The World Unspun

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Haiti, the land of the only successful slave uprising in history, was also an experiment in neocolonialism. As the country once again makes global news headlines for all the wrong reasons, we spoke to independent journalist Harold Isaac to better understand how Haiti's complex history of colonization, slavery and its crippling ‘independence debt’ to France contributed to the crisis we’re seeing play out on our screens today.

Host: Maxine Betteridge-Moes

Credits: Maxine Betteridge-Moes (Producer), Amy Hall, Bethany Rielly, Conrad Landin, Nick Dowson (Co-editors), Paula Lacey (Editorial assistant), Samuel Raffnell-Williams (Sound design), Nazik Hamza (Audio Editor), Mari Fouz (Logo Design), Thomas Barlow, Impress (Media consultant)

Guest: Harold Isaac (@haroldisaac)

0:41 Meeting Harold Isaac

1:03 Haiti's airport shut down

3:40 Staying safe in Haiti

5:12 Being in Haiti is an act of resistance

6:05 Understanding Haiti's history

7:41 Haiti's revolution

8:50 US occupation

13:39 Fleeing Haiti

15:27 The danger for journalists

16:31 Trump revokes protected legal status for Haitians

18:13 The damage of reparations

24:50 Haiti’s cultural importance

26:35 Structural adjustment programmes shifting Haiti's economic climate

30:51 Do Haitians feel alone?

Further reading from this episode:

Held to ransom: Haiti's cycle of violence (Harold Isaac in New Internationalist)

Country Profile: Haiti (New Internationalist)

Haiti's Lost Billions (Lazaro Gamio etl a. in The New York Times)

#NI554 Debt: Which way out?

#NI545 Decolonize Now

For up-to-date and accurate reporting on the unfolding crisis in Haiti, Harold recommends following Jacqueline Charles (@jacquiecharles), Frantz Duval (@frantzduval) and Radio RFM (@maradiofm)

No billionaires. No media moguls. No corporate ads. Just truly independent, co-operative media.

Subscribe today and use the code THEWORLDUNSPUN for 20% off your first year of a print or digital subscription.

Share your thoughts on this series by filling out our listener survey.

Fascism is a popular term in political discourse today. For the Turkish journalist and writer Ece Temelkuran, that’s a good thing — except that it comes too late. So how can we recognize a country's descent from democracy into fascism and what does resistance look like?

Host: Maxine Betteridge-Moes

Credits: Maxine Betteridge-Moes (Producer), Amy Hall, Bethany Rielly, Conrad Landin, Nick Dowson (Co-editors), Paula Lacey (Editorial assistant), Samuel Raffnell-Williams (Sound design), Nazik Hamza (Audio Editor), Mari Fouz (Logo Design), Thomas Barlow, Impress (Media consultant)

Guest: Ece Temelkuran

3:18 Meeting Ece

3:31 What is it like living in Berlin currently?

5:16 Ece’s story fleeing Turkey

8:00 What is fascism?

11:19 What is the difference between fascism and authoritarianism?

12:40 What is the counter revolution?

14:55 Fascist friends and global solidarity

18:52 How do we keep up the momentum organising

22:52 What will it take to build a political movement which truly serves the people?

Further reading from this episode:

#NI551 Political Parties

How to Lose a Country: The 7 Steps from Democracy to Fascism by Ece Temelkuran

Together: A Manifesto Against the Heartless World by Ece Temelkuran

Women who Blow on Knots by Ece Temelkuran (or if you’re in London, go see the stage production at the Arcola Theatre)

Independents’ Day (Conrad Landin in New Internationalist)

Radicalism Jettisoned (Coll McCail in New Internationalist)

How do we continue building international solidarity for Palestine?

#NI552 Disinformation

No billionaires. No media moguls. No corporate ads. Just truly independent, co-operative media.

Subscribe today and use the code THEWORLDUNSPUN for 20% off your first year of a print or digital subscription.

Share your thoughts on this series by filling out our listener survey.

There's a lot of money to be made in the internet. People with good intentions and bad intentions are being driven by profit. So how does this shape our information ecosystem and where does the scope for action lie?

Read #NI552: Disinformation

Host: Maxine Betteridge-Moes

Credits: Maxine Betteridge-Moes (Producer), Nazik Hamza (Audio Editor), Mari Fouz (Logo Design), Amy Hall, Bethany Rielly, Conrad Landin, Nick Dowson (Co-editors), Paula Lacey (Editorial assistant), Samuel Raffnell-Williams (Sound design), Thomas Barlow, Impress (Media consultant)

Guest: Nanjala Nyabola

0:18 Issue highlights

2:30 Telling a global story

7:26 Why does misinformation spread?

12:49 Who are the architects of misinformation?

19:29 How much of a role does language have in our collective fight against misinformation?

23:18 What is your experience with community health workers?

29:39 What are the paths to digital inclusivity?

34:11 Thank you for listening

Further reading from this episode:

Strange and Difficult Times: Notes on a Global Pandemic by Nanjala Nyabola

Entering the Matrix of Misinformation

Red Letter Day (Conrad Landin in New Internationalist. Subscribe to read)

The Philippines Disinformation Machine (Don Kevin Hapal in New Internationalist. Subscribe to read)

Fact-checkers to the rescue? (Samira Sawlani in New Internationalist. Subscribe to read)

How Kiswahili tech terms are pushing for digital rights in East Africa (Maxine Betteridge-Moes in Quartz Africa)

No billionaires. No media moguls. No corporate ads. Just truly independent, co-operative media.

Subscribe today and use the code THEWORLDUNSPUN for 20% off your first year of a print or digital subscription.