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

Jonathan M. Katz

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 023034187X ISBN 13: 9780230341876

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013

Synopsis

On January 12, 2010, the deadliest earthquake in the history of the Western Hemisphere struck the nation least prepared to handle it. Jonathan M. Katz, the only full-time American news correspondent in Haiti, was inside his house when it buckled along with hundreds of thousands of others. In this visceral, authoritative first-hand account, Katz chronicles the terror of that day, the devastation visited on ordinary Haitians, and how the world reacted to a nation in need.

More than half of American adults gave money for Haiti, part of a monumental response totaling $16.3 billion in pledges. But three years later the relief effort has foundered. It's most basic promises - to build safer housing for the homeless, alleviate severe poverty, and strengthen Haiti to face future disasters - remain unfulfilled.

The Big Truck That Went By presents a sharp critique of international aid that defies today's conventional wisdom; that the way wealthy countries give aid makes poor countries seem irredeemably hopeless, while trapping millions in cycles of privation and catastrophe. Katz follows the money to uncover startling truths about how good intentions go wrong, and what can be done to make aid "smarter."

With coverage of Bill Clinton, who came to help lead the reconstruction; movie-star aid worker Sean Penn; Wyclef Jean; Haiti's leaders and people alike, Katz weaves a complex, darkly funny, and unexpected portrait of one of the world's most fascinating countries. The Big Truck That Went By is not only a definitive account of Haiti's earthquake, but of the world we live in today.

About this title

Review:

'In a book that is an absorbing mixture of memoir, reportage and investigation, Katz tries to find out how the global relief effort backfired so badly and what happened to the money raised.' -Ian Birrell, The World Today
 
'The Big Truck That Went By is supremely valuable for collecting the chatter, statistics and anecdotes into a damning dossier...' - London Review of Books
 
"A fascinating account of national and international political maneuvers after the earthquake in Haiti and the strategies of ordinary Haitians in the struggle for daily existence" - Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs magazine

Book Description:

An eye-opening account of what the world is doing to help a country that has no feet to get back on, by the 2012 winner of Nieman Foundation's J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award

About this edition

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 023034187X
• ISBN 13: 9780230341876
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 320