The problem with dreaming

Haitians may suffer from a lack of basic services like clean water, food and shelter, but one thing they do not suffer from is a lack of ideas flooding into from foreign countries. In fact, the conference business here is booming, with all hotels (even large restaurants) constantly packed with NGO-backed seminars and symposiums to disseminate the future seeds of development. Yet the seeds are often ill-fitted to their environment and the sowing ceremonies in the form of lavish catered ceremonies become no more than excuses for fancy speeches claiming to have the key for improved development in Haiti.

NGOs bring prosthetic technology and expertise to
help many get back to a normal life

A recent (pre-cholera) conference focused on the rights of the disabled in Haiti. Those present included members of the special secretariat for the disabled, specialized NGOs and members of various embassies. The presenters took care to educate the audience on the extent of problems for the disabled in Haiti, and gave examples of work in progress to try to accommodate them. Photos of prosthetic limbs, ramp access, sign language classes all were proof of the good work going on around the country.

The conference was also designed to raise awareness for the rights of the disabled. The UN charter on the subject was referred to as proof of the responsibility of states to care for everyone, not just those considered mentally and physically fit. Everyone should be guaranteed access to education. Everyone should be able to get on a bus. Everyone should have the medical care they need. Who could disagree? The more the speakers painted pictures of special needs teachers and wheelchair access apartments, the more the expectations – and emotions – in the room were raised.

In development, the idea of implanting new ideas or technology is known as “leaping”. The theory is that you can speed up development by providing advanced ideas to developing countries rather than let them evolve towards them by themselves. For instance, by providing modern sewing machines to a Haitian garment factory, you will make them more competitive and successful. No need to force them go through the same trial and error methods that Western Europe went through during the industrial revolution. If this works for factories, there seems to be no reason why you cannot also provide enlightened ideas on human rights and achieve the same leaping effect. For instance, by promoting the rights of women, countries stand to gain quickly and widely. Empowered women are more likely to have smaller families, earn incomes and educate their children. But to what extent can you push the rights of other groups like the disabled?

According to the conference speakers, disabled rights should be extended as far as possible. After all, Haiti is a signatory to the UN convention on the rights of the disabled. To ratify this, a bill is before the Haitian senate to guarantee accessibility to all vulnerable peoples. After some research, I discovered that this bill contained the following sections:

II-2-10: The state guarantees all handicapped people access to health care, housing and all levels of education.

IV-2-24: All rented housing must be handicap accessible

IV-4-29: All national transport is to be handicap accessible. Those accompanying handicapped people are to travel free of charge.

Inter-city "Tap-Tap" Transport

Consider for a moment the context in which this law is being tabled. Haiti’s education system is mostly private with few curriculum standards. Over 1M people are homeless after the earthquake and many houses are weak structures of brittle bricks, corrugated iron and plastic tarps. There is no such thing as “national transport”, and private transport is mostly made up of “tap-taps”.

Yet the speakers went on and on. A government official dreamed about future designs of buildings to have ramps so that all Haitians can also enjoy theatres and cinemas. But there was no mention of the fact that the capital has no real sidewalks, let alone a working theatre or cinema. A member of a Latin American delegation spoke of the need of financial assistance for those who care for the disabled. This in a country with no social security system of any kind. Another mentioned the need to have quotas for businesses to employ mentally handicapped people. Hardly an option when unemployment is greater than 60%. The conference was closed with thunderous applause and flurries of colourful brochures.

Now, I’m hardly the person to condemn discourse on human rights. But I think this is a clear case of lack of consideration for the overall context. Haiti’s public sector is buckling from demands on it to change laws, approve projects and adjust resources. Additional expectations can put the government in a tough position where they have to appeal for more funds to spread over an increasingly wider, and less coherent, set of goals. A better approach would be to encourage the government to create a solid set of manageable objectives which can be prioritized and delivered upon.

Needless to say, identifying and implementing the proper objectives is full of difficulties. But understanding that there are trade-offs is a good start. We all recognize ethics and we all recognize justice. But we also recognize the reality of capacity and the need for compromise. Challenges need to be defined honestly and objectives made realistically.

So let’s start with the basics. Children need to get schools. Schools need to get teachers. Health clinics need doctors. Investors need to create jobs. In a country with the highest maternal mortality, illiteracy and unemployment in the hemisphere, these are already formidable challenges. No need to complicate things with kneeling buses for the moment.

Happy Haiti

Since all you're seeing in the media are pictures of cholera patients, hurricane flood damage and election protests, we thought it would be nice to share with you a different face of Haiti. Happy Haiti.

A few weeks ago we had the chance to visit a remote island off the south west coast. After a beautiful car ride through the lush countryside we arrived in the port city of Les Cayes. It was the first place we had been to outside of the earthquake zone which meant no rubble, no pancaked houses and no tents. From there, we hopped on a small motor boat with an outboard engine that used all of its might to push us slowly towards Ile la Vache.

We passed fishermen in dug-out canoes and crabtrabs bouyed by plastic bottles. We also passed young boys free diving for lobster far from shore. And then we arrived. The beautiful beaches and pristine water welcomed us to our weekend home. The pictures speak for themselves!

A glancing blow still stings

A man waits with his belongings in his flooded home during the passing of
Hurricane Tomas in Leogane, Haiti. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

All in all, Haiti was spared the worst of hurricane Tomas over the last 48 hours. The storm took its time in arriving and constantly flip-flopped from being considered a tropical storm or hurricane (though it finally settled on the latter). While the south-west and north were struck with heavy winds and rain, Port-au-Prince was just got rain - and less than expected. Even so, many areas have flooded and six people are reported dead. The country is now trying to coordinate a response to reach those who have been cut off. The UN and government estimate an initial response cost of $14M.

For Tania and I, it was an eerie feeling to experience the anticipation of a hurricane. We both stayed at a house where all of her colleagues live, which is adjacent to a large camp that the NGO serves. Not being able to sleep on Friday night, I spent an hour on the balcony looking up at a thick blanket of shadowy clouds sliding over the city. The rain was light. If my mind hadn't been picturing the internet satellite views that I'd been glued to all day, I would have thought the sky to be a familiar comfort of a Vancouver winter evening. But knowing this was likely just a teasing first view of the storm, I focused on every tree rustle, every rain burst, to try to detect "the real beginning" of the terrible Tomas.

But it didn't come, and I soon went to bed convinced I would hear any significant activity before the worst arrived. When we all got up again at 6am, the rain continued - a bit stronger now - but the wind was silent. By late morning, the sattelite showed that the storm was as close as it would get, about 200km away. Morning turned to afternoon, and still the winds remained calm. By evening the rains picked up again, strengthening to a downpour at about 3am. This was the trailing blow of Tomas, who has since made a slow decline as it heads into open ocean tracking North East.

In the end, the camps in the capital area were spared the tent-shredding winds that were feared. But all that rain amounted to significant flooding in certain coastal areas. Many camps are now filled with mud which will takes days, if not weeks to dry out. And the stagnant water may prove to be an added boost to an already tenacious cholera outbreak that has killed more than 400 people.


It is now Sunday afternoon. The sun is out and music is blaring on the streets of our neighbourhood.
Life goes on. Thanks for all the concerned messages over the last few days!

(Photos from TheJournal.ie)

Red Alert for Tomas

Haiti has just notched up it's alert system to the highest level - red - for the oncoming hurricane which is expected to hit the south-west coast of the island on Friday. The earthquake affected area is closer to the capital, which may yet escape the worst of the winds, but it will certainly receive a lot of rain (min 50cm). Historically, this has caused mass flooding in the Port-au-Prince area. Of course, the area is particularly sensitive because of the cholera outbreak and the 1.3M people living in camps. For most camps there is no real damage prevention strategy (beyond extra tie-downs for tents, clean up of dangerous objects, etc) since the set-up is so vulnerable to begin with. Instead, NGOs and the government are already planning the response which will include food/water distribution, medical care and clean up. We'll post more information here as we get it.