This week while flying over the island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic, I thought about this reply of Bubbles, the pathetic drug dealer from the underbelly of Baltimore, discovering the affluent area of the same city, home of the ex-wife and the children of the police officer for whom is an informant in the fourth episode of the first season of one of my favorite American television series, The Wire: “I did not know that the border was so thin between paradise and hell.”
For if Santo Domingo is not quite a paradise, nothing is closer to hell than Haiti, forgotten by the media, less than two years after the earthquake with a death toll of more than 200 000, which left more than 1.5 million people homeless, with more than 10 million cubic meters of rubble and nearly $ 11.5 billion in damage.
Admittedly, the whole world was then mobilized and pledged $ 10 billion in donations, including a commission, chaired by Bill Clinton, in order to ensure the best use. More than 20,000 foreigners, representing more than 10 000 foreign NGOs, from various origins and mandates, came running. Seemingly, with some success: economic growth is estimated at nearly 9%.
But in reality it is, once again, a market without the rule of law and chaos remains total, in the almost universal indifference.
First, the Haitian State, already desperately poor, did not rise after the blow. A new president, Michel Martelly wasn’t able to appoint his prime minister last week, that is to say six months after taking office. In addition, on the 10 billion pledged, only two were paid, that is to say less than half of what was expected for the first year; and still: less than 6% of this amount was paid to the Haitian government, the rest remaining in the hands of NGOs, far too many (in some sectors, more than 200 NGOs are doing the same thing) and not particularly transparent (on the 196 U.S. NGOs that are present, having collected $ 1.4 billion, only 38 have agreed to make their accounting records public and only five have agreed to disclose how much they earn in interest on the investment of the donations received and unspent).
Result, hell is still there: 4.5 million Haitians, half of the country’s population, do not get enough to eat; 800,000 are in a critical situation and 200,000 in a condition of starvation; drinking water is lacking; cholera is still there; more than 600,000 people still live under precarious shelters, spread over 894 camps; half of the rubble has not been cleared; ports, power plants, schools were not rebuilt; the rule of law is a disaster: the National Police has not yet been restored, drug traffickers have free rein.
It is urgent, there as elsewhere, to give priority to the implementation of the rule of law, the development of agriculture, energy sources, training and micro-enterprises, the necessary conditions for the return of foreign investments. It is also urgent for the monitoring of major disasters, as on many other issues, to organize the global governance: plan binding measures so that governments pledges for donations are kept, so that the work of NGOs in charge of emergency are coordinated and so that they give as soon as possible their place to others, in charge of development.
Naturally, of all this, almost no one speaks. Until the next tragedy.