Haiti: context
I've been a couple of times, to visit my friend L., who now lives back in New York City, and to research this piece I wrote for The Walrus about MSF's obstetrics hospital there.
Estimates of the ultimate death toll range from "thousands" up to 100,000 or even 500,000 - although "both men admitted that they had no way of knowing."
Haiti's poorest of the poor, a large number, live in tin shacks like these in La Saline:
![la-saline](https://lh3-testonly.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_sA7bvpD8AFzEVLruOPWshSn68WXW8CHcqeb-HL4eWxaxHaFs9T-cTGuRKP_Ao-w3ea4FIhLW0nZTGpZmeQ7n8yk2n4c3szxbrR979U9yjRA3S3tzjd-_Ako3Dcbmtumw=s0-d)
![tin-sheets](https://lh3-testonly.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_v5KqP5WUzcP1qXOje1xKWmK6amUxT8ZgmlNyY7ShSdYAdYPc726NkFZbN7uTrCWwmOe6uniQarPAH1_-AfZTWusanfRYpOWX3PzFuhH3P9kvZ6LQ4J-4Lea_2uaYoAsQ=s0-d)
The one virtue of such shacks is that when they collapse in an earthquake you probably won't be either immediately killed or buried beyond recovery. So that's sort of a good thing.
However, slightly more affluent Haitians tend to live in dense warrens of concrete boxes like the ones on the right here:
![muddy-street](https://lh3-testonly.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_sPMgzq8bkgCCc6kqE0csd_KR7Wm9Wx963M4Okr0oTdRn8MYa-fZZ_VP3kJgUXuH57Vltl6_aMIoyjK-Fc8puZsRMurUaFiCynEyJHu4nlLB10Bk_TTdZ6tdbUT6BH_=s0-d)
Also, Port-au-Prince is a very hilly city, and thanks to the security situation, there are walls everywhere:
![street-walkers](https://lh3-testonly.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_uJ4uwvwzcYUcvKfP6cvI9n_KqTlJBoOjG7YGKZbNPylQu0VD_AdMDAS8GM-ZGSJPMU7LyqLVrB6urIpsYX6D-4Zk6erl4Ta4YCxqBMDe15mW6BdGiog7Ulvxa5qskB=s0-d)
and up another economic notch, you get rickety, often-incomplete, multi-story concrete buildings, which are probably the most dangerous in terms of earthquake survival.
![xavier-poses](https://lh3-testonly.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_t1hJCFYLgoDf1SFKLRJUdzCxj8bvORr4DihdX6JKgtd_cRujMR1xq2wbNKweY1rWRxvxiV274aJqTKhvM9A3kmWNddSxrO-3O90uK4zQg_0kRSr8LUggcB2auv3jpw=s0-d)
That's Xavier there, L.'s driver, who couriered me around town when I visited. Great guy. I hope he's still alive.
Estimates of the ultimate death toll range from "thousands" up to 100,000 or even 500,000 - although "both men admitted that they had no way of knowing."
Haiti's poorest of the poor, a large number, live in tin shacks like these in La Saline:
The one virtue of such shacks is that when they collapse in an earthquake you probably won't be either immediately killed or buried beyond recovery. So that's sort of a good thing.
However, slightly more affluent Haitians tend to live in dense warrens of concrete boxes like the ones on the right here:
Also, Port-au-Prince is a very hilly city, and thanks to the security situation, there are walls everywhere:
and up another economic notch, you get rickety, often-incomplete, multi-story concrete buildings, which are probably the most dangerous in terms of earthquake survival.
That's Xavier there, L.'s driver, who couriered me around town when I visited. Great guy. I hope he's still alive.
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