A Long Road Ahead

What progress has been made since January, and where is Haiti now?

Haiti is still in an extremly difficult situation because all the millions of people who lost their housing, belongings, and loved ones are still in the street. I’m not sure that we have even counted the dead properly because there are lots of neighborhoods where the dead are still under the ruble. Usually after two months, a country that has been hit by an earthquake is already in the phase of recovery. We are still in the phase of a relief effort: providing food, water, and medicine. We are not even in the phase where we can get temporary housing for the people who are in the streets or in the camps.

Also, we must think of the funding that is necessary to undertake the incredible process of reconstruction that lies ahead. There is still a lot to be done, and my real fear is of what will happen if nothing is done rapidly enough for all those people who are in the street. The rainy season has started, so they are in the mud. If nothing is done and the level of frustration keeps on getting higher, the situation can turn into something very volatile. There is a need to act more quickly in order to respond to the needs of the people. Also the kids are not back at school; 500,000 schools collapsed, and all the universities collapsed. There are a lot of fragile aspects of the situation. I hope that we will see things moving more rapidly so that we can measure the progress, if any.

How are the Haitian people coping? Are there any cultural, social, or religious elements that made dealing with the earthquake particularly difficult for people?

That’s a very interesting question. It’s the first time that question has been raised in all the interviews I’ve had. The answer is yes and no. On the day of the earthquake, it happened around 5pm, so everyone in the city just slept in the streets, including me. My home had collapsed, and I was trying to get by. Everyone was scared of staying inside buildings because of the repeats and the aftershocks. We had aftershocks almost every day for months, and what you could hear in the evening were religious songs, sung all over the city. People used their religious belief to ask God to save Haiti, and that’s what was repeatedly said in the songs: “Save us.” “Save Haiti.” “Save the country.” The songs were really nice, and it was really soothing, even for me, to hear them.

But in Haiti there are lots of religious sects, mostly Protestant, mostly American. I don’t know, but I’ve heard that there was a religious preacher in the United States who said that the earthquake was the result of Haiti’s having signed a pact with the devil. It was a US preacher who said so, one of those TV evangelists. And it’s been repeated in Haiti by a lot of Haitian preachers: we are paying for something. There has been a big debate because even the Catholic church did not agree to that posture. In a way it’s very damaging to hope; it’s very damaging to the traditional resiliency that Haitians have. At the time some of these preachers were coming with this type of talk, they were booed by a good part of the population, but the belief did exist in places.

We had it both ways: people were going to church—or since most of the churches had collapsed, going around the churches—and trying to regain hope, and others were saying that it was our fault and we deserved it. But where do we go from there? That was the situation, and I think it’s still like that. My personal position is that most of the people were praying for things to change finally.

Has that been a different reaction now as compared to in the past? Is this earthquake any different or similar to previous environmental disasters?

The magnitude of the disaster is just mind-boggling.When I was in Haiti right after the earthquake, I went into the streets, and when you see dead bodies piled in the streets—even a week after, dead bodies everywhere—that’s incredible. It’s something we have never experienced. When I took office as Prime Minister of Haiti, I took office in the midst of four hurricanes. We had 1,000 dead, and we thought it was very, very bad. But 300,000 dead! That says a lot about how mismanaged the country was.

What do you think is most significant on Haiti’s long term reconstruction agenda? How can the nation be better prepared to deal with any disasters that might happen in the future?

Two issues: the educational system and decentralization. I’ve been an educator for part of my life, and I think education is very significant. Rebuilding the education stystem is rebuilding the future of Haiti. Disaster preparedness should start in schools with the kids. They have to know that we are on a fault and that anytime again there can be another earthquake. They have to know that there can be mudslides because of our environment. They have to know that we are in a hurricane path, and they have to know what should be done when there are hurricanes. They have to know how we should care about the environment. These are vital sectors.

But also decentralization is important. Let’s not concentrate everything in the capital any longer. The capital of Haiti used to be called the “Republic of Port-Au-Prince” as a joke because there’s so much concentration there of everything—of government offices, universities, schools, services, banks, private residences, and slums. Everything is there, and that’s why the destruction is so immense. So now is the time for decentralization. That means city planning of the other cities, regional planning, zoning—where should we build houses? What land is for agriculture? What land is for forests? What land is for ports and airports? We need that today.

Do you see these kinds of developments happening from within or with outside help? Is there a role that outside powers can play to help Haiti to reconstruct? What are the limits? What are some areas in which you think Haiti needs the most help?

The situation we are in today—we cannot think of getting out alone. We don’t have the resources, whether human, financial, or material. It’s difficult to come to terms with that, but we have to face reality. That’s what reality is, so we need the international community; we need the donor countries, and we need the bilateral and multilateral institutions like the World Bank and the European Union that already are stakeholders in Haiti. But I think Haitians should be deciding what kind of society they want to build in the future. It’s our responsibility, and I don’t think we should run away from that. If we run away, it’s going to be a disaster, too.

I don’t think any foreign country can know best what’s good for us, but at the same time we need them. We need to find a balance between what our role is and how far we want the internationl community to go because we are very dependent. It’s not that we would like to be—but this is a fact. Economically we are dependent. And we are dependent on the interational community in so many aspects that it would be foolish to think that we can come up out of this on our own courage or faith. You have to be very rational about it. We have to set the plan; it will be much easier if we define our plan. Then the international donors can agree to our plan and go according to our priorities. The priorities today are, of course, job creation in every sector and education, housing, and health infrastructure.

Do you think that the disaster has been misportrayed by the media in any way? Are there certain aspects that you think should be reconsidered?

I think there are a lot of stereotypes about Haiti. One thing that people never talk about—but to me is extremely important—is culture. Haitian culture is vibrant; it’s our identity in all aspects. That’s our best business card, as a matter of fact, and it’s probably the aspect that is least taken into account. When people look at the indicators, the basic indicators of Haiti—GDP, GDP per capita, health, educuation, and everything—of course we are labeled the poorest country in the hemisphere; we are labeled a failed state.

Yet the paradox is that in this country with all its poor indicators, we probably have more creators per square meter. It’s something that is never taken into account. I believe that culture is important. It’s about time that we project a different image so that our perceptions of ourselves and our identity is better known in the world.