State of emergency

Media attention this week is focused not only on Haiti’s disastrous earthquake, which has killed tens of thousands of people, but also on what needs to be done when the rescue work is over.

A quaking state

There are two reasons for outsiders — and especially the United States and Haiti’s neighbour in Hispaniola, the Dominican Republic — to do as much as possible to help the country start afresh, writes The Economist.

 ... One is common humanity. It is not Haiti’s fault that geography has been so cruel. The other is self-interest. A failed state of 9 [million] people in the Caribbean is a danger to its neighbours. Haiti was already a source of illegal migrants and a crossroads for drugs. Unless the rudiments of government and a modern economy can be swiftly set up, both problems will only get worse. …

Haitian success

The Obama administration was right to give temporary amnesty to Haitians living illegally inside the US before the earthquake, writes The Wall Street Journal. Up to 30,000 Haitians who were waiting to be deported will now be allowed to stay and work for another 18 months.

… The suffering and chaos since the earthquake should make it obvious that Haiti is no place to return people whose only crime was coming to America to escape the island's poverty and ill-governance. For that matter, we don't mind if they stay here permanently. Haitian immigrants as a group are among America's most successful, which demonstrates that Haiti's woes owe more to corruption, disdain for property rights and lack of public safety than to any flaw in its people. …

A failed state

The catastrophic earthquake in Haiti highlights the need for change in this failed state, writes the Financial Times. Haiti has been too dependent on foreign aid and what it needs now is state-building.

… Haiti needs first to focus on state and capacity-building, in everything from justice to education. This requires external help to guarantee security and the rule of law, and will eventually need to be crowned by a significant mobilisation of public and private investment in infrastructure and jobs. It can be done. Haitians have shown themselves capable of civic and political vigour, and they have a talented diaspora. Surely the US-led international community is up to a challenge of this size.