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From the page: "�Aid did some good and saved some lives early on but ultimately led to more division, more cynicism and made the mercantile class even richer,� says Mark Schuller, a U.S. anthropologist who teaches in Haiti. �In the end the way the aid was delivered, the lack of co-ordination and the lack of respect for the Haitian people did more harm than good. It would have been better if they had not come.�

Schuller, who spends $375 per month renting his three-bedroom flat, is critical of humanitarian staff earning up to ten times local salaries, with big cars, drivers and $2,500-a-month housing allowances. Rents have soared since the quake.

Haiti�s prime minister has pointed out that 40 per cent of aid money supports the foreigners handing it out. Undoubtedly, huge sums have been wasted: for example, humanitarian groups paid double local rates for lorry loads of water.

One car dealer sold more than 250 Toyota Land Cruisers a month at £40,000 each. �You see traffic jams at Friday lunchtime of all the white NGO and UN four-wheel drives heading off early to the beaches for the weekend,� said one Irish aid worker. �It makes me sick.�"