THE Haitian earthquake has produced a catastrophe of biblical proportions. The enormous loss of life being predicted by officials would make it the worst natural disaster of its kind in centuries in the western hemisphere.
The images on television show hopeless people with cement dust caked on their faces. We can pray the world will be moved to generosity. However, those who know Haitians know them to be remarkably resilient and industrious. The cruel reality is that if you are poor in Haiti and you do not hustle, you die. Haitian migrants in Brooklyn, South Florida and elsewhere are extraordinarily hardworking, clever and kind. The trouble is, in their homeland they are not given half a chance to prosper.
Before the hurricanes, flooding, mudslides and earthquakes that have befallen Haiti in the past decade came the man-made disaster. Ineffective political institutions, a predatory state, corrupt and venal politicians, and a weak civil society have conspired to wreck Haiti's western third of the island of Hispaniola.
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You can literally see dysfunction from space: satellite photos of the island that Haiti shares with the Dominican Republic show the denuded hillsides on the Haitian side of the border. Muddy hills routinely swallow up Haitian hamlets because the state does not have the wherewithal or the interest to keep villagers from stripping the hillsides of trees for fuel. You cannot pay anyone in this hemisphere less than you can pay a Haitian for an honest day's work. But you do not see capital rushing into Haiti, because corruption and an ineffective state make it extraordinarily difficult to do business there.
What a difference the rule of law makes: Haitians' gross domestic product per capita was $US1300 in 2008, while their Dominican neighbours attained a rate six times greater. The lack of enforced building codes in the capital city is evident in piles of broken rubble today; while few undeveloped countries' structures could withstand a quake of the magnitude that struck Haiti, shoddy, unsupervised construction has exacted a terrible price.
As it has before, the world will rush to help Haiti, with the US and a handful of other countries taking the lead. Since 1994, the US has spent about $US3 billion ($3.27 billion) in development assistance in Haiti, funding feeding programs and trying to build a bare-bones state. International development banks and others pledged billions more in aid.
However, the delivery of support has been sluggish, and much of that past investment was squandered in the vain attempt to prop up the corrupt and self-destructive regime of Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Since 2006, President Rene Preval has shown some progress in delivering political stability that has encouraged some private re-investment.
As the Obama administration responds to this crisis, it should learn from past experience in Haiti and elsewhere. After past disasters, Haitians rebuilt on unstable hillsides. Drawing on experiences in Central America in the wake of hurricanes, it is possible to conduct topographical surveys, impose building standards and adopt other routine practices to mitigate the damage of future catastrophes. Haiti should be a global responsibility, and an international fund and donor co-ordination mechanism should be established to assess and prioritise needs; pool and integrate donations; track pledges; encourage joint ventures and public-private partnerships in the absence of an effective state; and recommend transparency measures to all donors to help ensure that aid reaches those who need it and helps build a better Haiti.
The US and other countries that are home to the Haitian diaspora should engage these communities and involve them in rebuilding the country and infusing its economic and political institutions with the concepts of teamwork and social responsibility. These countries might also consider extending tax benefits to encourage charity and incentivise private capital. The international community should help Haitians run their own affairs.
Encourage the formation of a government of national reconstruction and unity. National assembly elections scheduled for February 28 should be conducted under international supervision as soon as practicable, perhaps in concert with the presidential election due this year.
Even Haiti's wealthy are struggling for survival. Although they will, no doubt, fare better than their poorer countrymen, at least in the next few weeks they will experience the gut-wrenching desperation that has bedevilled the lives of Haiti's poor. Perhaps some sense of solidarity or even charity will come from all this, and Haitians will learn to pull together like never before.
Roger F. Noriega, a senior State Department official from 2001 to 2005, is a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and managing director of Vision Americas. This article first appeared in the AEI's journal The American.
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