The biggest thing that the US and UN need to be worried about is that Haitians will begin to expect help. Right now, we should be bringing supplies to help the people create an infrastructure. Ship tons of cement and steel rebar. Then grab all the teenage and adult men and put them to work. Build roads, plant trees and grass on the hillsides to prevent mudslides. Hemp is known to grow quickly and hold the ground in place. Start building retaining walls, create man made streams where runoff water can flow. Get the country working again. This will give pride to the people and prevent further catastrophes. Haiti will never be a happy country until it is taking care of itself.

The worst thing to do is allow a million(?) people to sit in makeshift camps just waiting for water and food rations. This create a feeling of uselessness and takes away the can do attitude.

Just my opinion.

There's a predictable demand for stricter building codes whenever a major earthquake causes heavy damage in a poorly-built city. The trouble is that earthquake resistant buildings cost more than flimsier ones, and money is a limited resource. The last devastating earthquake in Haiti happened something like 200 years ago. Assuming another one just as bad happens in another 200 years, how many lives will be saved if today's crumbled buildings are built to California seismic codes? The answer is probably "none" because none of today's buildings will be around when the next big earthquake hits. In the meantime, plenty of more mundane public health, environmental, and socioeconomic problems could be productively addressed by money that would have been diverted into ASTM-rated concrete and rebar.

In places that are relatively prosperous and where earthquakes happen considerably more often than the typical lifetime of buildings, like southern California, it makes sense to build extremely strong structures. In impoverished places with infrequent, if occasionally devastating, earthquakes, the money could better be used elsewhere.

Mr Sherman:
When the 1999 earthquake shook the Colombian coffee growing region, and nearly leveled the cities of Pereira and Armenia, the local government and NGO's set about researching ways to cost-effectively ( read "cheaply") earthquake proof buildings, with a pretty good degree of sucess. Perhaps the Hatian government can do something similar, granted it will be harder as that region of Colombia was 7 times wealthier than Haiti when the earthquake happened. The point being that "California level" building codes and materials may not be needed after all, since it would be best to use local expertise. It seems most of the older wood-frame farmhouses survided the earthquake and the building ruined where mostly the more "modern" ones that where built with concrete and rebar. Another problem is: materials likely to be good for earquake proofing a building are also likely to be bad for huracanne proofing a building, and since in Haiti huracanes are more common than earthquakes the rebuilding may be focused on how to make huracame proof homes more resitant to earthquakes

Mr RDEstrada: I agree with many of your points, but since it is the UN doing the refugee management your solution is likely not to be carried out, since the UN prefers to leave refugees to rot in camps as countless examples from Palestine, Lebanon, Cambodia, Thailand , Somalia and pretty much anywhere the refugees where not European shows.

I would add to RDEstrada's comment that microcredit should also be extended to those who are more entrepreneur in spirit. This should allow them to establish a credit record for themselves and potential jobs for others. Big Government nation-building efforts have mostly failed during the past six decades while microcredit has at least had a good record for the past decade when it has increasingly been used. Now if only the US Military could figure this out instead of corruption-spawning infrastructure projects in its nation-building attempts.