Are You There, World? It's Me, Haiti...

Six months ago, the region around Port-au-Prince, Haiti was rocked by a titanic earthquake, which leveled buildings, cut essential services, crippled the government, and killed over two hundred thousand people, leaving five times that number homeless. Aid and assistance came in from all over the globe, as the plight of the Haitian people touched hearts and minds everywhere. For a brief moment, Haiti was central to the world, not just the Caribbean Sea. Tent cities were erected to house the homeless, food and water were shipped in continuously, and medical staff from everywhere converged on makeshift hospitals and clinics to treat the wounded.

Now it is six months later, and while rubble has been cleared and some semblance of normalcy is slowly returning to everyday life in Haiti, the problems still remain. Infrastructure -- what little of it there was -- is still in bad shape. Tents dot the landscape, as permanent structures have yet to be built. Hospitals are still crowded. Jobs are scarce. The Haitian government still seems afflicted with the same torpor.

The grand promises of the United States and other nations, in the form of aid money and expertise to help get Haiti on its feet again, are not materializing quickly enough, and where groups and organizations want to make inroads on the critical problems of creating proper water supplies, consistent waste management, and adequate housing, the Haitian government seems incapable or unwilling to act. Six months in, and the average Haitian is still struggling to survive, living in refugee conditions in their own country, clinging to hope and not much more.

There is a unique opportunity here, to rebuild Haiti in such a way, as to make it more self-sustaining and prosperous. It as if the earthquake has provided a blank canvas for the world to work on, and here is the chance to put theories to the test. Earthquake and hurricane resistant housing could be built, to minimize damage from catastrophes. Sewer systems and water purification plants could provide clean drinking water and sanitation to everyone. Solar power could be used to provide everyone with clean and cheap electricity. A fiber-optic network could be constructed, to give Port-au-Prince the latest in communications capabilities. Between construction and operation of these systems, jobs would be created, and the tourist industry could be revitalized. Finally, the poorest members of this proud nation might be brought up from the depths of their poverty, to share in the wealth that is available.

Such a revitalization would be a draw for global businesses, bringing badly needed investment and jobs to an island with few natural resources. Proper business and tax law would ensure that Haiti remained attractive to business and commerce, while supplying it with the revenue necessary to maintain and expand on the systems that promote growth. In essence, Haiti could be an incubator for new ideas and concepts in business, infrastructure development, renewable energy generation, and telecommunications. Investment would allow the government to properly fund the school system, assuring future generations the education require to work in the wider global marketplace.

Maybe this is all a pipe dream, but the potential is there, if only someone or some group will seize the reins and drive it. Haiti deserves no less for the depredations it has suffered over the decades. It is time for the world to make good on its promises.

Death Comes To Haiti

Haiti: a small island nation in the Caribbean Sea, sharing that island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic. A former French colony which threw of the yolk of Imperialism to gain independence, and then spent generations struggling to create itself. A poor country, ravaged by poverty, lack of services, political corruption, and hurricanes. And now, it suffers the gross indignity of its position on the boundary of the North American and South American crustal plates, by being shaken by a magnitude 7.0 earthquake, leading to death, devastation, and despair on a scale even larger than that left in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, and possibly worse than the Asian Tsunami of 2004.

This small, struggling, often destitute nation has been an afterthought in a hemisphere of afterthoughts. The Caribbean is more known as the destination of cruise ships and sun seekers, than a collection of small, struggling countries and colonies, dependent on tourism and their meager exports to maintain themselves. Haiti is certainly buried by its larger neighbors to the south, unable to compete with Brazil, Venezuela, and Argentina for the attention of the First World. Except of course, when political strife or natural disaster strike.

All disasters before pale in comparison to the fate that befell Haiti at around 5:00 PM local time on Tuesday, January 12th, 2010. At that moment, strain built up by decades of slow grinding of one tectonic plate against another was released in a spasm of energy rivaling the full complement of nuclear weapons on the Earth in power. The shock of the release surges through the crust of the planet, sweeping out in all directions, but the brunt of that energy was borne by the nearby island, specifically near its capitol, Port-au-Prince. In one moment, the earth surged and bucked and swelled, and poorly constructed buildings collapse in great numbers, trapping tens of thousands under tons of rubble, filling the streets with frightened survivors, and crippling an already underdeveloped and overwhelmed country.

This disaster is a combination of the worst parts of 9/11, the Asian Tsunami, and Hurricane Katrina, for beyond the death toll is the sheer destruction left in its wake. Power severed, communications cut, water nonexistent, hospitals either collapsed or swamped with the wounded and dying, government crushed under the weight of its own buildings, and even the United Nations forces buried in the rubble. The sole major airport in Port-au-Prince damaged, left without the means to operate properly, the port smashed into wreckage and made unusable.

Given the magnitude of events, the response must be on an even greater scale, but there are serious problems to surmount, and time ticks away. After 72 hours, those trapped in the rubble who remain unrescued or even unfound, will start to die, adding to an already horrific toll. The scenes show thousands of people, with little or nothing left, tearing at bricks, concrete, and steel with bear hands and any implement they can find, desperate to help those who remain pinned beneath the rubble. Aid organizations already in the country have exhausted their supplies, and can only make due with anything they can scrounge until help arrives, help slowed by the destruction of infrastructure and the lack of proper facilities for handling the massive flood of people and material required.

One cannot help but feel their heart break, to see the suffering and misery, and be unable to simply scoop these pour souls up, feed them, house them, and mend their wounds. That we could all simply drop what we are doing and run to the rescue is a dream, but we must do what we can. We must do our human duty, in whatever way we can, whether it be money, supplies, or manpower, and help this nation. We cannot, however, simply help them now and in the coming weeks. If anything good can be said to come of this, it is the idea that not only can we help these people through their time of fear and need, we can actually help to repair and improve and bolster this formerly disregarded nation, to make it better, to give its people a better chance to live a decent life, and to provide them with the means to help themselves in the future. We must not abandon this opportunity when it becomes inconvenient; this disaster is the direct result so many previously missed opportunities. If we are to prevent this from happening again, we must not simply prop Haiti up -- we must help it move forward.