U.S. government official
You are the official that the president of the United States(Ronald Reagan) has appointed to serve as the United States’ representative to the International Monetary Fund. Since the United States is the most influential voting body in the IMF, your appointment is a big deal. You love these conferences. When you walk in, other countries’ representatives all want to talk to you. You hold the most power out of everyone in the room, and you like that feeling.
Some might find you arrogant, but haven’t you earned the right to be? Out of the many member countries of the IMF, the United States holds 16.77% of the voting power, which is significantly more than any other country. Some think the imbalance of voting power is unfair because poorer countries have less voting power, but frankly, you disagree. The IMF is, after all, based on economic power, and the United States is leading the entire world economically. It makes sense to you that the richest and most economically successful country would hold the most sway over the IMF, even if your decisionshave major effects on poor countries and don’t affect yours too much.
You care about poor countries and international development, but you care more about the free market system. You are a big believer in capitalism, which puts money in control of private parties, not governments. The less governmental control (including over tariffs and subsidies), the better, you believe.
You understand that Haiti is in a financial crisis, and you understand they need money to help them out. But you also believe that if Haiti were more capitalistic and had fewer governmental regulations, it would be better for the people in the long run. While there might be some negative effects of the loan for some people, you firmly believe that the loan and all of its conditions will help Haiti become a more modern, more developed country. Capitalism works for America, so it should work for Haiti, right?
Plus, it is a big plus that the loan will also make your fellow Americans happy. If Haiti’s government has to deregulate the economy, United Statescorporate rice farmers (which are heavily subsidized by the government) will finally be able to break into the Haitian rice market. Previously, the tariffs have been so high on US imports that US farmers did not sell to Haiti. With tariffs gone, though, since US rice farmers produce rice much cheaper than Haitian farmers, US rice will become a popular commodity on the Haitian market. More money for corporate farms means more money entering the US economy, which is good for American citizens.
Either way, the loan probably won’t affect you personally that much; you’re a banker, not a rice farmer. Even though you won’t feel the effects of this loan, though, your presidenthas singled you out as the person to represent your country here at this conference. As the voice of the United States of America, you are here to care first and foremost about the economic interests of your country and the capitalist ideals the U.S. is dedicated to uphold.Haiti’s decline is a concern, but it is secondary to these other things.
Haiti government official
As an appointed Haitian official, your primary concern is staying in office. You need to worry about pleasing the government of Haiti so that you retain your appointment. What decision will be best for your country, and for yourself?
Right now, Haiti is in the midst of a financial crisis. There is no denying it. Ever since independence, your country has been in debt.
First it was to France, your former colonizers, which demanded payment for recognizing Haiti’s sovereignty. In your opinion, this debt is illegitimate since Haiti’s entire founding was based on a horrific slave trade, through which your ancestors toiled and suffered. But France had warships and weapons ready to decimate your island if you refused to pay the“debt.”
A century later came the Duvalier government, which were 30 years of corrupt rule under two corrupt dictators. Jean-Claude Duvalier and his father, the 2 consecutive dictators of Haiti until just last year, together stole billions of dollars from Haiti to use for different purposes. Hundreds of thousands of it, for example, went to Duvalier’s wife for a shopping trip in New York City.
It is cretins like that who make you ashamed of Haiti’s financial situation. It is one thing for Western countries and banks to hold you in debt; it is another thing entirely for a Haitian himself to steal from the country’s people for his own gain!
You are tired of corruption and ready to get Haiti’s government back on track, spending-wise. In order to do that though, you need money.Haiti desperately needs it. Malnutrition rates have skyrocketed and poverty rates are through the roof. People will turn to violence if the government does not meet their needs soon.
It drives you crazy that you are so dependent on international banks and rich countries to bail you out in times of financial emergencies. Haiti only has 0.05% voting power in the IMF.The United States has almost 17% voting power, to put your 0.05% in perspective. So it’s not like you (or any other poor country) have any real control over how funds get distributed. It drives you even crazier that you risk offending the IMF if you question the conditions their loan imposes. You know these conditions will probably prove detrimental to the rice industry in Haiti, but right now, you are more concerned about getting the loan and not ticking off the people in power at the IMF.
Rice farmer in Stuttgart, Arkansas, USA
You are a rice farmer from Arkansas. You own a small family farm, and it is sometimes hard to make ends meet.
You have a love-hate relationship with the US government. You are thankful for the subsides they provide, but they’ve also been trying for years to get you off of your land. You are one of a few plots left that the government is trying to buy to make room for a huge corporate farm, or an agribusiness, where everything is mechanized and dehumanized.
While these agribusinesses are seen as more modern and efficient, you appreciate the old way of doing things. You grew up on a farm yourself, in Iowa. Your family still lives in a rural area, not too far from the fields where your rice grows.You have a handful of workers who are also like family, and you treat them well. You like waking up early and walking onto your front porch, where you can see the sun rising over the rice fields in the distance. You think there is something honest about farming your own land and helping to plant your own seeds.
You like growing organic rice, free from the chemicals that agribusiness imposes for “consumer safety” reasons (which you know are more related to mass production than safety). You don’t want a large government operation built on top of the farm that has meant so much to you and your family—the farm that has provided your livelihood for your entire working life. Plus, where would you go if they built on your land? Farming is your only skill.
You don’t know much about Haiti because you’ve never been able to get your rice on their market. The tariffs have always been too high, and since you have to pay for much of your own equipment and fertilizer, you simply can’t afford it. You think you might benefit from an IMF conditionality loan in Haiti that gets rid of their import tariffs. Then maybe you could afford to sell your rice there.
But you’re not under any illusions. You know theUnited States corporate farms will benefit more. They get higher subsidies from the US government, so of course they will be able to send more rice to Haiti. Plus, the sheer scale of their operations is so much larger than yours, it is almost impossible to compete. You’ve been trying to hold out for years, but it seems to you that it’s about time to give up hope.
You really don’t have a choice but to take a stance on this loan and pray that you can hold out for just a few more years. Although you and your family have been working this land for your whole life, the reality is that you will probably have to leave to make way for “modernity”—modernity in the form of U.S. government-sponsored corporate farms.
Rice farmer in the Artibonite Valley, Haiti
Life is pretty hard for poor rice farmers like you, and if this loan passes, it will only get harder.
You live in the ArtiboniteValley, which is one of the most beautiful and fertile places in Haiti, especially for growing rice. In this respect, the ArtiboniteValley is rich, but the people there are still very poor.
Since you are a rice farmer, you at least have some sort of income. Because you sell most of your rice on the market, when there is a good year for rice, you live decently and are able to provide food for your family. When there is a bad year for rice, you struggle to make ends meet.
One major thing that helps you survive as a farmer is the subsidies the government provides you for your farm equipment and fertilizer.Because you rely so much on government subsides, this conditionality loan would be a disaster for you. You know exactly what will happen if the loanis accepted. If the government is no longer allowed to subsidize your equipment or fertilizer, you won’t be able to continue producing rice.You just don’t have the money or equipment to compete.
Someone told you recently that inArkansas, in the United States, rice sells for $170 a ton. In Haiti, rice sells for $320 a ton. Those big farms in the US produce five times the amount of rice per acre that you produce, and it is cheaper for them since their equipment is so much better and faster. Also, the US government subsidizes rice production on those big corporate farms.
Some of your rice you keep for your family, but most of it you sell on the market. If the government gets rid of tariffs on United States imports, cheap US rice imports will destroy your ability to survive as a farmer. If this loan passes, it will be a disaster. What will you do? What will become of you and your family?
Already some of your neighbors have packed up and left for the cities, in anticipation of the worst happening to their small farms. But your family has lived on this land for generations, so you’re trying to hold out in hopes that the government subsidies will last and this year will be a good year for rice. Besides, what will you do if you move to Port-au-Prince, the capital? Live in a cardboard box and starve, like the other people who have moved into the crowded slums? That is no way to live.
Your very being and identity are tied into this land in the ArtiboniteValley. You cannot imagine leaving. If you are forced to leave, who will you become?
Teacher in Port-au-Prince slum, Haiti
You are a teacher by profession. It has been 20 years since the first day you stepped into a classroom in Port-au-Prince, the capital of your native countryHaiti. Back then you were nervous—as a first-year teacher, you weren’t quite sure what to expect from your students. Even with butterflies in your stomach, though, you were sure you were going to love your job. And you did. From day one, you have always loved teaching.
Until this year. This year you feel like you have reached the end of your patience. Increased migration to Port-au-Prince over the last five years has turned your area of town into a slum. People are migrating to Port-au-Princefrom the mountains and valleys, where they used to be able to make a living off the land. They are running away from rural poverty—from their unreliable farms—butwhat they don’t realize is they will find a worse kind of poverty in the slums.
The school where you teach used to have 250 students. Now there are 550, which means that you have 60 students to a class instead of 30. Do people know how hard it is to keep the attention of, let aloneteach, 60 students at once? You’d like to see one of those government officials—the guys who make all of the decisions that affect your life without ever asking how you feel—come visit your school. See if they could control 60 kids all at once.
If these farms in the mountains keep shutting down, even more people will flood the cities, which will make it unbearable here. The slums where they live will become zones of lawlessness and violence, and schools will have way too many students to be effective.
It might be easier for you if you had more resources for your classroom, but resources are so scarce in this part of Port-au-Prince. People are so poor. Men and women who migrate here from the mountains do not have anything. Their kids do not even have shoes, so how are they supposed to worry about buying pencils and notebooks?What can be done to help your students succeed?
Public schools are the last hope for this country, but they are quickly deteriorating. You heard from another teacher that the government is thinking about cutting even morefunding for public schools in the next few years, especially if the conditions on this IMF loan to Haiti pass. Apparently Western governments believe it is wiser to invest in private businesses than public enterprises. They obviously have never seen our schools.
You’re not sure you can take any more of this, but you can’t quit. You need the money you make from teaching to feed your own kids. But if the government cuts spending for public schools, you are at risk of losing your job. What can be done to protect you?
Haiti Environmental Justice Coalition
You are a member of the Haiti Environmental Justice Coalition, which is made up of groups and organizations working to halt the many damages being done to the environment in Haiti.
With regards to this potential loan from the IMF, you’re not entirely decided on how you feel. You are a little skeptical of the IMF, because they usually make decisions without taking the environment into account at all.
Haiti is currently suffering from countless environmental problems—deforestation, erosion, pollution, water contamination, and of course, natural disasters like hurricanes, which tend to hit Haiti pretty hard every year.
The news often makes it sound like Haiti is just unlucky. Hurricanes keep hitting the island, and the Haitian people can’t catch a break, they say. Your coalition is trying to reverse that opinion, because it is largely untrue. Humans have played a huge role (and continue to play a huge role) in damaging Haiti’s environment, and you want this to stop.
Since farmers have been working Haiti’s land for centuries, you have their interest in mind. One of the main environmental problems Haitian farmers face is deforestation. Since wood is Haiti’s main fuel source, deforestation efforts have increased over the last decade, even in areas where rural Haitians have farms. Mountains that used to be thick with trees are now completely bare. When trees no longer exist to hold down the soil on mountains, erosion occurs, which is a steady wearing away of the soil on the mountains.
Erosion harms the farms in the valleys below, because nutrients are removed from the soil and whole mountainsides are washed away, making it almost impossible to continue farming. You want to restore farmers to their land, since they know how to take care of the land—the same land that the government is raping for fuel and profit.
You also want to prevent farmers from leaving the rural areas, since their leaving basically surrenders all of the countryside to the government to use however they please.
You also want to prevent them moving to the crowded cities, where pollution is already bad and environmental problems range from trash in the streets to contaminated drinking water. Contaminated drinking water threatens the health of millions of Haitians and often results in diarrheal diseases and malaria, so environmental concern is not only important for the land on the island itself but also for the people who live here.