January ist was the 207th anniversary of the day that Haiti became the second country in the Americas to declare independence. To mark their achievement of an equivocal freedom, Haitians traditionally eat pumpkin soup. This year some did not bother. "None of us felt like celebrating," said Micheline Michel, whose home is a shanty of bed sheets opposite the ruins of the National Palace. Instead, she spent the holiday hawking old clothes around the concrete carcasses of buildings that litter the city centre. Around 1m Haitians have been living like Ms Michel in tents or under tarpaulins since January 12th last year, when Port-au-Prince was devastated by a huge earthquake officially estimated to have killed 230,000 people.
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