At present 30% of the Haitian civil service are phantom employees who never turn up to work^[1]. Trying to develop big business on the island would just lead to the same people in the government making the money with no trickling down of wealth.

1. ^ http://www.newsweek.com/id/232080

Political participation and a strong civil society are also important. The reason why countries are considered developed is if they can provide their citizens with adequate resources such as healthcare, education and a political voice. These are key in developing individuals who are healthy and free to challenge and improve their own countries. Haiti does not need to attract big businesses, which will do nothing but widen the gap between the poor citizens of the country, and the rich ex-pats who come over from America to run businesses on the island. Government institutions need to be rebuilt. The Ministry of Public Health collapsed, the Ministry of Education collapsed, the Ministry of Transportation collapsed and the Agriculture Ministry collapsed as did the presidential palace. These need to be rebuilt in order to bring some stability.

70% of Haiti is rural. Investment and aid needs to reach the rural areas instead of focusing on cities. Rural communities are generally more united and disasters like earthquakes will bring people together and unite them so the crucial next step is to pump money into local and community projects controlled by the people, not the government. If people can help each other at a local level this will eventually work its way upwards to central government. New schools need to be built to accommodate not only those who lost their schools in the earthquake but also to provide somewhere for the 40% of children who did not attend school before the earthquake to learn. Good teachers need to be attracted from across the Caribbean and North America to help set up these schools and to develop them into effective centres for education and opportunity for a new generation.

piecing it back together or patching it up will leave it even more vulnerable when the next disaster strikes. A new Haiti needs to be built and this does not start with government and big business and industry but with the Haitian people. Rebuilding old government offices may provide some symbolic incentive – a new building and a new way of doing things. There is no point building a new shell and replacing the same old faulty contents.