Carel @ The Shorty Awards- Photo by taishimizu.com

Along with other tweeters, Carel was also sending digital photos of the destruction caused by the quake. Many of the images appeared in mainstream newspapers and on TV channels shortly afterwards.

Earlier this month, he picked up a Special Award at the “Shorties” in New York. The annual event honours the best producers of short, real-time content. He was also nominated in the best Innovation on Twitter category.

At the United Nations, international donors pledged more than $5bn in financial aid for Haiti’s recovery.

Below, Carel Pedre gives World News America his assessment on how far his home country has come since that devastating day.

It has been three months and yet it seems like three weeks. Things are moving rather slowly from what I’ve seen. People are still living in the streets; many of them have no shelter, no tents, no living spaces. And when it rains it is catastrophic.

I am an ordinary person but at the same time I still have a job, I have my house, my family is safe, I am going about town normally. But for those that I pass on the streets of Champs de Mars still stranded in front of our National Palace, I can’t imagine how they are feeling, all I know is that they are surviving not living.It is sad to say that on our side, we still haven’t seen what the government is doing, or has been doing. And though we hear and see so many international organisations working towards rebuilding, truly we don’t see the work yet.

Still now I can’t believe that I have lived through any of these things and have seen what I have seen. It was a regular day, the country was preparing for carnival, we had just started celebrating our new year, spirits were high and the last thing on anyone’s mind was an earthquake.

Growing up in Port de Paix (northwest Haiti), I had felt an earthquake before, so I thought this was the same. Nothing out of the ordinary, I was driving in my car, I continued to drive and it was not until I saw people who were hurt passing me by and seeing houses that had collapsed that I realised this was at a whole other level.

My first reactions were fear, concern, frustration. Was my family safe? Would my house collapse? Was the world coming to an end? But as it happened I also had the first instinct to get on my phone and Tweet “Am I the only one who felt that?”

Then as I looked around and witnessed the devastation I quickly tried to find my daughter’s whereabouts. I parked the car at the radio station, and I walked a mile and a half to my house to make sure she was fine then I walked right back to the radio station in the midst of it all because we still had power and were able to keep broadcasting.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/programmes/world_news_america/8597682.stm

Published: 2010/03/31 16:33:59 GMT

© BBC MMX

Carel Pedre

Avant le séisme qui a secoué Haïti le 12 janvier dernier, Carel Pèdre, ce jeune Haïtien de 29 ans était tout simplement un animateur de radio qui gagnait bien sa vie et que les Haïtiens admiraient déjà pour son talent, son grand cœur, son esprit d’initiative et surtout pour son patriotisme. Étant le premier Haïtien à poster des images sur le réseau public, Facebook, et le seul aussi que les médias ont pu rejoindre pendant les heures du drame, à partir de Twitter, Carel a su faire son nom. Aujourd’hui, il est reconnu mondialement grâce à l’aide qu’il a fourni à la presse internationale, aux familles désespérées se trouvant en Haïti et à l’étranger, à toute la population haïtienne  en quelque sorte. Réputé pour sa sympathie et sa chaleur, c’est avec enthousiasme que Carel Pèdre a accepté de nous dire en peu de mots ce qui se cache derrière ce visage qui déborde de joie.

Né le 8 juillet 1980 à Port-de-Paix, il tient énormément à sa fille, Khara, âgée de 14 mois. Comme la plupart des gens, cet homme simple aime la vie, la musique, les appareils électroniques, le cinéma, les voyages. Il adore parler. Déjà à l’école, il animait les fêtes, les activités culturelles. Il prenait toujours la parole en classe et animait également, lorsque les professeurs étaient absents juste pour apporter un peu d’amusement, un peu de chaleur aux élèves pendant ces heures libres. Ce qui lui a valu une grande popularité puisqu’il est devenu le président de son école, mais mieux encore, toute cette expérience l’a poussé à prendre conscience de son amour pour le  micro et pour la radio. « Je suis un passionné du micro », dit-il.

Cependant, ce passionné du micro n’a pas fait des études en communication. Il a certes, suivi des séminaires sur la communication : techniques de reportages, diction et articulation, mais ce sont dans les sciences informatiques qu’il a fait des études complètes.  Non pas parce qu’il n’avait pas envie d’avoir une formation adéquate en communication, mais tout simplement parce qu’à l’époque il n’y avait pas une université qualifiée qui offrait ce programme dans son intégralité. Lorsqu’il a laissé Port-de-Paix pour venir s’installer à Port-au-Prince, dans le but de continuer ses études en informatique, il avait déjà acquis un peu d’expérience dans le domaine de la radio. C’est à partir de ce moment qu’il a commencé à gravir les échelons, pour devenir ce qu’il est maintenant, une voix et un visage pour le peuple haïtien.

Vedette de l’émission « Morning Show » sur Radio One, une station en Haïti, il est devenu depuis le 12 janvier animateur et en même temps, journaliste. Jusqu’à présent, il continue de fournir des informations à tous les médias qui veulent rester en contact avec le pays pour savoir ce qui se passe sur le terrain : la CDC, la BBC, Radio-Canada, France-Info, ABC News, des médias dans lesquels il donne des informations régulièrement. « C’est ma responsabilité en tant qu’Haïtien d’informer les gens » déclare Carel Pèdre, qui pense qu’il doit saisir l’opportunité qui se présente à lui pour réaliser quelque chose de concret pour le pays. Haïti est avant tout, son pays. Tout ce qu’il a fait, tout ce qu’il fait maintenant représente en quelque sorte un devoir, un travail qu’il réalise non seulement pour lui mais aussi et surtout pour le pays.

« Ce séisme a amélioré la personne que j’étais », a-t-il dit. « J’ai pris conscience de mes capacités et cela m’a donné une assurance dans ma vision de vouloir changer le monde ». Maintenant, il est plus écouté, il y a beaucoup plus de gens qui le connaisse. S’il crie à l’aide, il y aura beaucoup plus de personnes à l’écouter, à le supporter, à supporter la cause d’Haïti.

Son plus grand rêve c’est de pouvoir participer activement à la reconstruction de son pays, en changeant avant tout la mentalité des Haïtiens, en les convainquant d’un lendemain meilleur pour ce pays, en leur montrant comment aimer ce petit bout de terre.

Se surpasser…

Sa devise dans la vie, c’est de se donner à fond dans tout ce que l’on fait, d’y mettre son cœur. Pour lui, son succès devrait servir d’exemple à tous les autres qui veulent accomplir quelque chose de bien. Il faut penser à commencer à partir de rien pour aboutir à quelque chose.

Carel a de grands rêves et travaille ardemment pour les réaliser. Il a assez confiance en lui et sait qu’il peut arriver là où il l’entend en persévérant : il faut « Croire en vos capacités, savoir ce que vous voulez, avoir conscience de ce que vous êtes et ensuite se donner à cent pour cent dans le domaine dans lequel vous évoluez » conclut-il.

Belinda Nelson

Faculte des arts et des sciences sociales

Universite de Moncton

(Jan. 19) — A week ago, Carel Pedre was hosting his morning radio show in Haiti, mixing music, telling jokes and making bets on who would win American Idol. One of the country’s most popular DJs, he hosted its version of the talent competition last year.

Now Pedre is sleeping in his parked car, with little fuel left, surviving on bread and water.

But you can still hear him on the radio.

In the week since the most devastating natural disaster in Haiti’s bedraggled history, a popular station there, Radio One, has had enough fuel to run its electricity generator a few hours a day. That’s allowed Pedre to grab the airwaves and transform his normally catchy music show into a lifeline for lonely earthquake survivors in need.

Haitian radio DJ Carel Pedre has been staying in his car outside the radio station and keeping people up to date on the airwaves and on Twitter. “We have an international phone line, so people can come in and use it to call relatives abroad to tell them they’re OK, and we broadcast it all,” Pedre told Sphere in a phone interview from outside the station’s headquarters in Petionville, near the capital. Airing emotional reunions and good news from survivors gives listeners hope that they too might find lost friends, he said. Aid groups also feed information to the station, which tells listeners where they can find clean water and food.

Pedre’s broadcasts have been the only hint of help for many Haitians after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake destroyed much of the country’s infrastructure one week ago. Food and water are still scarce. Officials estimate as many as 200,000 people are dead and 1.5 million left homeless.

Even though his house was not destroyed in last week’s earthquake, Pedre prefers to sleep in his car outside the radio station, out of fear that more aftershocks could still wreck his home. Plus, there’s no electricity or water at home, and he feels safer near the office.

“I sleep in my car with some friends. We have four journalists at the station, and we wake up and do the shows,” the 29-year-old said. “Right now I’m eating bread and water, but maybe if I can find something else like rice, I’ll get it,” he said. “But my situation isn’t so different from what thousands of people are experiencing.”

“We still have no food or water. There’s been some change in the health situation, because there have been some more doctors helping and more hospital centers [resuming operations],” he said. “But the main thing is people still in the streets homeless, who need someone to take care of them.”

Hundreds of people have been sleeping on the same street where Pedre is parked. There’s safety in numbers, he said. But several young men have built a roadblock at the end of the street, piling up debris to keep out strangers who aren’t from the neighborhood.

“The streets are not completely safe. People are trying to protect themselves. But when you’re on a block with more than 500 people sleeping there, it’s safe because nobody can come and hurt you. Still, people are fighting when they want something… A lot of supermarkets collapsed, so people are going under the rubble to search for food. When they find something, people are fighting to get what they have,” he said. “People are hungry, they haven’t had water for six days.”

Pedre sent his 1-year-old daughter, who was born in the United States, away on an evacuation flight to the States, where he knew she’d be safe with family. But as station manager and chief engineer, he stayed behind to make sure all of his employees were safe. One of them, a radio presenter, is still missing.

“I decided to stay because there are a lot of people who need what I’m doing. It’s been six days now and there’s been no official source of information for the people,” said Pedre, who studied computer science.

Many Haitians normally listen on battery-powered radios, but after a week of listening all hours, desperate for news of loved ones or of aid convoys, those batteries are running out. Some who have fuel left in their cars run the engine just to turn on the car radio, Pedre said.

Like so many other Haitians, Pedre is running out of supplies. A bakery near his office is still selling bread, so he’s been buying as much as he can to share with friends. “But I’m running out of money so I don’t know how long that’ll last,” he said. Friends have been sharing whatever provisions they have. “We’re going to keep helping each other because we don’t know how long it’ll take for aid to reach us.”

After a week on the streets, families have carved out their own little spaces, with beds and cooking areas along sidewalks. During his phone interview with Sphere, Pedre described an elderly woman across the street using a tree branch to sweep away dust from her family’s little plot in the gutter. Despite trying to keep busy, “you see the sadness in people’s faces here,” Pedre said.

Asked about the future of his radio show, Pedre said: “Maybe I’ll bring back a bit of the music, slowly, in a different format giving people updates on the relief efforts. But the music, the jokes and that happy tone – that’s all gone now.”

Lauren Frayer Contributor AOL News

C’est vrai que dans les premiers jours, la plupart des moyens de communication étant hors service, Carel et sa page Twitter étaient l’un des seuls canaux encore disponibles. L’homme s’exprimant à la fois en anglais et en français, il a répondu aux médias des deux côtés de l’Atlantique. Il a donné à la tragédie une voix, un visage, pour une fois pas ceux des grands reporters à brushing qui d’avions en hôtels de luxe se penchent sur la misère du monde. Vrai homme, vrai journaliste, vrai Haïtien, Carel a été l’incarnation du courage et de la charité en actes, faisant bien son métier, et au-delà.
Il est heureux que des hommes comme Carel existent et soient connus, à l’heure où, en-dessous des articles en ligne sur Haïti, fleurissent malheureusement sur certains sites d’info les commentaires racistes ou défaitistes. Même s’ils sont très vite effacés par les modérateurs, ces commentaires haineux où tout se mélange parlent d’assistanat et de gens incapables de se débrouiller. Eh oui, parallèlement au formidable élan de soutien, qui mobilise les consciences, il y a aussi les lâches, les crétins et les fourbes, qui, derrière leur clavier, profitent de la misère pour déverser leur haine. Carel comme bien d’autres qui resteront anonymes, nous fait découvrir une fois de plus que certains hommes se révèlent, dans les situations extrêmes, capables d’extrême dévouement pour leur prochain. Pensons aussi à ces milliers de héros du quotidien qui, en ce moment même, en Haïti, font honneur à leur peuple et à leur pays. Ceux qui s’occupent des enfants des voisins quand les leurs sont morts. Ceux qui partagent leur eau, leur pain, sans savoir s’ils en auront demain. Les échos de Matthieu 25 me reviennent, il me semble que le Christ leur dit “venez, les bénis de mon Père.” Pour nous, ils resteront certainement anonymes, mais le Père les reconnaît. On ne peut pas les connaître tous, je voulais juste en mettre un en lumière.

A Carel et aux autres : tout simplement, merci.

Florent Masson pour M i s s i o n  C a t h o l i q u e  France-Haiti, mercredi 20 janvier 2010

Carel - Photo by taishimizu.com

NEW YORK — A Haitian radio host who used Twitter to inform the world about the earthquake which ravaged his country was among the users of the micro-blogging service honored at a ceremony.

“I dedicate this to my country Haiti,” said Carel Pedre after receiving a special “humanitarian” award at the second annual “Shorty Awards” in New York on Wednesday, an event which recognize excellence on Twitter.

“May we continue to use Twitter to save lives and change the world,” said Pedre, who “tweets” as @carelpedre.

Winners at the awards ceremony hosted by CNN anchor Rick Sanchez, who “tweets” as @RickSanchezCNN, were under orders to restrict their acceptance speeches to the 140-character limit of Twitter.
Not everyone managed although the Reduced Shakespeare Company did.

“Brevity is the soul of twit,” said a company member accepting the award in the art category for @reduced.

Winners were selected by a popular vote on Twitter and by members of the Real-Time Academy of Short Form Arts and Sciences, a body whose purpose appears to be limited to choosing winners of the Shorty Awards.

Its members include actress Alyssa Milano, rapper MC Hammer, New York Times technology columnist David Pogue, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales and Craigslist founder Craig Newmark, all of whom are Twitter users.

The winner in the government category was Cory Booker, the mayor of the struggling city of Newark, New Jersey, whose Twitter handle is @CoryBooker.

“Newark is rising thanks to the power of people working together,” Booker said. “Thank you Twitterverse.”

@WholeFoods and @SesameStreet were jointly honored in the brand category.

Sesame Street puppet Grover accepted the award and began reeling off the names of 140 characters — Hamlet, Tarzan, Superman — before being cut off.

Australian cell biologist Rachael Dunlop was the winner in the health category for her twitter feed @drrachie while the humor award was shared by David Thorne of @27bslash6 and the creator of @MrsStephenFry.

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow was a joint winner in the journalist category for @maddow, declaring in an acceptance speech delivered by video that the award had “renewed my faith in the future of the ampersand.”

Brazilian journalist William Bonner, who “tweets” as @realwbonner, was the other winner in the journalist category while another Brazilian, Ivete Sangalo of @ivetesangalo, shared the award in the music category.

Another winner was Janis Krum, the ferry passenger who uploaded a picture on Twitter of a US Airways flight after it landed in the Hudson River in January of last year.

The Shorty Awards, which do not have any official link to Twitter, were produced by Sawhorse Media and sponsored by the Knight Foundation and several corporations.

AFP – March 3, 2010

Parlons Net est animé par David Abiker

Carel Pedre, invité de Parlons Net
envoyé par FranceInfo. – L\’info video en direct.

Hi. I finally decided to relaunch my blog, 1 month 1/2 after the terrible earthquake that has devastated the capital of my country Haiti. Since January 12, I used twitter to inform people around the world, passing SOS messages and share my thoughts on the news and others. I think the 140 characters of Twitter are simply insufficient sometimes; there are so many things to say about this country. As radio host and TV presenter, I believe communication is key. I love talking to people, share my opinions loudly and exchange ideas. Twitter helped me a lot in this direction but, this blog will be a broader way to keep in touch with you dear friends, to share the news about the reconstruction of the country, and especially to have the perspective of a haitian who was born, raised and educated in the poorest country in the western hemisphere.

Welcome to my world. I promise to share everything about me and my country (news, music, video, paintings, etc..). Til  next time…..

Carel Pedre