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25 January 2010 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/26/world/americas/26haiti.html Haiti Says It Will Ask for $3 Billion at Donors Conference By GINGER THOMPSON and IAN AUSTEN Published: January 25, 2010 PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Haiti will ask the international conference meeting in Montreal on Monday for $3 billion to rebuild this city, left largely in ruins by the Jan. 12 earthquake, according to a senior Haitian government official. The official — the tourism minister, Patrick Delatour — was assigned by the Haitian president, René Préval, to assess the earthquake damage and prepare a reconstruction plan. Mr. Delatour said that Haiti would use $2 billion to build housing for the 200,000 people left homeless. The rest, he said, would be used to rebuild government ministries and national infrastructure — including upgrading the seaport and three international airports. At the conference, representatives from 14 countries and the European Union are trying to determine how to structure aid efforts to a long-impoverished, troubled country subject to both political and natural disasters, with a government that itself suffered severely in the earthquake. On Monday, the government made clear that it intended to be in command of the reconstruction. Addressing the conference’s opening, Haiti’s prime minister, Jean-Max Bellerive, said, “The Haitian government is working in precarious conditions, but it can provide the leadership that people expect.” In marathon meetings over the last week, Mr. Delatour said, the beleaguered Haitian government considered moving the capital to a new location. But he said it was agreed that doing so would take too long and cost too much. Instead, most government ministries are to remain in Port-au-Prince, but functions may be moved elsewhere, to avert crowding the downtown area during the reconstruction. __________ Disclosure: Patrick Delatour was an exemplary student of Cryptome's John Young at Columbia University School of Architecture in the 1970s. Patrick was an extraordinarily talented, eloquent and persuasive architect, planner and visionary for the future of his country-- he had already developed a plan for the country's breakaway from foreign domination through local corruption. If Patrick continues to be in charge of Haiti reconstruction, and given sufficient non-corrupted control and resources, it will be superior to anything Haiti has experienced before. And will definitely not be just another Caribbean hang-out for tourist drunks and hide-out for crooks. If there is to be successor to Castro to lead a poor country out of debt and economic exploitation it will be Patrick Delatour.