Haiti seeks formula to rise from the ruins (News Feature)

By Andrea Sosa Cabrios (dpa) Jan 27, 2010, 9:08 GMT

Port-au-Prince, Haiti - Some say that Haiti's capital should be moved, as happened in Brazil with the building of the new city of Brasilia. Others think Port-au-Prince should be 'closed,' half the population removed and the city rebuilt on a new plan.

It took only 35 seconds on January 12 for Haiti, and especially its capital city of 3.5 million inhabitants, to be turned into ruins. In spite of international efforts, many years could pass before the small Caribbean nation - the poorest in the Western Hemisphere - rises from the rubble.

Two weeks after the catastrophe, the top priorities are no longer burying the dead nor food, although the distribution of food remains a challenge. Now there are 500,000 people in makeshift refugee camps who must be relocated, and the work of clearing the tons of concrete that give the centre of Haiti the appearance of a major war zone has to begin.

'We are in a very fragile country, socially vulnerable,' Jean Mathurin, an economic adviser to the government, said. 'We haven't developed a capacity to avoid catastrophes; this blow may contribute to changing that reality.'

Mathurin has high hopes that the lessons from a tragedy with more than 150,000 deaths can bring about change, and reconfigure Haiti into a nation that is less centralized, with opportunities spread to other regions.

He speaks like a man absolutely convinced of what needs to be done, but it all seems an idealistic dream. A new Haiti would require years of work, billions of dollars and international aid of grand dimensions.

'It is a very high cost,' Mathurin said. '(But) if we want to save lives and make it so they don't have to come back and help us again like in this disaster, somebody will have to bear the cost.

'We have too many people in Port-au-Prince, and other parts of the country have not been developed. Here's where people found hospitals, universities, work that doesn't exist in other regions,' he said.

'Now we have a great opportunity to create services and options for making a living in other parts of the country. Now we have the chance to temporarily close Port-au-Prince, for health reasons, and relocate the population to other regions.'

According to Mathurin, the city was designed for 300,000 people and does not have the capacity to handle the current population. He estimated that 400,000 had already migrated out of the city. The International Organization for Migration (OIM) calculates between 130,000 and 200,000 people have left.

Those who have left probably intend to return. Many will return to Port-au-Prince when they can because the places where they now find themselves have little to offer.

Mathurin said he hoped that the face of the country could be changed within three years, and said the world should support the process of reconstruction.

But talk of reconstruction seems a luxury in Haiti. There are urgent needs: what to do with the people in the refugee camps, with the rubble, with the destroyed economy, on top of the age-old poverty in a country that has suffered years of political instability and misery.

Even the government doesn't have a place to meet. The National Palace, seat of the presidency, collapsed, as did several ministries.

'People are desperate,' OIM spokesman Niurka Pineiro said. He noted that in Haitian culture, 'when someone is from one barrio, he doesn't want to move anywhere else.'

Mathurin is not alone in wanting 'a change of era,' as he calls it. Jordan Ryan, the director of the office of crisis prevention and recovery of the UN Development Program, agreed that Haiti now has a 'unique opportunity' to be better off than before the earthquake.

The government has estimated that is would need a minimum of 3 billion dollars during the next 10 years for the country to be able to function.

In March, the UN will host a conference of donors to coordinate reconstruction.