Haiti's myriad problems require bold solutions. Rekômanse a zero.

Posted on Tue, Sep. 30, 2008
Haiti's myriad problems require bold solutions
BY ALBERT R. RAMDIN

Recently, I visited Haiti and witnessed the true scale of the disaster in human terms and physical damage left in the wake of hurricanes Fay, Gustav, Hanna and Ike.
The timing of this string of natural catastrophes -- four hurricanes in three weeks -- could not have been worse.

Following a protracted process that lasted more than four months, it was only at the beginning of September that the Haitian Senate fully approved President Rene Préval's nomination of the economist Michele Duvivier Pierre-Louis as prime minister. She was sworn in on Sept. 6, amid this devastating string of hurricanes and tropical storms.

The challenges faced by Préval and Pierre-Louis are staggering. The sheer scale of infrastructural destruction, economic devastation and human suffering is enormous, and carries with it both short- and long-term implications for that country's economic and political future.

The hurricanes left more than 423 dead, 800,000 people in need of humanitarian assistance, six bridges destroyed and almost the entire agricultural harvest valued at $200 million lost. The international community has responded swiftly to provide much needed short-term aid.

The Organization of American States was one of the first organizations to send a high-level mission to assess the damage, offer assistance and join with the Haitian government in appealing to Friends of Haiti to assist with recovery and reconstruction efforts.

Aid must be well-coordinated

The inter-American community of nations -- Canada, the United States, the Caribbean and Latin America -- has provided valuable relief assistance to the government of Haiti. This effort must continue to address the humanitarian and economic concerns that will confront that nation for years to come.

Strong and sustained international support, including from financial institutions, will be essential for addressing the structural and institutional underpinnings that are conducive to long-term economic and social development. But this support must be coordinated if it is to be effective.

During this period of recovery, the U.S. government's willingness to consider the halting of deportations to Haiti and grant temporary protected status (TPS) for a limited time is welcome. Some 20,000 undocumented Haitian immigrants would benefit from this status, thereby helping to maintain a significant flow of much needed financial resources and food to the hemisphere's least developed country. Haiti will no doubt benefit from this gesture of support, at once symbolic and substantive -- Haitians abroad sent about $1.83 billion home last year, amounting to about 35 percent of the country's gross domestic product.

The solidarity and support from sister countries including Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Peru, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela and the Caricom group have been instrumental in fostering a climate of peace and security. This support will be even more important in the months ahead as Haiti works to jump-start its economic development plan.

Haiti's private sector and civil society as well as its diaspora communities must also shoulder their responsibility and assume a major role in the country's reconstruction through an injection of human, social and financial capital.

Despite its many challenges, Haiti, prior to the ''four-three'' punch was well on the way toward achieving relative political stability and elaborating a plan for development, and had demonstrated significant gains in governance, socio-economic development and citizen security.

Haiti will need a major realignment of its infrastructure as well as its strategies to ensure more effective implementation of policies that can eventually mitigate the impact of natural disasters which, reports on climate change suggest, may become more frequent.

The time for collective and sustained action is now. Failure to act could result in a major loss of the social, political and security gains of the last two years. From the crippling effects of these disasters, Haiti's government, legislators, private sector, civil society and diaspora (with the support of the international community) must make this tragedy into a transformative moment to engineer a sustainable framework for Haiti's future development.

This humanitarian crisis cannot go unchecked. Unless the Haitian government, with the support of the international community, moves forward swiftly with a bold solution, Haiti's progress will be severely hampered and political stability may once more be at stake.

Albert R. Ramdin is assistant secretary general and chairman of the Haiti Task Force at the Organization of American States.





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Of course these problems require bold solutions,but are the haitian politicians ready to implement them?For the country to recover from these devastating hurricanes the government should reform the way the country is administred:write a new Constitution in order to eliminate certain functions that do not contribute to the developpement of the country;reform the public administration of the country,reform the education system etc.

All haitians appreciate the help that the other nations of the hemisphere provide to our country ,but if the international community doesn't do a fair evaluation of the roots of these problems ;then all the good will and help will not solve the problems.The most urgent problems of haiti is the deforestation of the country.The question that should be asked right now is the following:How can we prevent the haitian people of cutting the trees in the country to prevent the erosion that causes so much damages to Gonaives and other cities in the coastal area of the country?It is by offering an alternative to wood charcoal that we will prevent such devastation.

There are natural ressources in haiti that can be exploited to stop the erosion;it is imperative that the international community helps the haitian government to exploit these ressources.By exploiting solar energy, win energy,geothermal and natural gas I am sure not only there will be more jobs for the people ,but also we will restore the environnment and the land will be able to sustain the population.

The second most important solution is the control of the rate of birth.Haiti can not sustain the projected population of 15 millions people in the year 2025.To prevent the famine that would result form this explosion of the population ,the international community should help the haitian government control the birth rate in the country. If not ,the haitian people would not have any other alternative than to emigrate to the dominican republic or to the other countries in the carraibean which could constitute a factor of destabilisation for the region.

I am confident if the international community seizes this opportunity to implement the right solutions to the problems haiti could recover.But the help should be appropriated to the people not to the welfare of a few.