PLEASE ADD to what's below to track progress.
We aim to connect with networks in Haiti; find the best sources of information; identify the most pressing new media/communication/community building and crisis alleviation needs now known. then we hope to begin a project(s) which involve locally IDed needs, local groups implementing or collaborating with the MIT working group(s).
From the (fab) Jan 20 screening of The Agronomist (Jean Dominique founded Radio Haiti), some Qs and ideas:
>> how can we connect with local Haitian commty to assess needs here as well as there? Boston and Miami are biggest diaspora.
>> how can we empower/connect with Haitian groups already working, and do the most active NGOs have relationships with peasant groups like farmers who revered Jean Dominique and Radio Haiti so highly?
EX: what about peasant groups who worked with Radio Haiti, self organized protests of military govt and theft of rice yields in the past?
>> can we move the MIT effort into the Haitian community somehow? What is Mark's work with them?
>> how do we find out which are active and strong community activists in Haiti with cohesive groups?
>> links to sources of Haitian info from Boris http://delicious.com/boriskizel/
FROM earlier today:
1) Kate Stanton, newbie at US State Dept, reports raising $25M via cell phones virtually overnight. She wants to know how to spend that money most effectively: how to prioritize needs, how to find accountability measures, etc. USAID needs ADVICE! HOW could MIT help here? We have ideas not tested via Haitian networks of diaspora or on the ground groups, including the following --
2) Radio station, CB to facilitate need/help messages, buy batches of handcranked radios @ $100/ea with 40 channels? Human voice has great power. Also, cultural events and poetry, storytelling, etc will be valuable in dealing with grief.
3) there are 1800 OLPCXO computer units somewhere in Haiti which could be used with solar chargers by youth to assist/empower/educate service providers and activists in the crisis. Educate kids via OLPC projects? Give kids chance to develop their own ways of assessing needs? see waveplace.com. Could take pix of deceased for ID purposes? Haitian kids are the very smartest kids Timothy has trained. OLPC uses XO laptops to train teacher/mentors to use digital media for income generation - 3 pilots in Haiti
>> http://www.haitichildren.com/ tells about an orphanage profiled on CNN today.
>> Little Sis is a site that tracks rich and powerful players in Haitian political and military events.
>> check out "A Paradise Built in Hell" by Rebecca Solnit for lessons learned (or not) in worldwide crises.
George Mokray <gmoke@world.std.com> has written two pieces about the use of existing solar technology in Haiti: Solar Water Disinfection http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/1/17/825968/-Solar-Water-Disinfection Solar Cottage Industry in Haiti http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/1/19/827194/-Solar-Cottage-Industry-i... "My thirty years of experience doing public demonstrations of solar technology has been boiled down to less than thirty minutes in eight short videos": http://solarray.blogspot.com/2009/09/simple-solar-parts-1-2-and-3.html http://solarray.blogspot.com/2009/12/simple-solar-parts-4-through-8.html
HAITIAN EMER HELP project E15 363
Dale Joachim (joachimd@mit.edu), convener of Media Lab working group
Diane’s notes (dhendrix@mit.edu) from Jan 22-25 follow:
Crisis Camps on NPR iphone app for Creole/Eng translation
Andy Carvin, senior social media strategist at NPR, tells abt working in Crisis Camp. Adam Holt (holt@mit.edu ) is working on CC in Cambridge and can update – he says,
Please join http://webchat.freenode.net right now, and absolutely anytime in the weeks to come, by entering the channel name: #haitiboston
>> John Burnett is a fantastic reporter/writer/producer in Haiti for NPR, now says most people are getting food and shelter is the problem, along with rebuilding beginning.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122937646
>> NPR Talk of the nation on Jan 25… Haitians must be integrated into relief and rebuilding efforts. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122951220
http://www.worldpolicy.org/calendar/2009/13jan09.htm Director Michele Wucker – Haitians are strong and capable. US policy is one of many things that has destroyed the nation (Noam Chomsky Jan 22)
NOTES from Haiti2010, MIT Jan 22. Learnbythedrop.com Drupal tutorial – potentially, a caller could appears on a home page, then you could connect to a node or network. People could call in and something would happen. Where should it be hosted?
Check out “What’s up Lawrence?” begun by MIT grad student a few yrs ago... http://mitatlawrence.net/projects/student-projects/ Jeannie Finks jfinks@media.mit.edu is web specialist for Media Lab.
A Dale Joachim– many are interested in interactive channel for Haitian voices to speak about reconstruction ideas, even now. Haiti has been decapitated. So many govt. workers died, so many who had worked there for years who were trusted. How to find Grassroots groups to work with?
A.2 Maricarmen found great site article in CNN about how low tech radio has been helpful http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/01/20/haiti.amateur.radio/index.html
B Andreas (web presence) – we must decide what are projects and what web platforms are needed? Must define architecture for each project then, make a place for each- e.g., Thefutureofhaiti.com
C Presentation by Claudia Urrea (http://web.media.mit.edu/~calla/ ) -- worked in Interdevelopment Bank , also worked with OLPC, did PhD in Costa Rica using XO in rural area. Then worked in Haiti but not on OLPC projects there. Also project in Nigeria. 10,000ndonated by OLPC, then $22M Haiti project, made ifrastructure. 13,700 XOs are in Haitian govt. schools. All in classrooms outside PaPrince.
C.2 There are 400 OLPCs in PaP available for use in Creole. No idea about training for use of XO's, what progress has been made. Claudia has good relations with a ID bank and not sure about remaining funds.
Many of ministry of Educa have perished. XO computers can measure things, have sensors to measure humidity, temp, light, can input microphones. Could have a radio there. What could be done? CB radio? Need to get solar power and proposal to OLPC.
George sent a link to shelter kits project -- http://www.shelterboxusa.org/InsideAShelterbox.aspx The Dailykos community has contributed 86 shelterboxes to Haiti and is campaigning to contribute 100.
CLAUDIA: MIT could be/make a clearinghouse of contacts/groups willing to help on the ground in Haiti who are able to be conduits for aid and projects. Be a clearinghouse. Beyond Borders is active in Haiti with 4000 teachers. They could identify reliable resources there. Everyone she meets knows someone in Haiti. Could we ask people to list them for contact/referrals for distribution of goods for shelter, food, clothing, etc.?
Aardvark is an aggregator? Fab Lab? Grassroots groups plentiful
TIMELINE. Media lab is willing to support students doing projects. LIBRARY project is one possibility. Students might do XO project. Fabrication lab could go there?
TIM (Only 20% are educated in govt. schools)
- XO collection activity – Tim can add 100 to the 400 already in PP
- Data replication – given to someone to upload to server
- Text and audtio translation later on - what do you need? Story and data collection,
- Location/people/connections
D PRESENTATION on Matenwa School on La Gonave, 40 Km from Port au Prince. Chris Low says the kids are going to school at Matenwa to avoid crisis mode. People need to communicate, mostly. You can record audio and video and need SD cards. People want to see people Chris says 40,000 have come to island and hunger will take over. Yet Haitians are very calm even when others are starving plan ahead for food. Concern Worldwide dealing only with PaP. www.matenwaclc.org K-9th 241 kids. Have arts center w/16 painters, 16 plus 40 weavers. Teaching community work skills. Chris was teaching in Camb when she visited Haiti decades ago and went to orphanage. Social justice took her over, and she worked and lived at orphanage in PoPrince. Lived in LaGonad since 1995 and lived there for 8yrs, now lives half a year in Haiti and half year in Cambridge.
The more high school grads there are, the more hunger there is, because once you’re educated you leave the land and many Haitians are ashamed of farming. Re violence and punitive parents, One kid came in first grade with swollen eye, after dad had hit him. Matenwa kids said they must go to talk to dad and be came to school. Female teachers never talked in early days of Matenwa (14 yrs now), and now they are outspoken in reflection circles.
Education is changing social interactions and shiflting power. A woman used to scream and throw rocks at her kids. Now earned a respectable identity as an artist and never hits her kids.
Michel and Chris Low – there’s a small school in another village similar that offers a model for education. Haiti is a country of apartheid defined by language. Only 5% speak French at home. All curriculum mtls in French, kids don’t speak it and are punished when they don’t learn by rote. French system calls for tests. Govt says Creole shd be used until 4th grade but people believe in the elite role of French and are ashamed of their own language.
Haiti is a “failed state”, if it is, due to US intervention over decades. (Chomsky) Obama still supports weathy and powerful. No reason to expect much change from Obama, since the usual power structures take over in this oligarchy. (end)
Clark sent link to excellent article with caveats about international behavior -
Op-ed by doctors from PIH on the current situation and vision going forward.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/haiti/v-fullstory/story/1441239.html
"One potential model of recovery for Haiti is the nation of Rwanda. After the 1994 genocide, Rwanda was overwhelmed by the international helping class, which included, in addition to many people of good will, a flock of trauma vultures, consultants and carpetbaggers. Under the strong leadership of the nascent government, including now-President Paul Kagame, leaders insisted that recovery and reconstruction aid be coordinated by the central and district governments. A number of nongovernmental organizations left Rwanda, but most would argue the decisions made then have helped to create a new model of collaboration between public and private actors, and contributed to Rwanda's remarkable post-genocide stability and growth."
SENSE OF CALM
Everywhere you see Haitians helping each other. Despite reports of violence, what strikes many of us is the overall sense of calm...A young Haitian colleague already on the faculty of Harvard Medical School, is organizing scores of volunteers from every class.
Competition between self-described donor nations is worse than unhelpful. Even now, there is bedlam as medical teams arrive with excellent skills and intentions, but insuffiicient coordination. The many clinicians now in the country need to work together as a team."
