David Brooks published a column today that addresses Haiti's abject poverty. Sometimes I like Brooks, and sometimes I think he's out to lunch. Today I think he's giving us a lot of "inconvenient truth" that flies in the face of my bleeding heart liberal tendencies.
Brooks asks "Why is Haiti so poor"?
After billions in aid, military interventions, and years of work by dozens of relief organizations, Haiti is still one of the poorest lands on earth. Other countries have overcome histories of oppression and corruption and succeeded. Even the Dominican Republic, which share the same island as Haiti, is far more successful. Why does Haiti continue to be a failure?
Brooks cites the work of some economists who attempted to pragmatically discover what works and what doesn't in development. He concludes that Haiti is held back by a "complex web of progress-resistant cultural influences". It has a cultural problem that money and troops can't solve, but might be overcome by what he calls "intrusive paternalism". I could never claim to be an expert on Haiti or any other international problem, but his words ring true to me, and seem to speak to problems right here at home as well.
Brooks says
These programs, like the Harlem Children’s Zone and the No Excuses schools, are led by people who figure they don’t understand all the factors that have contributed to poverty, but they don’t care. They are going to replace parts of the local culture with a highly demanding, highly intensive culture of achievement — involving everything from new child-rearing practices to stricter schools to better job performance.
When I look at problems in my own town — Asian and Mexican gangs and horrible high school drop out rates and packs of runaway kids and abusive foster parents — it fills me with despair. I didn't grow up that way, and my parents didn't raise me that way. I don't understand it. How can this be happening?
It just seems like there are lots of people in my own town that don't know about or don't believe in American culture. And there is undeniably an American culture of freedom, education, competition, creativity and responsibility that has been the foundation of the nation's success. Kids need to not just know about this; they need to experience it. Without it, they get poverty, crime, and hopelessness.
I worry that I've turned from a 60's radical into an 90's cultural conservative or something. Have I become a crotchety old guy who doesn't get it any more? I love diversity. But diversity shouldn't mean anarchy. I just want something that works. Brooks sounds like he's on to something to me, even if it is inconvenient.