Haiti “Doing Just Great” – Report
Posted on | July 20, 2010
A photo of happy Haitian children to help ease your
conscience.
Over six months since the earthquake that left more than 300,000 Haitians dead, a new United Nations report says the Caribbean state is “getting along fine” and that its people are “doing just great.”
The report, which was welcomed by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and other world leaders, confirms the international community has “been largely successful in grasping the opportunity to re-invent Haiti for the better”.
On the streets of Port-au-Prince today, a city effectively levelled after the earthquake hit in January, its inhabitants’ cheerful disposition seems to bare that conclusion out.
Walk down any of the capital’s main thoroughfares you are at first struck by the scale of destruction and debris. But once you get used to that you soon notice something else – smiling faces. Everywhere ordinary people are working together in the spirit of cooperation and hard work.
“By any measure this a remarkable turnaround,” says Joanne Mangan the programme officer for Irish charity Console. “The rebuilding process has united Haitians in a way that politics has consistently failed to do.
“Considering the destruction and tragedy wrought earlier this year, everybody is being looked after and are now living together in peace and harmony. The people who donated money from around the world can stop worrying now.”
On a wooden bench outside a half-built school some children sit alert and laughing, waiting to talk to someone about the miraculous turnaround in their lives. Some yards away French workers who are building the school hand out sweets as they banter with the kids.
Occasionally, aid workers and natives will burst into song as they go about their daily tasks, overwhelmed as they are by the spirit of goodwill. A favourite is the Youngbloods’ paean to peaceful coexistence Get Together.
Marjorie Chassagne (41) lives in a brand new cottage on the outskirts of the city with her two daughters and baby son. Her new home is one of two dozen recently built by Irish bricklayers who arrived Haiti as volunteers in February.
Despite the loss of her husband in the disaster she feels she has regained her health and happiness and looks to the future with a renewed optimism.
“The owner of this land was once an absentee landlord, but after the quake he returned and was happy to donate his property to the homeless families. We met him for the first time last month. He was really moved by what he saw,” explains Marjorie.
“It seems the earthquake has brought out the humanity in everyone.”
Today’s report was commissioned by the UN Council for Aid and Development and its chairman Jan Van de Heffelumpf says everything has gone according to plan:
“I know it may appear to people in developed countries that Haiti rapidly dropped off the media agenda, but there is good reason for that. Namely, that no news is good news…
“So if you feel guilty about not sending enough aid money or forgetting about Haiti’s woes altogether, I have one word for you – don’t. Relax, everything’s going swimmingly here. It’s all good. Thanks.”
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