The Caribbean and the World has been watching in horror as Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, struggles to cope with Tuesday’s calamitous earthquake. I have previously written about Haiti’s development challenges and the role of the international community in providing assistance, but this recent disaster has me reflecting on other issues. The tale emerging from Tuesday’s earthquake is a complex mix of intractable vulnerability, bizarre morality and hope.

There was a concern on the part of many I spoke to whether the percieved sloth of the humanitarian response would compound the tragedy. Yesterday, the BBC reported that though there was already a mass of aid on the ground, and though it wasn’t far from many desperate people, that none of it seemed to be getting to them. One camp is two minutes from the airport, but no aid or doctors could be seen. The assistance was backed up in the capital’s airport, as road conditions don’t allow getting that aid out. Many people I talked to seem puzzled as to why aid agencies, charities, and governments could not have foreseen these kind of problems. After all, Haiti is no stranger to humanitarian assistance.

Haiti’s infrastructure was poor before the magnitude 7 earthquake. Of course roads would be blocked after such an event. People had various suggestions. Chief among them were road clearing equipment, all-terrain vehicles, and heavy-duty helicopters to move supplies to different areas of the city. But the delay, and the impatience with the delay, seemed all too familiar. In humanitarian emergencies, assistance does not reach those in need quickly enough. I also began to wonder what structures are in place to monitor whether, and how quickly, countries are living up to their pledges of financial assistance. What is certain is that the international community needs to become more agile and effective when preparing for, and responding to, these kind of emergencies.

Another important issue is how people’s worldviews shape their perception of disasters. Many people are shocked by the twisted morality that’s led some to claim that this tragedy occurred because Haitians are poor–or even cursed (Pat Robertson, this one’s for you).

This is not the dark ages.  There are both planning and geological reasons that explain why this quake was as devastating as it was. Hispaniola sits on a boundary between two tectonic plates. These plates are moving in different directions, and this movement may produce earthquakes that affect neighboring countries in the not-too-distant future.

It has also been argued that the ‘poverty and hardship’ which Haiti had continually endured produced a poor security climate which did not facilitate close study of ground movement and its potential impact. On top of all this, it is unclear the extent to which building codes envisaged buildings robust enough to withstand such an event, or even if these codes were enforced. Not even the U.N. building was spared. The mayor has previously said that 60% of the capital’s building are unsafe in normal circumstances. Whether due to lack of capacity, or corruption, regulations in poorer countries are often not as stringently enforced as they need to be. It is not that ‘bad things simply happen to poor people.’ Bad things happen everywhere, whether it is Australia’s bush fires or hurricane-battered Florida. The difference is that the poor are more adversely affected by bad governance, and poverty makes it hard for people to remove themselves from danger or recover when disasters occur.

But never mind all this talk of  tectonic plates and building codes! Pat Robertson opined that disaster unfolded because Haitians made a deal with the devil to free themselves from France’s colonial heel. Fortunately, his comments have been swiftly condemned. “It never ceases to amaze me that in times of amazing human suffering somebody says something that can be so utterly stupid,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said. Reacting to those comments, one very frustrated Haitian woman I spoke to admonished Mr. Robertson to release Haiti from the deal, easing the tense mood in a local donation centre.

Lastly, the coexistence of profound resignation and powerful optimism is striking. The resignation should be familiar. People continue to say: “Oh, it’s an ‘act of God’ what can we do?” There is plenty you can do. One of the things I am fascinated by is the extent to which social network sites like Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter have been way ahead of the conventional media in providing information and reuniting people.

Google reports that since the quake, there have been over 15,000 status update per minute that contained the word ‘Haiti.’ Like many Caribbean islands, Haiti has a huge and interested disaspora. And it is Haitians from all over the globe that have not only been providing vital information, but also been at the forefront of advocacy around the provision of aid. New technologies have been a conduit for information exhange between far-flung people. By providing information to the ‘mainstream’ media, they have also been inverting the relationship between traditional news packages and user-generated content. Many have been watching updates of friends and acquaintances notifying everyone that their loved ones are safe (or tragically, that they are not). These networks provide an unfiltered look at what people and organizations are doing to help. Get on, and find out how you can help.

Few doubt that in pursuit of political stability and a better way of life for its people, Haiti faces a steep, uphill struggle. Where there is far less consensus is whether, and the extent to which, Bill Clinton’s appointment as the new U.N. envoy to Haiti will advance this agenda. The debilitating impact of prolonged despotism and major hurricanes on Haiti is well-worn territory.

In contrast, one of the most interesting and underexplored aspects of this development, has been the divergence in reaction to the appointment. While some commentators and Haiti advocates have sharply criticized Mr. Ban’s choice, the throngs which recently greeted Mr. Clinton on his visit there confirmed his continued popularity in that part of Hispaniola.Upon reading one A.P. report, I almost thought they were talking about Bono. Or better yet, Haiti’s native son Wyclef Jean. It described a scene where, ‘Shrieking girls clamored to have their photo taken with the former president and men pushed their elderly mothers through the crowd for a chance to shake his hand.’  This enthusiasm has its roots in several factors. Perhaps the most critical was his role in returning Jean Bertrand Aristide to power in 1994 after President Aristide was ousted in a coup three years earlier. Additionally, the Clinton Foundation has been undertaking important health care initiatives in the country for years.

Unsurprisingly, Mr. Clinton has received decidedly less adulation outside Haiti. One pointed critic, Jeremy Scahill, paints quite an unflattering picture of the Clinton Administration’s activities in Haiti. His informants allege that Clinton tried to stall the return of Aristide for as long as possible. Moreover, it was not actually Aristide that was returned to Haiti to much fanfare, but Aristide-lite. As a condition of his return, Aristide was forced to undergo an ideological transformation and take a range of economic policy decisions which badly hurt the most vulnerable in Haitian society.

Political stabilization and democratic development will be very difficult, if not impossible, without a vastly improved economic climate. Watching the footage that is shown in the great majority of stories about Haiti, you get the impression that there is no  real economic activity occurring. This is not the case. It’s just that the type of economic activities being carried out do not create enough jobs, and pay people enough, to allow many Haitians to escape poverty. Randall Robinson, a long-time  advocate on behalf of Haitian causes, recently told Democracy Now that Haiti needs capital investment to enable it build infrastructure and foster agricultural expansion. Mr. Robinson was adamant that the country does not need any more investment which only seeks to take advantage of the desperation of its people and operate in an environment where minimum wage or environmental regulations can be ignored. While it is early days yet, it is not clear from the pronouncemnts being made how Mr. Clinton will succeed in generating this kind of investment.

With the presence of such sharp differences in perspective on Mr. Clinton’s Haiti track record, at least two questions spring to mind. Firstly, is there a greater range of opinions among Haitians regarding Mr. Clinton’s role? Secondly, why haven’t concerns over his administration’s involvement in Haiti been more widely reported outside Haiti?

Photo by lepiaf.geo

Many people think of pristine beaches, reggae, soca, colorful clothing and a generally more relaxed pace of life. And who could really blame them? The aforementioned is undoubtedly is true. However, the Caribbean cannot be reduced to just these things. This region is complex and incredibly diverse. This complexity has emerged from the melange of many different peoples which now inhabit the region and call it home.

While no newspaper could ignore big news stories such as the impact of Allen Stanford’s legal troubles on Antigua, the seemingly endless turmoil in Haiti and the integration pains the region is tackling, the everyday lived experience of Caribbean people often goes unexplored. I hope to present just these stories, and much more.

Again, welcome!