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An earthquake, a tsunami, flash-flooding … news trickles in of major disasters devastating countries all over the world and the west opens their pocket books.
Ten dollars here, twenty-five there, our expectation is that people and organizations in control of the money will put it to good use and, perhaps by magic, a wrecked country will stand on its own two feet in the near future. Our desire for immediate gratification gets the best of us, but money isn’t magic. It takes a lot more than a few commas in a bank account to improve the world. Americans alone gave $2 billion to charities in the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti.
NPR reporter Carrie Kahn commented on the situation.
“One year later, much of that money remains unspent, and criticism is mounting that the international aid response has not moved fast enough to alleviate the suffering of the earthquake survivors,” Kahn said.
In an interview posted by GOOD Magazine, CU’s Matt Jelacic, an expert in sustainable housing for displaced communities, shed light on the hold up.
“I think it’s pretty clear that the government has been ineffective in establishing the protocols necessary to recover from the earthquake—which isn’t surprising when you consider what was in place to begin with, and how much was destroyed in the quake,” Jelacic said.
Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere; 80 percent of the population lives in poverty. While there has been positive growth in Haiti’s GDP happening over the last five years, the country was in a devastated condition even before the earthquake. There is, and was, widespread unemployment. Of those who do work, two-thirds work in agriculture, which leaves very little access to the skilled labor required to rebuild.
It is easy to think: Haiti needs new buildings, new homes, clean water, and food. All true, but those things don’t spring out of the ground on a sunny day. It takes organization, planning, accessibility, infrastructure and laborers to build, and re-build a nation. Haiti didn’t have a solid foundation of growth and improvement before the earthquake; through what channels should the money now flow?
While we need to hold aid organizations accountable, we can’t dump 2 billion plus dollars into the hands of a country that doesn’t know how to build well, to develop well, or to repair well and expect to see homes and office buildings pop up like a magical bean stalk.
If we rely on throwing dollar bills toward a situation and rebuke those entrusted with our dollars for not working fast enough, we are ignoring the real issues. It takes time, patience, innovation and hard work to rebuild. We should refuse to band-aid over the deeper problems. The rebuilding of Port-au-Prince will take a lot longer than a year or two.
Smaller non-government organizations and faith-based organizations have done a great deal of the dirty work, and a lot of them are doing it in a way that supports continued growth. That should be the focus of our efforts and our money.
Darcie Nolan is an undergraduate student transferring into the CU School of Journalism and Mass Communication. She is also a co-founder of Eye See Media, a recognized “top 7 international venture.” www.eyeseeonline.com.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Darcie Nolan at Darcie.nolan@colorado.edu.
