3 years after devastating earthquake, Haiti remains in fragile state

Jan 3 2013

"On the eve of the third anniversary of the earthquake that devastated Haiti in January 2010, the country remains in a fragile state," a New York Times editorial states. "Billions of dollars in aid and lofty promises to 'build back better' have brought it only so far," but "[a] recent article by Deborah Sontag of the Times showed, in disheartening detail, the distance between hope and reality," the editorial continues, and recounts a number of challenges highlighted in the article, such as a slowing of flood aid and "the tendency of humanitarian aid organizations to go back to what they had been doing before the earthquake, in areas like sanitation, health, education and transportation."

"The Times article reads like a catalog of missteps, of old mistakes and new ones that together present -- to put the most optimistic spin on it -- fresh opportunities to learn," the editorial states. "A recently announced 10-year and $2.2 billion effort to rid Haiti and the Dominican Republic of cholera by improving water and sanitation will require close coordination among the Haitian government, the United Nations, United States and other partners," the New York Times writes, concluding, "Senator John Kerry, who has paid astute attention to Haitian issues in the Senate, will be well placed to do so if he becomes the next secretary of state. As long as the miseries continue, the need for the world to get this right remains" (1/1).