suggested in your article, but rather an opportunity. Despite the high rate of illiteracy in Haiti, its culture has nurtured the unique Haitian literature. Folk songs and dances are also the origins of songs and musical dramas. These cultural elements are not only significant parts of the Haitian heritage, but also important resources for tourism development. Therefore, the solution to Haiti’s poverty contains two parts. In the short term, promotion of tourism should be conducted in a systematic way, with infrastructure development in accordance with the local culture and tourism needs. In the long term, elimination of illiteracy is the most important task for NGOs, so that Haitian kids can benefit from the quality of education and be able to run their own country in the future. Increased paternalism, as proposed in your article, goes against the local culture and will not contribute to the sustainability of Haiti’s development.

Due to the prime location of Haiti and the rich tourism resources, it is often hard to imagine why the country remain one of the poorest in the world. However, after an examination of historical events, natural disasters, ineffective intervention, the cause for Haiti is believed to be complex and multi-layered. Thus, it is inappropriate and arrogant to label the culture of a country as “progress-resistant”. It should be noted that a culture is not constant, but evolves over time. Although culture can influence social conditions sometimes, their relationship is only a correlation, instead of cause and effect. In fact, the influence of the latter on the former is usually more powerful. Development of the society will prompt the evolution of the culture into positive directions in Haiti, and the tools of such development are believed to be tourism and education.

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