Uncle Mike, on Haiti

[bcholmes]

Pssst. Hey sparkymonster. Check this out:

Most of us have stopped thinking about the situation in Haiti, and that’s a shame. They’re still a very long way away from rebuilding. That’s because news media are not about sustainability, about lasting a long time — it’s all short-term thinking.

I hope that, when the time comes in Haiti, we approach building differently, with the long term in mind. I guess the building equivalent to the evening news is throwing up a tent city — that won’t last long, either; just until the next natural disaster. Let’s replace what was lost in Haiti with something more permanent — with something that will outlast us all and be a legacy for the future.

Rebuilding a country as devastated as Haiti will take long-term planning. It’s not a quick fix. And if we want to do it right, which I do, and rebuild sustainably, then it will take decades. I don’t want rebuilding in Haiti to just be a matter of throwing up houses as fast as possible, using the same methods and materials that have always been used, and that failed so catastrophically. Yes, housing is needed immediately, but we need to go fast by going slow, so we don’t make the same mistakes again.

— Mike Holmes (of "Holmes on Homes"), "Rebuilding Haiti, the right way", The Montreal Gazette