- Haiti and the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) have had many things in common in recent years: transitional interim presidents, "democratic transitions" monitored by the UN and leading up to elections, tensions and doubts regarding these UN monitored elections. Of course Haiti just had its election but the DRC are still awaiting theirs which is scheduled for June and has already been postponed by a year.
- Here is an interview I conducted with a Congolese blogger, Tony Katombe from Le Blog du Congolais, for GV. I found it interesting that many Haitians and Haitian-Americans I know harbor the same skepticism for political parties as he does. He talks about being involved via his blog and his writings while at the same time not really endorsing or finding common ground with any available DRC party, this despite obvious sympathies for the opposition.
- Note also that one way the DRC and Haiti part is that the DRC blogosphere is blooming. The same is true of many other African countries, btw. But in francophone Africa, the DRC is by far the farthest along despite having blackouts and an being in crisis...
haiti - congo - weblog - caribbean - africa - democratic republic of congo
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Maybe if the state electricy company, EDH, actually manages to fulfillits mandate better i.e. provide electricity to Haitians, there will be more made-in-Haiti blogs. One site that the Haitian youth seems to flock to is hi5. With all the cyber cafés that have opened these past years, internet usage is getting more democratized. Now, if only there were more power to run these computers!
ReplyDeleteYes, mb, electricity is definitely a factor. But notice there are also regular blackouts in the DRC. I do get the impression though that there are schedules to the blackouts so that people know in advance when the blackouts are...
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