Haiti in Focus - 019 - Want the real story on the Haitian relief efforts? Our interview with Alice Backer, former Editor of Global Voices, in Port Au Prince.
Haiti in Focus had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Alice Backer, former Global Voices Editor for french-speaking world, and who is currently on a mission from Global Voices to help Haitians with Citizen Media in and around Port Au Prince, Haiti. We caught with her in Petionville, Port Au Prince at a place called Cafe de l'Europe. Although Skype got wiggy on us at times, we had a surprising good signal and more importantly had a wonderful discussion.
She gave the real story of the earthquake aftermath. She not only shared her background and how she got into Haiti (since no commercial flights are flying into Port Au Prince), but what the news has shown and not shown us regarding the situation there. She talks about the importance of hearing not only what CNN and the networks are saying, but hearing the voices of the citizens of Haiti, those whom have largely been ignored by the media. We have provided many of those links below sent to us courtesy of Alice Backer.
She also shares the disturbing news that many Haitians have not been seeing the relief reaching the Haitian people. On a positive note, she talks about the debt cancellation of Haiti's debt being considered by many nations.
If you want to find out more about Alice Backer, please visit her blog here and visit her Twitter.
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List of Tweeters tweeting live from Haiti assembled by Georgia Popplewell of Global Voices Online:
http://twitter.com/georgiap/live-from-haiti
Recommended Haitian Tweeters from the ground to follow:
Port-au-Prince:
http://twitter.com/carelpedre (Carel Pèdre)
http://twitter.com/RAMhaiti (Richard Morse)
http://twitter.com/thehaitian (Alain Armand)
http://twitter.com/fredodupoux (Frédéric Dupoux)
http://twitter.com/kiskeacity (Alice Backer)
From Jacmel:
http://twitter.com/yatalley (Yael Talleyrand)
http://twitter.com/melindayiti
Global Voices Online Haiti coverage page:
http://globalvoicesonline.org/specialcoverage/haiti-earthquake-2010/
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10 responses so far ↓
pg // Jan 27, 2010 at 9:40 pm
I liked this article. helpful in getting the inside stuff on Haiti news
JC // Jan 28, 2010 at 11:06 am
I understand that the mountains and petion-ville were not greatly affected by the quake but what is up there? I live in Haiti and I know that these areas are mainly residential. This is where the elite, wealthy families and upper middle class of Port-au-Prince live . You will find one or two banks and a supermarket. Delmas and Downtown are the hearts of Port-au-Prince, the commercial hubs. I don’t think Alice traveled inside Delmas because it is greatly affected. It’s main schools, banks, super markets and stores have collapsed and are badly damaged. Delmas and Downtown also host the homes of people who most likely wont have the funds availiable to rebuilt.
haitiinfocus // Jan 28, 2010 at 12:14 pm
pg - I am glad you found this helpful to you.
JC - I am not sure how much she had traveled as of the interview into those areas. I think she was planning to get into the area of the epicenter a bit more. If you are interested in sharing your perspective, I would love to have you on the show.
pg // Jan 28, 2010 at 5:03 pm
Alice is one person, one perspective on what is going on in Haiti. What I think she did that was very helpful is give us the names of several people who are in Haiti reporting on the conditions from their perspectives.I like hearing from different people. I have to say, overall, it seems like although some areas were hit harder than others, Haiti is in bad shape, and overall has suffered alot.
pg // Jan 28, 2010 at 5:06 pm
I hope that the monies that Haiti receives for rebuilding will be distributed appropriately. And the time has come for Haiti to invest in its poor.
SD // Jan 31, 2010 at 7:13 pm
I strongly second JC. I wonder however how “representative” is “citizen media” in a country such as Haiti where most people have no access to electricity/internet and are mostly illiterate…
Should we trust a selected lucky few and their interpretation of the reality of the unlucky majority… It almost sounds like western media but with native faces/tongues…
haitiinfocus // Feb 1, 2010 at 10:02 am
As pg said, these are perspectives. Obviously this is not the complete story of what is going on in Haiti. Alice gave a perspective after being there three days. That is more than I can certainly do. We will have her on again next week, and I expect her perspective will be more developed.
Are there voices that she does not represent in Haiti? Absolutely. It is my hope as we continue to podcast, that we do capture the many voices of Haiti. If you know of any we should contact let us know. However, even if we do 100 episodes, that is only 100 perspectives.
We appreciate the dialogue, and do welcome your thoughts and questions. By the way, if you do have any questions for her or any of your guests coming up, let us know.
I also agree with SD. Unless we can be there talking to the people who are illiterate and who don’t have access to electricity/internet, we don’t get the totality of what is going on. This is the only perspective we can get. It is important to remember that this is only a small representation of the total population of Haiti.
SD // Feb 1, 2010 at 7:14 pm
I guess what threw me off and made me expect more from this interview was the “She gave the real story of the earthquake aftermath” in the second paragraph of your intro… You almost sounded like Anderson Cooper, with his “keeping them honnest” western media spin.
I am new to “citizen media” and I look forward to hearing your follow up interview to see how different it really is from CNN and hopefully with “no bias no bull”
haitiinfocus // Feb 1, 2010 at 7:28 pm
Well, perhaps I should have said “She tells a different story.”
Alice Backer // Feb 4, 2010 at 12:58 am
Hi all, all your points are well taken and I hope to address them in the follow-up with Scott tomorrow.
I agree that Delmas which I visited again after this interview is pretty badly hit, my family home there included. My point in the interview was not that it was not badly affected but that it was less affected than downtown Port-au-Prince. Obviously, wherever damage occurred, it needs to be corrected.
Citizen media in all countries are first used by elites for obvious reasons. That does not mean that they do not present an alternative to mainstream media coverage. In Haiti, even citizen media produced by elites were sorely needed for a while. It is one of the earthquake’s favorable effects that it has prompted the creation of a local blogoshere/twittersphere which critiques and influences mainstream media coverage. The unique predominant “poorest country in the western hemisphere” story is not good for Haiti or its economy and may sectors of the Haitian intellectual elites have the good sense to tell more stories than that.
Rising Voices, a subdivision of Global Voices, works on expanding the range of citizen media users all over the world, including projects using video, a critical citizen media tool that can be used by literates as well as illiterates. Citizen media trainings using video have been used successfully among illiterate populations in India and elsewhere and there is no reason that cannot be done in Haiti. If it is, over time the Haitian citizen media users will no longer be comprised of just elite Haitians.
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