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A last chance to make things right for Haiti

By: Dan Lett

8/02/2010 1:00 AM | Comments: 6

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The view from the air was both startling and sad.

Startling because so many buildings remained standing in Port-au-Prince. Media coverage suggested the city had been razed. But as our Canadian Forces Griffon helicopter floated over the city, the flat-topped houses and seamless shanty towns seemed remarkably intact. It looked more like someone had thrown a shovel of gravel on top of the city. At ground level, a closer examination revealed the sadness: cracks, crumbling walls, twisted rebar. Many larger structures -- hospitals and schools in particular -- had totally disintegrated.

Also visible from the air were the enormous tent cities that had been established to give the homeless somewhere to escape evening rains. These stood out as brilliant blue patches against the light grey of the demolished city. The blue was emergency tarps provided by the United Nations.

It was a surreal site. With the naked eye, we could see clearly the throngs of prospective refugees crammed outside the gates of the Canadian Embassy. Nearby, a dozen soldiers, their nationality a mystery, toss food aid off the back of a military truck into a group of Haitians.

Outside Port-au-Prince, where the population isn't nearly as dense, the destruction was no less startling. Small clusters of homes with lush green yards and small stone walls seemed, at first examination, to be largely intact. In fact, only the roofs were mostly intact, but they lay on the ground, the walls underneath having simply evaporated.

My visit to Haiti was brief and hastily arranged. The Free Press had been invited to accompany Maj.-Gen. Yvan Blondin, commander of Canada's air force, to witness first-hand a remarkable "air bridge" established to supply Haiti with humanitarian aid. Against the odds, Blondin found a way of getting C-130 Hercules planes in and out of a tiny airstrip in Jacmel, on Haiti's southern coast, doubling the number of Canadian aircraft landing each day. It was not my first experience in this troubled country. I visited Haiti in 1996, when Canada was leading a United Nations mission to bring stability to the chronically unstable nation.

Despite the better efforts of former president Jean Bertrand Aristide, there was little hope among Haitians. The police were in shambles. Unable to get their weekly wages with any regularity, those few police officers who did show up for work often communicated their anger by arriving in civilian clothes. They would go out on patrol in rusty Suburbans, with a dozen or so of them packed into the lumbering truck, the barrels of their sidearms pointed out the windows.

After nearly two weeks of patrols and visits to aid projects, it was hard not to feel despondent. The country was barely functioning. There was no reliable provision of water or electricity. Garbage had been left unattended for so long in Port-au-Prince streets, it was not unusual to find entire streets blocked off by metres-high mounds of rotting waste. I was with Canadian peacekeepers when they swept inner-city parks for preying pedophiles, or patrolling the cemeteries where the more desperate among the homeless sometimes moved into crypts that had been emptied by grave robbers.

I have often replayed those images as Haiti moved from one political and economic crisis to another. And while there have been some improvements in health care, education and the economy, the pace of progress seems out of step with the magnitude of the investment by foreign nations.

It is mostly true Haiti has been hurt as much as it has been helped by our best efforts to fix it. From the indiscriminate kindness of countries like Canada, to the more self-interested meddling of the United States, Haiti is a product of all that is good and bad about humanitarian aid.

If there is hope to be found in this horrible disaster, it is the suggestion an event like this is an opportunity to rebuild the country from the ground up. The big question facing the world is what authority will oversee this reconstruction. Haitian President Rene Preval's administration seems woefully unprepared to undertake a campaign of this magnitude. In Washington, there is talk of "a receivership" that might put the reconstruction efforts in the hand of an as-yet unidentified international organization, or coalition of organizations. Canadians familiar with the concept of "co-management" of First Nations know stripping an afflicted people of self-determination is a desperate measure that has no immediate prospect for lasting success.

There will be money, and there will be good intentions. Two trips to Haiti, 14 years apart, suggest to one observer this is the best, but perhaps last, chance for the world to make it right.

dan.lett@shaw.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 8, 2010 A4

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6 Commentscomment icon

I never have and never will believe that giving things works in the long run. The rebuilding must take place with the Haitian people taking a stake in things. We can look in our own backyard, simply giving people housing doesn't mean they will take care of it. A program like habitat for humanity makes people take a stake in their problems. These people care for what they get since they have had to help contribute. A similar program in Haiti would help. Yes we can help them to build hospitals and schools, but have the community involved in planning and building then they will value them.

This is not the last chance to make Haiti right - but unfortunately - because of the earthquake it is probable the best chance to make it right.
The people must be feed - housed and allowed to get back to their lives.
Then the PEOPLE of Haiti must make the government of Haiti understand that things must change - the corruption must stop - the basics of life installed - security (police) - education - economic recovery plans enforced - then and only then will life get better in Haiti.
Sad to say we should not hold our breath waiting for this - it will take a lot more than the worst earthquake ever to change Haiti. I sincerly hope i am wrong.

Nice. You managed to badmouth the Yanks at least once, Ataboy, even though the Yanks happen to be THE largest donor to Haiti and the first in there to help these poor people. Listen, Haiti is, was, and always will be a basket case. What happened to $965 million worth of debt Canada has cancelled? It is in overseas bank accounts. Think about it: A billion dollars and nothing to show for it previous to the quake. We should leave them alone and let the Caribbean States come up with a solution and if it makes sense and we know the money will be used properly then we can ante up.

drek: If it weren't for the journalists, we wouldn't know anything about Haiti. They would then be left on their own, with no Red Cross help, no Telethon, no United Way, and General Population help. It was through "journalism" that I donated to an orphanage, after I had already donated to 2 other sources. So, one trip, by one journalist will bring a lot more aid, than the journalist ever could by himself. Since, I believe, most of us Canadians (Winnipeggers), have donated, large or small amounts of cash; up-to-date reports, such as by Dan Lett, are more than welcome. We don't just "close the book". We still want to know what is happening in Haiti and how it looks. Thanks for the report Dan, and the "aerial shot". And, yes, it looks like a lot of buildings are still standing, though it's only the roof tops etc., as you said.
But, like "drek" said, we would like to know what Manitobans are doing to aid Haiti, and other Manitoba/Haiti stories.

You can raise money all you want, but money alone cannot help Haiti. If Haiti is not allowed to decide its own fate after such a devastating blow, then it can only go back to the way things were before, only worse. Previously to the earthquake Haiti was left relatively powerless as international donors decided how its debt ridden coffers were to be handled. Tell me, what has changed now? Other than a cataclysmic earthquake, nothing.

It would have been better for the WFP to donate the cost of your going over there to one of those orphanages housing refugees.

I am starting to think that the Haiti quake is being viewed by journalists as just a feather-in-the-cap assignment...ask yourself, how many people does it take to change a lightbulb / tell us what is happening in Haiti?

The vast majority of Haiti media people need to stop talking and start doing...maybe you can start, Dan, by rising some money here or writing about the many Haiti-centric stories that are unfolding here in Manitoba.

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