It’s been a year since a devastating 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti, and there’s no denying the situation there is untenable. An estimated one million people still live in tents, thousands have died from cholera, and a shady election process has generated civil unrest. Food and work are scarce.

But what exactly did we expect?

A bevy of obligatory anniversary reports have bemoaned the lack of any real recovery in the Caribbean nation, but Haiti was a physical and political house of cards long before shaking started. Years of corrupt governments, plundered resources, foreign exploitation, and individual avarice left Haiti ill prepared to deal with day-to-day life, let alone the challenges of a megadisaster.

Even in the first weeks after the quake, experts warned that recovery would take many years and have to address past misfortune.

“I think this is going to take many more decades than only 10 years and this is an enormous backwards step in Haiti's development,” Edmond Mulet, acting head of the UN Haiti mission, told the BBC in January 2010. “We will not have to start from zero but from below zero.”

Why then the perception that Haiti is so far behind the recovery curve? Although conditions are deplorable, some say efforts are proceeding according to plan. Cheryl Mills, chief of staff for the U.S. secretary of state, told Time that while rubble removal and shelter building needed to improve, “Haiti is relatively on pace, recovery-wise.” Others from organizations large and small have defended their efforts as well, saying they’ve done their best with not much to work with. The vastness of the devastation can’t be underestimated, they say.

“The earthquake made Port-au-Prince look like many cities in Europe after World War II, and it took them 10 years to recover," U.S. Ambassador to Haiti Kenneth Merten told Time. “To expect more here is not fair to the Haitian people.”

Still, there are indications that relief efforts aren’t productive and in some cases could be hurting recovery efforts. Only an estimated 5 percent of the debris littering the country has been removed and Haiti has only seen about 10 percent of the $11 billion of aid it’s been promised, according to another Time article. Even that small amount is being spent in such a way that is “infantilizing” the country and making Haitians dependent on aid, Haiti leaders said.

And while recovery can be expected to move slowly, time is of the essence, Purdue University geologist Eric Calais, who has been advising Haiti’s government, told the Washington Post.

“I haven't seen a lot of rebuilding. I've seen a lot of patching, which gives you the false impression that something is fixed, when it is just hidden,” Calais said. “There will be a bigger, more powerful, more damaging earthquake, closer to Port-au-Prince, and it will likely occur within the lifetimes of buildings being built now.”

If existing aid efforts are less than productive, so too are the hand-wringing, finger-pointing reports that not enough is being done to speed recovery. While aid groups might not work efficiently, media reports spotlighting the lack of results are leading many Haitians to believe humanitarian organizations are growing rich on their misery.

"The only people making money in Haiti are the NGOs who use the Haitian people to raise money and pay for their big cars," Haitian barber Clenor Fleurent told the Post.

So what would turn the tide in Haiti? There’s no good plan yet, but U.S. politicians and a recent Rand report agree that creating a strong, organized, and transparent government—free from graft and cronyism—will go a long way.

Meanwhile, Haitians on the street have seen too much corruption to hold much hope.

"With my own eyes I don't see progress. I don't see anything," Fleurent said. "Progress is for special people."