I have not migrated but I am writing again from Trinidad where I have been attending the First Caribbean Construction Conference, with a special emphasis on Haiti. Of the more than 100 participants, 42 were from Haiti, and all were concerned with the progress, or lack thereof, of the rebuilding efforts since the January 2010 earthquake. The Jamaican construction industry players were properly represented, and their participation and leadership were exemplary and professional. I was indeed proud.

The heart-rending facts, however, revealed a slow picture of progress even in the initial response phases such as clearing debris, much less rebuilding efforts. I hasten to say that there were praises for our Special Representative of Caricom PJ Patterson, and his tireless efforts to bring some reasonable results within the time. However, it does appear that his efforts are not receiving the attention required from Caricom heads, and at least one million Haitians will enter their second hurricane season without shelter.

Our former prime minister may be reluctant to speak his mind publicly on this delicate issue, but by all reports he is straight to the point with his former colleagues in the confines of their discussions in caucus. Sovereignty often demands that a level of respect be shown, but not necessarily earned, and so urgency may be sacrificed for protocol. But to be fair, our heads of government should not take the brunt of the blame, and the public needs to be aware of some of the factors that remain unresolved and provide excuses for delays.

Firstly, the earthquake crippled already weak governance structures, and in the area of human losses, the estimate is that approximately 17 per cent of the civil service was killed in the earthquake. The devastation continued to buildings and infrastructure that supported government interaction at both policy levels and public services of an everyday nature. This left both a crippled government and a president whose term limits were nearly at a Constitutional end. Orderly succession was thus interrupted.

Secondly, the parallel losses of documentation and experienced staff to seek archived and current information were other contributing factors that hindered the process of recovery. The identification of land ownership, surviving relatives, and the legal processes of probate and titling were severely curtailed.

Thirdly, the dislocation of government revenue collection and allocation was not easily overcome. Transmission of data and communication links by road, sea, air, and computers added to the sense of burden borne by an already shocked society. In particular the damage to the port and airport facilities left no scope for more than humanitarian aid.

In the face of these dire conditions even the invoking of the process of Presidential Decree has proven inadequate in making progress either swift or useful in many cases. For the rest of us in Caricom who have never faced these conditions, or have had to resort to government by decree, the circumstances must be quite confusing. So the necessary measures seem to fly counter to our normal intuition, and therefore we may be reluctant to try the more effective options. I will attempt to outline a few of these options.

The humanitarian aid and temporary housing and shelter should logically have been removed from the immediate vicinity of the greatest destruction in order to have a clear working space. But there exists resistance to moving a grieving population from their familiar surroundings, and the effect that that could have on mental health. Their own unwillingness to move may have added some unnecessary tensions within the midst of a rescue mission.

This in turn would hamper the movement of debris, and in fact the slow decision-making process has subsequently delayed this. A decision needs to be taken as to whether the debris has any useful function for shoring up sea and flood defences, and where exactly it should be taken or simply dumped. Thus debris remains, hampering movement of people and supplies, and blocking the progress of a much needed short-term relief and protection strategy.

Redevelopment plans have been done by different entities from 1978 to the present including urban renewal, water, sewage, electricity, housing, and transportation infrastructure. The reduction of government’s capability to make sound decisions is therefore a constraint not attributable to our governments. New rules, standards, locations, paper trails, requests for bids, and the award of contracts are all areas to be addressed.

So how can we help at this late stage?

1. We need to supply personnel to get the governance structures back in place, and we can find experienced and competent retired civil servants and offer them a contract.

2. We need to agree with the Haitian Government where the greatest needs are so that we can match those with our available talent.

3. The development of rules of contract, bidding processes, financial monitoring and budgeting can take place remotely through electronic communication.

4. The maintenance of a needs register, a qualified list of contractors, and a database of available skills, machinery, and compliance is another off-site activity.

5. The needs on the ground are probably services requiring local interaction, job inspection, quantity surveying as it relates to the payment processes, and documentation recovery and current archiving.

6. We need to recommend the concurrent restoration of the port facilities or indicate other ports on the island that can be quickly upgraded to accept normal container or roll-on-roll-off cargoes. This requires road access improvement, but could be concurrent activities under tender arrangements.

7. Short-term training in basic construction skills will allow for local employment of Haitian workers in the earliest phases. We could accomplish this through our training facilities if given international assistance with the additional expenses.

Let us not underestimate the combined power of a region like ours presenting a united public/private partnership to the developed nations. Our Haitian colleagues deserve our combined action urgently. In fact, it is the immediate way through which we can accord a proud but poor nation the respect that they deserve and which is their due. Think wisely, and act kindly, as but for the grace of God we could be there also.

Finally, has the Air Jamaica operations of Caribbean Airlines caused a further loss of over US$10 million, and how will this be stopped? Also, was our claim to having the rights to some major US routes totally true, or were we working on a temporary extension? Whoever knows the truth, please speak up.