5 Years Later, Haiti Still Struggles

We all still remember it; January 12, 2010, a 7.0 earthquake devastated the nation and brought global attention to the disaster. This left 316,000 people dead and forced 2 million to leave their homes. The world was moved by the terrible unfortunate that beset Haiti, and came together in a show of support that ultimately culminated in $10 Billion for relief efforts, which should have been an incredible sum of money that could do incredible things for the nation; but it didn’t.

Five years later, Vice went to Haiti to survive how time has healed it’s battered lands. What they found, was more akin to a band-aid applied to an open wound when stitches were needed. What should have been a country on the way towards a sense of normalcy that was common before the Earthquake, was instead an eye-opening sight: hundreds of thousands were still displaced, and those who built new homes used materials such as plastic which provided little cover for rain and other aspects of nature.

It didn’t end there, as international aid didn’t help when it came to plumbing and fresh water, as there was no running water or power. The Hell the people of Haiti thought would last only a year has now stretched out to five years. To make matters worse, with no plumbing, many have been forced to use buckets as bathrooms, which is deadly and disgusting. Haiti has become home to modern time’s worst outbreak of Cholera. Cholera is an easy to prevent disease, but the sanitation levels of Haiti have become so dire, they can’t shake the disease. But the $10 billion could have helped this, right? Where did it go?

Jake Johnston, representing the Center for Economic and Policy Research, conducted a5-yearr investigation and shared this with Vice:

“In terms of Private donations, most of it goes through emergency response. Clearing rubble, clean water, basic health, food aid. Long-term development aid comes mostly from the donor governments. The US Government, the leaders of the development banks, all had a slogan: Build back better. This was supposed to be different. 10 billion dollars on the table. The big question on everyone’s mind was ‘where did the money go.'”

He continued with this particular gem: “For every dollar that USAID spends, less than a penny actually goes directly to any Haitian organization.” Rather than give the money to local organizations, everything was imported to Haiti. Cement, experts, and construction companies. They had initially planned to build 15,000 houses, but the planned cost jumped from $53 million to $93 million and brought the number down to only 2,600 houses. How can the housing budget jump so high, but the number of houses so drastically drop?

The US Embassy ended up giving out a  contract for over $70 million to build townhouses with pools for it’s staff. Why is this a priority? The International Olympic Committee even thought they could use an $18 million dollar state of the art soccer field/rec center. What does that accomplish for a nation that is so in need of even the most basic necessities?

Now, you might be wondering if there was any work at all done on housing projects, well, enter the Zoranje Housing expo, headed by Bill Clinton. Zoranje is a city in Haiti where showroom companies competed to sell prototype homes. They actually built these model homes to compete for the contract.

But after it became obvious that these prototype homes were not leading anywhere promising, Haitian citizens actually moved into them and created towns. But seeing as these are only prototype homes, once again this area had no power or water. Despite the vast amount of money spent here, they were still living in a hobbled existance, something like living in a town of log cabins. But it gets worse: none of these prototypes ever left the prototype stage.

Debris in the streets of the Port-au-Prince neighborhood of Bel-Air, in the aftermath of the 2010 Haiti Earthquake. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Then there is the Canaan Settlement. You might be thinking that this is another area that has been plagued by outside intervention in the name of helping the rebuilding efforts, but no. The Canaan Settlement grew out from refugee camps, free of “aid” from international sources. Canaan was supposed to be temporary, but it is still going today, and is actually doing better than most other areas of Haiti. Yes, those that fended for themselves actually are faring better, with power and plumbing. They simply used what they had.

Now we will move on to talk about the commune Caracol, in Haiti. A decent amount of money was actually spent here, $300 million, actually. But Caracol wasn’t actually affected by the earthquake, and yet such a large amount of aid was given here, even a $2.3 million dollar police station was built.

When Vice dug around where the funds were going, the company name Chemonics kept coming up as the largest contract holder. Chemonics is a company that works across the world, and yet all costs related to Chemonics in Haiti documents have been redacted.

No one ever asked the locals what they wanted, or even NEEDED. They would want plumbing before they wanted cultural centers and soccer fields. But still the money is spent. But why did Caracol get so much money? Well, it is an industrial park. It has drinking water, which is unheard of, and you may be thinking an industrial park would lead to jobs for Haitian citizens, but only 10% of citizens actually are employed there.

The Haitian National Palace (Presidential Palace), located in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, heavily damaged after the earthquake of January 12, 2010. Note: this was originally a two-story structure; the second story completely collapsed. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

To sum this all up, we shouldn’t be doing FOR Haiti, we should be doing WITH Haiti. After all this time, the situation is still the same, it is a case of failed disaster capitalism, and aid has become for profit in Haiti. In Fact, a leaked document from an ambassador is quoted as saying: “THE GOLD RUSH IS ON.” And if you were to ask Haitian citizens about this whole relief scandal, they will tell you they believe the Clintons are destroying Haiti for their own gain. Haiti does have oil and a large amount of gold, after all. Who is telling the truth? Who is in the wrong? We may never know, but what we do know is that Haiti is still struggling, and though the spotlight has long since shifted from it’s people, know that they are still suffering. But hey, at least they have a soccer field.

Featured Image via Wikimedia