The Politics Hour: October 18, 2019
Steve Descano, the Democratic nominee for Fairfax County's Commonwealth's Attorney, on the upcoming election; Montgomery County Councilmember Evan Glass (D-At Large) on his bill that would tax "teardown" homes.
A photo from Kojo's trip to Port-au-Prince in November 2010. Campaign signs for the president, who five years later is delaying elections, are seen in the background.
Five years ago, a devastating earthquake brought Haiti to its knees. The disaster sparked a global effort to help the country rebuild, but half a decade later, its democracy is still on shaky ground. Kojo explores how the political aftershocks of the quake are still rippling through Haiti — and what’s at stake in its long-delayed elections.
Guests
- Jonathan Katz Author, "The Big Truck That Went By: How the World Came to Save Haiti and Left Behind a Disaster" (Palgrave Macillian, 2013)
- Roberson Alphonse Journalist, Le Nouvelliste (Port-au-Prince, Haiti)
Slideshow: The Kojo Nnamdi Show in Haiti, 2010
The Kojo Nnamdi Show traveled to Haiti for a week's worth of reporting and live broadcasts in November 2010 - just months after the earthquake that devastated so much of the country. The team arrived during the final stretch of Haiti's 2010 presidential election.
The January 2010 earthquake left hundreds of thousands of Haitians dead - and many more homeless. This family began life anew in a tent camp on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince.
Haiti's cholera epidemic began just days before the Kojo Nnamdi Show team arrived in November 2010. Residents of this tent camp were leaving a religious service - posters with public health announcements were placed prominently throughout the tent village.
Former WAMU 88.5 reporter Sabri Ben-Achour, now of Marketplace, spoke with residents of the camp with the help of fixer-interpreter Emmanuel Midi. Ben-Achour had also traveled to Haiti in the immediate weeks after the quake on the USNS Comfort, a hospital ship deployed by the U.S. military.
A young Haitian girl was reading when the Kojo team arrived in this tent camp. The quake separated many children from their parents and from schooling - and complicated the international adoption process.
Michel Martelly was a popular musician before he ran for president in 2010. His campaign signs covered Port-au-Prince when the Kojo Nnamdi Show team was reporting there that year, during the middle of his successful campaign.
A campaign sign for Haiti's INITE political party in front of a pile of rubble. The country's previous president, René Préval, was a member of INITE - but its presidential candidate in 2010, Jude Célestin, lost to Martelly.
The Hotel La Villa Creole in Petionville, just yards from the AP house where guest Jonathan Katz lived, was nearly destroyed in the January 2010 earthquake. The Kojo Nnamdi Show team stayed at the hotel months later.
The world rushed to Haiti in January 2010 with promises of helping the country to rebuild. Many of the country's political institutions are now in a similar state of disrepair.
Kojo interviewed CARICOM Ambassador Colin Granderson, the joint electoral mission observation chief for the Organization of American States - and discussed Haiti's readiness for its post-earthquake election.
The Kojo Nnamdi Show's production team relied heavily on an exceptional group of fixers to do reporting on the ground in Haiti. One of them, Sebastian Petion, was recently named the MVP of Haiti's basketball league, the Association Haïtienne de Basketball Corporatif.
Kojo Nnamdi, producer Michael Martinez, reporter Sabri Ben-Achour and fixers Emmanuel Midi and Joseph Blanchard. Midi continues to work with journalists in Haiti to this day.
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