Sunday, January 24, 2010

Haiti earthquake.

So $57 million was raised and there are plenty other assistance being sent to Haiti from around the world. In total it'll amount to around 1 billion US.

The best that can be hoped for is to have Haiti's people stabilized and back to what will then be normal day to day living of no better than they had prior to the earthquake. This in no less than nine months. The reason for no better is simply because of the mindset of the Haiti people.

Poor building construction is not likely going to change much in a rebuild, And it is the poor building construction responsible for the large majority of deaths.

With hurricanes a more common threat, temporary (tent) or mobile shelters (trailers) are not the answer either.

It seems clear that the direction to go here is to design and build living quarters that can be mass produced factory style but with specification that can reasonably withstand hurricane force winds and earthquake shaking.

Of course easier said than done. As I'm sure it can be done, but for what cost of designing and building?

And there is of course water and sewage infrastructure that probably should be addressed via building public facilities.

Its about re-establishing basic living conditions that will allow the people to focus on improving their community, by their choice, rather than on continually trying to achieve and maintain the basics.

But they really need to think of is what they want to present the world with, in regards to how the world perceives Haiti. How could they turn it into a vacation spot people from around the world would want to go to?

Things do NOT look inviting even prior to the earthquake.

Perhaps god has stepped in and removed key components of corruption enough to allow improvements to happen.

Time will tell.

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