The Big Truck That Went By: How the World Came to Save Haiti and Left Behind a Disaster

Camp Corail, part of the 18,500 acres of expropriated land set aside for development, is meant to be the bright spot in an otherwise dismal landscape of slums, stalled aid, and bureaucratic roadblocks. The U.S. military, in conjunction with Préval's government and various NGOs like Penn's, are set to provide food, space for gardens, and "sturdy provisional 'T-shelters'" (172). Reconstruction stalls, however, and Katz receives a tip as to why: "Find out who owns the land" (171). This proves difficult. Land title records are either buried in rubble or nonexistent, and ownership disputes are often settled outside official channels. When Corail-Ceselesse is selected for development, 300 families claim ownership over part of the territory. Katz's anonymous tip points to Gerard-Emile Brun, a wealthy businessman and head of the relocation commission, as owner of the Camp Corail land parcel. This appears to be an obvious conflict of interest, but Katz has other lingering questions. He wonders why this parcel is considered hot property when it is prone to flooding and still years away from development.

Katz and Evens visit the site of the Camp Corail development and find it surrounded by squatters, many claiming territory for themselves under the belief that Préval's government sanctioned it. Katz's investigation suggests that Brun may own the land through his company, Nabatec S.A. Katz pursues this lead, but as interest in post-earthquake stories declines, the AP wants him to drop his investigation. He continues it on his own time. Evens tries several more times to ascertain the official owner of the land, but someone breaks into his car while it is parked outside the temporary tax office where the land title records are kept. Later, he is robbed at gunpoint. Evens suspects these are warnings, not accidents.

After meeting with Leslie Voltaire, Camp Corail's development designer, Katz discovers that Brun plans to use part of the land for a South Korean garment factory. With camp residents providing cheap labor and Brun standing to profit handsomely from leasing the land to the South Koreans, his insistence on the development site suddenly makes sense. However, Brun wants the deal kept secret because this is precisely the kind of corruption that arouses foreign donors' suspicions. As Camp Corail fills with tents and squatters, it floods in heavy rain, and the ground will not sustain crop growth. Riots break out in the camp as the government cuts off food supplies and plans for the garment factory are delayed. As the government abandons Camp Corail, the squatters turn it into a massive slum. Construction of more permanent shelters is severely behind schedule. Six months after the earthquake, an event intended as a memorial turns into a political rally as Préval promises to move the reconstruction phase into high gear. As heavy rains flood Camp Corail, the once-promising development site is no better than any other refugee camp.

Summer arrives. Katz, feeling burned out by relentless despair and the hassles from his AP editors, befriends Claire Payton, an American doctoral student working on an oral history of the country. They bond over a mutual appreciation of the Haitian people and their situation. Their relationship grows more intimate when she confides to him her mixed feelings about being there, an inner conflict she feels only he can understand.

Katz discovers that the brothers charged with delivering gas to power his house's generator routinely overcharge him by more than half. When confronted by Katz, one brother named Randy admits the truth: he's been defrauding the AP. Because Katz understands the unique rules of supply and demand in post-quake Haiti, and because Randy "wasn't blowing the money on drugs" (193), he tells him to pay the money back and "it'll end there" (193). Given that the brothers are Evens' friends, Katz begins to harbor suspicions toward his fixer based on no evidence. He dismisses these thoughts, however, because to entertain them is to jeopardize a vital relationship. 

By June 2010, the Haitian capital is "ready to get living again" (197), Katz writes. He attends a concert by Michel Martelly, an artist who performs a style known as kompa, a blend of rhythm and blues, funk, and merengue. Against a backdrop of devastation, Martelly's music urges hedonism and pleasure because "we're all going to be dead in five years" (199), the artist says. Katz argues that the pulsing music, dancing, and escapism are exactly what the country needs.

With an election four months away and Préval prohibited by the constitution to run for another term, his Unity Party looks for a successor). The U.S., which is footing half the bill for the election, insists it be held on schedule, but Préval wants to delay it. He declares autonomy from the U.S. and vows to work only with national partners. In response, the U.S. threatens to withhold all but humanitarian aid.

While dozens of Haitians declare their candidacies, speculation focuses on Haitian-born rapper Wyclef Jean. Jean, whose credentials include founding an NGO and an uncle with political experience, claims he's not running. Katz believes he would be a sure winner. Despite so many vying for the job, the presidency is a no-win position. With little power to solve problems, the president is still held accountable for them. Seven months after the quake, for example, only two percent of the rubble is cleared. With $16.3 billion in pledged aid and so little progress to show for it, Haitians rightfully ask where the money went. Many assume a corrupt government stole it, but Katz argues this assumption is too simple and not based in fact. Given the scope of the disaster, $16.3 billion is insufficient. A large percentage of the money—pledged, but as yet undelivered—never makes it to the government. Because so much of it is outsourced to foreign companies, very little directly benefits the Haitian economy. As Katz follows the money trail, he finds millions of dollars in overspending, waste, or simple misallocation to the wrong organization. After accounting for overhead, undelivered pledges, and money spent outside the country, only $210 million remain for the government.

With little faith in free and fair elections, Wyclef Jean declares himself a candidate for president. He argues, like Bill Clinton and so many others, for investment in the garment industry. Jean's celebrity and his U.S. citizenship appeal to young people, many of whom still view America as the great savior. Although the Provisional Electoral Council ultimately rules Jean ineligible, his candidacy is a sign that old-guard politicians are not Haiti's only option for leadership.

Nine months after the earthquake, an outbreak of cholera strikes the village of Meille, 60 miles north of Port-au-Prince. As Katz and Payton prepare for a vacation, the death toll from the outbreak rises to 52. Katz dispatches Evens and recent college graduate Jacob Kushner to Saint-Marc where they find the local hospital overwhelmed; by the end of the day, the death toll rises to 135. While the media report the outbreak as an inevitable consequence of the earthquake, research suggests that "the risk of epidemics following natural disasters is wildly overstated" (221). Poverty and bad sanitation are certainly factors in the spread of cholera, but without the presence of the Vibrio cholerae bacteria, an outbreak is impossible. Haiti hasn't seen a case of cholera in at least a hundred years. The bacterium is simply not endemic in the country.

The epicenter of the outbreak is the Artibonite River, Haiti's largest. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) finds that two-thirds of the infected population reported "drinking untreated water from the river" (223). Rumors allege that a nearby contingent of U.N. peacekeepers is responsible for the outbreak. As it happens, these peacekeepers are from Nepal, a country in which cholera is endemic. The U.N. denies blame, but its denial confirms the presence of "seven septic tanks" (226) built in the vicinity of the river.

Katz and Evens visit the Nepalese military compound located near the Artibonite and find the area reeking with the smell of waste. The cause is a broken pipe leaking "a foul-smelling black liquid toward the river" (228). A local villager points out a series of "dump pits" near his home. They are filled with fecal waste that overflow into the river during rainstorms. NGOs set up treatment facilities, but the affected communities don't trust them, believing they brought the disease in the first place. CNN erroneously reports that none of the Nepalese soldiers tested positive for cholera, when in fact none of them had been tested just prior to their deployment at all. The U.N. scrambles to cover up its culpability, making last-minute, shoddy repairs to the drainage system. The damage, however, is done. Fear wreaks havoc on the economy as Haitians refuse to buy locally sourced meat and produce.

Despite the common practice of tracing disease vectors, the CDC insists investigation isn't a priority. Anxious about implicating the U.N., its defenders argue that playing "the blame game" (238) is counterproductive. On the contrary, Katz argues that investigating the cause and finding the source points can prevent further outbreaks. In November 2010, a team of French epidemiologists conducts an investigation at the behest of the Préval government. They confirm that the origin of the outbreak is, just as protestors have suspected, the U.N. compound in Meille. By the time the U.N. acknowledges the need for an investigation and commissions its own report, nearly four thousand Haitians are dead.