Internet Usage in Haiti

As mentioned before, Haiti's media is still in its developing stage due to the oppression of journalist and the  underdevelopment of technology. Although their media isn't as developed as the United State's media, there is still some media activity that is quite beneficial to the citizens. Today we'll focus in the internet and its usage amongst Haitians.

According to the CIA World Factbook, only 10 percent of Haiti's 9,719,932 people have access to the worldwide internet. This equals about one million users and puts Haiti at number 99 on the world's list of internet users by country. Haiti's low percentage of internet users is due largely to the underdevelopment of its technology and infrastructure. Haiti is said to be the least developed country in the Western Hemisphere.

Although Haiti's internet usage is low, Haiti is in the lead when it comes to the growth of internet users in the Caribbean community. According to a report by Exito Exportador, Haiti has seen the largest growth of internet users within the past ten years.

This growth is most likely going to be halted due to the damaging earthquake that took place in January 2010. The quake severely damaged Haiti's infrastructure which deeply affected its internet access. A study done by Mozilla Firefox shows the damage the earthquake caused and how it affected internet usage in Haiti. Below is a time line documenting the amount of internet usage before and after the earthquake.

Haiti currently only has 273 internet hosts (ranks 185 in the world) and unlike the US', its internet country code is .ht.

While Haiti's internet is in trouble, it seems that its mobile cell phone services are expanding due to the low cost of GSM phones. In 2009 there were 3.648 million people with cell phones, according to the CIA World Factbook. But, while the cell phone services seem to be expanding, Haiti's telecommunication infrastructure is still amongst the least developed in Latin America.

Hopefully President Martelly can come up with a way to improve Haiti's infrastructure.

Internet Usage in the World

Chilling Effect: US Says HIV/AIDS Virus Comes from Haiti

Media has a huge impact on cultures, especially those of semi-peripheral and peripheral nations. In some cases, media may even have a huge impact on the economies of other nations. Such is the case with the US and Haiti.

According to Haiti's profile on the PBS website, many Haitians, during the 1970s, fled to the United States to seek refuge. Around this same time, many people, both Haitians and Americans, were becoming deathly ill from HIV/AIDS, a disease that the people were unfamiliar with. As Haitian and American researchers began to study the disease many began to attribute the problem to other nations people. This led to a war between the nations' media.

HIV/AIDS activist in Haiti

The Haitian media blamed the HIV/AIDS epidemic on on the US' homosexual men while the American media blamed it on Haiti's voodoo practices. American researchers believed that homosexuals, heroin addicts, hemophiliacs, and Haitians were the main cause of the epidemic, coining a new phrase, "the 4H Club". Since the United States is such a dominant force in global media, this caused a lot of problems for Haitians.

One of the most obvious effects of this was discrimination against Haitian immigrants living in the United States. According to PBS, many of them were unable to find jobs and had trouble selling their homes. Back at home, Haiti's economy suffered immensely. Tourism, which, at the time, was the backbone of Haiti's economy, decreased 80 percent within one year because of these accusations. Also, goods that were manufactured in Haiti were not allowed to be sold in the United States.

Haiti's culture also suffered a bit. Before the HIV/AIDS epidemic, Haiti did not acknowledge homosexuality at all. According to the PBS website, being homosexual was something to be ashamed of, making it something that wasn't seen too often. When patients with HIV/AIDS went to their doctors appointments, doctors refrained from asking them questions about such activities. But, with the combination of the epidemic and the accusations of the US media, the people of Haiti had to acknowledge homosexuality. The US brought this to their attention, making it something they now had to pay attention to. Also, the US cast an even dimmer light on Haiti's religious practice of voodoo.

As we can see, the US and other core nations have a dominance over media that can keep peripheral nations in the dark. It goes deeper than just making a profit.

Social Media in Haiti

Everyone is aware of social media's sweeping impact on the world. In the Middle East, we've seen a bunch of revolts take place, mostly because people used social media to voice their opinions. Many say social media aided the people of the Middle East in organizing protest to overthrow Egypt's Mubarak. Social media can be good or bad, but in Haiti's case, it is mostly good.

According to Internet World Stats, Haiti's internet is used by one million of its people (ten percent), and of those, 85,480 are Facebook users. After the devastating earthquake in January of 2010, Facebook became more popular amongst Haitians. Many Haitians, who still had internet access, uploaded many pictures to the site allowing people from different areas of the world to see what was happening. Many Facebook pages and groups were created to to encourage people to donate money to help Haiti.

Another popular social media website is Twitter. Twitter is also used a lot in Haiti amongst those who have internet access. Haiti's new president, Michel Martelly, used Twitter to announce his victory after Haitians waited almost a week after the elections to find out the results. According to CNET News, Haiti's earthquake helped Twitter grow. Twitter was used by many Haitians to deliver firsthand accounts of what happened during the devastating quake. Pictures and videos were often uploaded and many discussions were sparked through Twitter.

Social media is a fun way to communicate but can also be used for more serious matters. With Haiti's earthquake, social media was used as a means of communicating information; making others in other nations aware of the devastation. Social media also played a huge role in raising funds and obtaining other supplies to aid Haiti. Social media will most likely be used for things other than socializing in the future.

State Owned Media in Haiti

As mentioned in a previous blog, Haiti has seven national radio stations, two national newspapers, and one national television station. In addition to these, there are multiple private owned and smaller media outlets. Today we will focus on Haiti's state owned media: Haiti's National Television (Television Nationale d'Haiti) and National Radio (Nationale Radio).

According to the TNH website, Haiti's National Television was founded in December of 1979 and was placed under Haiti's Ministry of Information and Coordination. It then merged with National Radio in 1987 to become Radio Television Nationale d'Haiti (RTNH). In 2006, the government of Haiti decide to take RTNH for itself as a means for providing community members with  necessary government information. After being taken over by the government, RTNH was named Television Nationale d'Haiti.

To truly benefit community members, TNH established a clear cut mission statement. Listed on its website are the following goals: 1) Educate the population about the objectives of state and public service, 2) Inform the public of the state agencies' activities, 3) Promote the national culture, and 4) Ensure the free expression of ideas by momentum-oriented social progress and the development of socio-economics.

Surprisingly, very limited information is provided on Haiti's state owned media. If you look at the official website for the media, it seems quite underdeveloped itself. This could be a direct result of the oppression journalists have faced in the past, limiting the development of the media. One good thing about the state owned media is that is has established a goal to promote Haiti's national culture which may mean they would protect the nations culture from the media conglomerates.

And the Presidency Goes to......

As many people predicted, Michel Martelly has been officially declared the new president of Haiti. The results come nearly two weeks after the run-off elections between Martelly and Haiti's former first lady, Mirlande Manigat. According to the New York Times, Martelly won a whopping 68 percent of the votes while Manigat took home the remaining 32 percent. 

 Martelly being interviewed after elections

Martelly's popularity in Haiti didn't begin with his run for presidency. A former carnival singer, Martelly was known for singing songs that openly ridiculed politics and politicians. Also known as "Sweet Micky", Martelly was known for taking off his clothing and cursing during stage performances in various places such as hotels and casinos. 

Martelly's music style was a blend of Haitian music and other music such as compas, roots, and salsa. Some of Martelly's biggest hits include "Ooo La La", "Konpas Foret des Pins", and "Pa Manyen". He also has a few hits with the famous rapper Wyclef Jean, who is known in America for hits such as "Two Wrongs" featuring Claudette Ortiz and "911" featuring Mary J. Blige. Wyclef Jean, who was denied permission to run for president, became a big endorser of Martelly's campaign 

 

Martelly singing

 

Wyclef Jean (left), who heavily endorsed Martelly's campaign, celebrates with Martelly (right)

 Although Martelly has criticized the Haitian government in the past, he takes politics very seriously. Briefly apart of the Haitian army, the new president plans to bring back the Armed Forces of Haiti to establish law and order in the country. He also wants to reform agriculture and improve the delivery of humanitarian aid.

To improve his political image, Martelly has been in close contact with many international political consultants who are teaching him the in and outs of government. Martelly holds a conservative view and plans to do an anti-corruption crusade, claiming previous government officials wasted $900 million. 

Martelly is scheduled to take office in May of this year. He will share power with a prime minister appointed by Parliament. Let's hope Martelly does a good job of revamping Haiti.

Run-off

The March 20th presidential run-off scheduled for Mirlande Manigat and Michel Martelly has passed but results have been delayed for days now. Many news outlets are saying Martelly, a former singer, is in the lead but no one knows for sure. Haitians are anxious to know the results as the process of voting was less than satisfying for them.

While there was a huge turn out of voters for the elections, problems began to surface, one after another. Many of the polling stations opened hours late, leaving many Haitians, some being at polling stations as early as 4am, waiting even longer. At the polling station held at Petion Ville school, voters standing in line since 4:30 am still had voted at 8:30 am.

Huge turn out for the Haitian presidential run-off

Delays at the voting polls, as many worry, can lead to inaccuracies in the ballot counts as illustrated in the elections held in November of 2010.

The delays are blamed on the polling station officials. Many of the ballots and voting materials, such as "indelible" ink and pencils, were not delivered to polling stations until 9 am (after people had already been waiting five hours!) The set up of the polling stations didn't make the situation any better, with some having as many as 30 booths. This could have been good but with the disorganization of the stations, it wasn't a good idea to have this many booths.

Presidential candidates, Merlande Manigat (above) and Michel Martelly (below) at polling stations for run-off

With all the chaos at the polling stations, Haitians were glad to cast their votes, and hope their votes will actually count. We shall see who the next president of Haiti will be in the next few days.

Haiti In Al-Jazeera

This week in class we talked about the Arab media and one of its television stations, Al-Jazeera. Al-Jazeera, headquartered in Doha, Qatar, is an emerging channel that adheres to objective journalism and serves as a voice for the people in opposition of the government. The channel has established an international presence as well, reporting on many nations in the world. Haiti happens to be one of them.

Al-Jazeera does a pretty decent job keeping up with Haiti's news. On the web site you can find many stories about Haiti, ranging from the cholera outbreak to its presidential race. One of the articles, In pictures: Cholera outbreak, shows the tragic affect the outbreak is having on the Haitian people.  Overall, good job Al-Jazeera!

This photo, featured on the Al-Jazeera website, accompanies a story about Haiti's presidential run-off

After learning a little about Al-Jazeera, I wondered if Haiti had any websites similar to it. Because Haiti's media is still in its developing stages, it doesn't have its own website like Al-Jazeera. Instead, being a country in the Caribbean community, it is mostly covered by an on-line news website called Caribbean 360. 

Caribbean 360, established in 2005, is one of the leading news websites in the Caribbeans, providing several news stories per week to the people of the many countries in the Caribbeans, including Haiti. Stories are written on topics such as politics, finances, and sports and are free of charge to the readers. The website also provides readers with information on weather and has a storm tracker which can also send warnings directly to the users' cell phones. Caribbean 360 is headquartered in Bridgetown, Barbados. 

What makes Caribbean 360 different different from Al-Jazeera is that it does not openly criticize the governments in any of these nations. It basically reports on the happenings in the different countries. It does, however, seek to promote objective journalism and protect the rights of journalists.

So while Caribbean 360 is not completely like Al-Jazeera it does fulfill its role of providing the people with news. It also keeps a close eye on the news in Haiti.