Hair Salons, Movie Theaters Open In Haiti Tent Cities

Tens of thousands of Haitians have been living in tent cities since the January earthquake -- many of them are not even homeless, simply afraid to sleep indoors with the threat of aftershocks.

Since many have nowhere else to go, and aid agencies can only provide tent city residents with "wheat grain and oil," many Haitians are selling their skills or resources to their neighbors.

NPR reports:

The biggest tent city in Port-au-Prince includes a full-service beauty salon.

"It don't matter which condition your life is in, you still have to keep yourself clean and look good," Yolene Samard, the proprietor, says while working on a customer's toenails.

Samard's big square tent is made out of tarps and bedsheets. She and her husband sleep in one half; the other half is the salon. It's clean and bright, with a shelf stacked with beauty supplies and a bench where customers wait.

The hair salons, rice and bean stores, and even a makeshift cell phone charging station and movie theater, provide a brief sense of normalcy for thousands of Haitians whose lives are anything but.

NPR reported this story as part of a partnership with PBS Frontline. A new series on PBS on the struggle in Haiti, "The Quake," premieres on March 30.

WATCH:

Comments

[huffnpuff147]

02:17 PM on 03/29/2010

Capitalism this is not. Wall Street is capitalism.

What's going on in Haiti is called social entrepreneurship - when entrepreneurs pool resources to meet the needs of a society and in the process exchange wealth (what little there is) for the kind of work that meets the most pressing need like haircuts, baby sitting, fresh vegatables and bottled water. It's call speading the wealth, and this could only happen in the absense of capitalism. Capitalist will begin to call this socialism, but that's only because they can't control it no more than the government can. This is what it means to let the free markets decide..

Capitalism will show up when its time to get the oil from the reserves underneath Haiti and in the process make the Capitalist Wall Street investors even richer, not to mention putting the entrepreneurs out of business.

[ThinkingPatriot]

08:39 PM on 03/26/2010

This is the Republican Utopia, exactly where they'd like the US to end up

[SugarBare504]

08:43 PM on 03/26/2010

This is recovery after a disaster, you better believe republicans are in favor of that. But one thing for sure, the lead in states "capitalism at work", I know you libs hate that.

[hypnotoad72]

03:21 PM on 03/27/2010

Some of us are fine with capitalism. "Corporatism" and entitlements to wealthy corporations are another matter, however.

[fridakahlofan]

12:03 PM on 03/28/2010

Americans are mostly certainly not against capitalism, it's the type of capitalism destined to destroy the regular American that some are against, the selling off of our country is something that comes to mind, bankrupting our economy is another.

About your touting " This is recovery after a disaster, you better believe republicans are in favor of that." I don't think all republicans are, our last Pres. and his administration failed the victims of hurrican Katrina miserably in "recovery after a disaster", they left our fellow citizens to die. We remember.

[charmante]

08:30 PM on 03/26/2010

NY times editorial on the inhumane conditions in these camps.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/26/opinion/26fri1.html :

"Misery rages like a fever in the hundreds of camps sheltering hundreds of thousands of the 1.3 million people left homeless by the Jan. 12 earthquake. The dreaded rains have already swamped tents and ragged stick-and-tarp huts. They have turned walkways into mud lakes and made difficult or impossible the simple acts of collecting and cooking food, washing clothes, staying clean and avoiding disease. "

[Committee of One]

08:27 PM on 03/26/2010

Are they providing health insurance to their employees? Somebody better get on their case! Is their place of business up to OSHA standards? Where are the inspectors? And I'll bet they're not paying any taxes either. Where's the IRS when you need it?

[PoliticalRockChick]

08:22 PM on 03/26/2010

I so love my people, they are great survivors. The world can learn a lot from my people on how to survive.

[shutterbabe]

12:27 PM on 03/28/2010

The Haitians are beautiful people and you are quite right, PoliticalRockChick. Their courage is a shining symbol to all of the world. Their hardships still exists but their spirit is boundless and unwavering.

[noladeb]

07:53 PM on 03/26/2010

If getting your hair and nails done makes you feel good then I say go for it!

[charmante]

07:45 PM on 03/26/2010

People living in these makeshift camps should be applying pressure to have their situation change instead of adapting to their environment. It is projected that 40,000 of them could die when the rainy seasons peaks in May.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gKIwJdtwwiDTwRfEMQ_Mm602cm8wD9ELVTQ80:
"unless they take action to move refugees to higher ground, as many as 40,000 people could be killed if there are heavy rains."

Apparently, many living in these camps are unaware of the danger that lies ahead if these inhumane conditions are not changed very quickly.

[charmante]

07:51 PM on 03/26/2010

This is what it looks like when it rains in those camps:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJsrh6xtmU4

http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/bestoftv/2010/03/19/ac.penn.haiti.camp.cnn.html

[StarBanker]

07:06 PM on 03/26/2010

As Thomas Sowell says, "Capitalism is what people do when government leaves them alone."

[hypnotoad72]

03:23 PM on 03/27/2010

Did Sowell know how much taxpayer money government subsidizes wealthy corporations with? On top of all those tax cuts given to the same corporations?

http://www.ctj.org/html/corp0402.htm

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/53177/

http://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-to-grassley-were-still-using-h-1bs-no-moral-imperative-to-hire-americans-2009-3

Funny how many of those no-government people freely ignore some of these pesky details.

[Pandaforum]

06:42 PM on 03/26/2010

I'd never thought I'd see a marxist web site touting capitalism. I'm surprised that obama didn't go in and try to take over everything.

[silverlincoln]

07:03 PM on 03/26/2010

pandaforum, I'm as surprised as you. I nearly dropped my dentures, you know the ones I have to use that belonged to my dead brother. Isn't it amazing how creative people can be and it should be encouraged there. I'll bet they will soon have a doctor setting up shop and have the nerve to charge for his services. I know Obama will close him down.

[kyeshinka]

07:24 PM on 03/26/2010

A true capitalist website would charge you to read it, let alone post anything.

[silverlincoln]

07:55 PM on 03/26/2010

kyeshinka, believe me, you see all these ads on the website. Ms Huff is raking it in. I just hope she's paying her taxes so I can get my free HC.

[hypnotoad72]

03:23 PM on 03/27/2010

*ding* *ding* *ding*

We have a winner!

[TJCole]

06:24 PM on 03/26/2010

Another good sign the drug dealers are back too, Capitalism at it's best...!

[StarBanker]

07:10 PM on 03/26/2010

"Drug dealers back." Come on now, what are drug deals like? Here's some real road dirt for some Black Tar, what a deal!

[silverlincoln]

07:58 PM on 03/26/2010

Drug dealers are smarter than me.. ....They keep their money from the Tax Man.

[charmante]

06:12 PM on 03/26/2010

When one adapts too easily to one's situation, then one does not try to change it.

While it is nice to see them make the best out of their situation, adapting too easily or quickly has its downfall.

[Gretel1or2]

06:36 PM on 03/26/2010

Actually the opposite has been shown to be true. People who can adapt to their environment and adversity are more resilient over the long haul. Those who are rigid and inflexible will "break" eventually. Furthermore the word "adapt" does not imply NO change.

[charmante]

07:00 PM on 03/26/2010

Nothing in post suggested it was all bad. Like all things, there is good and bad.

Adaptation does not mean a change to the environment that one lives in. In this context, It means coping, surviving your environment.

[charmante]

07:30 PM on 03/26/2010

The downfall to always be in adaption mode in Haiti is, problems never get fix.

Roads are bad, buy an SUV. The answer should have been: fix the road.

No electricity, buy a generator. The answer should have been: build a power grid.

[KriTiKiT]

05:47 PM on 03/26/2010

how about a farmers market, f' you hair eat

[Essay]

05:52 PM on 03/26/2010

Ahh, yes, because fresh food (or really any food at all) is so readily available.

It may seem frivolous to us, but in the wake of a disaster, it's actually quite reassuring for people to return to some sort of normalcy. It's kind of the idea that, "Hey, if we can afford to have this luxury, the worst must be over, right?"

[NeoStar9]

06:07 PM on 03/26/2010

I think a large part of that is the normalcy of it. They could be living in the tents for a long time to come and they more then likely see things that way so they have to make the best of it.

[JTHC75]

06:41 PM on 03/26/2010

Haitians are just like people all over the world. Just because you've suffered terribly doesn't mean you can't look good while you're at it. Besides, people are offering whatever services they can--why should hair stylists stay idle?