Almost every newspaper in the United States last week had the same picture.

Former president George W. Bush and his Democratic predecessor Bill Clinton in the Rose Garden announcing the formation of the Bush-Clinton Haiti Fund.

The fund itself has been a huge success. In just a few days, it has raised tens of millions of dollars, courtesy of movie stars, athletes and everyday Americans.

Haiti's helpers. Former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush join Barack Obama in the White House Rose Garden in a plea for Haiti on Jan. 16, 2010. (Ron Edmonds/Associated Press)

Coupled with the U.S. State Department's cellphone campaign — "Just text Haiti to number 90999 and your contribution will be added to your telephone bill" — disaster fundraising here has been astonishingly successful, with an average of 141,000 users thumbing their contributions each day.

But at the same time, the joint appearance of these two ex-presidents is ironic on a couple of levels, but particularly since each had a spotty record as chief executive when it came to dealing with Haiti.

Sure, Clinton sent 20,000 American troops to Haiti in 1994 to restore Jean-Bertrand Aristide to that country's presidency in the face of a rebel uprising.

But when Haiti stumbled when it came to establishing more democratic institutions and reforming its economy, Washington turned away.

As a result, Clinton's patience and interest wore out, and he ordered a halt to most of the direct aid to Haiti, one of the world's poorest countries.

Taking power in January 2001, Bush continued the aid freeze. And he also sent troops to Haiti, in 2004 when Aristide was forced from power for the second time.

But Bush withdrew those troops within three months, saying the U.S. would not engage in "nation building."

It wasn't until 2006 that U.S. aid to Haiti was restored.

Down this road before

This is not an argument against aid but rather a reminder that U.S. interest in Haiti follows an unfortunate pattern.

As Robert Pastor, a former Jimmy Carter-era official who also advised Clinton on Haiti, told the Los Angeles Times the other day: "There is a crisis, there's a strong reaction and promises to remain engaged. And then there's disillusionment and interest wanders.

"This has applied to the way the past two administrations reacted to Haiti. I'm afraid it will apply to this one as well."

My colleague on these pages, Brian Stewart, recently outlined the enormous problems facing those who would rebuild Haiti, and his to-do list takes your breath away.

As even Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has now acknowledged, it will take a minimum of a decade to complete the physical work of repair and renewal. And who knows how long to see a government and an economy flourish.

A Band-Aid

We've all been down the road of international promises before.

In 1984, I was part of a news team that spent months in Ethiopia documenting the famine that gripped that part of the world and its tragic effect especially on children there.

Thousands died while thousands of others suffered so badly in their early months that their lives were forever stunted.

The world rallied. Rock stars founded Band Aid. Money was raised, governments made promises.

Today's headlines from Ethiopia, which are almost never on the front pages or the evening television news, say 5.7 million Ethiopians rely on international aid for their daily meals; and that thousands of children's lives are still at risk; and that international aid agencies are failing to raise the money they need to fight the plague of famine.

Twenty-five years later, we are still struggling to get food, water and medicine to Ethiopians.

What example is that to Haitians who have seen their whole world turned upside down.

New Orleans

In 2005, the place was New Orleans.

Eighty per cent of the city was flooded, its population scattered. The governments of the day in Washington and Baton Rouge, and politicians everywhere in this the world's richest nation, promised to rebuild New Orleans as it was before.

Today's statistics show that 31 per cent of all dwellings remain uninhabited. Twelve of the city's 39 hospitals are still closed. School enrolment has dropped from 187,000 to 141,000.

Twenty-five percent of New Orleans citizens have not been able to return. There has been a noticeable drop in commercial development and job growth has been slow.

New Orleans is one of the largest cities in the United States and now its NFL team is on its way to the Super Bowl on Feb. 7, a happy resurgence for a city and a stadium that was a squalid refuge during Katrina's wrath.

Still, for nearly five years, whole neighbourhoods have remained wastelands, their buildings vacated and festering in desertion.

What's more, this happened while these neighbourhoods retained the basic infrastructure — sewers and roads — that did not exist in Haiti even before the earthquake.

Staying power

Today's Ethiopia and New Orleans are a stark warning for those who wish to help Haiti.

Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive, attending a conference on Haitian reconstruction in Montreal on Jan. 25, 2010. (Canadian Press)

It's not sympathy that's the issue, it's staying power.

There are exceptions, of course, hard-hit areas that have succeeded in the face of unimaginable disaster.

The tsunami of 2004 in Southeast Asia claimed an estimated 230,000 lives while over one million people watched their homes and business swallowed up by huge tidal waves.

As with Haiti, there was a huge out-pouring of international relief. But unlike the situation in Haiti, governments were not destroyed, capital cities survived and the politicians knew tourism was their mainstay.

Towns and villages were rebuilt, hotels refurbished, beaches cleared and new docks constructed as many residents were quickly back to work.

Today, the tsunami, while not forgotten, seems to have lost its murderous grip on the imagination. In Montreal this week, Canada is chairing a high-level conference to come up with an overview for what is happening on the ground in Haiti and for the long-term reconstruction needs.

Participants will include foreign ministers from some of the most developed nations, delegates from the big aid agencies and the prime minister of Haiti, Jean-Max Bellerive.

Those attending say that staying power isn't an issue here. We'll see.