INDEX INDEX Issue 26 / April 2010 Irish Newsletter for Development Education Exchange INDEX Editorial Contents At a recent conference organised by the Centre for Global Education David Selby argued that Natural disasters? 3 development education needs to draw on by Patsy Toland emergency education, ‘as the world moves into multiple crisis syndrome, emergency will I see black people: coverage of 4 no longer be out there, but here, there and the Haiti earthquake by Gavan Titley everywhere.’ While the recent extreme weather conditions in Ireland, involving both flooding and Haiti: a tragedy or a brilliant 6 snow, cannot be compared to the scale of the business opportunity? devastation wrought by the earthquake in Haiti, by José Antonio Gutiérrez D they did highlight our lack of ability to deal with ‘natural’ disasters. INDEX Links: 8 Senan Gardiner’s report from the UN climate Dev Ed courses and events summit in Copenhagen tells us that not only did the global summit end without an international EU News & International Dates 10 agreement, but also that talks during the summit focused on the impact of emissions, rather than IDEA Corner 11 acknowledging that the world urgently needs to transition to a low carbon economy and to start Dev Ed news, funding, 12 talking at an international level about how we’re and resources going to do that. In this issue of Index Patsy Toland questions Climate Justice when? 13 whether disasters can in fact be considered by Senan Gardiner ‘natural’, or whether the devastation wrought is in fact exacerbated by human actions. Gavin Resource Review: Tales of Disaster 15 Titley deconstructs the media coverage of the by Mary O’Reilly Haiti earthquake, and provides ideas for how it could be used to educate about critical media literacy, to analyse the assumptions and uncover bias. Jose Antonio Guterriez explores the history of foreign involvement in Haiti and argues for reconstruction that prioritises the interests of Haitian people. This issue highlights resources that can be used Index www.comhlamh.org to educate about natural disasters, and includes INDEX is a free Comhlámh publication for people interested sectoral news, courses and events. in educating on global development issues, funded by Comhlámh, Trócaire, IDEA, and Irish Aid. The views expressed in individual articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organisations to which they are affiliated, the editorial committee, or Comhlámh. “ Our future is like that of passengers Development Education is about questioning our on a small pleasure boat above the knowledge and perceptions about how the world works Niagara Falls, not knowing that the and about what role we play in it. It looks at the meanings engines are about to fail ” of concepts such as ‘development’ or ‘education’ in order to increase our understanding of the interconnectedness of – James Lovelock, 2007 our world (Galway One World Centre). Editorial committee: Ali Leahy (Comhlámh), Jenna Coriddi (CGE), Aoife McTernan (Trócaire), Johnny Sheehan (NYCI), Mbemba Jabbi (Africa Centre), Eimear McNally (IDEA). Please contact [email protected] to comment or to contribute to future issues. Cover image from © Kentoh, Dreamstime.com 2 Natural disasters? ‘Survivors in Haiti’s camps greeted news of Chile’s less deadly tremor with resignation, saying poor governance, corruption and shoddy construction magnified their own seismic disaster. “There aren’t any real politics in our country. Politics in our country is taking the money and putting it into a bank account, putting it in their pockets and running off,” a bitter Pierre-Francis Junior told AFP in a vast tent city where he now lives in the center of the capital Port-au-Prince.’ (newstraitstimes, Slum housing on the outskirts of the Haitian capital www.nst.com, 3rd March). Port au Prince © Steve Lindridge 2009 ontrasting the death tolls “Natural disasters are rarely ‘natural’, but the result of the recent earthquakes of a complex interplay of historical, political, in Haiti and Chile provides C development educators economic, geographic and human factors that with an opportunity to question the result in tragedies that could have been prevented.” ‘natural’ in natural disasters. Why did Haiti suffer 220,000 deaths, Could it be that permanent housing These questions provide enquiry into while Chile recorded less than 1,000, leads to a permanent problem for the notions of development and of the despite a much more severe seismic authorities? Millennium Development need for large-scale structural funds event? If the job of development Goal 7 has the target of achieving a for future development. This goes education is to prompt questioning significant improvement in the lives of beyond disaster relief and on to our of simplistic answers to complex 100 million slum dwellers by 2020. most beloved concept of sustainable problems then here is an excellent development. starting point. ‘The lack of improved sanitation and water facilities are two of the Reports that ‘thousands of US troops The comparison could start with four defining characteristics of are leaving Haiti in a swift scaling an explanation of tectonic plate urban slums. The others are durable back of US military involvement movements and the resulting housing and sufficient living area. In in post-earthquake security and earthquakes. Marking the 2005, slightly more than one third of reconstruction’ (Rory Carroll, geographical locations of recorded the urban population in developing Guardian, 8th March) and the near seismic activity on a map would trace regions lived in slum conditions.’ end to media coverage certainly a pattern across many developing (United Nation’s Millennium prompt questions of our commitment countries but also along the west Development Goals report 2008). to long-term support to Haiti. Ask coast of the USA and Mediterranean students to examine the time devoted Europe. Neither locations nor seismic Could Fair Trade help the farmers to the topic on television news, in the levels will provide any correlation with to improve their land rights? This news headlines or front-page stories. the death tolls of various disasters. prompts questions about the very slow progress in fair trading and the Natural disasters are rarely ‘natural’, One reason for the higher death reasons that corrupt commercial but the result of a complex interplay tolls in Haiti is the number of people interests and governments hinder of historical, political, economic, living in the city region. So why that progress. geographic and human factors that were so many people living there? result in tragedies that could have Who benefits from the agricultural So the simplicity of a tectonic plate been prevented. This prevention policies that promoted large-scale movement becomes more complex. is not about seismic predictions or commercial farming, poor land We can consider the Haiti disaster tsunami warnings, but rather about tenancy for indigenous farmers, large relief effort. Why was there only one bringing into sharp focus the many scale deforestation, and the resultant airport? Why was the port so easily elements that have created an move to the city? Do we care dismantled? Why were roads to unequal and unjust world. This is where financiers invest our savings rural hospitals and the neighbouring the responsibility that development to provide growth for our pension Dominican Republic not providing a education takes on and we should funds? local solution? Point out that Haiti is not allow the stories to fade from our less than a third the size of Ireland! ‘front page news’. In the city, why do people end up Or perhaps we want to question why in slums occupying land that the logistical efforts prioritized the flying Patsy Toland, Development wealthy do not want? And why are of 20,000 American troops into Haiti. Education Coordinator, Self Help their houses of such poor quality? Africa, www.selfhelp.ie 3 INDEX I see black people: coverage of the Haiti earthquake evelopment education has an established coverage centrally featured not only unsubstantiated focus on media literacy, aimed at encouraging reports of mob violence, but also the commonplace critical readings of how questions of power, assumption that such violence, even if not occurring Dgeography, culture and inequality are in the instantaneous now of media coverage, was represented and imagined. Ongoing media events, such inevitable. as the coverage of the earthquake in Haiti, are crucial sources of political education. Yet where does such For example see Inigo Gilmore, ‘The Myth of Haiti’s media education find its bearings in a context where lawless streets’ (The Guardian, 20 January 2010). Writing media coverage is instantaneous, globalised, polyvocal from Port-au-Prince, the journalist challenged John and fleeting? O’Shea of Goal on his statements about the threat of machete wielding mob violence and his decision not to The coverage and framing of ‘natural disasters’ is deploy aid workers at that time. an established focus in media studies. Since at least the 1970s, studies of disaster coverage have been “Ongoing media events, such as the used to examine how news values reflect geopolitical relationships and to analyse how news coverage coverage of the earthquake in Haiti, ‘thresholds’ are shaped by racial and developmental are crucial sources of political hierarchies (One European equals X number of non-Western fatalities, and so forth). education.” In the same vein, various studies have examined how the Journalists do not lightly refuse an ‘anarchy’ angle on a ‘imagined geographies’ of the West and the rest – the story, and as Gilmore pointed out, ‘…it’s not a war zone; historical produced images of exotic places, distant in it’s a disaster zone – and there appears to have been the imagination but intimately entwined with us materially little attempt to distinguish carefully between destructive and politically – shape approaches to disaster sites.