About this picture: Haiti Earthquake Hillary Clinton,
Bill Clinton, the UN envoy to Haiti, is among those who has seen an opportunity in the tragedy.
He said Haitians are "going to be given the opportunity to re-imagine their country, through the rebuilding of Port-au-Prince, the rebuilding of these other places, through opening new airports, opening new ports".
France is understood to be unhappy at speculation that Haiti might even become a temporary protectorate of the UN or even the US. But Elizabeth Ferris, an international development scholar at the Brookings Institution in Washington, said: "The crucial thing is the Haitian government has to take ownership of the process.
If the international community just substitutes aid programmes for the Haitian government people's livelihoods will not be connected to a proper economic structure."
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