Food for a thought that explains itself
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MORE ON THE POLITICS OF HUMAN RIGHTS WORK
Human Rights Reader 58
IT IS THROUGH IDEOLOGY THAT SOCIETY ULTIMATELY EXPLAINS ITSELF
(Part 4 of 16)
31. 'In-the-way-things-are', society makes disprivilege look
right. Human rights (HR) violations are simply 'explained-away'.
32. Although development scholars sometimes engage in an ideo-
logical debate with the culture that breeds them, they almost
never confront that culture with another ideology, with politi-
cal possibilities that are new or challenging. For without chal-
lenging the ideology many of them find abhorrent, they only per-
petuate the political passivity that has become the central
theme in Northern-led development efforts.
Intellectual liberation is difficult to achieve, since many of
us are prisoners of our own past training and somebody else's
thought.
33. We also often use 'statistical-illusions' or 'computer-
models' (tricks?) devised by our own academic elites which do
not fit any real-world cases anywhere in the world. Measuring
poverty in detail can often be a substitute for --or an excuse
for-- not acting in response to perfectly visible needs. (Some
have called this "paralysis in analysis"). In that sense, re-
gression analyses, for example often lead us to the cardinal er-
ror in reasoning of confusing correlation with cause.
34. Moreover, too many of our economists and too many interna-
tional organizations are seeking to take the politics out of the
political economy of HR and of the daily decision-making proc-
ess: basically to-avoid-discord-or-conflict. I think many, if
not most, aspects of life should never be decided by the econo-
mists' yardstick only.
The abolition of slavery or child labor laws certainly never
would have passed a cost-benefit test.
35. Among others, excessive institutional compartmentalization
has separated political from socio-economic analyses resulting
in a passive reluctance to-call-a-cat-a-cat. There is a tendency
to stop the analysis where 'politics' begins, with formulations
like: "this, however, is a political question". Of course, that
is where the analysis very often should start. Our task is not
merely to reflect the world, but to do something about it. A
goal which is not at the same time a process becomes a dogma. It
is the principle of 'recognizing- trends-and-acting-promptly-at-
the-right-time' that mainly differentiates the politician from
the theoretician.
36. The complex nature of the problems of HR complicates our
policy making. The essence of the problem transcends its inter-
disciplinary nature. Comprehensiveness cannot be obtained by
achieving all-inclusiveness of the parts, but by creating a new
philosophy into which all parts fit (and interact dialecti-
cally). The development of such a philosophy has been avoided,
because it automatically raises larger issues about the direc-
tion of society and challenges the current system. The essence
of the matter is the need for new philosophies, methodologies
and processes which help us work towards a society inspired by a
different world view. We need tactics, yes, but first we need
innovative strategies. As I have said so many times, it is more
necessary than ever to pass from a state of critique to actual
concrete actions. Tactics must be shifted from a defensive posi-
tion to one that offers positive choices. A positive strategy
will be most effective if efforts are made to go beyond the po-
litical goal of obtaining the-type-of-lowest-common-denominator
that only serves to alleviate guilt feelings.
37. We ought not to retreat into helpless passivity, watching
the HR values around us deteriorate. We can alter trends and
avert catastrophes if we recognize and exercise our own power to
make a difference. We all carry around with us a bag of unexam-
ined credos, and this unexamined life is what comes under pres-
sure when we are faced with decisions. One of the greatest chal-
lenges facing humanity today is the challenge to meet the funda-
mental (denied) rights of the poor. In that sense, research,
even applied, has acquired an elitist character, with little or
no relevance to our concern for the real needs of the people.
38. From the effectiveness-in-combating-HR-violations-point-of-
view, in international and national HR meetings, HR activists
should, more than others, leave behind academicism and begin to
look at real people and their bare rights.
39. Fulfilling the minimum entitlements of the poor majority
will, in most countries, hardly require any new knowledge or any
new hard technology. However, it will require political solu-
tions which are likely to have a number of technological in-
puts...but the political solutions are not dependent on first
making the technological inputs available.
40. Human rights defined in material terms, with services deliv-
ered by a bureaucracy and planned by an elite, can create client
groups, can demobilize community groups and do create new pat-
terns of dependence. Devoid of a clear ideological orientation,
human rights work does not clarify but mystifies, does not mobi-
lize but manipulates. Technocratic approaches assume that the
problems are largely management gaps within the decision-making
groups together with a lack of ability to grasp opportunities by
the poor.
41. The technocratic approach ends up just keeping track of HR
violations, because it has so many non-solutions built-in mas-
querading as answers. An example of such an approach is the im-
plication that 'salvation' lies in obtaining for the poor coun-
tries those features of richer countries --doctors, hospitals
and staff, field services, equipment and a rich pharmacopoeia of
drugs-- which 'ostensibly ensure health and long life' But dis-
ease is not the consequence of a lack of health services, and
the provision of primary health care alone will not bring about
better health. Ultimately, the fulfilment of health and nutri-
tion rights and of decent living standards overall are deter-
mined by national development strategies and priorities, as well
as by the international economic order.
Claudio Schuftan
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
mailto:claudio@hcmc.netnam.vn