I’ve been struggling lately with the criticality of what we do, but she has, thus far, found a lovely way to navigate that criticality with a recognition of those that work with refugees – recognizing the issues of the system(s) and the institution(s) of humanitarianism, particularly as it is mobilized within the refugee framework, as very much separate, yet intimately connected with those that actually do the work on the ground. That being said…(and on with my thoughts, thus far)

In our criticality, there is a need to move beyond the ethnography of the governed and into a deeper examination in to the philosophies of institutions that create and manage the governed. I use that statement loosely, particularly “create” the governed. I mean, to create a body deemed needing governance in a particular way. But how do we turn the critical gaze toward those that “govern human relations” (xvii) without also asking how it is to be the governed? How do we do this in a way that is meaningful?

Thought no 2:

Regarding my last post re: the inhumanity of sending someone like me to go “study up” on the people and situation of Haiti, Hyndman points to her own consternation about the “social hierarchy of refugees, NGO personnel, and UN staff.” It is a social hierarchy that manifests in the bodies of these subjects through their living arrangements, their income, their work and how much they are paid for it. What comes to mind then is how to navigate this held view.

I couldn’t help but think but turn toward Judith Butler (it’s been that kind of week). In Precarious Life: The Powers of Mourning and Violence, she points to the ways in which different bodies and lives are enumerated and valued differentially and the ways in which those kinds of valuations then “operate to produce and maintain certain exclusionary conceptions of who is normatively human” (xv). In this instance, Butler is actually writing about “livable life and grievable death,” in relation to 9/11 and the subsequent emotive geopolitical responses.

I have a difficult time imagining that my life is worth more than that of any other human being. Standing as i do, where i do, and in the Way i do (oh Nancy Hartsock, how i love your Feminist Standpoint!), i do not and cannot imagine that there is a scale of worth. And yet, there seems to be some kind of underlying assumption that there is, indeed, a perfectly measurable and appropriate scale. I digress…

While each woman is speaking in a context of war (though in decidedly different contextual terms), i can’t help but connect these thoughts back to Haiti. Prosthetics and rehabilitation are available for those that lost limbs during the earthquake, but not before or after. IRIN reported on this in September (http://alturl.com/tf8mf). Violence against women has risen drastically (http://alturl.com/nzu8r). The poor are still desperately poor. Over 1 million are still displaced, living in tents, under tarps and plastic sheets.

Lives, these lives of the Haitian people are still decidedly worth less to many. Since January 12th, there has been an outpouring of vitriolic hate-filled speech pouring from the anonymous fingers of readers of online journals and magazines. A mis-informed, un-critical gaze of superiority as the Haitians have been blamed for everything from environmental degradation and their own poverty to the actual earthquake, itself (you know – payment for the deal they made with the devil 200 years ago).

Haiti is a disaster site, recovering from an earthquake, an act of God, whatever you want to call it…but it is, at the same time, recovering from the outcome of a 200 year war waged by the U.S. (in conjunction with the French and sometimes, even the Germans) against its people. An economic and social and political cold war (that sometimes included occupation) in the name of … in the name of what, exactly? Some say for control of the Windward Passage, others for the oil that is off the coast, others for reasons of racism, others to mitigate against socialist (or communist) ideologies being so close to Americans (those pesky Haitians and their WiLd ideas – freed black people, indeed! foregrounding the needs of the poor, oh my!).

My point? There are 10,000 ways to imagine that the Haitian people are not worth as much as, say, an American (just as example). But there is only one way to stand in our humanness and in compassion, with an ethic of caring – one way to say that each and every one of their lives is worth just as much as yours or mine. How would that change this process? How does that change our viewpoint?

If we stopped for a moment and imagined that none of us were worth more or less than the other, what would happen to war, retaliation, name-calling, bickering, fighting, racism, classism…oh wait. Right – humanity would have found its “species essence”…