Building a Healthy Haiti
The disastrous earthquake that occurred in Haiti in January
has plunged the poorest nation in the western hemisphere into an even deeper
dungeon of desperation and despair.
Their human and natural resources are so poorly developed that many
believe their situation is hopeless.
Nearly half of their adults are illiterate. The Haitian labor force is largely unskilled. There is a severe shortage of potable
water and, as a result of the earthquake, a critical shortage of permanent
shelters. The forests on the hills
and mountains of Haiti have been ravaged for fuelwood and lumber and by
wildfires. HaitiÕs infrastructure
and government operations have been sorely disrupted and debilitated. In short, Haiti has been turned into a
societal basket case.
When
comparable catastrophes have befallen poor nations in the past, recovery and
restoration efforts have had limited success – often taking decades or
centuries, if at all. But, with
the advent of new technologies – and ones that are just on the horizon
– Haiti can be rapidly rehabilitated.
The
problems of illiteracy and limited job skills can be partially solved through
the establishment of a national information dispensary system, a system that
will give the entire population access to new reading tools that will enable
everyone to read and, eventually, will enable most readers to become
superreaders. The reading tools
will include (1) a new software invention, interactive movable type, (2) a new information delivery device, the
telereader terminal, and (3) a new
computer language, Easy (a
computer language that can be used like a natural language). They are the tools of the mudoc
technology and are described in considerable detail in the Web pages at
mudoc.com. (In particular see http://mudoc.com/mpms3.htm.)
As
Haiti evolves from a carbon-fueled economy to a hydrogen-fueled economy, more
and more of the water that is drunk will come from the many hydrogen heaters,
hydrogen steam engines, and hydrogen-fueled generators that will provide most
of the heat and energy that is used in the country.
In
building replacements for the homes and other buildings destroyed and damaged
in the earthquake, new building techniques and materials will be employed in
their construction. Most of the
materials used in reconstruction will be native products such as sand, clay,
marble and other rocks, copper (from Haitian copper mines), and aluminum (from
local bauxite). Advanced methods
and materials, such as photovoltaic panels, fiberglass panels, and other
man-made materials will be employed – and modular manufacturing
facilities will mass-produce many new homes and components of other new
buildings.
HaitiÕs
forests will be reconstituted and maintained by a new kind of forester, the
forest metafarmer (who is described in extensive detail in The Metafarm, a science-extension novel being prepared for
publication by The Mudoc Corporation – the first novel that will be
written and displayed with interactive movable type). See http://mudoc.com/newtitls.htm.
As
HaitiÕs population is transformed from one that is partially-literate to one
that is fully literate, their government organizations and operations will
gradually become more efficient and more effective. With a well-informed citizenry, government leaders and
government workers will be better able to serve their constituents.
While the present outlook for HaitiÕs future seems
extremely bleak, it is within their capabilities, if provided with a modicum of
support from their friends and neighbors, to build a nation that will be
productive and self-sustaining.
The support that has been promised and has started to arrive can, if
delivered with imagination and creativity, turn this Òbasket caseÓ into a
positive model that can be replicated in all the worldÕs less-developed
countries.
To read this document in the mutext format click here
©2010, The Mudoc Corporation
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