The Violence of Poverty | Raucous Caucus | Tom Cushing | DanvilleSanRamon.com |

Local Blogs

Raucous Caucus

By Tom Cushing

E-mail Tom Cushing

About this blog: The Raucous Caucus shares the southpaw perspectives of this Boomer on the state of the nation, the world, and, sometimes, other stuff. I enjoy crafting it to keep current, and occasionally to rant on some issue I care about deeply...  (More)

View all posts from Tom Cushing

The Violence of Poverty

Uploaded: Mar 17, 2014
"The impoverished Rwandans, at their point of most desperate need -- huddled against those advancing machetes in that church, did not need someone to bring them a sermon, or food, or a doctor, or a micro-loan. They needed someone to restrain the hand with the machete ? and nothing else would do."

Such was the stark realization of Gary Haugen, who investigated the unimaginably cruel atrocities of the 1994 African genocide. Nearly one-million children, women and men died at the hands of other countrymen, most often hacked by machete. The American lawyer has since founded the International Justice Mission (IJM), which seeks to attack the scourge of violence that severely impedes progress against poverty all around the world.

I heard Mr. Haugen's address to the World Affairs Council in SF recently. His message is clear and profoundly important: more than half the world's human population lives beyond the reach, and protection, of the Rule of Law. That figure includes Americans, like the young Oregon woman whose tale of misfortune opened his speech. Her futile 911 call apprised her that the police lacked coverage in her rural area. She was brutally beaten.

Haugen, in his book The Locust Effect, identifies four separate species of violence epidemic in the developing world, and present elsewhere. A sample chapter can be downloaded here.

First, there's Sexual violence: as primarily practiced against women and children, but including some men. Perpetrators in many places can act on impulse and without fear of consequences. Their deeds wreak havoc on their victims' lives, via injury, illness and pregnancy. Nearly as debilitating is the indirect fear of such attacks that pervades the lives of potential victims ? their educations, their mobility and livelihoods, their peace of mind ? minute by minute, every day. It is a classic, tragic deterrent to progress by those victims in making headway in their lives ? or even subsisting without male protection that may not be much of an improvement.

Second, Slavery: at what point in the world's history did slavery peak? If you answered "Now," go to the head of the class. Some 22 million people among the world's 7 billion are being held in bondage against their will. That's a very large number, if a small percentage ? especially if it's you or a loved one. Many are sexually trafficked, especially the most vulnerable among us. But, per Haugen, some 15 million, nearly 3/4 of the total, are held in three countries: China, India and Pakistan. Clearly that can't happen without some complicity from authorities, but these are Not prisoners of the state, duly convicted.

Third, Institutional brutality: in the colonial world, police forces were originally established to protect the overseers from the colonists, not the population from its baser elements. Commercial interests in those countries have always depended mostly on private security. After independence, those institutions were not reconstituted with a broadly protective mission ? they were and are organized, however. Indifference to the populace is one dilemma for the poor. As in Haugen's domestic US example, that problem can also include jurisdictional and government funding limitations, even in the First World.

Poor people are also too-often the victims of the local constabularies. As one beaten belt merchant put it: why should I rebuild my business, when the police will just come back, beat me with my product and steal all my money? Again, there are the brutal direct effects, and the even broader-reaching impediments to trying.

Finally, Dispossession of land. Without the protection of laws and real estate rights systems, everyone's a squatter. Land that has provided subsistence for generations can be taken by force in the Darwinian jungle. Without that lifeline, vulnerability to other violence increases. I recall a recent 60 Minutes piece on the dump-dwellers of Paraguay who've been forced off their lands. The Old 60 Minutes would have inveighed against that injustice; this weak sibling instead chose to tell the uplifting tale of their coping through music. Regardless, they eke-out their 'livings' by culling scraps atop a fetid landfill. It may-or-may-not be good to be da king ? in such places, it's an unmitigated bad thing not-to-be.

Toting up the individual consequences of violence, Haugen estimates that it costs whole societies remarkable sums in terms of lost progress ? progress that compounds like interest in a bank account. Colombia, for instance is 25% poorer, every year, because of the real and opportunity costs of violence. Other developing nations find their growth similarly retarded by the absence of this critical social infrastructure of the Rule of Law and real criminal justice.

Progress is possible, in part because these are acts and patterns of criminal, and commercial, impunity. In Cebu, the Philippines' second largest city, sex trafficking in children was a major scourge, with innocence ripped from those small bodies. Together with the Gates Foundation, Haugen's IJM launched a program to inform and change enforcement priorities of local police ? and that particular species of brutality has fallen by fully 79%. Impunity/immunity to the consequences of their criminality removed, pimps found other ways to occupy their time.

Violence in the absence of criminal justice systems, as a root cause of continued poverty and misery has been de-emphasized as recently as the UN's Millennium Report on the subject. The IJM is working to raise the ugly head of institutional, systemic brutality, and direct resources toward the hard work of establishing and funding systems, and socializing the citizenries in lands all over the developing world. As another commentator voiced it in a recent on-line roundtable, mouth-of-the-river rescue efforts to relieve poverty need to move upstream to address root causes with long term, non-rescue type efforts to create lasting change.

Clearly, there are other ways to organize and attack the many-headed beast of world-wide poverty, especially in the developing world. Violence has been an under-appreciated element, and very incompletely funded and addressed to-date. Haugen's approach and his efforts toward creating truly civil societies make a critical contribution to the planet's least-privileged inhabitants. We are justifiably concerned in this country with encouraging economic opportunity and social mobility. Those issues are played-out world-wide at the fundamental, survival level at the base of the Need Hierarchy.

The Locust Effect has given us a lot to consider and support. After all, Rwanda happens daily on an individual, but no less tragic, scale.
Local Journalism.
What is it worth to you?

Comments

Posted by Cholo, a resident of Livermore,
on Mar 17, 2014 at 4:00 pm

If you review Bishop Accountability note that if you click on any state of the union that children as well as male/female adults have been raped in the USA by Roman Catholic male/female clergy. Thousands upon thousands of trusted clergy are known rapist's and it's documented that they have also murdered innocent children/adults.

Web Link

Clergy of ALL FAITHS are also known to have raped/murdered members of their own congregations. The actual number of clergy rapists/murderers increases daily.

Internationally clergy of all faiths have also raped/murdered innocent people.

SNAP (Survivor's Network of Those Abused by Priests) reports cases of the rape of children/vulnerable adult by ordained clergy.

Poverty is often a tip-off that there are vulnerable children/adults present and predatory clergy move in. The trafficking of children nationally/internationally is quite common amongst clergy of various faiths.

Recently a San Jose PD officer raped a women and was arrested. The behavior does not inspire the public trust.

American educators/school employees are also widely known to sexually abuse children and/or one another.


Posted by Cholo, a resident of Livermore,
on Mar 17, 2014 at 4:06 pm

Prostitution: Web Link

This is a fascinating web page packed with information re: trafficking of women/children.

As difficult as it can be to read the information is highly informative and has been useful in designing laws that protect vulnerable children and adults.


Posted by Pololo Mololo, a resident of Livermore,
on Mar 17, 2014 at 4:11 pm

POLARIS PROJECT: Trafficking in California - Web Link


Posted by Cholo, a resident of Livermore,
on Mar 17, 2014 at 4:16 pm

Trafficking in Pleasanton CA. Web Link


Posted by Cholo, a resident of Livermore,
on Mar 18, 2014 at 9:34 am

Late International NEWS: Web Link


Posted by Pololo Mololo, a resident of Livermore,
on Mar 19, 2014 at 3:17 pm

The case of Fr. Padraig Greene CCOP - Web Link

THIS IS MY LAST POST ON THE TOPIC.

I AM AN ADVOCATE FOR CHILD SAFETY. I AM VERY ACTIVE IN PURSUING CLERGY WHO SEXUALLY ABUSE CHILDREN AND VULNERABLE ADULTS. I WILL NEVER STOP UNTIL I DROP.

VIVA AMERICA! VIVA SAFER CHILDREN! VIVA SAFER ADULTS!


Posted by Tom Cushing, a resident of Alamo,
on Mar 26, 2014 at 11:25 am

David Brooks' column this week is also about this subject: linked here: Web Link


Follow this blogger.
Sign up to be notified of new posts by this blogger.

Email:

SUBMIT

Post a comment

Sorry, but further commenting on this topic has been closed.

Stay informed.

Get the day's top headlines from DanvilleSanRamon.com sent to your inbox in the Express newsletter.

Burning just one "old style" light bulb can cost $150 or more per year
By Sherry Listgarten | 11 comments | 2,859 views

Premiere! “I Do I Don’t: How to build a better marriage” – Here, a page/weekday
By Chandrama Anderson | 2 comments | 1,305 views

Community foundations want to help local journalism survive
By Tim Hunt | 4 comments | 577 views