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By STEVE KROLL-SMITH

After the destruction of Lisbon by a powerful earthquake in 1755, the Marquis de Pombal counseled, "Bury the dead and feed the living."

In 2010, even this simplest of responses went unheeded for weeks in Haiti. While thousands of unidentified dead were trucked from Haiti's streets to makeshift graves, the living went hungry.

The most immediate question is not whether the Haitian government is up to the task of mounting an effective reply to this historic catastrophe; it isn't. The question rather is whether there will be an effective multinational response to both the ongoing emergency and the long-term task of building a nation.

The phrase "nation-building" is stained by the history of military imperialism. Moreover, the United States has failed repeatedly at this gargantuan task. Witness Cuba, Somalia, Vietnam and, of course, Haiti itself.

Building a nation in Haiti must be a global effort led by the United Nations. And, yes, the United Nations does have an uneven record of success in this area, but it also has a string of successes, among them Namibia, El Salvador, Cambodia and Mozambique.

There are at least two foundational tasks that lie at the heart of successful nation-building in Haiti. First, a legitimate government must be created; second, Haiti must be relieved of its massive debt in coordination with lifting any and all trade barriers. The first task is the most daunting.

A government's authority ultimately rests on its legitimacy. People must trust its capacity to act on their behalf. The complex political history of Haiti has reduced the nation's government to little more than a caricature. This was evident only a couple of days after the quake as aid groups assisting in Port-au-Prince, fearing corruption, worked to limit the role of the government in the distribution of food.

Corrupt and largely incompetent, Haiti's government is nevertheless sovereign and cannot simply be replaced at the whim or will of a foreign power. But quakes do, at times, alter not only the physical but also the political landscape, as the Lisbon earthquake of 1755 and the 1906 quake in San Francisco illustrate. And there's little doubt that the seismic jolt that crippled Haiti was also a political shock of untold magnitude.

When the earth fractured beneath Port-au-Prince, the political topography of Haiti also opened, creating a moment for a political makeover. One approach would have the United Nations and Haiti's elected government working in tandem with the thousands of successful Haitians living abroad who remain committed to their native country.

The U.S. Census Bureau reported that in 2008, there were 535,000 Haitians living in the United States. More than 20 percent of Haiti's economy derives from remittances sent by many of the 2 million Haitians living around the world. Engineers, teachers, doctors, nurses and others ready to return to their native land, with their varied skills and resources, could work with the United Nations and Haiti's government to fashion a viable political and economic state.

The United States could play a leading role in this effort by a congressional step, finally passing the "Jubilee Act for Responsible Lending and Expanded Debt Cancellation." This act would, among other things, cancel Haiti's crippling and unseemly debt to the United States. The estimated amount of this liability is more than $50 million. Moreover, the United States needs to work with other countries to secure a complete repeal of the more than $641 million Haiti owes worldwide.

Should Haiti "recover"? No, not if "recovery" means a return to normal, because what has passed for "normal" in Haiti fashioned a vulnerable population and a hazardous landscape that worked in tandem with a seismic violence to shatter the tiny country. The aim must be transformation -- a makeover -- of Haiti's political and economic systems. Recovery won't do.

Steve Kroll-Smith is a professor of sociology at UNCG.