Heritage under siege
How USAID's dissolution undermines efforts to preserve global heritage
A comet leaves a long tail as it approaches the sun.
The same principal might apply to the impacts of the Trump Administration’s gutting of the federal bureaucracy.
In recent weeks, much has been made of Elon Musk’s so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” (i.e., D.O.G.E.) as it goes after what it deems as unnecessary federal programs. Their first target has been USAID, causing the cessation of their international aid programs and demanding the termination of the majority of the agency’s employees.
USAID was established by President Kennedy in 1961 and built on the legacy of the Marshall Plan by providing development aid, food and medical supplies to countries around the world. The agency’s logo directly references the Marshall Plan, with a shield emblazoned with the stars and stripes.
Sixty percent of U.S. foreign aid is managed by USAID, and while much of that aid comes in the form of foodstuffs and emergency medicines, one underreported aspect is the agency’s support of architectural and cultural heritage around the world.
In Cyprus, several monuments have been restored with USAID funding, including Hala Sultan Tekke, a mosque in Larnaca considered one of the holiest sites to Islam. Established on the site of the death of the prophet Muhammad’s aunt, the Ottoman-era mosque had fallen into disrepair after the 1974 Turkish-Cypriot conflict and the de facto partition of island, with the Turkish-Cypriot Muslim community relocating to the northern, Turkish-occupied part of the island.
Efforts by the Cypriot Department of Antiquities, with funding from USAID and the United Nations Development Program, restored the mosque from 2001 to 2005. Given the divided nature of Cyprus, restoring a religious building of a Muslin faith in the Greek Orthodox Christian-majority side of the island held the promise of creating bridges between the two communities, still separated by a UN Buffer Zone more than 50 years later.
In the meantime, the Trump Administration claims the USAID’s programs are filled with waste and that taxpayer money should only be devoted to Americans back home.
Defenders of USAID say that criticism of foreign aid is short-sighted and foolish. They argue that foreign aid can comprise generosity affording goodwill to the United States, but the aid also can do real good for the countries that benefit.
I agree with USAID’s defenders. The current Administration is not only foolishly eliminating that source of U.S. goodwill, but hurting so many who depend on this aid, much of it life-saving. Moreover, in these heritage projects, we cannot plan for the future if we do not acknowledge and preserve important aspects of history for future generations. The restoration of Hala Sultan Tekke proves the value of such efforts.
I’ll be back with regularly scheduled content next week. In the meantime, here’s a photo I took of the Hala Sultan Tekke last summer with a very awesome film camera.
