Eyes of the Heart

by Kazi Joshua

Seeking a Path for the Poor in the Age of Globalization

by Jean-Betrand Aristide

ed. Laura Flynn

Monroe, ME: Common Courage Press, 2000.

The one-time president of Haiti and former priest, Jean-Betrand Aristide, begins this small 80-page book by declaring, "Behind this crisis of dollars, there is a human crisis. ... We have not reached the consensus that to eat is a basic human right. This is an ethical crisis. This is a crisis of faith." Don't be misled by the book's length. This is a focused, intense and carefully written narrative analyzing the condition of the poor in developing nations. It does not celebrate the globalization of markets, nor the liberalization of trade between countries who exercise hegemony and monopoly over the conditions of trade and the scale of production. Instead, Aristide frames the book as a series of testimonials or letters from the heart of the poor in Haiti to the heart of global capitalism, to its imperial center in the north. Woven through the critical analyses are stories of real people and historical events that have affected Haiti's people in the advent of globalization. The stories become a prophetic denunciation of global inequities and an annunciation of what the poor are doing in spite of the forces lined up against them.

Aristide describes global capitalism as "a machine devouring our planet," documenting carefully its effects on the ecology, community life and the politics of Haiti. In a situation where 20 percent of the population now owns 86 percent of total wealth, the logic of global capitalism is inadequate for the majority of the world's population. Accounts of the systematic displacement of locally grown rice and pigs by imported products which become scarce and unsustainable raise critical questions about the role of international aid agencies and lending institutions. With such concrete examples, Aristide demystifies globalization and paints a real face of the victims of the economics of accumulation that does not have human and ecological well-being at the center of their practices.

The power of the book, however, goes well beyond analysis of the poor as victims of globalization. Aristide points to the power of the poor when they come together and put humanity at the center of all relations of exchange. This is what Aristide refers to as "the third way," that intermediate position between global capitalism and state-run socialist economies. He describes a collective kind of economics where, by pooling their resources, the poor develop credit unions, establish a university, open a people's store selling goods at a fraction of market price, create a children's radio station giving them voice in a society that marginalizes them. These heroic acts, born out of economic necessity, give rise to political and cultural organization which refuses to be bought off by the seduction of global capital. Aristide demonstrates not only what is wrong, but also what is possible, if only we will listen. Will we?

This book ought to be required reading for all students of economics and business and elected officials in the Congress and Senate. It shifts and concretizes the debate about "aid" and "free trade" in a way almost impossible to imagine in the affluence of the North. Eyes of the Heart is also a challenge to all those who struggle for justice and ecological sustainability, to support alternatives that are actually working and initiated by the poor. Aristide sums up his argument in the words of the UN Human Development Report of 1997 "... Poverty is no longer inevitable. The world has the material and natural resources ... to make a poverty-free world a reality in less than a generation."

He adds, "The time has come to create a world that is more human, more stable, more just. Eradicating poverty everywhere is more than a moral imperative and a commitment to human solidarity. It is a practical possibility."

This little book is a big act of faith, a response to the "human and ethical crisis" we all now face.

Kazi Joshua, originally from Malawi, is a doctoral student at the University of Chicago and an associate pastor at Progressive Community Church on Chicago's south side. He directs Nurturing the Call at the Seminary Consortium on Urban Pastoral Education.