Does anyone think Haiti will be better than ever?

In the long run. It was the best thing that ever happen to that country.

This can be a great opportunity for the rebuilding (in some cases building) and modernizing of Haiti’s infrastructure. What needs to be rebuilt first is Haiti’s political infrastructure.

Hope springs eternal, but our experience in Haiti has not been good. There is so much poverty and corruption, much of it left over from the Duvalier days, that we can only do so much to mediate. This is not to say we should not try; it would be inhumane to ignore the suffering there, but I don’t expect to transform the country. At best, we can bury the dead, tend to the sick, and try to get basic services working. Excessive involvement in their internal affairs will be toxic to us. I just hope Obama knows when to back away.

It can hardly be worse, but I don’t doubt that it will become another locus to launder money for multinational corporations under the guise of aid.

No chance, the world as a whole doesn’t exactly have a stellar track record when it comes to these “international aid and rebuilding” opportunities I see no reason for that to change here.

At the start everyone has this great need to help but the help typically amounts enormous man-hours and dollars being spent on temporary assistance, with no commitment to or structure for long-term development. Many times these huge up front numbers serve to make people think “ok, they’ve got what they need, I did my part, now back to my life” but state building (or in this case rebuilding) doesn’t work that way. When those initial dollars and efforts are burned through, and that happens quickly because at first the thought is “help at any price” not “how do we make this last, fix the problems, and build on the foundation”, there is little left to sustain the country and the stop gap solutions quickly collapse or become overwhelmed.

Add to that, most of the mind share going to help these people is temporary (overseas doctors, military, rescue workers, contractors, etc…), no one is being trained up to take the place of said people, the government is rife with corruption, and the nation is financially worth only slightly more than the dirt it’s sitting on, among many, many other problems that existed long before this quake and that’s not a good scenario for them to come out ahead.

Granted there will be good things that come out of it, but in the long run, I feel the best that can be hoped for is the people recognizing the weakness of their government in this crisis and coming together to develop stronger and more forthright national infrastructure capable of subsidizing the much needed, long term, socio-economic improvements.

Hmm, I smell Shock Doctrine. I think if any good change will come, it’s with broad education in creol and not french, fair and responsible land reforms, and a social support system.

@oratio Why do you make a point about education in Creole? Has there been an effort previously that tried to reinforce French? Really, in school, it should not matter if it is in French, they speak Creole at home, and I don’t think they really speak it anywhere else in the world, better to learn in a language that has more international use.

It would be great if they had a choice to learn English or Spanish from an early age also (hell I think America should give a choice of a second language at young ages, but it is rarely found here) it does seem that many haitians speak English, maybe that the upper classes there automoatically have it available?

@JLeslie To my knowledge, most people on Haiti don’t speak French but Creole, and that higher education is French only, as are the exams. It seems the French is not only the language of the corrupt elite, but it reinforces the feeling of inferiority of the local culture.

The African heritage is their legacy, and the Haitian Creole belongs to them. They don’t have much to be proud of. I feel that elevating the Haitian Creole instead of being an inferior language would be better than total francofication (sp?) of the whole society. I concur that they should also learn French, but the important thing is making education available.

I agree that if every child learns French early this would not be a problem. You might be right. I don’t know. I guess that’s up to the Haitians. The point is that the system of education must be reformed, financed and be available to the poorest.

@oratio I don’t know much about Haiti, I can only draw on what I know about the US and Spanish speaking countries, and I would say teaching the children proper French is the better way to go. They can still hold onto Creole in their home and local communities. Think about Ebonics (if we even use that word anymore) and sloppy English, every child who speaks crappy English is at a horrible disadvantage in America in my opinion, and sounds ignorant. I don’t really care how politically incorrect that might sound. We should rid our schools of it. My husband speaks Spanish with his family and English at work, no reason that can’t be true with any other language or dialect. No one has to completely give up their language, they just need to be at minimum bilingual, which is easy if both languages are in the schools; this case French in school, Creole at home and maybe even one class in Creole at school, everythng else in French. There might be a problem finding teachers though? I have no idea.

@JLeslie There are great differences though. Since only a minority speak French it would be more efficient to do it in Creole, as everyone speaks Creole already. Shouldn’t their main language be considered first? I don’t know. As I said, you might be right.

@oratio I don’t know. As I said I am not familiar with Haiti. I just think the cildren have no chance if they don’t speak French, it keeps the classes separated, and for sure the elite are not going to change their schools over to Creole I bet. If they are happy with their situation I am not trying to say that we should force a certain way of life on them, but I think better to have a choice.

A good plan is required.