Rebuilding Haiti: A Cheat Sheet for Yanks…, By Whitney Farmer – Un Pop Culture

April 8, 2010 Whitney Farmer 6 Comments

At an almost hidden steakhouse called Frankie and Johnnie’s, maybe the oldest restaurant on Broadway, scotch and chocolate followed filet and made near strangers want to hear each others’ thoughts. I stayed quiet when a mild swipe regarding not blessed but vapid L.A. intruded, but it was quickly forgiven like stepping on someone’s feet while dancing. Before the gathering shifted to the darkened hotel lobby down the street, a British paratrooper spoke regarding his passion for sustainable energy and the possibilities that were emerging for Haiti. This wounded sister democracy has the attention of the world…

The best and perhaps only good feature about utter devastation is that it provides a clean slate. Haiti is facing this peculiar opportunity.

At a recent donors’ conference hosted cooperatively by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Haitian President René Préval, the immediate hopes of recruiting $4 billion earmarked for the immediate crisis were exceeded as $5.3 billion was pledged for immediate needs with a total of $9.9 billion pledged over the next 3 years. How these funds can be earmarked for use is the question that is compelling world leaders, industry titans, Port-au-Prince widows in one of the refugee camps that are so new that that don’t yet have names, and earnest dinner party guests with college degrees and full stomachs.

There are over 10,000 international NGOs working in Haiti now. World Vision has been there for almost 30 years, and I have supported their work, originally in a cooperative effort with Rotary International in a well-digging program.  Recently, they released some literature that struck me as being very valuable for laypersons to begin to develop an understanding of how efforts can be organized. As with any project planning – whether a skyscraper or a film or a term paper – a structure that incorporates the mission and a realistic timeline can aid in maintaining progress, and using resources effectively and efficiently. All of the ideas that World Vision, (and all entities that are dedicating resources to this effort), is investigating will fall into one of the following categories:

1. Emergency Response (~ 6 weeks): in-country direct service for emergency needs such as food, water, medical care, shelter, and essential supplies;
2. Community Recovery (6 weeks – 6 months): stabilizing resources and services such as policing/protection, rudimentary food and water distribution infrastructures, disease prevention and infection control, education, mental and spiritual health resources, advocacy including sustained civil authority;
3. Economic Development (6 – 12 months): capital resources such as microlending that can lead to sustained and optimal private enterprises;
4. Rebuilding (6 months and beyond): long-term civic projects such as permanent housing, water systems, health clinics and hospitals, telecommunications, energy, transportation, etc.

Haiti can be viewed as an emerging nation rather than one that has sustained a disaster. In so doing, fascinating models of development – rather than re-development – can be a gleaned for wisdom that could apply here.  As in Malaysia, landlines would never be laid in lieu of cell phone technology.  As in South Africa, a telecommunications infrastructure could be installed that would jumpstart multiple industries from education to entertainment. As in the United Arab Emirates, the sea could become a source of drinking water to help the land and economy bloom again. As in post-WWII Japan and Germany, previous military resources can be earmarked for civic development when domestic security is assured.

Haiti has abundant sunshine, greater maritime access than ice-bound Russia, proximity to wealthy neighbors, and a resilient and creative population. For many years to come, humanitarian tourism – like ecotourism – can allow “..a ragtag team of adventurers destined for a shining planet known as Earth…” to figure out if they really can make a difference. It is a question so compelling that Haiti has done the impossible: For at least a time, we seem to be united as the last and most vulnerable has become first in our thoughts.

When Marie Antoinette uttered the famous and fatal line, “Let them eat cake,” she spoke not from cruelty (though she might have been) but from ignorance.  At that time in the French court, when bread became stale, cake would be substituted at meals. It didn’t occur to her that the crisis was one of desperation rather than of optimal choice. She had never experienced deprivation. Following the 7.2 magnitude Easter quake  that struck the northern Mexico/southern California a couple of days ago, there were comparisons on the airwaves between the lesser 7.0 Haitian quake that killed perhaps 300,000 and left a million homeless to this one that killed 2 at last count with minimal damage.  But all the reasons given can be condensed to one: Haiti was built in poverty. Corners are cut because there isn’t another option, and less is done because less is available. In business, it is called constrained optimization. Wealthy countries have had the luxury of more options. Perhaps now, with careful planning and cooperating titans, Haiti can have a less constrained future. Maybe that’s the definition of hope.

Quote of the Blog from Rick Stearns, President of World Vision: “A city of millions has become the world’s largest refugee camp.”

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Whitney runs a rock music club in L.A. She has an MBA and no one cares.