For sending assistance to Haiti to help the country recover from the recent earthquake, the aid agencies are requesting money only. The poorest countries have problems with "absorptive capacity"--they simply do not have sufficient infrastructure, and even trained personnel, to effectively absorb assistance. I heard the shipping port at Port-au-Prince is blocked.
As you probably have heard, Haiti is the poorest country in the Americas (there are reasons for this, of course), and one I once took particular interest in, having twice traveled through it as a low-budget traveler. I'll never forget the outrageously painted "tap-tap" buses with chickens occasionally squawking between my feet; and King Henri Christophe's now-UNESCO-designated palace and fortress inland from Cap Haitian. I even applied for a job in Haiti.
Key-word search Hotel Oloffson, an old ginger-bread hotel with sprawling veranda on the side of the mountain overlooking Port-au-Prince. I wonder if it survived?
This is not the time to tell of my travels in Haiti or even of its history (it was the world's only successful slave rebellion; the U.S. occupied the country from 1915 to 1934). Perhaps another time. Now's the time to send money.
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