...Risk analysis 1 Intro The world community reacted promptly after the unprecedented disaster in Haiti and thanks to the intentions of many donors or agencies a big amount of money was initially pledged and disbursed. The $5.5 bn that was pledged for the first two years following the earthquake and the additional $9.9 bn which likely to be pledged over the next decade, gained the impression that the country would be rebuilt efficiently. Nevertheless, the progress that has been noticed up to the present has not fulfilled the expectations neither the donors nor the Haitian government and their citizens (Benoit 2012). Even if there is a strategic planning process which is being implemented sufficiently, the Government of Haiti and the agencies who act on place will face some risks. The potential sources of risks that likely to be faced are financial, political, operational - environmental, social. The following table represents thoroughly the potential risk sources, the impact that these will have if occur as well as other details like the likelihood of an event to occur. For instance, the disappointment of donors might lead to a reduction of the amounts that they have committed to fund. Actions like this would be extremely unfavourable for the country due to their impact to the entire strategy plan. Moreover, it is obvious that Haiti, geographically, is placed in a sensitive area. In August 2008 the country was struck by destructive hurricanes and none can predict...
Words: 820 - Pages: 4
...Haiti earthquake of 2010 was the “perfect disaster”. To what extent is this statement true? Haiti, one of the anomalies in the Northern Hemisphere, being that it is amongst the world’s poorest countries. Having 32% of its GDP relying on remittances is just an indicator of the dire situation Haiti has struggled to deal with. On a scale on 1 to 10, when 10 is the perfect disaster the 2010 earthquake in Haiti would easily rate 9.9. Its dire economic situation along with decades of government mismanagement and its precarious geographic location all adds to Haiti being a perfect disaster. A perfect disaster criterion is that the preconditions of the country were dismal including an unstable government and an ailing economic situation, a large ratio of humans were killed, and on top of that the post-disaster response would be slow and inadequate leading to the country not being able to recover quickly or at all. Before the 2010 earthquake Haiti had a bad reputation for corruption, in 2008 Haiti was ranked 4th most corrupt country in the world. Due to the corruption, the little building codes Haiti had were not correctly enforced because of fraudulent officials being paid off with bribes, enabling construction workers to cut corners creating unstable buildings with no earthquake resistance. This meets the criteria of a perfect disaster by having dismal preconditions with corruption integrated with the way of life. As any other typical LEDC, Haiti had very poor urban planning largely...
Words: 1447 - Pages: 6
...Haiti Quake of 2010 On January 12th, 2010, Tuesday afternoon, a fierce earthquake struck Port-au-Prince, Haiti causing a crowded hospital to collapse, leveled countless dwellings, and brought even more suffering to a nation that was already the poorest and most disaster-prone in its hemisphere. Haiti has also gone through multiple previous natural disasters. When Haiti was a French colony, French historian recorded many earthquakes. In Port-au-Prince in the year 1757, one earthquake was so big that only one stonework building hadn’t collapsed. In 1770, the whole city of Port-au-Prince collapsed due to an earthquake according to Moreau de Saint-Mery. North of Haiti, Dominican Republic, and the Sans-Souci Palace, other towns were demolished from an earthquake on May of 1842. An earthquake with a magnitude of 8.0 hit the Dominican Republic and made Haiti shake on August of 1946, producing a killer tsunami that took the lives of 1,790 people and injured others. The Haiti earthquake of January 2010 consisted a magnitude of 7.0, that occurred local approximately sixteen miles from Port-au-Prince with 8.1 miles as its depth. Occuring on blind thrust faults connected with the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault system. There is no evidence of surface rupture. Recorded in Port-au-Prince on the Modified Mercalli scale, there was intense shaking connected with intensity IX. The earthquake was a result of a rupture of the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault that was locked for 250 years...
Words: 3568 - Pages: 15
...Hope for Haiti? On January 12th, 2010, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck ten miles from Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince, plummeting the already poorest country in the Western Hemisphere completely to the ground (Huttes 1). The Earth shook violently for 35 seconds, “walls rippled as if they were made of liquid,” and Haitians ran out onto the streets screaming, thinking the rapture had arrived (Woolley 41). Within days, millions of dollars of foreign aid flowed into Haiti, but every day remained a struggle for survival. 230,000 Haitians were killed instantly, morgues soon overflowed, and the stench of flesh contaminated the streets. The death toll grew so large that corpses were hauled to mass graves to be buried with hundreds of their fellow countrymen. Identities were lost forever, and hundreds and thousands of children were orphaned and left homeless. The scale of the disaster was massive beyond comprehension, and foreign aid reached only small fractions of the population. The outside world began to ask, “What would it take to rebuild Haiti?” More importantly, “What would it take to remove Haiti from their 200 year pattern of poverty and failure (Smith)?” Throughout its history, Haiti has constantly depended on foreign aid, especially from the United States and France. Today, over two years after the earthquake, they’re still in great need of assistance. We as Americans owe it to our resilient Caribbean brothers to lead them to a prosperous and thriving future. While helping...
Words: 2540 - Pages: 11
...Haiti, just like any country in the world has its vast history that influences what it is today. Haiti is unique because of its regional, historical, and ethnicities. Haiti has its many firsts compared to many nations: it is the first country in the Caribbean that got its independence, the first post-colonial nation that is predominantly black, and the first one that got its independence through slave rebellion which was successfully staged. Moreover, Haiti is the only country in the Caribbean who uses French as its official language. However, with this historic “firsts”, Haiti remains to be a nation where development seems to be too elusive. The purpose of this brief paper is to for me to assist in providing you a bird’s eye view of the entirety of Haiti as a nation from its discovery until today. In December 5, 1492, Christopher Columbus discovered the island of Hispaniola which we now know as Haiti. The Spaniards gave a third part of Hispaniola to France in 1697 and the latter called it Saint Domingue which later became known to be the richest colony in the world. However, it is the most cruel where half a million slaves were starved, beaten, and buried alive for petty offenses. Because of this cruelty, a black rebellion ensued in 1791 which triggered the civil war. Five years later, the chaos ended through the efforts of Toussaint L’Ouverture, a doctor and military man. However, in 1802, slavery was again introduced through the Convention of Paris, triggering more revolts...
Words: 2341 - Pages: 10
...Paul Farmer: AIDS & ACCUSATION Paul Farmer’s mission to educate the true causes of sickness and poverty, about the connections between political economy and human suffering is admirably addressed in this powerful book. Haitians stricken with AIDS in the late 1980s in the tiny community of Do Kay. Farmer explains how local knowledge and personal reactions to illness are connected to larger national and global forces, and how the stage was set hundreds of years ago for the misery that is the reality for most people in today’s Haiti. What I must point out is how Haiti is decorated with palm tress and colorful hibiscus flowers. Mountains stand majestically looking down upon sandy beaches and green valleys. From afar it appears as any other island one might encounter sailing the turquoise waters of the Caribbean. Yet, as we draw closer we notice a difference. 5 December 1492, Christopher Columbus landed on a large island in the region of the Western Atlantic Ocean that later became to be known as the Caribbean. Columbus promptly claimed the island for the Spanish Crown, naming it Navidad (Christmas), after his flagship, the Santa Maria. I continue to find several names that Columbus named Haiti upon discovery (Hispaniola and La Isla Hispaniola) which was it? Inhabited with Tainos (or Arawak) people, who called their island Ayiti, Bohio, or Kiskeya. The Taino Indian (or Arawak) inhabitants referred to their homeland by many names, but they most commonly used Ayti, or Hayti (mountainous)...
Words: 1371 - Pages: 6
...Paul Farmer: AIDS & ACCUSATION Paul Farmer’s mission to educate the true causes of sickness and poverty, about the connections between political economy and human suffering is admirably addressed in this powerful book. Haitians stricken with AIDS in the late 1980s in the tiny community of Do Kay. Farmer explains how local knowledge and personal reactions to illness are connected to larger national and global forces, and how the stage was set hundreds of years ago for the misery that is the reality for most people in today’s Haiti. What I must point out is how Haiti is decorated with palm tress and colorful hibiscus flowers. Mountains stand majestically looking down upon sandy beaches and green valleys. From afar it appears as any other island one might encounter sailing the turquoise waters of the Caribbean. Yet, as we draw closer we notice a difference. 5 December 1492, Christopher Columbus landed on a large island in the region of the Western Atlantic Ocean that later became to be known as the Caribbean. Columbus promptly claimed the island for the Spanish Crown, naming it Navidad (Christmas), after his flagship, the Santa Maria. I continue to find several names that Columbus named Haiti upon discovery (Hispaniola and La Isla Hispaniola) which was it? Inhabited with Tainos (or Arawak) people, who called their island Ayiti, Bohio, or Kiskeya. The Taino Indian (or Arawak) inhabitants referred to their homeland by many names, but they most commonly used Ayti, or Hayti (mountainous)...
Words: 1371 - Pages: 6
...William Welch ECS3013 – International Economic Development Professor Bullman Introduction Haiti covers a total of 27, 750 sq. km in the Caribbean between the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean. Bordering the Dominican Republic to the west, Haiti is also one-third of the island of Hispaniola. The mountains in Haiti cause the terrain to be mainly rough and the climate to be semiarid in the East where the trade winds are eliminated. Western Haiti features a more tropical climate. Prominent natural resources of Haiti are copper, calcium carbonate, gold, and marble. The population of Haiti is consisted of 9,801,664 individuals with 95% of individuals being ethnically black, and 5% being mulatto and/or white. French and Creole are the two official languages of Haiti. Regarding religion, the majority of Haitians are Roman Catholic (eighty percent), with the remainder of the population being Protestant, Baptist, Pentecostal, Adventist, Other, or None. A fascinating detail is roughly half of Haiti’s population practices voodoo. The economy of Haiti can be described as a misadventure. Haiti is a free market economy, enjoying advantages of low labor costs and tariff-free access for many of their exports from the United States. Haiti is known for their textile, sugar refining, flour milling, and cement industries. In addition, corn, coffee, sugarcanes, mangoes, and wood are many of the products from agriculture that are present in Haiti’s economy. On the other hand, corruption...
Words: 1611 - Pages: 7
...Why were so many people killed in the Haiti earthquake of 2010? On the 12th of January 2010 at 16:53 local time, a devastating 7.0 magnitude earthquake had struck near Port au Prince, the capital of Haiti. This earthquake was caused by a plate boundary which had not caused an earthquake for 200 years. Most of the primary impacts of the earthquake included; 3,500,000 people being affected by the quake, 220,000 were estimated to have died, over 300,000 people were injured as well as 188,383 houses being rigorously damaged. 4,000 schools were damaged or destroyed and over 600,000 people left their home area in Port-au-Prince and mostly stayed with host families. After the quake there were 19 million cubic metres of rubble and debris in Port au Prince leaving 1.5 million people homeless. This earthquake has suffered for many years being known as one to cause the most wreckage and disturbance, however why did the strongest earthquake that ever hit earth at a richer scale of 9.5 only kill 1655 people compared to Haiti's death rate at 220,000? Port au Prince, being the capital of Haiti unfortunately endured a lot of the wreckage due to the earthquake. Several of the important governmental structures of Port au Prince were destroyed or damaged, including the Presidential Palace, a parliament building and the Port au Prince Cathedral. Most of the city's community buildings were also destroyed. A large amount of the environmental society was in danger due to the fact of buildings and...
Words: 835 - Pages: 4
...Haiti Earthquake of 2010– Vulnerabilities and Resiliency On the 12th of January in 2010 at 4.53 pm Haiti was struck by a massive earthquake that is considered as one of the deadliest earthquakes in the western hemisphere in a century (Chinn, 2011). According to The Haiti Earthquake (2013) it killed 220.000 people, injured 250.000 people and left more than a million homeless. The earthquakes’ characteristics: There are several different aspects of Haiti earthquake that amplified its impact. First of all, Haiti is located on the edge of the Caribbean plate that crushes into the Atlantic plate (The Haiti Earthquake, 2013). This area is known for its tectonic activities as the plates are constantly moving and creating friction between them,...
Words: 1662 - Pages: 7
...Haiti is located in the West Indies and is made up by the western third of the island of Hispaniola, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. This country is about the size of the state Maryland in the U.S. Haiti is two-thirds mountainous, with the rest of the country made up of countless valleys, widespread plateaus, and small plains. Agriculture is the prime economic activity in Haiti. Subsistence crops include cassava, rice, sugarcane, sorghum, yams, corn, and plantains. Most Haitians own and farm small pieces of land throughout the country. The great population density has caused rural poverty and is also a major factor in the country's extensive deforestation, which has contributed to the scarcity of agricultural land. Haiti's biggest exports are light manufactures and coffee; other exports include oils, cocoa, mangoes, sugar, sisal, and bauxite. Haitians' exports are mainly agricultural goods and services: 66% of the population work in agriculture, 9% in industry and 25% in services, yet 28% of the profit comes from agriculture, 20% from industry and 52% from services (CIA, 2010). The United States is the country's primary trading partner. Industry in Haiti consists largely of light assembly of imported parts and the...
Words: 590 - Pages: 3
...Haiti Haiti is about 10,714 square miles big and is about the same size of Massachusetts. It is located on the island known as Hispaniola in the middle of the Caribbean sea where Haiti takes up the western 1/3 of the island and the Dominican Republic takes up the eastern 2/3. Haiti was inhabited by the indigenous Taino people, and later, it was discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1942. Columbus' ship Santa Maria sank on the north side of what is now Haiti. The Spanish quickly learned that Hispaniola was not rich in gold, but a place they converted to be a farming source for them. African slaves were imported to Hispaniola as early as 1504 to labor the sugar, coffee, and tobacco crops. The Spanish started losing interest in Hispaniola and in the 17th century, French pirates purchased Haiti from the Spanish and this is when the island of Hispaniola was divided into two countries. For the next 100 years, Haiti was becoming one of the wealthiest countries in the world with the cheap slave labor and the amount of resources (sugar, coffee, the die indigo, tobacco, cotton, and exotic spices) they were producing. But the foolish Frenchmen got carried away with their slave workers and had a 10-1 free to slave population with almost 500,000 slaves and only 50,000 free men. The spirit of the French revolution affected Haiti and in 1791, a huge slave revolt broke out and a revolutionary war lasted for more than 10 years. Haiti finally gained its independence in 1804 and became the...
Words: 2198 - Pages: 9
...The earthquake that took place in Haiti on Tuesday, January 12, 2010 was a devastating and tragic natural disaster. It was located at 18.457°N latitude and 72.533°W longitude ("USGS- Science for a Changing World"). The depth of the earthquake was 13 kilometers, or 8.1 miles in distance into the ground ("USGS- Science for a Changing World"). This earthquake was not very deep, and fell under the category of a shallow earthquake, which can occur anywhere from 0-70 km from the surface of the earth. In UTC time, this earthquake occurred at 21:53:10, which is the equivalent of 4:53:10 PM local time in Haiti ("USGS- Science for a Changing World"). The main shock of the Haiti earthquake was a magnitude of 7.0 on the Richter scale, which means that a large amount of damage would be expected near the epicenter ("2010 Haiti Earthquake"). According to our notes, earthquakes with this magnitude only occur about 20 times per year. The strike-slip fault system located in the region Haiti is in contains two branches: the Septentrional-Oriente fault in the north and the Enriquillo-Plaintain Garden fault in the south. Both the location and orientation of the Enriquillo-Plaintain Garden fault suggest that the January 2010 quake was caused by its rupturing. The cause of this was that the fault had been locked for 250 years, gathering stress. The rupture was about 60 kilometers long ("2010 Haiti Earthquake"). According to Wikipedia, the earthquake occurred in the vicinity of the northern boundary...
Words: 1286 - Pages: 6
...Efforts to Influence Sexual Behavior of Young Haitian Women: Implications for Addressing the Risk of HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) C Castor Citation C Castor. Parental Efforts to Influence Sexual Behavior of Young Haitian Women: Implications for Addressing the Risk of HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs). The Internet Journal of World Health and Societal Politics. 2014 Volume 9 Number 1. Abstract Background: In 2010, HIV/AIDS was ranked as the leading cause of disease burden in 21 countries including Haiti. Addressing the issues of HIV is complex and associated with the dynamic of personal relationships, which are further complicated by the issues of gender inequality in these relationships. Furthermore, in the Haitian culture, women often fail to have open discussions about sexuality and sexual health and especially the issue of forced sex. This is complicated by the issue of sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV/AIDs, sexually-transmitted infections (STIs) and/ or related health problems with their daughters. Parental involvement is thought to be an effective prevention strategy in behavior change. However, there is limited data regarding the level of parental contribution to sexual education and development of the young females in Haiti Objective: The study sought to determine: Haitian women’s knowledge of HIV/AIDS and STIs; the impact of parental influence for learning about sex, relationships and sexual health of Haitian...
Words: 4142 - Pages: 17
...Abstract Haiti is a small Caribbean country with serious hunger problem for many years. Even in 1980s, Haiti had advanced agriculture and hunger problem was far from this country. However, the local wars and conflicts happened in 1990s changed this. Agriculture was disturbed and hunger problem became more and more serious. It has been the key problem of Haitian development so Haitian government and international society have taken lots of measures to improve this situation. The major international supports were from the US and some EU countries. Plenty of data and reports show that hunger population in Haiti has been reduced a lot. Haiti will be most likely to achieve the Millennium Development Goal pronounced in 2000 by 2015. Hunger: the key problem in Haitian development “Civilization as it is known today could not have evolved, nor can it survive, without an adequate food supply” (Borlaug, 1970). However, the hunger problem troubles a quarter of the world’s population even in these years. The problem of world hunger is serious and has affected economic development in many countries. It is common knowledge that food is the first necessity of people, but to solve the problem of feeding a population of about 6.5 billion is a big challenge to the world. Lindsay (2008) reports that food is in short supply every year because there is not enough to satisfy people’s demand in the impoverished countries. However, food security is the basis of the social development in the world...
Words: 1435 - Pages: 6
