Colonialism and development

I read a great article by Duane Champagne. I have lifted a few passages from his article to highlight a systematic approach to understanding the relationship of colonialism on contemporary development practice.

Political competition, economic incorporation, cultural exchange, and biological resistance are major features of the colonial context

Each of the three dimensions of colonialism, geopolitics, market incorporation, and cultural exchange, presents critical threats to indigenous or colonized communities
Similarly, the increasing economic globalization of the world and the penetration of markets and trade confront each nation. If indigenous peoples are going to engage in trade, and if they are to achieve any comparative advantage in that trade, the price they must pay is increased economic dependency and loss of self-sufficiency. The movement from relative self-sufficiency to market dependency implies that Natives will need to compete or at least participate in the marketplace. Global market incorporation is a new form of economic relations for indigenous nations, and, once involved, each nation is confronted with the issues of producing for exchange, which often involves economic specialization of labor, production, and entrepreneurship. Native nations that cannot reorganize social and economic relations according to the demands of the marketplace will be forced into impoverishment. The observed result over the past several centuries has been the economic marginalization of many indigenous nations. Thus, once captured in the trade and market networks, and dependent on market relations for basic goods, each indigenous nation is confronted with the requirement to maintain production for the market and to change economic output according to its demands. The possibility that any indigenous nation is able economically to survive within the world market system is not only partly dependent upon available local markets, but also upon the organization of labor, skills, resources, and the economic culture of the indigenous group. The possibilities of change or marginalization are not wholly contained within the colonial situation of market relations and resulting dependency.
A third requirement faced by indigenous nations within a colonial context is cultural pluralism. Through cultural exchange, new values, norms, political models, economic ethics, religious worldviews, language and other cultural aspects will be transferred and internalized by some members of the indigenous nation. These new forms of cultural understanding may be compatible with indigenous culture, may be tolerated, or may lead to division as well as to cultural and political factionalism

Every colonized nation confronts the dilemma of how to manage multiculturalism. The response of community members of colonized nations may depend on the organization and exclusiveness of the indigenous worldview, the compatibility of indigenous cultural elements with the culture of the colonizers, the degree of indigenous control over the socialization of children and other elements.

In the colonial situation, each indigenous nation is confronted with protecting self-government, economic viability, and cultural continuity. If the biological dimension is added, then protection of physical health is yet another responsibility for colonized communities. Given the situation of colonial expansion, each indigenous nation must develop, from within its own institutional order, a strategy that will ensure meaningful survival, despite drastic change and unfavorable situations. Since each nation confronts similar issues of maintaining self-government, economic viability, and preserving cultural communities, it is possible to make systematic comparative empirical descriptions and historical analyses of the ways in which indigenous nations have tried to solve the demands of colonization (Skocpol 33-40).

To read the entire paper:
http://www.bilkent.edu.tr/~jast/Number3/Champagne.html

From Dependency to Agency

The mission of the Highland Support Project is to promote transformational development. A term that often needs to be defined. In the simplest terms, we define transformational development as fostering agency to end cycles of dependency.

We view poverty as a complex process rather than a singular condition. Focusing on indigenous communities, it is arguable that the greatest obstacle to sustainable development is the colonial legacies that forced entire nations into states of dependency that continue to be sustained today.

Therefore, it is imperative to analyze the effects of development and charitable programming to assess the degree that these policies encourage dependency.

Do not be afraid to fail

One issue we find over and over again in our work is the fear of people to fail. As an NGO, we are judged by the success and failure of our programs. We also find that many of the folks we partner with are afraid to fail. I know for myself, posting on this blog that I am supposed to handle has been poor because I want it to be perfect. I am going to follow the advice provided here by Perter Bregman and just do. It will not be perfect, but it will be.

Peter Bregman How We Work

How to Escape Perfectionism

3:10 PM Tuesday September 1, 2009

According to the World Database of Happiness (yes, there is one), Iceland is the happiest place on earth. That's right, Iceland. Yes, I know it's cold and dark six months out of the year there. I'm just giving you the data.

The secret to their happiness? Eric Weiner, Author of The Geography of Bliss, traveled to Iceland to find out. After interviewing a number of Icelanders, Weiner discovered that their culture doesn't stigmatize failure. Icelanders aren't afraid to fail — or to be imperfect — and so they're more willing to pursue what they enjoy. That's one reason Iceland has more artists per capita than any other nation. "There's no one on the island telling them they're not good enough, so they just go ahead and sing and paint and write," Weiner writes.

Which makes them incredibly productive. They don't just sit around thinking they'd like to do something. They do it. According to the psychologist Mihaly Czikszentmihalyi, who wrote the book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, "It is not the skills we actually have that determine how we feel but the ones we think we have."

So if you think you're good at something, whether or not you are, you'll do it. The converse is also true: if you think you aren't good enough at something, you won't do it.

A friend of mine, Jeff, has wanted for some time to start a business teaching guitar*. But he hasn't yet. Why? When you sift through his various explanations and excuses it comes down to one simple problem.

He's a perfectionist.

Which means he'll never think he's good enough at guitar to teach it. And he'll never feel like he knows enough about running a business to start one.

Perfectionists have a hard time starting things and an even harder time finishing them. At the beginning, it's they who aren't ready. At the end, it's their product that's not. So either they don't start the screenplay or it sits in their drawer for ten years because they don't want to show it to anyone.

But the world doesn't reward perfection. It rewards productivity. And productivity can only be achieved through imperfection. Make a decision. Follow through. Learn from the outcome. Repeat over and over and over again. It's the scientific method of trial and error. Only by wading through the imperfect can we begin to achieve glimpses of the perfect.

So how do we escape perfectionism? I have three ideas:

1. Don't try to get it right in one big step. Just get it going.

   Don't write a book, write a page. Don't create the entire presentation, just create a slide. Don't expect to be a great manager in your first six months, just try to set expectations well. Pick a small, manageable goal and follow through. Then pursue the next.

   This gives you the opportunity to succeed more often, which will build your confidence. If each of your goals can be achieved in a day or less, that's a lot of opportunity to succeed.

2. Do what feels right to you, not to others.

   My wife Eleanor is a fantastic mother to our three children. Sleep is extremely important to her and in her early days of parenting she read a tremendous number of parenting books, each one with different advice on how to predictably get children to sleep through the night. Each expert contradicted the next.
   The only thing those books succeeded in doing was convince her she didn't know what she was doing. It was only after throwing all the books away that she was able to find herself as a parent. It's not that she found the answer. In fact, what helped is that she stopped looking for the answer.

   What she found was her answer. And that allowed her to settle into her parenting. It made her calmer, more consistent, more confident. And that, of course, helped our children sleep better.

   By all means, read, listen, and learn from others. But then put all the advice away, and shoot for what I consider to be the new gold standard: good enough.

   Be the good-enough parent. The good-enough employee. The good-enough writer. That'll keep you going. Because ultimately, the key to perfection isn't getting it right. It's getting it often. If you do that, then, eventually, you'll get it right.

3. Choose your friends, coworkers, and bosses wisely.

   Critical feedback is helpful as long as it's offered with care and support. But the feedback that comes from jealousy or insecurity or arrogance or without any real knowledge of you? Ignore it.

   And if you're a manager, your first duty is to do no harm. A friend of mine, Kendall Wright, once told me that a manager's job is to remove the obstacles that prevent people from making their maximum contribution. That's as good a definition as I've ever heard.

   And yet sometimes, we are the obstacle. As managers, we're often the ones who stand in judgment of other people and their work. And when we're too hard on someone or watch too closely or correct too often or focus on the mistakes more than the successes, then we sap their confidence. And without confidence, no one can achieve much.

   Catch someone doing seven things right before you point out one thing they're doing wrong. Keep up that 7:1 ratio and you'll keep your employees moving in the right direction.

These three ideas are a good start. Don't worry about following them perfectly though. Just well enough.

Honduras: History Derailed

Central Americans, across the political spectrum, are analyzing the unfolding events in Honduras as a presage of regional politics. The area has suffered arrested development of progressive political and economic reforms for centuries that leaves the vast majority of the population excluded from governing processes. There is fear that Sunday’s coup along with recent events in Guatemala, demonstrate a concerted effort by Central America’s traditional elite to continue blocking even moderate evolution of colonial power structures.

The Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was awoken from his bed Sunday morning at approximately 1:00 am by the sound of gunfire on his residency grounds. Mr. Zelaya and his family were captured and then driven to a military airport and exiled to Costa Rica. In a new conference with Tela Sur, Zelaya said that he doesn't believe it was regular soldiers who kidnapped him. "I have been the victim of a kidnapping carried out by a group of Honduran soldiers. I don't think the Army is supporting this sort of action. I think this is a vicious plot planned by elites. Elites who only want to keep the country isolated and in extreme poverty."

Mr. Zelaya had credited President Obama with keeping him in power after what appeared to be a failed coup the week before. This may need to be repeated as it is possibly the most relevant piece of information in this story. A leftist president in Latin American credited the president of the United States for KEEPING him power. If this is indeed true, then this demonstrates increasing complexity in efforts to reform the regions antiquated political structures and the continued collaboration of powerful counter-insurgency elements allied with regional elites.

At the root of this crisis is the continued existence of the disparity between the region's elites and the vast majority of the population living in poverty. A response across Latin America has been the growth of a leftist movement that is personified by Chavez of Venezuela. The bloc’s socialist ideology and strong populist rhetoric has elites around the hemisphere concerned about a new threat to their traditional parasitic relationship to society. Their frequent use of undemocratic techniques they justify by the long history of US meddling has many progressive observers concerned.

This confrontation has been symbolized by Zelaya’s executive decree PCM-05-2009, calling for a national referendum to take place no later than June 28. The purpose of the non-binding plebiscite was to poll the population to see if there is support to install a forth balloting box, during the next presidential election, to elect a new Constituent Assembly.

The Honduran constitution, the sixteenth since independence from Spain was completed on January 11, 1982, by a seventy-one-seat Constituent Assembly that had been elected on April 20, 1980, under the military junta of Policarpo Paz García. The Constituent Assembly was dominated by Honduras's two major political parties. The constitution, which contains 375 articles, can be amended by a two-thirds majority vote in congress. However, there are eight “firm articles” which cannot be amended. These articles define the allowed political structure of the country, term limits and presidential succession. Furthermore, Article 375 of the constitution states that the social contract cannot be terminated by an unauthorized individual or body and that anyone wishing to nullify the constitution is subject to criminal penalties. All Honduran citizens share the duty of defend the constitution against efforts to terminate it.

It is felt by many that the Honduran constitution solidifies the privilege of elites while limiting the participation of the majority of the population in the “democratic” process. Central America has been stuck in the mud of colonial social relations for centuries with little transformation of race or class relations.

It is therefore of little surprise that Zelaya’s drive to reform the constitution has been meet with popular support from across Central America while rising the ire of the entrenched elites. When mixed with his increase in the minimum wage and drive towards empowering the indigenous minority, his administration seems to have pushed the political envelope beyond the limits the system will allow.

A significant question concerning Zelaya and other populist Latin American presidents, especially those that run as conservatives and have a conversion in office, is the vision and sincerity of their populist reforms. There is concern that Zelaya’s effort to reform the constitution has more to do with his desire to manipulate the process and extend his term in office as has been done by Chávez in Venezuela, Evo Morales in Bolivia, and Rafael Correa in Ecuador.

Banking on this concern, an orchestrated attack has been unleashed against Mr. Zelaya by the ruling political elites and the private media of Honduras to categorize his non-binding plebiscite as an illegal attempt to modify the constitution. The criticism that this was a manipulation on his part to maintain power is difficult to support considering that the purpose of the poll was to ask the population if they wanted to vote on the idea during the next presidential election in which he is not a candidate.

Therefore, it seems clear that the real issue is the empowerment and participation of the “people” in the process. As with much of Central American politics, it is not as much the impact of a particular event as the fanatical need to limit all possible alternative models or advances. The poor must be kept in their place at all cost. If not, a sea of peasants and indigenous people will demand land reform in a region with the worst wealth and land distribution.

According to reports from grass-roots organizations in Honduras, there continues a state of martial law in the country. Leaders have been killed or disappeared, independent media has been censored, international news programs have been blocked while a concerted propaganda campaign has been unleashed in support of the coup.

Taken in conjunction with the events last month in Guatemala around the murder of the attorney Rodrigo Rosenberg, we can see the orchestration of high tech organizing techniques married with old school gangster tactics. In what can only be called brilliant moves to confuse and distract, the agents of the elites have been framing their actions in progressive terms. "NO MORE VIOLENCE" read the signs of students from Guatemala’s ultra right wing schools as they protested to bring down President Colom. Facebook and other online campaigns sprang up with amazing, if not unbelievable speed, to call for an end of injustice in Guatemala. Within hours of the Honduran coup, blogs and media sites were full of posts in perfect English from “regular” Hondurans approving of the coup. Rather than addressing the power issues at the roots of the conflict, the right is taking the moral high ground declaring their defense of democracy from another would be tyrant. It is never made clear how a non-binding referendum that would not have any impact until he leaves office qualifies.

What is interesting in these events is the apparent lack of participation from Washington in efforts to destabilize these regimes. If this is indeed the case, we are witnessing independent actors utilizing intelligence techniques for the protection and promotion of their own interest. A sort of privatization of the covert political operations pioneered by US entities in the late twentieth century. Reading and analyzing the spread of information over the last few months, it also appears that not only the web but progressive political agendas are tools being appropriated for the manufacturing of consent and fabrication of pressure.

Observers across Central America are watching the events unfolding in Honduras today as a gauge to the strength of democracy in the region and the power of the elites to adapt to changing circumstances to maintain their grasp on the levers of power.

Take Action Against Mining in the Highlands

URGENT ACTION ALERT

Guatemala’s indigenous peoples need you to TAKE ACTION now!

Tell Mining Transnational Goldcorp Inc. to End the Persecution of Maya Mam Human Rights Defenders

Goldcorp Inc, through its Guatemalan subsidiary Montana Exploradora, has once again taken legal action against Maya Mam campesinos resisting their mining operations in San Miguel Ixtahuacán, in the Western highlands of Guatemala. Complaints were allegedly filed by Montana against 7 local leaders after a confrontation with the company over a land dispute and concerns over water resources that took place on Friday, June 12^th in the community of Saqmuj, located in the village of Agel.

NISGUA and Collectiff Guatemala, two solidarity organizations, are deeply concerned following reports of recent intimidation and persecution of human rights defenders, along with high levels of militarization as a result of this conflict.

The Context

As the Canadian gold mining giant Goldcorp attempted to begin new mineral exploration in Saqmuj last week, community members rallied in opposition, fearing mining activities would jeopardize precious water resources and result in additional environmental and health impacts. The conflict lead to the destruction of some company equipment. As a result, the Guatemalan police and military moved in en mass to the region, surrounding the offices of local development organization ADISMI, and Goldcorp has filed legal complaints against community leaders.

Since May 19th, company equipment had been stationed on a piece of land that a family had recently sold to the company. Allegedly, other family members and the remaining families in the community had tried to convince their neighbor not to sell the land, claiming that the community as a whole did not support the presence of the mine, and that there is no community consent to sell the land. The families fear that selling this land puts at tremendous risk the integrity and access to at least three water springs on which families in Saqmuj depend.

This event points to a festering tension between community members fueled by Goldcorp’s land appropriation tactics of pressuring individual families to sell instead of achieving broader consent from the community. Land conflicts have arisen from a continuous violation of the communities´ right to grant or deny their free, prior, and informed consent before mining operations begin.

One community leader, Gregoria Crisanta Perez, is facing an arrest warrant – this is the second time Goldcorp has taken legal action against her– and Goldcorp has filed charges against six others. Community leaders are receiving threats, including a text message sent to Javier de Leon with the San Miguel Ixtahuacán community group ADISMI on June 15^th stating, “Hello Mr. de Leon, do not get involved where it is not convenient, if you do say goodbye to your wife and your loved ones (feminine). And just await death…” (“Hola señor de León, no te metes donde no te conviene, si te metes despídete de tu mujer y despídete de tus queridas. Y solo espera la muerte…”). Javier de Leon has received a total of four threats via text message since the incident occurred.

According to local reports:

On Thursday, June 11^th: Goldcorp officials signed an agreement with the community stating their intention to address community demands to withdraw their equipment and agreed to meet the following morning at 9:00am. Six national police units and two special, anti-riot troops arrived in the community to allegedly protect Goldcorp officials.

On Friday, June 12^th: Community members awaited over three hours for Goldcorp officials to show up for the agreed-upon meeting, and as the company did not comply, some community members present took alternate measures and incinerated some company equipment.

On Monday, June 15^th: District attorneys from San Marcos (The District Attorney flew into the area from San Marcos on a company plane), military personnel, and Montana officials alongside police officers, surrounded the ADISMI office and questioned the organization’s leadership as to the whereabouts of community leader Gregoria Crisanta Perez, whom the district attorney was looking to arrest for allegedly committing criminal acts, while suggesting ADISMI was hiding her. As officials searched the office and took pictures, those members of the organization present report feeling afraid and intimidated during and after the event.

The events in Agel are part of a larger pattern of conflict over land rights between Goldcorp and communities, where organized community opposition to mining activities has been swiftly countered by militarized crackdowns. This is not the first time Goldcorp is involved in repression of human rights defenders. In 2007 the company filed charges against seven Maya Mam indigenous men for protesting coercive land appropriation strategies of the company, and in 2008 against eight Maya Mam indigenous women for their acts of opposition to the company’s presence on their land.

Recent occurrences stem from an increasing social conflict being caused by the mine’s extraction presence since 2005. In the same community where the confrontation took place, the local development committee, who receives substantial sums of money monthly payments from the mining company, cut off running water from the home of community leader Crisanta Perez, allegedly for her involvement in speaking out against the mine. Confrontations between mine workers and opposing neighbors have occurred repeatedly, at times ending in threats or violent attacks.

Through democratically held community referenda, since June 2005 many communities in the area around Goldcorp’s Marlin mine have voted in opposition to mining activities, and Goldcorp, alongside the Guatemalan government, has consistently ignored legitimate community declarations to reject mining activities; instead turning to the Guatemalan police to protect their private interests, employing intimidation tactics, illegitimately acquiring lands and failing to abide by community decisions to protect their rights, protect their territories and reject mining activities on their lands.

TAKE ACTION NOW to protect human rights defenders.

Please call CEO Charles Jeannes and tell Goldcorp to:

1. Immediately cease all intimidation and repression of community protest against mining activities,
2. Immediately drop all legal charges against community members, and
3. Suspend mining operations in Guatemala given existing and continuing social conflicts caused by the presence of the mine. Respect community rights to grant or deny their free, prior, and informed consent and community referenda.

Call, fax or write Charles Jeannes, Goldcorp CEO at:

Goldcorp Inc. Head Office:

Park Place, Suite 3400-666 Burrard Street

Vancouver, B.C. V6C 2X8

Telephone: (604) 696-3000, Fax: (604) 696-3001

Please write or fax the Guatemalan government and the District Attorney’s Office in San Marcos urging:

1. The immediate withdrawal of state and private security forces currently in San Miguel Ixtahuacán on behalf of Goldcorp Inc. and all excessive militarization used to intimidate and repress communities and human rights defenders.
2. To drop all criminal charges against community members in San Miguel Ixtahuacán and an end to the criminalization of protest in the area.
3. Protection for members of ADISMI and other threatened human rights defenders.
4. Respect community rights to grant or deny their free, prior, and informed consent and community referenda.

Call, fax or write the San Marcos District Attorney at:

Fiscalia Distrital San Marcos

7a. Av. "A" 8 - 06, zona 1

San Marcos, San Marcos. Guatemala.

Fax: + 502 7760 4350 / 7760 4355 / 7760 1051 (if someone answers, say "tono de fax, por favor")

Salutation: Estimado Sr./Sra. Fiscal.

English letters are welcome

* * *

For Background information on the Goldcorp Marlin mine, read NISGUA’s mining overview here: http://nisgua.org/themes_campaigns/index.asp?cid=1122

Or read the Guatemalan Accompaniment Program’s “Territorios indígenas y democracia guatemalteca bajo presiones” report in Spanish at: http://guatemala.at/ido%20smi/ido_sanmiguel.pdf

Sample Letter for Goldcorp Inc. and Montana Exploradora (Guatemalan subsidiary)

Dear Mr. Jeannes,

I send this letter expressing my grave concern for the situation currently unfolding in your ‘Coral Project’ in the community of Agel, in San Miguel Ixtahuacán, Guatemala, where your gold and silver Marlin mine is located.

I understand you have brought legal charges against 7 community members opposed to your mine who were allegedly involved in destruction of property, one of who is facing an arrest warrant. While I do not condone violence on either side, understand that the recent conflict in Agel is part of a larger pattern of community opposition to your mining operations. Since June 2005, community pleas to reject mining activities through democratic community referenda have been swiftly dismissed by your company. Communities feel threatened and intimidated to sell their – collectively held – land and see this as coercive process of land appropriation. Instead of achieving broader community consent, land conflicts have arisen from your company’s continuous violation of the communities´ right to grant or deny their free, prior, and informed consent of mining operations.

The criminalization of human rights defenders is egregious and this is not the first time your company has filed legal charges against community leaders, including charges against seven Maya Mam indigenous men in 2007 for protesting coercive land appropriate strategies of your company, and then again in 2008 against eight Maya Mam indigenous women for their acts of opposition to your company’s presence on their land.

Tensions brought about by your mining operations have only escalated, and community leaders are receiving threats, including a text message sent to Javier de Leon with the San Miguel Ixtahuacán community group ADISMI on June 15^th stating, “Hello Mr. de Leon, do not get involved where it is not convenient, if you do say goodbye to your wife and your loved ones (feminine). And just await death…” (“Hola señor de León, no te metes donde no te conviene, si te metes despídete de tu mujer y despídete de tus queridas. Y solo espera la muerte…”). Javier de Leon has received four threats via text message since the incident occurred.

Human rights defenders have the right to carry out their activities without any restrictions or fear of reprisals, as set out in the UN Declaration on the Rights and Responsibilities of Individuals, Groups and Institutions to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

I am concerned that these legal charges have been filed in response to the individuals' participation in opposing the Marlin mine and defending community rights in the face of damages caused by the mine and in protection of their rights, livelihoods and environment. I ask that you work to put an end to the criminalization of protest in the areas surrounding the Marlin mine, and urge you to:

1. Immediately cease all intimidation and repression of community protest against mining activities,
2. Immediately drop all legal charges against community leaders, and
3. Suspend mining operations in Guatemala given existing and continuing social conflicts caused by the presence of the mine. Respect community rights to grant or deny their free, prior, and informed consent and community referenda.

Failure to act now to stop the criminalization of community members who oppose your mine would only serve to bring strongly into question your company's commitment to human rights and respect for local communities.

Sincerely,

******************************

Lara Barth

Grassroots Network Liaison, NISGUA

The Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala

436 14th St., Suite 409, Oakland, CA 94612

tel. (510) 238-8400

fax (510) 238-8444

www.nisgua.org