HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1976-08-26, Page 11Ron Shaw .is back at tbe- Si.gnal,rStar'•
After spending' more than
two years abroad, most of
. that time working in the field
of development assistance to
the West African• republic of
Niger,, writer -photographer
Ron Shaw • has returned to
boderrich ander position with
.Signl-Star. Publishing
Limited. Ina person. to person
in'terview he talks about °his.
experiences in develbpment
work and other aspects of life
in Africa.
++-1-••.
S.S. After more than two
years and visits. to
-something in the- order of 15
,countries, you have returned.
to Goderich. Are you glad to:
be back? .
R.W.S. Certainly I'm glad to
be back. It's wonderful to
renew-oldf riendship's and the
welcome Peg and I have
received has been wonderful
consideringneither of us are
natives of this area and had ,
only lived here for about
frica W$....fferentt
three years. On the - ()the,'"
hand I can only look back to
Africa with a certain longing
for 'the people and places we
came to love there as well.
S.S. Will you" return to .the
' "dark continent.'?
R.W.S., •,Absolutely:; Whether
or not I'd choose to 'work
there. again is a : question I
can't ., resolve, but I'll cpr;;
•ta;inlyreturn. on visits and try
tp keep in touch with a way of
life for which I've developed a.
great affinity.
S.S._ How did you come to go
to Niger in the first place? •
eew--ate r�y� work--w-a
years I had been developing
a'keen interest in the field of
foreign aid anddevelopment
assistance..,: and had made
some friends and contacts •in
the various' agencies: It -was
also no secret in those circles
that if something came up for
which P"was qualified would
consider that type of work.
Agriculture is, the central
thrust . of .all development
work. I was born and raised
R.W.S. For - a --number' of
G .
on an Ottawp valley farm
and, arnong other dubious
talents, I'm qualified as an
arti,fici"a1 insemination,
technician. When sornething
came along involving ran-
thing and; herd improvement, '
combined with • 'the
deyelopment and writing •of•
project. proposals .I was ap-
proached an.djumped a't' the'
chance. Unfortunately our.
understanding at this end of
what was to be clone,and the
• actual prohleirls at the other
end, differed somewhat.
While in 'Niger, I:never saw a
concernedand onlay one of -the
projects - I : re'searohe'd
reached the implementation.
stage. 0,••
S.S. You sound disi,liusioned
'about. :your- work. there.
Have you given up on foreign
aid?
Yes and no. I've
given up ' on development
assistance as it exists today.
It is wasteful, expensive,
often unsuited to the
Despite•masstve food gifts by the richer nations, such as••Canada, people in Niger are still
starving according to Ron Shaw who recently returned to Canada from a two year tour of
duty as a development worker in that country. He says agreements between the Canadian
and Nigerian government have too few strings attached and Charges .that the Niger
government is making use of these grain shipments to meet its own political ends, not to
alleviate suffering. ' w
HEYB*G SAYERS
HAVE WE GOT FOOD BUYS FOR YOU
..atAINSLIE MARKET'
where Qualify is a Tradition.
OVEN -BONELESS POT
ROAST BEEF
ko1/4ve
ONLY`-
, w LB:
•
FRESH
SAUSAGE
1 • • LB. o LBS. FOR
• BLADE
s�aKsL� 7 8c
ie
HOME MADE
HEADCHE1SE4 :c
LB.
STEAKETTE STYLE
MINUTE.
STEAKS
,�, 79c
BORDEN'S ICE CREAK., (All Varieties)
• �H07 MAR.KET
a :rt
�HLCHICKENS`
LIMITED .ALL 52,4&5"5,
d Meats. at Wholesale e Prices
Dressed 'Ins erte
$ .� 5 lsA�ri Homer inspected ,
giialftikaiXO
r
problems.it sets out to solve cttrgc that the 'reason this
and in.at•least two cases I can grain is not available for free
think of, does'more harm " dis.tribution, as it sometimes
than good. On the other hand I' is in other areas, is that the
in' the . government of Ni er •has an
still believe that we
.developed west bear. a certain unwritten policy of genocade
onsibility 'toward,
cofirries like 'I�Iige�r and "its
against the nomadic•tr"ibes of
res
eo le. I have two ments ° their„ country. I. have heard
P err up $ . too many times ' from the
to • support this. First, .the
majorityof us at least petty bureaucrats, who ceme.
for the most
pretend ; adherence to the part from..
• of rhristianit The' sedentary tribes, how useless.
precepts y a'nd non.-..p.roducti,ve the
morality of Christianity nomads are.' to believe
simply does not__a_llow_;us to .' otherwise.. I will extend that
stand idly by and watch men,' charge and implicate each
women and 'children' die of _
s-st--ra-tierr.as-i-ve seen themand every taxpaying
;die. My second "argumenCanadian as ah accomplice to'
more pragmatic. If we don't that policy. Bydproviding 'ono
=hs we are
elp them. fp their feet in the allosiriw t
ng this gpv's attached". ernment to .
field of food production, and
implement its policy..
guide, them: on their . first y. • They
faltertn -steps "tOWard-- the=—can ._ mainlain _a- er in
g P political stability by judicious
twentieth century, the day. free distributions and at the
will certainly come when same time practice genocide
these 'millions upon millions by .judiciously withholding
'of .people will simply comesuch distributions in'. given
and take what they need. areas.. • ' • •
S..S..• Are you:a Christian ora S.S. W.ill the olic makers '
pragmatist? and leaders n Canada and
R.W.S: Lam a humanist. other developed countries.
,,,S.,S. 'You referred. ""to �- respond to these problems?
examples• of aid doing harm R.W.S.. It's highly 'unlikely
rather than good. Could you • they.will, even if they could. '
expand on that? - To , quote- an anti-hero of
R.W.S., As I said T went to mine, novelist Kurt Von
"Niger to work in the area of negut, "The losers believe
ranching. The ranch was • mankind is the center` of the
supposed to already be' in universe. Losers .are
operation but in the end we • sometimes caile '=Humanists.
found it existed. only on paper: The 'winners know better -
and I was appointedto''ad- . only par ted; mankind forms.
minister .: i,mplementation of the universal center • - the
the project • in the •• field. winners. 1 am. 'a' humanist. I
Supervise constr-uction.if you ani `a lose`r�" I know what
will. For some reason .the Vonnegut, is talking ' about.
plannersvisualized a ranch in The Politicians -both here in
North American terms; right. North.America and in Africa
- down to. fencing 'the whole - are the winners: The rest of
area. This meant the en- us are the'losers: Thousands
closure of 46,000.•hectares and • of losers'over there willdie of
about 125 kilometers of` fence. starvation .today. The losers
---ignoring the 'fact that here keep walking around,
thousands of dollars were . but they're just as „dead in-
was•ted .for a totally .un- side.
necessary fence, this scheme S.S. -Can you explain why
also dispossessed seyeral Canada and the other donor
clans of nomadic herdsmen countries agree to such aid.
•(numbering. more than 2,000, packages?
persons) of their: traditional R.W.S. Sure, Even the
pasture lands 'and . water winners .are divided into
holes. This area bordering the two categories, We call it east
ecology at best and the fact ,
desert proper is a' fragile'. and West. When an issue
comes up in that New York
herds risen will have:•.
based theatre of the absurd
to encroach• on the- pasture. we call the United Nations,
lands of others will result in Niger has the same voting
serious :overgrazing;,:in ad-• power on the floor of the
dition there will be serious . General. Assem•olyas:Canada
social repercussions as or the U.S. Even though Niger
tradition :.has designated has' a: population of only five,
given areas .togiven tribes million while ' Canada has
and clans.•Furtherrnore,•the twenty-five million and the
fence cuts across clearly U:S. has two hundred and
definable : migratory 'roots: fifty, Million.. We are buying
followed by 'herdsmen from votes. ••A couple of hundred
all over the northern portion tons. •of grainbuys one vote.
of the country, denying them
access.to water on-•their`iang
marches and a route • to
market. The theory behind
•the project was to restock
these "very tribesmen's herds
•(which were; decimated In
:five years of drought) but due
to poor adrninistration- it is
unlikely any animals - will.
ever be forthcoming. Even if
they are the damage done in " fails to ignore. How can be,
the next time we want to
condemn highjackings in the,
air. I
..S. What • divides. the
winners from the losers?
R.W.S. What makes a
winner?, VoT''negut says,
"The' ability to ignore. To
ignore the ghettos, refugee
camps, Indian reset vations:,
nuclear plants etc: A loser
the meantime may well be
irreparable.
S.S. • You mentioned . two
examples.
R.W.S: Yes, but the second
is even more involved and
certainly harder toCom-
prehend. When we li wed in the
town of Tahoua there was an
a Americanbuilt warehouse at
the end'of •our. street. It was
filled 'with• grain provided by
the,Canadian government, or
Canadian taxpayer really, to
the point. that it overflowed
into the yard .itself. Here
severalhundred tons of grain
was stored under tarps. This
whole area, the 'compound
and the ;warehouse, was
fenced off by barbed wire.
Right outside the wire' was a
sizeable refugee camp.
-Refugees in the sense that the
drought had totally deprived
those' people of any` means of
support in their camps• and
villages of the outback and
forced them into the larger
communities in search of
food. The t nbelievable thing
about it Was that, even though
these people , were . dying .of
starvation within sight of all
that food, they couldn't get
any. It was for sale and they.
had no money. The Canadian
International Development
Agency, the aid branch of the
Canadian goverprnent which.
supplied this.grain, makes a
deal with the government of
Niger.•Canada makes a gift of
all this free food, not to the
people, but to the Niger
government. There is ap-
parently no clause in the.
'agreement --.stipulating what
the Niger authorities must do
with this gift, They are free to
make their own rules. In this
case "theychose to s,ell .the'
grain. I will make, a -very
serious charge here'. I will
he's one of the walking
wounded." So am I. , • .
S.S. You've developed
yourself in a.'black mood of
despair. Were there no silver
linings?
-R.W.S. Where the
development : work . was
d, no
concerned, If ;one takes
n
our life there as a whole there
were certainly many bright.
spots. Unfortunately, when
•
(continued on page 17)
•
GODEttIcu fIGINAI4.4$TAR, THURSDAY ,,r U
F
TJST 26, I97pAk i
When Ron Shaw went to Africa he had been assigned to work on a cattle breeding ranch in
the north of Niger. After nearly a year of other assignments he was transferred to the
ranch but found the facility was yet to be constructed and in his two year tour of :duty
never did lay eyes on a cow.
• In •addition to the decimating effect of more than five years of drought .across the sub
Sahara regions of West Affica were the effects. of'a number of tropical -diseases indigenous
to the area. Combi'n"ed with massive malnutrition and the lack of drinking water, they took,
a -terrible toll of human life. Peg Shaw, who serred in Niger with her husband, treats the
child of a nomadic woman for malaria.
• When assigned to the Centre Multiplication ,de; Sevin, a
cattle breeding station, which was under construction lion
Shaw Hound that a massive displacement of native peoples
• would .result when:46;000 hectares of•land was:enelosed for
x
the projeet.` One••of .Mr. Shaw's major preoccupations was
the struggle to arrange other homes, ori suitable com-
,'pensation, for the dispossessed. No. solution ' Was ever
agreed 6o by the authorities. •