125 communities of 20K each, scattered north toward Cap Haitien

[SoCalDem]

I wonder if anyone is thinking outside the box.

Anyone who has ever undergone even a minor remodel knows what an ungodly hassle it is to live a daily normal life amid all the chaos, clutter & mess of the demo & construction.. Now magnify that by a million, make yourself poor, and give yourself no access to food, water or money..

and try to clean everything up & finish the job with no bathroom or even a roof over your head.

2.5 million people, most without work, money , shelter or food & water..Probably 2/3 to 3/4 have lost family and or friends, and have to be severely depressed, or even injured themselves.

Haiti is crawling with NGOs, Missionaries & social service workers, and they have been there for DECADES. There IS land.. and lots of rather empty spaces, where these people could be grouped into "towns"..Groups of families willing to start again, in a new place while Port au Prince is cleared of rubble, and a new infrastructure laid out.

The young men of the nation could surely be paid to perform the labor, and they might be happy to, if they knew their families were ina relatively safer place.

It's a given that these people will have to be fed, housed & cared for for a very long time.. Why not try to do it in a sensible way, instead of holding them hostage amid the rubble, while organizations try to help.

These people have NO houses, and the few that are still sort of standing, are definitely not safe. Hurricane season is just around the corner, too.

There are bazillions of shipping containers sitting empty, all over the world. These are a lot more substantial than a tin-roofed shack made from cardboard, or a blue tarp staked in place by rickety sticks.

The NGOs etc could each be assigned a community to care for, and tend to, and as the city is rebuilt, people could start to move back,if they wanted to.

I know how deforested the countryside is, and how many of these people could not grow their own food, but they are going to be eating "hand-out" food, no matter where they are, so why not spread them out, and give them some breathing space, and make the numbers more manageable.?

We have in our backyard, a storage building that cost us very little to build, and I would bet money that it's better & bigger than most of those houses that the poorest lived in, in Port au Prince



http://www.thedailygreen.com/green-homes/latest/shipping-container-homes-460309


http://weburbanist.com/2008/06/01/more-cargo-container-homes-and-offices/


http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/la/good-questions/good-questions-modern-outdoor-tool-and-storage-sheds-los-angeles-079576

[parasim]

1. I was thinking along the same lines as I was checking out sat images of the area...

from GeoEye on Google Earth. There seems to be a lot of open space around.

I know a guy who works for company that builds temporary housing using shipping containers, as you mentioned. Mostly they do government work creating temporary barracks or temporary office space for the military. They outfit them with electricity, water and toilet facilities.

Your suggestion is a very good one, I think.

[SoCalDem]

2. Especially if the communities were mostly women & children

Imagine how tranquil their lives could be ..for a little while at least. They would still get the food & care they would need, but without the roving bands of young men looking for trouble, their lives might actually improve... Kids could go to school, and a percentage of dad's money earned from the rebuilding he was doing, could be available to help the family.

The women & kids could be enlisted to plant ground cover & trees too.... and be taught about land management.

Probably most of the land "belongs" to a few rich families, but this might be the time to just re-appropriate it for the actual citizens of the country./

And a road system would be a necessary byproduct of this plan..

[voc]

3. Excellent Idea!

But that would lead, inevitably, to their independence and that is not the plan.

[Jamastiene]

4. I've been dreaming, actually, for years of buying one of those Lowe's buildings

and turning it into the entrance to my permanent underground tornado/hurricane shelter/home.

Years ago, My aunt had a building/shed made out of lighter wood(hard as stone, extremely flammable pine wood) and telephone poles (cut, to length, of course). She said I could play in it. So I went to town. I installed a floor, ceiling, new roof (it needed it), insulation, electricity and paneling. I didn't know plumbing at the time, so there was no plumbing.

When I finished it, it wasn't overly expensive and it was cozy. I did it one step at a time until it made it "livable." The only time I took two steps at the time was when I put the insulation in. I wanted to get the insulation and paneling up at the same time to end that awful itching.

My aunt got foreclosed on in the early years of the W. presidency. I wish she still had that place and I still had that building. Who knew a miniature shed/building/shack could be turned into a small home that a person could love that much?


I like your idea. If there was an organization with the purpose of implementing this idea, I'd love to do something, anything to volunteer and help. Even the growing food part could create a nice community for them. Even if they couldn't completely live off their gardens, they could still have a local farmer's market and trade with each other. The community could bond and at the same time build their own businesses and get togethers and events.

Quite a few people who have lived in cities would love a little place of their own "in the country" with some breathing room and maybe a garden. They just don't know it yet. It would be the ultimate gift to be able to give someone.

I like your thinking on this.

[LuvNewcastle]

5. K&R

[lostnfound]

6. Very mountainous, minimal infrastructure

The rivers aren't navigable. The communities would be pretty isolated. To be able to feed themselves and have a life, wouldn't they need decades of terracing on the mountains and soil restoration to make it work? I'd guess that the small plains areas are already densely populated. Some of those coastal areas are mangrove swamps or river valleys subject to frequent or seasonal flooding.

[SoCalDem]

8. They are now amid mountains of rubble, w/ no infrastructure

The backbone of my idea is the fact that they are going to need to be tended to NOW..and for a very long time anyway, so why not set out to relocate people who wanted to be relocated...into smaller more manageable communities......well apart from the nightmare of demolition & rebuilding..( that's an opportunity to make WAGES...for the men, and perhaps the childless young women who want to have a hands on rebuilding of a nation experience)

There's no reason why a dedicated NGO could not tend to their charges, in smaller, more woman & child venues... and building decent roads to and from , would be a part of the plan.

No one is asking them to live in a swamp...just a system of many smaller towns, villages, burgs..whatever...extending NORTH, toward Cap Haitien.

[annabanana]

7. I'll bet this idea would sound pretty good

to a lot of desperate people about now.