A breath of fresh air for Haiti
Oct. 23rd, 2012 06:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nairiporterClintons preside at star-studded opening of Haitian industrial park
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/22/haiti-clinton-caracol-idUSL1E8LM3BF20121022
This is what I meant when I was talking about corporations having the responsibility to be "good citizens", i.e. helping communities (or entire countries) in distress not through simply dumping money at problems and pouring resources into bottomless broken buckets, but doing smart investments that would benefit all sides involved.
A South Korean textile company is opening a complex of factories in North Haiti, hoping to do good business, produce textiles, use the cheap labour force of the impoverished country, all the while creating jobs, building infrastructure, placing Haiti back on the map of industrial production, and hopefully creating opportunities for Haitians to help themselves and alleviate their lives.
This of course would require a favourable combination of positive circumstances, and I think I can understand the concerns of the critics that it wouldn't work quite so well in the Haitian case because of the many challenges. The concerns go into several directions:
- Thousands of people have been lured off the rural areas and into the urban areas around the capital and north, depopulating rural communities and creating demographic imbalance and social problems in the cities (like the expansion of slums with horrible living conditions).
- There might be a problem with the "return to factory-based economic initiatives", which, critics argue, would hardly provide opportunities for a long-term sustainable economic development of these communities and only create short-term distortions.
On the other hand, providing jobs and creating the infrastructure to run such a large-scale enterprise in a country that otherwise is at the bottom of any global rankings in terms of living standard, living conditions, economic stability and even health and longevity, is much preferable to having nothing at all.
Indeed, many farmers from the area where the factory is going to be built, have been displaced. Indeed, the Haitian government is not exactly incorruptible and would probably misappropriate a portion of the benefits from the industry, or create all sorts of obstacles for doing business transparently. But meanwhile, the South Koreans must know what they are doing, they ought to have measured all the pros and cons, the risks and benefits for both their business and the local community. Otherwise they wouldn't have invested there. I doubt they are going to Haiti just because Bill Clinton is a very persuasive guy. I just hope they wouldn't turn this factory into yet another sweat-shop for the sake of mere profit. Now that the world's focus has been set upon their undertaking, and influential public figures like both Clintons and a few famous people have been involved, this might be something like a guarantee that that won't happen. Or it could just be my wishful thinking.
All said, we'll be watching with increased interest. This could be the first step to a real recovery for Haiti. Or not. It better be.
I, too, do have a dream. It's not much that I want. I wish that my 6-year-old Haitian boy that I adopted a few years ago, could go back to his country of origin one day, and be amazed of the positive transformation it has gone through. You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. :-)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/22/haiti-clinton-caracol-idUSL1E8LM3BF20121022
This is what I meant when I was talking about corporations having the responsibility to be "good citizens", i.e. helping communities (or entire countries) in distress not through simply dumping money at problems and pouring resources into bottomless broken buckets, but doing smart investments that would benefit all sides involved.
A South Korean textile company is opening a complex of factories in North Haiti, hoping to do good business, produce textiles, use the cheap labour force of the impoverished country, all the while creating jobs, building infrastructure, placing Haiti back on the map of industrial production, and hopefully creating opportunities for Haitians to help themselves and alleviate their lives.
This of course would require a favourable combination of positive circumstances, and I think I can understand the concerns of the critics that it wouldn't work quite so well in the Haitian case because of the many challenges. The concerns go into several directions:
- Thousands of people have been lured off the rural areas and into the urban areas around the capital and north, depopulating rural communities and creating demographic imbalance and social problems in the cities (like the expansion of slums with horrible living conditions).
- There might be a problem with the "return to factory-based economic initiatives", which, critics argue, would hardly provide opportunities for a long-term sustainable economic development of these communities and only create short-term distortions.
On the other hand, providing jobs and creating the infrastructure to run such a large-scale enterprise in a country that otherwise is at the bottom of any global rankings in terms of living standard, living conditions, economic stability and even health and longevity, is much preferable to having nothing at all.
Indeed, many farmers from the area where the factory is going to be built, have been displaced. Indeed, the Haitian government is not exactly incorruptible and would probably misappropriate a portion of the benefits from the industry, or create all sorts of obstacles for doing business transparently. But meanwhile, the South Koreans must know what they are doing, they ought to have measured all the pros and cons, the risks and benefits for both their business and the local community. Otherwise they wouldn't have invested there. I doubt they are going to Haiti just because Bill Clinton is a very persuasive guy. I just hope they wouldn't turn this factory into yet another sweat-shop for the sake of mere profit. Now that the world's focus has been set upon their undertaking, and influential public figures like both Clintons and a few famous people have been involved, this might be something like a guarantee that that won't happen. Or it could just be my wishful thinking.
All said, we'll be watching with increased interest. This could be the first step to a real recovery for Haiti. Or not. It better be.
I, too, do have a dream. It's not much that I want. I wish that my 6-year-old Haitian boy that I adopted a few years ago, could go back to his country of origin one day, and be amazed of the positive transformation it has gone through. You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. :-)
