Haiti: Re-Foundation of a Nation

By Nicolas L. Pauyo

Th is book is one of the fi rst ever published on Haiti after the catastrophic Earthquake of January 12 2010. In Haiti:Th e Refoundation of a Nation we are introduced to the fruit of the authors long refl ection and diligent research on the nature of the Haitian state and its diffi cult evolution through more than two hundred years of history. In it, the author believes that Haitis errors began as far back as 1804, and therein lies the primary reason for its troubles. Th e state has unwittingly underdeveloped the country, thus any solution will inevitably work via the reconstruction eff orts of the state and contribute to the development, at last, of the Nation. Th e earthquake of January 12, 2010, that destroyed Port-au-Prince and all physical symbols of governance within, added to the already existing concept of reconstruction of the Haitian state not only institutional applications, but now also a physical, infrastructural aspect; crafting the state and also rebuilding its house. As it relates to infrastructure, Dr. Pauyo relies on the recommendations of experienced planners, geologists, architects and other scientifi c experts. He believes that it is time we learn to trust these scientists, those with knowledge and experience, and not amateurs or self-taught builders. Despite the challenges posed by the monstrous physical and institutional ruins of January 12th, Pauyos work is a bold endeavor towards discovery. Haiti must fl ush out the erroneous tracks leading her nowhere. Her sons and daughters, welded with the international community, must pave new paths for the full development of this country, and the emergence of a just society and a proud nation!

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: May 18, 2011
• ISBN: 9781463405663

Nicolas L. Pauyo

Dr. Nicolas L. Pauyo came to an understanding of Haitian sociology by following the path of journalism.  A native of Haiti, he spent thirty-five years working for the Haitian press and foreign media, but he has spent his entire life observing the actions of Haitian society and delving into the intricacies of its history.  Dr. Pauyo has personally experienced living among the people in privileged classes and within the Haitian diaspora, and tells us that understanding Haiti by exploring the base of its history including its culture, political mentality, social mobility, and economic setbacks among others,  has always been his passion. Dr. Pauyo began his studies at the Ecole Nationale des Hautes Etudes Internationales in Port-au-Prince, and went on to continue at the City University of New York. He then attended the Universidad del Noreste in Mexico where he received a Doctor of Medicine degree after having conducted clinical studies in Michigan and New York. Dr. Pauyo is a member of several academic societies.  A professor and lecturer, he has participated in many international conferences and symposia on the future of Haiti. Pauyo has authored several books, articles, and documentaries on various issues. His best-known works are “Où Est Allée La Paix?” and “La Guerre et ses Séquelles.”  He writes for Jeune Afrique, El Sol de Tampico, El Manana de Reynosa, Mexico, for many on-line media and for Haiti’s oldest and most recognized newspaper, Le Nouvelliste.

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© 2011 Nicolas L. Pauyo. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 5/11/2011

ISBN: 978-1-4634-0568-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4634-0567-0 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4634-0566-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2011907273

Printed in the United States of America

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and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Crafting A New The Haitian State

1804: -The Haitian State Departed On The Wrong Track

Exiting Wildlife Politics Reforming State Power

Becoming A Nation

Removing The Foreign Yoke

State Authority -In the functional State and in the failed State

Restructuring The Political Parties

The Sixty Years Of The Middle Class

A New Constitution For The Reconstruction

A Constructive Federalism For The Rebuilt State

Governance For The Reconstruction Of The Country

Revolution, Transaction Costs, Game Theory, Democracy And Development In The New Institutional Economics

Reforms Come From Within

Public Administration And Managerial Modes –New Avenues For The After-Quake Haiti

A Haitian Parliament In A Re-Founded State

Justice And The New Haiti

From Insecurity To Peace And Public Order

After The Earthquake

A Better Role For The Haitian Diaspora

Haitian Emigration And Regional Security

Two Ethnic Groups Helping Each Other In The Process Of Reconstruction

Diplomacy In The Aftermath Of The Earthquake

Drugs: -Let’s Shut The Gates!

Summary And Conclusion

Practical Suggestions For Haitian Leaders

General Bibliography

In memory of the three hundred thousand Haitians who perished in the Earthquake of January 12, 2010 and to all those who are left orphaned or homeless by that cataclysm.

To those who escaped the Earthquake only to perish a few months later in the cholera epidemic

To the leaders of the Haitian people.

To the international community who, from the bottom of their hearts, lent a hand to these unfortunate people.

This book is dedicated to my daughter Farah-Mae Pauyo Taylor, my sister Yolette S. Bernadel, my nephew and nieces Stephanie and Fabiola, Franzie and Sanley, my brothers Frantz and Jacques-Walter, my cousin Rosey Pauyo, my cousins from Paris Eder and Félyne.

To Margaret Donat, a pearl in the Haitian diaspora

To Ruth and Jonathan

To Pierre-Edouard Domond, diplomatic historian and a high-sky intellectual traveler; Pierre-Antoine Lespinasse, an excellent economist and longtime friend; Dr. Patrick Gaspard, a political Counselor at the White House; Haitian superstar and Ambassador Wyclef Jean, our neighbor from Croix-des-Bouquets; Lady Blanca Gonzalez, MA, for her love of Haiti; Dr. Roni Deluz, my friend from Martha’s Vineyard; Professor Jean-Germain Gros, University of Missouri; and Dr. Francis Narcisse, the first to inspire the content of this book.

About the Author

Dr. Nicolas L. Pauyo came to an understanding of Haitian sociology by following the path of journalism. A native of Haiti, he spent thirty-five years working for the Haitian press and foreign media, but he has spent his entire life observing the actions of Haitian society and delving into the intricacies of its history. Dr. Pauyo has personally experienced living among the people in privileged classes and within the Haitian diaspora, and tells us that understanding Haiti by exploring the base of its history including its culture, political mentality, social mobility, and economic setbacks among others, has always been his passion.

Dr. Pauyo began his studies at the Ecole Nationale des Hautes Etudes Internationales in Port-au-Prince, and went on to continue his studies at the City University of New York. He then attended the Universidad del Noreste in Mexico where he received a Doctor of Medicine degree after having conducted clinical studies in Michigan and New York. Dr. Pauyo is a member of several academic societies. A professor and lecturer, he has participated in many international conferences and symposia on the future of Haiti. Pauyo has authored several books, articles, and documentaries on various issues. His best-known works are Où Est Allée La Paix? and La Guerre et ses Séquelles. He writes for Haiti’s oldest and most recognized newspaper, Le Nouvelliste.

In this new book Haiti:−The Refoundation of a Nation we are introduced to the fruit of the author’s long reflection and diligent research on the nature of the Haitian state and its difficult evolution through more than two hundred years of history. In it, the author believes that Haiti’s errors began as far back as 1804, and therein lies the primary reason for its troubles. The state has unwittingly underdeveloped the country, thus any solution will inevitably work via the reconstruction efforts of the state and contribute to the development, at last, of the Nation. The earthquake of January 12, 2010, that destroyed Port-au-Prince and all physical symbols of governance within, added to the already existing concept of reconstruction of the Haitian state not only institutional applications, but now also a physical, infrastructural aspect; crafting the state and also rebuilding its house.

P-D FINAL,grey.jpg

The author N-L Pauyo (left) and his colleague Pierre-Edouard Domond

As it relates to infrastructure, Dr. Pauyo relies on the recommendations of experienced planners, geologists, architects and other scientific experts. He believes that it is time we learn to trust these scientists, those with knowledge and experience, and not amateurs or self-taught builders.

Despite the challenges posed by the monstrous physical and institutional ruins of January 12th, Pauyo’s work is a bold endeavor towards discovery. Haiti must flush out the erroneous tracks leading her nowhere. Her sons and daughters, welded with the international community, must pave new paths for the full development of this country, and the emergence of a just society and a proud nation!

Pierre-Edouard Domond

Introduction

Crafting A New The Haitian State

Haiti! I’ve written your name in sand for hundreds of years and the sea always erases it...

René Dépestre

These famous lines written by the great Haitian poet René Dépestre tell us in the clearest manner the fundamental reason why Haiti has always failed during its more than two hundred years of independence. It has failed because its name has always been written in the sand. It is normal that the sea has always faded it away! It is therefore not surprising that even before 2010, many international policymakers have come to believe that Haiti is the graveyard of good intentions. (Haiti, where the best intentions fail, by Donald Steinberg in Le Figaro, February 1, 2010.)

The earthquake of January 12, 2010 that ravaged Port-au-Prince has extremely complicated the situation and exacerbated the clinical setting of this small country. The burst of cholera and Hurricane Thomas ten months later intended to strike the coup de grace. The name Haiti was again threatened. Now nothing will ever be the same in this land. From now on, Haitian history will be referenced in terms of pre-earthquake and post-earthquake, as we referred once to the antediluvian and postdiluvian world, or prewar and postwar Europe. An earthquake ‒it’s the end of a world, the loss of landmarks, an unimaginable shock... The cards are reshuffled in society, says Pierre Verluise. In the same fashion, Laënnec Hurbon writing in Le Monde finds a Haiti, the year zero whereas Pierre-Edouard Domond alludes to a first step on an unknown road.

January 12 will have marked the end of a world or a system in Haiti and the emergence of another system. Will the Haitian Phoenix be reborn from its ashes? The UN Conference on March 31, 2010, where nearly 10 billion dollars was pledged, is a step in the right direction as far as the future of Haiti is concerned, knowing that Haiti was expecting an envelope of only 4 billion.

The Challenge Ahead

According to the Constitution of 1987 the Haitian state is defined as the set of three Branches: Executive, Legislative and Judicial and their multiple agencies. The Haitian state is a set of institutions duly sanctioned by the law of the land. Haiti as a territorialized state is a sovereign, independent, cooperatist, free, democratic and social Republic. It is the state that has been prevailing in the Haitian history since Independence in 1804.

But despite all the epithets, the state has not responded to the wishes of the Haitian people. Therefore, until recently, that is to say before the disaster of January 12, the Haitian intelligentsia unanimously demanded a new state for the country. These scholars coupled with Haitian citizens shouted from the rooftops that the Haitian state was a failed entity and had resigned its power. There was, at that time, only one aspect of the state to rebuild. Today, however, this intelligentsia, plunged into distress and perplexity, finds that the state to be rebuilt not only includes the institutions of law, justice and governance, but also accommodations for massive physical state infrastructure. The fact is that, after the disaster, the entire state is parallel to every Haitian national forced into the city streets, newly homeless. What is new in 2010-2011 is this: we are charged not only with the task of rebuilding the state, but also reconstructing its dwellings.

How do you get Haiti, A Diamond in the Mud, out of the mess? "(title of the last book of Charles Joseph Charles.) Why so many friends now? How long will it take for the job to be completed? Who will taste the prime fruits of the new harvest? What are the barriers we must anticipate and overcome? What must be done for the reconstruction of Haiti to benefit Haitians? What will be the share for the foreigner who has helped? Will it be power? Will it be influence? Will it be resources? To begin with, what negotiating power does Haiti have?

A Day of Judgment

January 12 in Haiti proved to be a day of reckoning. In the blink of an eye everybody was lined up to pass through the front court of history and the doomsday of nature:

1. The former colonists (the French) and other invaders because they plundered then abandoned Haiti while continuing to mistreat it after they had imposed an astronomical debt upon its neck for its independence.

2. The French again, who in 1749 founded Port-au-Prince on an angry geological fault, coupled with the Haitians who made it the country’s capital.

3. The Haitian Government, especially that of François Duvalier who carted so many people into Port-au-Prince during his political carnivals simply for these brave peasants in rags to shout "Vive Duvalier!" (Long live Duvalier!) and pose for a nice publicity photo demonstrating to suspicious foreign powers that the leader was at the height of his popularity.

4. The more recent governments that have failed to rectify the situation and decentralize the capital, a necessity they themselves had been advocating. They massively failed to put in place institutions that would enforce building codes and immediate emergency rescue after the hecatomb. The shoddily built houses, schools, markets, hospitals and the like, and the main state buildings collapsed pitifully.

5. Foreign powers and the major donors who initiated anti-state policies and financed structural adjustment programs, and sub-contractors who have drained the peasantry to Port-au-Prince without investing in the provinces, created a fertile environment for the proliferation of slums and the accumulation of nearly 3 million people in an ebullient Port-au-Prince so that they come to die under the rubble. These same powers were pointing at their neo-liberal facelift whose outcome was the destruction of the agricultural market. The Haitian population was then forced to rely on agricultural pèpè (substandard agricultural) goods whose depots would be once again in Port-au-Prince.

6. Finally, the political parties (since we must close the list) that have shown themselves beneath the expectations of the people and their suffering.

The War of Reconstruction Plans

In the weeks following the disaster, we have read at least a hundred articles written by academicians and the best known specialists in Haitian affairs since Christopher Wargny or Regis Debray to Jeffrey Sachs and Jean-Germain Gros. We have also paid close attention to studies by Haitian geologists and those of major international observatories in order to discover the shortcomings of each sector. There yet we found the imprint of the foreigner who has abused the Haitian environment; we also found the connivance of the sons of the country that have turned Port-au-Prince into a Tower of Babel by accumulating three million people on an angry geological fault, a fault which had already manifested in 1751 and 1771. By doing so, Haitians have given the coup de grace after the irresponsible, coward and ignoble job of the settlers and recent invaders. Because of all the above, the certainly inevitable disaster has come to have the effect of a thermonuclear Armageddon.

That is the mistake we should not waist our time seeking, that is to say, which should not, at this crucial moment, dominate our mind and spirit while the earth continues to slip beneath our feet. Instead we must seek the remedy, to borrow from Henry Ford. This remedy is the reconstruction of the Haitian state with its three powers and at the same time the physical reconstruction of the country. Unfortunately, the plans are numerous and often they reflect conflicting interests. Some investigators found that disasters of this magnitude nourish the super big business and enrich the mega-companies. The Foreign businessmen rush to Haitian doors to be the first beneficiaries of the mega contracts. As Georgianna Nienaber put it, they are Mercenaries opposed to Visionaries (title of an article on Haiti published in the Huffington Post on March 17, 2010).

First the Americans had their Plan. Former President Clinton developed a plan following the postulates of the eminent Professor Paul Collier. It would be only a matter of making a few changes according to the new and cruel reality created by the great earthquake, as stated by Ms. Hillary Clinton, the Secretary of state present in Port-au-Prince soon after the hecatomb. Haiti already had a Programme-Cadre de Réforme de l’Etat: Modernisation Administrative et Décentralisation, 2007–2012 known as The Framework program. The new American Plan was nothing more than an actualization of that previous tool. The characteristic with all the US and Funding institutions is that they all seem to favor money as if funds were enough to reverse social and structural phenomena. Funds do not make democracy. Humane reform of institutions does.

The French also submitted their Plan. Expecting to fill in 400 years of solitude (in the words of Debray) Nicolas Sarkozy brought his agenda to wrest the former French colony from its unhappy fate. He is the first French President to set foot in Haiti since the Independence of this country in 1804! Sarkozy now in Haiti wanted to recall and internalize the painful moments that we look across without questioning them (Speech of circumstance).

The Dominicans led by President Leonel Fernandez presented a Plan of 10 billion dollars over 5 years. Lula da Silva before transferring power to Dilma Rousseff came, and offered 100 millions. Michelle Bachelet of Chile wanted to make a pledge even without knowing that an earthquake of higher magnitude was awaiting her in her own country. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has not failed to respond to the cry ... He eagerly organized a conference.

The litany is long of international leaders and their share of the huge roadmap. This is why, in a burst of cynicism, Castro Desroches could write in the January 29 AlterPresse that Haiti has become the geometric place of all the miseries of the world, a place of pilgrimage for retired politicians and philanthropy missionaries ... With the January 12 tragedy, Haiti offers a golden opportunity to actors in international politics to voice a last claim or confirm a humanitarian internationalist vocation. Dr. Ricardo Seitenfus before being put aside by the OAS, was brave enough to emit a disturbing truth: I think there are too many doctors at the bedside and the majority of these doctors are economists. But in Haiti we need anthropologists, sociologists, historians, political scientists and even theologians. Haiti is too complex for people who are in a hurry. Nobody takes the time nor the taste to try to understand what I might call the Haitian soul.

The Haitian Diaspora has also presented various versions of a reconstruction map. In most cases they request between 15 and 20 billion over 20 years. Mr. Dumarsais Siméus, powerful industrial and former presidential candidate, flatly asks for a tutelage of Haiti. He requested 66 billion over 20 years. The Haitian Foundation for the Integral Development of Latin America and the Caribbean (FONHDILAC) wrote an excellent plan but wants the Reconstruction to be done rather the Haitian way making very little room for the international community, while its 10-year project is to cost 40 billion dollars.

As for President Préval who was invited by President Obama in the White House on March 2010, he presented what he simply called The Plan, a plan of 14 billion dollars, a vision of paradise reconstruction of Haiti, a plan ultimately judged by the press to be rather idyllic, for which the American President insisted that Haiti must first save the million and a half victims who are sleeping under the rain before designing a paradise. Such Plan was a revised version of Haiti: A New Paradigm devised one year before by the international community and the Haitian government. Obama was still committed to ask Congress for 3 billion for reconstruction. Conference donors of March 31, 2010 have finally marked the tone for the beginning of the works although more than a year after only an insignificant part of the pledges has been disbursed.

The business sector, who allegedly suffered a loss of US $ 5 billion, proposed a 2020 Horizon. The Haitian intellectuals of the interior have also displayed their projects. Erick Dunois Cantave is given credit for his sound Recommendations to rebuild the nation-state on a more rational, more modern, stronger basis, and recreate hope. But he also wants to stay away from the foreign powers in the reconstruction. What is remarkable is that the good analyst does not even say the amount he needs for the project. The group of Reginald Boulos and Sauveur Pierre-Etienne also was quick in designing something.

So, everywhere, throughout what is beginning to be called the humanitarian battle one discovers a missing link. We see discord, crocodile tears, compassionate hypocrisy (as Peter Haski put it) as well as differences in perspectives, and competition for leadership. We see conflict, greed, as if in the wake of the mega-drama Haiti had become a cake to be cut among the friendly powers, the ruling classes, and the traditional big eaters. The new gospel has only one name, Supremacy of the Market. Fortunately, whoever reads meditatively can discover through these writings ‒certainly improvised‒ some common denominators:

1- The hibernation of the Constitution of 1987 and the introduction of a new Charter when all the shouting is silenced and when an initial period of transition and reconstruction has been reasonably covered.

2- The hopeful rise of the Haitian Diaspora and the mainland Haitians in an equal and legally recognized citizenship.

3- The creation of a Special Council of Government. Professor Gros, then the famous Washington lobbyist Stanley Lucas, called it the Haiti Reconstruction Authority (HRA). The U.S. Secretary of State defended for her part an Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC), or an 18-month roadmap, while funds would be managed by a huge Haitian Development Authority (HDA) for at least 10 years. The FONHDILAC named its council Global Development Authority of Haiti (Ad’AGH). In the most extreme urgency, Boulos put together a coterie in Santo Domingo and brandished a National Strategic Rescue Plan (PSSN), while Dumarsais Siméus used an International Council of Governance (ICG). These political visionaries made a large room for the International community and the UN while some others stressed that Haiti should play a decisive role. Even a grandmother spoke and held a conference in Montreal. The Group of Reflection and Action for a New Haiti (GRAHN: grandmother in Creole) deserves attention, although its plan is rather long (700 pages or more) As far as official plans, the so called Action Plan for National Recovery and Development and the Post Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) are at this time the most interesting documents beside two or three other folders that made sensation between 2004 and 2010, namely the Programme-Cadre ou Framework, and the Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (GPRSP). The confusion is so great about so many Plans that the Rand Report had to state the following: "A decision should be made quickly concerning which plan will be considered authoritative and thus should be used as the basis for further elaboration…As the framework program is the most comprehensive and thoughtfully prepared of the three, it would serve best as a basis for further planning". Whichever of the plans is prioritized, it should clearly set priorities, detail sequencing and responsibilities, to be finally efficient.

Other common denominators:

4- A total project cost from fifteen to twenty billion dollars over at least ten years.

5- The reconstruction must be the work of engineers and highly qualified architects adept in applying earthquake international standards. No more uncontrolled construction and excessive exploitation of sand mining. Construction now must respond to codes and laws of urban planning. By the same token, we will reduce congestion (especially in those areas subject to seismic hazard). Finally Haitians should achieve the decentralization and administrative redistribution advocated since the 1987 Carta Magna.

6- Questions about the fate of Port-au-Prince as capital. Most authors, motivated by the recent threats by geologists, opt for the center of the country (since the North has also its geological fault and could even be waiting for its own disaster). Others see no reason for Port-au-Prince not to stay where it has always been provided antisismic codes are designed and implemented.

The Case for an Apolitical State

Over the next years what will matter more for the million and a half Haitians sleeping in the streets is the reconstruction of the state and the rebuilding of the Haitian country. It is not the issues of power or the ostentatious vanity of titles and political positions. In an article Maryse Noel Romain, Ph.D. suggests a singular and impulsive definition of the term state rooted in the concrete circumstances of the moment, that is, in the Haitian post-disaster context. When asked: What state do we need? Dr. Noel-Romain replied:

"In this new situation, the state is no longer the occupant of the seriously damaged and abandoned presidential palace; it is not the various state departments which have been pulverized and their disorganized and disoriented staff; the state is not the senators, congressmen, members and staff of the judiciary unable to function. It is not even the police force in training.

The state should be all the healthy forces of the nation organized around the tasks of reconstruction and competent leadership dedicated to the cause of the country. The consensus today is that a powerful state is a necessary condition for reconstruction and rehabilitation of the country and our collapsed state." (Alter Presse January 21, 2010)

The state, so redefined by this great lady of our new political sociology is an apolitical state, an executive state (Etat de Cadres), a state made of sons of the country skilled enough to put their hands in the dough and be willing to do so. Such a state responds to a special and particular situation, an exceptional consensus. Haitian politicians and the nostalgic dominant classes must put up with this new and harsh reality. After January 12 anyone who stops and looks back will be turned into a pillar of salt.

The key point is that in the recent past we suspected that despite the commitment by the international community and the positioning of the UN through its Special Envoy Bill Clinton, nothing serious was really expected to occur. The difference today is that everyone thinks or even believes that this time it’s for real. Friends from so many countries flew to Haiti’s bedside. They looked so enthusiastic and moved after the apocalypse of January 12, that we are compelled to believe they are finally opening their hearts to save this country from its tectonic misery, to repeat the words of Christopher Wargny. They also come to save Haiti from its history that, according to Jean Matouk, has been a permanent earthquake.

Unfortunately, it should be expected that soon the emotions would be silenced. The cameras will be gone. As the economist Leslie Péan put it in his own project, the international community will have other fish to fry. Haiti runs the risk of plunging, as always, in forgotten waters. Regis Debray, who has asked that the great powers declare Haiti "prunelle of humanity, demands a system of international synergy with no hegemonic pretensions. It’s a way to make sustainable the ephemeral and rational what is emotional", said the glorious philosopher of Haitian Affairs.

After the January 12 disaster, the big issue is that of crafting anew the three powers of the Haitian state and their agencies together with rebuilding the country. But a bigger question is: Where should the state be replaced in regard to reconstruction? Some want it to be placed at the heart of the reconstruction, at the center of the decision-making area, while the state is being constantly reinforced. Others prefer it to be shelved, closed for restructuring until, institutionally regrouped and rebuilt, it can answer the call. In the latter case the aid would go directly to non-state agencies namely nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), as has been the case since the eighties or nineties. . (The great weakness of the Haitian state may be linked to this shelving or circumventing of the Haitian state by the donors. It may refer to what Ricardo Seteinfus called the disempowerment of the Haitian State. In fact, this plethora of NGOs in Haiti makes much harm than good. They do not know the terrain and the expert humanitarians are novices. Seteinfus goes further to say: For transnational NGOs, Haiti has become a place of forced passage. I would say even worse than that: a place for training. The age of NGO experts who arrived after the earthquake is very low; they landed in Haiti without any experience. Haiti, I can tell you, is not suitable for amateurs. 

Rebuilding the state will always refer to regrouping bureaucratic institutions, creating a proper infrastructure, drawing the new foundations of a realistic and pragmatic constitution with appropriate laws, firm principles, sound procedures, and better policies. It means identifying the state’s core functions including justice, police, education, health, etc., and satisfying the needs for each. Rebuilding the Haitian state is also preparing this entity for collective action when the forces of nature hit, because the state is there to ensure safety and protection at all-time according to the concept of institutional risk analysis promoted by David H. Root, Bill Janeway, and others. Working states, like ultimate risk insurers, minimize the effects of natural disasters and save lives by the preventive and reactive actions they take through their functional institutions. The risk insurers’ policy covers everyone, not only the rich or the dominant party in power.

Rebuilding the Haitian state will also mean pouring the cement of national unity and good order on the sand of public safety; it means protection of lives and property, promotion of justice and equity. It means stirring the mortar of a consensus between various authorities and agencies, all with the view of establishing solid walls and a superstructure of earthquake-proof policies and anti-replicas regulations. It is an appeal to move the state from the geological faults on which it has been sitting since 1804. It also means to decentralize power in such a way that both the center and periphery enjoy equal rights and privileges. Roody Edmé, using much the same metaphors, believes that There will be new behaviors to adopt vis-à-vis our environment; we should break down the walls of indifference, pick up the rubble of destructive nepotism, free the paths of the ‘historical unity of the people’ mentioned by the theorist Marcel Gilbert. In fact, all the institutions must be re-crafted because all the Haitian institutions without a single exception perished on January 12. Before the coup de grace all of them were in fact riddled with alarming weaknesses in all areas.

The Judiciary collapsed with its Temple of Themis. The Police, its corollary, was almost absent in the first days. (Even the MINUSTAH police force was violently shaken after losing its headquarters and more than one hundred of its members who perished under the rubble, including the Head of Mission Hédi Annabi).

The entire Haitian Executive body was thrown into the streets. All their buildings were converted into heaps of sand and debris. Already in crisis well before the January 12, this body has exhibited all signs of lassitude. Even though in the weeks that followed the Executive Branch persisted in rebuilding its appearance, the disappointment has been the deepest both in Haiti and abroad. The Legislature already in disarray before the fateful 12th because of the many elected officials who came to the end of their mandate, showed all the premonitory signs of clinical death. The Judiciary Branch saw its Palace converted into ground zero.

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Even the Church (the Grand Church and the ti-Legliz of the poor) has been completely destroyed. In the past that Church used to enthrone and dethrone kings in Haiti or used to have until recently a semblance of moral influence. Now however, all its glorious symbols and some of its princes are thrown in the rubble. Archbishop Monsignor Joseph Serge Miot as well as Monsignor Charles Benoit perished petrified under the falling vault of the memorable Haitian Cathedral. Up to the date of publication, we are still trying unsuccessfully to detect the voice and other signs of life of the most Holy Church lying under the rubble.

We do not know how long the reconstruction of such a fragile state will last but we believe that the stranger, the white man who has always had our folders