Haiti 2015: Ghost Town (in Broad Daylight)

In the desert-like northern outskirts of Port-au-Prince the government of Haïti initiated a housing project in the wake of the earthquake disaster (2011-12). From a distance it looks impressive, but some three years later it remains unfinished and hardly without inhabitants. Obviously the president has been eager to prove decisiveness. Most certainly the landowner has received a nice sum of money for a property that was hard to sell. In a country with small elite, most certainly the landowner is an acquaintance of the president. Not surprisingly then, the government has not provided transparency on this point. But the main problem seems to be the plan itself: To build a city in “the middle of nowhere”, with no public transport (hardly anyone has cars), without any resemblance to traditional patterns – e.g. no shops or market-place that are vital parts of any Haitian community. Perhaps lack of funding has stopped the project half-way (but still no transparency is offered).