Haiti is fast approaching the third anniversary of the devastating earthquake that unleashed a tsunami of rebuilding donations from around the world.
That anniversary will no doubt see a torrent of "what's wrong with Haiti" articles in the global media. Billions in reconstruction aid, and how is the rebuilding going?
Frankly, it isn't going anywhere, and here's an insight into why. We're quoting American Red Cross spokesperson Sandrine Capelle Manuel from an article in the NYT;
We prioritized all the issues and created a consultative group that is representative of the community fabric... and now we need to do a master plan...
Huh?
Three years after the earthquake one of the grand-daddies of all NGOs has spent millions consulting, and is ready to go to the planning stage?
How is such a thing even possible?
They prioritized the issues? A million people lost their homes and a few million more are at risk of food and water shortages. There you go; prioritized in ten seconds. Does it not occur to these people that after three years they should have done something other than consulting and planning?
The same article also quotes a Haitian, Pierre Justinville;
I think we Haitians need to take the wheel.
The think tank here at Falling Downs believes Pierre is right. Send the thousands of NGOs packing. Give every Haitian a shovel and a wheelbarrow. Close the airport so the wealthy expats who live in Miami and Montreal and Switzerland can't come back and interfere.
By the time the next three years roll by, Haitians will have built a thriving self-sufficient country.
And they'll be well on their way to breaking their dependency on the neo-colonialism of the NGOs.
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