2/2/11

Tweets of the Day 2/2/11 Peyi-a ap tann rezilta!

Tensions ran high on Twitter Djòl today. Election results have still not come out as we speak and tweeter's spent the day venting their anxieties and mulling over various scenarios.

Haiti based tweeters recorded their emotions and the unusual state of the streets of the capital:

























Enter your Email

"Vive Salnave!": a Book on President Sylvain Salnave




Marcel Salnave is one of the early but short lived Haitian bloggers I covered while I was Francophonia Editor at Global Voices back in 2005.

He has asked me to brief you on his book Vive Salnave! about his ancestor Sylvain Salnave who was President of Haiti from 1867 to 1869.

Reviews: (Click on the screenshot to enlarge.)










Enter your Email

2/1/11

Tweets of the Day 2/1/11


Twitter Djòl today was abuzz with speculations about what will happen tomorrow when the CEP (Electoral Council) announces which of the three main candidates moves on to the second round. 

Stocking up on food ...






On a separate note, one of the three contenders to the second round of elections seems to have gone mad. The konpa music video he posts to illustrate his point seems to indicate he has way too much time on his hands at the eve of such a momentous date. (Click on the tweet below to access his post.)


Tweeters reacted in disbelief at the tweet, a familiar reaction to the content recently emanating from the website, youtube and twitter using the handle judecelestin10:











Enter your Email

1/31/11

Tweets of the Day 1/30/11

Pre-Carnival and Sunday musings









Jacmel Sursum Corda


Krik? Krak!



Hillary rankontre ak Grann @mirlandemanigat, Tèt Kale @Presidentmicky, Célestin ak Préval.


Enter your Email

1/29/11

Tweets of the Day 1/29/11

Egypt



Haiti

Brain drain and now Twitter drain?


Comic relief


Men Twitjako fè Grann ak Miki tounen M&M...







Enter your Email

1/28/11

Tweets of the Day

On point:




The video in this tweet is a resounding Fail. (What is the point being conveyed here again?)



Enter your Email

1/27/11

#Haiti #Elections: How are candidates doing on Twitter?

Number of followers:
Mirlande Manigat @mirlandemanigat 1,661
Michel Martelly @presidentmicky 6,395
Jude Célestin @judecelestin10 199 
Charles-Henri Baker @CharlesHBaker 1,447

Looks like Michel (Sweet Micky) Martelly --who placed second  in the first round according to the OAS -- has gleaned the most followers. This makes sense because he attracted plenty of tech-savvy supporters, including @carelpedre  (18,000 + followers on Twitter) and @karljeanjeune, two twenty-somethings who made a name for themselves by tweeting the earthquake live. @carelpedre and @ramhaiti, both Micky supporters, are also arguably the two Haiti-based Haitians with the most followers on Twitter (18,000 and 15,000 respectively).

With a measly 199 followers, @Judecelestin10's campaign  seems to have underestimated Twitter as a communications tool. Or is it that the candidate of the ruling party simply felt he did not need as much help as the others? Even @CharlesHBaker, who did not place in the top three, has about 5 times as many followers!

Front-runner @mirlandemanigat who is 70 and @charlesHBaker who is in his sixties deserve kudos for  having accounts and have each scored around 1,500 followers.

While Manigat has not posted since Christmas, Sweet Micky has posted steadily this week after a reprieve earlier this month. But neither post as much as Célestin who was asking followers to vote for him even while his INITE party colleagues were not so subtly inviting him to withdraw.

Initial election results placed Manigat first and Célestin second, sending them both to the second round. But allegations of fraud on the part of Célestin's INITE, the party of current President René Préval, caused the OAS to issue a report which placed Martelly, not Célestin in second place.

The Célestin saga reached a peak yesterday when even as foreign embassies were pressuring his party to withdraw his candidacy, he posted the following:



What makes Haitian tweeters laugh at this tweet is that Jude Célestin, not Michel Martelly, is the one currently being "encouraged" to concede by the international community. Just when we were least expecting it, the candidate with the least followers on Twitter started using the tool to flex some unlikely muscle...


But there is more. Today he posted this:


Am I missing something? Does this mean Manigat wins? To be continued.

I have compiled a Haiti candidates Twitter list where you can follow this soap opera blow by blow:

http://twitter.com/#!/kiskeacity/haiti-candidates-2010

And needless to say yours truly will keep tweeting what comes out of the TwitterDjòl at @kiskeacity.





Enter your Email