Profiting from disaster

As Haiti begins digging out from under 60 million cubic meters of earthquake wreckage, U.S. firms have begun jockeying for a bonanza of cleanup work.

It's unclear at this point who will be awarding the cleanup contracts, but there is big money to be made in the rubble of some 225,000 collapsed homes and at least 5,000 government and office buildings.

At least two politically connected U.S. firms have enlisted powerful local allies in Haiti to help compete for the high-stakes business.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/haiti/story/1470013.html

Let's hope that "politically connected U.S. firms" with "powerful local allies" do not undo all the good work and good will created by charitable ordinary Americans.