Creative Destruction's Reconstruction

With the one year anniversary of 1/12/2010 slowly approaching one can't help but reflect on the events of the past year, and what therein teaching lies. Rummaging through photographs of past missions to Haiti, I came across this piece that I deemed too important not to share. 

After returning from the disaster relief efforts in Haiti, Dr. Louisdon Pierre (Pediatric Intensivist and PULSE Project Manager to Haiti), shared this e-mail with a focus group of pediatricians and Intensive Care professionals, who were reeling from the events following the January 2010 earthquake that devastated Haiti.  All were motivated upon return to impart a change in the conditions witnessed while participating in the medical relief efforts in Port-au-Prince.

It reads:

The beginning of the year 2010 brought significant destruction very close to home. As a Haitian-born American I seem to be obsessed with the reconstruction issues that face the western part of the island. While reading the article by Delong (2), I was constantly drawn to think about the earthquake’s devastation as a metaphor for the reconstruction of creative 

destruction.                                                                                         

As I wake up from this nightmare, it is painful to realize that we (Haitians) were stuck in the 19th century having never moved towards economic growth, security of property, administration of justice let alone prosperity. None of these economic laws have been applicable. But as this community comes out from under the concrete slabs, there is room for entrepreneurship and risk takers can find an arena for new products and services without waiting for creative destruction.

Ruins of the Cathedral
Our Lady of the Assumption
Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Built between1884 and 1914

My optimism leads me to think that this nation has witnessed a paradigm shift for society, culture, education, business, health, agriculture and almost every sector of the local economy with lessons learned that will benefit the entire globe, if we are to believe in the need to eradicate poverty. It is an opportunity to think about change in the sense of implementing novel technology, different commodities, new organizations and why not, a new model for the Caribbean as well as the world. Perhaps, the advent of this cataclysm in Haiti is an “act of God” that could not wait for “creative” destruction. 


I am sold on the resurgence of the concept of creative destruction. 

1. http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2007/12/creative-destru.html
2. http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2007/05/tyler_cowen_pra.html