I'm not sure that you quite understand how poverty works. There are no resources in Haiti, not even arable land.  No human capital, nothing to trade.  Even if it were possible to build earthquake-resistant buildings, without engineers, out of mud, they couldn't--because the mud was literally all they had to eat:<p><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/29/food.internationalaidanddevelopment" rel="nofollow">http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/29/food.internation...</a>