What a Woman can Be, She Must Be

A. H. Maslow's hierarchy of needs is often portrayed in the shape of a pyramid with the fundamental physiological needs at the bottom and the human need for self actualization at the top.

This Maslow quotation forms the basis of the perceived need for self-actualization;

“Even if all these needs are satisfied, we may still often (if not always) expect that a new discontent and restlessness will soon develop, unless the individual is doing what he is fitted for. A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately happy. What a man can be, he must be.”

This is, of course, a simple characterization of a complex psychological theory. It is the premise for the story about 69 year old Haitian widow and grandmother Immacula who is supporting her 44 year old mentally disabled son and three grandsons, including one who is an amputee.

Historical Background
The Clinton Foundation, in collaboration with the Government of Haiti, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the US Agency for International Development (USAID), assisted with the development of the Caracol Industrial Park in Caracol, Haiti. The park opened for business in 2012. USAID touts it as a pubic private partnership to “spur economic growth and bring up to 20,000 jobs to Haiti’s underserved regions.”

The park's anchor tenant is South Korean textile giant Sae-A Trading Co. According to an October 22, 2012 Associated Press article “Sae-A, which shipped 76,000 T-shirts to Wal-Mart in the United States on Oct. 15, says it is training 1,050 people it has hired, 70 percent of them from the area surrounding Caracol. Daniel Cho, a representative of Sae-A in Haiti, said the employees will be paid almost $5 for eight hours of work.”

In an interview with Deborah Ball of the WSJ at the January 2014, World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Haiti Prime Minster Laurent Lamothe boasted that Haiti is the 6th largest exporter of t- shirts to the United States.
Exploitive sweatshop labor of the kind promulgated at Caracols Industrial Park is the antipathy of Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs.

My mother captured this fundamental human need for self actualization in the “Prayer to St Jude for Employment”:

Lord Jesus, my desire to work is itself your gift. You made me with talents so I could shine your light to all the world. Send you spirit to guide me to work that will provide security and joy and most of all the ability to serve you in love.

Immacula’s dream is to buy a piece of land in Croix des Bouqet, Haiti, where she can build a small house and an adjoining restaurant. In April 2014, a group of volunteers will travel to Haiti to build a house for Immacula so that she may “be what she must be.”