Haiti's disaster of engineering

[nairiporter]

"Haiti was not a natural disaster," says TED Fellow Peter Haas: "It was a disaster of engineering." As the country rebuilds after January's deadly quake, are bad old building practices creating another ticking time bomb? Haas's group, AIDG, is helping Haiti's builders learn modern building and engineering practices, to assemble a strong country brick by brick.

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Comments

[abomvubuso.livejournal.com]

Yes, the virtually non-existent construction standards in Haiti contributed to the devastating effects of the earthquake a great deal. The opposite example would be Chile, where a much stronger earthquake happened, and yet its effects were relatively minor.

[the-rukh.livejournal.com]

It a bit hard to judge that way. Yes, building standards would have saved a lot of people and prevented a lot of damage. But can Haiti do that? Does it have the economy to support a government that can provide regulation? Do we criticize famine in Africa as a fault of not having advanced farming techniques? We seem to often forget, especially n the US, the value provided by the government we are paying for and somehow think it will just happen for free. It takes countries like this who can't afford such a thing to be reminded of the value we get.

[nairiporter.livejournal.com]

I think you make a valid point. Meanwhile, a comparison to Haiti's neighbour, the Dominican Republic, would provide a lot of insight about the differences between having a "smart" government and a failed one. This is not to say that the Haitians should be blamed for that, because there is obviously a complex of factors, historical and political, involved. But still, the striking difference is there.

A similar comparison might be made between Costa Rica and Honduras.