Rebuilding and Redefining Haiti

When was the last time you heard news about the situation in Haiti? While media coverage of the topic has resurfaced recently in regard to a cholera outbreak and the threat of a hurricane, the issue has essentially vanished from the thoughts of most Americans. Here are some numbers to put the disaster in perspective.

Nearly TEN months ago, a 7.0 quake with an epicenter 25 kilometers from a city of 3.5 million struck the Western hemisphere’s most impoverished nation, leaving 230,000 dead, 300,000 more injured, over 1,000,0000 homeless and nearly 300,000 collapsed buildings. Efforts to rebuild have been moving at a snail’s pace since the earthquake struck, and a million Haitians continue to live in camps where the threat of disease and crime is constant. Haiti desperately needs a construction boom, not only to resettle a million of its citizens, but also to jumpstart its economy, which has essentially ground to a halt since the disaster.

The lack of construction since January can be attributed to a number of causes. Firstly, Haiti’s pre-earthquake infrastructure was far from developed. Port Au Prince, the nation’s bustling capital and most populous city, was only just starting to address the issues of poverty and lack of proper infrastructure that had plagued the city for decades, when the earthquake struck. Rebuilding Port Au Prince now entails not only new construction, but also cleaning up the mess created by years of haphazard development. Most of Port Au Prince’s population lived in self-built shantytowns that sprawl across the city’s hillsides. Haiti must avoid returning to the disorganized, shoddy construction methods that failed its populace during the earthquake. Secondly, foreign investment in the nation is virtually nonexistent; most international dealings with the country are on the level of basic aid. Haiti has the potential to be an economic success story, but with the current state of the global economy no one is confident enough in the island nation to invest in its reconstruction.

For all the havoc the earthquake has wreaked on Haiti, it has also provided a perfect opportunity for the nation to start anew. 300,000 structures must be rebuilt in some form or another, so why not make the construction of these Haiti’s defining moment. All of the obstacles aside, Haiti has a lot going for it. Take for one its location in the balmy Caribbean Sea; Port au Prince was once among the region’s most popular tourist destinations; can it capitalize on its prime location and landscape to reclaim this position? In addition, the country has a staggering underemployment problem, and can put its underused labor force back to work. Port Au Prince’s shantytown dwellers have unknowingly, through the resourceful construction and maintenance of their own homes, developed a mentality of recycling materials and an understanding of the Haitian landscape that will prove key to the rebuilding of their nation. Finally, Haiti’s colorful and creative culture offers the potential for the development of an innovative architectural movement that is unique to Haitian issues. With the images of debris and dead bodies strewn in its streets fresh on our mind, it is difficult to see this happening in Port Au Prince, but could the right policies and investments transform the island nation into an architectural masterpiece in paradise?