-->I feel like I am becoming a regular at the L’estere market. I went for the third time today and my parents Chris Hestwood, Westminster's Choir director, and a few of the employees at the mission joined me. We had a fantastic time.
Last time I went to the market I was amazed by the emergent
order; the bovine herders naturally gravitated toward the most open space to
sell their cows, the swine trade revolved around an area right next to the
river that supplied a large amount of mud for the pigs, and the less chaotic
part of the market was occupied by the sale of luxury and higher end items.
Each location uniquely suited its group of buyers and sellers. Today I saw
another side of the market’s wisdom. Last week we just got cows and attempted
to get pigs, so we saw a much more limited segment of the market, but today we
got see almost the entire market. I had a chance to observe how different
sellers in L’Estere organized themselves as efficiently as supermarkets and
convenient stores do in the US.
Tuesday is the day when animals are traded in L’estere, so
there were people from all over Artibonite (the region of Haiti where L’Estere
is located) trading every different species of livestock. There were traditional
livestock being sold, cows, horses, pigs, goats, and chickens, and there were
some people selling less common animals like pigeons and turtles. When I was
walking around the communities yesterday afternoon I saw teams of horses and
cows coming down Highway One, all headed to today’s market. The market is so
popular that people would travel overnight to the market with their herds. At
the Tuesday market the only constraint dictating on where people sell their
goods is the road and the physical structures; any space is fair game. There
are no zoning laws directing what interactions can happen where, there are no
permits required to sell a certain thing in a certain place, there aren’t even
any health codes dictating where a cow can be butchered; if a person can
situate him or herself in a certain place, he or she can open up shop there.
Some spaces sell specific items, there is a spot where cows are traded, right
next to door the place where horses are traded. There are sections of shops
that sell durable goods like clothes and shoes. There is one segment of the
market where all sorts of poultry is sold, one spot where pigs are sold, one spot
where wood is sold, one spot for charcoal, etc. There is nothing but
circumstance dictating what is sold where, and the division is guided only by
the market’s wisdom.
Within each of these product specific areas, there are other
things being sold: rice, beans, soap, tobacco leaves, little peppers, common
every day items. Around the cow trading area there are people selling rice,
beans, tobacco, etc. Each of these every day items does have a specific area of
the market specializing in its sale, but these items can also found all over
the market place being sold by smaller vendors. There is one section of the
market that specifically sells rice, one section that specifically sells beans,
but rice and beans are sold all over the market. While walking around, this all
seems completely haphazard. There is a smattering of rice sellers among the
higher end sales, some bean sellers randomly plopped in the area devoted to the
sale of compost, and people selling tobacco leaves wandering around the fresh
meat space. All of this goes on without any sense of apparent organization. Yet
as I walked around I realized that the market was organized, just not by a
single person. The market was organized quite efficiently by the collective wisdom of
every buyer and the seller. The logic I saw in the market was quite similar to
the logic that dictates the sale of everyday items in American stores. If I
want to buy a specific product, something like steak, lunch meat, sharp cheddar
cheese, tomato sauce, etc. I have to go to a place like Giant Eagle, a place that
specializes in the sale of food. Yet if I need a general item, something like
milk, water, cigarettes, or orange juice, I can go to Giant Eagle or any other
convenient store like CVS, Sheetz, Walgreens, or Sunoco. I may pay a little
more at the general store, but I am willing to pay more because I don’t have to
go all the way to the grocery store. In the market, everyone needs to pick up
the staples of Haitian Cuisine, things like rice and beans, but not everyone
has to pick up a cow or charcoal. Because of this, some rice sellers will
congregate in one central area, while others will disperse to other areas of
the market. Those rice sellers who congregate in one area will be selling
everyday rice as well as other more specialty types of rice. In the main rice
area I saw some sellers who were selling yellow and brown rice as well as white
rice, and some were selling rice in mass quantity. In the other specialized
areas, those selling cows, pigs, charcoal, etc., there were rice and bean
sellers sitting near by. Like CVS selling milk and bread, some of the smaller Haitian
rice and bean sellers congregated around the charcoal and cow sections of the
market, hoping to get a higher price for their goods by giving the buyers a the
added convenience of not having to go all the way in the market.
Another interesting point that I noticed was that none of us
were really heckled by the people in the market. Our group was led by Roland,
our handy translator and all around Haitian cultural ambassador. Roland was
able to blend in with the rest of the Haitians, but the four Americans stuck
out like a lit match in a dark room. When I was in Port Au Prince, there seemed
to be dozens of people coming up begging for money. I am obviously not from
Haiti, and given my white skin the Haitian beggars assume I have money. Here no
one was begging for money from me or the other three Americans with me. We came
across a few questionable characters at the further ends of the market, but
overall everyone was polite and courteous to us as we walked through. Once our
group got over the initial shock of everything around us, we felt comfortable
walking around. There are more white people in Port Au Prince than in L’Estere
so we (four white Americans) stuck out more here, but still no one approached
us the way beggars did when I was in Port Au Prince last Saturday. I don’t have
a definite answer for why this happened, but I am willing to bet that this was
because the expected monetary gain from asking us for money was far less than
the expected gain from whatever transaction they were already engaging in. In
other words, the Haitians thought they would make more money if they worked
with each other than if they begged from us. This may seem trivial, but it
implied that the market was doing what it needed to do, creating wealth for
those working in it.
We ended up getting 18 goats, 3 pigs, and a cow. We spent a
total of about five and a half hours in the market, and everyone involved,
including the animals, went home happy. I was able to observe the market’s
collective wisdom again, but observed it in a whole new light. Most likely at
least half of the people at this market were illiterate or had just a basic
education. This market was not organized by a specific formula for allocating
goods, and none of the sellers were analyzing spreadsheets of pricing data. There
was no one person or group making any central decision about how to best
allocate space or product, the market work on the many different sellers trying
to find the best place to sell their goods, and the many different buyers
looking for the best deal. They all organized themselves efficiently, respected
each other, and worked hard. I am sure some people didn’t get the best deals
they hoped to get, while other people probably got better deals than they expected to get, but overall those
who interacted in the market were better off at the end of the day. If market
day taught me anything, it’s that Haiti’s success isn’t a magic formula.
There’s no one specific policy that can set rapid growth in motion. The
materials for Haiti’s success are already present in the L'Estere market place. People
want to be successful, they want to trade with each other, they don’t want to
beg for help. For Haiti to move forward in its development, we don’t need to
implement something totally new, but rather figure out a way to spread the
collective wisdom of the market.
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