Conference: Democracy, Interests and Progress - On the Future of Development Aid in Africa, 24 May 2014

Auf dem Millenniumsgipfel im Jahr 2000 verabschiedeten die Vereinten Nationen acht „Millenniumsentwicklungsziele“, deren Verwirklichung bis zum Jahr 2015 zur Überwindung der drängendsten Probleme sozial-ökonomischer Unterentwicklung (Hunger und Armut, Schulbildung, Gleichstellung, Kindersterblichkeit, reproduktive Gesundheit, epidemische Krankheiten, Nachhaltigkeit und globale Entwicklungspartnerschaft) beitragen sollte.

In den zurückliegenden 15 Jahren konnte allerdings nur der Hunger weltweit – dank der Entwicklungserfolge in China – deutlich reduziert werden. Die Fortschritte bei den anderen sieben Entwicklungszielen entsprechen nicht annähernd den postulierten Zielen.

Die Ursachen für das Scheitern der bisherigen (Entwicklungs)Politik werden jedoch nur ungenügend analysiert. Stattdessen werden die „alten“ Entwicklungsziele schlicht vergessen und umstandslos durch „neue“ ersetzt. Und so können die derzeit für die Jahre nach 2015 diskutierten Nachhaltigkeitsentwicklungsziele (Sustainable Development Goals) in vielen Ländern des Südens nur realitätsferne Aufgaben bleiben.

Auf einer Konferenz am Vorabend des Afrikatages 2014, der mit dem Wahltag zum Europa-Parlament zusammenfällt, wollten wir erkunden und diskutieren, woran die Entwicklungspolitik, wie wir sie kennen, krankt und wie eine wirksame Entwicklungszusammenarbeit in entsprechend gestalteten internationalen politischen und ökonomischen Beziehungen eingebettet werden müsste, um die gestellten Ziele zu erreichen.

Mit Bruno Sonko (RLS Dakar), Peter Wahl (WEED & attac), Demba Moussa Dembele (Forum Africain des Alternatives)

Haus der Demokratie und Menschenrechte, Berlin
Greifswalder Str. 4
10405 Berlin

12 January, 2010. A devastating earthquake shakes Haiti’s capital. In an instant 250,000 people are killed and 1.2 million left homeless. NGOs from all over the world send experts for critical relief efforts. At first, everyone has high hopes: at an international donors’ conference billions of dollars are pledged and the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC), co-chaired by Bill Clinton, is created to oversee worldwide solidarity efforts. But, two-and-a-half years later, you only have to set foot in Port-au-Prince to see the international community has failed. Hundreds of thousands are still living in tents; the IHRC is as good as dead and only a fraction of the funds pledged have arrived in Haiti. Filmed over two years, Haitian born filmmaker Raoul Peck’s documentary tries to find out how, in spite the international community’s promises, the needs of ten million people in the Caribbean came to be met in such a paltry fashion. He questions political decision-makers, private contractors and engineers – and of course ordinary Haitian people, who have begun a painstaking reconstruction of their own.

“Peck does not criticise the helpers, mostly motivated and intelligent experts. It is the absurd structures in which they are captured. Peck has added radical poetic lyrics to his images (…)“ Der Tagesspiegel

“Direct and indirect power relations between North and South are the core topics of most of Raoul Peck’s movies. (…) And it is always about dignity. Fatal Assistance, too, is the appeal to meet Haitians, and not only them, with solidarity instead of paternalism.“ DIE ZEIT

Following the screening there will be an open discussion with Demba Moussa Dembele (Forum Africain des Alternatives) as well as a small reception in the foyer.

Director
Born 153 in Haiti, grown up in Zaire, vocational training in France, USA and studies at the TU Berlin (1974 – 1982), then at the DFFB where he graduated in 1988. The best-known of his movies are “L’homme sur les Quais”, “Lumumba”, “Sometimes in April” on the genocide in Rwanda. His most recent movie “Moloch Tropical” was shown 2009 in Berlin and Toronto. From 1996 – 1997 Raoul Peck was minister for culture in Haiti. 2002, he was member of the International Berlinale-Jury, 2012 of the competition jury of Cannes. For his complete works he received the Irene Diamond Award, presented by Human Rights Watch. Since 2010 he is the head of the board of the film school La Fémis in Paris.

Fatal Assistance (Assistance Mortelle)
Haiti, France, USA, Belgium 2013, 99 min.
D. Raoul Peck
DCP, original with German commentary, partly subtitled

Friday, 23 May 2014
8 pm
Admission: 7,50€
Reduced: Berlinpass, collective tickets for 5 or 10 visits can be used by two,
Gildepass, Heavy User Card

Hackesche Höfe Kino
Rosenthaler Str. 40/41
10178 Berlin
S Hackescher Markt
U Weinmeisterstraße