Chasing the aid-worker’s dollar

So long as the US is still smug about increasing import quotas for textiles from Haiti (reminiscent of the 1930ies if anything), I won't hold my breath waiting for Haiti's economy to improve or become even remotely independent. Not to mention seeing its unemployment rate falling below 50% (from its pre-quake level of 70%) or its politics becoming stable. (Constant poverty is the single best predictor of a failed government.)

If the US wants to provide some credible help to Haiti, it should tell its aid workers to come back home and establish *gasp* FREE TRADE with Haiti.

As in any area of life, some NGOs are indeed flighty. But many have been working in Haiti for a long time, and are likely to maintain their long-term relationship.

I'm sorry to say but the outlook for Haiti seems as likely as the rise of Angola.

Although it seems Haitian economy revives after along period of misery both economically and politically. Isn't it a demand driven short term and only for a small section of the society. For the long term and for the whole society, the Haitian economy needs both supply and domestic demand push up.

This debate has been going on a long, long time in the aid world. Should we be doing things which the governments should do (and let people die?)? How do you build programmes that are designed so that the expats leave as soon as possible? And how do you design programmes that transition from emergency help to rehabilitation in a realistic, do-able way? None of these issues are simple. And, in particular for Haïti, there is NO quick fix. Poverty is grinding. But so is the way out.

I believe that this is helping Haiti tremendously. Hopefully, the income and revenue will help them to build better infrastructure and be more prepared for possible future disasters such as this one. I think that as of now, Haiti needs as much help as they can, and all the donations and people living there are creating a great source of aid. Haiti definitely needs to plan out a better future, and hopefully all this aid will help citizens settle down comfortably and give the country enough money to be able to plan ahead and think about safety precautions that are needed. However, Haiti should be trying to find their own revenue, and not depend on foreigners for this money, because soon their economy might suffer again because it couldn’t grow. The economy needs to be able to support its own people and find its own source of profit in order to be successful.

I believe if there is not any helpful in the unemployment rate, the raising panic there would make people doing something to earn more. Collect as much money as possible since they are worring more about future income.