In the Winter 2009 issue of Black Oak Presents I wrote

With natural disasters turning cities into ruins, now is a good time to think about the rebuilding process. Initially I agreed with [former] Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert that rebuilding the disaster prone area didn’t make much sense, but I have changed my mind. Done correctly, New Orleans, Louisiana; Greensburg, Kansas; and other devastated cities can become models of sustainable development and Mutual Aid.

The earthquakes that hit Haiti along with the worldwide economic downturn present a good time to revisit the ideas in that article. I don’t want to focus on Haiti’s specific political and economic problems, rather I would like to look at voluntary, community based responses to the issues that have effected Haiti, southeast Asia, Greensburg, KS, New Orleans, etc. More >