After 2010 earthquake, Haiti, global community failed to build back stronger | Guest Opinion
David Vanderpool
Wed, January 11, 2023
As we mark the 13th anniversary of the 7.0 earthquake that devastated Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Jan, 12, 2010, many people still blame that catastrophic tragedy for the economic woes and violence plaguing Haitians today.
However, neither the earthquake, nor the lack of full recovery are solely at the root of its current ills.
Haiti has long dealt with corrupt political leadership and a lack of foresight in building the country’s infrastructure, but it was on an upward trajectory before 2010. While the devastating death toll — more than 200,000 people died — and healthcare needs rightly took precedent in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, it was what came next that really prevented Haiti from making any sort of recovery.
Much has been reported about the billions of relief dollars that never made it into the hands of needy Haitians or the non-governmental organizations — NGOs — working on the ground to aid in recovery. Most of what was used properly went toward immediate, short-term needs, rather than being invested into rebuilding the country’s infrastructure. This is where the real failure lies in Haiti’s current conditions.
The earthquake was a jumping-off point to determine Haiti’s future. It could have been a time of advancements in development, but instead, marks the point since which it has seen nothing but decline. Yes, there was world involvement in aiding Haiti, but those involved were not doing the correct things for development and infrastructure while there.
We must find a different approach to development than just throwing money at a crisis. Otherwise, when the next crisis comes — and Haiti has seen more than its fair share — the country and its people will be no better off.
Development is hard work and takes a long time. We have failed Haiti in not convincing its leadership of its value. If you compare Haiti to Chile, for example, you can see the difference such an investment early on would have made. Santiago was struck by an even-stronger earthquake than Haiti’s that same year, but there was significantly less loss of life because so many of its buildings had been constructed to U.S. earthquake standards — a mark of wise leadership making long-term decisions to invest in development and infrastructure. Chile has continued to experience earthquakes regularly, but is able to grow and thrive because of the resiliency development brings.
Yes, Haiti has a difficult history of corrupt political leadership, but we in the international community must own up to our own failures in helping Haiti to recover from the 2010 earthquake. While we were focused on emergency needs after this devastating natural disaster, we should have also been working with Haitian leadership — which, at the time, was strong — in encouraging investment in infrastructure.
In addition, we should not have allowed international peacekeeping forces to have been withdrawn when Haitians were unable to protect themselves. The resulting chaos, terrorism and starvation are a result of errors among the international community, including the United States, one of Haiti’s closest neighbors.
We must do more to help Haiti restore the progress made before the earthquake, but, more than that, to make up for our failures that fueled its ongoing decline.
The earthquake 13 years ago was a precipitous event, but it in no way shoulders all the blame for the Haiti of today.
David Vanderpool M.D., is a surgeon who leads the international nonprofit, LiveBeyond. He has lived and worked in Haiti since 2010 providing clean water, nutritional support and healthcare to the poor of Thomazeau, Haiti. LiveBeyond’s hospital offers surgical, maternal delivery and general medical services. Its school provides educational opportunities to the neediest children and a demonstration farm offers agricultural education to local farmers to improve crop production.
Haiti, rudderless with no elected leaders, needs our help — and also to help itself
| Opinion
DIEU NALIO CHERY/AP
the Miami Herald Editorial Board
Wed, January 11, 2023
Alarmed and clear-eyed Americans have said that they are fighting to preserve the foundation of our democracy. In fact, across most of the country, save Florida, they voted that sentiment in November’s general election.
Sure, last week’s near-brawl over the election of a Republican speaker of the House showed another crack in the illusion that our democracy is a well-oiled machine. But, there still are guardrails, a structure and institutions to protect the U.S. Constitution.
Imagine if those guardrails didn’t hold, as many feared on Jan. 6 2021?
What few barriers, what little structure to which Haiti clung have disappeared. Starting Monday, the terms of Haiti’s final 10 elected senators expired. Because of Haiti’s failure to hold timely legislative elections in October 2019, the last tier of the 30-seat Senate is resigning, leaving the nation without a Parliament.
Bereft of officials
The nation, with a population of 12 million, has not a single elected official. There is Prime Minister Ariel Henry, but he was named by President Jovenel Moïse, who was assassinated in July 2021.
According to an article by Miami Herald Caribbean Correspondent Jacqueline Charles: “Now, for the first time since the adoption of the 1987 Constitution . . . there are few constitutional entities in existence beyond the struggling, ill-equipped Haiti National Police, a reconstituted army and the court of auditors and administrative disputes, whose members’ 10-year mandates are also nearing expiration.
“There is no functioning electoral commission; no functioning Supreme Court, no constitutional court. There is not a single elected official in the entire country of nearly 12 million people — not a council member, not a mayor and certainly not a president.”
This is new-level dystopia, even for Haiti. And we in South Florida should care, for the state of the nation and, especially, for the people surviving under such desperate conditions. This latest deterioration of law and order and structure should further inform our understanding of and empathy for the waves of Haitian migrants seeking entry and asylum here. What impacts Haiti eventually affects South Florida.
Haiti, effectively, has completed it slide into becoming failed state, with both Haitian leaders and the international community watching it happen.
Who will help?
“The worst it’s ever been,” Georges Fauriol, a Haiti specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., told Charles.
After all, according to the United Nations, violent gangs rule the nation, in charge of roughly two-thirds of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
For a country that has withstood, barely, military takeovers, rigged elections, a cholera epidemic spawned by U.N. peacekeepers, an unlikely earthquake — 13 years ago Thursday — in which 220,000 people died and the murders of judges, journalists and, last year, a president, the situation has never been this bleak, experts say.
It’s almost impossible to grasp the enormousness of Haiti’s challenge.
Prime Minister Henry announced a start of an electoral process in a speech on Jan. 1 to commemorate Haiti’s 219th anniversary of independence from France. How likely elections will come to pass is anyone’s guess.
Haiti needs a hero and a miracle. More urgently, it needs other countries’ help boosting its beleaguered national police. Still, international help can’t fix this without the guidance of Haitians, from politicians to civil-society groups to, yes, gang leaders, who should take the lead in rescuing their country.
DIEU NALIO CHERY/AP
the Miami Herald Editorial Board
Wed, January 11, 2023
Alarmed and clear-eyed Americans have said that they are fighting to preserve the foundation of our democracy. In fact, across most of the country, save Florida, they voted that sentiment in November’s general election.
Sure, last week’s near-brawl over the election of a Republican speaker of the House showed another crack in the illusion that our democracy is a well-oiled machine. But, there still are guardrails, a structure and institutions to protect the U.S. Constitution.
Imagine if those guardrails didn’t hold, as many feared on Jan. 6 2021?
What few barriers, what little structure to which Haiti clung have disappeared. Starting Monday, the terms of Haiti’s final 10 elected senators expired. Because of Haiti’s failure to hold timely legislative elections in October 2019, the last tier of the 30-seat Senate is resigning, leaving the nation without a Parliament.
Bereft of officials
The nation, with a population of 12 million, has not a single elected official. There is Prime Minister Ariel Henry, but he was named by President Jovenel Moïse, who was assassinated in July 2021.
According to an article by Miami Herald Caribbean Correspondent Jacqueline Charles: “Now, for the first time since the adoption of the 1987 Constitution . . . there are few constitutional entities in existence beyond the struggling, ill-equipped Haiti National Police, a reconstituted army and the court of auditors and administrative disputes, whose members’ 10-year mandates are also nearing expiration.
“There is no functioning electoral commission; no functioning Supreme Court, no constitutional court. There is not a single elected official in the entire country of nearly 12 million people — not a council member, not a mayor and certainly not a president.”
This is new-level dystopia, even for Haiti. And we in South Florida should care, for the state of the nation and, especially, for the people surviving under such desperate conditions. This latest deterioration of law and order and structure should further inform our understanding of and empathy for the waves of Haitian migrants seeking entry and asylum here. What impacts Haiti eventually affects South Florida.
Haiti, effectively, has completed it slide into becoming failed state, with both Haitian leaders and the international community watching it happen.
Who will help?
“The worst it’s ever been,” Georges Fauriol, a Haiti specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., told Charles.
After all, according to the United Nations, violent gangs rule the nation, in charge of roughly two-thirds of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
For a country that has withstood, barely, military takeovers, rigged elections, a cholera epidemic spawned by U.N. peacekeepers, an unlikely earthquake — 13 years ago Thursday — in which 220,000 people died and the murders of judges, journalists and, last year, a president, the situation has never been this bleak, experts say.
It’s almost impossible to grasp the enormousness of Haiti’s challenge.
Prime Minister Henry announced a start of an electoral process in a speech on Jan. 1 to commemorate Haiti’s 219th anniversary of independence from France. How likely elections will come to pass is anyone’s guess.
Haiti needs a hero and a miracle. More urgently, it needs other countries’ help boosting its beleaguered national police. Still, international help can’t fix this without the guidance of Haitians, from politicians to civil-society groups to, yes, gang leaders, who should take the lead in rescuing their country.
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