Let's Build Gonave, Haiti!

 

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Courtesy of The Guardian http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2014/jan/27/port-au-prince-collision-progress-haiti-earthquake

Imagine La Gonave is leased to a newly created not-for-profit that would serve as the island's government.  Imagine the Treaty of Gonave, where a lease is established with the not-for-profit and Haiti.  The island would not only self govern, but Haiti wouldn't have any financial responsibility.  The only responsibilities Haiti would have would be military protection, and international representation. While it sounds far from reality, it is a strong possibility.  Haiti can't really afford to take care of the island of La Gonave effectively.  A treaty that establishes Haiti owning the island, but allows a large amount of autonomy could be a way to solve La Gonave's problems. Financial policy, immigration, job creation, housing, politics, etc would all be at the hand of that not-for-profit.  That not-for-profit by the way, would be staffed and ran by residents on the island of Gonave.  Parts of the government structure could contain some people from ...

Last year I wrote about ways to power the island, and some of it focused on Coal, Solar, or Wind power plants.  All of these types of plants have their advantages, and disadvantages, which I went over briefly. What is a simple and cheaper way?  Diesel Powered Generators.  Many third world nations use these systems as their only source of power, Nigeria comes to mind.  Using these systems work well when money and time are a major problem.  These plants run on diesel or gas, and can be expandable.  I am posting three videos about such systems.  I think this is something that Gonave and maybe even Haiti should consider to solve power issues.  This is a 13.2 MW power plant in Saudi Arabia that uses 4 engines. This is an animation of how a plant can be customized for the environment, and how the system can be expanded over time.  It talks about the type of engines possible. The last video is also an animation from a dif...

I have attached a YouTube video from RECON-Digital.  They are an animation company from Nigeria, that has recently been on CNN due to their unique commercials that use animation. In Africa animation is a big thing that helps push products and services.  Could something like this be used on Gonave?  Possibly creating characters and shows that reflect on Haitian culture and life on Gonave?  Creating an animation studio isn't very expensive, and as you can see in the video below, the quality is decent. The below video is a spoof on the American Idol, and is titled Africa's Top Poet. Go Gonave!

I have been working on a plan, call 20-20-20.  It centers around farming on the island of Gonave using simple yet proven techniques.  Food production is low on Gonave and many cite this as a problem. With the plan, some 400 acres could be developed in 5 years. Types of farming would be from beef to fish, and from honey to pineapples.  The approach would be to start off with three different types of farming, which in Year 1 would be Apples, Honey, and beans.  There would be several farms of 1 acre in size, which allows for much less overhead, and also it would work well in areas with a small working plot of land. I'm currently in talks with a few of the current NGO's that are on the island to try and make this happen.  Given the small start up cost, I think this will be a success, and would even allow for enough food to be sold to Haiti.  We are also in talks with the Haitian government on the ability of leasing land to do this.  Stay tuned to more...