http://urbanomnibus.net/2010/06/rebuilding-a-sustainable-haiti/ Exploring the culture of citymaking Fri, 10 Feb 2012 12:28:36 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://urbanomnibus.net/2010/06/rebuilding-a-sustainable-haiti/comment-page-1/#comment-23865 Kris W. B. Scheerlinck Fri, 18 Jun 2010 16:37:05 +0000 http://urbanomnibus.net/?p=18331#comment-23865 The almost constant cheering -we always seem to find a reason, be it Roland Garros in Paris or the Football World Cup in South-Africa- contrasts painfully with the harsh daily struggle of thousands of victims to survive after devastating natural disasters, all around the world. Recently, and more than ever, earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis and other recurring floods, ironically combined with extreme droughts, manifest the planet’s desire to stay in control. Unlike this negative spiral of natural violence, the Haiti symposium, organized by the Institute for Urban Design, provided indeed a hopeful vision about the sustainable (re)construction after the earthquake that demolished the already minimal and fragile infrastructure of a huge part of the country. Heartbreaking sentimentality was here replaced by realistic and critical options to ACT, and were discussed from many angles, from the NGO’s point of view, to supra-governmental objectives, from the basic needs of local health care institutions, to desires of international help organizations. Even if we (luckily) did not hear the word sustainability pronounced too often during the conference, the idea did occupy a predominant position in all presentations and discussions of (re)constructing Haiti. Mainly, because of this reason: sustainability is about reducing distances on a physical, social, technological, economical and human level, for which a strong government indeed is conditio sine qua non. Sustainable growth precisely focuses on accurate sets of distances between people, between infrastructures and people or in between available infrastructures: growth as the result of an interactive process between government and inhabitants, with or without the help of NGO’s, whose value undoubtedly is to be found on rather short or medium term planning. I couldn’t help but wonder, are (foreign) NGO’s and long-term sustainability compatible ideas? Sustainable (re)construction is about access, on a long term, to basic housing, to community services, to all levels of education, to an undiscriminated health care system, to setting up local businesses or affordable loans is the main ingredient for sustainable (re)construction. The inhabitants themselves, as well as the local governments should play a strong role in this process of reducing distances. Mind the gap. Let the proper inhabitants be the protagonists of sustainable (re)construction. Ruling out colonial patterns of dependency and weighting in on ad hoc solutions will definitely be a good start. The almost constant cheering -we always seem to find a reason, be it Roland Garros in Paris or the Football World Cup in South-Africa- contrasts painfully with the harsh daily struggle of thousands of victims to survive after devastating natural disasters, all around the world. Recently, and more than ever, earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis and other recurring floods, ironically combined with extreme droughts, manifest the planet’s desire to stay in control.
Unlike this negative spiral of natural violence, the Haiti symposium, organized by the Institute for Urban Design, provided indeed a hopeful vision about the sustainable (re)construction after the earthquake that demolished the already minimal and fragile infrastructure of a huge part of the country. Heartbreaking sentimentality was here replaced by realistic and critical options to ACT, and were discussed from many angles, from the NGO’s point of view, to supra-governmental objectives, from the basic needs of local health care institutions, to desires of international help organizations.
Even if we (luckily) did not hear the word sustainability pronounced too often during the conference, the idea did occupy a predominant position in all presentations and discussions of (re)constructing Haiti. Mainly, because of this reason: sustainability is about reducing distances on a physical, social, technological, economical and human level, for which a strong government indeed is conditio sine qua non. Sustainable growth precisely focuses on accurate sets of distances between people, between infrastructures and people or in between available infrastructures: growth as the result of an interactive process between government and inhabitants, with or without the help of NGO’s, whose value undoubtedly is to be found on rather short or medium term planning. I couldn’t help but wonder, are (foreign) NGO’s and long-term sustainability compatible ideas?
Sustainable (re)construction is about access, on a long term, to basic housing, to community services, to all levels of education, to an undiscriminated health care system, to setting up local businesses or affordable loans is the main ingredient for sustainable (re)construction. The inhabitants themselves, as well as the local governments should play a strong role in this process of reducing distances. Mind the gap. Let the proper inhabitants be the protagonists of sustainable (re)construction. Ruling out colonial patterns of dependency and weighting in on ad hoc solutions will definitely be a good start.

]]> http://urbanomnibus.net/2010/06/rebuilding-a-sustainable-haiti/comment-page-1/#comment-23110 Mala Sorhouet Tue, 15 Jun 2010 00:00:28 +0000 http://urbanomnibus.net/?p=18331#comment-23110 man your have an eye for seeing trough! and makes us see trough as well... man your have an eye for seeing trough! and makes us see trough as well…

]]> http://urbanomnibus.net/2010/06/rebuilding-a-sustainable-haiti/comment-page-1/#comment-23062 james rexroad Mon, 14 Jun 2010 19:39:37 +0000 http://urbanomnibus.net/?p=18331#comment-23062 Great Pictures, Jake! Beautiful. Great Pictures, Jake! Beautiful.

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