Let's Build Gonave, Haiti!

Early on when I started this blog I had talked about Focus City sites on La Gonave.  Hurko Co was leading the charge of doing this and many different places on La Gonave were considered ideas.  These would be places where there was a small to no human population, mostly flat terrain, high potential to tourism, etc.  Hurko Co had been very quiet for many months, and had not mentioned much about what they planned on doing in the future. Hurko mentioned building hand carts, and honeybee hives that would employ locals, but other than that, very little has been mentioned.  The original plan of building housing on the island from the company seemed to have vanished.  There was not actual timeline for when housing would start.  Now it seems that the Focus City could get some steam.  The most I have been told is that individual houses and farms would be the initial focus.  Still basic infrastructure would be built though no detail if building heavy rai...

So I recently stumbled up on a fruit called Kiwano, also known as the Horned Melon.  It is native to South Africa, and is part of the cucumber family.  So I immediately started doing research on Kiwano and how to raise the fruit.  The plant, pictured below, is very prolific.  It will spread fast and is on a running vine.  The fruit is green, and when ready to each it is yellow.  It can be harvested when it is green.  The fruit has spikes on the outside, and even the vines has thorns. The fruit is very healthy and is perfect in making smoothies, and drinks.  You can even just cut it open like the above picture and just take a spoon and scoup out the center.  The center is very much like jelly, and if the concept of eating seeds is not appealing, then it may bother you.  Don't let the description fool you, this fruit if very tasty.  When I tried it, it tasted more like a banana with a hint of cucumber. The fruit is expe...

Norway made news about their goal of creating a bee highway.  Their plan is that all types of bees and butterflies would benefit from this, and many of the bees are considered endangered.  So along the "bee highway", one will find pollen plants, nectar plants, some plants that do both, shelter for bees looking for a new home, etc.  It is looked at as a radical concept that is modeled after the US Butterfly Program .  This is designed to help protect and multiply the Monarch Butterfly as it makes the yearly journey to Mexico from the US. La Gonave is secretly doing a similar project, yet on a much smaller scale.  Our highway would first go from the oceanfront through the city of Anse-a-Galets, and then out to the hillside.  Along the way, would be pollen plants, high nectar producing plants, water, and shelter.  Our goal is to make the life of the honeybee less stressful.  By creating our own version of a highway, we can ensure that beekeepers c...

I wanted to discuss the agribusiness plan a little bit.  I have gotten many emails asking what does it look like, how will it happen, etc. As I have mentioned in many different blogs, a cooperative will be setup to handle and govern all of the farming programs.  It helps lower cost and give a strong competitive advantage when you have a cooperative.  So that is a brief overview of how it will happen. It will take a few good farmers to make the co-op work and it will take a new way of doing things to make it work.  While I have discussed beekeeping and tilapia farming, there will also be a focus on actual vegetable and fruit crops.  I mentioned things like the Pinto Bean for example, but I haven't discussed how the fields will be prepared. Major issues such as poor soil, lack of water, free roaming animals, and lack of farm equipment make normal open field farming very labor intensive.  The lack of basic controls really hurt and affect the crop produc...

Image from CNN.com A terrorist gently walked into a church in Charleston, South Carolina and was welcomed with open arms by the church members.  As the church members did their prayer service, a white man named Dylann Roof waited one hour setting next to the black church members before getting up and shooting them. The terrorist act isn't new to what is going on in the black community.  This year headlines have circled the world talking about unarmed and usually innocent black men and women being killed in a hail of bullets from police.  Many of these police have emails and text that show their racist and militant views towards black people.  Often these police officers are not prosecuted and usually are on paid leave while going through the American Judicial System. Dylann Roof will also go through the same justice system.  The act of terror on the black community has many in that community angry that not more is done, and often white gunmen are looked...

One plan that I recently was discussing with a while back is how the island of La Gonave needs a business mentor and a system in place to help start up businesses.  One of the things that Hurko mentioned they are working with is to create such a business incubator. The plan is mainly around food eateries, but also include service industries as well.  This is big because it helps start small businesses and also will help with eventual tourism to the island.  Part of the plan is to have a period where there are no rental fees for space for a period of time.  Also it would be a small pilot program to see how well it does.  From there if it does really well, then it would be expanded. I like the idea and think that it is a way of fulfilling many things that are going on with La Gonave.  For one it provides services that currently do not exist.  It allows for more money to stay on the island vs going off the island.  It also provides jobs. We wi...

You not understand the volume of eggs that Haiti imports every year, especially from the Dominican Republic.  I just talked about exporting to the DR, now I want to talk about importing.  Many Haitians want to buy local, but the cost to do so often gets in the way.  While some will argue the imported eggs and chicken parts may be contaminated, many Haitians are on a strict budget and will purchase imported food so that their money will go father.  For the price of  150.00 Gourdes, one could get several chicken parts and a fish.  Again this is from importers.  How do you stop this and give Haitian farmers a chance? Volume.  If you flood the market, then prices go down.  When the Haitian price of eggs and chicken parts go down, you then will see the flow of imported chicken parts and eggs go down.  Currently Dominican eggs are 14.00 Gourdes or so, and Haitian eggs are 20.00 Gourdes.  That small difference in cost adds up over time ...

One major advantage that La Gonave will have is that Haiti and Dominican Republic is so close.  Combined both countries have some 20 million people.  Going from Anse-a-Galets to Port-au-Prince is about an hour or less if we get the correct type of small cargo boat.  Then from Port-au-Prince to Santo Domingo, DR you are looking at about a 5 hour trip, not counting traffic. Trade will be huge for the island of La Gonave to successful.  Many goods could be traded to the DR, including farm crops but also things such as limestone, which La Gonave has plenty of.  The island shouldn't compromise itself by digging for limestone, but having a small quarry where the material is sold to the DR could be of major benefit.  Again tight control on where to get the natural limestone should be done so that it doesn't destroy the environment.  I mentioned long ago in other blogs that a Bureau of Land Management should be formed just to monitor and control this sort o...

When you look at Haiti in general many would state that it is a 4th world country.  The lack of infrastructure, job security, literacy, health, income, and unstable food production are some of the reasons for the ranking.  La Gonave is in a more dire situation than the mainland. How to move La Gonave off the 4th world list?  I have said it time and time again.  Farming!  One of the oldest professions in the world is Farming.  In fact farming gave rise to cities.  Farmers would work together, sell goods, people moved to those fertile lands to purchase the food that was produced.  Soon you had cities and other professions were created.  If Haiti, and in fact La Gonave wants to improve its standing, then farming is it. Having food security is the first thing, above housing, education, etc.  Without good food, nothing else really will matter.  Next good education is needed.  Yes even before housing is education.  Let's ...

La Gonave has an opportunity to do it right the first time.  Meaning that if the right people get involved and their goal is to help the Haitians to help themselves, then La Gonave could serve as the template for Haiti. La Gonave has many advantages over the mainland.  For one, with a smaller population the needs of food, housing, water, etc are less, so programs that are developed could easy cover this small population.  La Gonave is a blank canvas, so streets can be placed based on results that other cities around the world have tried.  La Gonave can build it's economy on just about any industry, although tourism and agriculture are probably the prime industries.  The list goes on and on. My point is that if done correctly, and La Gonave is a modern and vibrant place.  If La Gonave could have the majority of it's population literate, and that there are enough schools for every child.  If La Gonave could have a strong economy similar to the Baham...

The Acknowledgement of Land Use as well as a Partnership Agreement has been created.  This may not make sense to you, but it is a formal agreement to setup the honeybee hive operation on La Gonave, and establish the creation of a partnership which is the first step of creating a cooperative on the island. The Land Use is key as it will allow the hives permission to be on land on the island for a period of time.  Initially it would be for a short period of time that allows early termination, but it also allows for extended time. The Partnership Agreement is again the start of the cooperative.  It gives some teeth to everything and starts the collective power of two different entities to make moves on the island of La Gonave.  The cooperative is better than just a not-for-profit (many cooperatives are also not-for-profits) because the cooperative can collect money and do different types of investments.  It can also hold onto cash year over year, something tha...

Some have written to me and asked about the Commercial District Idea that I wrote about in 2013 when I first started doing this blog.  The article Commercial District is from 2013, and it outlines an idea to create a walking street that would eventually have commercial space.  many have asked what happened to that vision and is it still going to happen. We can say that it is still on the drawing board.  When I first started this blog, which was that month of that year, I had ambitious hopes for La Gonave, and laid out plans that would be affordable to build and quick.  I still believe in those plans.  The walking street idea is one that many cities in the US and countries around the world do.  It makes people get out of the car, to walk to destinations.  Not only does it promote exercise, but it also allows businesses to see their foot traffic real time.  The Walking Street idea is still something that will be built.  It maybe slightly ...