& i just wanted to share 2 fav clips of mine:
Barikad's Tou Pou Yo is currently the biggest hiphop single in haiti so far this year from probably the biggest name in haitian hiphop. Its long in an epic way, an interesting shifty beat and an original take on the sort of trancey sounds which were echoing thru hh last year.
Its also refreshing to see better quality sound and video from global artists these days. Something about seeing global pop present itself outside of grainy video changes perspective a bit.
Another fav of mine is insanely talented Edalam from guadelope..
note the awkward 'tourist presence' in the video, depicted as nerdy / harmless..
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Right now I'm rediscovering/falling in love all over again with the internet! Not that Haiti has none, just nothing in my neighborhood that id use for anything unessential. This made me worry about keeping in contact with friends in Haiti, as I am not a phone person.
Luckily there's another simple, impersonal, noncommittal my generation friendly way of doing so. God bless SMS. So far we've been keeping in touch by sending cheeky, inane life updates with twitter style texts on my phone. Theres a wide range of free online text messaging sites with international service, but mostly to already fairly connected countries in south America, Europe, and southeast Asia. Techie NGOs/entrepreneurs/smartie pants - think of ways to make texting free and easy between global north and south & between fellow southers. Maybe improve current tech/communication than dreaming of, say, one laptop per child.
map of Digicel coverage in Haiti
Haitian phone service is cheap, & dominated by Digicel, 'whose initial investment of US$260 million was at the time ( and remains today ) the single largest investment made by an international company in Haiti'. Which is interesting b/c digicel is a Jamaican company. Only been in Haiti 3 yrs and seem to be owning. What they gonna do with all that CARIB MONEY?
