Comments on: Reinventing Haiti

By: Good Intentions Are Not Enough » Blog Archive » Interesting articles and posts – late January

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 15:47:14 +0000

[...] Reinventing Haiti – Humanitarian.info – Puts forth some issues that should be considered in the Haiti rebuilding efforts [...]

By: Paul Currion

Paul Currion — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 14:40:13 +0000

The only questions being, where do we get enough quonset huts for everybody, how long will it take to get them and put them up, and how much will it cost?

By: Ed Brophy

Ed Brophy — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 00:19:36 +0000

Haiti needs Quonset huts (arch shaped metal buildings) like they used in the Pacific theatre during World War II. Tents are humiliating and imprudent for the weather of Haiti!

Paste these links in for Pacific Island Quonset huts:

http://www.svsarah.com/Non-Sailing/Images/Naha%20AB%20-%20Quonset%20Huts.JPG

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_01uRVP2ENVY/RkDPbfq0jKI/AAAAAAAAAMI/uRYGTgi-puM/AAV+Officer+rec+Hut+1.JPG

http://www.theosophy.ph/images/tsph-quonset.jpg

â€

By: My Development Life » Blog Archive » Building back better or worse?

My Development Life » Blog Archive » Building back better or worse? — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 04:33:44 +0000

[...] Reinventing Haiti [...]

By: Andres Cebrian

Andres Cebrian — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 19:57:41 +0000

Well, most of the times, the slums are in non residencial areas or directly protected. With the urban plan, you get the land reclassification and the real property.

Like you say, we are in a dilemma.

We can limit the plan to set up the urban infraestructures (water, light, gas,…) and “improve” the preexistent houses. If you want read more about this way, i recommend Julian Salas.

The problem is that you dont get space for facilities (schools, hospitals,…), no place for productive areas (the problem in slums isnt only the roof) and u cant get better foundation and structures. For example, to prevent earthquakes……

In other hand, we can stablish a new urban order. Really, the programs of social housing have a big problem : MONEY. The method is complex, and its hard explain it in a couple of lines, but if you pass from houses in 1 floor at houses in 4-5 floors, you get two things : release space to work, facilities, roads,… and new residents. Of course, the old residents stay in the zone. And the houses can be autoconstructed, so you get the training of the people in a job and they can go into the economy of the city. No more exclusion.

Get money by new residents, by new enterprises, the people of slums contribute with his property of the land and his work, so you get near 50-60 % of the cost of the operation.

Anyway, the help of goverments to these operations is totally neccesary. But how you say in your blog, we get NO build back better. We get erase the slum and reinvent the city.

By: Paul Currion

Paul Currion — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 16:39:15 +0000

Andres, thanks for the link. I’m not sure I agree, though, because it’s unlikely that a formal urban plan would include improvised housing – and much more likely that the urban plan would call for bulldozing that house?

By: Andres Cebrian

Andres Cebrian — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 11:49:36 +0000

Just like said Silva, here in Spain a group of architects think that Hernando de Soto is wrong in his suppositions. If u give titles of property, the next logic step is sell that property to the economic agents and go out of the zone, opening way at speculation. De Soto is WRONG when he says that the people can get a mortgage with the property. They lose the property and the end, u only have gotten displace the people at other place.

Sincerely, people like Edesio Fernandes or us propose other way based in give the titles of property ONLY once time the urban plan has been approved by the government. That moment the property gets its real value.

A great article about the theme u can get it in this link. http://www.in-ur.es/9ciudades_indice.html

Sadly, the article is written in spanish, but i hope u can take a look. Anyway, u can visit the rest of the web of the Asociacion Integracion Urbana, IN-UR, and see some projects of recomposition that we have drew up the last yeas.

By the rest, great article

By: Paul Currion

Paul Currion — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 10:45:34 +0000

De Soto simply because a) I’m most familiar with his work and b) it’s the most high-profile of the anti-WB approach. I’m happy to consider anything which doesn’t enfranchise the poor…

By: Silva

Silva — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 10:34:14 +0000

Why de Soto? There are so many other ways to reinvent land tenure… de Soto is only one amongst many possible tried and tested ways to really change the land regime (=not necessarely as in the World Bank dream)

By: Haiti Earthquake Issues- A Reader « WanderLust

Haiti Earthquake Issues- A Reader « WanderLust — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 06:07:41 +0000

[...] help Haiti become a better place after reconstruction, check out Paul Currion’s commentary on Reinventing Haiti. NGOs need to start taking some of these more non-traditional approaches to reconstruction and [...]