Structural Violence and the Bottom Billion

The collapse of the Soviet Union meant that free-market capitalism would dominate the world economy. US scholars claimed the system would create mass amounts of wealth and significantly reduce poverty. Looking back on the past twenty years in terms of worldwide averages we can see that neoliberal economics has done precisely what it claimed it would. There are now over 1,200 billionaires in the world (up from 358 billionaires in 1995) and the percentage of people living in poverty has decreased worldwide in both relative and absolute numbers. But these realities hide other, more disturbing, outcomes of this economic system behind a cloak of (over)simplification. For example, the economic rise of India and China has brought most of their citizens out of poverty, thus significantly offsetting the fact that in the year 2000 a billion people were poorer than they were in 1970 and that the median age of death in Sub-Saharan Africa is less than five years (no, this is not a typo).

These "hidden" people suffer from what Dr. Paul Farmer – Professor at Harvard University and founder of Partners in Health – calls "structural violence": that the structure of the neoliberal economic system denies elementary rights to many people through tyrannical governments, lack of health care, neglect of public facilities, lack of education, oppression, and exploitation. Rights violations are no accident. According to Farmer, "rights violations are, rather, deeper pathologies of power and are linked intimately to the social conditions that so often determine who will suffer abuse and who will be shielded from harm."

It’s not only Africa. Haiti, Harlem, much of the former Soviet bloc, Bolivia, Laos, Cambodia, Yemen, Burma, North Korea, and indigenous groups everywhere collectively suffer violent conditions. Economist Paul Collier – former director of the research department at the World Bank – has identified a total of fifty eight countries that fall into the “bottom billion” category: those who are “falling behind and falling apart.” Collier believes we need to refocus our view of poverty. Many of the poor countries of the 1970’s are actually middle-income countries today, yet the International Monetary Fund has offices in every middle income country and virtually no offices in the fifty-eight countries of the bottom billion.  

Why are these countries “falling behind and falling apart” while others are reducing poverty at speeds never before seen? Collier believes there are four characteristics unique to the countries of the bottom billion that make it nearly impossible to climb out of poverty: the conflict trap (i.e. being trapped in a civil war), the natural resource trap (i.e. becoming a one-dimensional economy), the trap of being land-locked with bad neighbors (i.e. being unable to access ports for trade), and the trap of bad governance in a small country (i.e. government leaders stealing aid money or not building infrastructure). All countries of the bottom billion have at least one of these afflictions and most suffer more than one.

Following the horrors of Nazi extermination camps in the Second World War the world demanded a set of rules to ensure such catastrophes would never again be written in the pages of history. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 was the result. However great its intentions, the events in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda certainly show that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has been unsuccessful in preventing grotesque human rights violations. Dr. Farmer would say that no state provides sufficient rights to all its citizens. While achieving this might be unrealistic it should be our goal and we can certainly do better than presently.  

In the US we have done a good job achieving civil and political rights. But what about other rights? What about other countries? Dr. Farmer says, "civil rights cannot really be defended if social and economic rights are not... the hesitation of many in the human rights community to cross the line from rights activism of pure principals to one involving transfers of money, food, and medicine betrays a failure... to address the urgent needs of the people were are trying to defend."

Inequality – political and economic – is a threat to democratic government and economic growth. Institutions (governmental, economic, and social) in highly unequal societies tend to be inefficient compared to their more egalitarian cousins. A cycle of inequality emerges as these societies ignore social obligations (such as education) and instead focus on opening up their economies to a world dominated by competitive capitalism. In this world the rule is: if you can’t compete you don’t get to play the game. More concerning, extreme inequality creates political instability and thus undermines democracy. Fed up and with nothing to lose, these marginalized groups frequently resort to violence, coups, and other undemocratic practices. This instability scares off would-be investors and inhibits the gradual process on which economic growth depends.

The day after Martin Luther King, Jr.’s murder – and two months before his own murder – Robert “Bobby” Kennedy gave one of the greatest speeches of all time. Titled On the Mindless Menace of Violence, Kennedy’s words ring as true today as they did over forty years ago: 

… [W]e seemingly tolerate a rising level of violence that ignores our common humanity and our claims to civilization alike. We calmly accept newspaper reports of civilian slaughter in far-off lands. We glorify killing on movie and television screens and call it entertainment. We make it easy for men of all shades of sanity to acquire whatever weapons and ammunition they desire… Some look for scapegoats, others look for conspiracies, but this much is clear: violence breeds violence, repression brings retaliation, and only a cleansing of our whole society can remove this sickness from our soul.  

… [T]here is another kind of violence, slower but just as deadly destructive as the shot or the bomb in the night. This is the violence of institutions; indifference and inaction and slow decay. This is the violence that afflicts the poor, that poisons relations between men because their skin has different colors. This is the slow destruction of a child by hunger, and schools without books and homes without heat in the winter. This is the breaking of a man's spirit by denying him the chance to stand as a father and as a man among other men. And this too afflicts us all.  

…We must admit the vanity of our false distinctions among men and learn to find our own advancement in the search for the advancement of others. We must admit in ourselves that our own children's future cannot be built on the misfortunes of others… But we can perhaps remember, if only for a time, that those who live with us are our brothers, that they share with us the same short moment of life; that they seek, as do we, nothing but the chance to live out their lives in purpose and in happiness, winning what satisfaction and fulfillment they can. 

So how to fix this flawed system? Dr. Farmer argues for an overhaul. We need to "redistribute some of the world’s vast wealth" to reduce inequality, provide human rights to all and provide a preferential option for the poor. Collier says we need to overhaul our system of aid, use military interventions appropriately, develop effective laws and charters, and provide trade benefits to those in need. He calls on conservatives and liberals of the world to work together.

The neglect of those in poverty in this era of affluence is our world’s greatest regret. To overcome it is our greatest challenge.

Ode to Chaco

In the business world it is always refreshing to find a company not only supremely confident in the quality and craftsmanship of their product but that backs it up by boldly going where few others dare to: offering a lifetime warranty.

I purchased my first pair of Chaco´s for hiking in Alaska and in anticipation of travels in the Middle East. Although I loved the highly adjustable single-strap design and uniquely designed sole what really sold me on the $100 sandal was its lifetime warranty, but not for obvious reasons. I was fairly certain they would last a long time so the idea of replacing them wasn´t on my mind; I was looking for a versatile and well-made product and in Chaco I trusted because they offered more than words and promises: they backed their confidence up.

 "would you like your check, sir?"

After three years of traveling through twenty countries on five continents I still thought my Chaco´s would last forever and I became (like so many before me) a passionate advocate for a Chaco-led life (more on this later); life without which isn´t really "living" after all.

Tragedy struck in country number twenty when my invincible sandals were put to their toughest test: Panama. More specifically, the Comarca Ngäbe-Bugle in Panama. My Chaco´s failed this test. Conditions in the Comarca, I´ve now learned, are perhaps the most ideal for destroying a pair of Chaco´s. Incessant tropical rain creates muddy conditions which turn pathways into an ATVers paradise. While this is splendid in a place that has never heard of ATV´s, this mud is also kryptonite to Chaco´s when combined with immense amounts of hiking (thus, on a Peace Corps Volunteer).

My first pair of Chaco´s broke within my first three months in Panama. Chaco´s policy is to send a new pair for a broken sole (they informed me they could not do anything about my broken Chaco "soul" though) and replace a broken strap for $20. Send them the broken pair and they send you a new pair: very smooth. I was worried I would have to pay $50 to send my sandals internationally but again, Chaco saved the day. As a PCV I only had to email a photo of the break to get a new pair. Phew! It was just as easy to replace my second pair five months later when they, too, broke.

Of the nine PCV´s in the Comarca from group 66 seven of us own and practically live in a pair of Chaco´s. Most of us have had to replace them at some point. In an extreme example my friend Jake just broke his third pair here and is walking barefoot everywhere, refusing to put his feet in anything else while he waits for his fourth pair to arrive. (Not really).

Kayla's Chaco's after I attempted to fix them...

The irony is that we continue to use a product that continues to fail us. Why the stubbornness? Because Chaco´s are by far the best foot wear here. Other options:

• Boots keep the mud down and are good for crossing rivers but are so hot. Although is rains in sheets here it does not make sense to wear rain gear at eighty degrees; you will just get soaked with sweat. It´s better to remove the gear and embrace the rain bath. And without raingear boots fill with water. Verdict: obsolete.
• Hiking boots are good during the dry season but are worse than boots in the wet season. They are harder to clean, fill with water because I refuse to wear rain gear (you would too - trust me), and my laces have broken four times. Verdict: obsolete.
• Teva´s or Keen´s. Teva´s lose their velcro after a short period of time and are harder to clean than Chaco´s. My only friend here with Teva´s were given to him used by his dad and if he wasn´t so cheap he´d have Chaco´s. Keen´s are nice sandals with better toe protection than chaco´s but are a nightmare in the mud. My only friend here with Keen´s just told me she was buying a pair of Chaco´s for precisely this reason. Verdict: obsolete.

While writing this blog post I was trying to decide which is more impressive: how tough Chaco´s are and how good their customer service is or how rugged the Comarca is. Just before my head exploded from being unable to answer this great quandery it dawned on my that I can be equally impressed by both of them and thankful for how they enhance my life. (This is the kind of perspective you develop when living a Chaco-led life). Happy Hiking!