Stop, Look, and Listen #21
A round-up of what I have been reading and listening to this past week.
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This post is part of the newsletter’s ‘Stop, Look, and Listen’ series, a digest of articles and podcasts (and occasionally programmes and films) that I’ve found engaging and insightful over the past week. I also maintain a regular record of all these via Substack’s ‘Notes’ feature; you can also read these via the Notes section of my site.
Content warning: The Holocaust; Islamophobia; Famine; Cancer; Anti-Black racism.
The crisis in Haiti
The situation in Haiti is extremely precarious, with gangs currently estimated to control at least 80% of territory in its capital Port-au-Prince. There has long been a severe crisis of government legitimacy in the Caribbean state, where president Jovenel Moise was assassinated in 2021. Absent a successor, his prime minister Ariel Henry has been the country’s effective leader, but failure to hold new elections sparked worsening unrest, including among politically connected gangs.
Last month, with Henry in Kenya discussing plans to deploy a UN-backed security mission to Haiti, an alliance of the gangs seized control of the capital’s international airport, and of its prisons. Henry was prevented from returning, and has promised to step down to be replaced by a transitional ruling council, but negotiations as to its composition remain ongoing.
discussed the situation with Renata Segura, International Crisis Group (ICG) deputy director for Latin America and the Caribbean, on the podcast. She explained that the putative presidential council will feature representation from different political parties, civil society groups, and the private sector. Segura added that while Kenya is ostensibly committed to leading the international security force in Haiti, progress has thus far been slow, and deployment cannot feasibly occur prior to a successor government being installed.She and Goldberg also discussed the motivations of the gangs, many of which have ties to leading politicians. Segura argued that their use of violence is partly intended to deter the arrival of the international force, but that they have to balance that against making the situation so severe as to cause a refugee crisis that invites US intervention. She noted that there is scant public appetite for gang representation in the new government, but that in reality channels of communication will have to be kept open with them for a viable solution to be reached.
The issue of international intervention is a vexed one, as Ernesto Sagás has written in The Conversation, given its ill-portending precedents. American rule over Haiti between 1915 and 1934 propelled the Haitian military into continued interference in the country’s politics. The 1994 US invasion restored deposed elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, but the resultant weakening of Haiti’s security services enabled its gangs to attain the impunity they hold today. Sagás argued that the UN-backed deployment is necessary to stem gang violence and create circumstances in which the provisional government can properly re-establish control, and free elections eventually take place. However, he warned that this would need to be accompanied by necessary financial aid to rebuild democratic institutions.
Both the BBC World Service’s BBC OS Conversations programme and Slate’s What Next podcast, with guest Harold Isaac, a Haitian-based independent journalist, have explored the lived experience of the crisis in Haiti. These covered the extent of gang control and the wholesale absence of government presence; the psychological impacts of persistent violence and lack of freedom of movement on the population; and the lure of fleeing abroad versus a strong desire to remain in the country.
The ubiquity of conflict worldwide
On The Foreign Affairs Interview podcast, host Daniel Kurtz-Phelan spoke to ICG president
about the breadth and scale of conflicts across the globe at present. While Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Israel’s assault on Gaza have dominated international attention, there has also been the matter of the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh, and civil wars in Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, and Sudan, to cite but a few examples.Ero lamented the fraying of international norms on issues such as aggression and human rights, highlighting the dearth of meaningful peace agreements over past decade. She added that frequent accusations of hypocrisy, such as against Britain and the US over their invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, and their support of Israel, have made it harder to come up with a coordinated international response elsewhere, as in the case of Ukraine.
This begetting of violence by violence, through provisions of precedent, inspiration, and opportunity, can be highlighted through a few examples. Speaking to Thanos Davelis on The Greek Current podcast, Michael Rubin argued that Turkey’s occupation of northern Cyprus since 1974 has functioned as a precursor to Russia’s invasion and partial occupation of Ukraine, and that NATO’s case against Russia is weakened by one of its members engaging in similar conduct.
On The LRB Podcast, Adam Shatz talked to guest Pankaj Mishra about how Zionism’s response to the Holocaust has been a concern with security unparalleled by most other states, manifest in Israel’s response to last October’s terror attack by Hamas. Mishra also highlighted the attraction of Zionism as a model for Hindu nationalists, who see parallels in their histories of postcolonial state-building, imagined security threat from neighbouring Muslims, rejection of perceived emasculation, and a sense of righteousness rooted in their battle against colonialism.
Finally, Tom Rhodes’ and Ayin Network’s profile of Sudanese paramilitary leader Hemedti for
highlighted how he and his career were shaped by his formative experiences in Darfur, including his participation in the genocide in the region as a leader within the Janjaweed militia. The piece also discussed how his Rapid Support Forces, one of the main protagonists in the current Sudanese civil war, have gained resources and experience through participating in conflicts elsewhere in the region and in EU-sponsored migration control initiatives.Ireland and Irishness in its transatlantic context
On
’s Irish Studies channel, Miranda Melcher interviewed Anelise Hanson Shrout about her book, Aiding Ireland: The Great Famine and the Rise of Transnational Philanthropy. Shrout argued that Ireland’s status as a crucible for a host of issues, including land reform and colonialism, and the advent of a more globally integrated capitalist system, made the Famine a landmark for transnational philanthropy. They explored in particular the different meanings it held across the United States. Northern politicians utilised it as a case against war with Mexico, and a tool for appealing to Irish migrant voters. The Southern plantocracy dubiously saw British conduct in Ireland as analogous to their treatment by the North. For African and indigenous Americans, the Famine offered an object of solidarity but also a means of proving their moral worth through philanthropy.Darragh Gannon likewise emphasised America’s importance as a site for publicising Irish political issues, in this article for TIME, which accusations of ‘Shamrockery’ against Irish politicians for St Patrick’s Day visits to the US overlook. He highlighted how during the Irish War of Independence, the American public sphere offered a wider audience to Irish political activists facing suppression by Britain. Gannon also stressed the role of Irish-American politicians like Ted Kennedy and Tip O’Neill in raising the profile of The Troubles in US politics, granting an audience to key nationalist figures like John Hume, and eventually compelling Britain to accept a prominent role for the Republic of Ireland in the peace process.
Irish identity in North American politics was also the topic of this episode of the This Day in Esoteric Political History podcast.
, , and Kellie Carter Jackson discussed the so-called ‘Shamrock Summit’ in 1985 between US President Ronald Reagan and Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. Mulroney was the son of working-class Irish immigrants, whereas Reagan’s Irish roots were much more distant and far less part of his public image. However, their meeting on St Patrick’s Day and the subject of their shared Irish heritage made for a much more convivial occasion for repairing the Canadian-American ‘special relationship’, which had been undermined in recent years by differences over various international issues.Flows and infrastructures
Two recent episodes of BBC Radio 3’s The Essay programme took the Thames Estuary area as their subject. In this instalment, Dan Taylor focused on the A13, the major roadway running from East London to South Essex. He explored its importance as a hub for transportation, migration, and industrialisation, as well as the lack of political agency experienced by communities across its length in dealing with challenges such as the shortage of affordable housing and climate change.
presented this episode on Canvey Island. He discussed the transportation of oil and gas from the Mississippi Delta to Canvey, and how the nationalised Gas Council sought to modernise the image of natural gas – which had significant storage and transportation advantages over other fuels – in Britain. Gas played an integral role in central heating and the increased comfort of British homes, at the same time as the petrochemical industry’s presence in Louisiana caused heightened cancer rates among predominantly Black communities in the state. Johnson-Schlee also focused on another connection between the two regions: pub rock band Dr. Feelgood, whose music both lyrically and sonically channelled Canvey Island industrial landscape, as well as the influence of Delta rhythm and blues.Also on Radio 3, Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough presented this episode of Arts & Ideas, with guests Jay Ingate and Sam Grinsell, on the role of water in shaping human life. Ingate explained how Roman architecture and material culture demonstrated both a desire to utilise water for purposes such as baths and travel, but also a fundamental respect for and even deification of it. Grinsell, meanwhile, spoke about the nineteenth-century British colonial project to build a dam across the Nile, and the combination of humanitarian and economic rationales behind it. Together, Barraclough, Ingate, and Grinsell discussed how the trajectory of history has seen humankind become increasingly divorced from water as an environmental feature, and the challenge of re-finding that connection in the era of climate change.
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