For Julia Taft, oil and water do mix - in complex ways that profoundly affect the lives of many in crisis-wracked nations throughout the world.
Taft, Director of the Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery in the United Nations Development Programme, addressed a mostly full Braker 001 last night on the complex puzzle of humanitarian relief.
These themes of oil and water, the topic of this year's Education for Public Inquiry and International Citizenship (EPIIC) Colloquim, brought Taft to speak at Tufts by invitation from the Institute for Global Leadership (IGL).
According to Taft, natural resources such as oil and water are "incredibly important drivers, important perpetuators of conflict, especially in the African setting."
Taft gave examples of abundance in African nations in which faulty distribution and corrupt governments gave rise to poverty and inequality. In the case of Angola, despite having "so much oil," 90 percent of the population lives in poverty and civil war has wracked the country for 26 years.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) presents a similar desperate situation - despite abundant gold and diamond mines, the country has been "caught in conflict for four decades," Taft said.
Conflict and crisis, Taft said, becomes all the more "pernicious when resources are used to fuel the conflict and provide resources to pay for the killing." After extracting revenue and profits, governments will use resource revenue to pay rebel groups to kill - thereby intensifying conflict.
Taft discussed the acute humanitarian crisis as well as the complex implications of water scarcity with respect to the Sudan.
According to Taft, global warming caused severe drought in Darfur, Sudan. As a result, gone were the rich pastureland and wells that used to drive "the breadbasket for the rest of Africa," Taft said.
Because of water-induced conflicts between ranchers and farmers, the Sudanese government dispatched the Arab Janjaweed militias to "quell conflict" virtually without impunity. It was later discovered that the government was offering air support as well as carrying out aerial bombings on behalf of the Janjaweed effort.
Widespread displacement and fear resulted - "they routed villages, stuffed people down wells, burned houses." Cramped in refugee camps, "everyone is scared to death," Taft said.
The lack of water in the region was both a humanitarian and a security crisis, however, too much water caused yet another obstacle.
After the drought came heavy rains, "and with the rain, comes the locusts," Taft said.
"They can eat their weight in a day, destroy a field in ten minutes, and they multiply like you've never seen in your life."
Taft used the example of Zambia to delineate the interlocking nature of water scarcity and AIDS - where the population was decimated by the virus and one in five children were orphaned.
In this area, much of the adult population had been virtually eliminated. "There were mostly women and children - on the farms there was no one who could grow anything," she said. "You went to the schools, and kids were sitting there, but there were no teachers."
Taft, while meeting with the government, encountered the one living member of the agricultural committee - the rest of the members had all died of the virus.
The committee kept writing proposals for aid, which were repeatedly refused because there were insufficient personnel to implement them. There was to be another proposal written - until the man drafting the proposals also died of the disease.
"There is no one there to run the government," or improve water transportation and sanitation, she said.
Taft highlighted Nigeria and Angola as states with abundant resources that created vast societal and infrastructural problems. Often, Taft said, oil companies fail to invest substantial amounts of oil revenue back into the country to battle poverty, hunger, and unemployment.
Out of necessity and bitterness towards outside interests, Taft said, villagers will prick small holes in oil pipelines leading through their villages and siphon off small amounts to use to power their lamps - leading to leakages, explosions, and enormous disturbances in the pipeline.
Taft cited one example against this disturbing trend - detailing an anthropologist hired by one oil company in Chad to consult with villagers to determine acceptable routes for the pipelines, avoid disturbing traditional practices, and work out various forms of compensation for oil pipeline passage.
Taft concluded with a summary of U.N. efforts to improve the functioning of corrupt governments. "The U.N. helps governments to have transparent budgets-fiscal controls and good governance," she said.
She also emphasized the acuteness of the situation and stressed the widespread nature of humanitarian crisis. "There are 65 countries in the world that are either in war, almost in war, coming out of war, or are failed or failing states."
Sophomore Casey Beck approved of the integrated nature of the many elements Taft discussed. "I think what she said really brought the idea of the interconnectedness home," she said. "She definitely gave me hope in the U.N., giving their response in Africa a face and personal ties."
The IGL also presented Taft with the Jean Mayer Global Citizenship Award - which is presented to figures in the field of International Relations with a "critical integrated understanding of issues" and a "coherent integrated vision" for making meaningful contributions to the global community.
The EPIIC Colloquium is a year-long academic class run through the Experimental College and the IGL, stressing an interdisciplinary approach to International Relations issues. It includes lectures, independent research, and a symposium bringing leaders to Tufts for discussion and debate.
