Global Voices » French Creoles

Martinique: Where has Creole gone?

Fabienne Flessel — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 12:12:15 +0000

On Martinican collective blog Montray Kreyol, a recent post [Fr/Fr Cr] wonders why Martinique 1ère [Fr], which is the local relay of the French National Broadcast Network, Fance Television [En], has almost no Creole language spoken on air.

Martinique, Guadeloupe, France: MP Letchimy Against Minister Guéant

Fabienne Flessel — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 14:27:50 +0000

Bloggers and mainstream journalists around the French-speaking blogosphere have been buzzing once more about French Minister of Home Affairs, Claude Guéant. He is notorious for suggesting extreme right-wing policies about national identity, religion and immigration, as confirmed by this headline [fr] from French mainstream information website Le Monde:

Claude Guéant, habitué des polémiques

Claude Guéant, serial controversy-maker

which covers different ideas developed by Guéant like:

La ‘croisade' en Libye

‘Crusade' in Lybia

Pas de 'signes religieux' pour les “usagers du service public”

No ‘religious symbols' for ‘users of public facilities and administrations'

One of his extremely controversial ideas regarding the visas delivered to foreign graduates in France has been discussed here on Global Voices.

With the tense atmosphere of the upcoming French presidential elections, every word uttered by front-rank politicians from all parties are closely examined and judged - no surprise, then, that this sentence from Guéant in a meeting organized by a right-wing students' union on January 6, 2012, has unleashed a fury among the public opinion:

Toutes les civilisations ne se valent pas…

All civilizations are not equal…

The reactions have been numerous and varied, some agreeing and others vehemently disagreeing - even in his own political family - but to this day the most memorable response has come from Serge Letchimy, a left-wing MP from Martinique, French West Indies, who condemned Guéant's words and ideas in a letter published on his own blog [fr] and read before all the MPs:

Vous nous ramenez, jour après jour, à ces idéologies européennes qui ont donné naissance aux camps de concentration, au bout du long chapelet esclavagiste et colonial.
Monsieur Guéant le régime nazi, si soucieux de purification, si hostile à toutes les différences, était-ce une civilisation ? La barbarie de l’esclavage et de la colonisation, était-ce une mission civilisatrice ?

You bring us back, day after day, to these European ideologies which gave birth to the concentration camps as a conclusion to a theory started with slavery and colonialization.
Mr Guéant, was the Nazi regime, obsessed with purification and hostile to differences, a civilization? Was the barbarity of slavery and colonization part of a civilizing mission?

Here [fr] is the video showing Letchimy reading his letter, the content of which caused a wave of indignation among the right-wing MPs and members of the French Government, who left the benches of the French National Assembly under the pretext that Letchimy was outrageously associating the Minister with the Nazi regime. They later asked for official apologies, to show their support to Claude Guéant.

However, his words visibly inspired a movement of opposition against the Minister of Home Affairs among French West Indian and French bloggers and readers alike. In a post at Montray Kréyol [fr], renowned Martinican author Patrick Chamoiseau explains why Letchimy's ideas deserve to be defended.

M. Letchimy a donc vu juste et a dit ce qu'il fallait dire comme il fallait le dire.
Et il a fait honneur non seulement à la Martinique mais à la France et à son Assemblée Nationale toute entière. Car enfin, sans lui, le « célébrant des civilisations supérieures » serait venu, se serait assis, aurait écouté je ne sais [quelle] politiquerie, et serait reparti sans que rien ni personne ne lui trouble la conscience.

Letchimy got it right and said what needed to be said just how it needed to be said.
By doing so, he honored not only Martinique but also France and its whole National Assembly. Indeed, had he not spoken, the “celebrator of the superior civilizations” would have come, sat down, listened to political questions and left the place, with his conscience unquestioned by anyone or anything.

On No apologies, no disciplinary measures, full support to Mr Letchimy” and “Petition in support of Serge Letchimy” [fr].

Coincidentally or not, this controversy took place a couple days before Claude Guéant visits Martinique and Guadeloupe, in order to launch the presidential campaign of Nicolas Sarkozy in the Overseas regions of France. Grabbing the opportunity to show their ideological and political opposition to the Minister, two Guadeloupean political personalities, a left-wing Minister of Parliament and a Senator, released a statement [fr], published by Caraib Creole News:

Nous avons été informés de votre prochain déplacement en Guadeloupe et nous sommes au regret de vous faire savoir que nous ne pourrons vous y recevoir.

We have been informed of your upcoming visit to Guadeloupe and we regret to let you know that we will not welcome you here.

They conclude their statement with a reminder of a similar decision made by the late Aimé Césaire in 2005.

En décembre 2005, afin de marquer son indignation suite au vote d’une loi reconnaissant « le rôle positif de la présence française outre-mer », Aimé Césaire avait refusé de rencontrer le ministre de l’Intérieur de l’époque, Nicolas Sarkozy, en déplacement en Martinique. Nous avions alors tous, outre-mer, salué la portée de son geste.
Nous choisirons par conséquent, en toute modestie, de lui emboîter le pas.

In December 2005, in order to signify his indignation after the vote of a law acknowledging “the positive role of the French presence overseas” Aimé Césaire refused to meet the then Minister of Home Affaires, Nicolas Sarkozy who was visiting Martinique. In the overseas regions, we all recognized the importance of this decision.
We will therefore, with all due modesty, follow his path.

The conclusion is worth noting since Aimé Césaire was the political mentor of the MP Letchimy and his letter to Mr Guéant was highly inspired by Césaire's “Discourse on Colonialism“.

The thumbnail image used in this post is by UMP Photos, used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) Creative Commons license. Visit UMP Photos' flickr photostream.

Martinique: All together around Creole

Fabienne Flessel — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 13:59:44 +0000

The Creole language in the Caribbean and the cooperation between islands were recently discussed during the Creole-speaking Regions Days, as explained in this post on Tous Créoles [Fr Cr/Fr]. One of the most debated issues was a visa waiving program between the French Caribbean islands and the rest of the West Indies.

Poetry Slam Activism in Francophone Africa

Lova Rakotomalala — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 17:39:04 +0000

This post is part of our special coverage Languages and the Internet.

In the past 10 months social movements have sprung around the world at an impressive pace. It all started with an act of despair in the town of Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia, and has now spread across 87 countries and 951 cities around the world according to the organizers of the United for #GlobalChange (October 15) Movement.

Demonstrating outside institutions is one way of expressing a desire for change in a society. However, other forms of activism have existed for a while now and are now rekindled all around the world as a show of protest against the status-quo. Poetry slam is a well-known channel of expression for many activists in North America but the rest of the world has now embraced this unique blend of poetry and rhythmic oral story telling.

Many have found it difficult at times to relate to a form of expression that is often wrongly perceived as limited to the urban youth of North America. Poetry slam is however now firmly entrenched in the culture of many countries, especially in Africa because it incorporates the African tradition of oral story telling. Here are a few examples of poetry slam across the African continent and the context in which they were expressed.

The Arab revolution

King Bobo on UniversalSlam wrote a tribute to the youth of Tunisia, Egypt, Syria and Libya entitled ‘Liberté chérie j’écris ton nom‘ ( Beloved freedom, I write thy name) [fr]:

Liberté chérie j’écris ton nom
Ecoutez ce vent de liberté qui souffle dans toutes les langues
La jeunesse tunisienne s’exprime sur les murs
Avec des slogans tracés à la peinture
Liberté, liberté, liberté
La jeunesse égyptienne grave sur les sépultures
Des hiéroglyphes modernes inscrits pour le futur
La jeunesse syrienne ne voit que des balles perdues
Qui ricochent un peu partout et qui tracent sur les murs
Les poètes libyens de Benghazi murmurent
Des poèmes satiriques comme des caricatures

Beloved Freedom, I write thy name
Listen to the wind of liberty that blows in all languages
Tunisian youth write on the walls
With slogans drawn as paintings
Freedom, freedom, freedom
Egyptian youth etch on the graves
Modern hieroglyphics inscribed for the future
Syrian youth only see stray bullets
That ricochet around and leave marks on the walls
Libyan poets in Benghazi murmur
Satirical poems as caricatures

Algeria

Fodil Belhadj, an Algerian author, poet and blogger on Regards Africains (African eyes) [fr], slams about the promise of Algeria's independence [fr] and makes an analogy with his own story and his exile from his homeland [fr]

Fodil Belhadj also posts on his blog an open letter to the Algerian army [fr] :

.. Cela s’appelle l’autodétermination Chère Armée Algérienne. L’aurais-tu par je ne sais quel crime oublié ? Ah oui j’avais oublié que les Algériens s’étaient « trompés » en mandatant 188 députés du Front islamique du salut. Oui c’est vrai z’avaient qu’à pas voter pour de méchants islamistes, alors que toi tu es tellement, tellement sympathique. Chère Armée Algérienne. C’est tout ce que tu as trouvé comme argument spécieux, s’il en est, pour écraser ton propre peuple et rassurer « ta » communauté internationale…!
Sache donc grande muette puisque tu feins de ne point le comprendre, et à défaut de l’admettre, que démocratie signifie : Se soumettre au verdict des urnes.

.. it's called self-determination, my dear Algerian army. How could you possibly forget? That's right, I forgot that Algerian “made a mistake” by voting for 188 MPs [Members of Parliament] of the Islamic Front (FIS). It's true that they should not have voted for the bad, mean Islamists and that you are so much more sympathetic. My dear Algerian army. Is that all the argument you have left to keep oppressing your people and reassure “your” international community.. ?
You ought to know, oh great silent one [nickname given to the army in many francophone nations], even if you pretend not to get it, that democracy means accepting the verdict of the voting poll

Republic of Congo

Abd al Malik is a well-known singer and poet who grew up in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo. Socially and politically engaged, most notably on the perception of Islam in France, he created with other artists the group ‘New African Poets' (NAP) [fr]. In his poem, ‘Soldat de plomb' (Toy soldier), Malik describes the struggle of a disaffected youth trying to fit in:

Soldat de plomb, soldat de plomb
Bien sûr qu'un sourire nous aurait fait plaisir,
Juste un peu d'attention et peut-être ça aurait été autrement.
Nous aurions été des enfants normaux et pas des enfants soldats,

Toy soldier, toy soldier
Of course a smile would have been nice,
A little bit of attention and maybe things have gone differently
We could have been normal children instead of child soldiers

Morocco

In Morocco, the independent news portal Mamfakinch described how the February 20 movement voiced their desire for change a few months ago in a different manner [fr]:

Nous sommes jeunes, nous sommes capables d’innovation ! Pour ne pas tomber dans la banalisation de nos formes de protestation, et au vu de l’essoufflement que peuvent ressentir nos concitoyens et principalement les jeunes par les sit-in répétitifs, la coordination de Rabat des jeunes du 20 févier a décidé de diversifier ses formes des contestations.
C’est dans cet esprit nous avons choisi, après un long débat, de faire un Flash-mob: Plus précisément, un Freeze ( on explique plus bas le principe) et un petit concert de musique et poèmes contestataires.

We are young and we are capable of innovating! For the protests not to grow stale, and since we've seen citizen movement, especially the youngsters grow tired by the repeated sit-ins, the coordination committee decided to diversify its way of protesting.
After a lengthy debate, we chose to do a flash-mob, more precisely a freeze, a small concert and some activist poetry.

Here is a video of part of the protest:

Madagascar

Some may argue that the original seeds of peotry slam were sowed in Madagascar. Malagasy culture has always incorporated Hainteny (Malagasy for “knowledge of words”), a traditional form of Malagasy oral literature and poetry involving heavy use of metaphor.

Kabary is the the spoken public discourse of the Hainteny and the earlier form of Kabary dates back to the 18th century. Kabary are often used during social gathering such as engagement parties or wedding where the speaker for each family would engage in verbal jousting. Usually declined by men, here is a rare instance of a Kabary spoken by Malagasy women [mg]:

Mauritius

Poetry slam has also taken a foothold on the island of Mauritius. Stefan Hart de Keating also known as StefH2K is one of the pioneer of poetry slam in the Indian Ocean. StefH2K explains that the presence during the slam is just as important as the quality of the text.

Fictif discusses the identity crisis that the Asian minority can sometimes feel in Mauritius [fr, kr]:

LE Sino-Mauricien

Aujourd’hui
Je veux slamer
Pour tous ceux
Qui comme moi en ont marre
D’être mis à l’écart
Car je ne suis pas qu’un petit Chinois
Mais un Mauricien
Comme toi… comme toi… comme toi
Oublie mon accent chinois
Ma langue maternelle, c’est le créole
Ki to ti kroir toi ? Mo pa konn koz kréol ?
Même si je regarde Jackie Chan à la télé
Ou pratique le kung-fu
Fou, hein ?
Ma danse préférée reste le séga

The Chinese-Mauritian

I want to slam
For those like me
Who are tired
Of being ostracized
Because I am not only a small Chinese guy
I am also a Mauritian
Like you, like you, like you
Forget my Chinese accent for a minute
My mother tongue is Creole
What did you think? That I cannot speak Creole?
Even if I watch Jackie Chan on TV
Or practice Kung-fu
Fooled you huh?
My favorite dance is still séga

There are many causes for which people protests in the streets or engage in political discourse. What has come to fruition is that the manner in which we do so tend to feed into one another more rapidly. Similarily, poetry slam has moved beyond borders to reach as a unique channel for self-expression and social activism. In fact, the rise of social media probably played a role in the quicker dissemination of poetry slam as a universal voice for the oppressed.

This post is part of our special coverage Languages and the Internet.

Global Handwashing Day: Changing Behaviors through Song and Dance

Juliana Rincón Parra — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 00:14:24 +0000

Logo for the Global Handwashing Day

Do you know how to properly wash your hands? Through song and dance, people from different parts of the world are teaching others the right way to wash their hands to promote health. October 15, 2011, is Global Handwashing Day, and with the slogan “Clean Hands Save Lives”, it puts the spotlight on a simple action that helps decrease child mortality due to preventable diseases.

Hip hop Grammy winners Chocquibtown from Colombia, tell children when to wash their hands and how to do it.

This group of young people in a rural community in Honduras also use Hip Hop to sing about the importance of handwashing in this video aired on local television.

In this next BBC world trust ad for handwashing in Cambodia, a young boy who is excluded from childrens' games until he washes his hands asks a very important question: what if he doesn't have soap? The answer? Just use ash.

Many different organizations are promoting handwashing in different parts of the world. In the next videos we see the Red Cross' efforts in Haiti to promote handwashing through songs in Creole, Food for the Hungry in Mozambique shows us a handwashing station that uses a gallon plastic bottle as a water source and shares the song Mozi's Water, which lasts as long as handwashing should. Foundations Surtigas and Promigas in Colombia have empowered children to express themselves through writing, painting, poetry and singing, with some of the children composing pieces on handwashing and singing in the traditional regional style of Vallenato.

This video from Mexico, bases itself on UNICEF's 2009 Japanese Handwashing Song and names the steps so they are easier to remember: the mountain, the guitar, the motorcycle, the snake, the butterfly and “kamehameha” show that handwashing is certainly much more than just rubbing palms together!

Beyonce's Single Ladies is used as the soundtrack to go through the 5 different steps of handwashing for health practitioners, as shown in this video and dance by Public Health students in Mexico. First removing rings, watches and bracelets, then regulating water flow, wetting hands and using enough soap, washing backs, fronts, sides and tips of fingers and then drying hands with paper towels which are used to close the faucet afterwards.

Health practitioners in Iligan City, Philippines also made their own choreographed handwashing video to the beat of Jai Ho, from the Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack.

Let's go wash our hands!

Comoros: Blog monitors Fuel Shortage in Anjouan

Lova Rakotomalala — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 14:00:50 +0000

In his blog, Dafinemkomori documents fuel and power shortage [fr] in the Comoros. He explains that fuel shortage has greatly impacted greatly many other aspects of the economy on the island of Anjouan (rise of the price of tuna and power shortage).

Video: Checking out the BOBs Video Channel Nominees

Juliana Rincón Parra — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 04:49:53 +0000

The Deutsche Welle International Blog Awards, known as The BOBs are one of the most important awards for content producers online. One of their 17 categories is the award for Best Video Channel and today we'll get to know a bit more about the 11 nominees you can vote for.

Yaqoob in Japan is the videoblog of Jacoub Al-Slaise, a Bahraini living in Nagoya, Japan. In his video posts he tells a bit about his cross-cultural experiences: sightseeing and feeding deer in Nara, walking around the city, flower arranging, sumo and even a guide to having babies in Japan. This next video [ar] has Yacoob showing us around his apartment:

From Bangladesh comes Unnayan TV, an online TV channel featuring many documentaries on the topics of development, cultural issues, education and human rights. For example, this short piece speaks about rickshaws, explaining their cultural importance and how new legislation is affecting rickshaw pullers' who now have an even harder time making a decent living. Or this next video, showing how although there are laws and embargoes to products made using child labor, this is still pervasive in Bangladesh:

Stands with a Fist is a nominee from Iran, selected due to the channel's importance during the Green Revolution in Iran. The most watched video of his site is We are all Majid Tavakoli. After the police detained student leader Maji Tavakoli, the media showed pictures of him dressed in female garb, the police said he had put on the hijab to be able to escape arrest. Iranian citizens believed that he had been dressed that way to ridicule and discredit him so to show their support they took pictures and made videos of themselves wearing head scarves as well:

Shawn Ahmed of The Uncultured Project has been featured several times here in Global Voices as well: his humanitarian work in Bangladesh has inspired many. Whether it is doing disaster relief with funds raised through online activism, working to get people clean water or helping build schools, his heart is in the right place and his videos help bring the message home. In this next video, he tackles the important subject of “eve teasing” and how this sexual harassment is, in a girl's own words a terrible psychological torture that makes them weak:

Grani.tv [ru] is from Russia, and according to the description on the BOBs' website it is the place where people get together to see and discuss investigative reports, interviews, human rights issues, opinions from opposition politicians and more. In this video, naturalists try to stop the cutting down of some trees in Moscow:

Грани-ТВ: Химки: новые бои

Isla Presidencial (Presidential Island) is a web series by Venezuelan animators of false news outlet elChiguirebipolar.net, who decided to see what would happen if presidents from different Latin American nations ended up in a deserted island after a presidential summit. The Presidential Island is quite successful not only in Venezuela, but also the rest of Latin America. In the latest episode [es], after fixing a radio they overhear that poverty, debt and other issues in their countries have been eliminated after their disappearance the information gets interrupted by a mayday call from a plane which crashes on the island. They decide to check out the wreckage and later meet with other heads of state who appeared on the island as a time vortex forced them to cross themselves in the past and future… and then we see a mysterious character who may just be the mastermind behind this all.

Lao Hu Miao (Tiger Temple) videoblogs from behind the Firewall of China about life, culture and human rights in China. Citizen journalism, interviews and road trip videos showing the sights around Beijing fill the channel. Like this next video showing the Dongyang Hill Temple:

After the Haiti earthquake lots of media focused on the region, but as the time passed, foreign interest began to wane and advances in the reconstruction of Haiti stopped making the international news. That's where Goudou-Goudou [fr] comes in: with a team of journalists and media specialists they've managed to keep people informed about what is going on in Haiti, and what the situation is like more than 1 year after the Earthquake. For example, this video on Plas Timoun an initiative that is using art to help support the psychological health of kids still living in the tent villages.

L’art, une réponse au cauchemar des enfants… por AsianProjekt

Engage Media focuses on the Asian Pacific region, and curates video content submitted by people in the region who try to bring attention to their issues, concerns and causes. Like this documentary done by an artistic group which is painting murals around Yogyakarta in Indonesia, for example:

Project Germany follows two filmmakers as they travel around Germany and interview people they meet along the way until they reach the 50 interview mark. So far there are 9 interviews on the site, and this is the latest one:

Rodrigo Leitão from Brazil has previous experience as a cultural reporter, and he uses it to his advantage in his YouTube channel where he showcases the lives of Brazilians. In this video [pt] he visits Sebastião Martins Vieira, a pen salesman who has been in business 53 years and who obviously is passionate about what he does as he shares his fountain pen collection and his thoughts:

These are all 11 nominees for the Best of Blogs Video Channel Award: did you like one in particular? Let them know your appreciation by voting for them and getting them closer to winning the audience award. Voting closes on April 11th, and you can cast one vote each 24 hours.

[disclosure: Jacoub Al-Slaise is a Global Voices contributor who has been very active in reporting the recent developments in Bahrain]

Caribbean: Caribe Wave 11, the first simulated tsunami alert

Claire Ulrich — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 18:55:33 +0000

On Wednesday, March 23, the first full-scale simulated tsunami alert exercise will take place in 33 countries in the Caribbean to test the effectiveness of alert, monitoring and warning systems (Hashtag on Twitter: EXERCISE - NOT REAL #CW11) . Open Street Map France [Fr] and Crisis Camp Paris [Fr] will join this exercise to encourage awareness and use of social media tools during emergencies in the French speaking West Indies.

Haiti: Aristide’s return, the word “house” and today’s election

Alice Backer — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 22:34:57 +0000

To say the twice exiled President Aristide is a mythic figure in the Haitian imagination is an understatement. To say he evokes strong emotions from Haitians, even less so. In a post titled “The Haitian Soap-Opera could not get any more dramatic,” New York City to Haiti, a Haitian-American living in Port-au-Prince, describes it thus:

There are two kinds of Haitians, people who love Aristide “Titid” or those who despise him. Many believe he was the messiah of the poor people because before him, they were widely ignored, others believe he is the most malevolent force to ever preside Haiti because he incited violence and targeted the middle and upper class. Many believe that he still has the power to control the masses and disturb the current electoral process. This is something we will have to wait to see. Haiti is on edge, both with excitement and/or fear. Grab your popcorn, folks! Things just got a bit interesting.

Obama, ostensibly not the biggest fan of the whole situation, apparently called South Africa’s President Zuma personally in an effort to delay Aristide’s return until after today's election. This, in turn, caused the (Boston-based) lawyers at Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, well-known Aristide defenders, to circulate a petition in favor of said return. Alain Armand, a.k.a. @theHaitian, a Haitian-American lawyer living in Haiti, objected:

The IJDH would better serve the Haitian constitution by helping it honor its commitment to free education for its children or prosecuting lawless and corrupt government officials like ex-presidents and corrupt customs officers. I, for one, reject this petition [in favor of Aristide’s return] on the basis that it supports everything that is wrong with Haiti today. It is an argument for more impunity, the one thing Haiti has too much of.

But Aristide did indeed return, to the jubilation of massive crowds who, for the most part, probably do not read, write, blog or even tweet; his main constituency comprises the most disaffected. His speech at the airport was broadcast live on all Haitian radio stations and the national TV channel. Flanked by his wife and two daughters, as well as celebrities such as Danny Glover and Venezuela’s Ambassador, Aristide, with his usual eloquence, expressed his happiness to be home. He mentioned the coup that overthrew him only in passing; instead, stressing the need for inclusion for Haiti’s poor majority.

When is a house just a house?
Haiti-based tweeters, including @Thirdworldgirl and @EmilyTroutman, an AOL news reporter, spent Friday watching and commenting on Aristide’s return: They wondered what it meant for Haiti’s future and for today’s second round election, in which the two main opponents are Michel Martelly, a right-wing singer [video: Kr] who has insulted Aristide and endorsed the coup in past concerts and Mirlande Manigat, a centrist professor whose election rallies have been violently disrupted by what she calls Martelly’s “Pink Militia”…

@ThirdWorldGirl: Does Lavalas still have pull? That is the question! If they do elections will not happen, if elections happen I can assume they don't.

@emilytroutman: Many people told me they won't vote at all unless Aristide tells them who to vote for. #jba #Haiti

For many who’d spent the past month tweeting in favor of either candidate, one preoccupation was whether their candidate would garner Lavalas votes. @Durandis, who has tweeted favorably about Manigat, mused [Kr]:

Van vire nan eleksyon ak prezans yon sel moun..mwen we moun kap chire mayo woz, kap joure manman #tetkale..bagay yo pran yon lot dimansyon.

The wind has turned in this election because of one person’s presence. I saw people ripping pink t-shirts and cursing Martelly’s mother. This is a new dimension.

A vertiginous buzz ensued over whether Aristide’s many “house” and “home” references were a subtle encouragement for voters to choose Manigat over Martelly. (Manigat’s electoral emblem is a small house.) Aristide’s speeches are usually metaphorical; Haitians know how to decode his words and the many Creole idioms that pepper his speeches. Though his supporters say it is unlikely he will endorse either candidate, Manigat supporters have capitalized on the rumour:

@boukman2004: @2012writer #TITID:” Si kèm te ka tounen “KAY” poum retire pèp la anba tant!” Nap vote ti KAY la = #68 #TITID #MANIGAT #HAITI

Aristide said: “If only my heart could turn into a “HOUSE” to remove the people from under tents!” We are voting the lil’ HOUSE = #68 = Manigat.”

They were met with scepticism from the Martelly side, which found other ways to ride the Aristide wave:

@ThirdWorldGirl: Depi on moun di kay kounyen an se andose li andose madanm lan?

Since when did saying the word house automatically meant you endorsed Manigat?

@FutureHaiti: RT @etnos: Jean-Bertrand Aristide di “Roz la a la mod” http://twitpic.com/4avk3o #TetKale

Jean-Bertrand Aristide says “Pink” [Martelly’s campaign color] is in fashion.

Crowds as measure of popularity
Tweeters and bloggers also bickered over how many folks came to greet Aristide at the airport and joined the procession to his home in Tabarre, with his supporters seeing thousands and the rest seeing hundreds or less.

Le Monde du Sud/Elsie News, a France-based Haitian native who favours Aristide, noted [Fr] the downplay of numbers by what French-speaking reports she could find, voicing her disappointment in the silence of French-speaking mainstream media on the crowds who met Aristide:

Est-ce qu'il faut être anglophone et/ou hispanophone pour avoir une information tout court et de plus objective sur Haïti? Est-ce qu'il serait préférable de ne pas savoir lire du tout et de se contenter de regarder des photos - qui disent quand même plus que les “quelques dizaines
de curieux.” de Alterpresse ? […] Pourtant son confrère Le Nouvelliste, très loin d'être favorable à Aristide écrit ceçi:
‘Une centaine d'employés de l'aéroport couraient de leur côté en direction de l'avion pour accueillir Jean Bertrand Aristide.'

http://www.lenouvelliste.com/

Seraient-ce les ‘quelques dizaines de curieux' mentionnés par Alterpresse?

For information about Haiti to be objective, does it have to be in English and/or in Spanish? Would it be best not to read at all and just look at pictures - which still say more than Alterpresse's “a few dozen”? […] Yet Le Nouvelliste, far from being favorable to Aristide wrote:
‘About a hundred employees of the airport ran towards the plane to welcome Jean Bertrand Aristide.'

http://www.lenouvelliste.com/

Would that be the ‘few dozen' mentioned by Alterpresse?

Could one explanation lie in France’s opposition to Aristide’s return, which Haiti-based @Mediahacker emphasized in his summary of Wikileaks cables about the issue?

This video, posted by Aristide supporter @gaetantguevara, allows netizens to judge the extent of the crowd for themselves:

Since his speech at the airport on Friday, Aristide has not addressed Haitian voters who choose between Manigat and Martelly today.

The thumbnail image used in this post, “Aristide Posters”, is by Ben Piven, used under an Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC 2.0) Creative Commons License. Visit Ben Piven's flickr photostream.

Haiti: The Entertainer, or The Professor?

Georgia Popplewell — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 17:49:18 +0000

Ballot paper. Image by @2012writer: "My vote easy. Don Bosco school in PV was smooth at 11am and had opened at 6am. No lines."

According to the reports on Twitter about today's presidential election runoff in Haiti, the lines at polling stations are long, and voters at the Lycée Petion and the Lycée Croix des Bouquets were unable to find their names on voter lists, a problem that had also plagued the original election last November. But many are also speculating on the outcome. Opinion polls conducted in the weeks before have tended to show entertainer Michel Martelly leading his rival Mirlande Manigat, an academic and former first lady.

@sdarguin1906: "Who shall it be?"

“Voters coming into cast ballots Cite Soleil Lycee greeted by #tetkale screams,” tweeted Miami Herald journalist Jacqueline Charles (”tetkale” is one of Martelly's nicknames, referring to the candidate's bald head), and images posted on Twitter showed the candidate being received enthusiastically by voters:

@MRSandell: "Outside polling station as Martèlly comes to vote"

@Telenoticiasrd: "Martelly saliendo de votar. Multitud en las afueras." [Martelly exits after voting. Crowd outside.

@MRSandell: "'Sweet Micky' supporters stand to catch a glimpse of their man"

@mhsaintluc, however, was unequivocal in his support for Manigat, posting the following:

@mhsaintluc: "J'ai pu finalement voter la personne la plus apte apporter le changement qu'attend Haiti!" [I've finally been able to vote for the person most qualified to carry out the changes Haiti's been waiting for."

The candidate herself is pictured here, arriving at her polling station.

@jacquiecharles: "#Manigat arriving to vote."

One question likely to be on the minds of many is which candidate has the support of controversial former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who returned to the country on Friday, six years after being ousted in a coup d'état and forced into exile. This photo by @cliffchevalier suggests it may well be Manigat.

@cliffchevalier: "Flyers being circulated in Haiti showing Aristide calling for a Manigat vote. "Kay" means Manigat?" The text on the flyer says: "Aristide asks all Haitians to transform the heart of Haitian Chamber (of Deputies) into a "Kay" Chamber." The slogan of Manigat's party is "Ti Kay La, Kay Pep La".

Which might make sense, in light of this banner reportedly posted in Cité Soleil, the massive slum many of whose residents remain loyal to Aristide. The text on the banner says: “Mama is already here. Welcome, Papa!”

@etiennecp: "#Manigat trying to please #Aristide supporters in Cité Soleil w/ welcome banners."

Haiti: Election Morning in Pictures

Georgia Popplewell — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 14:32:16 +0000

Today, March 20, Haitians go to the polls to decide who will be the Caribbean nation's next president. This runoff election is being contested by Mirlande Manigat and Michel Martelly, the two candidates deemed to have received the highest number of votes in the controversial general election held last November. Reports posted this morning by Twitter users on the ground in Haiti pointed to delays in the opening of polling stations, while many outside the country fixated on an incident in which Haiti-born rap star Wyclef Jean, a Martelly supporter, was shot in the hand. Here's a selection of photos posted on Twitter of the scenes in Haiti as the polls opened—or tried to—this morning.

@melindayiti: "Small crowd at Cite Soleil voting bureau, already open". The vast Cité Soleil slum is as one of the poorest and most dangerous areas in Haiti.

@vivehaiti: "Urne vid pa idantifye donk poko gen vot nan lise danyel la." [Unidentified empty ballot box at the Lycee Daniel

@samaxyalaat: "Just taping up the electoral lists, lycee petion downtown. Already an hour behind."

New York Times bureau chief Randol Archibold (@rcaNYT): "Voting materials finally arrive at #Martelly polling place, 2 hrs late, calming crowd."

@Vladguerre: "Members voting center at Lycee de Petion Ville counting the ballots before start the voting process."

@Vladguerre: "A voter outside the Lycee de Petion Ville asking for opening the voting center,people wants to vote."

@melindayiti: "More security and observers than ppl on voter list in Corail".

New York Times bureau chief Randol Archibold: "Other voting sites in #Haiti were calm while opening late and ballots were being cast."

@mhsaintluc: "Anbyans tansyon devan sant vot Ernts Desir." [Tense atmosphere outside the Ernst Desir voting centre

@esfaceblack: "HNP (Haitian Nat'l Police) proudly voting."

Liveblog: Citizen Media on Haiti Elections 2010

Georgia Popplewell — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 17:47:39 +0000

Today (November 28, 2010), Haiti goes to the polls in an election that has been fraught with controversy and affected by the ongoing cholera epidemic. We're curating tweets and other citizen media about the events.

Haiti Elections 2010

—
6:20pm EST
GlobalVoices: Signing off our Haitian Elections liveblog - keep watching these pages for further coverage. Thanks for following us today!

6:15pm EST
GlobalVoices: From Twitter, two views on presidential candidate—and popular singer—Micky Martelly, who earlier this evening led a march along with fellow candidate Charles-Henri Baker and Wyclef Jean: @carelpedre: “We never liked Preval. The last president we liked was Aristide. Now the people choose Martelly.”; @melindayiti: “People saying Martelly is president, as though #Haiti was just a crowd in the streets of Port-au-Prince. What about the rest of the country?”.

5:54pm EST
GlobalVoices: From Twitter: @metropolishaiti (FR) reports that a “monster” demonstration in favour of Micky Martelly is taking place in the northern city of Cap Haitien; @tanou80 “Huge crowd in front of Epi Dor [fast food joint in Pétion-ville], Micky walking inside the crowd! People are cheering! OMG never seen this!”.

5:42pm EST
GlobalVoices: What we're hearing on Twitter: @jacquiecharles - “Protests in cap-haitien, grand rievere and Gonaives”; @ViveHaiti: A lot of agitation at the CEP, people gathering, police preparing tear gas, MINUSTAH multiplying (translated by @melindayiti); @metropolishaiti (Haitian radio station) reports (FR) that there's a demonstration taking place in front of the National Palace and the situation is becoming increasingly volatile.

5:24pm EST
GlobalVoices: What we're hearing on Twitter: @melindayiti: “In Jacmel [city on the south coast] tires are burning in the streets. An angry mob is now marching to the police station.”

5:17pm EST
GlobalVoices: What we're hearing on Twitter: UN security helicopter circling over the demonstrations. Image by @melindayiti

4:54pm EST
GlobalVoices: After a break, another quick summary of what we're hearing on Twitter: Official close of the polls in Haiti was 4pm EST (about 50 mins ago now); demonstrations taking place in front of CEP's (electoral commission) headquarters, with heavy UN security; growing protests in Gonaives; candidates Michel Martelly and Charles-Henri Baker, along with Wyclef Jean, at the centre of large gathering in Delmas.

3:28pm EST
GlobalVoices: A quick summary of what we're hearing on Twitter: Polling station in Saint Raphael (in north of country between Cap Haitien and Hinche) possibly burned; Wyclef Jean has joined fellow performing artist and presidential candidate Mickey Martelly at demonstration in the streets on Pétion-ville.

3:06pm EST
GlobalVoices: Another quick summary of what we're hearing on Twitter about the Haiti election: Haitians are mobilising for a demonstration; @melindayiti reports that “more UN troop carriers than we could count, guns out, headed to demo” in Pétion-ville.

2:53pm EST
GlobalVoices: So, to summarise a bit: 12 candidates called for the elections to be cancelled on account of allegations of widespread fraud; the CEP, Haiti's election commission, has refused to comply; another press conference to announce the international community's position on the cancellation question soon to take place.

The thumbnail image used in this post is by Rozanna Fang, from the photoset Cap Haitien anti-MINUSTAH movement, used under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license. Visit mediahacker's flickr photostream.

Haiti: Renown Orchestra Tabou Combo on Tour

Anna Gueye — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 16:58:01 +0000

Blogger Ménilmuche [fr] reports on his blog 7ici que ça se passe that renown Haitian band Tabou Combo [fr] has begun their new tour on Saturday, Nov. 6. Their new album (in five different languages) will also debut at the end of the month. The band is also looking for a new singer as seen on their MySpace page.

Haiti: Displaced Women and Girls Victims of Gender Violence

Juliana Rincón Parra — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 20:43:27 +0000

In the aftermath of the devastating Haiti earthquake, women and girls are still facing gender violence, as some of them not only experience rape, but then have to face an absent judicial system and less than adequate medical care.

Tent-City by Edyta Materka under a Creative Commons Attribution License.

In the Ms. Magazine Blog, Gina Ulysse wrote Rape a Part of Daily Life for Women in Haitian Relief Camps, where she points towards the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH)and Madre's Report on Rape in the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) Camps as the source of terrifying statistics on gender violence.

Many women and girls have lost their support network as well as fathers, brothers and husbands or boyfriends who might've been able to protect them. So being in cramped quarters in the camps really cuts down on their privacy, many have to shower in public and sleep next to strangers or in locations where they are vulnerable to attacks. Once the attacks take place, many of the cases being gang rapes, they have yet to face more ordeals: most have no way to receive medical aid from female practitioners and the justice system is almost non-existent, leaving them to deal with corruption in the police and revictimization from authorities in addition to the stigma from being attacked and the knowledge that their attackers are still at large. Ulysse writes:

Women’s access to justice has been even worse. Women who reported rapes–and were already struggling with stigmatization and the psychological effects of sexual assault–were often mocked or ignored by police. In some instances, these women have had to deal with police corruption as well. Moreover, cases have not been prosecuted by the Haitian judicial system. Survivors remain vulnerable since they continue to live in the same areas of the camps where they were attacked and their rapists remain at large. Several women reported that they’ve been raped on different occasions since the quake.

The IJDH, Partners in Health and New Media Advocacy Program released a video a few months ago with testimonies from the victims. The footage was recorded by Sandy Berkowitz and edited by Harriet Hirshorn.

Even though women struggle to return to normalcy, it is unlikely their situation will improve as the temporary camps seem to be turning into permanent accomodations. Back in January, C ARE USA interviewed Dr. Franck Geneus who coordinates CARE's health program in Haiti and asked him about the reasons why there is higher risk of rape in these camps, and he mentioned the characteristics that make the IDP camps a fertile ground for attacks: the lack of electricity that makes camps absolutely dark at night, badly organized camps and non-segregated bathing facilities and latrines so that males and females have their own.

Janet Meyers, Gender Advisor from CARE also put in her own 2 cents regarding how the camps would be established to make women safer in the earthquake aftermath, pointing out many of the same issues last February. I wonder how many of these issues remain unresolved and if, as these camps turn into more permanent facilities, it will just pave the way for more assaults to take place.

Martinique, Guadeloupe: French Football Flop now Racial Controversy?

Fabienne Flessel — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 13:54:52 +0000

The French national football team has been through some rough times prior to the 2010 FIFA World Cup, but the past three days have stirred up old issues around “Les Bleus“.

In the buildup to the FIFA World Cup, the honeymoon between the the French football team and French journalists came to an end; the divorce was officially announced when native Martinican player Nicolas Anelka allegedly insulted his coach in the locker room (information unveiled by French main sports newspaper, L'Equipe). Guadeloupean blogger B. World Connection reacted soon after in a post entitled “Nicolas Anelka, kicked out of the French football team” and discussed the player's future [Fr]:

Selon toute vraisemblance, Nicolas Anelka ne revétira plus jamais le maillot de l'équipe de France…A moins que Laurent Blanc arrive à le convaincre de revenir. Au niveau de l'opinion général des français ça sera plus dur.

Nicolas Anelka will most likely never wear the French team jersey ever again…Unless Laurent Blanc [the future coach] succeeds in convincing him to come back. However as far as the French public opinion is concerned, things are going to be more difficult.

Although most French West Indian bloggers condemned Anelka's attitude, they have also been discussing the various issues revolving around the incident.

Some comments to B. World Connection's post [Fr] blame the incident on coach Raymond Domenech:

En voyant ce déferlement médiatique à l'encontre d'ANELKA, je me suis dit c'est clair la chasse aux sorcières à commencé. La FFF et DOMENECK ont besoin d'un bouc émissaire pour sauver la face. Et il vont comme à l'habitude sacrifier un “nègre”.

Looking at the media surge against Anelka, I said to myself that the witch hunt had started. The French Football Federation and DOMENECK need a scapegoat to come out clean. And as usual, they will sacrifice a “negro”.

Blogger Bel Balawou weighs in on this analysis of the coach [Fr]:

Cette équipe de France est dirigée pas un entraineur incompétent, un homme ayant pratiquement rien réussi de lui-même…

This French team is coached by an inept manager, a man who has managed only little by himself…

A disturbing scenario followed this already disastrous situation: The French team went on strike just two days before their final round match against Bafana-Bafana. Their decision opened the door to a giant wave of criticism, some of it along seemingly racist lines.

The once-welcomed multicultural feature of “les Bleus” may now have become their worst flaw. Here is the title of Martinican Bondamanjak's post in reaction to some comments about the team:

Les Antillais de l'Equipe de France sont déjà des Français entièrement à part…

The French West Indians of the French football team are already fully isolated…

Bondamanjak's conclusion came after a radio interview with controversial French philosopher, Alain Finkielkraut, who allegedly said [Fr]:

« Tout ça c'est la faute des racailles de banlieue, même ceux de l'équipe de France et qui n'aiment pas la France ».

“This is all to be blamed on the suburbs scum, even those of the French team who don't like France”.

From a sporting perspective, the failure of the French football team has reached social, cultural and even historical levels. For instance, the use of the term “suburbs scum” to descrbe some of the team's players left Bondamanjak bitter [Fr]:

Tant que les Antillais gagnent ils sont partie intégrante de la “nation arc en ciel”… il n'y a plus de couleurs (ni de culture) NOUS SOMMES TOUS BLEUS…
mais au premier nuage, les “gens des cités” (?) sont rétrogradés en seconde classe

As long as the French West Indians win, they are part of the “rainbow nation”…everyone is colorblind (and culture blind) WE ARE ALL “BLEUS”… but when the first cloud covers this blue sky, “people from the suburbs” (?) are sent back to their second-class [citizenship]”

Similarly, Bel Balawou says [Fr]:

Une équipe sportive, d'ailleurs pas que dans le football où se trouve en majorité des gens issus de la banlieue, des Noirs et des Arabes […] : Cela ne le fait pas !

A sport team, incidentally not only in football, where most of the players, Blacks and Arabs, come from the suburbs: […]: It's not right!

According to some bloggers, the reactions against specific players are because of either their background or their religion. Bondamanjak posts this portrait of Nicolas Anelka [Fr]:

Il ne mange pas de saucisson, ne boit pas de pinard. Il est noir, banlieusard et musulman. Il est donc le parfait bouc émissaire le doux mouton noir qui doit être sacrifié pour apaiser la pénible déception offerte par l'équipe de France de football au Mondial en Afrique du Sud.

He doesn't eat sausages, doesn't drink wine. He is black, from the suburbs and Muslim. Thus, he is the perfect scapegoat, the nice black sheep which has to be sacrificied in order to calm down the harsh disappointment caused by the French football team at the South Africa World Cup”.

B. World Connection also publishes a post which suggests that Anelka is a hero [Fr]:

Depuis le temps de l'esclavage, le Nègre n'a jamais cessé de maronner , d'échapper à ses fers, solides ou immatériels, en gagnant les bois, le zyiann…
Nicolas Anelka est de cette race-là…

Since the times of slavery, the Negro has never stopped marooning, escaping from their bondage either materially or spiritually and fleeing to the woods, “zyiann”….
Nicolas Anelka is one of them…

Obviously, the era of the “Black, Blanc, Beur” French society (which means Blacks, Whites and Arabs) inherited from the 1998 FIFA World Cup victory is over.

In conclusion, Gwadaboy, commenting onB. World Connection's post approaches the issue in a more balanced way [Fr]:

Et dire que Zidane a privé la France d'une 2eme coupe du monde avec son coup de boule. Lui il a eu droit aux honneurs de la nation, n'est ce pas monsieur Chirac? Ceci dit Anelka n'est pas excusable,quoi qu'il arrive on doit respecter son entraineur et ses COEQUIPIERS. Après le match on peut rêgler nos comptes mais pas à la mi-temps car “je” pénalise mes potes et mon équipe.

And to think that Zidane deprived France of a 2nd World Cup victory because of his headbutt. He got honors from his country, didn't he Mr Chirac? That being said, Anelka's words cannot be tolerated, in any case he owed his coach and CO-PLAYERS respect. His issues could have been settled after the game but not at half-time because He prejudiced his buddies and his team.

The thumbnail image used in this post, “Watching Mexico vs France”, is by Steve Rhodes, used under a Creative Commons license. Visit Steve Rhodes' flickr photostream.