As the rainy season is about to befall the Island of Hispaniola, a plan to relocate Haitians from ramshackle tent dwellings back to their original home sites seems to hold some promise. Moreso than setting up mass relocation camps. (Just the thought of that reminds me of what we did to American-Japanese during World War II.) The United States is assisting in a mass cleanup effort that will at least offer Haiti residents an opportunity to pitch a tent where their crumbled homes once stood.
Go back several weeks ago, and an editorial by left-of-center columnist Eugene Robinson comes to mind. Robinson spoke of the government’s huge losses on over 100,000 RV trailers that were purchased and unused in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. These trailers are deemed risky because of high formaldehyde levels. Hot, humid air makes the unsavory chemicals leech out all the more, and has been blamed on sickening some residents.
Now the government wants to sell these unused RVs for pennies on the dollar in order to recoup at least a nominal amount of the nearly $3 billion of our tax money that was spent on these trailers. While Robinson says the short sale is a mistake on behalf of the Obama administration, he’s also quick to share the love with George W. Bush’s administration and its response to Katrina. Gotta love those left-of-center columnists.
So we take these two aforementioned stories, put them together, and—you see where I’m going with this? Surely these trailers need work. If formaldehyde is coaxed out by heat and humidity, then the Caribbean sun may not be the best place for them. But Haitians are on the brink of rainy season, a time when the sun shines less, and water’s cooling effects are in the atmosphere (nominal as “cooling” may be in the tropics). Imagine American volunteers working to install some sort of ventilation system in these trailers, fixing up the inevitable damage that time has inflicted on them, and loading them on freighters for shipment down to Hispaniola. Instead of rotting away, these RVs could be put to good use.
Imagine the positive PR for FEMA, the Fed, and the Obama administration if such a plan were enacted. Here’s an idea: use TARP or other bailout billions to fund paying some of the rehabilitation workers. Make sure only recently unemployed workers can go for the temporary positions. Employ a bunch of folks in the short term, get these trailers in working order fast, and send them south. Being located near the Gulf of Mexico, it wouldn’t cost vast amounts of oil to haul trailers to a port and load them onto an ocean-going freighter.
You gotta admit, using these trailers to abate the suffering in Haiti is a lot better than slapping a warning label on them and selling them dirt cheap. Do Americans really need more RV trailers to hitch to the back of gas-guzzling pickup trucks at a time when oil is increasingly scarce and the economy is still in the crapper?
I’m sure my sensible little plan has plenty of caveats in it. But sometimes it just seems to me that the common-sense, compassionate solutions are so easy, and yet so lost in our government’s bureaucracy.
It's not my original quote, but it sure is timeless:
"When common sense makes good sense, seek no other sense."
When you're 6'3", RVs can be "roughing" it. But rather than support American's party-happy ways, FEMA trailers would be palatial compared to the conditions many Haitians lived in—even before January's quake.
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