Cultural Relativism and Community Practice

During social work community practice last week, our teacher told a story that had been in the news lately. The story was about a Saudi Arabian school girl who hit her teacher in the head with a glass, after a the girl struggled to get her cell phone back from her teacher. The girl is sentenced to 2 months in prison and 90 lashes. The lashes, with a cane, are divided evenly over a few days reports ECanadaNow. Saudi Arabia has been known for continual human rights abuses. Amnesty International (http://www.amnesty.org/) and other human rights organizations are fighting to protect peoples human rights around the world. The 2010 World Report on Human Rights produced by Human Rights Watch provides a report on more than 90 nations and territories around the world and can be downloaded at http://www.hrw.org/en/world-report-2010/news-release.

Discussion proceeded the story about the school girl. In my social work cohort, I see that there are people on both ends of the continuum on issues such as this-that raise dilemmas and challenge values. A small few are on the strong cultural relativism side, which "is a principle that an individual humans beliefs and activities should be understood in terms of his or her own culture" (Cultural Relativism, p.p 1). While a majority are hovering somewhere in the middle of the continuum, others are far in the depths of the other side. Donnelly (1984) describes the continuum ranging from radical and strong cultural relativism through weak relativism just short of radical universalism. Just remember strong and weak are relative on there own. In the author states that strong cultural relativism "holds that culture is the principle source of the validity of a moral right or rule. In other words...rights and other social practices, value, and moral rules are culturally determined" (p.p 401). He explains that strong cultural relativists would accept few universals. On the other side, weak cultural relativism accepts many universal human rights which does not allow for many context, local variations and exceptions.

There is a common misconception people have when evaluating and discussing the topic. Many people in the weak depths of the continuum believe that cultural relativism is a way to say it's "OK" and that "anything goes." Kluckholn, an anthropologist, explains that this is not the case. There may not be any universal moral standards that cross the globe, but the universal is that people have moral standards. Cultural relativism has been in the forefront of many debates on rights and morals, for example the Declaration of Human Rights, but whether you follow, ascribe or despise the relativist doctrine this is what we need to remember, as values are challenged and dilemmas contemplated.

• "It does not require a relativist to sacrifice his or her values. But it does require anyone engaged in a consideration of rights and morals to reflect on how their own enculturation has shaped their views.
  
• There is no reason why the relativist should be paralyzed, as critics have often asserted. But a relativist will acknowledge that the criticism is based on his own ethnocentric standards and realizes also that the condemnation may be a form of cultural imperialism" (Cultural Relativism, p.p. 8).

Some would say, that the 2 month imprisonment and 90 lashes waiting for the school girl are barbaric, and that "we" the international community need to intervene in such situations whether ascribed by religion, law and/or culture is a necessity. When, if, why, and how is it that "we" intervene?

It was brought up in class that, here in the United States, we once allowed slavery and the burning of witches, but this was changed. It is important to remember that cultures, contexts, and systems are always changing and that we do not live in a static world.

Do we leave everyone be, this individualistic mindset? Where we don't interfere in our family disputes, our neighbors business, and our community and global issues. How do we change our lives, others lives, how do we change the world without CHANGE?

Often journalists, photographers and anthropologists alike, observe and take snapshots of peoples lives without intervening or changing the situation. This is often a huge ethical dilemma-interfering or not!

Hardcatle and Powers (2004) describes four ways to document and discover lives of communities including: fieldwork study, community power structure study, community analysis study, and problems and services study. Coming from an anthropological background, my interest is ethnography, which is a qualitative research method using participant observation, interviews, questionnaires, and informants. I would like to do research with a community to discover and define social problems. Then assist in establishing new programs to meet the needs of individuals, groups and the community. Personally, I left the discipline of anthropology behind because I want to assist and be more involved with change.

Finding the "right" way to intervene or help, can be challenging; especially when there is not one way of knowing, thinking and doing that is relevant to all.

Cultural Relativism. (2009) Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_relativism

Donnelly, J. (1984). Cultural relativism and universal human rights. Human Rights Quartely, 6(4) 400-419.

ECanadaNow. Sadia Arabian School Girl Gets 90 Lashes (January 26, 2010)
http://www.ecanadanow.com/world/2010/01/26/3626/comment-page-1/

Hardcastle, D. A., & Powers, P. R. (2004). Community practice: Theories and skills for social workers (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press, Inc.

Buying Cheep Land for Foreign Greed

"Land is the means for livelihood. It's power: it's status; it's security. It's the most powerful asset people have" (Moore, p.p 26). Land grabbing, and the outsourcing of food and industries are not uncommon. Throughout history, land grabbing occurred when Europeans stole, and grabbed plots of "free" land as they were expanding their empire to the Americas. Cash crops in the colonies have helped "advance" the conquers. You may remember a few years ago, Bush met with the Brazilian president to secure land in Brazil for bio-fuel needs in the United States. Land grabbing is a practice that is on the increase. Currently, land grabbing is occurring where powerful, rich nations are buying cheep land mainly in South America and Africa. This blog will focus on land grabbing taking place throughout Africa.

According to Hanes (2010), land grabbing is going on where private investors and foreign governments like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, South Korea, and China are snacking up land to produce food or bio-fuels for their own countries. Saudi Arabia has property in Ethiopia, China's in Mozambique, and South Korea is in Tanzania. These countries are leasing arable land for 50-99 years at the expense of small farmers and traditional land rights. High tensions are created when governments are agreeing to these foreign leases, when the people living and working the land do not agree.

Moore (2010) describes more about the tensions of land disputes in Africa. The author explains how land disputes are at the heart of many of the conflicts throughout Africa: from the Rwandan genocide, Sierra Leone and Liberia "Blood Diamonds", Kenya-post 2007 election, genocide in Darfur, the pirates of Somalia-to list a few. Baxter (2010) explained a deal between the South Korean company, Daewoo, who was trying to make a deal with the government of Madagascar that would have gave the company about half of the countries arable land, which contributed to the overthrow of President Ravalomanana. The deal was canceled.

Moore (2010) reported "that roughly 90 percent of rural Africa- 500 million people-have access to their land because of their ancestors did" (p.p 27). It seems that it is no longer a valid way to hold land, especially with governments encroaching on small farmers, elders and chiefs who used to control their land. Colonial rule brought about the notion of private property and documents, which began the down slide of traditional land rights. Moore (2010) focuses a large part of the article on the case of Liberia. Liberia's national deed registry is filled with books that hold information on land. Often the documents have mistakes and contradiction on who owns what land. It is not uncommon to have the same land sold to multiple parties. In the post-war time, documents have gone missing and people are not always residing on there land. Tensions raise as people try to secure their land.

Baxter (2001) writes for GRAIN, which is "a small international non-profit organisation that works to support small farmers and social movements in their struggles for community-controlled and biodiversity-based food systems." GRAIN established a blog called www.farmlandgrab.org that updates daily news reports on the global land grab.

Jeanne Zoundjihekpon from GRAIN reports that, "Land is a fundamental part of life in Africa, if farmers sell their land, traditional values will disappear with them and the society as a whole will suffer from it" (Aissa, 2009, p. 1).

Shouldn't this really be called neo-colonialism? Land grabbing is another extraction and control of vital African resources, at the expense of African families, communities, small farmers and society as a whole.

Photo from http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/wish-you-werent-here-the-devastating-effects-of-the-new-colonialists-1767725.html?action=Popup

Aissa, M. (2009). Land up for Grabs: Win-win or neo-colonialism? Beyhond Business. Posted by GRAIN. Recieved from http://www.farmlandgrab.org/

Baxter, J. (2010). Africa's land and family farms-up for grabs? GRAIN. Received from http://www.grain.org/front/

Hanes, S. (2010). Is Africa the world's next breadbasket? The Christian Science Monitor. Vol 102, issues 5-6, p.p 21 and 27.

Moore, J. (2010). Africa's Continental Divide. The Christian Science Monitor. Vol 102, issue 9, p.p 26-31.

Haiti: Before Through Today

"As we learn more about our counterparts in other countries, they become real to us, and our worldview cannot help but change. We will think of others as we think of those we know" (unknown source). With this said, I will be writing a little about Haiti's history, people and current situation.

When Christopher Columbus landed on the island in 1492, the island was inhabited by Taino, an Arawakan people. Columbus claimed the island for the Spanish Crown and named it La Isla Española and later known as Hispaniola. Enslavement, murder, and diseases wiped out Haiti's indigenous population, eventually the last full-blooded Arawakan person died. In 1697, Spain officially gave France the western part of the island, where tobacco, indigo, cotton and cacao were being grown, thus unfortunately, the importation of African slaves began. In 1790, free men of color claimed they were also French citizens, which precluded a civil war.

After years of forced invasions, hangings, burnings, and drownings, in addition to other acts of torture and violence, Dessalines declared independence and created a new nation. He reclaimed the Taino name of Haiti "Land of Mountains." While the new nation was now independent, France did not officially recognize Haiti's sovereignty until 1825 in exchange for 90 million francs, which would lift the embargo by France, Britain and the United States. Haiti had to take out huge loans to be able to pay the 90 million off, the loans were attached to high interest rates; therefore, the loans were not paid off fully until 1947 (that's 122 years!).

Years of shifts in power, revolts and coups took place. In the early 1990s, Aristide, the president at the time, was over thrown by a coup and General Raoul Cedras took power. This was a very violent time in Haiti's history, 3,000-5,000 Haitians were killed. From 1991-1992 41,342 Haitians were caught fleeing to the United States-most were sent back to Haiti. The 2004 Haitian Rebellion was controversially based around Aristide and the international community. Peace keepers were brought to the country in 2004. Elections were held in 2006, and the current president Rene Preval took power (Wikipedia, 2010).

Today, Haiti's population is around 10,000,000. 95% of the population is black and 5% mulatto and white. The official languages are Haitian Creole and French. 80% of the people profess being Roman Catholic, 16% Protestant and Haitian Voudo is practiced by about half of the population. The culture is a vibrant mix of French, African and some native Taino.

Before the earthquake, 30-40% of the national governments budget was from foreign aid. Today, seven days after the 7.0 earthquake rocked Haiti's way of life, millions of dollars of aid are pouring to the country from around the world to help. It is amazing the global response to this catastrophe, but it is not enough. People are not getting the supplies to sustain life.

With the history of turmoil, often news talk is about the threat that chaos may breakout soon with peoples desperation taking over. I hope chaos will be minimal so that efforts can be focused on meeting peoples basic needs. How is it that the enormous agencies, governments, and non-profit organizations-organize such huge efforts, on a global scale, in the wake of destruction? I will be following up, in the days and months to come, as communities begin to rebuild what is salvageable.

How to Help Haiti-Care2 provides a list of organizations that are taking donations-listed below

Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia. (2010). History of Haiti. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Haiti
.shtml
Rebecca Young (2010). How to Help Haiti. Care2.http://www.care2.com/causes/human-rights/blog/how-to-help-haiti/

Haiti

To the Haitians on the island and their friends and family members in the diaspora mourning the lost or deceased and trying to find hope in the days to follow the devastating natural disaster, my heart is with you. Yesterday as most of us know from news reports spanning every news network, there was a 7.0 earthquake that struck the island of Haiti/Dominican Republic on January 12, 2010. In the days to come, we will begin to see the horrific devastation and hear stories of survival. This morning I began pursuing the Internet for information. I am aware that Haiti is the poorest countries in the western hemisphere and that they have suffered other natural disasters in the past years including hurricanes and floods, but I am largely unaware of anything else.

I am amazed to see the efforts that people, governments and organizations are puting forward to help the people of Haiti. PBS News Hour reports that the United States plans to assess the damage by air early this morning, while sending search and rescue teams from Fairfax County, Virgina and La county, food, water, and temporary shelters. While looking around on the Internet, I was amazed to see the photos of various international rescue teams planning for departure- Chinese International Rescue Team and Taiwan Rescue Team. BBC news reports that aid agencies including the International Red Cross, Oxfam, the British Red Cross are sending supplies and rescue assistance. Other international contributors include; France, U.K., Spain, Germany, Italy, European Union, Venezuela, and Mexico. Some financial contributors will be the United Nations, the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) and the World Bank. Throughout the web numerous donation sites are available.

As I am sitting here at this very instant, researching around the Internet for information on the earthquake in Haiti. I felt our own light quiver here in Eureka at 9:36 am. The USGS site said it was a 3.6 magnitude. Just 3 days after, the 6.5 earthquake that shook Eureka and the California North Coast, the little tremors that are common occurrences in Eureka are not taken as lightly as previously. My heart began to race a little more than normal. Back from my heart racing, to my sadening heart for people in Haiti, as I wish I could help more!

Rather than providing the news updates that most people will be seeing over the next days and months to follow, I would like to look into Haiti's history, people, along with community/world organizing efforts to help Haitians. In a few days another post will be up.

BBC News. International aide efforts for Haiti under way.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8456192.stm

PBS News Hour Report, January 13, 2010

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2010/01/us-to-dispatch-search-teams-emergency-supplies-to-haiti.html
Photo: Earthquake hits Haiti.

http://www.whnt.com/news/nationworld/chi-100112-haiti-earthquake-pg,0,683298.photogallery

USGS. http://earthquake.usgs.gov/